Road to Ubar Pa - Nicholas Clapp [98]
The next week or the next month, Khuljan, mighty king of 'Ad, rode away to the mountains and the coast, to Eriyot, his royal city.10 Over the years he and his heirs enjoyed riches and (as far as is known) remarkable tribal stability. Khuljan and his people, in fact, stood at the threshold of classical achievement, even greatness.
It was a threshold they never crossed.
The 'Ad could have established a formal state, yet instead they remained forever a tribe. They could have created mosaics and heroic statues, yet their vision reached no farther than the rock art on the walls of their caves. The 'Ad could have developed a world view, even a transcendent theology, but instead they worried about lurking djinns and the evils of the night air.
22. City of Good and Evil
THE RISE AND FALL of Ubar spawned a myth of good versus evil. To give it dramatic impact and immediacy, many storytellers have had Ubar destroyed in the very reign of the king who ordered the city's construction. Ubar is barely up before it comes tumbling down. God hardly hesitates before wiping the wicked city from the face of the earth. How better to reward a king who proclaimed, "And people feared my mischief every one."
In reality, following major construction around 350 B.C., Ubar thrived for at least six centuries before its destruction and abandonment. A secret city of frankincense, well fortified, splendid in its isolation. In that era the People of'Ad enjoyed an advantageous position in Arabia, even as an increasing number of tribes jostled for power. Classical writers called the collective lot of these tribes "Scenitae." Pliny the Elder tells us: "A singular thing too, one half of these almost innumerable tribes live by the pursuits of commerce, the other half by rapine: take them all in all, they are the richest nations in the world, seeing that such vast wealth flows in upon them from both the Roman and the Parthian empires; for they sell the produce of the sea or of their forests, while they purchase nothing whatever in return."1
To protect their share of Arabia's wealth, the 'Ad aligned themselves with the Parthians, who likely demanded considerable tribute. Yet the Parthians were a long way away when, beginning in the 200s B.C., the People of'Ad faced increased threats to their control, at its source, of the frankincense trade.
First a migrating tribe, the Omanis, approached from the west and may have threatened Ubar before continuing on their way. Then there was trouble on the coast. Shortly after the time of Christ, the neighboring kingdom of the Hadramaut established a fortified outpost overlooking the best natural port in the land of the Ad. They called it Sumhuram, a word likely meaning "the Great Scheme." That it was, for Sumhuram gave the Hadramis control of the sea trade in frankincense. Further, with military efficiency, the Hadramis built facilities for incense collection and storage inland at Hanun and Andhur.
This incursion was not necessarily hostile. The Greeks and Romans now fully understood the seasonal workings of the trade winds and were freely plying the Indian Ocean. The 'Ad may have decided: better an alliance with the Hadrami king, 'Had, than potential conquest by the Romans. It wouldn't be the first instance of a love-hate relationship as old as the Middle East: "Brother against brother, brothers against cousins, brothers and cousins against the world."
Despite what was happening on the coast, evidence suggests that Ubar continued to prosper.2 What ultimately dimmed its star, and all the stars of Arabia, was a development no one had anticipated: the advent of Christianity. The new religion, as it spread throughout the Middle East, preached that the dead be given a simple burial rather than being cremated, a rite that traditionally called for the burning