Al-Mada'in city

Al-Mada'in, ‘the cities’ the Arabic translation of the Aramaic Mahoze or Madinatha referring to the Sasanid metropolis on the Tigris about 20 miles southeast of Baghdad where several adjacent cities connected by a floating bridge stretched along both banks of the river.

It had once been the capital of the Persian Empire. It was five settlements that in the tenth century existed amid the ruins of the former town capitals of Persia, Ctesiphon and Seleucia. Actually, the city was a complex of seven cities.

Seleucia was probably an ancient site modernized by Seleucus, Alexander’s general, is situated on the western side of the river Tigris.

Ctesiphon was most probably a Parthian foundation, becoming their capital when the conquered the Seleucids in 129 BC.

On the west bank stood the round, walled city of Veh-Ardashir founded by Ardashir I in 230 AD and called Behrasir by the Arabs Mahoza by Jews and Kokhe buy Christians.

Mahoza, as is well known, was an important center of Babylonian Jews in the Persian period, as shown by many Talmudic sources.
Al-Mada'in city

City of Sidon in Lebanon

The Phoenicians were the descendents of Canaan, the grandson of Noah, and occupied a tract of country, which was bounded on the north and east by Syria, on the south by Judea and on the west by the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians earned the reputation of being the best seamen in the world.

Phoenicia was divided into several small kingdoms, of which the most considerable were those of Sidon, Tyre, and Arad. Sidon was a major seaport with two deep harbors. In Homer also (1000-800 BC) frequent mention is made of the merchants and skilful artist of Sidon.

Sidon, the eldest son of Canaan, founded the city which bore his name. While Eustathius declares that Sidon was built by Belus and named after his daughter Side.

In the ninth century Sidon, which had become a vassal of Tyre, resumed her independence, but Assyria had now in 880 BC stretched her hand over Phoenicia and in 842 BC both sites, Tyre and Sidon including northern kingdom of Israel paid their tribute.

Despite its woes at the hands of the Assyrians, Sidon remained a wealthy and prosperous city, until Sidonians became tired of paying tribute and rebelled. In 679-8 BC Sidon revolted against Assyria and was destroyed.

In the early sixth century BC Sidon got caught in the middle of a dispute between Egypt and Babylonia and in 587 BC it was captures by Nebuchadnezzar.

In the Persian period, Sidon have been the main and the most prosperous of the Phoenician cities, but later suffered from the aftermaths of the Tennes revolt in 351 BC.

Three times the city of Sidon was captured by the Crusaders and three times it was captured by the Muslim armies.
City of Sidon in Lebanon

City of Mocha

One of the positive economic developments occurred in Yemen was tremendous growth of Yemen’s coffee trading business which started in 15th century.

The port of city of Mocha on the Red coast of Yemen, from which a distinctive style of coffee takes name – was the port from which most of Yemen’s coffee was exported between the 61th and 18th centuries.

During the year 1000, some of the green beans were planted, and eventually coffee plantations were established at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, primarily in the countryside surrounding the city of Mocha.

It was visited in 1513 by Alfonso Albuquerque, but the first attempt to open trade with it was made in 1610, by the British expeditious under Sharpey and Sir Henry Middleton.

In 1525 Sultan Suleiman of Ottoman Empire dispatched a fleet to secure the coast of Yemen. An Ottoman army took the inland city of Zabid, following quickly on the heels of the seizure of the port of Mocha.

By the early 1600s, British and Dutch trading companies had opened profitable factories in Mocha. The Dutch were the first who established a factory there. They were followed by the French in 1708, and by the English soon after, which latter nation had nearly monopolized the trade.

Mocha’s trade activities extended as far as India and Southeast Asia in the eighteenth century the India Mughals sent ships from Indian ports such as Surat, Gujarat and Karwar in Karnataka, Kochi and other ports on the Malabar coasts.

Mocha’s importance to the coffee trade declined with opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
City of Mocha