This book is a study of the seafaring communities of the Arabian Gulf and Oman in the past 150 years. It analyses the significance of the dhow and how coastal communities interacted throughout their long tradition of seafaring.

In addition to archival material, the work is based on extensive field research in which the voices of seamen were recorded in over 200 interviews. The book provides an integrated study of dhow activity in the area concerned and examines the consciousness of belonging to the wider culture of the Indian ocean as it is expressed in boat-building traditions, navigational techniques, crew organisation and port towns.

People of the Dhow brings together the different measures of time past, the sea, its people and their material culture. The Arabian Gulf and Oman have traditionally shared a common destiny within the Western Indian Ocean. The seasonal monsoonal winds were fundamental to the physical and human unities of the seafaring communities, producing a way of life in harmony with the natural world, a world which was abruptly changed with the discovery of oil. What remains is memories of a seafaring past, a history of traditions and customs recorded here in the recollections of a dying generation and in the rich artistic heritage of the region.

The book was awarded a major prize in 2006 by the Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah Foundation and the British-Kuwait Friendship Society for the best scholarly work on the Middle East published in the UK in 2005 and is one of the most significant and prestigious awards in this field.

For centuries the waters of the Red Sea have been amongst the most hazardous and feared in the world. Strong or erratic winds have taken lives and broken boats, smashed against rocks or hidden sandbars. Pirates too have menaced: some out for booty alone; others for slaves. Many seafarers have been terrified by the capricious genies of the ocean, and only by prayer and ritual might crew members hope to ward off any disaster or evil that might befall their ship. Central to this archetypal and perilous maritime scene has been the dhow, the versatile sailing craft that survives to this day and that for many hundreds of years has linked the commercial and pilgrim centres of sea and desert. In his new book Dionisius A Agius, one of the foremost scholars of Islamic material culture, offers a lucid and wide-ranging history of the iconic dhow from medieval to modern times. While the history of global and seafaring exploration is more popular than ever, seaborne discovery from Islamic lands remains an understudied subject.Whether discussing trade and salt routes; shoals and wind patterns; spice harvest seasons; litanies and votive offerings to the sea; or the deep and resonant connection between language, memory and oral tradition, this is the first book to place the dhow in its full and remarkable cultural contexts.

Proceedings of Red Sea Project V held at the University of Exeter September 2010. Contents: 1) Travels with Machell in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean: the voyages of Thomas Machell and Jenny Balfour Paul, 1848 and 2010 (Jenny Balfour Paul); 2) The last of the Aden dhows (Antonin Besse); 3) Sailing the Red Sea: Pharaonic voyages to Punt and Min of the Desert (Cheryl Ward); 4) A new Pharaonic Harbour in Ayn Sokhna (Gulf of Suez) (Pierre Tallet); 5) The southern Red Sea in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC: an archaeological overview (Rodolfo Fattovich); 6) Nubians and the others on the Red Sea. An update on the exotic ceramic materials from the Middle Kingdom harbour of Mersa/Wadi Gawasis, Red Sea, Egypt (Andrea Manzo); 7) Ancient Egyptian and allied African navigators' use of space on the Red Sea (K.A. Kitchen); 8) The semiticisation of the Arabian peninsula and the problem of its reflection in the archaeological record (Roger Blench); 9) Sacred places and beings of the Red Sea littoral societies (Oscar Nalesini);

Just as the sea has played a pivotal role in the connectivity of people, economies and cultures, it has also provided a common platform for inter-disciplinary cooperation amongst academics. This book is a selection of conference papers and other contributions that has seen the coming-together of scholars and researchers from backgrounds as diverse as archaeology, history, ethnography, maritime and heritage studies of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Its strength lies in the way such diversity has been harnessed to provide an engaging and insightful study of the sea and its influences on various factors of life - both past and present.