• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

KHULJAN In legend, the greatest king of the People of'Ad.

MAHRA A desert tribe descended from the People of 'Ad that exists to this day.

OMANUM EMPORIUM The apparent designation for Ubar on Claudius Ptolemy's map of Arabia, 150 A.D.

RUB' AL-KHALI (THE EMPTY QUARTER) The great sand desert of central Arabia, the largest sand mass on earth.

SABA (OR SHEBA) A famed Arabian kingdom far to the west of Ubar. Known for its queen, who journeyed to Jerusalem and the court of King Solomon.

SHADDAD In legend, an 'Adite king known for his arrogance and vanity.

SHAHRA Today a small tribe living in the Dhofar Mountains. The Shahra claim direct descent from the People of'Ad.

SHISUR The spring at Ubar and today's name for the site.

SUMHURAM The principal colonial settlement of the Hadramaut in the land of the 'Ad. A port for the shipment of frankincense collected at Andhur and Hanun.

UBAR The legendary "Atlantis of the Sands," the city doomed to destruction because its people "sinned the old sins, and invented new ones." In reality, a staging point for the caravans bearing frankincense north to Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Rome. In both myth and reality, Ubar was destroyed in a great cataclysm.

WABAR A variant spelling of Ubar.

* * *

Appendix 3: Further Reflections on al-Kisai's "The Prophet Hud"

"The Prophet Hud," as told by Muhammad ibn Abdallah al-Kisai, is the work of a master storyteller. He casts the tale of Iram/Ubar as a three-act structure, with each act broken into short scenes. The structure arose out of the need of a rawi, a street storyteller, to be paid for his prose. Every so often he would pause at a point where onlookers were anxious to know "what comes next." The rawi would nod to his mukawwiz (collector) that now was the time to rattle his cup and take up a collection.

On one level, "The Prophet Hud" is a morality play with a flair for fantasy. On another, its subtext is steeped in fascinating details of life before Islam, including choice clues as to the character and location of Iram/Ubar. Virtually every aspect of the tale can be traced back in time; its every thread has a source. Little, if anything, is woven of whole cloth.

A number of the story's telling ideas, citations, and characters are discussed in Chapter 7, "The Rawi's Tale." Here are more. The numbers refer to the lines on pages 81–87.

Line 5: "Wahb ibn Munabbih said: The greatest king of 'Ad was Khuljan..."

Line 44: "Kaab al-Ahbar said: When Hud was four years old, God spoke to him..."

To enhance their credibility, Arab storytellers cited past chroniclers, sometimes by the score. But "The Prophet Hud" mentions only three, and two of these—Ibn Munabbih and al-Ahbar—had a common agenda. Both were Jewish converts to Islam, and both were anxious to prove that their new religion shone as the only true faith. Nevertheless, they valued their Jewish heritage. Fond of its figures and folklore, they would have been particularly taken by the idea of a Jewish prophet Hud.

Line 6: "three idols, Sada, Hird, and Haba..."

Here we have a glimpse of the pagan Arabia that Hud decried, with its religion centered on a celestial trinity of moon, sun, and morning star.

Lines 11–18: "I saw coming out of my loins a white chain..."

Aside from this passage's rambunctiously sexual imagery, a chain in early Islam bespoke power and control. It was often associated with the execution of divine will, whether beneficent (as here, heralding Hud's conception) or vengeful (in hell sinners are not only wrapped in chains but skewered on them, to be "roasted on fire as 'kabob' is grilled on skillets"). Ibn Kathir quoted in Khawaja Muhammad Islam, The Spectacle of Death (Des Plaines, 111.: Kazi Publications, 1987), p. 301.

Line 25: "he was born on Friday."

Propitiously, Hud is born on the day of the week holy to Islam. The stage is set for a contest between adherents of many gods and a believer in one God.

Lines 33–44: "'My child,' she said, 'worship your god, for on the day I conceived