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The desert Cities in the Negev were linked to the Mediterranean end of the ancient Incense and Spice trading routes.
The Incense Route or the Incense Road was a series of major ancient trading routes stretching across Egypt to India through Arabia. The incense trade flourished from South Arabia to the Mediterranean between roughly the 3rd century BCE to the 2nd century CE.Incense Route - Desert Cities in the Negev (HTML). UNESCO. The Incense Route served as a channel for trading of goods such as Arabian frankincense and myrrh; Indian spices, ebony, silk and fine textiles;Traders of the Gold and Incense Road (HTML). Message of the Republic of Yemen, Berlin. and East African rare woods, feathers, animal skins and gold.
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The incense trade, connecting Egypt to the incense producing lands, depended heavily on navigation along the Red Sea.O\'Leary 2001: 30
The Egyptians had traded in the Red Sea, importing spices from the "Land of Punt" and from Arabia.Rawlinson 2001: 11-12 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 bringing back gold, silver, ivory and precious stones. These goods were shipped at the port of Ophir.
According to Himanshu Prabha Ray (2003):Ray 2003: 31
| “ | 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, Southern 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 economy of the Kingdom of Qataban (light blue) was based on the cultivation and trade of spices and aromatics including frankincense and myrrh. These were exported to the Mediterranean, India and Abyssinia where they were greatly prized by many cultures, using camels on routes through Arabia, and to India by sea.
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.Larsen 1983: 56 Gerrha exercised influence over the Incense trade routes across Arabia to the Mediterranean and controlled the aromatics trade to Babylon in the 1st century BC. Gerrha was one of the important entry ports for goods shipped from India.
Due to its prominent position in the Incense trade, Yemen attracted settlers from the fertile crescent.Glasse 2001: 59 The frankincense and myrrh trees were crucial to the economy of Yemen and were seen as a source of wealth by the its rulers.
Assyrian documents indicate that Tiglath-Pileser III advanced through Phoenicia to Gaza.Edwards 1969: 330 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.
Aromatics from Dhofar and luxury goods from India bought wealth to the kingdoms of Arabia.Archibald 2001: 168 The aromatics of Dhofar were shipped out from the natural harbor of Khor Rori towards the western inhospitable South Arabian coast.Archibald 2001: 168-169 The caravans carried these products north to Shabwa and from there on to the kingdoms of Qataban, Saba, Ma\'in, Palestine up to Gaza.Archibald 2001: 169 The tolls levied by the owners of wells and other facilities added to the overall cost of these luxury goods.
Roman maritime trade routes with India according to the Periplus Maris Erythraei, 1st century CE. The Romans bypassed the land route in favour of the faster and safer searoute.
The Nabateans seized Petra which stood halfway between the opening to the Gulf of Akaba and the Dead Sea at a point where the Incense Route from Arabia to Damascus was crossed by the overland route from India to Egypt.Eckenstein 2005: 86 This position gave the Nabateans a hold over the trade along the Incense Route. In order to release the Incense Route from the Nabatean control military expeditions were undertaken, without success, by Antigonus Cyclops, emperor of Syria and Palestine. The Nabatean control over trade increased and spread in many directions. The replacement of Greece by the Roman empire as the administrator of the Mediterranean basin led to the resumption of direct trade with the east and the elimination of the taxes extracted previously by the middlemen of the south.Lach 1994: 13 According to Milo Kearney (2003) "The South Arabs in protest took to pirate attacks over the Roman ships in the Gulf of Aden. In response, the Romans destroyed Aden and favored the Western Abyssinian coast of the Red Sea."Kearney 2003: 42 The monopoly of the middlemen weakened with the development of monsoon trade, forcing the Parthian 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. Indian ships sailed to Egypt as the maritime routes of Southern Asia were not under the control of a single power.
According to the The Cambridge History of Africa (1975):Fage 1975: 164
Areas around the Arabian peninsula according to the Periplus Maris Erythraei.
| “ | 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.):Source
| “ | 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. | ” |
According to Young (2001):Young 2001: 128
| “ | The third century would thus appear to be a significant time in the history of the incense trade in Arabia. During the 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 the Tetrarchy many things had changed. By this time, the two main routes in use seem to have been the Wadi Sirhan, now carrying trade which formerly would have passed through Palmyra, and Aila, receiving goods from India and Arabia which before had gone to the Egyptian Red Sea ports. | ” |
Green: Sassanian Empire in 602 to 629, Strokes: Under Sassanid military control.
Patricia Crone (2006) is of the view that the trade along the land routes survived following the growing maritime contact between India and the Greco-Roman world.Crone 2004: 10 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 decline of the incense trade saw Yemen take to the export of Coffee via the Red Sea port of al-Mocha.Colburn 2002: 14
Egypt under the rule of the Rashidun. Prophet Mohammad, 622-632 Patriarchal Caliphate, 632-661 Umayyad Caliphate, 661-750
Following the Roman-Persian Wars the areas under the Roman Byzantine Empire were captured by Khosrow I of the Persian Sassanian Dynasty.Farrokh 2007: 252 The Arabs, led by \'Amr ibn al-\'As, crossed into Egypt in late 639 or early 640 CE.Meri 2006: 224This advance marked the beginning of the Islamic conquest of Egypt and the fall of ports such as Alexandria,Holl 2003: 9 used to secure trade with India by the Greco Roman world since the Ptolemaic dynasty.Lindsay 2006: 101
Finally, the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople in the 15th century, marking the beginning of Turkish control over the most direct trade routes between Europe and Asia.The Encyclopedia Americana 1989: 176
| “ | The frankincense trees of Wadi Dawkah and the remains of the caravan oasis of Shisr/Wubar and the affiliated ports of Khor Rori and Al-Balid vividly illustrate the trade in frankincense 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, recorded Incense Route - Desert Cities in the Negev on UNESCO’s World Heritage List on July 15, 2005.Mostar, Macao and Biblical vestiges in Israel are among the 17 cultural sites inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List (HTML). UNESCO. The official citation reads:
| “ | The four Nabatean towns of Haluza, Mamshit, Avdat and Shivta, along with associated fortresses and agricultural landscapes in the Negev Desert, are spread along routes linking them to the Mediterranean end of the Incense and Spice route. Together they reflect the hugely profitable trade in frankincense and myrrh from South Arabia to the Mediterranean, which flourished from the 3rd century B.C. until to 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. | ” |
| Part of a series on Trade routes |
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| Amber Road | Hærvejen | Incense Route | Kamboja-Dvaravati Route | King\'s Highway | Roman-India routes | Royal Road | Salt Road | Siberian Route | Silk Road | Spice Route | Tea route | Varangians to the Greeks | Via Maris | Triangular trade | Volga trade route | Trans-Saharan trade | Old Salt Route | Hanseatic League | Grand Trunk Road |
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