'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎169v] (343/862)

HISTORY
passed the arteries by which much of the commerce of India and
the Far East reached the Mediterranean world, while the agricultural
wealth of the country and its central position within the empire made
it a considerable consumer of luxury goods. The Parthian Empire
really consisted of the provinces from the Euphrates to Merv
(Margiana) and Herat (Aria) through which passed the great over
land trade route of the Iranian plateau, bringing goods from India
and China (fig. 52). This route descended from Media to Babylonia
by the Zagrian Gates (Tak-i-Gireh, p. 571) and the Diyala valley.
Another stream of trade arrived from southern Arabia, India, and
east Africa by the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. through the Tigris port of Charax
(fig. 53 ). From the central markets of Mesopotamia this trade passed
northward through the Assyrian plains and thence westward by
the northern Jazira to Syria, crossing the Euphrates at the northern
Europus (Carchemish) or at Zeugma. A second route led directly
across the Syrian desert from Dura-Europus by the oasis of Palmyra
to Damascus; this latter route had not been extensively used before
the Parthian period, in which the wealth of Palmyra and Dura
originated. Another route was up the Tigris to Tigranocerta, the
southern capital of the Armenian kingdom.
In this general trade, of which the most valuable object was the
silk of China, cities of diverse types and origin had their share either
as ports and stations of entry and exit—Artemita, Charax, Dura-
Europus, Zeugma—or as depots and central markets—Seleucia,
Ctesiphon, and Arbela—or as police-posts and caravansarais,
notably the fortresses of Hatra, Nisibis, and Edessa, while the desert
Arabs who protected the caravan convoys took their percentage.
The Arsacids realized the dependence of their revenues upon this
international trade and protected it accordingly. It was policy with
them to maintain the carrying trade in the hands of their subjects
and to prevent the Iranian portion of these trade routes from being
worked by foreign caravans from either the Roman or the Chinese
empires. Likewise they always maintained control of the provinces
through which the trade routes ran, and were less interested in
maintaining their power in regions such as Persis which were remote
from the Silk Way.
The Sassanid Persian Empire, a.d. 224-640
In a.d. 208 Ardashir, king of Persis, and head of the feudal house
of Sassan, rose in revolt against his Parthian suzerain Artabanus V,