4Ibn Battutahethnographer, bigrapher, anecdotal historian and occasional botanistwas just21 when he set out in 1325 from his native Tangier on a pilgramage to Mecca. He did not return to Morocco for another29 years, traveling instead through more than 40 countries on the modern map, covering75,000 miles and getting as far north as the Volga, as far east as China, and as far south as Tanzania. He wrote of his travels, and comes across as a superb ethnographer, biographer, anecdotal historian, and occasional botanist and gastronome. With this edition by Mackintosh-Smith, Battuta's "Travels" takes its place alongside other indestructible masterpieces of the travel-writing genre."