Theincense trade route was an ancient network of major land and seatrading routes linking theMediterranean world with eastern and southern sources ofincense,spices and otherluxury goods, stretching from Mediterranean ports across theLevant andEgypt throughNortheast Africa andArabia —through both the sea and the land along the Red Sea— toIndia and beyond. These routes collectively served as channels for the trading of goods such asArabianfrankincense andmyrrh;[1] Indianspices,precious stones,pearls,ebony,silk and finetextiles;[2] and from theHorn of Africa, rare woods,feathers, animal skins,Somalifrankincense, gold, andslaves.[2][3] The incense land trade fromSouth Arabia to the Mediterranean flourished between roughly the 3rd century BC and the 2nd century AD.[1]
TheEgyptians had traded in theRed Sea, importing spices, gold and exotic wood from the "Land of Punt" and from Arabia.[4] Indian goods were brought in Arabian and Indian vessels toAden.[4] Rawlinson identifies the long-debated "ships ofTarshish," as aTyrian fleet equipped atEzion-Geber that made several trading voyages to the east bringing backgold,silver,ivory and precious stones.[4] These goods were transshipped at the port ofOphir.[4]
One historian said:[5]
In the ancient period, it would seem that South Arabia and theHorn of Africa were the major suppliers of incense, while in modern times the commercial centre for the trade in gums has been Aden andOman. Early ritual texts from Egypt show that incense was being brought to the upperNile by land traders, but perhaps the most spectacular evidence of this trade is provided by the frescos dated to around 1500 BC on the walls of the temple atThebes commemorating the journey of a fleet that the Queen of Egypt had sent to theLand of Punt.[6] 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.
ThePeriplus Maris Erythraei and otherGreek texts refer to several coastal sites inSomalia,Southern Arabia andIndia involved with trade infrankincense,myrrh,cassia,bdellium and a range of gum resins termedduaka andkankamon andmok rotu.
Among the most importanttrading points of the incense trade route from thePersian Gulf to theMediterranean Sea wasGerrha in the Persian Gulf, reported by the historianStrabo to have been founded byBabylonian exiles as aChaldean colony.[7] Gerrha exercised influence over the incense trade routes across Arabia to the Mediterranean and controlled thearomatics trade toBabylon in the 1st century BC.[7] Gerrha was one of the important entry ports for goods shipped from India.[7]
Due to its prominent position in the incense trade,Yemen attracted settlers from theFertile Crescent.[8] Thefrankincense andmyrrh trees were crucial to the economy of Yemen and were recognized as a source of wealth by its rulers.[8] Recent exploration discovered an ancient trade route through eastern Yemen in the Mahra region.[9]
Assyrian documents indicate thatTiglath-Pileser III advanced throughPhoenicia toGaza.[10] Gaza was eventually sacked and the ruler of Gaza escaped to Egypt but later continued to act as avassal administrator.[10] The motive behind the attack was to gain control of the South Arabian incense trade which had prospered along the region.[10]
I.E.S. Edwards connects theSyro-Ephraimite War to the desire of theIsraelites and theAramaeans to control the northern end of the Incense Route, which ran up from Southern Arabia and could be tapped by commandingTransjordan.[11] Archaeological inscriptions also speak of booty retrieved from the land of themu-u-na-a-a, possiblyMeunites mentioned in theOld Testament.[10] Some scholars identify this group as theMinaeans of South Arabia, who were involved with the incense trade and occupied the northern trading outposts of the Incense Route.[10]
Aromatics fromDhofar and luxury goods from India brought wealth to the kingdoms of Arabia.[12] The aromatics of Dhofar were shipped out from thenatural harbour ofKhor Rori towards the western inhospitable South Arabian coast.[13] The caravans carried these products north toShabwa and from there on to the kingdoms ofQataban,Saba',Ma'in, and Petra up to Gaza.[14] There is also evidence to support that products from the Dhofar region were traded with the Sumerian-Magan people of Dilmun and Qatar[15] as the Sumerian people used some of these resins for medicinal purposes.[16] The tolls levied by the owners of wells and other facilities added to the overall cost of these luxury goods.[14]
TheNabateans builtPetra,[17] which stood halfway between the opening to theGulf of Aqaba and theDead Sea at a point where the Incense Route from Arabia toDamascus was crossed by the overland route fromPetra toGaza.[18] This position gave the Nabateans a hold over the trade along the Incense Route.[18] In order to control the Incense Route from the Nabateans a Greek military expedition was undertaken, without success, byAntigonus Cyclops, one ofAlexander of Macedonia's generals.[18] The Nabatean control over trade increased and spread to the West and the North.[18]
The replacement ofGreece by theRoman Empire as the administrator of the Mediterranean basin led to the resumption of direct trade with the east.[19] According to a historian, "The South Arabs in protest took to pirate attacks over the Roman ships in theGulf of Aden. In response, the Romans destroyedAden and favoured the Western Abyssinian coast of the Red Sea."[20] The monopoly of the Indian and Arab middlemen weakened with the development of monsoon trade by the Greeks through the discovery of the direct route to India (Hippalus), forcing theParthian and Arabian middlemen to adjust their prices so as to compete on the Roman market with the goods now being bought in by a direct sea route to India.[19] Indian ships sailed to Egypt as the maritime routes of Southern Asia were not under the control of a single power.[19]
According to one historian:[21]
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 certainEudoxos, who was sent out for this purpose towards the end of the reign ofPtolemy 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 theSabaean kingdom of South-western Arabia collapsed and was replaced byHimyarite 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.
An earlier commentator on the significance of the trade, in terms of the connectivity of civilisations on both sides of the Red Sea from the time of the Queen of Sheba, was the British explorerTheodore Bent; it was Bent who identified the trading site of Moscha Limen in February 1895.[22]Frankincense fromDhofar was collected atMoscha Limen. It was shipped toQana and taken overland toShabwa and further North toNajran,Mecca,Medina,Petra and toGaza on theMediterranean Sea. It was also shipped toBabylon andPalmyra via thePersian Gulf.[23]
TheRoman trade with India kept increasing, and according to Strabo (II.5.12.):[24]
At any rate, whenGallus was prefect of Egypt, I accompanied him and ascended theNile as far asSyene and the frontiers ofEthiopia, and I learned that as many as one hundred and twenty vessels were sailing fromMyos Hormos to India, whereas formerly, under thePtolemies, only a very few ventured to undertake the voyage and to carry on traffic in Indian merchandise.
According to a historian:[25]
The third century would thus appear to be a significant time in the history of the incense trade in Arabia. Duringthe political and economic crisis of that century the nature of the trade changed dramatically; prior to that time the incense route from South Arabia seems to have continued to function. Much of this trade seems to have been brought to a standstill by the poor economic conditions of the third century, however, when the economic situation improved again under theTetrarchy many things had changed. By this time, the two main routes in use seem to have been theWadi Sirhan, now carrying trade which formerly would have passed throughPalmyra, andAila, receiving goods from India and Arabia which before had gone to the Egyptian Red Sea ports.
At the end of the sixth centuryIsidore of Seville enumerated the aromatics still being imported intoVisigothic Spain.[26] Of aromatic trees (de arboris aromaticis) Isidore listed in his encyclopediamyrrh,pepper,cinnamon,amomum (cardamom?) andcassia; of aromatic herbs (de herbis aromaticis),nard,saffron, cardamom, would have arrived through the trade routes, others were available in Spain: thyme, aloes, rose, violet, lily,gentian,wormwood,fennel and others.[27]
Following thePersian–Roman Wars the areas under the RomanByzantine Empire were captured byKhosrow I of thePersian Sassanian Dynasty.[28] The Arabs, led by'Amr ibn al-'As, crossed into Egypt in late 639 or early 640.[29]
This advance marked the beginning of theRashidun conquest of Egypt[29] and the fall of ports such asAlexandria,[30] used to secure trade with India by the Greco-Roman world since thePtolemaic dynasty.[31]
Several centuries after the demise of the incense trade,coffee was responsible for bringing back Yemen to international commerce via the Red Sea port ofal-Mocha.[32]
Finally, theOttoman Turks conqueredConstantinople in the 15th century, marking the beginning of Turkish control over the most direct trade routes between Europe and Asia.[33]
UNESCO'sWorld Heritage Committee meeting on November 27, 2000, inCairns,Australia attachedWorld Heritage Site status toThe Frankincense Trail inOman.[34] The official citation reads:[35]
Thefrankincense trees of Wadi Dawkah and the remains of the caravan oasis of Shisr/Wubar and the affiliated ports ofKhor Rori and Al-Balid vividly illustrate the trade infrankincense that flourished in this region for many centuries, as one of the most important trading activities of the ancient and medieval world.
The World Heritage Committee, headed by Themba Wakashe, recordedIncense Route - Desert Cities in the Naqab on UNESCO's World Heritage List on July 15, 2005.[36] The official citation reads:[1]
The four Nabatean towns ofKhalasa,Kurnub,Abdah andSubeita, along with associated fortresses and agricultural landscapes in theNegev Desert (Naqab Desert), are spread along routes linking them to the Mediterranean end of the Incense and Spice route. Together they reflect the hugely profitable trade infrankincense andmyrrh fromSouth Arabia to the Mediterranean, which flourished from the 3rd century B.C. until the 2nd century A.D. With the vestiges of their sophisticated irrigation systems, urban constructions, forts, and caravanserai they bear witness to the way in which the harsh desert was settled for trade and agriculture.
