Machine summary:
Similarly, ships commg from Mosul, Rabi'a, Adherba'1jan and Armenia must also pas: along the Tigris, and vessels from Mudar, Rakka, Syria and Syrian ports Egypt and North Africa will necessarily come here by way· of the Euphrates.
"1 · · In view of the commercial and naval importance of the city, the locality of the merchants was accessible by a canal leading from the Euphrates: The cargo-laden ships came to the Euphrates from the sea; from the Euphrates they went to Karkhaya canal, and from it to the city through an artificial canal and from the city to the locality of merchants and unloaded the merchandise there.
Their ships sailed from the ports of 'Iraq and Arabia to the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, China Sea, Red Sea and the Abvssinian Sea. In the Mediterranean Sea, the strategical position of Tunis, which had been a naval centre since the Urnayyad period, was kept up as usual by the 'Abbasids, for it served· as an important base to check the Roman inroads.
Ships voyaged in great numbers from these two African and European coasts to Alexandria, but the Arabs were mere traders in the Indian Ocean, in Abyssinia 2.
:1 THE NAVIGABLE ROUTES OF THE EAST SHIPS of the Arabs sailed to China from the Persian Gulf, passing through the Indian Ocean.
Midway between Siraf and Basra at a distance of one hundred and twenty furlongs from the naval routes, ships start by taking cargoes and fresh water at Siraf (?), and halt at Musqat, the port of 'Oman, lying 200 furlongs from Siraf Close to it there are sea-girdled hills of 'Oman, and the place is known as Durdoor.