Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Born to Trade (10,000 BC-AD 500)
Visit any souq across the Peninsula, or attend any meeting between doctor and patient,
teacher and pupil, and you will realise instantly that rules and regulations are fluid, negoti-
able entities to be haggled over, argued about and artfully manipulated. Perhaps this is be-
cause trade runs through the blood of Peninsula peoples, shaping modern daily interactions
as it has shaped each country's ancient heritage. Not surprisingly, then, trade informed the
very earliest aspects of the region's history.
Copper was where it all began. It was mined in Majan (the ancient name of Oman) and
traded through the mighty Dilmun Empire. It's easy to simplify the lives of the ancients,
but the early seafaring traders of Dilmun were no barbarians: they spent their mineral
wealth on fine glass; ate too many dates and suffered bad teeth; took the time to thread
beads of carnelian to hang round their beloveds' necks; enjoyed complex legends; and ex-
pressed their interest in life through their administrations of death - much like their con-
temporaries in Egypt.
The Peninsula's early wealth wasn't founded on ore alone, however. It was due in large
part to a tree, and a particularly ugly one at that. Frankincense, the aromatic resin of the
Boswellia sacra tree, was the chief export and economic mainstay of the region. Grown in
southern Arabia and carried by caravan across the great deserts of the interior along time-
worn trading routes, it helped fund the mighty Nabataean civilisation that controlled much
of northwestern Arabia from 200 to 100 BC. Its sacred sap sustained entire empires across
the Peninsula, found its way into the inner sanctum of temples in Egypt, Jerusalem and
Rome, is recorded in the Bible and the Quran, and is used to this day in many of the
world's most sacred ceremonies. According to Pliny, writing in the 1st century AD, it was
thanks to the frankincense trade that the people of southern Arabia became the richest
people on Earth.
The Queen of Sheba is fabled to have laid frankincense at the feet of King Solomon and the three wise
men took it to Jerusalem. According to Pliny, only 3000 families had the right of harvesting frankincense -
but with exclusions: men were forbidden to cut trees after contact with women.
Visit Madain Saleh in Saudi Arabia today - where the Nabataeans carved spectacular
tombs into the desert cliffs, similar to those of their capital Petra (Jordan) - and it's easy to
understand that frankincense was no ordinary trade: it touched the soul. Indeed, for over
5000 years frankincense (which to this day is used in religious ritual and all special cere-
monies of an Arabian home) made southern Arabia not just one of the richest regions of the
ancient world, but also a land presumed to be touched by magic.
