Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Preface
- Preface to the paperback edition
- List of abbreviations
- Note on orthography and typography
- Introduction
- 1 The sea
- 2 The ships
- 3 Navigation: the routes and their implications
- 4 The ninth and tenth centuries: Islam, Byzantium, and the West
- 5 The twelfth and thirteenth centuries: the Crusader states
- 6 Maritime traffic: the guerre de course
- 7 The Turks
- 8 Epilogue: the Barbary corsairs
- 9 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Past and Present Publications
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Preface
- Preface to the paperback edition
- List of abbreviations
- Note on orthography and typography
- Introduction
- 1 The sea
- 2 The ships
- 3 Navigation: the routes and their implications
- 4 The ninth and tenth centuries: Islam, Byzantium, and the West
- 5 The twelfth and thirteenth centuries: the Crusader states
- 6 Maritime traffic: the guerre de course
- 7 The Turks
- 8 Epilogue: the Barbary corsairs
- 9 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Past and Present Publications
Summary
Ibn Jubayr, a twelfth-century Muslim pilgrim and traveller from Andalusia, left Acre on 18 October 1184 on a Genoese ship bound for Messina. Of his departure he wrote that:
Our stay there [at Acre] was prolonged twelve days, through the failure of the wind to rise. The blowing of the winds in these parts has a singular secret. It is that the east wind does not blow except in spring and autumn, and, save at those seasons, no voyages can be made and merchants will not bring their goods to Acre. The spring voyages begin in the middle of April, when the east wind blows until the end of May … The autumn voyages are from the middle of October, when the east wind (again) sets in motion … it blows for (only) fifteen days, more or less. There is no other suitable time, for the winds then vary, that from the west prevailing… at daybreak of … the 18th of October the ship set sail… Steadily, we sailed on, under a propitious wind of varying force, for five days. Then the west wind came out of ambuscade and blew into the ship's bows. […]
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Geography, Technology, and WarStudies in the Maritime History of the Mediterranean, 649–1571, pp. 1 - 11Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1988