The trade routes constituted a vast communications network that transmitted far more than tradeable commodities. They carried ideas, creeds, fashions, customs and languages from one extremity to the other, much as the internet does today. South Arabians taught the Indians astronomy, philosophy, maths and astrology several centuries before the dawn of the Hellenistic Era.

IMPACT OF THE SILK ROADS HISTORY ON TODAY ECONOMY AND CULTURE IN OMAN

After Vasco de Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope, the Portuguese occupation of Oman’s ports and aggressive dominance of the Indian Ocean trade brought poverty where there had once been prosperity, putting the seal on an extended era when Oman’s cities were marked by sophistication and culture, by thriving marketplaces, great libraries and splendid mosques.

Al-Taghrooda traditional Bedouin chanted poetry is composed and recited by men travelling on camelback through desert areas of the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman. Bedouins believe that chanting entertains the riders and stimulates animals to walk in time. Short poems of seven lines or less are improvised and repeated between two groups of riders often as antiphonal singing. Generally the lead singer chants the first verse and the second group responds.

Xoan singing is practised in Phú Thọ Province, Viet Nam, in the first two months of the lunar year. Traditionally, singers from Xoan guilds performed songs in sacred spaces such as temples, shrines and communal houses for the spring festivals.

The Song of Sana’a, also known as al-Ghina al-San’ani, designates a group of songs that belongs to a rich musical tradition practised throughout Yemen. Derived from various poetic traditions dating from the fourteenth century, this genre constitutes an integral part of social events, such as the samra marriage evenings and the magyal, the daily afternoon gathering of friends and colleagues.