 By all, by now you all will have met in some catastrophe another speaker for today our keynote speaker, Dionysius Agous. But now I'll tell you why he's here and who he is. He's a fellow at the British Academy, Emeritus, Autosomy Professor of Arabic Studies in Islamic Material Culture at the University of Exeter and now an Adjunct Professor at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. Dr. Agous was educated at the Jesuit Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut and at the University of Toronto. He's an ethnographer and linguist specializing in traditional wooden sea craft, the people of the sea and their material culture in the western Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean from classical periods to modern times. And just so we know just how much he's engaged in this part of the world, these are some of his books. In the wake of the dull, seabird in the Arabian Gulf and all men, classical ships of Islam and another one that is yet forthcoming with Ivy Taurus and Bloomsbury, the life of the Red Sea Dull. So now you know why we brought him here and please welcome with me Dr. Dionysius Agous. It was a good introduction today. Sea stories in medieval Islam are relatively under study. They are compared to a vast array of more literary Arabic words of different genre. They are written in a simple vernacular style and would appear at various lengths to have an easy to offer beyond entertainment value. However, a closer look at them can yield insights into the maritime culture and sea law and the early medieval Islam in the Indian Ocean. And the sharing of such sea law with neighboring cultures and civilization conducted feedback in the Arabian Gulf and Oma several years ago. I connected a number of persons and stories from marinades, pearl divers, and fishermen. Admittedly, although much of what was recounted had an element of truth based on experience and skills, there was also an element of exaggeration, of embellishment in the narratives. Some of these, some of their stories, in part, of whom are included in my book, Sea Fairy in the Year in England and Oma in the Year in England and Oma in the Year in England. The whole idea was to capture the voices of members in their different activities, in their experience out at sea. There were, in the stories, sea creatures never seen before, pirates that jumped on board and threatened to kill the crew, gales and storms witnessing the abyss of the ocean, and gin, evil spirits which guided the ship to destruction. Such stories, I found later, met a parallel to those related by travelers of the Arabian modern and remarkable. There is a collection of stories called The Marbles of England, which was written in the 10th century. In this unique collection, six stories that I'm going to talk about today, although the title contains the name India, the stories are not about India, but perhaps reflect the centrality in the ocean, in the Indian Ocean. India brings maritime communities of Indian Ocean together, and the cargo of pilgrim ships drop or wave angle at their spots. I would like to begin with a few words about the medieval words of maritime culture before coming to this marbles of India. It's authorship and problem. A description will follow on the landscape and seascape of the region, where the stories were connected, and what the stories entail. One of the stories narrated by this one by the ship, the old man, Al-Barakhti, I will end with a discussion of factions on the genre of sea stories and the unique collection of the marbles of stories in India. Early maritime works were written to offer information on sea trade rules, navigation, description of landscape and seascape, imported and exported goods, and as well as commenting on the customs and traditions of the coasted regions. The early maritime works, Akhbari-l-Him-Pasim, the use of the Indian Ocean, Sitsara-l-Tarawih, Tawari-l-Chain of the Americas, and Aja'i-l-Him, marbles of India. The first two are trigger cards of geographic context, with information on maritime activity in the Indian Ocean, from Basra to Seraf, from Soha to Ertzi, in Tafil, to India. The author of the original Akhbari-l-Him is not known, but the book was re-edited by a merchant opposing a Seraf. The second one, there comes the Sitsara, where it is collected by Sulaiman, Tajir, Sulaiman, the merchant, both connected to the medieval port of Seraf. When it tells one, Akhbari-l-Him, the marbles of India, has been attributed to Busuk, even in Shahriar, but the question is, what is the definition of its origin? The significance of these three works is that they are the earliest non-examples of the distinctive sub-Jami of medieval architecture. All three works were published in the 9th and 10th centuries. The marbles of India contain 136 sea stories. Many of which centered on the lives of members who ventured into the open sea, as far indeed as Sumatra, Java, and China. They are a collection of disparate sea stories, with no particular structure of them connected to them. The particular sub-Jama of medieval architecture to which these stories belong is called Ajah. The word for marbles, marbles, kiosks, they are often narrated with a touch of ironic humor, and with an element of exaggeration, for effect, making them similar in many ways in content and style to the tales of the seven voyages that have been seen by the sailor in the Alive Nights, where the listener already is lost in wonder and the stories of exploration treasure. In the words of one modern day traveler, every returning ship seemed to bring back fresh and ever more bizarre curiosities, and every departure was packed with ever ambitious dreams. To note that the marbles preferred to be factual stories printing on a chain of authorities on the story, but their content was not just animal's. While the stories of Sinbad are presumed to be fiction, it is entirely probable that they were embroideries of earlier factual accounts, and we stand here at crossroads between cultural history, these stories may well contain underlying information of use, not to the literature person, but to the story, even to the archaeologists. So what do the sea stories of the marbles of India entail? The stories contain entertainments witnessed by mariners, merchants and traders, embarking on cargo ships, sailing to distant lands for trade. They recount stories about how they survived storms and fruitless, their encounters with spirits and sea creatures and other experiences of marbles. The stories are about the Indian Ocean, which is divided into the seven seas. The Sea of Zanj, which refers to the Africans. The Sea of Laar, the Arabian Sea, the Sea of Kharkham, the Bay of Bangal, the Sea of Kalahbar, the West Coast of Malaya, the Sea of Salahit, Sumatra, the Sea of Kharkham between the islands of Sumatra and Borneo and the Sea of Zanj. Countries are grouped according to the trade commodities that they were known for. So in Africa, in the land of Zanj, known for ivory and slaves, the countries around the southern region both referred to as the land of power. India, the land of pepper, Sumatra, Java, Malaya were the land of gold and Murukkas, were known as the Spice Island. Until some years ago, the marbles were attributed to Buzur Ibn Shafiq of Ramul-Hul. Set up the province of Kuzistar, southwest of Iran. This alleged that he was a sea captain. He lived in Seraf on the Iranian coast. He had, however, no date for his death. No date for his death. From a few dates in the stories, we can gather that they were conducted in the 10th century. It came to light. It did not have a spot actually. It's actually not Buzur. But one who came from Seraf and lived in Egypt in 1910. His name was Abu Imran Moussa Ibn-Baba in Ausid. Extract of similar stories from Ausid were found in the later world in the 14th century by an encyclopedist and woman. So how did this name Buzur came to be found? According to a study conducted by Khamid Shah Al-Dussein, his name was not recorded by Buzur Al-Dussein, but was added to an Istanbul manuscript, I.S. of Piyan 3,3,4,5. Leading us to understand that Buzur had been apocalyptic. By the way, our fictional boat Buzur Ibn-Baba Ausid came from Buzur. Which is at the center of the stories. Seraf was a prosperous port as is evident from written medieval Arabic sources. Located at the opposite Bahrain Islands in the Iranian Persian Gulf, it was connected diagonally to Shiraz in the 10th century. Seraf today lies in Buzur. It was a great way to China. Indeed, all Syrians, two and from China, connected with the Red Sea in Istanbul. Excavations in Seraf show an active port as a sailing pier. It is not a port. With a fort, palaces as it is, mosques and buildings. The ship Graphitum is but a memory of the seafaring parts. It is evident from medieval Arabic accounts that the sea route was much preferred to the land route. Most of the maritime trade was transferred to Seraf, on the Oman. Two geographers of the 10th century are Istachry and Almaktasi, visited the port city on the second part of the century. Both were impressed by the beauty and its effluent population. The historian Mahmoudi describes a number of mariners and merchants from the Indian Ocean Gallery in Seraf. This information about maritime activity in Seraf is also mentioned in terms of wealth. Seraf was the rival of Basra which was measured by its size and its splendor of Istachry mountains. Nearly equal to Shiraz where he had to carve Shiraz. And Almaktasi could not help but comment on the charm of the city. I have not seen in the realm of Islam more remarkable buildings than those of Seraf. The heyday of Seraf was during the early decades of the buoyant dynasty. It was a decline in the population. Maritime people left Seraf, went to Seraf, went to Aden, went to Jeddah, went to West India went to West Indian coast trade declined and it was not clear as to what brought the end of Seraf, whether it was precipitated by a earthquake natural disaster. But its fame was echoed of many centuries later in the Seraf. Seraf mariners are described by the geography of Al-Isachry men who passed their whole lifetime on the ship. Al-Nusudi met many of the Seraf skippers on voyages to West India East Africa and China. He says that they were the most known and experienced of long distant voyagers. Although he does not comment about their lives on the ship they were skippers of some famous and in a number of stories about Seraf mariners found in the Marvits of India exemplifies the heroism these people had shown in braving the seas of Arabia and China. The Marvits sea stories are eyewitness accounts of what the stories and geographers have reported about Seraf. They captured their lives at sea crystallizing that moment in time. The Marvits of India like the Sinbad stories were connected with a name to entertain but also to instruct as many were now they can make it with a purpose of connecting events and keeping often fortune to misfortune but ending with the Marvits. There is a pattern of Marvits and history long distant journeys fire and volcano eruptions and shipwrecks sailing for gold ivory and precious stones encountered with the unexpected the sieging monsters and giants what captivated the audience was really without magic experiencing the unknown and escaping to a different world through the air reassuring expectation that the main character would return back to normal was that of the sea captain Akhara an extraordinary man who progressed from shepherd in the desert to fisherman then he became a sailor then he became a skipper sailing from Seraph to India and China Akhara's story was meant to be an example of one sea captain with much sailing experience and force he sailed to China seven times prompting the narrator to come only adventurous men had made this voyage before no one had managed without an accident even a man with a chance would have died on the way returning safe and sound was unheard of I have never heard tell of anyone except him Akhara who had made the two voyages there and back without disaster the storyteller is making an important point the journey to China was not without hazard an often disaster befell the voyages whether from the forces of nature or human aggression here is a story written by a ship owner Abu Zahra Al-Barkadi about a fellow sheikh master a person who was a group who experienced just such a disaster on their way to China the calamity was purely human in origin and this is what happened the storyteller engages his message by telling that Al-Barkadi was truly a man of integrity worthy of respect was indeed a man everyone took heed to every man took heed to what he said and therefore the story is worth telling and worth believing the story is about the island of women intrigued the audience the ship carried a number of merchants of diverse ethnic religious and linguistic backgrounds who in the course of their voyage from Zaraf to China faced the violence of the gate in a sea that boiled beaten about by frightening waves on a ship that left and plunged and shuddered and trembled each merchant in fear prayed according to his religion of surrender that the ship was about to crumble of the waves and winds it returned but because the negligence of the crew and the state of the rigging generated fear as the silent audience waited in suspense then on the third day the passengers and crew experienced an even more frightening sight the ship was approaching a fire that spread over the whole horizon they preferred to die rather than to witness the suffering of each one of them once more the audience felt in silence until the narrator continued there was on board a ship an old man of Kadif from Islamic Spain who was hiding all through the voyage he was being fed by a sailor but actually this sailor believed that a guardian angel was eating the food and drinking the water and was not aware of the man and hiding he believed that by feeding the angel the ship would be protected against disaster when the old man of Kadif saw the danger of the ship of fear of all those concerned he came out from the hiding some sailors saw the man and they were bewildered and were shaken by how he appeared from nowhere he was taken to the captain after some time arguing about how and what the old man said and reassured them that there was nothing to worry about become by the grace of God what you see is an island bordered and encircled by mountains on which the ocean waves harrowing themselves during the night this produces the effect of an enormous fire which frightens him sometimes he reassured them fear not oh man this brought joy to the captain when they all were almost gone they approached the island they all disembarked and threw themselves on the sand and rolled in the light on the ground the tragedy was yet to come this island was inhabited by who fell upon each one of the crew and passengers and used them for their pleasure sadly all the men died of exhaustion one after the other the old man of Kadid however was taken away by one woman and treated kindly and together they escaped on the ship's boat and reached the port where the ship had come she became a soldier gave him several children and they lived happily there are four parts in this story this is presenting facts about the narrator Al-Baghdadi the ship owner he was an agent converted to Islam we are also getting details about the ship sailing to China and the merchants of different backgrounds the crew and their monotonic skills the second feature is the embellishment of the story with marvelous curiosities the island of women the tragic death of the passengers and crew sadly the hero who seems to have had divine guidance on the ship will not be lost in spite of the incompetent crew who did not render the rigging properly while both crew and passengers they all deserve to be overcome by the sexually marriage experience leaving the men of Kadid and this Muslim converted one to sail off into the sunset the story is gone and I will not go into detail in this part we can gather what is it that we can gather from this story is the first the actual information navigating the route to China the hazards of the Malay sea the nautical skills of the skipper boats and so on the skipper was guided by stars al-Baghdadi al-Baghdadi's fellowship speaks of these characters we are at the wind of the wind and waves first of all there is that fire we are running towards and that already fills the horizon we would not we would not the stars guide and navigate and they still do especially the pin-a-ring there and they warn voyagers of climatic change they warn voyagers of storms and cranes some are believed to be symbolic of something to happen in these characters certainly in this story the characters signify the bending of hope that is another factual information is that the skipper takes a note not to expose a ship to loss for us captains when we board the ship stay loyalized and destiny loyal if the ship is safe we remain loyal if there is loss we die of practice if there is one of the 12 principles of navigation recorded by the book of education second we have the human interaction the state of fear the people experience by the violence of the game and the approaching value of fire the superstition of the belief in a violent engine from destruction the belief in it that it would happen so it was a real shame there is the last thing version of fire playing together according to one's religion there was a Muslim put this the last thing the men becoming tools of the wooden expressions in the old man and the old world the sea stories in the marbles of India the earliest example of this subject in many times the belief in Arabic literature there are many in the book all the choices of stories is the exception of the seven colleges of cinema the same has actually the same and it is important to note that the simple voyages are only a part of the favorite life which is largely under the sea although the marbles of India sea stories fall within the agile team of wonders and marbles that offer a wealth of information on diverse subject that are both instructive touching on the new element of life time at sea the moral, law and the end the marbles are written in Arabic representing a diversity of ethnic and religious and linguistic communities in the ocean their background they contain facts about the poor cities seers, trade groups and they often demonstrate the commonality these stories have obviously developed from the older culture which would have been the commonality they bond communities together with the events that they share they came to be written down as a way of solidifying in the past the many stories we find parallel themes of these sea stories in the Sanskrit and Persian tradition and indeed in the west there is a striking similarity between the story of the island of women Indian marbles of India and owners obviously where the women played the roles of sedactresses such as the goddess Sirse who lived in the island of Ereya and the goddess Kadipso on the island of Ojija who both seduced Oji Seyos away from his return to his home and wife Indian marbles of India the theme of the island of women is taken into a more darker theme the apocryphal acts of Angel in the Christian Bible tradition portrays scenes of shepherds pirates and cannibals such stories were known by the early Christians of Africa Egypt, Syria Asia Minor and other places they run parallel to see stories of the Arabian version of Indian cultures although it may be argued that they have influenced each other it could be that they have risen independently the Ajaib is a genre which pervades in early and medieval times it is important to note that the Quran is one of God's marbles and that extraordinary things were the signs of God's creative power the marbles of God's creation was then a pious act the marbles stories are written in mixed literary and vernacular style of Arabic thus breaking away from the canon of good Arabic literary style which was the known for any Arabic written written the marbles and the Arabian stories follow this big style and there is even another connection of things of the marbles such stories were memorized and then narrated to the common people and marbles come in places of blessing in doing so the story told the terror they have felt here to improvise rather than stick to the inflexible written story the mixed style of this story is thus a reflection of the ordinary but the ordinary culture is dynamic and in the background of this culture connects men of literature historians geographers travelers have given us a few scattered examples of maritime stories and there are hints that there may have been more many more but certainly there are lost recordings which makes the marbles of India such a joy such a joy not only to be enjoyed for their narratives and to enjoy by us but also for the researcher looking for the nuggets of information on the social culture history of the times they are indeed a unique source like the audience thank you for listening to me a little bit of time we're only slightly behind and the comment I'd like to make is not a question at all is that have you noticed how well Dr. Anthony was tied together all the themes it's like he's written the one that is himself yes the friction the reality effect the bringing back of the curiosities from other parts of the world and also telling the story the performer any comment beyond this very hard yes this is the comment from India in regard to the account of the designator and of course we'll have a legacy of such taxes and even before and again that so many things from India in the context of and two things are very striking in terms of the accounts that could be related to the Indian cost have there been some efforts in this regard so that it's not simply the friction rather it is related to the fact number one number two what has been impossible the relationship between the accounts and our valuable things the tools that we find in the alfalfa especially in the Indian context yes two main points the names of ports are factual but not only in India by the way this is why we have Southeast Asia and up to Indian China and of course the commonality with the Indian Islands which mentions a number of islands and ports and a lot of it of this tradition is of course Sanskrit and Persian and later of course but thank you it literally takes of ancient times of suffering there's very much about umina and you could have known better if you have if you have seen this sign or if you have taken this sign into consideration of any importance to these texts as well so by starting the cruise there's some light signal which might sign to the later development that there is a catastrophe ahead of something like this or are they utterly surprised surprise that's an interesting I'm not aware of this but it's very important in ancient times you could have known this because umina are even today of great importance on which side to spit, on which side to stand etc. is of great importance to seafaring up to today so how did they want to prepare for the travel by some gestures habits or something to aid to secure travel are we talking factory no no it's the factory the customs are factory but the literary text makes something out of it as well which is purely fictional so there's a crow coming from heavens or something flying from right to left yeah everybody knows that you don't have to get on the journey when there's a crow flying as far as I know from the stories that I have read and I've heard them a few times this element of surprise is much more on the perspective that it takes I was wondering you mentioned from the text there's an incident that happens during the travel on sea but that kind has been occupied by the existence of the sea travel itself to say to me on the ship and you mentioned the Quran also and there are Quranic references between the two types of travel travel by land, travel by sea is there anything in the text that describes the particularity of the travel by sea in the site of the general way specifically in the stories to some extent yes yes I mean as opposed to traveling by land well all the stories are at sea yeah I mean the travel at sea or travel by sea as such has been a symbol for way of being way of living yes it's mentioned not in the ajar but by historians or geographers so you regard your experience what would you say if the particularity of the travel by sea is it virtuous in what sense my experience in other words if you take the ship as a symbol of the way of going through life as a voyage a particular type of voyage how would you think of travel by land or what is the particularity we're not talking philosophically over here I have to be careful the question is no no no because I mean there were many advantages by traveling by sea as opposed to by land sea was shorter the distance were shorter by land you had problems problems of problems of loading bad winds length of distance while the sea worked with the monsoons which worked in the six month cycle there were many benefits what does it mean that they were not hazardous they were as you have seen from the stories there's something there but I philosophically this is quite interesting because from an European perspective it is the other way around the land is more safe and you can go from city to city and everything is fine when you're on the sea you are highly dependent on the gods and if they want you to die you die but you can't do anything on your own if the gods want you to die it's that way so it's completely the other way around the way by land was remarked as a safe way I think you'll be surprised to know that going by land they were worried they wasn't safe in neither way it was safe but there was a feeling that you could do more on your own when you were by land you could prepare for thieves or robbers or anything like this by taking men into a cow or getting extra guards but on sea where the storm comes what can you do you're completely lost so this is the difference I think that the most important aspect of this type of stories is the invention of danger is more inventing danger than danger itself and then this is for the sake of creating the hero which you said by the end you provided us with several aspects and it looks like the colonial adventure stories also built later on in the 19th century for example about the English language later on built a lot on this aspect of inventing danger if it's not the weather then it is women women are also a major source of danger as it's always this engulfic woman type of woman engulfs enticing women which should be subdued I mean this is what happens I mean it's a very interesting perspective I don't obviously I don't subscribe to it 100% but there is some element of it I agree with you but the danger there was danger when you hear the stories in my book I see very many people that told stories especially different divers and so on the danger was incredible we are unexpected in our games unexpected winds currents and shipwrecks you hear so many times of hundreds of ships of dollars so too cruel to say them they invented yes natural dangers are there I mean storms and all don't forget that there is the element of for the sake of narrative some exaggeration but sea men do exaggerate they like that they love it to what extent is theological thought reflected in these stories for example Kada or predestination by God I mean you have to shipwreck because God predestined is there a notion of theological thought in these stories or are they only entertainment folk theology popular belief I know what you mean it's mainly popular belief superstition is very strong you often have the theme of the storm and you heard like there is famous stories about many you said they called them Nasi, Zahid in the ship like the and especially they wanted a story that was a sage with them in the ship and started praying in order to save the ship from the storm and the the ceiling of the clouds that they started to extend their tanks to move the ship everywhere so there was an element of exaggeration which what is the what is the advice the Ajay we have examples in the Ajay of piracy yes the identity of the pirates is clear it's Indian Indian they were famous but they were Portuguese which side of the coast on the west Indian coast they are mentioned with the decline of Sila anything historical question with the decline of Sila does another hub appear that takes over that function because presumably maritime travel is not actually the decline of Sila do we know anything about it you know these sea stories after this very day there is no connection of sea stories there is a job to do a moment because this has perpetuated the idea that Arabs are not sailors but clearly we have early evidence of the fact that they are but what the Ajay brings out maybe is this cosmopolitan maybe it's an illusion of Indian it's amazing it describes Islam at the time Islam was cosmopolitan Muslim often living in harmony that's what I was preaching in Bahrain we like that if only we go back to those times when we lived in harmony unfortunately for me ethnographic and also the Saharafi they have totally based on ERC some order some order of tradition for them they must have been corrected in some power studies just to recollect one example because I just recollect the text of Hamlet Saharafi he mentions about the illicit village relationship between women in India in the frist class the punishment that is you will tell it out which is actually incorrect for example burning then such type of traditions have never been thought of in any different language this is where the history is of course the archaeology is coming you can see that there is once the question is finished I'll just tell you about the story of the body according according to the aghaib the head thing you can tell the story abandon ship they went on the ships boat small 12 of them a fat boy quite plump he was what they called the cabin boy and they were rowing rowing and one day two days ago we took off to an island and they were all getting weaker and weaker you know for a day they were still rowing and the eyes the semen fell on this boy he was rowing his eyes until suddenly this boy turned his face and he said land and it ends there the whole thing is that they were going to be alone but I'm taking so it's nice to entertain but also a little more well there are no more comments and we can perhaps break for coffee and I would like to thank very much Dr. Anand Boops for coming in tie it together