 He is one of the foremost scholars of the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battutah.Mackintosh-Smith has published a trilogy recounting his journeys in "the footnotes" of Ibn Battutah; "Travels with A Tangerine" (2001), "The Hall of a Thousand Columns" (2005) and "Landfalls" (2010).He has additionally written widely on subjects as broad as alabaster, the collection of frankincense, the stories of M.R.