Hall of a Thousand Columns
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Review
'This is his first venture into India but he comes upon the scene like a breath of fresh air.' (Charles Allen, author of Duel in the Snows 20041027)
'Esoteric, raunchy, hilarious, erudite and transporting, The Hall of a Thousand Columns is a marvellous traveller's tale like no other. I sense that Ibn Battutah has finally met his match.' (Eric Hansen 20041208)
'Tim Mackintosh-Smith has recreated, with enviable intimacy and elegance, the extraordinary life and times of the greatest traveller of pre-modern times.' (Pankaj Mishra, author of The Romantics and 20041101)
'Funny, cultured, humane and highly idiosyncratic' (Barnaby Rogerson, Literary Review 20050301)
'Few writers have the talent to pull off a notable trilogy in any genre . . . Mackintosh-Smith's is not in doubt . . . Rich and fascinating' (Sunday Times 20050301)
'With his hallmark combination of irreverence and empathy, Mackintosh-Smith . . . has confected a curiously addictive blend of history, travel and jokes . . . an engaging portrait of modern-day India - the charm, humour and quirkiness' (Guardian 20050320)
'A book that travels in time as well as in space . . . Intersperses dizzying glimpses of 14th-century Islamic court life with [the author's] own comic attempts to navigate modern-day India' (Daily Mail 20050416)
'Mixing Ibn Battutah's account with his own encounters and journeys, Mackintosh-Smith creates an enchanting text.' (Ziauddin Sardar, Independent 20050408)
'This is his first venture into India but he comes upon the scene like a breath of fresh air.' (Charles Allen 20050621)
'A deft use of language, anecdote, scholarship and a daunting appreciation for all that is wonderful and absurd in the world. Esoteric, raunchy, hilarious, erudite and transporting, The Hall of a Thousand Columns is a marvellous traveller's tale like no other. I sense that Ibn Battutah has finally met his match.' (Eric Hansen 20050611)
'Tim Mackintosh-Smith has recreated, with enviable intimacy and elegance, the extraordinary life and times of the greatest traveller of pre-modern times.' (Pankaj Mishra, author of The Romantics and 20050312)
'A first-rate travel book, enlivened by the author's erudition, subtle humour, and sheer enthusiasm for his subject' (Traveller )
'Few writers have the talent to pull off a notable trilogy in any genre . . . [Mackintosh-Smith's] talent is not in doubt. . . . The author appears as an enthusiastic researcher, a thirsty drinker, and a traveller who allows little to deter him from his path . . . Rich and fascinating' (Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times )
'With his hallmark combination of irreverence and empathy, Mackintosh-Smith ... has confected a curiously addictive blend of history, travel and jokes. But above all, he engages with ideas, and his aim is that of the novelist - to send a bucket down into the subconscious.' (Guardian Weekly )
'Wisecracking . . . One of the most enjoyable things about Mackintosh-Smith's narrative is the way it intersperses dizzying glimpses of 14th-century Islamic court life with his own comic attempts to navigate modern-day India. A book that travels in time as well as in space' (Daily Mail )
'Mixing Ibn Battutah's account with his own encounters and journeys, Mackintosh-Smith creates an enchanting text . . . This is an engrossing book' (Ziauddin Sardar, Independent )
'Esoteric, raunchy, hilarious, erudite and transporting, The Hall of a Thousand Columns is a marvellous traveller's tale like no other. I sense that Ibn Battutah has finally met his match.' (Eric Hansen 20041208)
'Tim Mackintosh-Smith has recreated, with enviable intimacy and elegance, the extraordinary life and times of the greatest traveller of pre-modern times.' (Pankaj Mishra, author of The Romantics and 20041101)
'Funny, cultured, humane and highly idiosyncratic' (Barnaby Rogerson, Literary Review 20050301)
'Few writers have the talent to pull off a notable trilogy in any genre . . . Mackintosh-Smith's is not in doubt . . . Rich and fascinating' (Sunday Times 20050301)
'With his hallmark combination of irreverence and empathy, Mackintosh-Smith . . . has confected a curiously addictive blend of history, travel and jokes . . . an engaging portrait of modern-day India - the charm, humour and quirkiness' (Guardian 20050320)
'A book that travels in time as well as in space . . . Intersperses dizzying glimpses of 14th-century Islamic court life with [the author's] own comic attempts to navigate modern-day India' (Daily Mail 20050416)
'Mixing Ibn Battutah's account with his own encounters and journeys, Mackintosh-Smith creates an enchanting text.' (Ziauddin Sardar, Independent 20050408)
'This is his first venture into India but he comes upon the scene like a breath of fresh air.' (Charles Allen 20050621)
'A deft use of language, anecdote, scholarship and a daunting appreciation for all that is wonderful and absurd in the world. Esoteric, raunchy, hilarious, erudite and transporting, The Hall of a Thousand Columns is a marvellous traveller's tale like no other. I sense that Ibn Battutah has finally met his match.' (Eric Hansen 20050611)
'Tim Mackintosh-Smith has recreated, with enviable intimacy and elegance, the extraordinary life and times of the greatest traveller of pre-modern times.' (Pankaj Mishra, author of The Romantics and 20050312)
'A rich texture of multiple perception . . . Beneath this funny, cultured, humane and highly idiosyncratic travelogue there is a darkly tragic theme. For interwoven with the real-time journey of Mackintosh-Smith through India is an enquiry into the nature of Islam in India'
(Barnaby Rogerson, Literary Review 20051215)'A first-rate travel book, enlivened by the author's erudition, subtle humour, and sheer enthusiasm for his subject' (Traveller )
'Few writers have the talent to pull off a notable trilogy in any genre . . . [Mackintosh-Smith's] talent is not in doubt. . . . The author appears as an enthusiastic researcher, a thirsty drinker, and a traveller who allows little to deter him from his path . . . Rich and fascinating' (Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times )
'With his hallmark combination of irreverence and empathy, Mackintosh-Smith ... has confected a curiously addictive blend of history, travel and jokes. But above all, he engages with ideas, and his aim is that of the novelist - to send a bucket down into the subconscious.' (Guardian Weekly )
'Wisecracking . . . One of the most enjoyable things about Mackintosh-Smith's narrative is the way it intersperses dizzying glimpses of 14th-century Islamic court life with his own comic attempts to navigate modern-day India. A book that travels in time as well as in space' (Daily Mail )
'Mixing Ibn Battutah's account with his own encounters and journeys, Mackintosh-Smith creates an enchanting text . . . This is an engrossing book' (Ziauddin Sardar, Independent )
'An engaging portrait of modern-day India - the charm, humour, quirkiness and the way in which the country constantly juxtaposes the extraordinary with the mundane'
(Guardian )'The wellspring of his writing is his profound immersion in a Muslim culture . . . the strength of his work derives from his position as both insider and outsider in the Arab world . . . Mackintosh-Smith is in that same learned yet good-humoured tradition [as Leigh Fermor]'
(Daily Telegraph )'An engaging homage to one of travel writing's founding fathers'
(Henry Day. London Review of Books )Independent
'They make, despite the dividing centuries, a good team ... This is a journey across time as much as land'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than devouring the tangerine,
This review is from: Hall of a Thousand Columns: Hindustan to Malabar with Ibn Battutah (Hardcover)
This is the sequel to "Travels with a Tangerine", following the journey of Ibn Battutah, a 14th century scholar from Tangier. This book looks at Ibn Battutah’s career in what is now India, and it is not necessary to have read the previous book to enjoy this one. Indeed, I think this is a better book in a number of ways. Mackintosh-Smith’s style is now more confident and more open, less dry than in the earlier account, and whereas he was self-effacing in "Travels with a Tangerine", he and his illustrator Martin Yeoman have more of a presence in this one, which for me gave the book greater accessibility. Mackintosh-Smith is an Oxford-educated Arabist, but unlike many in the Oxbridge mafia that dominates British publishing, he is both erudite and enthralled by his subject. There are some annoyances. He has the linguist’s genetic weakness for an excessive use of puns, and some of the humour is juvenile. I suspect the author went to an English public school, which has consigned him to the sad fate of never really growing up. But these are minor irritations in a book which is generous, humane and gives us a glimpse of one of the world’s great historical travellers. There is a worthy underlying text here too, with Mackintosh-Smith, a long-term resident of Yemen, showing us how respect for a proud and hospitable Arab civilisation can produce an amicable and productive relationship between cultures.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another great read,
By winterdancer (Ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Hall of a Thousand Columns: Hindustan to Malabar with Ibn Battutah (Paperback)
Bought this after reading 'Travels with a Tangerine' - the first part of the author's travel with Ibn Battutah, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm only half way through this book, but it is a pleasure to read - informative, funny, witty, smart. I'm learning about places and times that I'd barely heard of before. Great read
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting,
By
This review is from: The Hall of a Thousand Columns: Hindustan to Malabar with Ibn Battutah (Paperback)
Quite a good source of info about Arabic influence in Malabar. Could have done with some actual photos. A very good read after the first 50 pages. However, I detected a slight contempt for Hindus/Hinduism, which I suppose is not surprising given the author's intellectual and residential background.
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