Translated from Hebrew, this groundbreaking study sets out to answer one simple question: who were the commanders of the early Islamic navy? Using the prosopographical method, Elmakias unearths fresh information about early Islam's inexperienced and pioneering naval commanders. Through their fascinating biographies, we learn about the people who led the Islamic navy during the first conquests of the Islamic empire and helped to realise the spread and expansion of Islamic influence. Extracting information from a wide range of classical Arabic sources, prosopography enables this study to follow these commanders, from their backgrounds, tribal and cultural affiliation, to their military and administrative careers.

'The great merit of the study is its text-oriented approach and the authoritative discussion and translation of the pertinent fragments. The reader gets a good picture of the Muslim naval activities and the chronology of the Muslim naval commanders and their tribal affiliations. This information is also presented in a table, while other aspects of the tribal origins of those men are dealt with in three diagrams (see pp. 139‒143). Elmakias also offers insights that go beyond the narrow topic under discussion. The author is perhaps the first scholar to pay an adequate attention to the phenomenon of sons succeeding the posts of their father and discusses it in the context of naval assignments (see pp. 135‒138)'

Professor Yaacov Lev, Der Islam.