Economy and trade of pre-Islamic Arabia

The economy and trade of pre-Islamic Arabia refers to the land- and sea-trade networks used by the inhabitants of Pre-Islamic Arabia, both inter-regionally (between different regions of Arabia) and internationally.

Famously, the Arabian Peninsula, situated between the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, and the Horn of Africa, is known for its role in the ancient incense trade route, which saw the movement of spices across regions as distant as India to Europe. Commodities transported through these routes included myrrh from modern-day Yemen and frankincense from Oman.

The documentation of trade in the region goes back to the 3rd millennium BC, where Dilmun, a civilization covering most of Eastern Arabia, was known in Mesopotamian traders as a legendary source of wealth and goods in the Bronze Age. South Arabia was also a major center of trade. The transition from pre-Islamic to Islamic times shifted the locus of trade to the Hejaz, the birthplace of Islam.[1]

Geographic position of Arabia

The Arabian Peninsula is strategically geographically located between Africa and Asia, with Syria and the Jordan to the north, Iraq (Mesopotamia) and Persia to the east, Egypt and southern Europe (across the Mediterranean Sea) to the north-west, Ethiopia and Somaliland to the west (across the Red Sea). Traversal of the Indian Ocean also provides access to the Indian subcontinent. Beginning in the Early Middle Ages, a substantial amount of world trade was happening between Arabia, Persia, Ethiopia, and the Roman Empire.[2]

International trade

With Mesopotamia

A text from the era of Sargon of Akkad (r. c. 2334-2284 BCE) mentions a shipping industry in Magan, in present-day Oman.[3]

With the Levant

Trade between Arabia and the Levant may stretch back as early as the 10th century BC, when a Sabaic inscription was found in Jerusalem, with an exchange of Jewish artifacts also documented in the next centuries.[4][5]

Muhammad's mercantile career is mentioned in Islamic tradition,[6] and Christian sources from early Islamic times say that Muhammad "would go to [the] lands of Palestine, Arabia, Syria, and Phoenicia to trade."[7]

With India

Arabian trade and commerce reached the Indus Valley.[8] Excavations in the cities of Ur and Kish and in Bahrain and other locations along the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula have unearthed goods of Indian origin (including seals). Both indicate that the network of maritime trade was regular, bustling, and well known as early as 3000 BC. They suggest that Bahrain and other sites along the Persian Gulf were popular docks which would welcome ships arriving from Iraq on their way to and from India.[9]

Trade by kingdom and region

Dilmun

During the Bronze Age, most of Eastern Arabia was part of the land of Dilmun, including modern-day Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the adjacent coast of Saudi Arabia. Its capital was located in Bahrain.[10] Dilmun is the earliest recorded civilization from Eastern Arabia, mentioned in written records in the 3rd millennium BCE,[10] with archaeological evidence indicating activity from the fourth to first millennia BCE, its importance faltering after 1800.[11][12] Dilmun is regarded as one of the oldest ancient civilizations in the Middle East in general.[13][14]

The Dilmun civilization was an important trading center[11] which at the height of its power controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes.[11] This was enabled by a number of natural advantages to the region, and part of this was its abundant underground water supplies and easy anchorages for ships. It became a center for long-distance trade and all types of commodities passed through it (trade extending to areas as far as the Indus Valley[14]), including a variety of exotic goods. As a result, Dilmun became legendary in Mesopotamian literature.[10] The Sumerians regarded Dilmun as holy land.[15] The Sumerians described Dilmun as a paradise garden in the Epic of Gilgamesh.[16] The Sumerian tale of the garden paradise of Dilmun may have been an inspiration for the Garden of Eden story.[16] Dilmun, sometimes described as "the place where the sun rises" and "the Land of the Living", is the scene of some versions of the Eridu Genesis, and the place where the deified Sumerian hero of the flood, Utnapishtim (Ziusudra), was taken by the gods to live forever. Thorkild Jacobsen's translation of the Eridu Genesis calls it "Mount Dilmun" which he locates as a "faraway, half-mythical place".[17]

Sabaean kingdom

The Sabaeans had a long history of seafaring and commerce. A Sabaean presence in Africa was noted in antiquity with the founding of the kingdom of Dʿmt in Ethiopia in the 8th century BCE. The 1st-century CE historian Periplus of the Erythraean Sea described how the Arabs controlled the coast of "Ezana" (the East African coast north of Somalia). The Quran mentions trade with Sheba: "And We placed between them and the cities which We had blessed [many] visible cities. And We determined between them the [distances of] journey, [saying], "Travel between them by night or day in safety."[18] The Old Testament Book of Ezekiel reads, "Dedan traded in saddle blankets with you. Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your customers; they did business with you in lambs, rams and goats. ‘The merchants of Sheba and Raamah traded with you; for your merchandise they exchanged the finest of all kinds of spices and precious stones, and gold."[19] The Chinese explorer Faxian, who passed through Sri Lanka in 414 CE, reported that Saebaean merchants and Arabs from Oman and Hadhramaut lived in ornate homes in settlements on the island and traded in timber.[20]

Nabataean kingdom

According to the 2nd-century BCE Greek historian Agatharchides, "It does not appear that there exists a people richer than the Sabaeans and the people of Gerrha who were agents of everything which fell under the name of shipping between Asia and Europe. They made Ptolemaic Syria rich and made Phoenician trade profitable in addition to hundreds of other things."[21] He described them as fierce warriors and skilled seafarers, who sailed large ships to supply their colonies.[22] The Palmyrene Empire built a shipyard in Characene, which facilitated the transport of goods through the Euphrates ports of Dura-Europos and Sura (the present-day village of Al-Hamam, east of the al-Thawra Dam in Syria). Some of the Palmyrenes who owned and sailed ships on the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean were attested by Chinese sailors who visited the region in 97 CE and mentioned the Characene port of Charax Spasinu.[23] Characene surpassed Gerrha in the perfume trade.[24] Despite the lack of direct control by the Nabataean Kingdom in the Persian Gulf, it was reachable by land (where goods would be loaded onto ships). Nabataean writings and manufactured goods (including typical Nabataean white dyes) have been discovered in the village of Thaj near the Persian Gulf, along the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula near Bahrain and as far as the ports of Yemen and Oman. They have also been found in archeological sites along the Incense Route, such as Qaryat al-Faw. Nabataean pottery has been uncovered in India; Nabataean inscriptions are scattered throughout the Mediterranean region, from Tunisia to Rhodes, Kos, Delos, Miletus in the Aegean Sea and in Pozzuoli and Rome.[25] Late Antique to medieval trade amphorae contained different food stuffs including wine and olive oil, perhaps the best known are so-called Aqaba/Ayla vessels from the Red Sea to South Asia.[26]

Lakhmid kingdom

The Lakhmids also traded with Chinese ships which sailed along the Euphrates past the village of al-Hirah.[27] In the northern Lakhmid kingdom (present-day Al Anbar Governorate flows the 'Isā River, which connects the Tigris and the Euphrates.[28] To reach the Persian Gulf from al-Hirah, the Lakhmids traveled in smaller boats to the port in al-Ubulla (where there were sea ships bound for India and China). They would then depart for China via Bahrain and Aden.[29]

Types of trade

Land

The Arabs land trade, which spanned from their hometown in south of Yemen has touched the trades in Silk Road and Indian Ocean trade particularly in which the modern historians coined in "Frankincense and myrrh" theory, which spread by them through camel caravans.[30][31]

Sea (maritime)

Further information: Arabian Sea, Oman § Arab_settlement, and Phoenicia

The main corridors of exchange that faceted the maritime trade of pre-Islamic Arabia were set by the Peninsula's geographic position: to the west is the Red Sea that separates it from Egypt, as well as Ethiopia and the rest of the Horn of Africa, and to the east is the Persian Gulf that separates it from Persia. Long-distance trade routes with India involved the traversal of the Indian Ocean. Trade with Mesopotamia, India, and Egypt through maritime routes is already documented in the 3rd millennium BC. In Greco-Roman times, dedicated writings explained the navigation of maritime trade with the Arabian Peninsula, like the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea ("The circumnavigation of the Red Sea"), and sections of the Geography of Strabo and the Natural History of Pliny the Elder.[1]

The south Arabian navigation history were suggested by Gus van Beek that they are developed through their constant contacts with advanced maritime civilization.[32] According to biblical historiographical research by Charles Henry Stanley Davis, a semitic maritime civilization named Phoenicia which dated from 1100 and 200 BC has long time planted colonies of merchants in Yemen.[33] The prosperity of Gerrhan caused the Yemen and the Phoenician in the opening of Indian route commerce.[34] The Phoenician colonies in Yemen has shipped merchant vessels came from India unloaded their cargoes in Yemen coasts and carried them across the Arabian desert to their hometown in Levant.[33] The Phoenician merchants also settled in Persian gulf in their effort of transporting commodities from India to their hometown.[35] Thus the trade activities between the local Yemenites and the Phoenician has formed a prosper ancient Arab kingdom, Gerrha.[34] The commodities which brought by the Phoenician from Yemen and Persian gulf were transported with Arabian caravan crossing the desert towards Levant.[35]

Arab naval trade was contested by the Greeks, who tried to challenge Arab control of maritime trade between India and Egypt during the early Middle Ages. Arab trade persisted during the period, and Greek naval trade dwindled.[36] There were a number of harbors on the Arabian Peninsula, some of which remain in operation. The most important harbors in the eastern Arabian Peninsula were Al-Ubulla, Gerrha and Sohar (Oman). The most important southern harbors were Mocha, Qanī (now Bi'r `Ali, Yemen), Aden, and Muska (Samharam).[37] The most important western ports included al-Sha'ibah, Aylah (Aqaba) and Luwikat Kuma (al-Hawra'). A sea route used by Arabs to reach the Indian subcontinent ran from "The Euphrates of Maysan" to Debal on the Indus River.[38] They would also sail from al-Ubulla, passing Oman and on to India.[39] Those who traveled from the harbors of Yemen, such as the Qanī and "Muza" of Gerrha, would sail directly to India without needing to stop and resupply.[40]

Seasonal markets

According to Islamic sources, seasonal markets were common across pre-Islamic Arabia, found across a wide number of cities and towns, including in Souk Okaz or Ukaz (Saudi Arabia), Majanna (Saudi Arabia), Dhu'l Majaz (Saudi Arabia), Hubasha (Saudi Arabia), Dumat al-Jandal (Saudi Arabia), Sanaa (Yemen), Aden (Yemen), Suhar (Oman), and al-Mushaqqar (Jordan).[41]

List of markets

The following list of markets in late pre-Islamic times:[42]

Name Location Operation Description Clientele
Dumat al-Jandal Near al-Jawf (northern Arabian Peninsula) 1-15 Rabi' al-awwal Commercial and amenity market, with trade by tossing stones Iraq, Syria and the Arabian Peninsula
Hajar Bahrain Rabi' al-Thani Dates, dry goods, ambergris, musk Traders from neighboring provinces
Al-Mushaqqar Bahrain Jumada al-awwal General market in which sales were made with gestures and nonverbal utterances, the roads to which were not safe Arabs and foreigners, particularly Persians
Oman Yemeni seacoast Jumada al-Thani (and from the 15th to the end of Ramadan) Ambergris, metals, fruits Varied, including Arabs from the tribe of Azd
Hubasha Bareq, Tihamah Early Rajab Secondary market shared by Yemen, Tihamah and the Hejaz, which operated until 812 CE Varied
Sohar Oman coast Rajab Commercial market, protected during the holy month Varied
Dibba Arabian Gulf End of Rajab to the 10th of Sha'ban Mixed market, in which Arab products were sold by bargaining India, Sindh, China, Arabs
Al-Shahrah or Shahar Mahrah Southern coast, between Aden and Oman 15th of Sha'ban Camels, ambergris, dairy products, cloth, rope and hides. Goods sold with stone-balanced scales. Merchants
Aden South of the Bab-el-Mandeb From 1–10 Ramadan Perfume, collyrium, pearls; safe access Arabs, Persians and Romans
San'a Yemeni capital 15–30 Ramadan Cotton, saffron, dyes, Galia Moschata and collyrium, sold by touching hands Arab, Ethiopian and Persian merchants
Hadhramaut Between Oman and Yemen 15–30 Dhu al-Qidah Limited size Varied
Okaz The lands of the tribe of Hawazin, in the Hejaz near Ta'if 1–20 Dhu al-Qidah The best-known Arab market, which contributed to the standardisation of Arabic dialects Varied throughout the Arabian Peninsula
Majannah The lands of the tribe of Banu Kinanah in Tihamah, near Mecca 20–30 Dhu al-Qidah Smaller than Okaz, protected by its position and during the holy months Similar to Okaz, plus Arabs and pilgrims on Hajj and Umrah
Dhu Majaz Near Mount Arafat 1–8 Dhu al-Hijjah General market, inhabited until Youm al-Tarwiyah Arab merchants and pilgrims
Natat Khaybar North of Medina After the pilgrimage season Commercial market Jewish clientele
Hajr al-Yamama current Riyadh Saudi Arabia 10–30 Muharram General market protected during the holy months Arabs
Dayr Ayyub North of Bosra (he Levant) After the pilgrimage season Roman-controlled commercial market Meeting place for Arab and Roman merchants
Bosra market Southern Levant (Hauran) After the pilgrimage season, 30-40 nights usually between Muharram and Rabi' al-Awwal Commercial market including Indian and Ethiopian products, noted for swords and wines Arab merchants
Adhra'at (Daraa) Hauran After the pilgrimage season and the Bosra market Noted for wine Arab merchants
Al-Hirah Market North of Kufa Unknown Noted for hides, perfume, collyrium, jewelry, horses and goods from other Arab markets and those of neighboring countries. Safety provided by the Lakhmid kings. Arabs and Persians
Al-Mirbad Outskirts of Basra Perennial Similar to Okaz: a general, commercial, residential and literary centre until the Abbasid era Arab traders, poets and intellectuals

References

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Sources

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