If a curious and diligent researcher could have unrestricted access to Hud's contemporary pilgrims and their pilgrimage, there would be enough material for a major study of ancient belief and rites, transmitted from the time of belief in betyls to the time of Islam. We were content just to be here and to sense the abiding power of Hud, prophet of Ubar. As a social reformer, he challenged a people who may have been not only "arrogant and unjust" but who had probably fallen into the barbarism of infanticide and Lord knows what else.
As to Hud's condemnation of the worship of multiple gods, the question can be raised: what, inherently, was wrong with worshipping as many gods as one wished? (In the old days, who didn't?) But consider the nature of Arabia's gods: they were identified with celestial and natural forces (scorching sun, comforting moon, storms that could be either destructive or life-giving). Offerings were made to please them, to gain their favor. Whether the petitioner was avaricious or dissolute didn't matter. The gods had little or no interest in morality. By contrast, a single God, particularly a Jewish-inspired single God, historically called for the judgment of human behavior. What mattered in life came to be moral order and elemental human decency. Faith might be important, but decency was even more important. So it has been said in Arabia, by pious prophets and free-spirited bedouin alike: when the vanity of the world fades and is gone, nothing remains of an individual but his good name.
For Kay and me, this was the day we reached the end of a fifteen-year trail, for it was that long ago that Virginia Blackburn, the crusty bookseller in Los Angeles, had insisted I buy a book I didn't want to buy. A few nights later Kay and I first came upon the story of the ancient lost city of Ubar. Between then and now we had had many doubts whether Ubar, much less Hud, really existed, and in pursuing this quest, had often been but a step ahead of the "We would like to remind you ... perhaps you overlooked..." people at American Express and Visa. But now the search was, as they say in Arabic with a clap of the hands, "Khalas!" Finished. "Khalas!" an Omani good friend told us, has a double meaning. As well as "Finished!" it means "Salvation!"
As we wandered about exploring the environs of Hud's tomb, our driver, Hussein, napped in the shade of Hud's petrified camel, his Kalashnikov his pillow. At our return, he blinked awake and asked, "We go?" We bumped over the desert track back to Tarim, where we spent the night at a derelict palace now being run as something resembling a hotel. It was, lugubriously but appropriately, named the Qasr al-Qubba, the "Castle of the Grave." A sign over the front desk read: "All weapons to be left with the Management." Hussein said if that was the case, he would just as soon sleep on the roof of his Toyota (and did). On the way to our rooms, we passed another sign, lettered in Arabic, then English:
CALMN-
-ESS IS
REQUE-
-STED
FROM
ALL.
The rooms were stifling hot and not for the fastidious. We hesitated to open the windows for fear that creatures of the night might join us. Already a suction-footed lizard was adhered to a pane, watching us. Or perhaps he was more interested in the little snacks our room might offer. A creature of uncertain species strolled across our pillow, which reminded us of the enlightenment offered by a Middle Eastern hotel clerk on a previous occasion. "The reason there are bugs in the bed," he explained, "is that they're too scared to get down on the floor."
As darkness descended over the Hadramaut—the Valley of Death—we settled in for the night at the Castle of the Grave. We didn't sleep badly. Quite well, in fact.
* * *
APPENDIX 1:
Key Dates in the History of Ubar
APPENDIX 2:
A Glossary of People and Places
APPENDIX 3:
Further Reflections on al-Kisai's "The Prophet Hud"
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX
* * *
Appendix 1: Key Dates in the History of Ubar
1,000,000–100,000 B.C. Homo erectus in the vicinity.
100,000–20,000 B.C. Migrating from Africa, Homo sapiens camps at Shisur spring (the nexus of what would later become Ubar). In this era, Arabia is a vast savanna.
20,000–8000 B.C. A devastating era of hyperaridity turns Arabia into an uninhabitable wasteland.
8000–2500 B.C. The rains return, and with them pastoral nomads who construct a large animal trap at Shisur. They harvest frankincense and conduct long-range trade with Mesopotamia.
2500 B.C.-present The rains retreat, initiating a new period of aridity that continues today.
c. 2000 B.C. The camel is domesticated, possibly in southern Arabia.
c. 900 B.C. Ubar's Old Town built.
c. 350 B.C. Ubar's New Town built. Trade extends to Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Rome. Ubar's days of glory (and perhaps inglory) follow.
c. 300–500 A.D. Ubar destroyed and abandoned.
900–1500 Ruins of Ubar reoccupied; minimal rebuilding. (Evidence of attack and burning, c. 940.)
1930 Explorer Bertram Thomas discovers "the road to Ubar." In Thomas's footsteps, expeditions seek the city in 1932, 1945 (two attempts), 1953, 1956, and, finally, 1991–92.
* * *
Appendix 2: A Glossary of People and Places
'AD The people who in antiquity harvested Arabia's finest frankincense from groves high in the Dhofar Mountains of today's Oman. Ubar was the 'Ad's city in the desert.
AIN HUMRAN A fortress of the 'Ad overlooking the Arabian Sea and controlling the maritime shipment of frankincense. In architecture and purpose, it was Ubar's sister city.
ANDHUR A colonial outpost of the Kingdom of the Hadramaut in the territory of the People of 'Ad. Along with Hanun, it was an inland collection point for frankincense.
AL-AHQAF An arc of dunes on the southern edge of the Rub' al-Khali. In legend, this is where Ubar lay buried.
DHOFAR The southern region of today's Oman, where the Dhofar Mountains rise up from the coast, providing ideal conditions for the growth of Arabia's finest frankincense.
GERRHA A city on the north side of the Rub' al-Khali. The Gerrhans were trading partners of the 'Ad.
HAGIF The 'Ad's major settlement in the Dhofar Mountains and the largest Bronze Age site in Oman.
HADRAMAUT A powerful kingdom immediately to the west of the People of'Ad. Shortly after the time of Christ, the Hadramis sought a share of the frankincense harvest and colonized 'Adite territory.
HANUN A colonial outpost of the Hadramaut in 'Adite territory. Along with Andhur, an inland collection point for frankincense.
HUD In legend, the prophet who warned the People of 'Ad of the terrible fate that would befall them if they failed to renounce their arrogant and wicked ways.
IRAM A name for Ubar in the Koran, the Arabian Nights, and many other accounts.
KHOR SULI An 'Ad port on the Arabian Sea for the shipment of frankincense. In case of attack, its inhabitants could retreat to the nearby fortress of Ain Humran.
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 de
struction 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 you I saw many strange things.'"
Hud's mother recalls six wondrous signs, which offer a sampling of the folklore of ancient Arabia. The black rock miraculously turned white is an inversion of the tradition that the black rock set in the corner of Mecca's holy shrine (the Ka'aba) was once dazzlingly white, darkening only in the shadow of the sins of man. Symbolically, Hud can reverse this and lead his people out of darkness into the light.
There are other images of light and white. The people of the heavens have white faces; rays of light bless the infant Hud. Then, as a final and inspired touch, a pearl, which is normally white, appears as a sign on Hud's arm. But here this talisman is green, the color of Islam.
The giant man who lifts Hud's mother into the sky harks back to the tradition that the People of 'Ad were a race of giants. Here is an excellent example of the creative role of exaggeration in Arabian folklore. Where we might employ relatively unimaginative words such as "impressive" or "beyond belief," Arab storytellers would describe a city as encrusted with rubies and pearls, or add a few zeroes to a tribe's population. An idea that was beyond man's comprehension would be symbolized by a being that was beyond comprehension; in this case a vision of heaven is delivered by "a man whose head was in the sky and whose feet were in the vast expanses of the earth." And this giant is a little guy compared to Arabian visions of angels: Gabriel (who appears later in the tale) is traditionally described as having a thousand eyes, wings that cover the earth, and a face that radiates the light of a thousand suns. The point is that the beings who flank God in his heaven—to say nothing of God himself—are beyond measurement in human terms (and infinitely more imposing than squat stone idols).
***
Lines 26–27: "his mother saw him and asked, 'My son, whom are you worshipping?'..."
Lines 44–77: "When Hud was four years old God spoke to him..."
The prophet Hud's relationship with his God—and his people—is at first low-key. As a small child, he mildly rebukes idolatry by pointing out to his mother, "These idols bring neither harm nor profit ... Neither do they see or hear." They are useless blocks of rock. But then the situation escalates. Fired by a message from God, Hud challenges his people—and his king—to worship but a single God. He wins a few converts but otherwise is rebuked and cursed. He counters with a seventy-year series of warnings and threats. To no avail. Even when the wrath of God comes down upon the People of 'Ad, they turn a deaf ear to Hud, his chosen prophet.
Regrettably, this arc of character and story development probably has little to do with actual events at Ubar. Rather, it is about a different man in a different age. It is an extraordinary replication—rich in emotion and detail—of the early career of the prophet Muhammad. Confronting the malaise and materialism of the people of Mecca, Muhammad became increasingly frustrated and angry at their disbelief, only to have his own tribe, the Quraish, proclaim his Koran a forgery and reject him as an impostor. As he walked the streets of Mecca, he was showered with insults.
It was then that, like Hud, Muhammad took it upon himself to become a "warner." His sermons, in fact, repeatedly brought up the story of Iram/Ubar as a prime example of the fate God had in store for the Meccans. It was only when he was in Mecca that Muhammad delivered verses of the Koran dealing with the People of 'Ad. Agitated, intense, inspired, they have been called the "Terrific Suras."
It is a little confusing, but the dynamic here is three-tiered: our tale's Hud (described in the 1100s) is modeled on the prophet Muhammad (600s), who in turn equated himself with a historic Hud (150–500)!
During his years in Mecca, Muhammad would have had no problem likening himself to a Jewish prototype. It was only after he left Mecca and migrated to Medina that he had a serious falling-out with the Jews. Even then, he honored them as "the People of the Book," that is, the Old Testament.
Lines 98–133: "it was the custom, when a people was afflicted from heaven or from an enemy, to take an offering to the Sanctuary of the Ka'aba..."
In the Koran, there is no mention of a delegation from Ubar/Iram making a pilgrimage to Mecca. This has apparently been added to "bring home" the story by having the 'Ad, who gave the prophet Hud grief, travel to the city that gave the prophet Muhammad grief.
Here also is a glimpse of a pre-Islamic Meccan pilgrimage. The seventy chosen men enter the Sanctuary on jeweled she-camels, and there is a rite involving the draping of robes.
Line 104: "and their names were Qayl, Luqman..."
The inclusion of the name Luqman connects the Iram/Ubar story to a vast web of interrelated Arabian legends. Luqman, it is written elsewhere, was granted the lifespan of seven generations of captive vultures; he wanders the Middle East for 650 to 3,500 years (depending on what source you read and what the author considered a vulture's lifespan).
Our rawi's tale signals Luqman's very first, understated appearance. Unlike his fellow delegates to Mecca, he has nothing to say or do. In years and legends to come, he makes up for it. He appears in Arabian and African tales
as a vagabond, a shepherd, a deformed slave, a tailor, a carpenter. He composes proverbs and fables. He has the intellect of a hundred men and is the tallest of all. He becomes vizier to King David, who considers himself fortunate and proclaims: "Hail to thee, thine is the wisdom, ours the pain!" He becomes a king himself, king of'Ad the Second, a realm equated with the city-state of Sheba. There he builds the Great Dam of Marib, which makes it onto several lists of "Wonders of the Ancient World." (Its monumental, ruined masonry is still to be seen.)
When the last of the vultures reared by Luqman finally falls off the perch, Luqman stirs him to fly again, but in vain. The bird dies, and Luqman with him. The name of this last vulture is Lubad—"Endurance."
What a life, what a sustained flight of fancy! Like a genie, a good character let loose is hard to put back in the bottle, and there is no telling what he'll become. This is not to say that a Luqman never existed, only that his early incarnations—as a desert vagabond or shepherd—may have been closer to the truth. (By the same token, Luqman's first Arabian haunt—Ubar—could have been a relatively modest settlement.)
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