The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World

by Paine, Lincoln

  40. permanent regiments: Ahrweiler, Byzance et la mer, 19–22.

  41. karabisianoi: Pryor and Jeffreys, Age of the Dromon, pp. xlii, 32; Cosentino, “Constans II and the Byzantine Navy,” 602. The word karab, “war galley,” originated in Muslim Egypt and was adopted by the Byzantines.

  42. naval themes: Pryor and Jeffreys, Age of the Dromon, 32, 46–47, 88.

  43. ports of different sizes: Ahrweiler, Byzance et la mer, 422–25; shipyards: 435–36.

  44. conscription: Haldon, “Military Service, Military Lands, and the Status of Soldiers,” 27–28, 53, 65–66.

  45. “God made me an emperor”: In Lopez, Commercial Revolution, 66. See McCormick, Origins of the European Economy, 14.

  46. imperial precedence: Pryor and Jeffreys, Age of the Dromon, 390–91.

  47. “Such Russes”: Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor, Russian Primary Chronicle, Year 6415 (907 ce), 65.

  48. “At worst, Islam was hostile”: Planhol, Islam et la mer, 42.

  49. “ ‘The Sea is a great creature’ ”: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, 2.33 (vol. 2:39).

  50. “It is God”: Quran 45:12.

  51. dar al-sina’ca: McCormick, Origins of the European Economy, 238–39, 526–28.

  52. Muslims built others: Fahmy, Muslim Naval Organisation, 23–50.

  53. acacia plantations: Lombard, “Arsenaux et bois de marine,” 131.

  54. an arsenal at Akka: Fahmy, Muslim Naval Organisation, 51–63.

  55. sources of support: Picard, “Bahriyyun, émirs et califes,” 419–20, 425, 433–34, 443–44; Fahmy, Muslim Naval Organisation, 88, 95–106; and Christides, Conquest of Crete, 51.

  56. Muhajirun: Fahmy, Muslim Naval Organisation, 105.

  57. “fulfill their expedition”: In ibid., 102–3.

  58. three-part scale: Christides, “Milaha.”

  59. “from this time”: In Bury, History of the Eastern Roman Empire, 293.

  60. “men of the sea”: Ibn al-Quttiya, History of the Conquest of Spain, in Picard, “Bahriyyun, émirs et califes,” 428.

  61. impressment: Bramoullé, “Recruiting Crews in the Fatimid Navy,” 5, 9, 11–14.

  62. “were at the same time”: Procopius, Vandalic Wars, 3.11.15 (vol. 2:105–7).

  63. “He should check”: In Christides, “Two Parallel Naval Guides,” 56.

  64. had no other function: Christides, Conquest of Crete, 53–56.

  65. “Moors”: Picard, “Bahriyyun, émirs et califes,” 429–31, 437–38.

  66. arsenals at Seville: Ibid., 429.

  67. unless the outcome: Christides, Conquest of Crete, 60.

  68. surviving manuals: Pryor and Jeffreys, Age of the Dromon, 175–88, and their translations of: The Naval Battles of Syrianos Magistros, 455–81; The Naval Warfare of the Emperor Leo [VI], 483–519; the Naval Warfare commissioned by Basil, 521–45; Nikephoros Ouranos, On Fighting at Sea, 571–605; and Muhammad Ibn Mankali, “Remarks on Sea Warfare,” 645–66. See Christides, “Two Parallel Naval Guides.”

  69. long-range weapons: Pryor and Jeffreys, Age of the Dromon, 379–83.

  70. “manufactured a naval fire”: Theophanes, Chronicle, 493–94. As heirs to the Roman Empire, the Byzantines called themselves Romans and the weapon “Roman fire,” as well as “prepared,” “artificial,” and “liquid” fire. “Greek fire” is a twelfth-century coinage used by crusaders for a variety of incendiary weapons.

  71. “The fire to be hurled”: Anna Comnena, Alexiad, 11 (p. 360).

  72. “anathematized”: Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio, 13.85–90 (pp. 69–71).

  73. available to Muslim fleets: Christides, Conquest of Crete, 63.

  74. “Every ship”: Al-Muqaddasi, Best Divisions, 11. See Haldane, “FireShip of Al-Salih Ayyub,” 139.

  75. “something which was never”: Biography of the Patriarch Michael, in Kubiak, “Byzantine Attack on Damietta,” 47.

  76. fireproof clothing: Christides, “Fireproofing of War Machines,” 13–14.

  77. protective chain mail: Pryor and Jeffreys, Age of the Dromon, 381.

  78. naval stores: Ahrweiler, Byzance et la mer, 427.

  79. supplies of wood: Pryor, Geography, Technology and War, 7; Lombard, “Arsenaux et bois de marine,” 132, 136–37.

  80. annona: McCormick, Origins of the European Economy, 87, 104–5, 108–10; population of Rome: 66.

  81. Jeddah, established in 646: Located 70 kilometers from Mecca and 420 kilometers from Medina, Jeddah replaced the older port of al-Shu’ayba.

  82. Canal of the Commander of the Faithful: Fahmy, Muslim Naval Organisation, 24–25; Fahmy, Muslim Seapower in the Eastern Mediterranean, 23–24, 27.

  83. caused the population to fall: Hourani, Arab Seafaring, 60.

  84. transalpine trade: McCormick, Origins of the European Economy, 79.

  85. slave and lumber trades: Ibid., 729–32, 761–77; Lombard, “Arsenaux et bois de marine,” 133–37.

  86. “marmalades, concentrated juices”: Khalilieh, Admiralty and Maritime Laws, 300, 314.

  87. “Women on board”: Mawardi, Al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyya (The ordinances of government), in Khalilieh, Admiralty and Maritime Laws, 77.

  88. “If thou sailest”: Al-Baladhuri, Origins of the Islamic State, 1:235; Fahmy, Muslim Naval Organisation, 105.

  89. “[T]he barbarians”: Kaminiates, Capture of Thessalonica, 66–67.

  90. to end the traffic: McCormick, Origins of the European Economy, 765–66.

  91. interest rates: Laiou, “Byzantine Traders and Seafarers,” 80; Runciman, “Byzantine Trade and Industry,” 143–45.

  92. Rhodian Sea Law: Ashburner, The Rhodian Sea-Law.

  93. Treatise Concerning the Leasing of Ships: Khalilieh, Admiralty and Maritime Laws, 21–22. The author is Muhammad ibn Umar al-Kinani al-Andalusi al-Iskandarini (d. 923).

  94. “Whoever hires”: Treatise Concerning the Leasing of Ships, in ibid., 274.

  95. “company”: Jackson, “From Profit-Sailing to Wage-Sailing,” 605–28; Pérez-Mallaína, Spain’s Men of the Sea, 195.

  96. load lines: Khalilieh, Admiralty and Maritime Laws, 37.

  97. freight charges: Ibid., 126–28, 148.

  98. lending money at interest: Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:255; Lopez, Commercial Revolution, 73.

  99. extended a sea loan: Pryor, “Origins of the Commenda Contract,” 22–23.

  100. the pope condemned: Roover, “Early Examples of Marine Insurance,” 175.

  101. “capital, labor”: Pryor, “Origins of the Commenda Contract,” 19.

  102. societas maris: Byrne, “Commercial Contracts of the Genoese,” 135–49.

  103. “a semi loan”: Babylonian Talmud, in Pryor, “Origins of the Commenda Contract,” 26.

  104. qirad: Pryor, “Origins of the Commenda Contract,” 29–36.

  105. “innovation of highest importance”: Lopez, Commercial Revolution, 76.

  106. “the lynch-pin”: Pryor, “Mediterranean Commerce in the Middle Ages,” 133.

  107. “the ship … is broken up”: Statutes of Marseille, in ibid., 147.

  108. “partnerships according to Muslim law”: In Goitein and Friedman, “India Book,” 12.

  109. “if goods are thrown overboard”: Paulus, Digest XIV, in Ashburner, Rhodian Sea-Law, pp. cclii, 116–17. On jettison, see Khalilieh, Admiralty and Maritime Laws, 150–94, and Islamic Maritime Law, 87–105.

  110. Libro del Consulado del Mar: Constable, “Problem of Jettison,” 215.

  111. “if any one”: Ashburner, Rhodian Sea Law, chap. 9 (p. 87). According to Ashburner, “What the [mina] is equivalent to in this place … is impossible to say” (p. 90).

  112. “chosen by lot”: Qadi Iyad, Madhahib al-Hukkam, 235, in Khalilieh, Islamic Maritime Law, 97.

  113. human jettison: Constable, “Problem of Jettison,” 208–11.

  9. Northern Europe Through the Viking Age

  1. paying duties: Middleton, “Early Medieval Port Customs,” 320–24.

>   2. Ohthere: Storli, “Ohthere and His World.”

  3. “to investigate how far”: Bately, “Text and Translation,” 44–45.

  4. Kaupang: Skre, “Sciringes healh,” 150.

  5. Wulftsan: Jesch, “Who Was Wulfstan,” 29–31.

  6. York: Lapidge, Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, 497–99.

  7. “for I cannot accept”: Herodotus, Histories, 3.115 (p. 198).

  8. The tin of Cornwall: Cunliffe, Facing the Ocean, 304.

  9. Vix krater: Cunliffe, Extraordinary Voyage, 16; Boardman, Greeks Overseas, 221–23.

  10. Aude-Garonne-Gironde corridor: Cunliffe, Extraordinary Voyage, 55. Strabo describes this route: “from Narbo[nne] traffic goes inland for a short distance by the Atax [Aude] River, and then a greater distance by land to the Garumna [Garonne] River.… And the Garumna, too, flows to the ocean.” Geography, 4.1.14 (vol. 2:211). See Cunliffe, Facing the Ocean, 331–32.

  11. between 6,860 and 7,150 kilometers: Cunliffe, Extraordinary Voyage, 97; latitudes: 61, 98–100, 132.

  12. The Classis Germanica: Mason, Roman Britain and the Roman Navy, 93, 105–6; Starr, Roman Imperial Navy, 124–66.

  13. lines of communication: Milne, “Maritime Traffic,” 82.

  14. “all the bireme”: Tacitus, Histories, 4.12 (p. 212), 5.23–24 (p. 285). See Haywood, Dark Age Naval Power, 25, 35–39.

  15. Frankish tribes: Haywood, Dark Age Naval Power, 30–31.

  16. “some of them revolted”: Zosimus, New History, 1.71.2 (p. 22). See Haywood, Dark Age Naval Power, 41, 48–49.

  17. burning of the Classis Germanica: Haywood, Dark Age Naval Power, 60.

  18. “sent letters to the cities”: Zosimus, New History, 6.10.2 (p. 130).

  19. “sent back news”: Bede, History, 1.15 (p. 56).

  20. barge excavated at Blackfriars: Marsden, A Ship of the Roman Period.

  21. wreck from St. Peter Port: Rule and Monaghan, Gallo-Roman Trading Vessel.

  22. ship burial at Sutton Hoo: Paine, Ships of the World, s.v. Sutton Hoo, citing Angela Care Evans, The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial (London: British Museum, 1986).

  23. Lacus Flevo: Kirby and Hinkkanen, The Baltic and the North Seas, 8.

  24. entrepôt at Ribe: Lebecq, “Northern Seas,” 649, 652, 654; Skovgaard-Petersen, “Making of the Danish Kingdom,” 172.

  25. Skagerrak and Kattegat: Crumlin-Pedersen, “Boats and Ships of the Baltic Sea,” 245–47.

  26. Saxon and Danish raids: Haywood, Dark Age Naval Power, 89.

  27. Chlocilaicus (Hygelac): Ibid., 114–26; Beowulf, ll. 1205–14, 2355–66, 2498–509, and 2912–21.

  28. The Frisians’: Lebecq, Marchands et navigateurs frisons, 105–9.

  29. Fossa Carolina: Leitholdt et al., “Fossa Carolina.” For another interpretation of the canal’s purpose, see Squatriti, “Digging Ditches in Early Medieval Europe.”

  30. Viken: Sawyer, “Viking Expansion,” 108.

  31. “We and our fathers”: Alcuin of York, Letter, 12 (p. 18).

  32. southwesterly winds: Carver, “Pre-Viking Traffic,” 122.

  33. sailing season: See Larson, King’s Mirror (13th century), 158, 161.

  34. “The wind is fierce to-night”: In Ó Corráin, “Vikings in Ireland and Scotland,” 7.

  35. “a Christian people”: Rimbert, Life of Anskar, 7 (p. 38).

  36. “was especially suitable”: Ibid., 24 (p. 84).

  37. Noirmoutier: Jones, History of the Vikings, 211.

  38. expeditions against al-Andalus: El-Hajji, “Andalusian Diplomatic Relations,” 70–81.

  39. Danish prince Björn Ironside: This raid may have attacked the Italian port of Luni, but the details are confusing.

  40. “bridge of ships”: Cath Maige Tuired (The Battle of Mag Tuired), in Ó Corráin, “Vikings in Ireland and Scotland,” 14.

  41. longphorts: A coinage of medieval Irish annalists, longphort comes from the Latin (navis) longa, meaning longship, and portus, meaning landing place; Sheehan, “The Longphort in Viking Age Ireland,” 282–83.

  42. “king of the Norwegian Vikings”: Annals of Ulster, in Ó Corráin, “Vikings in Ireland and Scotland,” 37.

  43. “there were men”: Bessason, Book of Settlements, §1 (p. 114).

  44. The pace of colonization: Magnússon, Northern Sphinx, 10.

  45. Birka: Ambrosiani, “Prehistory of Towns in Sweden,” 64–66.

  46. Helgö: Holmqvist, “Helgö.”

  47. west of the Vistula: Jöns, “Ports and Emporia of the Southern Coast”; Gimbutas, The Balts, 143.

  48. Staraya Ladoga: Jones, History of the Vikings, 250. The town is called Staraya (Old) Ladoga to distinguish it from Novaya Ladoga, founded nearer the lake by Peter the Great in 1703.

  49. Novgorod: Birnbaum, Lord Novgorod the Great.

  50. “They said to themselves”: Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor, Russian Primary Chronicle, Year 6368–6370 (860–862 ce), 59–69. Varangian may come from an Old Norse word for “confederates.” The Greek name was barangoi, the Arabic varank: Jones, History of the Vikings, 247. For a discussion of the “stranger as king,” see Fernández-Armesto, “Stranger-Effect in Early Modern Asia,” 181–85, 188–92.

  51. “Whosoever come”: Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor, Russian Primary Chronicle, Year 6412–6415 (904–907), 64–65.

  52. “there came”: Al-Masudi, in Dunlop, History of the Jewish Khazars, 209–10.

  53. island of Rügen: Jöns, “Ports and Emporia of the Southern Coast,” 173.

  54. “quantities of such spices”: In Brutzkus, “Trade with Eastern Europe, 800–1200,” 33. The account of ben Jacob (in Arabic, Ibrahim ibn Yaqub al-Tartushi) is preserved in a thirteenth-century cosmography by Zakariya al-Qazwini.

  55. Coastal navigation: Marcus, Conquest of the North Atlantic, 114–16.

  56. “sunstone”: Seaver, Frozen Echo, 16–18.

  57. “well wooded and with low hills”: Greenland Saga, 2, in Magnusson and Pálsson, Vinland Sagas, 52–54.

  58. Greenlanders’ numbers too few: Wallace, “L’Anse aux Meadows and Vinland,” 233.

  59. year-round settlement: Ibid., 224; occupied until about 1030: 228. The name is a corruption of L’Anse au Méduse, Bay of the Jellyfish, as seventeenth-century French fishermen called the area.

  60. until about 1030: Ibid., 226, 230; Seaver, Frozen Echo, 23–24.

  61. “Vinland because vines”: Adam of Bremen, History of the Archbishops, § xxxix (38) (p. 219).

  62. “There came also a ship”: Skálholtsannáll hinn forni, in Magnusson, Vikings, 173–74.

  63. Norse Greenland seems: McGhee, “Epilogue,” 243.

  64. English cod fishermen: Seaver, Frozen Echo, 181.

  65. Anglo-Saxon armies sailed north: Rodger, Safeguard of the Sea, 18–19.

  66. “since Angles and Saxons”: Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, Year 937 (pp. 109–10).

  67. Danegeld: Magnusson, Vikings, 186–88.

  68. Duchy of Normandy: Flodoard of Reims, Annals, pp. xx–xxii.

  69. Saint Patrick was enslaved: De Paor, Patrick, 22–26, 221, 227.

  70. Northumbrian who was taken: Bede, History, 4.23 (pp. 244–45).

  71. “a precious garment”: Oddr, Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, 7 (pp. 44–45).

  72. “He is captured”: Warner of Rouen, Moriuht, 65–76 (p. 77); “full to bursting”: 271–72 (p. 91); and “a quarter”: 279 (p. 95).

  73. massacre all the Danes: Magnusson, Vikings, 188.

  74. “Leapt from the bloodied gunwales”: Snorri Sturluson, King Harald’s Saga, §63 (p. 114).

  75. 250 or more ships: De Vries, Norwegian Invasion, 241–42.

  76. “travelled into England”: Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, Year 1085 (pp. 215–16).

  77. cohorts of a hundred men: Tacitus, Germania, §6, 12 (pp. 106, 111).

  78. Census of the Men of Alba: Haywood, Dark Age Naval Power, 91; Rodger, Safeguard of the Sea, 5.

  79. levies of ships and men: Rodger, Safeguard of the Sea, 19
–20; Hollister, Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions, 10–11, 38–39, 85, 115; and Jones, History of the Vikings, 93.

  80. “No man younger”: Oddr, Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, 53 (p. 104).

  81. “Here William orders”: Bayeux Tapestry. There is no text for the shipbuilding scene.

  82. “gathered a greater ship-army”: Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, Year 1066 (pp. 194–96).

  83. battle of Svold: Oddr, Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, 67–75 (pp. 118–34); “much longer and higher”: 70 (p. 124); “extensively reinforced”: 72 (p. 126); and “posted small boats”: 74 (p. 132).

  84. line of development: Christensen, “Proto-Viking, Viking and Norse Craft,” 72–75.

  85. seventy miles per day: Carver, “Pre-Viking Traffic,” 121; Haywood, Dark Age Naval Power, 107. A six-day (144-hour) passage from Shetland to Iceland yields a speed of 2.9 knots.

  86. Broighter “boat”: Cunliffe, Extraordinary Voyage, 103–5.

  87. rig their hide boats: McGrail, “Boats and Boatmanship,” 46; Cunliffe, Extraordinary Voyage, 119.

  88. “The Gauls’ own ships”: Caesar, Conquest of Gaul, 3.1 (p. 98).

  89. “Perfectly equipped”: Ibid., 3.1 (p. 99).

  90. “To enable them to be loaded”: Ibid., 5.2 (pp. 128–29).

  91. Roman-era vessels: Höckmann, “Late Roman Rhine Vessels”; Höckmann, “Late Roman River Craft”; and Haywood, Dark Age Naval Power, 70–75.

  92. “frame-based” shipbuilding: McGrail, “Romano-Celtic Boats and Ships,” 141.

  93. “The shape of their ships”: Tacitus, Germania, 44 (p. 138).

  94. migration under oars alone: Haywood, Dark Age Naval Power, 108–9.

  95. Sutton Hoo ship: Paine, Ships of the World, s.v. Sutton Hoo, citing Angela Care Evans, The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial (London: British Museum Press, 1986), and Edwin Gifford and Joyce Gifford, “The Sailing Performance of Anglo-Saxon Ships as Derived from the Building and Trials of Half-Scale Models of the Sutton Hoo and Graveney Ship Finds,” Mariner’s Mirror 82 (1996): 131–53.

  96. more than twenty ships: Crumlin-Pedersen, “Boats and Ships of the Baltic Sea,” 235–42. In October 2011, archaeologists announced the find of a Viking burial with a five-meter-long vessel on the Ardnamurchan peninsula in western Scotland.

  97. warhorses in ships: Bachrach, “On the Origins of William the Conqueror’s Horse Transports.”