The development of trade in Asia and the Middle East
"In the Abbasid period, the great center [of commerce and trade] for the whole of the East was Baghdad, to be replaced after the eleventh century by Cairo, while the distant countries of the Muslim West also had their own activities, though in smaller scale. From Iraq and Persia their ships sailed to the Yemen and on to East Africa, where they went behind Zanzibar and the Comoro Islands. Sailing eastwards, they reached India and eventually Malaysia and China (Canton). The Hindus and Chinese, for their part, occasionally visited the Muslim ports, or, more often, came to Ceylon or Malaysia to meet merchants from the West. After the disturbances in China that led to the massacre of the merchant colony in Canton at the end of the ninth century, these intermediatemeeting places became customary for a time although direct links with China were gradually reestablished. Merchandise brought to Iraq was largely absorbed by the court and the wealthy local aristocracy; a certain proportion however was sent on by caravan to the ports of Syria or Egypt, destined for the Christian and Muslim countries of the Mediterranean; some goods were also sent by land or sea from Syria direct to Constantinople, and from there re-distributed to Eastern Europe and Byzantine Italy." From: P. M. Holt, Ann K S Lambton and Bernard Lewis, eds., The Cambridge History of Islam Vol. 2, London, Cambridge at the University Press, 1970, p.323.
The History of Byzantine Empire: 328-1453: Foundation of Constantinople, Organization of the Eastern Roman Empire, The Greatest Emperors & Dynasties: Justinian, Macedonian Dynasty, Comneni, The Wars Against the Goths, Germans & Turks