Tim Mackintosh Smith’s documentary travel series follows in the footsteps of 14th-century Moroccan scholar Ibn Battutah, who traveled 75,000 miles, 40 countries and three continents. From North Africa, Tim visited Batuta’s birthplace, Tangier, Morocco, and stumbled upon a performance of medieval trance music. In Egypt, he traveled to a remote village where Batuta had a startling prophetic dream and enrolled in the oldest university in the world in Cairo.
In Turkey, Tim watches an illegal dervish spinning ritual, and in the Taurus Mountains, he encounters the last of the Turkmen nomads. He conversed with Tatars in Crimea and watched a Muslim magician perform Indian rope magic in Delhi.
It examines the place of Islam in Hindu-dominated India and communist China, and tells the story of Islamic trading empires in the 14th century. In China, he met a family that traced his ancestry back to the Arabs and witnessed illegal Arabic lessons.
Episodes:
- Wanderlust,
- Magicians and Mystics,
- and Tradewinds.
