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Highlights
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Before Muslim pilgrims made their way to Mecca, Arabia was a network of caravan routes servicing the behemoth incense trade. It is estimated that the Romans alone imported 20 tons annually for use in religious and official ceremonies and even to perfume city sewage. “You forget what a smelly world it used to be,” Farhad jokes. Since incense–in the form of frankincense and myrrh–was only grown in southern Arabia and the Horn of Africa, traders had to travel through the peninsula, stopping to pay steep taxes at cities along the way. Though al-Ghabban tried to look past the pervasiveness of oil wealth in his country, the comparisons are hard not to notice (indeed, Exxon Mobil is even one of the show’s sponsors). “Incense was the oil of the ancient world,” explains Farhad.