Road to Ubar Pa - Nicholas Clapp [36]
There weren't any. Nor were three clouds mentioned in the Koran, the earliest coherent record of the Iram/Ubar story. What likely happened is that a report of an explosive volcanic eruption—possibly Vesuvius in 79 or 512 A.D.—was rung in for its dramatic value, as an effective way to set up the city's destruction.
As I further studied the tale, I found that the three clouds weren't the only elements slipped in after the fact. The running description of the travails of the prophet Hud, for instance, turned out to be based on the considerably later and unconnected experiences of the prophet Muhammad as he preached a new religion in Mecca and was spurned by his tribe.
It became evident that this tale of al-Kisai, on the surface relatively straightforward, had a complex subtext, highly symbolic and replete with allusions-within-allusions. (For a look at this subtext, see the Appendix, [>].) Essentially, much of the tale is immensely intriguing but has little or nothing to do with Ubar as a real place. On the other hand, "The Prophet Hud" incorporates lore that may indeed bear on an actual city's rise and fall. The tale offers potential insights into Ubar's antiquity, its people, its destruction, and its location.
ANTIQUITY Al-Kisai's tale is heralded by a genealogy (lines 1–3). Arab storytellers loved genealogies, for they imparted a ring of authenticity. They also harked back to a time before writing, when an individual and his tribe were defined by their place in a long and worthy procession of remembered ancestors. What is unusual is that by Arab standards, this genealogy's line of descent is remarkably short, with only a half-dozen generations between Noah and the glory days of Iram/Ubar. This would make the People of 'Ad an ancient tribe, perhaps the oldest in all Arabia.
PEOPLE The People of 'Ad appear to have had a lively appreciation of sin, though the nature and extent of their sinfulness is unclear. They were certainly materialistic, and they worshipped at least three gods. Confronting them, the prophet Hud made quite an impact preaching the worship of but a single God. Who, then, was Hud?
In Semitic lore (shared by both Jews and Arabs), names frequently have an elemental allegorical meaning: for Daoud, or David, it is "beloved"; for Suleiman, or Solomon, it is "man of peace." And "Hud" comes from the root HWD: "to be Jewish." This linkage is clearly reflected in the Arabic of the Koran, where "Hud" is not just the name of a prophet but a collective noun denoting the Jews.
Was Hud Jewish?
He could well have been. Much has been written of the Jews of Arabia, much of it chronicling the period 300–525. In that era Jewish courtiers and even a Jewish king ruled the kingdom of Himyar, which rose and fell in what today is Yemen. It is no stretch of the imagination to believe that a Jewish trader—or even a rabbi—could have made his way to Ubar and preached the religion of a single God.
Was Hud a historical figure? It is impossible to know. But he certainly was a compelling allegorical figure, a symbol of early monotheism. The monotheism of Arabia and Islam, the prophet Muhammad himself declared, was heir to revelations first made to the Jews.
DESTRUCTION Iram/Ubar was suddenly destroyed by a great cataclysm. But what actually happened? The storyteller appears unsure of his apocalyptic imagery. Early on, a mysterious voice promises destruction by an "icy gale, turbulent with dust" (line 108). A few sentences later another voice exclaims, "May they [the 'Adites] quench their thirst with hot water" (line 115). Next we are given the imagery of the three volcanic clouds. The Barren Wind that is ultimately unleashed is supremely violent but not terribly convincing. It has the characteristics of a tornado, an all-but-unknown phenomenon in southern Arabia.
Other versions of the tale downplay the wind, having Iram/Ubar destroyed by a mighty but still baffling "Divine Shout." In one account the end comes as "suddenly the earth opened around it and Iram, bathed in a strange twilight, began to