Incense

Posted at Mar 06/2007 05:07PM:
Akram: Heavily used in many of the religions practiced in Northern Arabia and the Mediterranean region, it was the main commodity and greatly exported by Southern Arabian Kingdoms. Harvested from the sap of trees in South Arabia, it was carried away on camel caravans, whose routes allowed many cities to flourish. A sharp decline of incense use occurred after Christianity became the prominent religion, this led to the camel caravan routes, and cities along those routes, to lose their prominence.

Posted at Mar 12/2007 11:07AM:
ian: It was the product that brought Arabia into contact with a larger world of the "Great Civilizations". A pretty big deal for tree sap (while maple syrup never reached that level, or even chewing gum, one good analogy might be rubber and the ways in which parts of Africa were brought into the world economy because of that tree product.) The difference with that is that Arabia was not a colony of these empires but largely independent producer.