Road to Ubar Pa - Nicholas Clapp [120]
22. City of Good and Evil
1. "A singular thing too...," Bostock and Riley, Natural History of Pliny, vol. 2, p. 91 (italics added). Elsewhere (vol. 3, p. 135) Pliny notes an interesting exception to his "they purchase nothing in return" statement. He tells us that "in Arabia there is a surprising demand for foreign scents, which are imported from abroad; so soon are mortals sated with what they have of their own, and so covetous are they of what belongs to others."
2. Ubar continued to prosper. The coastal incursion by the kingdom of the Hadramaut could actually have been a boon for Ubar, as the 'Adites chose to ship more and more of their incense overland rather than sell it to the Hadramis garrisoned at the port of Sumhuram.
3. a Jewish king sat on the throne ... Yusuf As'ar Yath'ar, lord of Dhu Nuwas, was "King of all Tribes." He ruled over the Himyar, a people who conquered the old city-states of Ma'in, Qataban, and Saba.
4. "which Shaddad ibn 'Ad built...," Thackston, Tales of the Prophets, p. 126.
5. the vocabulary of pre-Islamic Arabians ... The glossary of Father Jamme's Inscriptions at Mahram Bilqis provides an excellent overview of what was on the minds of the southern Arabians from approximately 750 B.C. to 450 A.D.
6. "Brothers are held in higher honor...," Jones, Geography of Strabo, pp. 365–66.
7. "when an Arab had a daughter born...," cited in Sale, Koran, p. 94.
23. Sons and Thrones Are Destroyed
1. the story became part and parcel of Jewish folklore. The historian al-Tabari reports that before the time of Muhammad the Jews of western Arabia threatened their enemies: "We shall kill you as 'Ad and Iram were killed" (Edshan Yar-Shater, ed., The History of al-Tabari, vol. 6 [Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989], pp. 124–25).
2. "We, the dwellers in this palace..." and "I, Shaddad ben 'Ad, ruled...," Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Bible (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1913), pp. 590, 571.
3. "Whoever doth read this writing...," Angelo'S. Rappoport, An- cient Israel: Myths and Legends (New York: Bonanza Books, 1987), vol. 3, p. 106.
4. "As old as 'Ad...," Thomas P. Hughes, A Dictionary of Islam (Lahore: Premier Book House, 1986), p. 18; "Roast flesh, the glow of fiery wine..." Lyall, Ancient Arabian Poetry, p. 64; "And ninety concubines ...," Philby, Empty Quarter, p. 157; "O delegation of drunks...," Thackston, Tales of the Prophets, pp. 114, 116; "Wealth, easy lot...," Lyall, Ancient Arabian Poetry, p. 64; "An ignominious punishment...," Dawood, Koran, pp. 128–29; "Sons and thrones are destroyed...," Thackston, Tales of the Prophets, p. 116; "Now all is gone...," Philby, Empty Quarter, p. 157; "Checkmate ... It was a great city ...," Thomas, Arabia Felix, p. 161; "At the end of life...," Edward Rice, Captain Sir Francis Burton (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1990), p. 440.
Epilogue: Hud's Tomb
1. patriarchs and prophets holy to Islam. This tier of mythological landscape includes figures that Islam shares with Judaism and Christianity. In the seaside town of Salalah, the tomb of Nebi Umran, father of the Virgin Mary, is venerated; in the mountains above Salalah, pilgrims leave offerings of incense and flowers at Job's tomb; in the desert beyond, at a spring called Mudhai, the bedouin will show you where Moses hit a rock seven times with his staff, and water magically flowed. It still does.
2. perhaps original tomb ... The medieval traveler Ibn Battuta reported that in Dhofar there was a building containing a grave on which is inscribed "This is the grave of Hud ibn 'Abir. God bless and save him." Here was a choice bit of evidence linking Hud to Ubar ('Abir).
3. a perhaps less authentic ... Hud's tomb... His second tomb, in the Valley of the Hadramaut, came into prominence at the earliest in the 900s, when it was "rediscovered" under questionable circumstances by a pair out of the Arabian Nights, a saintly descendant of Muhammad and a camel-driving