Classic Ships of Islam: From Mesopotamia to the Indian Ocean

Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1 The Near and Middle East

by Dionisius Agius

This book charts the development of Islamic ships and boats in the Western Indian Ocean from the seventh to the early sixteenth century with reference to earlier periods. It utilizes mainly Classical and Medieval Arabic sources with iconographical evidence and archaeological finds. Maritime activities in the region resulted in a cross fertilization, not only of goods but also of ideas and culture which gave an underlying cohesion to the Arabian, Persian and Indian maritime peoples. This study has led to a re-evaluation of that maritime culture, showing that it was predominantly Persian and Indian, with Chinese influence, throughout the Islamic period until the coming of the Portuguese, as reflected in nautical terminology and technology.

530 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2007

About the author

Dionisius Albertus Agius (1945) , is a Professor of Arabic Studies and Islamic Material Culture at the University of Exeter. He is also a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Geographical Society. His research focuses on maritime culture and the Islamic world; ethnography of the material culture and heritage of the Western Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean; lexical development of maritime and nautical terminology. He have particular interest in the socio-cultural history and provenance of the traditional sailing water craft, the sea people and their activities, folklore belief and practices, resources and trade in the Western Indian Ocean. He have conducted extensive maritime ethnographic fieldwork on the coasts of the Arabian Gulf and Oman between 1990 and 2000, and the African and Arabian coasts of the Red Sea from 2002 to 2014