After 129 B.C., with the decay of the Seleucid empire, a predominantly ethnically Arab Kingdom arose in southern Iraq, based on a settlement on the lower Tigris banks named Charax of Hyspaosines. While the founder, Hyspaosines, bore a seemingly Iranian name, he is described (by ancient writers) as king of the Arabs in that region. Hyspaosines ruled over what must have been a predominantly Arab population in the district of Characene or Mesene (later Arabic, Maysān).
Characene is attested in modern scholarship chiefly through extant ancient literary sources, together with inscriptions and coinage recovered through archaeological investigation. Nevertheless, despite these materials, substantial portions of Characene’s history remain obscure.
The exact boundaries of this kingdom remain uncertain, shifting according to the accounts of classical writers and geographers. It is generally linked to the far south of Iraq and the area of modern Kuwait. In broad terms, its territory was likely framed by the Arabian Desert to the west, the marshlands of southern Iraq to the north, and the waters of the Arabian Gulf to the south. Several Gulf islands—most notably Bahrain—were also considered part of this kingdom.
Characenians coins were discovered in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and the eastern region of Saudi Arabia.
Whereas Aramaic, Syriac, and Arabic appear to have constituted the kingdom’s internal tongues, its outward or exoglossic medium was in all likelihood Koine Greek, the common speech of the Hellenistic Middle East.
Characene came to an end c. 224–28 A.D, with the rise of the Sassanian Empire. The most famous citizen of Charax of Hyspaosines was Isidorus, who wrote an important geographical work, with special reference to Parthian territories.
Hellenistic conventions
In the aftermath of Alexander the Great’s conquests, the monarchies of Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and other regions deliberately embraced Greek cultural forms. Their royal titles, ceremonial practices, and public displays were crafted to project wealth, authority, and dynastic legitimacy through distinctly Greek artistic and performative conventions. The kingdom of Characene participated fully in this phenomenon; its rulers patterned their courtly attire, titles, rituals, coins, and aesthetic expressions on established Greek precedents.
The Seleucid Empire was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great.
ḫarakini or Mayshan?
Characene is an inaccurate transliteration of: “Χαρακηνή” (ḫarakini), a name used by Pliny and Ptolemy for a region in southern Iraq. The etymology of ḫarakini is debated, some believe it is derived from the Greek name for its chief city: “Charax”.
Etymology of Charax:
In Koine Greek, Charax is attested as a toponym, but its roots can be traced back to Semitic languages.
It is Syriac, (also called Neo-Aramaic) Krakh (ܟܪܰܟ): to gather, to assemble, and karkho(ܟܰܪܟܳܐ): enclosure, fortified place or fortress.
It is also Arabic: karkh (كرخ): flowed together, gathered; streamed down (water). Doublet of Khurj (خُرج): container or canteen, and Karj (كرج): (in medieval and modern colloquial Arabic): generally refers to focusing a force or motion into a smaller, more restricted area.
Thus, Charax is semantically equivalent to English: Compound, (a cluster of buildings in an enclosure).
According to Strabo, the Characenians call their country: “Mesene”, a Hellenization of the Aramaic: “Mayshan“.
Mayshan and “habal yamma”
The name of Characene in Aramaic is Mayshan, but there is a less frequent name for this region, which is “habal yamma/חבל ימא”.
Mayshan: There is no universally accepted etymology of Mayshan, some scholars suggest an Akkadian origin for this name.
One theory traces its roots to old Akkadian: “mušu” (Sumerian: gi6 or ge6), meaning dark, black, evening or night.
Akkadian: “mušu” can be translated into Arabic as: “sawad” (blackness).
It is interesting that “Sawad” was the name used in early Islamic times for southern Iraq.
For Sawad on Wikipedia
The word “sawad” (in Arabic) is also used to denote the irrigated and cultivated areas, because of their dark-green color, which is perceived to be “blackish”.
Habal yamma and Sea-land
Habal yamma is another Aramaic name for Characene, the literal meaning of “habal yamma/חבל ימא” is “Sea cord”, but it can be interpreted as: “coastline” or “costal territory”. A name originally applied to the territories bounded by the Gulf (including present-day Kuwait and Bahrain).
Apparently, “habal yamma”, largely coincides with “Sea-land“, (Māt-tâmti) an ancient Akkadian name for the same region.
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 – 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist and scientist. Pliny wrote the encyclopedic Naturalis Historia (Natural History), a comprehensive thirty-seven-volume work covering a vast array of topics on human knowledge and the natural world, which became an editorial model for encyclopedias.
Main Cities:
Charax: The capital, its full name is “Σπασίνου Χάραξ/Spasínou Kháraks” (also called: Spasinu Charax or Charax Spasinu). Situated on an artificial elevation between the rivers Tigris and Choaspes at the point where they meet, near the Gulf (and the modern frontier between Iraq and Iran). Pliny the Elder describes its foundation by Alexander the Great, who was said to have brought settlers from the royal city of Durine (and some invalid soldiers), but the evidence for this Alexandria is uncertain. A colony, however, was founded by the Seleucid Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 BC) under the name of Antiochia, but after this settlement had been destroyed (not for the first time) by flooding, it was restored by Hyspaosines (c 127–124)—son of a local Arab ruler named: Sagdodonacus—after whom it took the name of Spasinou. Charax, served as a port for caravans from the interior, until the recession of the Gulf, put an end to this activity.
Charax according to Pliny: “The town of Charax is situated in the innermost recess of the Persian Gulf, from which projects the country called Arabia Felix. It stands on an artificial elevation between the Tigris on the right and the Eulaeus on the left, at the point where these two rivers unite, and the site measures two miles in breadth. The original town was founded by Alexander the Great with settlers brought from the royal city of Durine, which was then destroyed, and with the invalided soldiers from his army who were left there. He had given orders that it was to be called Alexandria, and a borough which he had assigned specially to the Macedonians was to be named Pellaeum, after Pella, the place where he was born. The original town was destroyed by the rivers, but it was afterwards restored by Antiochus, the fifth king of Syria, who gave it his own name; and when it had been again damaged it was restored and named after himself by Spaosines son of Sagdodonacus, king of the neighbouring Arabs, who is wrongly stated by Juba to have been a satrap of Antiochus; he constructed embankments for the protection of the town, and raised the level of the adjacent ground over a space of six miles in length and a little less in breadth. It was origin ally at a distance of 1 miles from the coast, and had a harbour of its own, but when Juba published his work it was 50 miles inland, its present distance from the coast is stated by Arab envoys and our own traders who have come from the place to be 120 miles. There is no part of the world where earth carried down by rivers has encroached on the sea further or more rapidly; and what is more surprising is that the deposits have not been driven back by the tide, as it approaches far beyond this point.”
It is said that Trajan, (the Roman emperor), visited the capital Charax during his invasion of Parthia and seeing the ships sailing to India lamented for not being younger and not able to go there, as Alexander did.
Forāt: the city of Forāt was located few miles below Charax. Some scholars suggest that the capital was moved from Charax to Forāt, in later times. The word “Forāt” is the Arabic name for the river Euphrates. It is the Akkadian “Purattu”.
Apologos: was an important port in the Characene region, mentioned in the “Periplus of the Erythraean Sea” (possibly 2nd century C.E.) as lying near the coastland. Apologos is believed to be “Al-Ubulla” (Arabic: الأبلة), a port city at the head of the Gulf, east of “Basra” in present-day Iraq.
Hanging gardens in Kuwait
Teredon: (Ancient Greek: Τερηδών, romanized: Terēdṓn) was an ancient port city in southern Mesopotamia. Its precise location is debated, but it is believed to be in present-day Kuwait. Terēdṓn is mentioned by ancient Greek authors. It is said to have been founded by Nebuchadnezzar II, who built a palace there, with hanging gardens!
Bahrain included
The following inscription was discovered in 1997, by the Bahraini Direction of Archaeology:
Translation : [In the name of King Hyspaosines and of Queen Thalassia, Kephisodoros, the military governor of Tylos and of the Islands (has dedicated) the temple, to the Dioscuri Saviours, in ex-voto].
Hyspaosines: the founder of the kingdom of Characene.
Thalassia: the wife of Hyspaosines.
Kephisodoros: the military governor of Tylos.
Tylos: a Greek name for the Island of Bahrain.
“Tylos and the Islands” refers to: the archipelago of Bahrain.
Oman & Isidore of Charax
“Isidore of Charax” was a Characenian geographer who wrote in Greek. [01] One of his surviving works is “The Parthian Stations”, an account of the overland trade route between the Levant and India in the first century B.C. There are also fragments of his works which survived as quotes in the works of others, such as the following:
“Goaesus, so says Isidore of Charax, who in his time was king of the Omani in the Incense Land, after he had lived one hundred and fifteen years, died of disease.” [02]
With Jordan and Syria
Pliny mentions the city of Forāt, which was subject to the Kings of Characene (Mesene) as being frequented by the people from Petra (Pliny, 6.32.145). Palmyrene inscriptions of the second century also testify to successful caravan journeys undertaken between that city and both Charax and Forāt (Starcky, nos. 81, 112, and 114).
Petra (present-day Jordan) was the capital city of the Nabataean Kingdom in the second century BC. The Nabataeans (a nomadic Arab people) invested in Petra’s proximity to the incense trade routes by establishing it as a major regional trading hub.
Palmyra (present-day Syria) grew wealthy from trade caravans; the Palmyrenes became renowned as merchants who established colonies along the Silk Road and operated throughout the Near East. Ethnically, the Palmyrenes combined elements of Amorites, Arameans, and Arabs.
Adiabene (N.E. Iraq)
Adiabene is historical region that roughly corresponded to the N.E. part of the present-day Iraq. Its main urban center was (the now-predominantly Kurdish) Erbil. Its population was a blend of Semitic people: Arameans, Syriacs and Arabs.
Adiabene, as a sovereign state, came into prominence with the advent of the Parthians, who dispossessed the Seleucids of their territories first in Iran and subsequently in Mesopotamia.
Much of our present knowledge of the geography of Adiabene stems from the geographers of contemporary Greece and Rome such as Strabo, Ptolemy and Pliny, while the most extended historical details are to be found in Josephus (Antiquities 20) and Tacitus (Annales 12).
A story from Josephus:
The ruler of Adiabene, Monobazus, in the first decades of the Christian era intended his heir to be a younger child, Ezad (Izates), but for protection, he sent the youth away instead to reside with Abi-nerglos, king of Characene. The latter gave Ezad his daughter Samaha in marriage as well as a country estate. During his stay in Charax, Ezad was converted to Judaism. Meanwhile, at the court of Monobazus, his wife Helena, mother of Ezad, also took up the same faith. This may suggest a significant presence of Judaism in Charax.
[01]- https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isidoros_von_Charax
[02]- (Fragment quoted from Lucianus, Macrob. ch. 18.)
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