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Document Details :

Title: External Trade of Bilad Al-Sham in the Early Abbasid Period
Author(s): ZIADEH, Nicola A.
Journal: ARAM Periodical
Volume: 8    Issue: 1   Date: 1996   
Pages: 189-199
DOI: 10.2143/ARAM.8.1.2002193

Abstract :
The Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean are two water bodies which, from time immemorial, experienced exchange of trade along their coasts. Apparently from very early times some trade had trickled from the one sea to the other; these commercial relations grew with time. There is, however, a land bridge which separated them: Bilad al-Sham and a strip of land in Egypt made direct sea – passage between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean impossible. It is obvious that crossing this short distance in Egypt should prove to be the easier of the two land blocks. But the Red Sea is a treacherous water body. In the first place it abounds in coral-rief barriers, especially along the Arabian coasts. Secondly pirates find in it prosperous nests, when the grip of the state in Egypt loosens; this is, to my mind, is one reason why land routes from Yaman to the Hijaz prospered late in the fifth and sixth century A.D., when Byzantine authority in Egypt slackened; pirates infested the Red Sea. Thirdly there are many periods in the year when strong winds blow from both Egypt and the Peninsula southwards and collect strength at Bab al-Mandab bottleneck, which thwarts the vessels of ancient times; they will have to spend lengths of time waiting at Aden or along the Horn of Africa.

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