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9 - Islamic trade, shipping, port-states and merchant communities in the Indian Ocean, seventh to sixteenth centuries

from PART III - THE MARITIME OECUMENE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2011

By
Pearson Michael
Edited by
David O. Morgan  and
Anthony Reid
David O. Morgan
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Anthony Reid
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore
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Summary

Introduction

This chapter consists of surveys of the following regions: the Swahili coast, the Maldive islands, Malabar, Coromandel and Sri Lanka (see Map 7). The period to be covered is from the seventh to the sixteenth centuries. The concern will be to describe the arrival of Islam in these areas, the process of conversion and the state of Islam towards the end of this period. First, however, it is necessary to provide an overall sketch of trade, shipping and seafaring in the Indian Ocean, in the period from before Islam to the end of the sixteenth century, and then, before getting to specific areas, to consider some area-wide themes.

Pre-Islamic Indian Ocean trade

The sea, more precisely the Arabian Sea, plays a large role in the story. Travel by sea, facilitated or sometimes circumscribed by the monsoon wind pattern, has a very long history in this area. The earliest boats were canoes made of reeds, still to be seen today in the marsh areas of the Tigris–Euphrates delta. Wooden boats, which gain their buoyancy from enclosed air, mark a major technological step forward. They go back at least some 5,000 years, to the time of the Indus Valley Civilisation.

Type
Chapter
Information
The New Cambridge History of Islam , pp. 315 - 365
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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