Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/224

 208 COMMERCE WITH Bafjdat. The intercourse with the Indian islands in this period was with the Persian Gulf. On the decline of the dynasty of the Caliphs of Bagdat, we hear no more of the Arabian intercourse with the Indian islands, nor can we trace it by its con- sequences for three centuries and a half. Then began, in the end of the twelfth, and continued during the first half of the thirteenth, that inter- course which was stimulated by the prosperity of the Saracens, and by the events of the crusades. This naturally ceased Avhen the empire of the Sara- cens or Arabs was overrun by the Tartars, under Chungez Khan and his successors, towards the mid- dle of the twelfth century. After an interval of two centuries more, the intercourse of the Arabs again assumed an active character, and the tribes of the central, and some of those of the eastern portion of the Archipelago, were converted. This is coeval with the greatness and prosperity of the Soldans of Egypt, and of the Turks. This, in its turn, was interrupted by the well-known event of the dis- covery of the maritime route to India, and the es- tablishment of the Portuguese power. The discovery of the new route to India, with the settlement and supremacy of Europeans in the Archipelago, have long reduced the commerce of the Arabs with the latter to a trifle. At present, the direct trade is chiefly confined to a few ports of the western portion of the Archipelago, as 12