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The assigned reading demonstrates how history is filled with various accounts of man’s conquest at the sea. Through the act of piercing together various evidentiary accounts dating back to prehistoric times, the reading brings into the limelight some of the factors that came into play to favor the development of sailing in the Arabian shores and beyond. The present paper relies on the reading to demonstrate how geography and climate favored the development of Arab seafaring.
In terms of geographical orientation, it can be argued that Arab seafaring benefited a great deal by virtue of the Arabian physical location at the crossroads of important commerce routes that not only necessitated oriental trade with the Mediterranean world but also ensured easy flow of goods via the Arabian Peninsula, the Gulf of Suez and the Persian Gulf.
It is clear from the reading that owing to its physical location at the epicenter of these natural waterways, that Arabian commerce with neighboring countries was invited to the west by the long shores of Northeast Africa and to the Northeast by the long shores of Iran.
Additionally, owing to its physical location, the Arab world was in direct contact with some of the most ancient centers of wealth and civilization, including Egypt, Iran, and Mesopotamia, implying that more commerce passed its way as goods were being transported from these centers to far away countries such as China and India.
Wares from China and India also passed through the Arab world into these centers because Arabs had easy access to the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. The Arab world also benefitted substantially from the Red Sea, the Nile, the Euphrates and the Tigris, which were natural channels that could be used for through traffic of goods between the Mediterranean basin and Eastern Asia. These geographical factors favored the development and growth of Arab seafaring.
In terms of climate, it can be argued that Arab seafaring benefited a great deal from the monsoon winds, which, according to the reading, assisted voyages both to Africa and to India.
However, it should be noted that Arab ships could not stand the vigor of the southwest monsoon winds which started in July and terminated in October due to the fact that the boats were made of skins and hollowed coconut trunks, not mentioning that they were sewn with stitches of coconut fiber instead of being secured with large iron nails as was the case with Greek ships.
Additionally, it is imperative to mention that the Persian Gulf not only lacked craftsmen to build strong ships, but the area produced little suitable timber for shipbuilding, necessitating Arab seafarers to build their boats from coconut trunks that could easily fall apart in high seas.
Consequently, owing to the unstable shape of the Arab ships as explained above, the reading suggests that Arab seafarers used the northeast monsoon to sail to countries such as India as it was not as vigorous as the southwest monsoon.
All the same, it is evident that Arab seafarers benefitted a great deal from the monsoon winds as they later employed the services of the Phoenicians to build strong ships from timber fetched from Nineveh. These new ships could withstand the strong southwest monsoon winds to directly sail from Arabia to India and then return in winter using the northeast monsoon winds.
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