Some historians have claimed that Arabs were desert travelers who were afraid to travel by sea. It has been well established, however, that long before the rise of Islam, seafarers from the Arabian Peninsula were shipping Arab wares to far-off lands. When one considers the geography of the region, it becomes obvious that areas that eventually came under Muslim rule were located at the hubs of several hemispheric trade routes that extended from northern Europe to China. Western historians tend to focus on trade across the Mediterranean Sea, but equally important trade routes departed from the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, the Euphrates River, and the Indian Ocean.

Islam and Trade. Islam arose primarily in a mercantile, rather than a nomadic or agricultural, milieu, although some of the early adherents to the faith were members of nomadic...