Dilmun - Ancient Bahrain
The
Persian Gulf in the Ancient World
Dilmun returned to prosperity after the Assyrian
Empire stabilized the TigrisEuphrates area at the end of the second millennium
B.C. A powerful ruler in Mesopotamia meant a prosperous gulf, and Ashurbanipal,
the Assyrian king who ruled in the seventh century B.C., was particularly
strong. He extended Assyrian influence as far as Egypt and controlled an empire
that stretched from North Africa to the Persian Gulf. The Egyptians, however,
regained control of their country about a half-century after they lost it.
A
series of other conquests of varying lengths followed. In 325 B.C., Alexander
the Great sent a fleet from India to follow the eastern, or Persian, coast of
the gulf up to the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and sent other
ships to explore the Arab side of the waterway. The temporary Greek presence in
the area increased Western interest in the gulf during the next two centuries.
Alexander's successors, however, did not control the area long enough to make
the gulf a part of the Greek world. By about 250 B.C., the Greeks lost all
territory east of Syria to the Parthians, a Persian dynasty in the East. The
Parthians brought the gulf under Persian control and extended their influence
as far as Oman.
The
Parthian conquests demarcated the distinction between the Greek world of the
Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Empire in the East. The Greeks, and the Romans
after them, depended on the Red Sea route, whereas the Parthians depended on
the Persian Gulf route. Because they needed to keep the merchants who plied
those routes under their control, the Parthians established garrisons as far
south as Oman. In the third century A.D., the Sassanians, another Persian
dynasty, succeeded the Parthians and held the area until the rise of Islam four
centuries later. Under Sassanian rule, Persian control over the gulf reached
its height. Oman was no longer a threat, and the Sassanians were strong enough
to establish agricultural colonies and to engage some of the nomadic tribes in
the interior as a border guard to protect their western flank from the Romans.
This
agricultural and military contact gave people in the gulf greater exposure to
Persian culture, as reflected in certain irrigation techniques still used in
Oman. The gulf continued to be a crossroads, however, and its people learned
about Persian beliefs, such as Zoroastrianism, as well as about Semitic and
Mediterranean ideas.
Judaism
and Christianity arrived in the gulf from a number of directions: from Jewish
and Christian tribes in the Arabian desert; from Ethiopian Christians to the
south; and from Mesopotamia, where Jewish and Christian communities flourished
under Sassanian rule. Whereas Zoroastrianism seems to have been confined to
Persian colonists, Christianity and Judaism were adopted by some Arabs. The
popularity of these religions paled, however, when compared with the enthusiasm
with which the Arabs greeted Islam.
Data as of January 1993
Source: Library of Congress Country Studies
Source: Library of Congress Country Studies
