Arabian Peninsula

 

 

The Arabian Peninsula is a large land bridge suspended between Africa and Asia. It is among the largest peninsulas on earth, and is surrounded by water on three sides. To the north lies the Mediterranean Sea and to the west lies the Red Sea. To the east is the Persian (or Arabian) Gulf, and to the south is the Arabian Sea, which is also part of the Indian Ocean.

 

About three-quarters of the Arabian Peninsula is covered by deserts. Geographers think that the region had changed from savannah, or grasslands to desert by about 8,000 B.C.E., along with the neighboring Sahara Desert in North Africa. Artifacts from hunter-gatherer groups and early settled cultures have been found at many sites. Traces of the earliest towns, cities and civilizations in the Fertile Crescent along the Mediterranean Sea have also been found. The Arabian Peninsula is mostly arid with inhospitable terrain and fertile regions nearly all around the periphery. Along the mountainous Arabian Sea coast to the south, rain-fed and irrigated highland areas support a rich agriculture. These mountains continue up to the Red Sea coast, but they do not receive the monsoon rains, and are mostly arid.

 

The narrow isthmus of Suez, near the Sinai Peninsula, joins the Arabian Peninsula to Africa. Today, the Suez Canal cuts through that connection, allowing ships to pass from the Mediterranean into the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The peninsula is connected to Asia from the Mediterranean coast along the Tigris-Euphrates River system to the head of the Persian Gulf. Arabia is part of a region geographers now call Southwest Asia. On a map, you can see the Arabian Peninsula at the center of the eastern hemisphere’s continents and waterways. It forms a land bridge between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, and a crossroads between Africa, Asia, and Europe. The Arabian Peninsula is at the center of a huge region of desert stretching from North Africa to Central Asia, called the Great Arid Zone.

 

People settled in areas where they could farm, and herded flocks of sheep and goats in areas where they could graze on seasonal plants. During the first millennium B.C.E., domestication of the camel allowed pastoral nomads to inhabit even more arid parts of the peninsula. More important, the camel allowed people to cross the driest deserts between wells. Camels can travel at a steady rate and withstand the harsh desert climate for long periods without drinking. Invention of a practical camel packsaddle allowed it to carry hundreds of pounds at once. The camel caravan opened the Arabian Peninsula to regional and long-distance trade during the early centuries of the Common Era (C.E.).

 

The Arabs were skillful in transporting goods safely across the wide barren stretches, guided by signs of nature just as mariners navigated the seas. Seaports along the Arabian coasts linked the peninsula with the Mediterranean trading system, the Indian Ocean and Africa. Towns at caravan stops at oases developed along the overland trade routes, such as the inland towns of Makkah and Madinah, and the older town of Ubars. In the northern part of the peninsula, cities such as Jericho, Jerusalem and Damascus developed during biblical times. During classical times, city-states like Palmyra and Petra grew wealthy from trade on the eastern end of the Asian silk roads. Although the inner regions of the Arabian Peninsula were too difficult to conquer, the caravan routes and their towns in the region were not completely isolated. Arabian camel cavalry fought in imperial armies for the Persians and the Romans. Improvements in the camel saddle during the early centuries of the Common Era increased their strength as a military force and gave them control of the caravan trade. Trade and migration brought them luxury goods, wealth and ideas, including monotheistic belief systems such as Judaism and Christianity, though most tribes in the area remained polytheistic until the rise of Islam.

Nomadic herders, settled farmers, and townspeople shared an interdependent society. They depended upon one another for food, defense and trade. Understanding the relationship between nomadic groups, farmers and townspeople is as simple as bringing together the parts of a sandwich. Herders supplied meat, milk and leather from their animals. Farmers supplied grain for bread as well as dates. Sprinkle salt or spices on the sandwich and trade becomes part of the relationship. Traders needed desert guides and pack animals, and all three groups benefited from long-distance trade goods like silk, wool and cotton cloth, spices, perfumes, jewels, gold, silver and iron goods. The wealth of the townspeople gave them a leading position, which could still be challenged by the desert warriors. Pastoral nomads became guides for townspeople, acting as a shipping service for merchant groups, and providing skilled warriors and riders as security guards for the caravans. If we think of the Arabian Peninsula as a land bridge among the waterways that connect Afroeurasia, we must also think of it as a sand sea that caravan trade crossed like the ships of maritime routes.