Cyber Ethiopia

The present series of articles, beginning this week, will present excerpts from historically interesting accounts of Ethiopian markets, and merchants, as seen mainly by foreign observers. Introduction For our first glimpse of Ethiopian markets we consider a document of unique importance: the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. This was a manual of trading conditions in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden area believed to have been written in the last half of the first century A.D. This dating is, however, highly tentative, and open to discusssion. The work was written in Greek, perhaps by a Graeco-Egyptian sea captain; perhaps by a scholarly trader; perhaps by a customs official, or some other bureaucrat, in Egypt: who knows? This remarkable document gave a detailed account of the principal

Red Sea and Gulf of Aden ports, on both the African and Arabian sides, and of their foreign trade. The text indicates that the the Aksumite kingdom, which was the precursor of the subsequent Ethiopian realm, stretched along the coast of what is now Eritrea as far as the "Berber Country", of what is now Somaliland. Some of the ports along this coast, we ahe told, were. howener, "not subject to a king, but each ruled by a separate chief". "Acquainted with Greek Literature" The Periplus indicates further that the Aksumite kingdom was a maritime power with close relations with the outside world. This is evident form the statement, in the Periplus, that the Aksumite king of that time, who is referred to as "Zoscales", was "acquainted with Greek literature". He was, we are told,"grasping in his ways, but otherwise upright". Zoscales, we may note, has been identified with Za Hakele who is believed to have reigned in the first century A.D. Adulis The Periplus tells us that Adulis, a settlement on the west side of the Bay of Zula, not far from Massawa, was at that time already the main port of the Aksumite kingdom. It is described in this work as "a fair-sized village'", though the Roman author Pliny (c. A.D. 23--79), at around the saome time (add or subtract half a century or so) called it "a very large centre". Adulis, the Periplus explains, was "a port established by law, lying at the inner end of a bay that runs in toward the south. Before the harbour lies the so-called Mountain Island, about two hundred stadia [i.e. about twenty miles] seaward from the very head of the bay, with the shores of the mainland close to it on both sides". "Ships bound for this port", the Periplus continuies, "now anchor here because of attacks from the land. They used formerly to anchor at the very head of the bay, by an island called Diodorus [Dissei], close to the shore, which could be reached on foot from the land, by which means the barbarous natives attacked the island". Title page of a modern English edition of the Periplus Coloe and Aksum The author of the Periplus had apparently little knowledge of the the interior of the region. He refers, however, to the settlement of Coloe (i.e. the Kohaito of modern times), which he describes as lying three days' journey inland from from Adulis. He calls it "the first market for ivory". He also mentions Aksum, the capital of the Aksumite state, which he terms "the city of the people called Aksumites". It lay, he says, a further five days' journey inland, and was the commercial centre through which "all the ivory is brought from the country beyond the Nile through the district called Cyeneum [Sennar?)], and thence to Adulis". Ivory Discussing this important article of export, he adds: "practically the whole number of elephants and rhinoceroses that are killed live in the places inland, although at rare intervals hunted on the sea-coast even near Adulis". Trade Winds, and the Import-Export Trade Some of the most interesting passages in the Periplus discuss the foreign trade of Adulis and neighbouring ports. We are told that ships, whose sailing time was of course governed by the Monsoon, or Trade Winds, arrived around January and left in September. Of Adulis and the neighbouring ports the text observes: "There are imported into these places, undressed cloth made in Egypt for the Berbers; robes from Arsinoe; cloaks of poor quality dyed in colours; double-fringed linen mantles; many articles of flint glass, and others of murrhine [perhaps agate], made in Diopolis [probably Thebes]; and brass which was used for ornament and - in cut pieces - instead of coin; sheets of copper, used for cooking utensils and cut up for bracelets and anklets for the women; iron which is made into spears used against the elephants, and other beasts, and in their wars. Besides these, small axes are imported, and adzes and swords; copper drinking cups, round and large; a little coin for those coming to the market; wine of Laodicea [Latakia in Syria] and Italy, not much; olive oil, not much; for the king, gold and silver plate made after the fashion of the country, and for clothing, military cloaks, and thin coats of skin, of no great value. Likewise from the district of Ariaca [north-west India] across this sea, there are imported Indian iron and steel, and cotton cloth, the broad cloth called monache [?] and that called sagmatogene [?)], and girdles, and coats of skin and coloured lac". The exports of the Aksumite realm are also metioned in the Periplus. It lists them, very briefly, as consisting of "ivory, tortoise-shell and rhinoceros horn". Pliny, on the other hand, relates that the port traded in "a large quantity of ivory, rhinoceros-horns, hippopotamus-hides, apes and slaves". Tortoise-shell - and Obsidian Tortoise-shell, according to the Periplus was another export, and was obtained near the small islands called Alalali (Dahlak), to the east of Adulis, whither it was brought for sale by a people who are described as "fish-eaters". Another export from the coast was obsidian, a volcanic glass, which, the Periplus reports, was found exclusively at a place east of Adulis, where there was a great mound of sand piled up at the right of the entrance on top of obsidian deposits. Pliny, describing this stone, declares that it was extensively used in the making of jewellery, statues and votive offerings. The "Berber Market Towns" To the south-east of Adulis, along what is now Jibuti and Somaliland, lay what the Periplus calls the "Berber market towns", or "far-side ports", so-named because they were on the other side of the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden from Arabia. These ports, it says, lay "at intervals one after the other, without harbours", but had roadsteads where ships could anchor and lie in good weather. Avalites + Zeila The first of these ports was called Avalites, which may be identified as modern Zeila, the old name being preserved in that of the nearby village of Abalit. The coast at this point could only be reached by boats and rafts. The principal imports, according to the Periplus, were "glass, assorted; juice of sour grapes from Diospolis; dressed cloth, assorted, made for the Berbers; wheat, wine and a litfie tin". The exports of Avalites consisted of spices, a little ivory, tortoise-shell and "a very little myrrh, but better than the rest". Myrrh, we may note, was obtainable at most places along this part of the coast, and was apparenly found in the arid lowlands not too far from the sea. All the above articles were purchased by big merchants, who visited many lands, or alternatively by "the Berbers themselves", who "crossed on rafts to Ocelis [at the entrance of the Red Sea] and Muza [probably Mocha] on the opposite shore". The use of rafts is also mentioned by Pliny, who says they were supported on inflated skins. Malao = Berbera Beyond Avalites lay Malao, the Berbera of later times, which the Periplus describes as a better '"market town". The anchorage there was an open roadstead, sheltered by a spit running out from the east. The inhabitants were reportedly more peaceable than those of Avalites, who were said to ghave been very unruly. The imports of Malao, which were more or less the same as those of Avalites, also included "many tunics, cloaks from Arsinisoe, dressed and dyed, drinking-cups, sheets of soft copper in small quantity, iron and gold and silver coin, not much" Exports comprised myrrh, a little frankincense, known as "far-side", the harder cinnamon, duaca (probably a kind of frankincense), Indian copal (a type of gum) and macir (a root-bark), which were imported into Arabia; and "slaves, but rarely". Pliny, too, refers to the export of myrrh at a port called Isis which must have been somewhere in this area. Mundus = Bandar Hais Two or three days' sail to the east of Malao was the "market town" of Mundus, or modern Bandar Hais, where the ships lay at anchor more safely behind a projecting island close to the shore. Imports and exports were basically the same as at Malao, though an incense called mocrotu (probably a high grade of frankincense) was also exported. The traders, however, were reported to be "more quarrelsome" than elsewhere. And that, dear reader, is more or less all that the Periplus has to say about the ports, and trade, of the area of the Aksumite kingdom and the Gulf of Aden coast to its east. We plan, in the next month or so, to look at markets and merchants of the region in later times - and to present glimpses of commercial history of the region over the last two millennia.