Yemen and the Bab el Mandeb straits according to the ‘Periplus of the Red Sea’

By: Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
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[ Posted On: 2007-04-02 ]

The 'Periplus of the Red Sea,' an Ancient Greek text written by an Alexandrian Egyptian of the times of the Roman Emperor Nero, refers to the Yemenite coast around the Bab el Mandeb straits at the southernmost end of the Red Sea.

The current realities at the strategic area of the Bab al Mandeb straits at the southern end of the Red Sea can be better assessed through the study of this 20-century old text. As we already stated in a previous article, focusing on Yemen's Red Seaside, history proved that instead of separating, the Bab al Mandeb Straits bring people around the two coasts close to each other. In this article, we analyze the excerpts of the 'Periplus of the Red Sea' that refer to the area of the straits and the southern Yemenite coast up to Aden.

The Yemenite coast around the Bab el Mandeb straits in the 'Periplus of the Red Sea'

1. 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 harbor, 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 harbor 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".

2. 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 Dajjal' 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.

3. Narrative parallels in the Description of the western and eastern coasts of the Red Sea

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).

4. Archipel not Gulf of Aden!

It is quite interesting that the author employs the term 'archipel' for what we call today the 'Gulf of Aden'. Certainly the modern term is rather inaccurate, since gulf implies one "large area of a sea or ocean partially enclosed by land, especially a long landlocked portion of sea opening through a strait". Well, we all know that the Gulf of Aden does not represent 'a landlocked portion of sea' precisely because of the existence of the straits of Bab al Mandeb. If the Yemenite coast reached Djibouti and the African coast, leaving no exit of the Red Sea into the Gulf of Aden, then we could correctly call it 'gulf'! However, even the term 'Archipel' is not quite correct! In modern times, the term is rather employed for the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, or for the Archipel of Moluccas in Indonesia, and to use it correctly you have got to deal with a large sea open to some extent – but also close up to a certain degree – and certainly resplendent with islands of all sizes. Well, whereas this is the case for the Aegean and the Moluccas archipels, the Gulf of Aden is devoid of any island!

5. Aden

The cited excerpt makes clear that Kharibael's kingdom extended to 'Arabia Felix,' as he names Aden. The name does not imply any presence of Arabs; it simply means that the area around Aden had the most fertile land and the most fruitful agricultural production in the entire peninsula. Since the Greeks heard of Yemenites and Arabs first through the Assyrians and the Phoenicians, it is only normal that the recapitulative use of the ethnic name of Arabs for all the various and different peoples of the peninsula, as practiced by Assyrian and Phoenician scribes, was passed onto the Greeks.

6. The War between Yemen and the Roman Empire

Even more important are the author's comments about the Roman attack and the destruction of Arabia Felix – Aden, a very important commercial city – key in East – West trade. By saying so, he leads us to a useful conclusion. Mouza and Okelis should not have been important at the time of the Roman maritime attack against Yemen (26 BCE), whereas at the times of the Periplus (70 CE) Mouza was already more important than Aden. The reason for this assumption is that, if Mouza had been more important at the time of the attack, the Roman fleet would have destroyed it first, and then the author would have mentioned it, and perhaps if this had happened, the Roman fleet would not have advanced down to Arabia Felix – Aden!

7. The Supremacy of Yemen in the area of Bab al Mandeb

The entire atmosphere that emanates from the text underlines the supremacy of Yemen in the straits of Bab al Mandeb. Of course, the days of the absolute Qatabani control of the navigation in the Red Sea (300 – 150 BCE) had gone. When the mounting Himyar – Sheba alliance vanquishes the Qatabani state in an effort to ensure the Yemenite control over the East – West trade more efficiently (around 115 BCE), not much time is left for the two Yemenite states to keep things going well. The rise of Rome in the Mediterranean East is overwhelming. About 90 years separate the Sheba – Himyar victory over Qataban, and the Roman destruction of Arabia Felix.

Today, in the light of our historical knowledge, we can afford to ask whether the Sheba – Himyar victory was truly for the overall benefit of Yemen (as the intentions probably were) or not. Through Strabo we know that against the attacking Romans the Yemenites did not engage any naval battle. Perhaps this was a mistake; it may even be the proof that Himyar and Sheba could not match the excellent navigational skills of the Qatabanis! We can assume that if the Qatabani kingdom had still been there, the venture of an attack would have been seriously considered. The geographical and meteorological knowledge would certainly have been a Qatabani advantage, and the Roman exhaustion would have also been taken into consideration. If one adds to this the surprise effect, one gets a correct evaluation of what was then at stake. And an eventual naval victory of the Yemenites over the Roman fleet would have made a tremendous difference.

Despite the moderated profit Kharibael was getting out of the trade, it is clear that his state was the only significant state entity to the Southeastern border of the Roman Empire. Meroe (Aithiopia) was limited in the Nile valley and the desert at the area of the present day Sudan, having no influence in the Red Sea area. Controlled by Parthians, Iran was exercising an influence extended in the Persian Gulf and Oman area. Petra /Rekem was a very small state in the area of today's Jordan, whereas the Arabs between Petra and Yemen were in a barbaric and stateless situation. King Zoscales of the Axumite kingdom of Abyssinia had acquired some riches because of the profitable trade at Adulis, but did not exercise significant naval activities, and he therefore could not be considered even as a regional power.

Kharibael was the only and the correct partner of the Roman Empire in the area of the Horn of Africa, especially if we take into account the Yemenite colonies in Azania, i.e. the Eastern African coast from today's Cape Guardafui down to Daressalam, of which we spoke in a previous article.

Furthermore, the author gives a clear-cut understanding of the fact that Perim (Diodorus') island belonged to Kharibael's Yemenite kingdom. Although there is no explicit reference to this, it is essential that he mentions the island along with Okelis, when he describes the navigation to the south of the Red Sea alongside its eastern coast; this is key to understand the author's perception of the subject. When earlier in the text he was narrating about the western coast of the Red Sea and about the present day Eritrean coast (referring to Adulis and Avalites), he fell short of mentioning the Diodorus' island of Perim, and this is due to the fact that the island was unrelated to the African coast.

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, 49, 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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