Machine summary:
As it could not be traversed, still less conquered, by the outer world, Oriental trade had to go round it, either circumnavigating the peninsula or using the caravan routes along the Fertile Crescent, the northern fringe of the Syrian Desert between Syria and 'Iraq.
In Asia, the Muslims established close links with Persia, Central Asia, and the Far East; in Africa the Arab merchants or• ganized the trade of the whole of the Maghrib and the Sudan as well as of the east coast.
· A western route started from Basra to East Africa, where Arab sailors, in the beginning of the 3rd-I oth century, reached Sufala, a gold country opposite Madagascar, This large island was known to the Muslims as Waqwaq, As Japan was also called by this name, both islands were hopelessly confused with oneanother bv the Muslims.
In the 5th/ r I th century, however, when the fleets of the Italian trading cities, in co-opera• tion with the Christian armies of Spain, Sicily, and Syria, drove the Muslims a way and obtained control over the Mediterranean, the Italians took into their hands the carrying of the trade between Europe and the Levant but could not wrench from the Arabs the sea route round Arabia, for the latter remained superior in the sea-borne trade with the Oriental lands as well as in the caravan trade over the Central Asiatic highlands.
This revival of Oriental trade had important consequences for the commerce and welfare of Europe, for, from the 6th-12th century onwards, it led to the institution of fairs all over the continent.