When the Portuguese fleet landed in the port of Calicut a Muslim merchant cursed the landing party by saying, “May the Devil take thee! What brought thee hither”. The Portuguese replied, “spices”

As we begin our discussion of this age of Exploration and Expansion lets first ask ourselves, “How did Muslim merchants expand the world trade network at the end of the fifteenth century?

The man that greeted them was a Muslim that had probably crossed the Sahara Desert from North Africa.