HALL OF A THOUSAND COLUMNS: HINDUSTAN TO MALABAR WITH IBN BATTUTAH

the long version

"Travels With A Tangerine, Mackintosh-Smith's first journey 'in IB's footnotes' left us on the eastern borders of the old Islamic lands. In his new chapter of this epic journey, sleuthwork, scholarship and luck lead Mackintosh-Smith through the memories of a man who died ten lifetimes ago. His aim is to sift tangible history from magical reality - and on the way he reveals an India far off the beaten path of Taj and Raj, where a dead Muslim poses as a Hindu deity, Jesus pops up in the pulpit of a mosque, and the rotten tooth of a mad sultan is revered as a saint." "Ibn Battutah left India penniless, stripped to his underpants by pirates; but he took away a treasure of tales. Back home in Tangier they said the treasure was a fake. Mackintosh-Smith proves the sceptics wrong: India was the jewel in the traveller's turban."--Jacket.