Travel and Transport in Umayyad Territories

Travel under Umayyad rule connected pilgrimage, government, military service and household needs. In the eastern caliphate of 661–750, travellers crossed Syria, Iraq and Egypt, where roads linked inland towns with Red Sea and Mediterranean ports. The later Cordoban emirate and caliphate, based in Iberia from 756 to 1031, sent envoys between Córdoba and European courts. A journey could combine sea and land travel, while food, permission and the season affected how far a group could proceed.

People also travelled to visit relatives, seek learning or take part in trade.

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Moving through Syria: food, documents and lodging

Hugeburg’s eighth-century account of the pilgrim Willibald describes a sea crossing followed by travel through Syria toward Jerusalem. In 724, Willibald and his companions waited three weeks at Paphos on Cyprus before sailing to Antarados on the Syrian coast. They then moved inland between towns and religious sites. At a monastery of St John the Baptist near the Jordan River, about twenty monks lived; Willibald’s party stayed one night before walking roughly a mile to the river.

In Homs, in modern Syria and called Emesa in the account, officials detained the group after suspecting them of spying. The travellers asked permission to continue to Jerusalem, and the governor held them while he sought caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik’s decision. A local merchant sent them lunch and dinner each day. On Wednesdays and Saturdays his son took them to a bath; on Sundays he escorted them through the market to church and bought goods they chose. A Spanish visitor who had a brother at court and the captain of the ship that had carried them from Cyprus helped explain their journey before Hisham, who allowed them to go. The account says other prisoners were liable for one tremissis, worth one-third of a solidus, a gold coin, while Hisham excused Willibald’s party.

A separate episode in 726 shows how officials and travellers adapted the size of a party to provisions. Willibald fell ill at Salaminias in Syria during Lent, the Christian fasting season before Easter, and could not travel. His companions tried to find Hisham to request travel papers, then returned to Homs when they could not reach him. The governor issued them safe-conduct letters in pairs because two travellers could obtain food more easily than a larger group. Permission to pass and the ability to secure meals were both part of the journey.

Routes for armies and pilgrims

In Iraq, routes also carried state forces east from Basra, in the south of modern Iraq. Historian Michael Morony describes the Khuzestan road from Basra toward Kerman in modern Iran, used for campaigns toward the Makran coast and Sistan. In 710 a Syrian army marched by this route through what is now southern Iran toward the Indus valley. This was an official military movement across long distances, different from a pilgrim’s itinerary or a merchant’s arrangements.

For the Syrian Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, historian Claudine Dauphin traces an early route from Damascus south to Ayla, at present-day Aqaba in Jordan. A manuscript account she discusses describes Caliph Muawiya, who ruled from 661 to 680, inviting Egyptian pilgrims to join at Ayla before following the eastern Red Sea coast through Yanbu to Mecca. The route joined Syrian and Egyptian participants in a shared overland pilgrimage. Dauphin’s field reconstruction also links the journey with water points and stopping places. She argues that beacons guided pilgrims travelling on summer nights to avoid the intense daytime heat.

Egypt’s canal and Red Sea traffic

In Egypt, a canal connected the Nile transport system with Red Sea ports and the pilgrimage route. Historian Frank Richard Trombley’s study describes the reopening of Trajan’s Canal by the governor ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAs and examines early eighth-century Greek-language papyrus documents that record its use. The waterway carried agricultural and manufactured supplies from the Nile region toward al-Qulzum, the Red Sea port, and supported the movement of provisions for Mecca and Medina and later pilgrims travelling to Mecca.

Official letters show the practical work behind that traffic. A letter dated 710 from the archive of Qurra ibn Sharik, governor of Egypt, orders the administrator at Aphrodito (modern Kum Ishkaw) in Upper Egypt to send materials for maintaining ships at Clysma, the Red Sea port of al-Qulzum, and provisions for their sailors. The governor sets a deadline before the canal water subsides. If supplies arrive too late, the administrator must carry them by road to the port and cover the overland haul himself. Another letter from the same 710 archive tracks sailors sent on an expedition in North Africa with Ata ibn Rafi. It asks how many returned to Aphrodito after Musa ibn Nusayr, the Umayyad commander in North Africa, sent them back, how many remained there, and how many died there or on the journey after their service ended.

Envoys travelling between Córdoba and Europe

In Iberia, official travel could also unfold through diplomacy. John of Gorze, a monk sent by Otto I, king of East Francia, travelled to the Cordoban court in response to Caliph Abd al-Rahman III’s 950 embassy. The mission lasted from 953 to 956 after a diplomatic dispute arose over Otto’s accompanying letter. In 956, Abd al-Rahman sent a return embassy led by Reccemund of Elvira.