<P> The Indian commercial connection with South East Asia proved vital to the merchants of Arabia and Persia during the 7th and 8th centuries . Arab traders--mainly descendants of sailors from Yemen and Oman--dominated maritime routes throughout the Indian Ocean, tapping source regions in the Far East--linking to the secret "spice islands" (Maluku Islands and Banda Islands). The islands of Molucca also find mention in several records: a Javanese chronicle (1365) mentions the Moluccas and Maloko; and navigational works of the 14th and 15th centuries contain the first unequivocal Arab reference to Moluccas . Sulaima al - Mahr writes: "East of Timor (where sandalwood is found) are the islands of Bandam and they are the islands where nutmeg and mace are found . The islands of cloves are called Maluku ..." </P> <P> Moluccan products were then shipped to trading emporiums in India, passing through ports like Kozhikode, and through Sri Lanka. from there they were shipped westward across the ports of Arabia to the Near East, to Ormus in the Persian Gulf and Jeddah in the Red Sea and sometimes shipped to East Africa, where they would be used for many purposes, including burial rites . The Abbasids used Alexandria, Damietta, Aden and Siraf as entry ports to India and China . Merchants arriving from India in the port city of Aden paid tribute in form of musk, camphor, ambergris and sandalwood to Ibn Ziyad, the sultan of Yemen . </P> <P> Indian spice exports find mention in the works of Ibn Khurdadhbeh (850), al - Ghafiqi (1150), Ishak bin Imaran (907) and Al Kalkashandi (14th century). Chinese traveler Xuanzang mentions the town of Puri where "merchants depart for distant countries ." </P> <P> From there, overland routes led to the Mediterranean coasts . From the 8th until the 15th century, the Republic of Venice and neighboring maritime republics held the monopoly of European trade with the Middle East . The silk and spice trade, involving spices, incense, herbs, drugs and opium, made these Mediterranean city - states phenomenally rich . Spices were among the most expensive and in - demand products of the Middle Ages, used in medicine . They were all imported from Asia and Africa . Venetian merchants distributed then the goods through Europe until the rise of the Ottoman Empire, which eventually led to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, barring Europeans from important combined land - sea routes . </P>

Why were spices such valued trading goods in the 1400s