The Western Roman Empire collapsed under waves of Germanic tribe movements during the “Völkerwanderung” or Migration Period. The Migration Period lasted for centuries and the ensuing chaos resulted in countless deaths through famine, plague and war. Cultural growth came to a standstill as “barbarians” took control of the former Roman possessions. With the collapse of Rome, spice flow into Europe certainly must have diminished but it by no means stopped. There are a number of clear references in the historic literature on the use of exotic spices in Europe after Rome’s fall.
A remarkable group of Jewish merchants called the Radhanites kept the Mediterranean and Levantine trade routes operating throughout the Dark Ages in Europe. Jewish owned ships were seen as neutral and were allowed to travel anywhere. The earliest record of the Radhanite merchants is found in the 9th century account of Ibn Khordadbeh in Arabic – The Book of Roads and Kingdoms. Khordadbeh was the Director of Posts and Intelligence in a province in northwestern Iran and served as a postmaster, sheriff and spy for the Abbasid Caliph. According to this account, the Radhinite merchants operated along four trade routes that stretched from central France to the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Egypt, Byzantium, and Palestine, Syria, the northern parts of India, central Europe and China. No one merchant traveled all the way from France to China, but the goods were handed off to a string of Radhanite traders along the routes.
In Ibn Khordadbeh’s account:
“These merchants speak Arabic, Persian, Roman, the Frank, Spanish, and Slav languages. They journey from West to East, from East to West, partly on land, partly by sea. They transport from the West eunuchs, female slaves, boys, brocade, castor, marten and other furs, and swords. They take ship from Firanja (France), on the Western Sea, and make for Farama (Pelusium). There they load their goods on camel-back and go by land to al-Kolzum (Suez), a distance of twenty-five farsakhs. They embark in the East Sea and sail from al-Kolzum to al-Jar and al-Jeddah, then they go to Sind, India, and China.
On their return from China they carry back musk, aloes, camphor, cinnamon, and other products of the Eastern countries to al-Kolzum and bring them back to Farama, where they again embark on the Western Sea. Some make sail for Constantinople to sell their goods to the Romans; others go to the palace of the King of the Franks to place their goods. Sometimes these Jew merchants, when embarking from the land of the Franks, on the Western Sea, make for Antioch (at the head of the Orontes River); thence by land to al-Jabia (al-Hanaya on the bank of the Euphrates), where they arrive after three days’ march. There they embark on the Euphrates and reach Baghdad, whence they sail down the Tigris, to al-Obolla. From al-Obolla they sail for Oman, Sindh, Hind, and China.
These different journeys can also be made by land. The merchants that start from Spain or France go to Sus al-Aksa (in Morocco) and then to Tangier, whence they walk to Kairouan and the capital of Egypt. Thence they go to ar-Ramla, visit Damascus, al-Kufa, Baghdad, and al-Basra, cross Ahvaz, Fars, Kerman, Sind, Hind, and arrive in China.
Sometimes, also, they take the route behind Rome and, passing through the country of the Slavs, arrive at Khamlidj, the capital of the Khazars. They embark on the Jorjan Sea, arrive at Balkh, betake themselves from there across the Oxus, and continue their journey toward Yurt, Toghuzghuz, and from there to China.”
In essence, the Radhanites operated across the four major trade routes that had historically linked Europe with South East Asia and China: the southern Silk Route passing from China through Central Asia to Syria, the Northern Silk Route leaving China and veering north through the Caucuses and across the Black Sea, and the two Spice Routes from India, one traveling through the Red Sea and the other through the Persian Gulf.
The origin of the Radhanites is a bit of a mystery. Some historians suggest that the name comes from the Persian phrase Rah Daan (“he who knows the way”), while others believe it traces to the Rhone River valley in France (called Rhodanus in Latin). The leading authority on the Radhanites, Moshe Gil (1974), asserts they came from the district of Radhan in southern Mesopotamia, which he considers their central base of operations.
Adapted from: Hancock (2021) Chapter 12. Spices, Scents and Silk: Catalysts of World Trade. CABI
Literature cited: Gil, M. (1974) The Rādhānite merchants and the land of Rādhān. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 17, 299-328.
Figure: Trade routes of the Radhanite Jewish merchants are shown in blue. Other major trade routes shown in purple. Cities with sizable Jewish communities are shown in brown. Wikimedia Commons, Attribution: Briangotts.