This is
the first historical evidence to prove the establishment of Arabian
factories and merchants in the ports of India. In the time of Pliny, the
Arabians were in such numbers on the coast of Malabar, and at Ceylon, that,
according to that author, the inhabitants of the former had embraced their
religion, and the ports of the latter were entirely in their power. Their
settlements and commerce in India are repeatedly mentioned in the Periplus
of the Erythrean Sea, and likewise their settlements down the coast of
Africa to Rhaptum, before it was visited by the Greeks from Egypt. For,
besides their voyages from India to their own country, they frequently
brought Indian commodities direct to the coast of Africa. At Sabaea, the
great mart of the Arabian commerce with India, the Greeks, as late as the
reign of Philometor, purchased the spices and other productions of the
east. As there was a complete monopoly of them at this place, in the hands
of the Arabians, the Greek navigators and merchants were induced, in the
hopes of obtaining them cheaper, to pass the Straits of Babelmandeb, and on
the coast of Africa they found cinnamon and other produce of India, which
had been brought hither by the Arabian traders.
The evidence of the land trade between Arabia and India, from a very early
period, is equally clear and decisive: Petra, the capital of Arabia Petrea,
was the centre of this trade.
Pages:
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408