Ibn Battuta: The Man Who Walked Across the World (Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, India, China) 2015, 180 min. In English with English subtitles. Producer: Tim Mackintosh – Smith, BBC. Distributor: BBC.
Ibn Battuta: The Man Who Walked Across the World is a pilgrimage to the old Islamic World, where Mackintosh – Smith follows the steps of Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan traveller and Islamic law scholar who travelled across Africa, Mecca, Middle East, Turkey, India and China in a journey of 75 thousand miles that exceeds that of Marco Polo. Through this journey we see the Middle period of Islamic history that is often concealed and not disclosed by Islam of today. Perhaps many Muslims and non-Muslims have not looked into the history of Middle Islam while the …show more content…
In Tangier, precisely the Kasbah, the hometown of Ibn Battuta, Mackintosh – Smith shows the music, culture and food. Tangier was considered the end of the known world; it is a restless place famous for mystical music between Islamic songs and African rhythms, slaughtering sheep and eating sheep’s head (as approved by Quraan), and belief in one’s fate. The documentary shows how restless the place is, and somehow it reflects that Ibn Battuta would actually leave that place to explore deeper paths of his own journey. After Tangier, Ibn Battuta goes to Alexandria then to outer parts of the city to meet a holy man named Murshidi, who is kind of a seer, that prophesizes the future. Alexandria portrayed as a maiden in the writing of Ibn Battuta, seems to be quite different in Mackintosh – Smith’s documentary which is now also restless, old and full of crowds. In Cairo, the quest for knowledge of Ibn Battuta who studied how to recite the Quran verses in one of the oldest schools Al Azhar (centuries older than the first Oxford school) is shown. If one wants to imagine what it was like in Cairo in the middle period of Islamic history, it would be an image of …show more content…
Mackintosh – Smith follows the map outlined by Ibn Battua, and looks for cues in the writings of Ibn Batututa in his travels (cities, holy men, villages, and stories of travel) then asks people to tell him about Ibn Batutta. Perhaps there are parts that are truly on the footsteps of Ibn Battuta’s journey (such as when Mackintosh – Smith finds the cave in China, whirling dervishes, Turkish nomads, Chinese mosque/lighthouse etc) while others might be just myth that are not related to Ibn Battuta’s pilgrimage. Thus, the documentary makes skeptical audience not totally convinced that the content was entirely related to Ibn BAtuta’s
Ibn Battuta: The Man Who Walked Across the World is a pilgrimage to the old Islamic World, where Mackintosh – Smith follows the steps of Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan traveller and Islamic law scholar who travelled across Africa, Mecca, Middle East, Turkey, India and China in a journey of 75 thousand miles that exceeds that of Marco Polo. Through this journey we see the Middle period of Islamic history that is often concealed and not disclosed by Islam of today. Perhaps many Muslims and non-Muslims have not looked into the history of Middle Islam while the …show more content…
In Tangier, precisely the Kasbah, the hometown of Ibn Battuta, Mackintosh – Smith shows the music, culture and food. Tangier was considered the end of the known world; it is a restless place famous for mystical music between Islamic songs and African rhythms, slaughtering sheep and eating sheep’s head (as approved by Quraan), and belief in one’s fate. The documentary shows how restless the place is, and somehow it reflects that Ibn Battuta would actually leave that place to explore deeper paths of his own journey. After Tangier, Ibn Battuta goes to Alexandria then to outer parts of the city to meet a holy man named Murshidi, who is kind of a seer, that prophesizes the future. Alexandria portrayed as a maiden in the writing of Ibn Battuta, seems to be quite different in Mackintosh – Smith’s documentary which is now also restless, old and full of crowds. In Cairo, the quest for knowledge of Ibn Battuta who studied how to recite the Quran verses in one of the oldest schools Al Azhar (centuries older than the first Oxford school) is shown. If one wants to imagine what it was like in Cairo in the middle period of Islamic history, it would be an image of …show more content…
Mackintosh – Smith follows the map outlined by Ibn Battua, and looks for cues in the writings of Ibn Batututa in his travels (cities, holy men, villages, and stories of travel) then asks people to tell him about Ibn Batutta. Perhaps there are parts that are truly on the footsteps of Ibn Battuta’s journey (such as when Mackintosh – Smith finds the cave in China, whirling dervishes, Turkish nomads, Chinese mosque/lighthouse etc) while others might be just myth that are not related to Ibn Battuta’s pilgrimage. Thus, the documentary makes skeptical audience not totally convinced that the content was entirely related to Ibn BAtuta’s