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on more or less normative Islamic ideas to avoid danger at sea. We have several other examples of this. A Chinese account of around 1200 wrote that in Malabar 'there is holy water which can still the wind and waves. The foreign traders fill opaque glass bottles with it, and when they suddenly get in a rough sea they still it by sprinkling this water on it.'148 The water was the celebrated Zamzam water, from a well in Mecca and believed to have a wide range of magical properties. Muslims also had a variety of prayers specific to perils at sea. One of the best known was the Hizb al-bahr, the Litany of the Sea, which dates from 656 AH.149 There was also a specific saint, Khwaja Khizr, associated with fertility, and so water, fish and the sea. He is to be found in many Sufi legends, and was frequently the object of prayers in order that he would guide mariners through dangerous waters.150 Some Muslims took a more resigned approach to danger at sea, as Ibn Battuta found near Oman in 1329. A violent storm blew up.

There was accompanying us in the vessel a pilgrim [who] knew the Qur'an by heart and could write excellently. When he saw the storminess of the sea, he wrapped his head in a mantle that he had and pretended to sleep. When God gave us relief from what had befallen us, I said to him 'O Mawlana Khidr, what kind of thing did you see?' He replied 'When the storm came I kept my eyes open, watching to see whether the angels who receive men's souls had come. As I could not see them, I said 'Praise be to God. If any of us were to be drowned, they would come to take the souls.' Then I would close my eyes and after a while open them again, to watch in the same manner, until God relieved us.151

In 1444 Abd-er-Razzak was troubled at the prospect of travelling by sea from Honavar (Onor) to Hurmuz, but then he came across a Quranic passage which read, 'Fear nothing, for thou hast been preserved from the hand of unjust men.' He took this as a good omen, though nevertheless he had a terrible 65 day passage from Honavar to Hurmuz. His ship ran into a violent storm once it reached the open ocean, and he called on divine intercession to save him and his fellows. His account, even in translation, is full of Islamic images and metaphors. It is a stunning depiction by a landlubber of a storm at sea, rivalling, in my opinion, the best accounts in European literature, including those by Conrad.

On a sudden there arose a violent wind on the surface of the sea, and on all sides were heard groaning and cries. The night, the vessel, the wind, and the gulf, presented to our minds all the forebodings of a catastrophe. On a sudden, through the effect of the contrary winds, which resembled men in their drink, the wine which produced this change penetrated even to the vessel. The planks of which it was composed, and which by their conformation seemed to form a continuous line, were on the point of becoming divided like the separate letters of the alphabet. . . . The sailor, who, with regard to his skill in swimming, might be compared to a fish, was anxious to throw himself into the water like an anchor. The captain, although familiarised with the navigation of all the seas, shed bitter tears, and had forgotten all his science. The sails were torn, the mast was entirely bent by the shock of the wind. The different grades of passengers who inhabited this floating house threw out upon the waves riches of great value, and, after the manner of the Sufis, voluntarily stripped themselves of their worldly goods. Who could give a thought to the jeopardy in which their money and their stuffs were placed, when life itself, which is so dear to man, was in danger? For myself, in this situation, which brought before my eyes all the threatening terrors which the ocean had in its power to present, with tears in my eyes I gave myself up for lost. Through the effect of the stupor, and of the profound sadness to which I became prey, I remained, like the sea, with my lips dry and my eyes moist, and resigned myself entirely to the Divine Will. At one time, through