Tim Mackintosh-Smith (born 17 July 1961) is a British,

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

-based, Oxford-educated Arabist, writer, traveller and lecturer. He has written numerous books on the Middle East, won several awards and has presented a major BBC television series.

Education

Mackintosh-Smith was educated at

Clifton College ''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , hea ...

, a boarding independent school for boys in the suburb of Clifton in the port city of

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities ...

, from 1971 to 1978, followed by a musical scholarship to the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, where he read Classical Arabic.

Life and career

From 1982 to 2019, Mackintosh-Smith lived in an ancient tower house off the "Market of the Cows" in the old city of

San'a Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Govern ...

, Yemen. As a consequence of the civil war in Yemen, he had to leave this home and temporarily relocate to

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. He is the author of the

travel books The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern ...

''Yemen: Travels in Dictionaryland'' (1997) and ''Yemen: The Unknown Arabia'' (2000). Further, he is one of the foremost scholars of the Moroccan medieval scholar Ibn Battuta. Mackintosh-Smith has published a trilogy recounting Ibn Battuta's journeys as published in his ''

Muqaddimah The ''Muqaddimah'', also known as the ''Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun'' ( ar, مقدّمة ابن خلدون) or ''Ibn Khaldun's Prolegomena'' ( grc, Προλεγόμενα), is a book written by the Arab historian Ibn Khaldun in 1377 which records ...

'' (''The Prologue''): ''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 Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that include ...

, the collection of frankincense, the stories of M.R. James and the history of

umbrella An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is designed to protect a person against rain or sunlight. The term ''umbrella'' is traditionally use ...

s. Mackintosh-Smith presented a major BBC documentary series ''Travels with a Tangerine'' (2007),Travels with a Tangerine
BBC recounting his experiences tracing

Ibn Battutah Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battutah (, ; 24 February 13041368/1369),; fully: ; Arabic: commonly known as Ibn Battuta, was a Berber Maghrebi scholar and explorer who travelled extensively in the lands of Afro-Eurasia, largely in the Muslim wor ...

's fourteenth-century travels in the present day. He was featured in a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

''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 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award originated as an initiative of Thomas Cook AG in 1980, with the aim of encouraging and rewarding the art of literary travel writing. The awards stopped in 2005 (2004 being the last year an award was given). As of 2 ...

. The '' Daily Telegraph'' has described him as "the sage of Sana'a." He has also written about the history of the Arab people and their

cultures Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tylo ...

in his ''Arabs: A 3,000-Year History of Peoples, Tribes and Empires'' (2019). In this "history of Arabs", avoiding the general notion of the Arabs''', he dedicated an important part of the 630 pages to the pre-Islamic times of documented Arab history, that is the 1,400 years before

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...

, and discussed the influence this long period brought about for the following 1,400 years of Arab history since then. Attributing less importance to the concept of Arabs as an homogeneous and discrete ethnic group, he stressed the importance of the

Arabic language Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

as "the strongest link" in Arab history and present.

References

External links

Mackintosh-Smith's official website

—John Murray, 2003. first part of trilogy following the footsteps of Ibn Battutah by Tim Mackintosh-Smith.

—John Murray, 2005. second part of trilogy by Tim Mackintosh-Smith.

—John Murray, 2010. final part of trilogy by Tim Mackintosh-Smith.

— ''Saudi Aramco World'' article by Tim Mackintosh-Smith (May/June 1999).

— ''Saudi Aramco World'' article by Tim Mackintosh-Smith (March/April 2006).
Travels with Ibn Battutah, interview with Tim Mackintosh-Smith in www.theglobaldispatches.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackintosh-Smith, Tim 1961 births Living people English travel writers