Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean

By John Carswell

Hourani's text, hardly more than a hundred pages long, is a masterpiece of simplicity. But as Degas once remarked, simplicity is balanced complexity, and his narrative is a seamless whole. Both Albert Hourani and myself concurred that is would be impossible to alter the original, and indeed as many rereadings have shown, there is little to change anyhow; all of his judgements have stood the test of time. However, what has happened since he wrote his fundamental text in 1952 is that there is a mass of new information, largely the result of archaeological investigation and surface exploration of many of the areas with which he was concerned, on the fringes of the Indian Ocean. The real task was to integrate this evidence whilst not upsetting the balance of the original.
We decided to add as much of this new material as possible in the form of a commentary on the main text, at the end of the volume. There is a new Bibliography, incorporating all the works previously cited at the bottom of each page, and referred to in the additional notes on each chapter. There is also an extra map, indicating the sites referred to in the notes; and a revised and much expanded Index, so that the new edition can be easily consulted on any specific topic.
To accomplish all this I have been greatly helped by eight scholars, who have commented on Hourani's text and generously added material drawn from their own work in the field. David Whitehouse's pioneer excavations at Siraf have made him an ideal contributor on everything to do with the Persian Gulf. Mark Horton has been largely concerned with East Africa, as has Henry Wright, supplying fresh material on Madagascar and other islands off the African coast. Geoffrey King's excavations at Suhar have added much information on the southern end of the Gulf, and Peter Morgan on early maritime history, and the port of Hurmuz in the medieval period. George Scanlon's excavations at the site of ancient Fustat in Egypt have contributed to our detailed knowledge of imported textiles. Honor Frost has concentrated on the technicalities of boat-building and nautical equipment, particularly the universal use of anchors and their typology. Finally, David King has added new material on navigation and astronomy; I myself have concentrated on the Maldives, Sri Lanka and the Indian Subcontinent, and the crucial role these parts played in the Indian Ocean maritime trade.
Much of this new material is largely technical. Fortunately, four more scholars - Soucek, Christides, Tibetts and Oman - have recently added greatly to our critical knowledge of the literary sources, by their detailed study, milaha ('seafaring'), in the new edition of the Encyclopedia of Islam. This nicely complements our own work on the more material remains. And a very recent article in the Encyclopedia, safina ('ships'), by Kindermann and Bosworth, provides much more related information. It is to be hoped that all these sources combined with our own efforts will give a boost to the whole subject of seafaring in the Islamic period. As Lionel Casson remarked on George Hourani's original work, " Arab Seafaring is as indispensable today as it was when it was first published; there is no other work that covers this significant aspect of maritime history". Hopefully this new edition will give the work another lease of life, and serve the interests of all who are intrigued by this most fascinating of topics.

Hourani, George F. Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Medieval Times. Revised and expanded by John Carswell. Princeton University Press. 140pp. 8 halftones, 7 maps. 0-691-00032-8 Paper $12.95. 0-691-00170-7 Cloth $35.00.

Professor John Carswell is the Director of the Islamic department at Sotheby's.