Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c6.30

c6.30

The Bahrein Islands were the port of call where ships took in water before setting sail for India, as the inhospitable Mekrān coast had nothing to offer them. The immense trade with all nations carried on by the Phoenicians may be estimated by studying the remarkable passage in which the prophet Ezekiel⁵ prophesies the overthrow of the great city of Tyre in 573 B.C., by Nebuchadnezzar II. “Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of thy riches : with silver, iron, tin and lead, they traded for thy wares. . . . Dan also, and Javan, going to and fro, occupied in thy fairs : bright iron, cassia and calamus were in thy market. . . . And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, ‘Who is there like Tyre, like her that is brought to silence in the midst of the sea? When thy wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst many peoples; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches and thy merchandise.’” Herodotus refers to the Phoenician ships as “taking to long voyages, loading their ships with Assyrian and Egyptian wares¹.”