Yemen

Tim Mackintosh-Smith lives in San'a, in a house lit by alabaster windows and standing on the ruin-mound of the ancient Sabaean city. His forays out of the mountains of Yemen have, however, taken him to many parts of the wider Islamic world between Morocco and China, on the trail of the fourteenth-century traveller Ibn Battutah. In the resulting books (Travels with a Tangerine and The Hall of a Thousand Columns), he explores the complex and fascinating intersections between present-day Muslim society and its own past. He has also presented a BBC television series on his journeys in search of Ibn Battutah. He has translated a number of works on Yemeni history from Arabic into English and vice versa and is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society.