"Für Interessierte am arabischen Schiffbau mit Sicherheit eine willkommene Bereicherung, liegt doch mit dieser Studie eine Publikation vor, die nicht nur schiffbautechnische, sondern auch geo-politische Aspekte umfassend und facettenreich darstellt."Thomas Feige, Das Logbuch, 44. Jg. (2008) H4."Rarely do books come along that make such a demonstrable contribution to the field of maritime history […] a work that effectively re-lays the foundation for the study of Muslim shipping in the western Indian Ocean."Lincoln Paine, The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du Nord, 18.2 (2008), 120-122."As a reviewer seeking to do full justice to this complex work one would almost have to match Agius word-for-word, so rich is the study in its assessment of sources, the arguments of other scholars, and its overall sweeping contribution to the much-neglected field." Kenneth McPherson, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 38.1 (2009), 180-182."The book [...] advances our understanding of Islamic material culture as well as social and economic history and offers a fascinating journey into the past [...].Yaacov Lev, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 38 (2011), 391-395.