ʿĀd

ʿĀd (, ') was an ancient tribe in pre-Islamic Arabia. 'Ad is best known for being mentioned two dozen times in the Quran, often in conjunction with Thamud. Recently, it has been shown that 'Ad was a tribe that existed two millennia ago in the Wadi Rum region of the southern Jordan.

The tribe's members, referred to as ʿĀdites, formed a prosperous nation until they were destroyed in a violent storm. According to Islamic tradition, the storm came after they had rejected the teachings of a monotheistic prophet named '' Hud''. 'Ad is regarded as one of the original tribes of Arabia, "The Extinct Arabs".

Etymology

There is a possibility that the tribal name ''ʿĀd'' represents misinterpretation of a common noun: the expression ''min al-ʿād'' is today understood to mean "since the time of ʿĀd", but ''ʿād'' might originally have been a common noun meaning 'antiquity', which was reinterpreted as a proper noun, inspiring of the tribe 'Ad in Islamic conception.

Sources

The ʿĀd is mentioned in some pre-Islamic Arabic poetry including the work attributed to Ṭarafa and in the '' Mufaḍḍaliyyāt'', and in material recorded by Ibn Hishām; in this material they are understood as "an ancient nation that had perished".

The ʿĀd is mentioned twenty-four times in the Quran. According to the Quran, the ʿĀd built monuments and strongholds at every high point and their fate is evident from the remains of their dwellings. In Andrew Rippin's summary,

the tribe of ʿĀd is frequently mentioned alongside Thamūd and Noah, as in Q 9:70. A prosperous group living after the time of Noah (Q 7:69), the ʿĀd built great buildings (Q 26:128) associated with the ''aḥqāf'' (Q 46:21), understood as the "sand dunes" and identified by tradition as a place in the south of Arabia ... Hūd and other prophets were sent to the people of ʿĀd but they rejected him; they were then destroyed by a violent wind (Q 41:16, 46:24, 51:41, 54:19, 69:6) that lasted for a week and left only their buildings standing. The remnant of the tribe who survived, were the followers of Hūd (Q 7:72, 11:58).

History and location

As of 2012, the historicity of the tribe of 'Ad was an unanswered question. The lines referring to 'Ad in pre-Islamic poetry were of disputed authenticity and while some nineteenth-century scholars suggested identifying 'Ad with the better known Iyād, or with a tribe allegedly mentioned by Ptolemy known as the Oadites, these suggestions have not been successful. Related issues pertain to the geographical location of 'Ad. In later folklore, multiple attempts have been made to identify the location of 'Ad, including based on the statement that they were at the "winding tracts of sands" ( 46:21). The most common location proposed in traditional sources is in South Arabia, but alternative opinions have also proposed the Levant, near Damascus, or even in Alexandria, in many situations based on the assumption of a relationship with the location of Iram of the Pillars. According to Andrew Rippin, "some modern speculation has associated Iram—and thus ''ʿĀd''—with the buried city referred to as Ubar (Wabār), located at Shisur, Oman, because of the pillars found at that site."

Recently, a secure identification has been made between Iram and a region in northern Arabia and Wadi Rum in the desert of southern Jordan. The place, in combination with the place-names found attested to by inscriptions from the region, are compatible with the ''al-ʾaḥqāf'', "winding tracts" description of 'Ad in 46:21. Subsequently, it was also shown that three pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions (two in Hismaic, one in Safaitic) mention the tribe of 'Ad in the same area. Therefore, it is now widely accepted that both Iram and 'Ad belonged to the Wadi Rum area of the southern Jordan.

In Islam

According to Islamic tradition, the tribes of Hud and 'Ad are both linked to an eponymous, legendary king named ''ʽAd'', but modern scholarship has discarded the idea of such a king. ʿĀd, who came from the northeast of arabia more exactly Iraq and was the progenitor of the Adites, was the son of Uz (), who was the son of Aram (), who was the son of Shem, the son of Noah (). Therefore, Noah () is said to be Ad's great-great-grandfather. After Ad's death, his sons Shadid and Shedad reigned in succession over the Adites. ʿĀd then became a collective term for all those descended from Ad.

References

Sources

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Tribes of Arabia
Groups of Quranic people
Giants in Islam
History of South Arabia
Iram of the Pillars
Arabian mythology