The Winds. They brought the smell of spices from the Malabar coast and the mysterious Far East. The Arabs in their mighty dhows followed the winds and sailed to the spice lands of their dreams and began an era of great sea trade. The winds did not settle, they slowly blew away the Silk roads , carried the smell of the spices westward and lured the Portuguese and the Spanish. A period dawned when the trade winds determined everything; it defined the politics, extended geography, and replenished the economy. The winds did not settle, they blew from many seas with rancour and rage, and the oceans for the first time witnessed the Battle of the Winds. From the Monsoon that blew from Arabia, emerged a great warrior, an indomitable sailor, a scholar of navigation, a designer of ships, an expert climatologist, an impeccable astronomer,

and a pious Muslim; Majid, the lion of the seas.