Ce film de 52 minutes a été tourné pour être projeté dans le cadre des 40 ans du règne du Sultan Qaboos, à Oman.

En décembre 2010, il a eu le Golden Award, au 16ème Cairo Arab Media Festival (Egyte) pour son documentaire.

We aim at bringing to the highlight the dense maritime history of the Arabo-Muslims through geographical, religious, cultural, scientific and commercial angles.
The birth of Islam and its subsequent developments will drastically change the geopolitical data and favour new sciences. At the 1Oth Century, the Golden Age of Islam, the Arabs and other Muslims have charted an unequalled maritime power.
New navigational skills and geographical techniques are devised.
We bring to mind the steps made by muslim cartographers.

This film surveys the major scientists and travellers, who have made significant contributions to geography, cartography, astronomy… It relays the cultural background and historical facts to enable us to understand why the Arabo-Muslims’ maritime strategies had far reaching effects. It also brings to mind subsequent contacts between the Europeans and the Muslims in view of controlling searoutes and trade circuits.

Then, we dwell on the specific traits of trade and culture in the Indian Ocean, specially Oman, India, China, Mauritius and Zanzibar : shipbuilding and navigators, the creation of trading posts, cultural facets and navigational techniques, besides architectural and sociologocial aspects that bear testimony to that dense memory.


We follow a ship one one of its voyages, explore the conditions of navigation, the circuits, the products taken from the East, the distribution to the Middle East and the Mediterranean. The cultural encounter is one of the foremost dimension of this document.

This is the first film focussing on this topic, with a view to bringing together the rich traditions of the Indian Ocean countries and their interaction with the West.

Film by Khal Torabully
(Writer-Director)


Original language : French
English and Arabic versions

First broadcast on Omani Television
National Day : 18/11/00

Silver Award 98 Best Director Zanzibar International Film Festival

Best Producer London Videographer’s Guilds 97

Lieux/Footage sites :
Tunisia : Museum, Institute; Sfax.
Morocco : Rabat, Musuem/General Library, Tangiers.
Oman, Sur, Sohar, Muscat and Salalah.
Zanzibar, port, oldfort, Stone Town, dhow in operation.
India : Quilon, Calicut, port, spice trade.
China : Canton and Beijing.
Mauritius : Yémen et Médine, Museum of Mahébourg, Port-Louis.
Paris : Musée de la Marine.
London : British Museum.
Portugal : Musée de la Marine, Lisbon.
Spain : Cordoba, Madrid.
Istanbul : Musée Topkapi, Musuem of Calligraphy, Library Sülimaniye…


To this day, the following experts have collaborated on this project:

Counter-Admiral Bellec, Writer on Navigation and Geographie, Ex-director of Musée de la Marine, Paris.

Professor K.S. Matthew, University of Pondichéry, India.

Professor Mc Grail, Expert en Navigation, ex-director Maritime Museum, London.

Professor Jean-François Salles, Director of La Maison de l’Orient Méditerranéen, expert
On Navigation and Trade in Antiquity.

Mr Rémi Dallongeville, University Professor, Lyon.

Dr A. Sheriff, Historian, Curator of Museum of Zanzibar.

Mr Hervé Fabre, Navigator, computer-scientist.

M. André Miquel, Historien, ex-professor, Collège de France.

We are in contact with :


D. Diene, director Intercultural Projects, Unesco

David Taylor, National Maritime Museum, London.

Dr Eric Kentley, Design Museum, London.

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing.

The Ministry Of Culture, Tunisia.

National Commission for Portuguese Discoveries.

Spain’s National Commission for relations with the Arab World.

Hubert Gerbeau, Historian, specialist of the Indian Ocean, Université d’Aix-en-Provence.