Just a small note to Andrey Korotaev's bringing in P. Crone and R. Simon
to testify in contradictory fashion on the Arabian trade; it is worth
keeping in mind that Simon's evidence is much more persuasive, and
his reading of the sources certainly more wide-ranging than Crone's.
Crone's evidence is largely philological (and questionable even as
such), and her reading of the sources seems more attentive to a pre-set
ideological agenda.
Mohammed A. Bamyeh
New York University
The Gallatin School
715 Broadway
New York, NY 10003-6806, USA