The next Arabian author, in point of time, from whom we derive information respecting geography and commerce, is Massoudi.  He died at Cairo in 957:  he was the author of a work describing the most celebrated kingdoms in Europe, Africa, and Asia; but the details respecting Africa, India, and the lesser Asia, are the most accurate and laboured.  The account we shall afterwards give of the geographical knowledge of the Arabians, renders it unnecessary to present any abstract, in this place, of the geographical part of his work; we shall therefore confine ourselves to the notices interspersed respecting commerce.  The Arabians traded to nearly every port of India, from Cashmere to Cape Comorin; and seem to have been protected and particularly favoured in their commercial pursuits.  In the year 877 a great rebellion occurred in China, and the Arabian merchants had been massacred at Canfn.  According to Massoudi, however, in his time this city had recovered from its disasters; confidence had revived; the Arabian merchants from Bassora, and other ports in Persia, resorted to it; and vessels from India and the adjacent islands.  He also describes a route to China by land frequented by traders:  this seems to have been through Korasin, Thibet, and a country he calls Ilestan.  With regard to the Arabian commerce with Africa, the merchants settled at Omar traded to Sofala for gold, and to an island, which is supposed to be Madagascar, where they had established colonies.

Of the geographical knowledge displayed by the next Arabian traveller in point of date, [Ebor->Ebn] Haukal, we shall at present take no notice, for the reason already assigned; but confine ourselves to his notices regarding commerce.  According to him, the most wealthy merchants resided at Siraf, where they traded very extensively and successfully in the commodities of India and China.  Hormus was the principal trading place in Karmania; Daibul in Sind:  the merchants here traded to all parts.  The countries near the Caspian were celebrated for their manufactures of silk, wool, hair, and gold stuffs.  In Armenia, hangings and carpets, dyed with a worm or insect a beautiful colour, called kermez, were made.  Samarcand was celebrated for the excellency of its paper.  Trebezond was the principal trading place on the Black Sea.  Alexandria is celebrated for the grandeur of its buildings; but its trade is not mentioned.

About the beginning of the eleventh century we derive our earliest notice of the commerce of Spain under its Arabian conquerors.  The port of Barcelona was at this period the principal station for commercial intercourse with the eastern nations bordering on the Mediterranean; and as a proof of the character which its merchants held, it may be noticed, that their usages were collected into a code:  by this code all vessels arriving at, or sailing from, Barcelona, are assured of friendly treatment; and they are declared to be under the protection of the prince, so long as they are near the coast of Catalonia.  How much Spain was indebted to the Arabians for their early commerce may be judged of from the number of commercial and maritime terms in the Spanish language, evidently derived from the Arabic.