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second that the Arena’s rim of mountains was duplicated by a network of
trade routes both terrestrial and maritime. Let us take the trade routes first.
The system^105 hinges on the head of the Persian Gulf—Seleucid Charax or
Sasanian Ubulla, gradually succeeded from the seventh century by Basra—
and the two Mediterranean cities of Alexandria and Gaza, from which
Fustāt/Cairo took over in Islamic times. From Ubulla/Basra, the Persian
Gulf funneled traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and then either along the
bleak southern coast of Iran to India, or via the South Arabian coast to the
Red Sea’s exceedingly narrow opening at Bāb al- Mandab, where Arabia al-
most touches Africa. The Red Sea route, which took in Adulis near modern
Massawa in Eritrea for the ivory and slaves of Aksum (Ethiopia), was shad-
owed beyond the coastal ranges to the east by the caravan route from South
Arabia via the Hijāz to Petra and Gaza. Camels had not to hang around wait-
ing for seasonal winds. As for the Nile Valley to the west, it became a usable
route north of the First Cataract as it drew closer to the Red Sea. From the
harbors of Berenike and Myos Hormos merchandise was carried overland to
the relatively easy river route from Coptos down to Alexandria, avoiding per-
sistent adverse winds at the northern end of the Red Sea.
Alexandria and Gaza keyed the—at least in Roman times—fantastically
profitable Red Sea trade in spices, frankincense, and myrrh into the Mediter-
ranean system of cabotage. As for Petra, it provided a jumping- off point for
the inland Syrian emporia just east of the coastal mountains: cities such as
Jerash, Bosra, and Damascus, leading on into North Syria. Here, Antioch of-
fered another link to the Mediterranean, but also to Asia Minor beyond the
Taurus Mountains. The Fertile Crescent highway also gave easy access to
Mesopotamia, as did its more southerly desert variant via the oasis emporium
of Palmyra to the Euphrates (until it succumbed to Roman- Sasanid tensions
in the third century). Both the Euphrates and the Tigris served commerce,
and were quicker and cheaper than the land routes. But all led down, via the
Parthian- Sasanian capital at Seleuceia- Ctesiphon or later the Abbasid capi-
tal at Baghdad, to Charax/Ubulla/Basra and the Persian Gulf.
This Fertile Crescent route, linking Persian Gulf and Mediterranean
much more efficiently than the Red Sea- Nile alternative, closed the circuit of
trade, a humanly constructed mirror- image of the Mountain Arena and one
to which the produce, harbors, prosperous southern regions (Oman, yemen)
and inland caravan routes of Arabia were integral. Iranians and Romans did
not first notice Arabia thanks to Islam. Arabia was the point of contact and
interchange between the two great maritime systems of the First Millen-
nium, namely the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean.^106 Archaeolog y and
105 Cf. M. Rostovtzeff (tr. D. and T. Talbot- Rice), Caravan cities (Oxford 1932) 1–35; N. Groom,
“Trade, incense and perfume,” in St J. Simpson (ed.), Queen of Sheba (London 2002) 88–101; R.
McLaughlin, Rome and the distant East (London 2010) 23–33, 61–81, 92–103.
106 See the map in Hodgson, Venture of Islam [1:1] 1.122.