Interweaving major political and naval developments with the ebb and flow of trade, Abulafia explores how commercial competition in the Mediterranean created both rivalries and partnerships, with merchants acting as intermediaries between cultures, trading goods that were as exotic on one side of the sea as they were commonplace on the other.
Ranging from prehistory to the 21st century, The Great Sea is above all the history of human interaction across a region that has brought together many of the great civilizations of antiquity as well as the rival empires of medieval and modern times. David Abulafia offers a fresh perspective by focusing on the sea itself: its practical importance for transport and sustenance its dynamic role in the rise and fall of empires and the remarkable cast of characters - sailors, merchants, migrants, pirates, pilgrims - who have crossed and recrossed it. Situated at the intersection of Europe, Asia, and Africa, the Mediterranean Sea has been for millenia the place where religions, economies, and political systems met, clashed, influenced, and absorbed one another.
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