Abu'l Abbas al-Hijazi (), was a 12th-century Arab''Egyptian Commercial Policy in the Middle Ages'', Subhi Labib, Studies in the Economic History of the Middle East: from the Rise of Islam, ed. M. A. Cook, (Oxford University Press, 1970), 68. Muslim traveler, merchant and sailor and is known to have spent forty years in China. His seven sons whom he positioned in seven different commercial centers from his base in

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

, enhanced his trading business by sending goods from foreign markets. He had lost 10 ships in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

but recovered his fortunes when his 11th ship safely arrived from China which carried

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...

and aloewood.

References

Geographers of the medieval Islamic world Yemeni geographers 12th-century Arabs {{geographer-stub