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Socotra-Dioskouridou Island, Exemplary Multicultural Society of Past Times

[ Posted On: 2008-03-22 ]

Today's intellectuals, businesspeople, and progressive politicians, statesmen, and diplomats would gain tremendous experience about how simple it basically is to establish free, tolerant and multicultural societies, deprived of discrimination, forced cultural alteration, oppression, and ultimate dehumanization, by reading Soqotra's Ancient History.

When all peoples, cultures, historical heritages, behavioural systems, traditions, and faiths are considered by all as equal, equally important, equally valid, and equally venerable by all the people of an ethnically, linguistically, culturally and religiously diverse society, then we can be sure that peace and progress will prevail.

Projected to the entire world, viewed at a global scale, the Soqotran model of multicultural society of the Antiquity must be widely studied, and adequately taught to all those who still believe – at the peril and prejudice of all the rest – that their traditions, beliefs, faiths, historical heritages, and cultures are superior than the others'.

We will analyze the Soqotran model of multicultural society of the Antiquity, based on the Periplus of the Red Sea.

Completing his earlier narratives about Yemen, at the end of the description of the Hadhramawti state of the 'Frankincense – bearing Country', the Alexandrian Egyptian author of the Periplus of the Red Sea refers to the island of Socotra, the Island of Dioskourides as he names it (in Greek: Dioscouridou Nesos). Quite interestingly, the text does not mention at all the other islands of the Socotran Archipelago, Abdel Kuri, Samha, and Darsa.

Dioscouridou Nesos – Socotra, according to the 'Periplus of the Red Sea'

The text reads as follows:

"And beyond that (cape Syagros, i.e. Ras Fartak), in the open sea, in the middle of the distance between that (cape Syagros) and the opposite cape, the Cape of the Perfumes, but however rather closer to Syagros lies an island that is called Dioskouridou, a very big island with humid climate and desert environment. There are several rivers in the island, crocodiles, many big snakes and huge lizards. The inhabitants eat the flesh of these lizards, and use the fat, after melting it, for oil. There is no agricultural production, neither vineyards, nor wheat fields. The inhabitants are not numerous, and they dwell in the northern side of the island only, that is the part that looks towards the Arabic peninsula. They are emigrant Yemenites, Indians, and some Greek-speaking Egyptians, and they have all intermingled with one another. They keep themselves busy with trade trips to all the coasts around. The island offers the best type of turtle shells, as well as the usual type of land turtle shell, and white turtle shells, everything in big quantity and in big size. There are also available shells of the huge mountain turtle that are very herd. This turtle's ribs that are the most useful part of its body cannot be easily cut, and in addition are of dark yellowish color. Contrarily to that, any part of its shell can be used; out of it, craftsmen make small boxes, small plaques, small dishes and plates, and all sorts of similar objects, since it can be easily cut. One finds here the Indian cinnabar (in Greek: kinnabari) that is collected from specific trees on the trunk of which it flows.

The island belongs to the aforementioned king of the Frankincense-bearing country, in the same way Azania belongs to Kharibael and the Mofar administrator. The island's merchandise is usually transported on Mouza ships, as well as on some ships of the Limyrike and of Barygaza, when they happen to cross this part of the world. If such is the case, they exchange (barter trade) rice, wheat, and cotton from India, as well as female slaves that are most desired since scarce in the island, with huge quantities of turtle oysters. For the time being, the king has purchased the island, and there is royal garrison permanently residing on the island".

Plausible Interpretations of the Ancient Greek name of Socotra

The reference to Socotra that we find in this excerpt of the Periplus is among the earliest ones in the history of the island. The same name is used by Diodorus Siculus, the Sicilian Greek historian of the times of Caesar and Octavian, who wrote a second hand analytical history of the campaigns of Alexander the Great.

What means 'island of Dioskourides'? Knowing the natural wealth of the island, the abundant fauna and flora of Socotra, and anticipating that it would be even more impressive at those days, as the aforementioned excerpt suggests, one would be tempted to make a parallel with the great Alexandrian scholar and natural scientist Dioskourides, who was working at the Library of Alexandria at the same time the anonymous author of the Periplus of the Red Sea was about to write this text! Perhaps they even met, and it is only normal that the captain and merchant gave the precise information, if not specimens as well, to the renowned scholar! If such were the case, naming the island after the great scholar would mean that this heavenly island would be the correct 'laboratory' for the top natural scientist of Alexandria! However, of course, it is not like this, the name was used at least 100 years earlier…

What means in Greek 'Dioskourides'? Here we are met with two possibilities. First, the name can mean the 'descendent of Dioskouros' (or of the 'Dioskouroi', either of the two guys), or the 'protected by Dioskouroi', the 'disciple' or the 'follower' of them. Second, it can also be a reference to the Dioskouroi themselves.

It would be plausible that an Alexandrian Egyptian mariner, well versed in Greek mythology, appropriated for him the name of Dioskourides in the sense of the 'protected' mariner. The reasons of this protection we describe just below. Then, according to this possibility of interpretation, he settled in the island, rose to political power among the inhabitants, and ruled the island as an autonomous country. He then may have sold the island to Eleazos, and returned rich and wealthy in Alexandria. Either this is the case or the island was attributed to the divine protection of the 'Dioskouroi'. This is even more plausible.

Who were the Dioskouroi? The name refers to the legendary environment of Ancient Greek mythology. The name itself, in Singular Dioskouros, means in Greek 'the young man of Zeus', the young priest or the dedicated adolescent, the Zeus' disciple, follower and/or believer. The complex names to be formed in Greek use always the Genitive case, that is why we have Dios-('of the Zeus')-kouros (and not Zeuskouros).

Who were the two young mythical adolescents of Zeus, the Supreme God of the Ancient Greek Pantheon? Their names are famous: Castor and Pollux (Polydeukes in Greek). They were the twin sons of princess Leda, both born mortals; Polydeukes was fathered by Zeus, whereas Castor was the son of Leda's husband, Tyndareus. Because of their generosity and kindness to operate in life, they became gods at death, becoming therefore the subject of an 'apotheosis', i.e. deification, as they were guaranteed 'eternal life' or 'immortality'. First, only Polydeukes was offered immortality, but – in order to accept – he demanded that his half-twin Castor received the same honor. Zeus consented but the twins had to spend alternate days in the Nether World, the terrible 'Hades', in order to appease the Fates, powerful divinities, and Pluto, the God of the Dead. Ultimately, Castor and Polydeukes received also a distinct place amongst the constellations, becoming the Mansion of Gemini (Didymoi in Greek, al Gawzat in Arabic). They were believed as the gods of horsemanship, and were considered as the protectors of the guests and the homeless.

What does the island of Soqotra have to do with the mythical twins of the Greek mythology? Here we have to consider that according to several versions of Ancient Greek mythical texts, the Dioskouroi appeared to sailors in distress during storms in the form of St. Elmo's fire, which is an electrical discharge creating a glow about the masthead and rigging of ships. It is actually a natural phenomenon well known to sailors; during thunderstorms, the air between the clouds and the ground becomes electrically charged, and then this electricity is drawn to the closest conductor, usually the top of a tall building, or the mast of a ship. This was believed to be a portent of escape from a storm. 'Until suddenly these two are seen darting through the air on tawny wings', this is the way the Homeric Hymn XXXII to the Dioskoiroi puts it. Greek Lyric poet Alcaeus (fragment 34) addresses them in this manner: "brilliant from afar as you run up the fore-stays, bringing light to the black ship in the night of trouble". In Silvae (3.2.1) they are asked as follows: "sit upon the twin horns of the yard-arm" and "let your light illumine sea and sky".

The most plausible interpretation of the Ancient Greek name of Socotra reveals its character of shelter and safe heaven for the embattled Indian Ocean mariners and the faraway driven navigators in jeopardy.

The Multicultural Society of Socotra – Dioskouridou Island

A most characteristic point throughout the entire text of the Periplus is the reference to various emigrants intermingling with one another. It goes without saying that, throughout this trade and navigation network that the author of the text so analytically describes, inter-ethnic, inter-religious, inter-linguistic and inter-cultural marriages, contacts and exchanges among a multitude of various peoples, ethnic groups, religious denominations, and cultural – behavioural attitudes and systems, as well as interactions of all sorts were the order of the day, the regular and ordinary way of life. Because of this reason, wherever the author stresses the issue, we have to understand it in absolute terms of extensive cultural and ethnic mixture.

It is therefore interesting that from the area of Arsinoe (Suez) to Chryse (Indochina - Indonesia) only in two places the issue is stressed. First, it is markedly mentioned in Rhapta of Azania, the area of present day Dar al-Salam of Tanzania, where Sabaean and Himyarite colons got married with local Azanian (Somali) women, and practiced an advanced level of colonialism, learning the indigenous population language. The second place mentioned in this regard is Soqotra itself. Quite interestingly, in both cases Yemenites were involved, which shows an open-minded, extro-spective mindset, attitude and behaviour. It proves that they were people ready to socialize, negotiate and intermingle with people of other origin; this is a deep trait of extroverted mentality and attitude, which has diachronically been typical of the Yemenites.

But of course, contrarily to what is said about the East African coast, in Dioskouridou Island no local, aboriginal, population seems to have ever been. Through the aforementioned excerpt, we are driven to the conclusion that the first settlers were Hadhramawt Yemenites, Greek speaking Egyptians, and Indians of the Western Indian coast, so certainly Dravidian and not Indo-European Indians. As an ethnic, cultural and linguistic mixture, it is a most unusual and extraordinary one; the three group seem not be close to one another. Greek speaking Egyptians were the open-minded Egyptians of Alexandria, who were keen to intermingle with the Phoenicians, the Persians, the Aramaeans, the Kushitic Ethiopians (Meroites), the Jews, the Macedonians, the Greeks, and the other ethnic groups that resided in the multiethnic city at the edge of Egypt.

So, Khammitic Egyptians, Semitic Yemenites and Dravidian Indians of the Dakkan (the subcontinent in the south of Narmada river) gave the intermingled racial – ethnic background of the island. We do not have this sort of extensive intermingling in any part of the world throughout the World History. Two groups intermingling are a common case, three groups are a very rare case, but again there is no case of three groups belonging to totally different linguistic families.

In our global world, peaceful, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural intermingling consists in a high value of our Civilization and at the same time in a key to social, political, financial and economic progress and success. The model of the typically isolated place that sticks to its past in a counterproductive way has been abolished. Only failure can come out of such backward isolationism.

Here one should stress that multi-cultural intermingling does not imply cultural deformation and identity loss. This would be a very erroneous perception of the principle of multi-cultural intermingling, and a very wrong reading of its application at the social level. Dealing with such issues, one must bear in mind two things:

through multi-cultural intermingling, one never gets completely or drastically altered, deformed or changed, and

following multi-cultural intermingling and changes, one does not remain the same as one was earlier.

A correct appraisal of cases of multi-cultural intermingling shows that every case is different, and that the only thing in common is a partly change of the original cultural identity. For this the reason, if people are not committed to crossing the threshold of the global world and of the multiculturalism, the pay a double penalty, staying undeveloped, poor, marginal, and miserable. At times, this sort of people are depicted as inadaptable.

Socotra, Azania, and the axis of Yemenite colonialism

Through the aforementioned text, we realize that Socotra belonged to the king of Hadhramawt (Frankincense-bearing country) who had his capital at Saubatha (Shabwa), and his main harbour – port of call at Kane (Husn al Ghurab, nearby Bir Ali).

Even more explicit reference is made to the fact that Eleazos of the frankincense-bearing country kept a garrison on the island! The author establishes a parallel between the overseas possessions of Eleazos (i.e. Soqotra) and those of Kharibael, king of Sheba and Himyar (i.e. Azania, the Eastern African coast). What were the African colonies at Azania to Kharibael, is Soqotra to Eleazos.

This is the Yemenite concept of colonialism; it implies 'overseas' possessions not overland continental expansion (Assyria, Babylon, Iran, Macedonia, Rome). It places Yemen at the side of the grand naval powers of world history, the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, and the Athenians.

Yemen, on the basis of this text, is not to (and actually cannot) be classified among the great continental empires, Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Persia, Macedonia or Rome. Maritime Colonial Yemen was a complex of two countries that could easily have annexed Arabia (this would have been done by the largest Yemenite state, the merged kingdoms of Sheba and Himyar), and Omana (this would beeen carried out by the second Yemenite state, Hadhramawt).

Maritime Superpower Yemen

Acting in cooperation, as peace seems to have prevailed between them, Kharibael and Eleazos, could have controlled all the landmass of the Arabic peninsula, making common border with the Romans and the Persians! But this was not their predestination, this was not their inclination, this was not their nature.

However, to Kharibael, the area of Rhapta (Dar es Salam at Tanzania) was closer than Yathrib (Madina) in Hedjaz! Of course, geographically speaking, this is wrong, but such was the sense, the feeling, and the naval predestination of the Yemenites.

And Eleazos believed that his borders should necessarily encompass Soqotra (and he may even have sent soldiers there), whereas he did not bother to control the strategic area of Omana near the Ormuz straits!

This reveals that the real inclination, the means and the source of success, and the nature of the Yemenite soul are to be found in the Sea. This has absolutely nothing to do with inland dwellers and coast inhabitants; and it is irrelevant of any sort of 'division' of Yemen to North and South.

On the contrary, it serves as a proof that there is a very deep, subconscious, national Yemenite psyche that encompasses and amalgamates all the people living between Najran and Oman, and then turns them to the … Yemenite Ocean.

Taking this situation into consideration, we find it very impressive that the two states were not ruled from coastal cities; both capitals, that of Kharibael and that of Eleazos, were located in several days trip distance, deep inside the Yemenite inland. However, this did not change at all the common deployment of great interest for overseas activities, not land expansion.

What can make our fascination move is the fact that Kharibael and Eleazos, as well as their predecessors, seem to have peacefully divided what was to be divided. Otherwise, we find difficult to believe why Soqotra was left to Eleazos, although it is closer to Kharibael's state!

Truly speaking, Soqotra is not closer to the mainland, the continental part of Sheba and Himyar (the island is closer to Bir Ali than to … Aden!), but to the overseas territories, the colonial dominions of Kharibael that start precisely at the Horn of Africa area!

Perhaps Eleazos had to be more convincing, and that is why he kept some soldiers on the island! Certainly there are variations in the justification of the colonial presence. The Sabaeans and the Himyarites were present at Azania according to an old law, which implies inter-marital royal relations, or even an old Yemenite – Azanian (Somali) treaty.

We can even surmise that since the law was 'old', it may have been agreed upon by Azanian Somalis and Qataban Yemenites, and then, after the collapse of the Qatabani state at the end of the 2nd century BCE, the rights may have been transferred to the Sabaeans and the Himyarites. On the contrary, the King of Hadhramawt had just 'purchased' the island.

Questions can be raised regarding the original Soqotra owner from whom Eleazos purchased the island! Was he a merchant and mariner, possibly named Dioskourides (as we already surmised), who had risen to power, or was that island a mere part of the royal property of the King of Himyar and Sheba, and then the purchase was a matter of treaty between the two Yemenite countries? We ignore.

Most probably, it was a deal with the Sheba – Himyar state, and in this case we can suppose that the island trade did not matter much for Kharibael and/or his predecessors.

This looks very logical, if we take into consideration the riches of the entire Eastern African coast, named Azania, which was a Sabaean – Himyarite colony already for long. It is also possible that the Sabaean / Hadhramawti deal happened after the Roman naval attack and destruction of Arabia Felix / Aden by Aelius Gallus; that would be a moment in which the king of Sheba and Himyar may have been in need of money for reparations and restructuring.

However, at this point we have to reject the idea of Roman rule over Soqotra that was recently advanced by amateurish writers. It is an aberration to establish a theory based on the temporary military presence at the Straits of the Red Sea that was due to the Roman attack against Arabia Felix (Aden), especially because the attack brought the financial result (lower customs) the Romans had targeted.

Furthermore, there is no documentation at all of any Roman garrison reaching the island. The only channel through which the Romans had learnt, and continued learning, about Dioskouridou Island was the Alexandria environment and melting pot, the harbor and the Library. That is all that existed between Rome and Soqotra!

There is one more reason to believe the interstate affair concerning Soqotra; the text reference to the fact that the Soqotra products were transported on Mouza ships tells us that Hadhramawt, the 'Frankincense-bearing country', was not versed in naval exploits and maritime affairs as much as Himyar – Sheba may have been.

This is logical; the involvement in the trade and the navigation from Egypt to Tanzania, the great Yemenite colony of Azania (that stretched over ca. 3000 km of coastal zone!), the discovery and use of the monsoons, the open sea navigation to the Western Indian coast, all these great moments for the History of the Mankind were the affair of Qataban, Sheba and Himyar. Not of Hadhramawt!

The Frankincense-bearing country was just following the developments. Even at the moment we examine the overseas involvement of the two Yemenite states, although Eleazos had bought Soqotra, he accepted that local merchandise be transported on Mouza boats, and at times on Indian boats from Limyrike and Barygaza! The simplest question that comes to mind is:

- Well, as he paid to buy the island, why did he not pay more to buy some ships? Why did he not manage to set up a shipyard in some part of his coastline?

In fact, this approach would take us far from the real picture of that period; probably Eleazos did not need to buy some boats because he did not have the very experienced mariners, who could build or man these boats, and the captains, who could take the responsibility for the lives of the merchants and the mariners, for the boats, and mostly for the merchandises.

If the author of the Periplus of the Red Sea had traveled to Soqotra today, he probably would not have seen many changes. Quite characteristically, the fauna and the flora did not change much; the cinnabar is still collected from the Dragon's Blood trees that remain the symbol of the island!

Perhaps the only difference is that there are no more crocodiles in the island, whereas cows have been introduced by the Portuguese! In addition, female slavery has been abolished, and the inhabitants do not need to purchase 'female slaves'!

Yemen and Eastern Africa

Completing the review of the Periplus' references to the island of Soqotra, we are met with a strange phenomenon of colonial expansion, namely the different axes of the Sheba – Himyar and the Hadhramwt expansion.

As a plausible continuation to the Qatabani colonialism, Sabaean and Himyarite expansion was directed to the South-east of the metropolitan landmass; from Mouza and from Aden, the Yemenite sailors and merchants had to sail first to the East and then to the South.

On the other hand, the Hadhramawti colonial expansion follows an opposite direction, from North (the land mass of the continental Hadhramawti state) to South (Soqotra)!

A quick consultation of the area's map leaves us with the question why the Yemenite expansionism took these directions. We know that the kingdom of Axumite Abyssinia did not expand up the area of the Straits of the Red Sea (Bab al Mandeb).

It is obvious that beyond the limits of Avalites (today's Assab at Eritrea), which was at times controlled by the Axumites, there was no central political authority in the entire area of the Northern Somalia, from Djibouti and Berbera - through Bossasso - until the 'Cape of the Perfumes' (the Horn of Africa), an area that the author of the Periplus calls 'the Other Berberia' (in juxtaposition to 'Berberia' itself, which corresponds in general to the present day Sudanese coast around Ptolemais Theron – Suakin, as it stretched between Egypt's southernmost harbour Berenice and Axumite Abyssinia's northernmost harbour Adulis).

Then the question arises why Sheba and Himyar did not control the 'Other Berberia' as well, why they did not expand colonially over there, since the entire area was already closer to them, and in addition it was very rich in all sorts of merchandises. A possible interpretation we will discuss in a forthcoming article.

Read – see:

http://www.antichisplendori.it/index.php?method=section&action=zoom&id=32

http://www.flickr.com/photos/madun/174634928/

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis - is Orientalist, Assyriologist, Egyptologist, Iranologist, Islamologist, Historian and Political Scientist. Dr. Megalommatis, 51, is the author of 12 books, dozens of scholarly articles, hundreds of encyclopedia entries, and thousands of articles. He speaks, reads and writes more than 15, modern and ancient, languages.

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