Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Tim Mackintosh-Smith (born 17 July 1961) is a British, Yemen-based, Oxford-educated[1] Arabist, writer, traveller and lecturer. He has written many books on the Middle East, won several awards and has presented a major BBC television series.
Education
Mackintosh-Smith was educated at Clifton College, a boarding independent school for boys in the suburb of Clifton in the port city of Bristol in South West England, between the years 1971-78,[2] followed by a musical scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he read Classical Arabic.[3]
Life and career
Mackintosh-Smith lives in an ancient tower house off the "Market of the Cows" in the old city of San'a, Yemen. He is the author of the Yemen: Travels in Dictionaryland (1997) and Yemen: The Unknown Arabia (2000). He is one of the foremost scholars of the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battutah. Mackintosh-Smith has published a trilogy recounting his journeys in "the footnotes" of Ibn Battutah; Travels with A Tangerine (2001), The Hall of a Thousand Columns (2005) and Landfalls (2010). He has additionally written widely on subjects as broad as alabaster, the collection of frankincense, the stories of M.R. James and the history of umbrellas.
Mackintosh-Smith presented a major BBC documentary series Travels with a Tangerine (2007)[4] recounting his experiences tracing Ibn Battutah's fourteenth-century travels in the present day. He was featured in a documentary film The English Sheik and the Yemeni Gentleman.
Mackintosh-Smith has won several awards: Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land, won the 1998 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award. The Daily Telegraph has described him as "the sage of Sana'a." [1]
References
- ^ a b Barnaby Rogerson (30 October 2010). "Tim Mackintosh-Smith's Yemen". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 10 January 2011.
- ^ Old Cliftonians Old Cliftonians magazine 2005 Publisher: Clifton College Published: 2005. Retrieved: 7 December, 2012.
- ^ Tim Mackintosh-Smith's Yemen Publisher: The Daily Telegraph. Published: 30 October, 2010. Retrieved: 7 December, 2012.
- ^ Travels with a Tangerine, BBC
External links
- Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah —John Murray, 2003. first part of trilogy following the footsteps of Ibn Battutah by Tim Mackintosh-Smith.
- The Hall of a Thousand Columns: Hindustan to Malabar with Ibn Battutah —John Murray, 2005. second part of trilogy by Tim Mackintosh-Smith.
- Landfalls: on the Edge of Islam with Ibn Battutah —John Murray, 2010. final part of trilogy by Tim Mackintosh-Smith.
- Moonglow from Underground — Saudi Aramco World article by Tim Mackintosh-Smith (May/June 1999).
- A Tangerine in Delhi — Saudi Aramco World article by Tim Mackintosh-Smith (March/April 2006).
- Mackintosh-Smith's official website
- Travels with Ibn Battutah, interview with Tim Mackintosh-Smith in www.theglobaldispatches.com
