Landfalls: On the Edge of Islam from Zanzibar to Alhambra

This is the final installment of Tim Mackintosh-Smith's epic trilogy following the route of 14th-century traveller Ibn Batuttah of Tangier. It follows Travels with a Tangerine and The Hall of a Thousand Columns and unsurprisingly is “more of the same”.

Tim Mackintosh-Smith (TMS) really has lived this project, over ten years retracing the route, spending time in the same places, and tracking down landmarks and the history of the people, but even more the history of Islam at the time. It shows a huge level of motivation to complete a trilogy of this scope especially the Islamic aspect, given TMS is not Muslim.

This time around we commence in Tanzania, then move on to the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and China. West Africa is next (Mali, Mauritania and Guinea) before closing out in Andalusia (Spain) and Gibraltar. IB travelled much further, making return trips to various places, and even an epic crossing of the desert in Northern Africa to reach Mali. TMS wisely opted for no re-visitations and some air travel.

Having fairly recently re-read the first two books, it wasn't a huge surprise that this was a much slower read than I normally manage. I probably read 20 books in between starting and finishing this one. While TMS has a sense of humour that comes through in his writing quite readily, he delves fairly deeply into details, and into sideline events, often on a tangent, and this added some unnecessary padding. He also falls into a trap about which I have complained before - in assuming his reader has even a basic understanding of French. There are two or three dialogues in the West Africa section of the book which are fairly crucial to what is happening, that are recounted in French. Yes it is my failing, not his, but ultimately if I can't be bothered looking for a translation, it means I disengage from the thread.

It was nice to complete the journey of IB with TMS, accompanied in part again in this book by Martin Yeo, who created most of the sketched illustrations, but as it became such hard work to complete, it fell a star from the previous efforts.

3 stars.