For over three thousand years, the Mediterranean Sea has been one of the great centres of civilization. David Abulafia's The Great Sea is the first complete history of the Mediterranean, from the erection of temples on Malta around 3500 BC to modern tourism. Ranging across time and the whole extraordinary space of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Jaffa, Genoa to Tunis, and bringing to life pilgrims, pirates, sultans and naval commanders, this is the story of the sea that has shaped much of world history.
Introduction: A Sea with Many Names
Chapter 1. Isolation and Insulation, 22000 BC–3000 BC
Chapter 2. Copper and Bronze, 3000 BC–1500 BC
Chapter 3. Merchants and Heroes, 1500 BC–1250 BC
Chapter 4. Sea Peoples and Land Peoples, 1250 BC–1100 BC
Chapter 1. The Purple Traders, 1000 BC–700 BC
Chapter 2. The Heirs of Odysseus, 800 BC–550 BC
Chapter 3. The Triumph of the Tyrrhenians, 800 BC–400 BC
Chapter 4. Towards the Garden of the Hesperides, 1000 BC–400 BC
Chapter 5. Thalassocracies, 550 BC–400 BC
Chapter 6. The Lighthouse of the Mediterranean, 350 BC–100 BC
Chapter 7. ‘Carthage Must Be Destroyed’, 400 BC–146 BC
Chapter 8. ‘Our Sea’, 146 BC–AD 150
Chapter 9. Old and New Faiths, AD 1–450
Chapter 10. Dis-integration, 400–600
Chapter 1. Mediterranean Troughs, 600–900
Chapter 2. Crossing the Boundaries between Christendom and Islam, 900–1050
Chapter 3. The Great Sea-change, 1000–1100
Chapter 4. ‘The Profit That God Shall Give’, 1100–1200
Chapter 5. Ways across the Sea, 1160–1185
Chapter 6. The Fall and Rise of Empires, 1130–1260
Chapter 7. Merchants, Mercenaries and Missionaries, 1220–1300
Chapter 8. Serrata – Closing, 1291–1350
Chapter 1. Would-be Roman Emperors, 1350–1480
Chapter 2. Transformations in the West, 1391–1500
Chapter 3. Holy Leagues and Unholy Alliances, 1500–1550
Chapter 4. Akdeniz – the Battle for the White Sea, 1550–1571
Chapter 5. Interlopers in the Mediterranean, 1571–1650
Chapter 6. Diasporas in Despair, 1560–1700
Chapter 7. Encouragement to Others, 1650–1780
Chapter 8. The View through the Russian Prism, 1760–1805
Chapter 9. Deys, Beys and Bashaws, 1800–1830
Chapter 1. Ever the Twain Shall Meet, 1830–1900
Chapter 2. The Greek and the unGreek, 1830–1920
Chapter 3. Ottoman Exit, 1900–1918
Chapter 4. A Tale of Four and a Half Cities, 1900–1950
Chapter 5. Mare Nostrum – Again, 1918–1945
Chapter 6. A Fragmented Mediterranean, 1945–1990
Chapter 7. The Last Mediterranean, 1950–2010