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ArtistSurreal oil painting. Vasco da Gama and his friends trod heavily on the toes of the Infidel. The Moor might flash his scimitar over the Mediterranean; but he wore no armour on his back, and his back was the Indian Ocean. Here the Arab was a peaceful trader, he had no rivals and no enemies, he carried no cannon in his ships, and he was welcome at every port. From the Straits of Malacca his lateen-sailed dhows brought the silk and porcelain of China, and from India and Ceylon nutmegs and cloves, cinnamon and rice and pepper. With these he sailed to Ormuz in the Persian Gulf or Jeddah in the Red Sea, and was paid there in Venetian ducats or scarlet camlet, while his goods went in small boats and on camel-back to Cairo on the one side, and Trebezond, Aleppo, or Damascus, or Constantinople on the other.
A large oil painting depicts a group of twelve Middle Eastern men in various colorful traditional garbs and turbans assembled by the sea, with three sailboats with triangular sails on the water in the background and a white-domed city on the horizon, all under a bright blue sky with wispy clouds. In the center, a man with a white beard and mustache, wearing a red and gold turban with a white feather, a dark velvet cloak over a gold and blue patterned tunic, red trousers, and brown shoes, stands holding a large, curved sword with a gold hilt. To his left, a man with a black beard and red turban wears a white tunic with red sleeves and gold trim. Next to him, another man with a black beard and a black turban wears a brown tunic. To the central figure's right, a man with a black beard and a green turban wears a rich green robe. Behind him, other men in various colored turbans and robes, some with beards, look on. In the foreground on the left, a man with a black beard and dark hair sits on a stone wall, wearing a red and gold patterned robe. Beside him, an older man with a long white beard and a white turban sits
