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The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ Egypt," and that as the." Midianitcs, merchantmen" passed by, “his brethren sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites," who were probably travelling by the im-memorial caravan route, through Canaan and Edom and Midian, from Chaldoea into Egypt, the route by which Israel afterwards sent his sons into Egypt with balm and honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds, for a present to the man," their brother, who was now governor over the land. Many beautiful and sublime scripture images are taken from this trade, as in. Isaiah Lxli 1, "Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant? ** They hold all swords, being expert in war, every man hath his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night;" passages giving also a vivid picture of a Mecca caravan of the present day, and of the dangers besetting it, with its rich merchandise of China, India and Persia.
As we learn from the account of the wars, both of Moses and of. Gideon with the Midianites, they were a very wealthy Arab people, living partly by predatory incursions into the neighboring territories, and partly by carrying on a caravan trade, across the intervening deserts, with the powerful states of Egypt and Chaldiea.
There was an immemorial commerce between India and the nations of the Mediterranean and there were several routes followed at different times. The route by Kirman Gerrha and Petra was probably the oldest of all. In these early times, the produce of India came to Kirman and Omnaz and was thence carried across the Persian Gulf to Gerrha, the emporium of the pearl fishery still carried on among Bahrein Islands, the ancient Tylos and Aradus, which with Muscat, were the original seats of those seafaring Arabs, who afterwards established themselves in Phoenicia and carried their settlements from port to port along the eastern and southern shores of the Mediterranean from Tyre to Sidon to the coast of Mauritania.
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