The Man Who Walked Across the World

This is a series of three documentary travelogues but they are nothing like Lonely Planet! Rather, in this stunning historical journey, Tim Mackintosh-Smith follows in the footsteps of 14th Century Moroccan scholar Ibn Battutah, who covered 75,000 miles, 40 countries and three continents in a 30-year odyssey.




Part One
Beginning in north Africa, Tim visits Battutah's birthplace of Tangier in Morocco, and stumbles on a performance of medieval trance music.




In Egypt, he goes to a remote village where Battutah had an astonishing prophetic dream and visits the world's oldest university in Cairo.

Part Two
In Turkey, Tim watches an illegal whirling dervish ceremony, and in the Taurus mountains he meets the last of the Turkoman nomads.




He chats to Tatars in Crimea, while in Delhi he watches a Muslim magician performing the Indian rope trick.

Part Three
In this final espisode, Tim explores the place of Islam in Hindu-dominated India and communist China, and tells the story of the Islamic trade empire of the 14th century.




In China, he meets a clan who trace their ancestry back to Arabs, and witnesses an illegal Arabic lesson.

More documentaries like this...

Inside Mecca

Clash of the Worlds

The Crusades - the Cresent & the Cross

An Islamic History of Europe

The Seven Wonders of the Muslim World