Hall of a Thousand Columns

This is a re-read of this book, the second of the trilogy, as I have recently obtained a copy of the third book. My original review remains below, and I am just adding a few comments (and a quotation), rather than revamping the entire review.My second reading of this did not perhaps stand up to the scrutiny so well as the original - it is perhaps on balance 3.5 stars, but I am ok with rounding that back up to 4 as previous.I mentioned in my review of [b:Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah 823863 Travels with a Tangerine A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah Tim Mackintosh-Smith https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347483564s/823863.jpg 809654], that it was quite a self indulgent book - I am of the same conclusion here. The author follows his own path with the narrative, swerving wildly where it suits him. This is all well and good when the reader is on board with this, but it sometimes hard to follow if a key sentence is missed. This happened a few times, and left me thoroughly confused and reading a storyline without any context as to its relevance. It required some doubling back to figure it out.I concluded that more independent knowledge of Ibn Battutah's travels would have been beneficial in the reading of this book. I consider (perhaps unfairly) that this shouldn't really have been necessary, as TMS could have made more of an effort to choreograph that original journey into his own writing.Nevertheless, I look forward to the third book, although I will fit a couple of other books in between.Retaining 4 stars.My favourite quotation from the book: P43 - for context - TMS has just located the ruin of the titular building - the Hall of a Thousand Columns... ... They all combined in one edifice of many storeys, and architectural material, metaphorical and mystical extending from the basement to empire to the canopy of heaven. “If you are an IB fan,” I told Martin as we reached the top of the rise, “this place is the Holy of Holies.”“Not for him it isn't,” said Martin, with a nod towards the first visible feature of the Thousand-Column Hall: the bare arse, a few yards in front of us, of a man having a crap.The man pulled up his trousers and sauntered off. Looking about, we noticed a dozen more naked backsides. Muhammad Shah's palace had become a vast and spacious al fresco public lavatory; a fact confirmed by the prevailing odours, which were not those of aloes-wood and rose-water. And no longer might one say, as did IB's contemporary Isami, that angels swept the place clean, morning and evening, with their wings: the entire site was booby-trapped with faeces. —Following on from his [b:Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah 823863 Travels with a Tangerine A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah Tim Mackintosh-Smith https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347483564s/823863.jpg 809654], this second installment deals with Ibn Battutah's travels in India.The first third of the book takes place in Delhi, there Battutah spent 7 years as a Judge, and was then made an Ambassador to China, so he sets off again on a journey. Through Uttar Pradesh, then Madhya Pradesh, before doubling back to Gujarat. The author follows this route, then when Battutah sailed via Goa to Kerala, from where they departed for China, the author goes direct to Mangalore, and takes the Malabar Express to Kerala, and works his way north, reversing the journey.It is a detailed account of his journey, researching each step, looking for surviving evidence of Batttah's writings. It follow much the same written style as the previous book, but perhaps just doesn't quite catch the imagination in the same way. Still a great book, I look forward to the third installment.4 Stars.