What would you do if your life depended on surviving a tempestuous sea? For mariners of the Middle Ages, shipwrecks were not just a fear but a constant reality. One harrowing tale from the tenth century vividly reveals the dangers of the open ocean.
The Indian Ocean trade routes connected distant regions, but navigating them required skill, courage, and a measure of luck. Storms, piracy, and shipwrecks were constant threats to those seeking fortune across the seas.
By the eighth and ninth centuries, trade between the Middle East and Eastern Asia had steadily grown as maritime routes became more common. Ships from the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula navigated the Indian Ocean to China, returning home with cargoes of spices and silks. These voyages brought immense wealth but also grave dangers, as recorded in the tenth century by a sea captain named Buzurg ibn-Shahriyar.
In his work Kitab Aja’ib al-Hind (The Book of Wonders of India), Buzurg offers a glimpse into the lives of those who braved the seas. Among his accounts is the story of a merchant who survived a disastrous shipwreck in 919.
The Storm
The merchant was part of a fleet of three ships carrying 1,200 men, heading for the west coast of India. These ships were massive and well-managed by their crews. Their journey was swift, taking only eleven days to sail from the Persian Gulf to India.
“We had never heard of this voyage being made with such speed before,” the merchant explains. “So we rejoiced and congratulated each other on our safe crossing, and we began preparations for landing because we presumed we should reach land next morning.”
Arabic sailing ship – BNF Arabe5847 fol. 119v
However, trouble soon emerged. The mountains of India brought sudden, violent winds that overwhelmed the ships. The merchant recounts:
But then the wind came upon us from the mountains, and we could not handle the sails, and we were caught in the gale and the rain and thunder and lightning. The ship’s officers and sailors proposed to jettison cargo, but Ahmad (the master of the ship) forbade them, saying, ‘I shall not jettison until after things are beyond my control and I know that I shall perish.’
The storm worsened. On the sixth day, with the ship on the brink of sinking, Ahmad reluctantly gave the order to jettison the cargo. But it was too late: the sacks and bales, now soaked with rain, were too heavy to move.
A Grim Decision in Desperation
The ship’s lifeboat was launched, and thirty-three men climbed aboard, including the merchant. Ahmad refused to leave his ship, declaring, “I shall not leave my ship, for there is more hope of it being saved than the lifeboat; and if it goes down, I go down with it, for I have no interest in returning after the loss of my capital.”
Adrift in the lifeboat for five days, the survivors faced starvation and thirst. The merchant recalls:
We stayed in the lifeboat for five days without food or drink, until we had not the force to speak a word, from hunger and thirst and our sufferings on the sea. The boat was so tossed by waves and wind that we did not know whether it was under the sea or not. And in our intense hunger and distress, we made signs to each other that we should eat one of our number. There was among us in the boat a fat boy, not yet of age, whose father was in the company that had remained behind on the ship: so we decided to eat him.
Rescue and Aftermath
At their darkest moment, the survivors saw land. The boy, aware of his fate, looked to the heavens in silent prayer. Then, miraculously, the storm calmed, and the boat ran aground. Exhausted and barely alive, they were rescued by two men from a nearby village.
The merchant recalls their salvation:
They took us in their arms and brought us ashore. There we fell on our faces as if dead. One of the two men ran away; I asked the other where we were, and he answered, ‘This smoke which you see is from al-Tiz. My companion has gone to the village, where we have food and water and clothing.’ Then they carried us to the town.
Of the 1,200 men aboard the three ships, only the lifeboat’s occupants survived. The loss was devastating to the region, “because of the great quantity of wealth and the number of important shipmasters, captains, and merchants aboard.”
This tale, preserved by Buzurg ibn-Shahriyar, is a stark reminder of the risks that shaped the interconnected medieval world. It speaks to the resilience of those who dared to traverse the seas and the enduring human spirit that survives even the gravest trials.
What would you do if your life depended on surviving a tempestuous sea? For mariners of the Middle Ages, shipwrecks were not just a fear but a constant reality. One harrowing tale from the tenth century vividly reveals the dangers of the open ocean.
The Indian Ocean trade routes connected distant regions, but navigating them required skill, courage, and a measure of luck. Storms, piracy, and shipwrecks were constant threats to those seeking fortune across the seas.
By the eighth and ninth centuries, trade between the Middle East and Eastern Asia had steadily grown as maritime routes became more common. Ships from the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula navigated the Indian Ocean to China, returning home with cargoes of spices and silks. These voyages brought immense wealth but also grave dangers, as recorded in the tenth century by a sea captain named Buzurg ibn-Shahriyar.
In his work Kitab Aja’ib al-Hind (The Book of Wonders of India), Buzurg offers a glimpse into the lives of those who braved the seas. Among his accounts is the story of a merchant who survived a disastrous shipwreck in 919.
The Storm
The merchant was part of a fleet of three ships carrying 1,200 men, heading for the west coast of India. These ships were massive and well-managed by their crews. Their journey was swift, taking only eleven days to sail from the Persian Gulf to India.
“We had never heard of this voyage being made with such speed before,” the merchant explains. “So we rejoiced and congratulated each other on our safe crossing, and we began preparations for landing because we presumed we should reach land next morning.”
However, trouble soon emerged. The mountains of India brought sudden, violent winds that overwhelmed the ships. The merchant recounts:
But then the wind came upon us from the mountains, and we could not handle the sails, and we were caught in the gale and the rain and thunder and lightning. The ship’s officers and sailors proposed to jettison cargo, but Ahmad (the master of the ship) forbade them, saying, ‘I shall not jettison until after things are beyond my control and I know that I shall perish.’
The storm worsened. On the sixth day, with the ship on the brink of sinking, Ahmad reluctantly gave the order to jettison the cargo. But it was too late: the sacks and bales, now soaked with rain, were too heavy to move.
A Grim Decision in Desperation
The ship’s lifeboat was launched, and thirty-three men climbed aboard, including the merchant. Ahmad refused to leave his ship, declaring, “I shall not leave my ship, for there is more hope of it being saved than the lifeboat; and if it goes down, I go down with it, for I have no interest in returning after the loss of my capital.”
Adrift in the lifeboat for five days, the survivors faced starvation and thirst. The merchant recalls:
We stayed in the lifeboat for five days without food or drink, until we had not the force to speak a word, from hunger and thirst and our sufferings on the sea. The boat was so tossed by waves and wind that we did not know whether it was under the sea or not. And in our intense hunger and distress, we made signs to each other that we should eat one of our number. There was among us in the boat a fat boy, not yet of age, whose father was in the company that had remained behind on the ship: so we decided to eat him.
Rescue and Aftermath
At their darkest moment, the survivors saw land. The boy, aware of his fate, looked to the heavens in silent prayer. Then, miraculously, the storm calmed, and the boat ran aground. Exhausted and barely alive, they were rescued by two men from a nearby village.
The merchant recalls their salvation:
They took us in their arms and brought us ashore. There we fell on our faces as if dead. One of the two men ran away; I asked the other where we were, and he answered, ‘This smoke which you see is from al-Tiz. My companion has gone to the village, where we have food and water and clothing.’ Then they carried us to the town.
Of the 1,200 men aboard the three ships, only the lifeboat’s occupants survived. The loss was devastating to the region, “because of the great quantity of wealth and the number of important shipmasters, captains, and merchants aboard.”
This tale, preserved by Buzurg ibn-Shahriyar, is a stark reminder of the risks that shaped the interconnected medieval world. It speaks to the resilience of those who dared to traverse the seas and the enduring human spirit that survives even the gravest trials.
You can read more excerpts from Buzurg ibn-Shahriyar’s writings as part of the book Arab Seafaring: In the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval Times, by George F. Hourani (Princeton University Press, 1995)
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