Sailing Around Erythraean Sea: Twenty Seven

In the previous Section we were at Eudaemon Arabia, the modern name of which is Aden situated on the southern coast of Yemen. Continue to read:

After Eudaemon Arabia there is a continuous length of coast, and a bay extending two thousand stadia or more, along which there are Nomads and Fish-Eaters living in villages; just beyond the cape projecting from this bay there is another market-town by the shore Cana [Kane] of the Kingdom of Eleazus, the Frankincense country; and facing it there are two desert islands, one called the Island of Birds and the other Dome Island, one hundred and twenty stadia from Cana. Inland from this place lies the metropolis Sabbatha in which the king lives. All the frankincense produced in the country is brought by by camels to that place to be stored, and to Cana on rafts held up by inflated skins after the manner of the country, and in boats. And this place has a trade also with far-side ports, with Barygaza and Scythia and Omanna and the neighbouring coast of Persia.

My Search:-

1. Eudaemon Arabia is modern day Aden on the southern coast of Yemen. Cana is east of Aden. Exact location is not available. It may be somewhere near Hisn Balid, Yemen, the Frankincense country. Eleazus was only a tribal chiefdom. Island of Birds and Dome Island are located in the Arabian sea off the coast of Yemen. These may be among Socotra archepalego.

2. Sabbatha is Shabwa on the coast of Gulf of Aden; and east of the city of Aden. Southern Arabia was known as Hadhramaut in ancient times. According to local traditions the term means death has come: hadra = he came, mawt = death. It may signify the memory of volcanic explosion in Socotra islands. Ḥaḍramawt has also been identified with Biblical Hazarmaveth, which means courting the death.

3. Scythia refers to Indo-Scythian kingdom based at eastern side Indus River.

4. Ommana: Modern day Sohar. Omanah was the name mentioned by Pliny the elder in his Natural History. Omanna may be its Koinee Greek adaptation. 

5. Persia is parts of Iran and Iraq.

6. Barygaza is the modern day Baruch in Gujarat of the western coast of the Indian subcontinent. The text shows that a long stretch of land was occupied by nomads, and Fish-Eaters. Only the life around the ports and market towns witnessed the dawn of civilization.


End of the Section 

   

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