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. As previously noted, we tend to think that states and governments and the funny-hatted people who rule them are the real movers and shakers in history, but that's really not the case. In the Indian Ocean, the terms of trade were set by the merchants and by the demands of the market, not by the whims of political rulers. And the self-regulating nature of that trade was remarkable and pretty much unprecedented. I mean, the most amazing thing is that, except for a few pirates, all of this trade was peaceful. For the better part of 700 years, these merchant ships were free to sail without the protection from any state's navy. And this despite the fact that some pretty valuable crap was being traded.