|
|
Article: Retracing the incense route. (south Arabia and its incense trade with markets in the north some 2,000 years ago)
- Article from:
- The Middle East
- Article date:
- February 1, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 IC Publications Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
The material wealth flowing into the Arabian Peninsula in the twentieth century, though massive, will probably never rival the relative prosperity that reigned there at the height of the incense trade 2,000 years ago. For more than a millennium, trading caravans from the south Arabian coast supplied sweet-smelling incense resins, spices, and other luxury goods to insatiable markets in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions. As a result, Arabia, in particular the region of present-day eastern Yemen and western Oman, were transformed into one of the epoch's wealthiest societies.
Incense, even today, grows exclusively on the southwestern coast of the Arabian ...