Okay, there are a few more facets of Indian Ocean trade worth mentioning. First, Indian Ocean trade incorporated many more people than participated in Silk Road trade. There were Jewish people and people from Africa and Malaysia and India and China all sailing around in setting of trading communities where they would act as middlemen, trying to sell stuff for more than they'd bought it for and trying to find new stuff to buy that they could sell later. But despite this diversity, for the most part, especially on the western half of the Indian Ocean basin, the trade was dominated by Muslim merchants. Why? Largely because they had the money to build ships, although as we will see, in the 15th century, the Chinese state could have changed that balance completely. By the way, I need to point out that when I say the trade was dominated by Muslim merchants, the emphasis should be on the merchants, not the Muslim or the dominated.