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Published: 2002

Arab Muslims brought shipbuilding techniques from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean. In this regard, Dr. A. Hakim Murad stated: “One reason Muslims dominate the Mediterranean was their superior knowledge of ship-building techniques.

The early Arab Muslims were a great maritime nation during the fifth Caliph, Mu’awiyah’s rule. They built the first significant fleet at Alexandria (see the website here). Muslims quickly confronted the Byzantine navy and established an unchallenged naval superiority throughout the Mediterranean.

Al-Biruni with Sextant (973-1048)

The Muslim empire’s shipbuilding techniques flourished because it bordered both halves of the formerly divided world. The Arabs imported into the Mediterranean shipbuilding techniques long known among navigators in the far more difficult and treacherous waters of the Indian Ocean.

The ships were a lot larger and sturdier. The galley, once the main method of long-range seafaring in the Mediterranean, was not completely displaced, but Muslims rarely used it. This was largely because they used the lateen sail, which was much more effective and efficient than the former, simple square-sail vessels used in the Mediterranean, known as carracks.

Europeans’ great journeys of discovery in the 15th century, whether around the Cape or across to the Americas, relied heavily on this Indian Ocean technology, which Muslim Arabs brought to the Mediterranean. Because Europeans could emulate these innovations, European navigation began to rejoin European trade.

Muslim Trade Routes Europe

The Europeans had trading partners in North Africa, and many of the merchants in North Africa were not Muslims but Jews. It was easier for Jewish merchants to visit Europe and trade than for Muslims because of European customs of tolerating Jews. North Africa became a key hub for Jewish contributions to Mediterranean trade.

Muslim Trade Routes Europe

This great domination of the seas by the Islamic world has left permanent memories even in English. The word Admiral, for example, came from the Arabic word “amir albaher,” which means prince or commander of the sea and Monsoon, Slop, Barrack, etc.”