Tim Mackintosh-Smith is a fan of Arabic travel literature and the author of several books of his own travels. His first book, Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land, earned him the 1998 Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Award. He was awarded the Ibn Baṭṭūṭah Prize of Honour by the Arab Centre for Geographical Literature for his trilogy based on the journeys of Ibn Baṭṭūṭah. Here he retraces his footsteps across the Arabic world in conversation with BRLSI’s David Haywood.