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2.1  Earliest Records

Recent archaeological work indicates that reed boats built in southern Iraq in the marshes made their way down the Persian Gulf, through the Strait of Hormuz to Ras al Hadd in Oman and we have the first records of seafaring in the Persian Gulf from about 2500 bc. However it is not until the Hellenic Period^[1] (776-323 bc) that records are available that mention Hormuz. The reign of Cyrus the Great from 559 to 530bc heralded the beginning of the Achaemenian Empire which from the seventh to fourth centuries bc had an important and profound effect on the region centred on what is Iran today. His conquests aided by his son Cambyses who was to reign from 530 to 522bc extended the empire from the Aegian to the Indus and the Caspian Sea to Sudan.^[2]

Darius, son of Hystaspes, the Satrap of Parthua, who had served under Cyrus the Great as a young officer succeeded Cambyses on his death in 522bc. During his reign which lasted till 486bc he extended the empire and it was during this period that near to the town of Caspatyrus at the junction of the Kabul and the Indus he built a fleet of ships which under the command of a Greek of Asia Minor, Scylax of Caryanda was given the task of sailing down the Indus and surveying the way to Egypt. This ambitious scheme for exploring the sea routes between the western and eastern dominions took two and a half years to achieve. Following the coast, Scylax proceeded west to the Strait of Hormuz and proceeded south along the coast of Oman to Aden and through the Red Sea to Egypt.^[3] An account of this expedition which preceeds that of Nearchus is given by Herodotus in The Histories.

The Greek historian Herodotus who lived from about 484 to 425 bc ^[4] travelled a great deal in his own right from his home town of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor visiting many parts of the Mediterranean including Palestine and Egypt. Although his account of the History of the Persian Wars was primarily intended as an historical record of the Greeks’ fight with the Persians he included as much as he was able to establish on the geography and peoples of the then known world. This information would have been based on first hand experience supplemented with other information from travellers. Sufficient information is given to draw up a map wherein Arabia is mentioned as is the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea (Sinus Arabicus).^[5] Herodotus wrote of a Greek mariner Scylax who serving under Darius had sailed down the Indus river and then following the Makran coast to Hormuz had proceeded along the south coast of Arabia passing through the Red Sea to Egypt.

 

The greater part of Asia was discovered by Darius. He wanted to find out where the Indus joins the sea – the Indus is the only river other than the Nile where crocodiles ate found – and for this purpose sent off on an expedition down the river a number of men whose word he could trust. Led by a Caryandian named Scylax, the expedition sailed from Caspatyrus in the district of Pactyica, following the course of the river eastward until it reached the sea; then, turning westward, the ships followed the coast, and after a voyage of some thirty months reached the place from which the king of Egypt had sent out the Phoenicians, whom I have already mentioned, to circumnavigate Libya. After this voyage was completed, Darius subdued the Indians and made regular use of the southern ocean. In this way all Asia, with the exception of the easterly part, has been proved to be surrounded by sea, and so to have a general geographical resemblance to Libya.^[6]

 

No explanation is given as to why Scylax undertook this sea voyage around 509 bc other than one of exploration. Having followed the Makran coast he would have come across the narrow Strait of Hormuz at which point he could have elected to continue through them and into the Persian Gulf or sighting land across the strait follow that coastline instead. He then followed the Batineh coast of Oman to Ras al Hadd and continued along the coast until he reached the Red Sea. Proceeding up the Red Sea he would eventually have arrived at the canal between the Red Sea and the Nile, first constructed by Sethos I, and later opened up by Darius. There are inscriptions in Egypt where Darius states:

 

I ordered to dig this canal from the Nile which flows in Egypt to the sea which begins with Persia. This canal was dug.^[7]

 

The inference that may be taken from this could be that Scylax was instructed to establish a route from the Indua in India to Egypt and that having reached the Straits of Hormuz established that continuing up the Persian Gulf would not achieve this end. About 150 years later this voyage was to be re-enacted by Nearchus, Alexander’s admiral, in two stages.

Alexander the Great of Macedon, son of Philip, reigned from 356 to 323 bc. A king by the age of twenty when he succeeded his murdered father in 336 bche had conquered most of the known world by the time of his early death at the age of thirty three in Babylon 323 bc.^[8] He marched against the Persian empire, captured and burned Persepolis in 331 and by 326 bc had reached the Indus. Whatever the real reason was for concluding his Indian campaign, Alexander had decided to return to Babylon and ordered about a hundred of the ships being built on the upper reaches of the Indus to be seagoing vessels. This fleet was to set sail from the mouth of the Indus under the command of Nearchus, a Cretan, and attempt to reach the Persian Gulf by following the southern shores of Iran. The bulk of the army was entrusted to Craterus taking a northerly route through the Mulla Pass. Alexander himself marched along the Makran coast through Gedrosia in order to support Nearchus’ sea-borne expedition by digging wells and establishing supply depots.^[9]

 

In a manner similar to Darius, he ordered Nearchus the Cretan, his renowned admiral, to explore the sea route along the coasts of Arabia and the Caspian Sea which he believed was linked to the Black Sea whilst he proceeded homewards along the Makran in the south of Persia.^[10]

 

As seamen, the Greeks of antiquity were surpassed only by the Phoenicians. Their ship-building techniques were very advanced and considerable care would have been given to the preparation for the voyage. Nearchus of Crete, a friend of Alexander the Great and his Admiral, with a fleet of about one hundred ships sailed from the mouth of the Indus to the head of the Persian Gulf in August 325 bc circumnavigating the southern coast of Iran. The phenomenon of tidal flow, which the Greeks first experienced in the Indus Delta, was terrifying in itself. The sight of a school of whales added to their fears as the Greeks were unaware of such creatures. Nearchus as an experienced commander summoned trumpeters to blow a rousing fanfare and boost the morale of the seamen. Sailing along the coast of Karmania (Makran) towards the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, Nearchus records in his journal coming to anchor:

 

… off a barren coast, whence they descried a headland projecting far into the sea ... about a day’s sail distant. Persons acquainted with those regions asserted that this cape belonged to Arabia, and was called Maketa, whence cinnamon and other products were exported to the Assyrians.

 

It was as they approached Cape Maketa (or Maceta or Mussendom) that Onesicritus urged Nearchus to cross the strait to this headland and continue along the coast of Arabia.^[11] Nearchus opposed this and unlike Scylax they continued sailing past Neoptana and anchored at the mouth of the river Anamis (Minab)^[12] in a country called Harmozeia, then as now:

 

… a hospitable region rich in every production except the olive …^[13]

 

On reaching Harmozeia Nearchus had a five day march inland from the coast to meet Alexander. Cook in The Persian Empire rules out Sirjan and Tepe Yahya and suggests the site of Sharh-i Dakyanus near to Sabzevaran as Alexander’s location. Furthermore he suggests that this location could cover a settlement of Achaemenid date and rank as Ammianus’ ‘Carmana omnium mater’ and Marco Polo’s Camadi.^[14] There have been suggestions that an Alexandria was founded at Gulashkird but Fraser in Cities of Alexander the Great is not convinced.^[15] Leaving Alexander to return by land Nearchus sailed from the river Anamis passing the island Oaracta (Kishm) and a small barren one Organa (Hormuz).^[16] Although Nearchus himself lost four ships during his voyage, Alexander lost some three quarters of his men during the 80 day march.^[17] After returning to Babylon, Alexander devoted the last months of his life to preparations for a large scale expedition which was to explore and open up the sea-route between the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea planning to turn it into a safe and permanent shipping route. In preparation for his intended circumnavigation of Arabia, Alexander sent his admiral Hieron of Soli down the Persian Gulf to Ras Mussendem and Anaxicrates down the Red Sea through Bab-el-Mandeb to the south coast.^[18] A stone bearing a Greek inscription in gratitude to Zeus, Poseidon and Artemis was unearthed on the island of Failaka near Bahrain. It has been suggested that the marble slab was erected by a Greek sea captain in gratitude for having been saved from shipwreck and that the captain had been commissioned to gather information about sailing conditions for the benefit of Alexander’s projected expedition from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea.^[19]Alexander whilst engaged in these preparations died at the young age of 33 years and before the circumnavigation had been completed.^[20]

Arrian (Flavius Arrianus, 2nd century ad) of Bithynia wrote the Indike, an account of India from Megasthenes and Nearchus, with a reproduction of Nearchus’ account of his voyage; and his chief book, the Anabasis, his history of Alexander. Ptolemy was his main source with Aristobulus used to supplement him.

 

Yet from the Arabian gulf which runs along Egypt people have started, and have circumnavigated the greater part of Arabia hoping to reach the sea nearest to Susa and Persia, and thus have sailed so far around the Arabian coast as the amount of fresh water taken aboard their vessels have permitted, and then have returned home again. And those whom Alexander sent from Babylon, in order that, sailing as far as they could on the right of the Red Sea, they might reconnoitre the country on this side - these explorers sighted certain islands lying on their course, and very possibly put in at the mainland of Arabia. But the cape which Nearchus says his party sighted running out into the sea opposite Carmania no one has ever been able to round, and thus turn inwards towards the far side. I am inclined to think that had this been navigable, and had there been any passage, it would have been proved navigable, and a passage found, by the indefatigable energy of Alexander.

For Alexander, when his fleet was made ready on the banks of the Hydaspes, collected together all the Phoenicians and all the Cyprians and Egyptians who had followed the northern expedition. From these he manned his ships, picking out as crews and rowers for them any who were skilled in seafaring ...

... From Amphipolis there were appointed officers: Nearchus, son of Androtinus, who wrote the account of the voyage ...

... but of Alexander’s own ship the helmsman was Onesicritus of Astypalaea...

... As admiral was appointed Nearchus, son of Androtinus, Cretan by race, and he lived in Amphipolis on the Strymon ...^[21]

 

The death of Alexander the Great (323 bc) marks the end of the Hellenic Period and the beginning of the Hellenistic Period which lasted about 300 hundred years up to the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra in 30 bc.

Within 40 years of the death of Alexander disunity appeared and after the battle of Ipsus (301bc), the situation led to three kingdoms, Macedonia, a Ptolemaic in Egypt and a Seleucid monarchy in Asia. Seleucus I Nicator (301-281 bc)^[22] divided up the Empire giving part to his son Antiochus I Soter (280-261bc) but the weaknesses began to show. Under his successor Antiochus II (261-246bc) there were serious territorial losses and although Seleucus II (246-226bc) tried to restore the situation, Antiochus III (223-187bc) faced a revolt by the satraps of Persia and Media. Potts states that Seleucid naval policy in the Arabian Gulf was a continuation of that begun by Alexander and when Seleucus I died in 281 bc, with his empire stretched nearly as far as the Indus, the need to maintain a fleet on the Gulf for military purposes would not have disappeared.^[23] This is supported by Pliny who indicates a naval presence in the Gulf during the reigns of Seleucus I Nicator and his son Antiochus I Soter:

 

Likewise in the East the entirety which lies towards the Caspian was navigated from the Indian Ocean, always under the same constellation, by Macedonian soldiers during the reigns of Seleucus and Antiochus, who wanted to name the sea Seleukis and Antiochus after their names.^[24]

 

After a visit to India, Antiochus III returned to Persis through Carmania and after visiting the western shore of the Persian Gulf with its centres of incense trade and crossing over to the islands celebrated for their pearl fisheries, returned to Seleucia on the Tigris.^[25] Hourani writing in Arab Seafaring is surprised that the Seleucid monarchs did not develop what would have been a profitable sea trade route to India but then adds that this may have been the case but it is simply not recorded.^[26] Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164bc) was the last great Seleucid king who despite his successes was unable to avoid the independence of the satraps Pliny mentions the victory of Numenius, the governor of Mesene under Antiochus, over the Persians in a sea battle in the strait of Hormuz off the Makran coast but it is uncertain which Antiochus it was, possibly IV.^[27]

In 247 bc the rise of the Parthians under Arsaces and the collapse of the Seleucids was not greeted as liberation but resisted by Persia and the other satraps. Under the Parthians, the Kushan Empire occupied most of India and between 160-140 bc Mithridates I forcibly annexed Media, Persis and other areas. The Roman, Trajan by ad 114 had captured Ctesiphon and reached the Persian Gulf but his success was short by a Jewish revolt in the eastern Mediterranean. In ad 197 Ctesiphon again fell to Septimius Severus but he was unable to hold it and retreated along the same route as that of Trajan. After two and a half centuries, Roman attempts to dominate Iran failed and in ad 208 the Persian dynasty of the Sassanians was established. The Sassanian dynasty ruled for four and a half centuries until in ad 651 after battling with Byzantium, they succumbed to the forces of Islam.^[28]

·       Periplus of the Erythraean Sea

Accounts as we have seen are far and few between but one very useful source is the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea ^[29]which provides information about the trade of the Indian Ocean and the settlements along the coastlines. As Schoff states in his introduction the manuscript copies of the Periplus at Heidelburg and London do not enable either a date or authorship to be fixed. He examines both issues and suggests a date of 60 ad and that the author was an Egyptian Greek who had voyaged to India himself.^[30] Of the Persian Gulf, the Periplus gives an idea of the ports and trade carried on. Sir Arnold Wilson includes the following excerpt in his book on the Persian Gulf:

 

If sailing onward you wind round with the adjacent coast to the north, then as you approach the entrance to the Persian Gulf you fall in with a group of islands which lie in a range along the coast of 2,000 stadia, and are called the islands of Kalaiou. The inhabitants of the adjacent coast are cruel and treacherous, and see imperfectly in the day-time.

Near the last headland of the islands of Kalaiou is the mountain called Kalon, to which succeeds, at no great distance, the mouth of the Persian Gulf, where there are many pearl fisheries. On the left of the entrance, towering to a vast height, are the mountains which bear the name of Asaboi, and directly opposite on the right you see another, high and round, called the hill of Semiramis. The strait which separates them has a width of 600 stadia, and through this opening the Persian Gulf pours its vast expanse of waters far up into the interior. At the very head of this gulf there is a regular mart of commerce, called the city of Apologos, situated near Pasinou-Kharax and the river Euphrates.

If you coast along the mouth of the gulf you are conducted by a six days’ voyage to another seat of trade belonging to Persis, called Omana. Barugaza maintains a regular commercial intercourse with both these Persian ports, dispatching thither large vessels freighted with copper, sandalwood, beams for rafters, horn, and logs of sasamina and ebony. Omana imports also frankincense from Kane, while it exports to Arabia a particular species of vessels called madara, which have their planks sewn together. But both from Apologos and Omana there are exported to Barugaza and to Arabia great quantities of pearls, of mean quality, however, compared with Inida sort, together with purple, cloth for the natives, wine, dates in great quantity, and gold and slaves.

After leaving the district of Omana the country of the Parsidai succeeds, which belongs to another government, and the bay which bears the name of Terabdoi (Gedrosia), from the midst of which a cape projects.^[31]

 

Schoff gives the following translation for the same section above of the Periplus:

 

33. Beyond the harbor of Moscha for about fifteen hundred stadia as far as Asich, a mountain range runs along the shore; at the end of which, in a row, lie seven islands, called Zenobian. Beyond these there is a barbarous region which is no longer of the same Kingdom, but now belongs to Persia. Sailing along this coast well out at sea for two thousand stadia from the Zenobian Islands, there meets you an island called Sarapis, about one hundred and twenty stadia from the mainland. It is about two hundred stadia wide and six hundred long, inhabited by three settlements of Fish-Eaters, a villainous lot, who use the Arabian language and wear girdles of palm-leaves. The island produces considerable tortoise-shell of fine quality, and small sailboats and cargo-ships are sent there regularly from Cana.

34. Sailing along the coast, which trends northward toward the entrance of the Persian Sea, there are many islands known as the Calli, after about two thousand stadia, extending along the shore. The inhabitants are a treacherous lot, very little civilized.

35. At the upper end of these Calæi islands is a range of mountains called Calon, and there follows not far beyond, the mouth of the Persian Gulf, where there is much diving for the pearl-mussel. To the left of the straits are great mountains called Asabon, and to the right there rises in full view another round and high mountain called Semiramis; between them the passage across the strait is about six hundred stadia; beyond which that very great and broad sea, the Persian Gulf, reaches far into the interior. At the upper end of this Gulf there is a market-town designated by law, called Apologus, situated near Charax Spasini and the River Euphrates.

36. Sailing through the mouth of the Gulf, after a six-days’ course there is another market-town of Persia called Ommana. To both of these market-towns large vessels are regularly sent from Barygaza, loaded with copper and sandalwood and timbers of teakwood and logs of blackwood and ebony. To Ommana frankincense is also brought from Cana, and from Ommana to Arabia boats sewed together after the fashion of the place; these are known as madarata. From each of these market-towns, there are exported to Barygaza and also to Arabia, many pearls, but inferior to those of India; purple, clothing after the fashion of the place, wine, a great quantity of dates, gold and slaves.

37. Beyond the Ommanitic region there is a country also of the Parsidæ, of another Kingdom, and the bay of Gedrosia, from the middle of which a cape juts out into the bay.^[32]

 

to which he adds the following notes:

 

35. Calon mountain.—While the name has a Greek form, and was supposed to mean “fair,” it is the same as that of the islands and is probably a tribal name: ‘mountains of the Kalhat’

The range is the Jebel Akhdar, or “Green Mountains,” behind Muscat, and about 10,000 feet in altitude. Good descriptions are given by Wellsted, Zwemer, and Hogarth, and of especial interest is the account of the fertile and populous Wadi Tyin, enclosed by these mountains, visited by General S. B. Miles (op. cit.).

35. Asabon mountains.—This is another tribal name, “mountains of the Asabi,” or Beni Assab, whom Wellsted described as still living there (op. cit., I, 239-242), a people very diferent from the other tribes of Oman, living in exclusion in their mountains; and whom Zwemer (Oman and Eastern Arabia, in the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 1907; pp. 597-606) considers a remnant of the aboriginal race of South Arabia, their speech being allied to the Mahri and both to the ancient Himyaritic; who were probably not as Zwemer thinks, “driven northward by Semitic migration,” but represent rather a relic of that pre-Joktanite southward migration around this very coast.

The mountain preserves the name, being now the Jebel Sibi, 2800 feet, 26º 20’ N., 56º 25’ E., continued at the end of the cape in the promontory of Ras Musandum.

35. A round and high mountain called Semiramis. Fabricius, following Sprenger and Ritter, identifies this with Koh-i-mubarak, “Mountain of the Blest” (25º 50’ N., 57º 19’ E. ), which, while not high, being only about 600 feet, is of the shape here described and directly on the strait.

Fabricius (p. 146) suggests that the name Semiramis is probably the Arabic Shamarîda “held precious.” Ras Musandum has been a sacred spot to Arabian navigators from time immemorial. The classic geographers describe some of the practices of the ship-captains passing it, and Vincent tells of those in his time as follows (II; 354): “All the Arabian ships take their departure from it with some ceremonies of superstition, imploring a blessing on their voyage, and setting afloat a toy, like a vessel rigged and decorated, which, if it is dashed to pieces by the rocks, is to be accepted by the ocean as an offering for the escape of the vessel.” ^[33]

36. A market-town of Persia called Ommana.– The Roman geographers were much confused by similar statements concerning this port, and supposed that it was geographically, instead of politically, “of Persia,” and that the “six days’ sail” from the straits of Hormus mentioned in the Periplus, was eastward along the coast of Makran. But Pliny this time is better informed, and locates it on the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf, between the Peninsula of El Katar and Ras Musandum, then a Persian or Parthian dependency. Beyond the river Cynos (Wadi ed Dawasir?) he says (VI, 32) “the navigation is impracticable on that side, according to Juba, on account of the rocks; and he has omitted all mention of Batrasave, a town of the Omani, and of the city of Omana, which former writers have made out to be a famous port of Carmania; as also of Homna and Attana, towns which at the present day, our merchants say, are by far the most famous ones in the Persian Sea. ”

The spelling “Ommana,” as distinct from “Omana,” is due to Ptolemy, and, while perhaps incorrect for the Periplus, it conveniently distinguishes between the two districts. Both are certainly the same as the modern Oman, which maintains a nominal, as a century ago a real, dominion over the whole coast-land from the bay of El Katan to that of Kuria Muria. This was no doubt the dominion of that Goæsus mentioned by Isidorus of Charax Spasini, “King of the Omanitae in the Incense-Land,” and had only recently come under the .Parthian control After numerous alternations between dependence and freedom the whole country submitted again to Persia in 1650, remaining under Persian control until 1741.

The exact location of the port of Ommana is uncertain owing to the limited knowledge yet at hand concerning this coast. Ptolemy confirms Pliny in locating it east of the peninsula, by a river Ommano, (possibly the Wadi Yabrin, an important trade-route) and Glair argues strongly for the bay of El Katan. (Skizze, pp. 189-194. ) Almost any location between Abu Thabi (24º 30' N., 54º 21' E. ), and Khor ed Duan (24º 17' N., Slº 27' E. ) might be possible, but the distance stated, six days, or 3000 stadia, from the straits, indicates Abu Thanni or Sabakha, at both of which there are fertile spots on the coast; El Mukabber on the Sabakha coast (24º N., 5lº 45' E.) being perhaps more closely in accord with Ptolemy.

Aside from the obvious linking of Apologus and Ommana as Persian Gulf ports, in §§ 35 and 36, the text gives two further proofs. The “sewed boats” are such as are still made along this coast, and the wine mentioned in § 36 as an export to India is referred to in § 49 as an import at Barygaza from Arabia. The “many pearls” exported, and in fact the whole list of imports and exports in § 36, suggest such a trade as now centers at Bahrein.

Muller, Fabricius, and McCrindle locate Ommana in the bay of Chahbar on the Makran coast (25º 15' N., 60º 30' E.), reckoning the six days’ sail eastward from the Straits of Hormus; and Sir Thomas Holdich followed them in his Notes an Ancient and Mediaeval Makran (Geographical Journal, 1896; VII, 393-6). It is notable that in his Gates of India, 1910, (pp. 299-300) he abandons this position and refers the activity of the Chahbar ports to the mediaeval period. General S. B. Miles (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, N. S., X, pp. 164-5) argues for Sohar, on the Batineh coast of Oman, north of Muscat, the ocean terminus of an ancient and important caravan-route; but the location does not tally with the statement in the text, that Ommana was six days through, or beyond, the Straits.

(Ommana was the center of an active and extensive shipping trade with India, conveniently located with reference to the trans-Arabian caravan-routes; and Glaser points out the probability that this coast of El Katan was also the “land of Ophir” of King Solomon’s trading-voyages; a trading center where the products of the East were received and reshipped, or sent overland, to the Mediterranean.

 

Ommana and Gerrha are two towns or cities over which there has been a large amount of debate and argument as to their location. Potts in his review of the location of Omana in 1990 dismisses the Carmanian coast for lack of material earlier than the middle ages.^[34] Of the 27 scholars cited by Potts only three cite Hormuz specifically but another  seven suggest Gedrosia, Karmania or the Makran. Most of this debate has been based on the classical accounts, some of which have been given above, and the archaeological evidence available at the time that the scholars wrote which has increased substantially on the Arabian coastline since 1970. Potts repeats Wilkinson’s statement of lack of evidence for the Arabian coast citing argumentum e silentio but points to the recent excavations at ed-Dur that demonstrate a large site dating precisely to the period of the Periplus. This lack of archaeological evidence that may once have applied to the Arabian coast from Bahrain to the Musandam and down along the Batineh coast does apply to the Iranian coastline opposite.

We do not know when Hormuz began its existence but Tarn postulated the need in the second century B.C. for some trading intermediary between India and Babylonia on the Iranian or Carmanian coast suggesting that it was Omana and further that a Greek state was formed on the Gulf of Ormuz which foundered before the date of the Periplus.^[35] Ptolemy mentions it as Harmuza but places it incorrectly and it may have been Ammianus Marcellinus's Hermupolis. Its foundation has been ascribed to Ardashir I (ad 224-241) the first Sasanian king who did found a number of towns including Ubullah, and Rishahr and is said to have founded a city in Eastern Arabia but it was probably in existence long before this time. It is said that he also induced the al-Azd tribe to settle in Oman.^[36] We do know that the original town of Hormuz acted as seaport for Kirman in the tenth century when it was located on the mainland.

·       Strabo and Pliny

The ‘Roman’ geographer Strabo (64bc–ad 20) who was in fact Greek produced an encyclopaedic gazetteer of the known world. In it he wrote that during one year alone twenty ships set out from Myos Hormos and Berenice for north-east Africa and India.^[37]

 

The northern side of Arabia Felix is formed by the above-mentioned desert, the eastern by the Persian Gulf, the western by the Arabian Gulf, and the southern by the great sea that lies outside both gulfs, which as a whole is called Erythra.

2. Now the Persian Gulf is also called the Persian Sea; and Eratosthenes describes it as follows: its mouth, he says, is so narrow that from Harmozi, the promontory of Carmania, one can see the promontory at Macae in Arabia; and from its mouth the coast on the right, being circular, inclines at first, from Carmania, slightly towards the east, and then towards the north, and , after this, towards the west as far as Teredon and the outlet of the Euphrates; and it comprises the coast of the Carmanians and in part that of the Persians and Susians and Babylonians, a distance of about ten thousand stadia.^[38]

 

Others followed and Pliny the Elder, in the first century ad during the reign of Nero, in his ‘Natural History’ writes about south-east Arabia describing the cities of Oman as ‘Omana, Batrasava and Dabenogoris Regio’ and the method of boat construction using fibre to tie the planking together.^[39]

·       Ptolemy and Classical References to Musandam

However it was Ptolemy of Alexandria (c. ad 127-160), geographer and cartographer, who made possibly the greatest contribution to understanding the world and influenced many others for over 1,300 years. Ptolemy wrote a number of books including Almagest and Geographical Outline and produced provincial and regional maps which were the basis for subsequent maps up to the sixteenth century.^[40]

The Asabon promontory that Ptolemy refers to has generally been accepted as that of the Ra’s Musandam and the Ichthyophagi as an indigenous population along the Arabian shore.^[41] Recent examination of Ptolemy’s map of Arabia indicates that the Sacrum Sun Promontory may be Ra’s Shaykh Masud and if indeed this was the case there would be a good reason to suppose that Ptolemy’s Rhegama is Khasab.^[42] The Asabon mountains are considered to be the Hajar range of Oman especially as Corodamum Point is considered to be Ra’s Al Hadd. With no other significant mountain range to the west of the Hajar range and the fact that the Hajar range reduces in the area of the Emirates to give an appearance of rolling hills then rises again sharply in the Musandam, it would appear acceptable to assume that the ‘Above the Asabon’ mountains referred to by Ptolemy are the Ru’us Al Jibal of the Musandam. Wilkinson states that the identification of Ras al Khaimah with the Biblical Re’ama and the Greek Regma Polis have been considered too speculative though Dibba or Daba is accepted as Pliny’s Dabanegoris regio.^[43]

The Musandam Peninsula is the classical ÖAsabvn êkron (the Peninsula of the Sabae?)^[44] or Asaba orh^[45] and both Bertram Thomas and the editor of the Periplus believe the name is preserved by the little village of Sibi on the west coast of the Musandam Peninsula. The Bible refers to “Now when Job’s three friends heard all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Termanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite.”^[46] Going back to Genesis, “And she bare him Zimran, and Joksham, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.”^[47]

The first reference to the Shihuh who inhabit the Musandam is more than likely made in the book covering the history of Oman from early Islamic times to 1728 and attributed to Sirhan ibn Sirhan ibn Muhammad of the Banu ‘Ali. The author writes:

 

Three days after he took el-Rost<k, Mohammed-bin N<sir was joined by a re-inforcement of about fifteen hundred men of the Benú-Koleyb and Benú-Ka’b, armed with matchlocks and spears. There also arrived Rahmeh-bin Matr-bin Rahmeh el-HawalR with about 5000 ‘Bedú’ and ‘Hadhr’ amongst whom were some who did not understand Arabic and were unable to distinguish friend from foe.^[48]

 

E C Ross who translated Sirhan’s work and then added an outline from the end of Sirhan’s account up to 1883, refers to those “who did not understand Arabic” in his notes and states that:

 

Probably these were some of the people inhabiting the Ruús el-Jibal from Cape Mussendom. Southward the inhabitants of that location differ in appearance from the other Arabs and speak a different dialect. Some, from their reddish skins and light eyes, have conceived them to have an admixture of European blood. On examination their language will probably be found to be a Himyarite dialect. They may be descendants of a Himyarite people who inhabited ‘Omán before the inflow of Yemenites and others. They are named el-Shehúh or el-Shihiyín.

Cape Mussendom has been identified with ‘the promontory of the Asabi’ of Ptolemy (by Forster), and the Asabi or Sabi with the Seba or Sebaim of Scripture. In accordance with this theory, this part of ‘Omán was originally the seat of Cushite colonies, in witness of which are adduced the names ‘Cúscan’ (Cushan of Hebew writers), [probably meaning Khasam] and a littoral termed by Pliny ‘the shore of Ham,’ ‘Litus Hammeum’ now Maham, (?), adjacent to which is a ‘Wadí Ham,’ ‘Valley of Ham,’ (Types of Mankind). Again: ‘Ramss, an Arab port, just inside the Persian Gulf, perfectly answers to the sites of Raamah, catalogued among Kushite personifications in xth Genesis (ibid).’ ^[49]

 

It is also worth noting the following description of the Persian Gulf and the bay of Carmenia by Ammianus Marcellinus (c. ad 330-395), the Roman historian who fought against the Persians in the army of Constantius II.

 

10. I shall describe the lie of the land - so far as my purpose allows - briefly and succinctly. These regions extend to a wide area in length and breadth, and enclose on all sides the Persian sea, which has numerous islands and many peoples. The entrance to this sea (they say) is so narrow that from Harmoz, the promontory of Carmania, the other headland opposite it, which the natives call Maces, may be seen without difficulty.

11. After one has passed through this narrow strait, a wide expanse of sea opens, which is favourable to navigation as far as the city of Teredon ^[50], where after many losses the Euphrates mingles with the deep. The entire gulf is bounded by a shore of 20,000 stadia, which is rounded as if turned on a lathe. All along the coast is a throng of cities and villages, and many ships sail to and fro.

12. After passing the strait which has been mentioned, one comes to the bay of Carmania facing the east. Then, a long distance to the south, the bay of Canthicus opens, and not far off is another, called Chalites, facing the setting sun. Next, after one has skirted many islands, few of which are well known, those bays unite with the Indian Ocean, which is first of all to receive the glowing sun when it rises, and is itself also exceedingly warm.^[51]