In-flight magazines seem to be much better these days. In particular I always look forward to reading “Impressions” by BMED (when I go to Azerbaijan). It’s one of the few freebie magazines I routinely take away with me to read afterwards. So I was really pleased to learn that the content is available online. BMED serves destinations in Africa, Middle East and former USSR – and the articles in the magazine always shed light on interesting stories and hidden “treasures” about geography, history, culture and present-day of these places. One downside is that every time I read it I add something to the now impossibly large list of places I’d like to visit (like the Krak des Chevaliers in Syria).
One really great journey would be to follow in the footsteps of Ibn Battuta - a traveller that I had not heard of, who travelled over 117,000km over 29 years in the Islamic world of the 14th century. The article is here.
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There was a great documentary about Ibn Battuta on the beeb recently by a zany Oxford scholar who wrote a book about him "Travels with a Tangerine" and who has lived in Yemen for many years. Battuta had such an amazing combination of good and bad fortune on his journey it is almost unbelievable.
I am a volunteer for the Muslim Heritage project, and we have some info about the explorer here (if the link works!)
But scholary articles are one thing. What about a Shopping Mall, I hear you ask! Well, we did that too by contributing some large exhibits to the Dubai Ibn Battuta Mall, such as the famous Elephant clock built to celebrate the global, multi-ethnic nature of the Muslim empire - as photographed by my colleague Lars when he was over there recently (on Flickr)
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