Tylos
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{{History of Bahrain}}
Bahrain was referred to by the Greeks as '''Tylos''', the centre of pearl trading, when [[Nearchus]] came to discover it serving under [[Alexander the Great]]. <ref name="Larsen"> Life and Land Use on the Bahrain Islands: The Geoarcheology of an Ancient ... By Curtis E. Larsen p. 13 </ref> From the 6th to 3rd century B.C. Bahrain was included in [[Persian Empire]] by [[Achaemenian]]s, an [[Iranian Peoples|Iranian dynasty]].<ref name="Mojtahed-Zadeh"> Security and Territoriality in the Persian Gulf: A Maritime Political Geography By Pirouz Mojtahed-Zadeh, page 119</ref> The Greek admiral [[Nearchus]] is believed to have been the first of Alexander's commanders to visit this islands, and he found a verdant land that was part of a wide trading network; he recorded: “That in the island of Tylos, situated in the Persian Gulf, are large plantations of cotton tree, from which are manufactured clothes called ''sindones'', a very different degrees of value, some being costly, others less expensive. The use of these is not confined to India, but extends to Arabia.”<ref>Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren, Historical Researches Into the Politics, Intercourse, and Trade of the Principal Nations of Antiquity, Henry Bohn, 1854 p38</ref> The Greek historian, [[Theophrastus]], states that much of the islands were covered in these cotton trees and that Tylos was famous for exporting walking canes engraved with emblems that were customarily carried in Babylon<ref>Arnold Heeren, ibid, p441</ref>.
It is not known whether Bahrain was part of the [[Seleucid Empire]], although the archaeological site at [[Qalat Al Bahrain]] has been proposed as a Seleucid base in the Gulf<ref>Classical Greece: Ancient histories and modern archaeologies, Ian Morris, Routledge, p184</ref>. Alexander had planned to settle the eastern shores of the Gulf with Greek colonists, and although it is not clear that this happened on the scale he envisaged, Tylos was very much part of the Hellenised world: the language of the upper classes was Greek (although Aramaic was in everyday use), while Zeus was worshipped in the form of the Arabian sun-god Shams<ref>Phillip Ward, Bahrain: A Travel Guide, Oleander Press p68</ref>. Tylos even became the site of Greek athletic contests <ref>W. B. Fisher et al The Cambridge History of Iran, Cambridge University Press 1968 p40</ref>.
The name Tylos is thought to be a Hellenisation of the Semitic, Tilmun (from [[Dilmun]])<ref>Jean Francois Salles in Traces of Paradise: The Archaeology of Bahrain, 2500BC-300AD in Michael Rice, Harriet Crawford Ed, IB Tauris, 2002 p132</ref>. The term Tylos was commonly used for the islands until [[Ptolemy|Ptolemy’s]] ''[[Geographia (Ptolemy)|Geographia]]'' when the inhabitants are referred to as 'Thilouanoi'<ref>Jean Francois Salles p132</ref>. Some place names in Bahrain go back to the Tylos era, for instance, the residential suburb of Arad in [[Muharraq]], is believed to originate from "Arados", the ancient Greek name for Muharraq island<ref>Curtis E. Larsen. ''Life and Land Use on the Bahrain Islands: The Geoarchaeology of an Ancient Society'' University Of Chicago Press, 1984 p13</ref>.
The ancient Greeks speculated as to whether the [[Phoenicians]] were originally from Tylos. According to the 19th century German classicist, Arnold Heeren: “In the Greek geographers, for instance, we read of two islands, named Tyrus or Tylos, and Aradus, which boased that they were the mother country of the Phoenicians, and exhibited relics of Phoenician temples.”<ref>Arnold Heeren, p441</ref> The people of [[Tyre]] in particular have long maintained Gulf origins, and the similarity in the words “Tylos” and “Tyre” has been commented upon.<ref>Michael Rice The Archaeology of the Arabian Gulf Routledge 1994 p20</ref>
With the waning of [[Seleucid]] Greek power, Tylos was incorporated into [[Characene]] or Mesenian, the state founded in what today is [[Kuwait]] by [[Hyspaosines]] in 127BC. Inscriptions on coins found in Bahrain indicate that Hyspoasines occupied the islands, (and they also mention his wife, Thalassia).
From the third century B.C. to arrival of Islam in the seventh A.D., Bahrain was controlled by two other Iranian dynasties of [[Parthians]] and [[Sassanids]].
By about 250 B.C., [[Seleucids]] lost their tritories to [[Parthia]]ns, an Iranian tribe from [[Central Asia]]. Parthian dynasty brought the Persian Gulf under their control and extended their influence as far as Oman. Because they needed to control the Persian Gulf trade route, the Parthians established garrisons in the southern coast of Persian Gulf. <ref>Bahrain By Federal Research Division, page 7 </ref>
[[Image:Persia 600ad.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Asia in 600 CE, showing the Sassanid Empire before the Arab conquest.]]
In the third century A.D., the [[Sasanids]] succeeded the Parthians and held area until the rise of Islam four centuries later. <ref>Bahrain By Federal Research Division, page 7 </ref> [[Ardashir]], the first ruler of Iranian [[Sassanians]] dynasty marched forward Oman and Bahrain and defeat Sanatruq <ref>Robert G. Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, Routledge 2001p28</ref> (or Satiran<ref name="Mojtahed-Zadeh"/>), probably the [[Parthia]]n governor of Bahrain.<ref name="Jamsheed"> Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in ... By Jamsheed K. Choksy, 1997, page 75 </ref> He appointed his son [[Shapur I]] as governor of Bahrain. Shapur constructed a new city there and named it Batan Ardashir after his father.<ref name="Mojtahed-Zadeh"/> At this time, Bahrain incorporated in the southern Sassanid province covering over the Persian Gulfs southern shore plus the archipelago of Bahrain.<ref name="jamsheed"/> The southern province of Sasanids was subdivided into three districts of Haggar (Now al-Hafuf province, Saudi Arabia), Batan Ardashir(Now al-Qatif province, Saudi Arabia), and Msihmahig <ref name="Mojtahed-Zadeh"/> (In [[Pahlavi Language|Middle-Persian/Pahlavi]] means "ewe-fish".<ref>Yoma 77a and Rosh Hashbanah, 23a</ref>) included the Bahrain archipelago which earlier called [[Awal|Aval]], but later, in the Islamic era, became known as Bahrain. <ref name="Mojtahed-Zadeh"/> <ref name="jamsheed"> Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in ... By Jamsheed K. Choksy, 1997, page 75 </ref>
By the fifth century Bahrain was a centre for Nestorian Christianity, with Samahij the seat of bishops. In 410, according to the Oriental Syriac Church synodal records, a bishop named Batai was excommunicated from the church in Bahrain. <ref>Jean Francois Salles p132</ref>It was also the site Bahrain of worship of a shark deity called [[Awal]]. Worshippers reputedly built a large statue to Awal in Muharraq, although it has now been lost, and for many centuries after Tylos, the islands of Bahrain were known as ‘Awal’.
==References==
{{Reflist}}
[[Category:History of Bahrain]]