Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Havelock the Dane (talk | contribs) at 19:21, 30 August 2007 (uppercase). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Incense Route or the Incense Road was a series of major ancient trading routes stretching across Egypt to India through Arabia. Using these trade routes the Indians shipped incense to the ports of the Arabian peninsula and Egypt. These ports were Cane, Aden and Muza in the south and Berenice, Philotera, Myos Hormos, Leuce Kome and Aila in the north. The incense that was shipped to the Arabian ports was then transported by caravan through the desert to Petra and then to Gaza and Damascus, the incense that was shipped to the Egyptian ports was transported via Coptos to Alexandria.

Early History

The Egyptians had traded in the Red sea, importing spices from the "Land of Punt" and from Arabia. Indian goods were bought in Arabian vessels to Aden. The "ships of Tarshish," a Tyrian fleet equipped at Ezion Geber, made several trading voyages to the East brining back gold, silver, ivory and precious stones. These goods were shipped at the port of Ophir. Luxury goods traded along the Incense Route included Indian spices, ebony, silk and fine textiles; Rare woods, feathers, animal skins, and gold from East Africa were also traded as luxury goods.

According to Himanshu Prabha Ray (2003):

In the ancient period, it would seem that south Arabia and the Horn of Africa were the major suppliers of incense, while in modern times the commercial centre for the trade in gums has been Aden and Oman. Early ritual texts from Egypt show that incense was being bought to the upper Nile by traders, but perhaps the most spectacular evidence of this trade is provided by the frescos dated to around 1500 BCE on the walls of the temple at Thebes commemorating the journey of a fleet that the Queen of Egypt had sent to the Land of Punt. Five ships are depicted in these reliefs, piled high with treasure, and one of them shows thirty-one small incense trees in tubs being carried on board.

The Periplus Maris Erythraei and other Greek texts refer to several coastal sites in the Horn of Africa, sothern Arabia and India involved with trade in frankincense, myrrh, cassia, bdellium and a range of gum resins termed duaka and kankamon and mok rotu.

The incense Route involved both land and sea routes. The importance of the land routes would later be overshadowed by the growing sea trade, largely independent of middle men and taxes.

Arabian land routes

Among the important trading points of the Incense Route was Gerrha, reported by the historian Strabo to have been founded by Babylonian exiles as a Chaldean colony. Gerrha controlled the Incense trade routes across Arabia to the Mediterranean and exercised control over the trading of aromatics to Babylon in the 1st century BC. Additionally, it served as a port of entry for goods shipped from India to the East.

Due to its prominent position in the Incense trade, Yemen attracted settlers from the fertile crescent. The frankincense and myrrh trees were crucial to the economy of Yemen and were seen as a source of wealth by the its rulers. Following the demise of the incense trade Yemen took to the export of Coffee via the Red Sea port of al-Mocha.

Assyrian documents indicate that Tiglath-Pileser III advanced through Phoenicia to Gaza. Gaza was eventually sacked and the ruler of Gaza escaped to Egypt but later continued to act as a vassal administrator. The motive behind the attack was to gain control of the south Arabian incense trade which had prospered along the region. Archaeological inscriptions also speak of booty retrieved from the land of the mu-u-na-a-a, possibly Meunites mentioned in the Old testament. Some scholars identify this group as the Minaeans of South Arabia, who were involved with the incense trade and occupied the northern trading outposts of the Incense Route.

Greco Roman bypassing of land routes

The Arabian Nabateans, became very wealthy as they functioned as middle men and controlled the secrets of the difficult route. Numerous towns sprang up around oases that defined the road, such as Ubar, Wabar and Sheba. The road followed no fixed route as the caravans continuously moved to avoid those places which sought to tax their cargoes. The Romans bypassed the land routes by sailing directly to the south of Arabia and to India than having to pay the Bedouin in gold or silver in exchange for the spices and incense. They were eventually able to gain control of the road and developed it further, building wells and forts along it. But by about 42 AD most of the incense traffic was seaborne as it was a safer and faster passage.

According to the The Cambridge History of Africa (1975):

The trade with Arabia and India in incense and spices became increasingly important, and Greeks for the first time began to trade directly with India. The discovery, or rediscovery, of the sea-route to India is attributed to a certain Eudoxos, who was sent out for this purpose towards the end of the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes II (died 116 BC). Eudoxos made two voyages to India, and subsequently, having quarrelled with his Ptolemaic employers, perished in an unsuccessful attempt to open up an alternative sea route to India, free of Ptolemaic control, by sailing around Africa. The establishment of direct contacts between Egypt and India was probably made possible by a weakening of Arab power at this period, for the Sabaean kingdom of south-western Arabia collapsed and was replaced by Himyarite Kingdom around 115 BC. Imports into Egypt of cinnamon and other eastern spices, such as pepper, increased substantially, though the Indian Ocean trade remained for the moment on quite a small scale, no more than twenty Egyptian ships venturing outside the Red Sea each year.

The Roman trade with India kept increasing, and according to Strabo (II.5.12.):

At any rate, when Gallus was prefect of Egypt, I accompanied him and ascended the Nile as far as Syene and the frontiers of Ethiopia, and I learned that as many as one hundred and twenty vessels were sailing from Myos Hormos to India, whereas formerly, under the Ptolemies, only a very few ventured to undertake the voyage and to carry on traffic in Indian merchandise.

Patricia Crone (2006) is of the view that the trade along the Arabian land routes survived following the growing maritime contact between India and the Greco-Roman world. Pre-Islamic Meccans continued to use the old Incense Route to benefit from the Roman demand for luxury goods. The Meccan involvement saw the export of the same goods: Arabian frankincense, East African ivory and gold, Indian spices, Chinese silk etc.

The Incense Route in Sacred Literature

The road is mentioned in the Old Testament, in 2 Chronicles 9 and 1 Kings 10, stating that the "Queen of the South" traveled on the "Gold and Incense Road" to meet King Solomon in Jerusalem. It is also mentioned in the Quran in Surat Saba (34) and in Surat an-Naml (27).

See also

• Incense Route - Desert Cities in the Negev
• Frankincense trail
• Ir Ovot

Notes

1. Rawlinson 2001: 11-12
2. Rawlinson 2001: 11-12
3. Rawlinson 2001: 11-12
4. Rawlinson 2001: 11-12
5. Ray 2003: 31
6. Larsen 1983: 56
7. Larsen 1983: 56
8. Larsen 1983: 56
9. Glasse 2001: 59
10. Glasse 2001: 59
11. Colburn 2002: 14
12. Edwards 1969: 330
13. Edwards 1969: 330
14. Edwards 1969: 330
15. Edwards 1969: 330
16. Edwards 1969: 330
17. Fage 1975: 164
18. Source
19. Crone 2004: 10
20. Crone 2004: 10
21. Crone 2004: 10

References

• Rawlinson, Hugh George (2001). Intercourse Between India and the Western World: From the Earliest Times of the Fall of Rome. Asian Educational Services. ISBN 8120615492.

• Ray, Himanshu Prabha (2003). The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South Asia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521011094.

• Larsen, Curtis (1983). Life and Land Use on the Bahrain Islands: The Geoarcheology of an Ancient Society. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226469069.

• Crone, Patricia (2004). Meccan Trade And The Rise Of Islam. Gorgias Press LLC. ISBN 1593331029.

• Fage, John Donnelly (1975). The Cambridge History of Africa. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521215927. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Edwards, I. E. S. (1969). The Cambridge Ancient History. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521227178. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Glasse, Cyril (2001). The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Rowman Altamira. ISBN 0759101906.

• Colburn, Marta (2002). The Republic Of Yemen: Development Challenges in the 21st Century. Progressio. ISBN 1852872497.

• Trade routes
• Incense
• History of the Arabian peninsula