The Ibn Battuta International Centre for Intercultural Studies highlights the remarkable contributions of Tim Mackintosh-Smith, an Arabist, historian, translator, novelist, and award-winning author whose works explore time, place, and culture through the lens of travel.
For more than forty years, Mackintosh-Smith has lived in the Arab world, much of that time in the Old City of Sana’a, Yemen. His long immersion in the region has profoundly shaped his intellectual outlook, enabling him to engage deeply with the historical, linguistic, and cultural currents that define Arab civilization.
Retracing the Footsteps of Ibn Battutah
Mackintosh-Smith is widely known for his engagement with the fourteenth-century Moroccan traveler Ibn Battutah. His celebrated trilogy—Travels with a Tangerine, The Hall of a Thousand Columns, and Landfalls—retraces Ibn Battutah’s extraordinary journeys across Africa, Asia, and beyond. Through these works, he connects past and present, weaving historical insight with contemporary observation.
He has also edited the most widely available English translation of Ibn Battutah’s own Travels, making this cornerstone of classical Islamic travel literature accessible to a global readership.
As part of his scholarly contributions to the Library of Arabic Literature at New York University Abu Dhabi, Mackintosh-Smith began his edition-translations with Accounts of China and India, the oldest surviving Arabic travel book. His work in this field represents a significant effort to preserve and revitalize classical Arabic texts for modern academic and public audiences.
History, Identity, and Mobility
In 2019, Mackintosh-Smith published his monumental work Arabs: A 3,000-Year History of Peoples, Tribes and Empires, a sweeping examination of Arab history and identity through the lenses of language and mobility. The book has been translated into more than a dozen languages, reflecting its international impact and scholarly significance.
His creative foray into fiction resulted in Bloodstone, a thriller set in the Alhambra, where Ibn Battutah appears as a major character. This work demonstrates his ability to bridge rigorous historical research with imaginative storytelling.
Beyond the written word, Mackintosh-Smith has contributed to film and television, including a major BBC television series on Ibn Battutah, further expanding public engagement with the legacy of Islamic travel and intellectual history.
Academic Leadership and Current Projects
Mackintosh-Smith served as Senior Research Fellow of the NYUAD Library of Arabic Literature in 2018 and again from 2023 to 2025. He currently holds the position of Visiting Professor of Arab Crossroads Studies at New York University Abu Dhabi.
Among his ongoing projects are a new edition and the first complete translation of the autobiography of Ibn Khaldun, as well as a forthcoming book on Gibraltar—another historic crossroads of cultures and civilizations.
Through his scholarship, writing, and public engagement, Tim Mackintosh-Smith embodies the spirit of intercultural inquiry and intellectual travel that lies at the heart of the Ibn Battuta International Centre for Intercultural Studies: advancing deeper understanding of cultural diversity through research, dialogue, and the enduring power of movement across worlds.
