For the area of the Bab al Mandeb Straits, and future projects of development:The Diachronic Supremacy of Yemen [Archives:2004/756/Culture]
July 19 2004
 |
For the Yemen Times
In the first part of his latest essay, serialized in two part in Yemen Times, Prof. Megalommatis discusses the ancient history of Yemen, as recorded in 'The Periplu of the Red Sea'.
The 'Periplus of the Red Sea' refers to the Yemenite coast from al Mokha to Aden, and to Perim island. We delve into the Yemenite past in order to envision future potentialities
When present day issues come to mind, one has the strong inclination to take into consideration the historical records available in order to better found arguments and thoughts. The current realities at the strategic area of Bab al Mandeb have been shaped by no less than five countries, which are directly involved in the area, namely Yemen, Djibouti, Eritrea, Abyssinia and Somalia. Among them only Yemen and Abyssinia do not emanate entirely from the colonial era and interference, although the latter has been affected to some extent by Italian colonial expansion in the area.
The formation of post-colonial states (Djibouti, Somalia, Eritrea) released centripetal and centrifugal powers that can at times be impressive. Somalia attempted to invade Ogaden in the 70s, as if all the country's problems had been resolved (!), only to explode into a multitude of mini-states 20 years later. Eritrea became independent, but got involved in successive wars with Yemen and Abyssinia. Yet, the similarities among these five countries are most striking. In reality what they have in common is stronger and much more important, multifaceted, and valuable than what is created – 'fabricated' I should say – as issues in order to divide them.
The first aspect that unites all these countries is nature:
I mean the existence of the straits themselves. History proved that instead of separating, the Bab al Mandeb Straits bring one close to another all around the two coasts. A good example is given by the 1st century CE Greek text that an anonymous Egyptian Alexandrian captain and merchant wrote about navigation and trade throughout the seas of the south, from Egypt to Indonesia.
The Yemenite coast from al Mokha to Aden in the 'Periplus of the Red Sea'.
A. Mouza (al Mokha) Administration
After giving a brief description of Mouza in paragraph 21, the author of the Periplus of the Red Sea gives topographical details about the Himyarite kingdom of which part was Mouza. This is presented in two short paragraphs of the text, 22 and 23. The text reads as follows:
“After three days inland trip, we reach Savve, the capital of Mofar Province, which extended all around. There, lives and has his palace the local administrator, Kholaibos.
And after another nine days trip in the inland, we reach Safar, the capital of the entire country, where by law reigns Kharibael joining under his scepter the two peoples, the Himyarites and the nearby Sabaeans. He is a friend to the Roman emperors, thanks to the continuously exchanged embassies and presents”.
1. Sabaa and Himyar kingdoms merged
It is noteworthy that for the author of the Periplus of the Red Sea, who writes around 70 CE, the two kingdoms, Sabaa and Himyar, had merged to form just one state. Even more interesting is that the author refers not to two states but to two peoples, namely the 'Sabaeites' and the 'Homerites'. He testifies to an insightful understanding of the reality that there were several Yemenite peoples, not just one people divided into two states.
In this regard, it is necessary to bear in mind that it was very common for Ancient Greek authors to moderately hellenize foreign names of all sorts (from toponymics to ethnic and personal names) in a way so that they allude to a reminiscence of the Greek cultural heritage environment. Consequently, the noun 'Himyarites' become 'Homerites', alluding to Homer, but yet it did not become absolutely the same as the adjective 'homericos' that derives from the name of the Greek epic poet.
2. Yemenite – Roman relationship
The reference to Kharibael exchanging embassies with the Roman Empire is another piece of valuable information coming out of the present passage; it testifies to the establishment and pursuance of regular interstate relationships. Most probably, Rome was the furthermost (and northernmost) capital ancient Yemenite diplomats were appointed in. The fact also shows that the famous naval expedition of Aelius Gallus that took place around 26 BCE, a few years after Octavian Augustus, invaded Alexandria, had had some results.
Through Roman sources we know that the Aelius Gallus expedition did not end up in a real success. Roman soldiers got all sorts of sicknesses, whereas navigation was felt as too long! Well, 1900 km distance is something, when you begin sailing at the very edge of your country, i.e. the northern part of Egypt's Red Sea coast! Furthermore, a real Yemenite capital city was not found, since probably the Romans had difficulty to advance much in the mountainous Yemenite interior, being so far from their homes, and stricken by – previously unknown to them – tropical diseases. In addition, a real battle was not engaged (probably the Sabaeans and the Himyarites practiced retreat tactics better than WW II Soviets, trying through skirmishes to make Romans realize that they spent too much time in such a faraway place without any concrete gain!).
But, as we already said, this passage of the 'Periplus of the Red Sea' proves that the Augustan expedition had some impact. Further on, in another passage we will attest another reference to the event of the Roman expedition against Yemen that – quite impressively – happened 100 years before the author of this text wrote these details! We can deduce that, although the attack did not end in a major battle victory and in the destruction of a capital city, it left an impact, since it was truly unprecedented. Never before had Yemen been attacked by any country
3. Sabaa – Himyar under Kharibael: a Constitutional Monarchy?
The legitimacy and the righteous character of Kharibael's rule are also important. Using the adjective 'enthesmos' for the Yemenite king, the author employs a term that means not only compliance with an old legislation, and enthronement according all the traditional protocol, but also a degree of constitutional monarchy, of a balance of power existing among the king and the council of the Old Mukkarib, as well as of justice prevailing throughout the country, being guaranteed by Kharibael.
B. Mouza (al Mokha) Market
Then, the author returns to the main subject, the description of trade and navigation throughout the Red Sea, and narrates in detail the trade at Mouza, in paragraph 24.
“The port of Mouza is not facilitated by a natural harbour, but there is an embankment, and in addition a ship can anchor easily thanks to the sandy shores all around. In the market we do find purple textile and yard goods of either exceptional or ordinary quality; we also find Yemenite clothes with long sleeves, clothes embellished with a lot of decorative motifs, clothes of common type, clothes woven with golden yard, clothes in rectangular designs, all sorts of clothing, coats and fleeces, bed coverings, blankets either without decoration, or with the traditional decoration, belts in dark coloured strips, currency in cash, safran, cyperus (cyperus longus), vast quantities of myrrh, but not much wine and wheat, since the country produces little wine, and even less wheat. To the king and the administrator are offered horses and mules along with their respective saddles, golden- and silverware, and copperware, as well as exquisite clothes. From Mouza all the aforementioned is exported to Adulis on the opposite coast, and so is white marble, as well as all types of myrrh, namely the best quality myrrh, the common type that is called stakte ('liquified'), the abeirian type, and Minyan myrrh. The travel is undertaken under best meteorological conditions, if we sail from Egypt in September, that is Thot month, but however nothing prohibits us to sail earlier”.
In this excerpt, beyond the detailed information about the merchandises and the taxes (“To the king and the administrator are offered ), we get significant information about various subjects. Mouza seems to be the export center of Yemen for all the products transported to Egypt, Meroe (Sudan), Axum (Abyssinia), Africa, and (through Egypt) Rome. This means that the bulk of the Yemenite merchandises was exported via sea routes, whereas the land route (through Arabia to Petra) was rather limited for exports to Syria, Mesopotamia and Anatolia.
1. Mouza and Adulis: a Comparison
Through the references of the Periplus of the Red Sea, it becomes clear that in the area we call today the Red Sea, Adulis on the western coast and Mouza on the eastern coast were the richest, biggest and most active ports. If we compare the references, we certainly notice that the text for Adulis is lengthier but the text for Mouza refers to more luxurious, valuable and expensive commodities. The state involvement is more obvious in Mouza, the port is more closely controlled by the capital Safar and the king Kharibael, through means of intermediate control by the Savve administrator Kholaibos.
Although the distance between Adulis and Axumites (8 days trip) seems smaller than the distance between Mouza and Safar (12 days trip), Zoscales King of Axum seems not to levy from the Adulis the taxes Kharibael was able to impose on the Mouza trade treasures. The country of the Sabaeans and the Himyarites is presented as definitely bigger, larger and stronger than the realm of Zoscales for which the text does not state even the country's name. Of course, the diffusion of Greek as international language was certainly greater in the western coast, since Zoscales was speaking Greek, whereas nothing similar is said for Kharibael.
C. Bab al Mandeb and Aden
Having completed the description of the important items related to the Mouza market and trade, the author proceeds through a series of geographical observations about the Red Sea coast of Yemen down to Bab al Mandeb, and further on up to the area of Aden. All this covers paragraphs 25 and 26, and the text reads as follows:
“Further on, after sailing approximately another 300 stades, we reach a point in which the peninsula and the opposite coast of the Berberic land, where lies the port of call that is named Avalites, converge and shape a passage that is not quite long; in this strait the sea is narrow, and approximately 60 stades wide. At this very point is the island of Diodorus. For this reason, and because strong wind comes down from the nearby mountains, the navigation through the strait obliges us to deal with very strong currents. At a certain point in the strait lies Okelis, a seashore town belonging to the same kingdom. It is not quite a port of call but rather a natural cove and a harbour, as well as the first shelter for those sailing from seas beyond the straits.
Beyond Okelis, the sea becomes wider towards the east, and we gradually enter an archipel. At a distance of approximately 1200 stades lies Felix Arabia, a seashore town belonging to the same kingdom, namely that of Kharibael. There are a proper harbour and many sources of water fresher than that available at Okelis. It is found at the beginning of a bay that is formed because of the concave surface. In the past it was a great city and was called Felix, since here was gathered all the merchandise as it happens now in Alexandria, where goods are gathered from Egypt and all other parts of the world. This was due to the fact that ships from India did not sail up to Egypt, neither Egyptian ships dared navigate further on, sailing only up to this point. But by now this does not occur anymore, since not long ago Caesar destroyed Felix Arabia”.
1. Perim – Island of Diodorus
In this rich passage, we come to know first that Perim Island in the straits Bab el Mandeb was called Diodorus Island at those days. The name signifies local property, or the authority of a person named Diodorus. This sort of name (like Isidorus, Apollodorus, etc) is linguistically Greek and ideologically Egyptian. Its meaning implies that the bearer is the 'gift', the 'present' (-dorus) of Zeus, the central ancient Greek god (whose name in the genitive case of declension of ancient Greek names turns to 'Dios'). This sort of ancient Greek personal name emanated almost exclusively out of the Alexandrian Ptolemaic cultural, intermingling between Greeks and Egyptians. Greeks hellenized the names of ancient Egyptian gods, while abandoning ancient Greek forms of religion and adhering to various Egyptian religious – cultic – ideological systems.
Isidism (or Isiac cults, religions, ideologies, philosophies and esoteric systems of initiation that were all evolving around the ancient Egyptian goddess Aset, whose hellenized name was Isis) was diffused in Ptolemaic – Roman times from the Indian Ocean and Bactriana (Afghanistan) to the westernmost confines of the Roman Empire, Iberia, Gallia and Britannia. Present day excavations unearthed more than 200 temples of Isis in Germany, central Europe, England, France, Russia and the Balkans, whereas the multitude of Isiac temples in Italy, Greece and Anatolia testifies to a long and deep implantation.
The Isiac myth evolves around the search of Isis (Aset in Egyptian hieroglyphics) for the dismembered body of Osiris (Wser, lit. 'Well Being' in Egyptian), as well as around Horus (Hor in Egyptian), her son and universal saviour, who will revenge the death of Osiris by exterminating Seth in an 'End of Time' battle between Good and Evil, being therefore an archetypal version of the 'Mahdi vs. Masih Degal' type of conflict.
As it was practiced for thousands of years in Egypt before the arrival of Alexander, the Macedonians, and the Greeks, believers were giving themselves god-bearing names. The diffusion of Isidism among the Greeks led to the identification of the ancient Greek god Zeus with Osiris, and of the ancient Greek god Apollon with Horus, with Isis being rather conceived as identical to Hera. The central name of Isis was preserved in personal god-bearing names (Isidorus), whereas the real meaning of Diodorus was 'given as gift by Osiris/Zeus', and Apollodorus signifies that the bearer was 'given as gift by Horus/Apollon'.
It is interesting that the name of Horus prevailed among Greek speaking Isidists in other names' cases, either explicitly, like Origenes ('of the genre of Horus') or implicitly ('Sosigenes': 'of the genre of the saviour'). Even more fascinating is the fact that 'Isidorus' survived within Christianity, whereas 'Apollodorus' was extinguished, and 'Diodorus' was transformed to 'Theodorus' (Theodore: 'given as gift by god').
Through all this we understand that, at the days of the author of the 'Periplus of the Red Sea', the little island of Perim was named after someone who had earlier been either the proprietary or the local administrator.
2. Narrative parallels in the Description of the Red Sea Coasts
There seems to be a certain desire for balanced presentation of the eastern and the western coasts of the Red Sea in the mind of the author of the text. The counterbalance of Mouza is Adulis. Further in the south, Okelis on the Yemenite shore finds its correspondent in Avalites at the very point of the Bab al Mandeb, but of course both are of lesser importance than the previous ports of call. And to Diodorus Island near Okelis the true counterpart is Didorus Island (possible alteration of Diodorus, or possible mistake of the manuscript scribe) near Adulis (present day Dahlak Islands).
——
[archive-e:756-v:13-y:2004-d:2004-07-19-p:culture]
