the Arabian Sea and East Africa

• • Muscat was the Arabians sea’s most important trading harbor
• • states tried to dispute city, but no states ever controlled or dominated it
• • a lot of african states had key entrepots
• • entrepots are ports used for exporting and importing goods
• • Swahili port at Zanzibar was the main link from East Africa 
  • traded gold, ivory, and enslaved ppl from deep in Central Asia
  • it was from Zanzibar that Vasco de Gama (European explorer) sailed to India, guided by a Muslim merchant who took him safely to Calicut