Kanz al-fawāʾid or Treasure Trove is the enticing title of a medieval Egyptian cookbook, written by an anonymous author. This exceptional text comes from the Mamluks era, in the 14th century- and it preserves a variety of delicious delicacies and their various benefits for the modern reader. Compiled from multiple sources, the cookbook includes more than 800 colorful recipes earnestly detailed and carefully explained. Reflecting a delightful culinary snapshot of this region and era, the book contains such categories as refreshing beverages, cold dishes, varieties of bread, vegetarian dishes, exotic pickles, all types of sweets and many more. The Kanz reveals the secrets of sophisticated meals that would sit on the menu of sultans and viziers and provides instructions for simple everyday meals. The Kanz speaks of culinary traditions, social strata, cooking facilities, and gives extraordinary insight into unusual kinds of produce found in highly specialized marketplaces in Cairo of the 14th century. With guidance from our guest, Nawal Nasrallah - who has translated the text for the first time from Arabic to English - we set out to explore this fascinating book!

Nawal Nasrallah is an Independent Iraqi scholar and an eminent translator of medieval Arab cookery manuals. Nasrallah was a professor at the universities of Baghdad and Mosul, teaching English language and Literature until 1990. She is an award-winning researcher and food writer. The first edition of her cookbook Delights from the Garden of Eden was winner of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2007. Her book Dates: A Global History was released in April 2011. It is a charming account of the date palm and its fruit. Her English translation of Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's 10th century Baghdadi cookbook Kitab al-Tabeekh, entitled Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens, was awarded Best Translation in the World. In 2017 She translated a precious medieval Egyptian cookbook Kanz al-fawāʾid fī tanwīʿ al-mawāʾid entitled Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the table, a 14th century Egyptian Cookbook. 

What we cover in this episode

• The story of a unique text 
• Kanz: contents, composition and users
• Cairo marketplaces
• Stewed sparrows: an exotic dish

Terms

• Kanz: Treasure
• laymūn: Lemon
• Muhtasīb [Arabic]: Market inspector 
• Hummus bi-tahina [Arabic]: Hummus with tahini

A passage from the book

I travelled next through a sandy region to the city of Dimyat. It is a city of spacious quarters and with a diversity of fruits, admirably laid out, and enjoying a share of every good thing. The city of Dimyat lies on the bank of the Nile, and the people in the houses next to the river draw water from it in buckets. Many of the houses have steps leading down to the Nile. Banana trees are especially abundant there, and their fruit is carried to Cairo in boats. Its sheep and goats are allowed to pasture at liberty day and night…Sea-fowl are sold in this city in large quantities and are exceedingly fat; there are also various preparations of buffalo milk, which are unequalled for sweetness and delicious taste, and the fish called al-buri which is exported from there to Syria, Anatolia, and Cairo. [Travels of Ibn Battuta, translated by Hamilton Gibbs, Hakluyt Society]

Recommended reading 

Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the table, a 14th century Egyptian Cookbook, Brill, 2017.

We acknowledge the Aboriginal peoples as the enduring Custodians of the land from where this podcast is produced.

The Arab world is enormously vast and diverse, in every imaginable way, and yet is deeply rooted in a lineage of shared values. Over three millennia, these evolving values have been transmitted from generation to generation, and traversed territories that stretch across the swathes of Western Asia and North Africa, connecting diverse Arab peoples.  

Coming from an Arabised background, travelling across much of the Arabdome in the medieval Islamic world, Ibn Battuta's depictions of Arab cultures as he encountered them provides a perfectly inspired itinerary as we delve into the multi-layered and composite history of the Arab peoples, tribes, and empires. 

Tim Mackintosh-Smith is an Arabist, historian, traveler, lecturer, and translator. Born in England and educated at Oxford University, he is one of the foremost scholars of the Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battuta. He has published a trilogy recounting his journeys in the footnotes of Ibn Battuta and made a three-part TV series for BBC on Ibn Battuta's travels. His most recent work Arabs: A 3,000-Year History of Peoples, Tribes and Empires overs three millennia of Arab history and shines a light on the Arab peoples and tribes.

What we cover in this episode

• The elements which make the Arabs a Culture Nation,
• The earliest historic traces of the Arabs as a distinct body of people,
• The cultural connections between Arabs and their neighboring civilizations: Nabatean, Sabeans, Persian and Romans,
• The poetic spirit of Arabic language and its historic roots,
• The Arabs: cycles of unity and disunity.

Conversation key insights

• Chronologically, Islam comes in the middle of the Arabs history.
• Arabic language and constant migration are two central elements of the Arabs identity. 
• What holds the Arabs together is language. Arabs is a slippery but also a sticky label lasted for three thousand years. 
• The history of Arab peoples has been more like Odyssey than Iliad as Odyssey is an epic in motion, a constant search for home and identity. 
• Arabs political unity did not last long, but linguistic cultural unity is what lasted. 
• Arabs were the people who filled up the vacuum between two crescents: South fertile crescent in Yemen and North fertile crescent between the two rivers.
• Safaitic graffiti, which is believed to be the root of Arabic language, has a powerful poetic spirit full of declarations of love, loss, and genealogies. 
• One of the greatest achievements of Islam was bringing together the settled people of the south and the mobile tribes in Arabia. 
• Antisemitic means being anti to all the descendants of Sam-Noah’s son-including the Arabs. 

Terms

• Ḥaḍar (Arabic): Settled
• Badw (Arabic): Bedouin
• Sha’ab (Arabic): State-nation
• Ḥadith (Arabic): Tales, stories

A passage from the book

After we had enjoyed the privilege of visiting [the tomb of] the Commander of the Faithful 'Ali (peace be on him), the caravan went on to Baghdad. But I set out for al-Basra, in company with a large troop of the Khafaja Arabs, who are the occupants of that country....We set out from Mashhad ‘Ali (peace be on him) and halted [first] at al-Khawarnaq, the seat of al-Nu'man b. al-Mundhir and his ancestors, the kings of the house of Ma' al-Sama'. It is still inhabited, and there are remains of vast domes, lying on a wide plain on a canal derived from the Euphrates. Travels of Ibn Battuta translated by Hamilton Gibbs published by Hakluyt Society

We acknowledge the Aboriginal peoples as the enduring Custodians of the land from where this podcast is produced.

Kohl is a generic term for a cosmetic eyeliner made using naturally-sourced materials, a pulverized powder which darkens the edges of the eyelids. A cosmetic with a long and captivating history, kohl has been widely used by men, women and children throughout the ages across swathes of Africa and Asia, altering the appearance for a range of purposes and effects. In this episode, we will trace the history of kohl to its known origin and will unveil the depth and multi-dimensionality of this near-universal make-up.

Zahra Hankir in her latest book Eyeliner: A Cultural History explores the intersections of history, culture, and society over the ubiquitous cosmetic: eyeliner. She traces the history of the naturally-sourced eyeliner commonly known as kohl, over millennia. She traverses space, time, and cultures to delve into the deeply human importance of a makeup tool which symbolizes power, religiosity, and commitment to moral codes.

What we cover in this episode

· What’s Kohl?

· What do we know about the historic roots of kohl?

· What has inspired Muslim communities to apply kohl?

· What were the various ingredients of sormeh in Iran?

· What role does kajal play in Indian traditional dancing?

Conversation key insight

· I hope people would realise that when they are wearing eyeliner, it carries much more than just an aesthetic, it carries history.

· When you start seeing eyeliner you can’t unsee it, you can see it pretty much everywhere.

· Eyeliner lent Nefertiti a very regal look and helped her to channel her power.

· Muslim communities around the world have been wearing eyeliner not just as a form of protection of their eyes but also as a channel to practice their religiosity, because it’s sunnah, because it’s the way of prophet.

· Juniper tree bark and Farsetia plants are widely-used for kohl-making among bedouin communities living across Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon.

· In Iran, nuts are being used to produce sormeh: walnut, hazelnut, pistachio. Also, precious stones including pearls, emeralds, rubies, diamonds, gold, and silver were crushed, and the powder was used to form the most prestigious and expensive sormeh, this substance was called the sormeh of Seven Jewels.

· Kajal is worn in a very distinct way in in performance art in India. In kathakali dance, eyes are decorated and adorned very heavily and can indicate the qualities of the characters. Eyeliner plays a big role in dances and performances in making the eyes very distinctly visible from afar, so people in the audience can be drawn into the eyes.

Terms

· Ḥalāl (Arabic): Permissible according to the Islamic laws

· Eid (Arabic): A religious holiday

A passage from the book

Next came my journey from Cairo by the route of the Sa'id, with the object of crossing the noble Hijaz. I stayed on the night following my departure at the convent which Sahib Taj al-Din ibn Hanna' built at Dair al-Tin.

It is an enormous convent built by him for the sake of certain possessions of great pride and illustrious relics that he deposited in it, namely, a fragment of the wooden basin of the Prophet, the pencil with which he used to apply kohl to his eyes, the dirafsh, that is to say, the awl, which he used for sewing his sandals, and the Qur'an of the Commander of the Faithful 'Ali b. Abi Talib, written in his own hand.

[Travels of Ibn Battuta translated by Hamilton Gibbs, Hakluyt Society]

We acknowledge the Aboriginal peoples as the enduring Custodians of the land from where this podcast is produced.

A ‘Mahmal’ was an empty, richly decorated carriage, which was mounted on a camel and journeyed annually from Cairo to accompany the Hajj pilgrim caravan to Mecca. On his journey toward Mecca in year 1326, Ibn Battuta was lucky enough to witness the illustrious mahmal procession ceremony in the bustling streets of Cairo. In this episode, we try to unfold the meaning of this devotional object and associated practices.

Professor Richard J. A. McGregor explores religion at the intersections of philosophy, theology, aesthetics, and embodiment. His latest book Islam and the Devotional Object: Seeing Religion in Egypt and Syria published by Cambridge University Press traces the turbulent lives of key religious objects: the precious dress sewn for the Ka’ba: Kiswa, and large colorful sedan chairs mounted on camels: the Hajj Mahmal.

What we cover in this episode

• What is the Hajj mahmal 
• The role of Egypt in dispatching annual Hajj Mahmal to Mecca
• The historic, social, and political context of Hajj Mahmal 

Conversation key insights

•  Mahmal guards its secrets; there are plenty of outstanding questions that we have never been able to answer.  
• The guiding structure of the Islamic calendar is pilgrimage. 
•  Making a Kiswah, the dress covering the Ka’ba, happens every year, from pre-Islamic era up until today.
• The political story of producing and dispatching both Kiswa and Mahmal has been always an inextricable part of the ritual.
• We can mark middle of the 13th century to the early of 20th for the Egyptian Mahmal, we can call it Cairene Egyptian Mahmal Parades. With the rise of the House of Saud, inspired by Wahhabi version of Islam, mahmal ritual entered the last chapter of its 700 years life.
• Mahmal was not simply a symbol of a royal authority, instead it had a rich interpersonal life with Muslims all along its life at each stage.
• The energy of mahmal ceremony was contagious, whether you are Egyptian, Copt, Muslim, or non-Muslim, the Mahmal would get you.

Terms

• Barakah: Blessing
• Zovvar: plural for Zaer, pilgrim 

A passage from the book

This is the day of the procession of the Mahmil round the city, a festival day. Their ceremonial on this day is as follows. The four Grand jurists, the Intendant of the Treasury, and the Muhtasib, all are mounted, and along with them ride the principal jurists, the syndics of the heads of corporations, and the officers of state. They all proceed together to the gate of the citadel, the residence of al-Malik al-Nasir, whereupon the mahmil comes out to meet them, borne on a camel,  and preceded by the amir who has been designated for the journey to the Hijaz in that year. All classes of the population, both men and women, assemble for this ceremony, then they go in procession with the mahmil round the two cities of al-Qahira and Misr.... This takes place in Rajab, and thereupon resolves are inflamed, desires are excited, and impulses are stirred up, and God Most High casts into the heart of whom He will of His servants the determination to set out upon the Pilgrimage, so they start to equip themselves and to make preparations for it. [The Travels of Ibn Battuta, Translated by Hamilton Gibbs,  Hakluyt Society]

Recommended reading
 Islam and the Devotional Object: Seeing Religion in Egypt and Syria, Richard J. A.

We acknowledge the Aboriginal peoples as the enduring Custodians of the land from where this podcast is produced.

Inspired by Ibn Battuta observations from Cairo in the 14th century, in this episode we walk through Cairo at the time of the Mamluks (13th-16th CE) and reach across the ages to touch upon dazzling facets of the city, as well as the sultanate - with a guest whose heart is always in Cairo.

Doris Behrens-Abouseif is Professor Emerita at SOAS, University of London. Her many publications encompass a wide range of subjects within socio-cultural and art historical contexts, with a focus on Egypt and Syria covering architecture, urbanism, material culture and the decorative arts. She has written a widely-admired book on the golden era of the city, Cairo of the Mamluks: a history of the architecture and its culture.

What we cover in this episode

• Cairo of the Mamluks: cityscape, socio-cultural, political, and religious landscape
• Mamluks’ contribution to Cairo’s evolution into a metropolis
• Why the Mamluks supported a multi-rite policy, respecting all branches of Islam
• Why the Mamluks so generously supported the Sufis and Sufi foundations
• Why the Mamluks were fond of amusement and ceremonies.

Conversation key insights

‘Mamluk rulers were ambitious builders, with the urban vision to expand the city’s boundaries. A collective building activity - to have as many buildings, mosques, minarets, baths, charities, as possible - was representative of the Mamluks’ identity and patronage.’

‘With a non-hereditary succession system, the Mamluks focus’ was on building and construction of monuments, as a strategy to leave their mark on history: to not be forgotten and to be commemorated after their death’. 

‘The stability of Egypt, at the time of Mamluks, being safe from the external threats, encouraged many migrants to come to Cairo from the territories in the East and beyond, to reside, study, and make commerce in Cairo’.

‘There was a distinct caste in Mamluks’ society, between Man of the Pen (learned locals to hold positions like judges and scholars) and Man of the Sword (Mamluks in military positions), who were identifiable by their dress codes’.

‘Ethnicity and religious identity played a key role in the medieval setting, rather than national identity’.

‘Sufism worked as a melting-pot across the Muslim world, whereby people from different origins could find a common platform’. 

‘Parade and processions were an integral part of the communication between sultans and its people at the era of Mamluks’.

Terms

• Maristan [Bimarestan]: hospital
• khanaqah: Sufi hospice

A passage from the book

It is said that in Cairo there are twelve thousand water-carriers who transport water on camels, and thirty thousand hirers of mules and donkeys, and that on its Nile there are thirty-six thousand vessels belonging to the Sultan and his subjects, which sail upstream to Upper Egypt and downstream to Alexandria and Dumyat, laden with goods and commodities of all kinds. On the bank of the Nile opposite Cairo is the place known as al-Rawda ['the Garden'], which is a pleasure park and promenade, containing many beautiful gardens. The people of Cairo are fond of pleasure and amusement. I once witnessed a fete there which was held for al-Malik al-Nasir's recovery from a fracture which he had suffered in his hand. All the merchants decorated their bazaars and had rich stuff, ornaments, and silken fabrics hung up in their shops for several days [The Travels of Ibn Battuta, translated by Hamilton Gibbs, Hakluyt Society]

Recommended reading

Dress and Dress Code in Medieval Cairo: A Mamluk Obsession, Doris Behrens-Abouseif, Brill, 2023

We acknowledge the Aboriginal peoples as the enduring Custodians of the land from where this podcast is produced.

Inspired by Ibn Battuta observations from Cairo in the 14th century, in this episode we walk through Cairo at the time of the Mamluks (13th-16th CE) and reach across the ages to touch upon dazzling facets of the city, as well as the sultanate - with a guest whose heart is always in Cairo.

Doris Behrens-Abouseif is Professor Emerita at SOAS, University of London. Her many publications encompass a wide range of subjects within socio-cultural and art historical contexts, with a focus on Egypt and Syria covering architecture, urbanism, material culture and the decorative arts. She has written a widely-admired book on the golden era of the city, Cairo of the Mamluks: a history of the architecture and its culture.

What we cover in this episode

• The Mamluks' origin, sultanate, historic context
• Territories ruled under the Mamluks sultanate
• An Impression on the prosperity held within the mega-city of Cairo during Mamluks era 

Conversation key insights

• ‘Walking through the medieval Cairo should have been an overwhelming experience for any traveller, in terms of the size, the density of population, the wealth of its monuments, the luxury of goods, richness of markets and its cosmopolitan character.’ 
• ‘Mamluks’ was the period which created the medieval Cairo: there is something fascinating about this old Cairo which has held great appeal for intellectuals like Najib Mahfuz and Hussain Fawzi.’
• ‘Mamluks were neither a dynasty nor slaves. They were not a dynasty because their succession system, despite the exceptions, was mainly non-hereditary; on the contrary, the system mainly worked based on a system of appointment and recruitment.’ 
•  ‘In conjunction with their religious patronage, Mamluks were trusted because they fulfilled the challenge of military expectations by standing up against and repelling the Mongols and Crusaders.’
• ‘Egypt, Greater Syria - including Lebanon, Palestine, and a big part of southeast Turkey - were all part of the Mamluks’ territories; they had also the privilege of being the guardians of the holy cities in Hijaz: Mecca and Medina.’ 

Terms

El-Qahira: Cairo

A passage from the book 

I arrived at length at the city of Misr [Cairo], mother of cities and seat of Pharaoh the tyrant, mistress of broad provinces and fruitful lands, boundless in multitude of buildings, peerless in beauty and splendour, the meeting place of comer and goer, the stopping-place of feeble and strong. Therein is what you will have of learned and simple, grave and gay, prudent and foolish, base and noble, of high estate and low estate, unknown and famous; she surges as the waves of the sea with her throngs of folk and can scarce contain them for all the capacity of her situation and sustaining power. Her youth | is ever new in spite of the length of days, and the star of her horoscope does not move from the mansion of fortune; her conquering capital has subdued the nations, and her kings have grasped the forelocks of both Arab and non-Arab. She has as her peculiar possession the majestic Nile...; her territory is a month's journey for a hastening traveller, of generous soil, and extending a friendly welcome to strangers [The Travels of Ibn Battuta, translated by Hamilton Gibbs, Hakluyt Society]

Recommended reading

• Cairo of the Mamluks: a history of the architecture and its culture, Doris Behrens-Abouseif, I.B.Tauris: London, 2007. 

•  سندباد مصری، حسين فوزي، دار المعارف، 1969

We acknowledge the Aboriginal peoples as the enduring Custodians of the land from where this podcast is produced.

In this episode we will explore Ibn Battuta's multiple motivations for stepping into 29 years of traveling and search to find out more about his multifaceted personality with Tim Mackintosh-Smith who has dedicated his life tracing Ibn Battuta.

Tim Mackintosh-Smith is a British, Oxford-educated Arabist, writer, traveller, translator and lecturer, based in Yemen for many decades but currently nomadic. He is one of the foremost scholars of the Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battuta. Mackintosh-Smith has published a trilogy recounting his journeys in the footnotes of Ibn Battuta: Travels with A Tangerine (2001), The Hall of a Thousand Columns (2005) and Landfalls (2010). In 2007, Mackintosh-Smith presented a major BBC documentary series, Travels with a Tangerine, recounting his experiences tracing Ibn Battuta's fourteenth-century travels in the present day. In 2016 he published an edited abridgement of The Travels of Ibn Battuta with Macmillan Collector's Library.


What we cover in this episode

• Ibn Battuta multiple motivations for stepping into 29 years of traveling.
• Ibn Battuta’s dream in Munyat and its interpretation. 
• Multilayered personality of Ibn Battuta. 

Conversation key insights

• 'Never so far as possible to cover a second time any road’ [A quote by Ibn Battuta in his Travels].
• ‘Ibn Battuta is a very attractive character: fun to meet, he has a big head but also a big heart.’
• 'Most travelers follow a path…When you look at Ibn Battuta's path, it is like a crazy spider or something running across the world. It is only when you look into his motivations does it begin to have its own logic. He was always in search of something.’
• ‘Ibn Battuta saw humanity in everyone.’

Recommended reading

The Travels of Ibn Battuta, edited by Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Macmillan Collector's Library, 2016.

Thanks to the episode contributors:

• Kate O’Connell | Editor, Creative Consultant
• Aydogan Kars | Academic Advisor
• Ashkan Bahrani | Academic Advisor 
• Frank Youakim | Narrator 
• Ali Gorgin | Music
• Tia Goodwin | Cover art designer

We acknowledge the Aboriginal peoples as the enduring Custodians of the land from where this podcast is produced.

In this episode we will explore how the Travels of Ibn Battuta has been written and why the Travels is an important historic source with Tim Mackintosh-Smith who has dedicated his life tracing Ibn Battuta.

Tim Mackintosh-Smith is a British, Oxford-educated Arabist, writer, traveller, translator and lecturer, based in Yemen for many decades but currently nomadic. He is one of the foremost scholars of the Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battuta. Mackintosh-Smith has published a trilogy recounting his journeys in the footnotes of Ibn Battuta: Travels with A Tangerine (2001), The Hall of a Thousand Columns (2005) and Landfalls (2010). In 2007, Mackintosh-Smith presented a major BBC documentary series, Travels with a Tangerine, recounting his experiences tracing Ibn Battuta's fourteenth-century travels in the present day. In 2016 he published an edited abridgement of The Travels of Ibn Battuta with Macmillan Collector's Library.

What we cover in this episode

• Some of the Ibn Battuta’s observations on Yemen
• How the Travels of Ibn Battuta has been written
• What makes Ibn Battuta and his travels special
• Why the Travels of Ibn Battuta is an important historic source
• Rihla genre in the Islamic literature 
• Ibn Battuta’s profile and character

Conversation key insights

• ‘As a historical observer Ibn Battuta can be every exact.’ 
• ‘The travelogue is a witness to history, politics, architecture and believes. Ibn Battuta Travels is like a slice through time. Ibn Battuta was a historian despite himself, he was a geographer despite himself. You can get a history by chance in his Travels. We would not know a lot about the history of that time if not for Ibn Battuta Travels.’

A Passage from the book

‘My departure from Tangier, my birthplace, took place on Thursday the second of the month of God, Rajab the Unique, in the year seven hundred and twenty-five, with the object of making the Pilgrimage to the Holy House [at Mecca] and of visiting the tomb of the Prophet, God's richest blessing and peace be on him [at Medina]. I set out alone, having neither fellow-traveller in whose companionship I might find cheer, nor caravan whose party I might join, but swayed by an overmastering impulse within me and a desire long-cherished in my bosom to visit these illustrious sanctuaries. So I braced my resolution to quit all my dear ones, female and male, and forsook my home as birds forsake their nests. My parents being yet in the bonds of life, it weighed sorely upon me to part from them, and both they and I were afflicted with sorrow at this separation. My age at that time was twenty-two [lunar] years.’

[The Travel of Ibn Battuta, translated by H. A. R Gibb, The Hakluyt Society, volume 1, page 8, paragraph 13]

Recommended reading

• The Travels of Ibn Battuta, edited by Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Macmillan Collector's Library, 2016.
• The Travels of Ibn Jubayr, translated by Ronald Broadhurst, Good word Books, 2007. 

Thanks to the episode contributors:

• Kate O’Connell | Editor, Creative Consultant
• Aydogan Kars | Academic Advisor
• Ashkan Bahrani | Academic Advisor 
• Frank Youakim | Narrator 
• Ali Gorgin | Music
• Tia Goodwin | Cover art designer

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We acknowledge the Aboriginal peoples as the enduring Custodians of the land from where this podcast is produced.

In the first episode we will explore Ibn Battuta's travelogue, and search to find out more about him and his travels with a guest who has dedicated his life tracing Ibn Battuta.

Tim Mackintosh-Smith is a British, Oxford-educated Arabist, writer, traveller, translator and lecturer, based in Yemen for many decades but currently nomadic. He is one of the foremost scholars of the Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battuta. Mackintosh-Smith has published a trilogy recounting his journeys in the footnotes of Ibn Battuta: Travels with A Tangerine (2001), The Hall of a Thousand Columns (2005) and Landfalls (2010). In 2007, Mackintosh-Smith presented a major BBC documentary series, Travels with a Tangerine, recounting his experiences tracing Ibn Battuta's fourteenth-century travels in the present day. In 2016 he published an edited abridgement of The Travels of Ibn Battuta with Macmillan Collector's Library.

What we cover in this episode

• Some of the most mind blowing experiences Tim has encountered in his journey tracing Ibn Battuta travel route.
• Some fascinating layers of Ibn Battuta character.
• Why Tim decided to retrace Ibn Battuta travel path with the space of 700 years. 

Conversation key insights

• ‘Marco Polo is a bit of stick figure... Ibn Battuta in comparison is a fully rounded character' [Ross E. Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century, University of California Press, 2012].
• ‘Literature is what collapses time…. Get inside this book and you can cross time'.
• ‘Ibn Battuta seeing a widow woman jumping into the fire, he has reported the horror of the scene which has been horrific to a Muslim observer or to most people, I saw the traces of the fire, it was like seeing a ghost but ghost didn’t go away, I was almost overcome by myself, it was a very creepy place, you can get inside the book and cross time, like a time travel, but that’s only one from many places, that was the most striking.’

A passage from the book

‘We came to a little island in that archipelago in which there was but one house, | occupied by a weaver. He had a wife and family, a few coco-palms and a small boat, with which he used to fish and to cross over to any of the islands he wished to visit. His island contained also banana bushes, but we saw no land birds on it except two crows, which came out to us on our arrival and circled above our vessel. And I swear I envied that man, and wished that the island had been mine, that I might have made it my retreat until the inevitable hour should befall me.’

[The Travels of Ibn Battuta, translated by H. A. R Gibbs, The Hakluyt Society, volume 3, page 845, paragraph 163]

Recommended reading

The Travels of Ibn Battuta, edited by Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Macmillan Collector's Library, 2016.

The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century, with a New Preface, Ross E. Dunn, University of California Press. 2012. 

Thanks to the episode contributors:

• Kate O’Connell | Editor, Creative Consultant
• Aydogan Kars | Academic Advisor
• Ashkan Bahrani | Academic Advisor 
• Frank Youakim | Narrator 
• Ali Gorgin | Music
• Tia Goodwin | Cover art designer

We acknowledge the Aboriginal peoples as the enduring Custodians of the land from where this podcast is produced.