I can't even imagine the prodigious amount of research Mr. Hall has done to recreate this history of the Indian Ocean peoples. For that alone, this book has 5 stars!

The book is divided into three parts - first the history of this region before the arrival of the Europeans, the European period, and the last part deals with the consolidation by Britain of the English lake (what the Indian Ocean was referred to as later). The first two parts are excellent in my opinion.

The book is filled with the most curious facts imaginable and long since forgotten from our history books. The brutality in the name of religion and empire still amazes me.

I highly recommend this book.

I was lucky to pick up this book by chance in a wonderful bookshop in Ottawa, Canada. I had never heard of this book or the author and was just browsing. It was a great find! Mr. Hall has done a prodigious amount of research but this book is the opposite of stuffy and pedantic. It is a tribute to Mr. Hall that even after 500 pages you will be sorry that you have finished. He leaves you wanting more and fortunately he gives you a very nice bibliography which will allow you to satisfy your curiousity. This book moves along at a breakneck pace and sweeps you along from place to place all along the coasts of East Africa and the Horn Of Africa up into the Persian Gulf and along the west coast of India. A few early chapters even take you over to China and Indonesia. There are enough interesting characters to populate a novel by Tolstoy and you will learn a lot of interesting and horrible things that they never taught you about in school. What was done in the name of religion by both Christians and Muslims is very sad. An educated person might not be surprised by the fact of man's inhumanity but I think you will be surprised by the quantity and nature of what went on, and by the sheer joie de vivre of some of these folks! To give you only one "small" example, Vasco da Gama (who was held up to me in school as being a "great explorer") once won a small battle off of the coast of India and when he took some of his foes captive he cut off their ears, noses and hands and then put the poor wretches on a ship and set the ship ablaze. When the fire was over not everyone was dead so da Gama took the survivors and had them hoisted up on the masts of one of his own ships and let his archers have some target practice....This book is full of adventure, greed, hypocrisy and self-delusion. In other words, it is a wonderful mirror held up to life. Enjoy!