| 'Ād عَادٌ | |
|---|---|
| Ancient Arab tribe | |
| Ethnicity | Arab |
| Nisba | 'Ādi |
| Location | Arabian Peninsula |
| Descended from | 'Ād bin 'Aws bin Iram bin Sam bin Nuh |
ʿĀd (Arabic:عاد,ʿĀd) was an ancient tribe inpre-Islamic Arabia. 'Ad is best known for being mentioned two dozen times in theQuran, often in conjunction withThamud.[1] Recently, it has been shown that 'Ad was a tribe that existed two millennia ago in theWadi Rum region of the southernJordan.[2]
The tribe's members, referred to as ʿĀdites, formed a prosperous nation until they were destroyed in a violent storm. According toIslamic tradition, the storm came after they had rejected the teachings of amonotheistic prophet namedHud.[1][3] 'Ad is regarded as one of the originaltribes of Arabia, "The Extinct Arabs".
There is a possibility that the tribal nameʿĀd represents misinterpretation of a common noun: the expressionmin al-ʿād is today understood to mean "since the time of ʿĀd", butʿād might originally have been a common noun meaning 'antiquity', which was reinterpreted as a proper noun, inspiring of the tribe 'Ad in Islamic conception.[4]
The ʿĀd is mentioned in somepre-Islamic Arabic poetry including the work attributed toṬarafa and in theMufaḍḍaliyyāt, and in material recorded byIbn Hishām; in this material they are understood as "an ancient nation that had perished".[5]
The ʿĀd is mentioned twenty-four times in the Quran.[6] According to the Quran, the ʿĀd built monuments and strongholds at every high point[7] and their fate is evident from the remains of their dwellings.[8][9] 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 theaḥqāf (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).[6]
As of 2012, the historicity of the tribe of 'Ad was an unanswered question.[4] The lines referring to 'Ad in pre-Islamic poetry were of disputed authenticity[4][10] and while some nineteenth-century scholars suggested identifying 'Ad with the better knownIyād, or with a tribe allegedly mentioned byPtolemy known as the Oadites,[11] these suggestions have not been successful.[10] 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 inSouth Arabia, but alternative opinions have also proposed theLevant, nearDamascus, or even inAlexandria, in many situations based on the assumption of a relationship with the location ofIram of the Pillars.[3][6][12] According to Andrew Rippin, "some modern speculation has associated Iram—and thusʿĀd—with the buried city referred to asUbar (Wabār), located at Shisur, Oman, because of the pillars found at that site."[6]
Recently, a secure identification has been made between Iram and a region in northern Arabia andWadi 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 theal-ʾaḥqāf, "winding tracts" description of 'Ad in 46:21. Subsequently, it was also shown that threepre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions (two inHismaic, one inSafaitic) 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.[2]
According to Islamic tradition, the tribes of Hud and 'Ad are both linked to aneponymous, legendary king namedʽAd, but modern scholarship has discarded the idea of such a king.[13][14] ʿĀd, who came from the northeast of arabia more exactly Iraq and was the progenitor of the Adites, was the son ofUz (عوض), who was the son ofAram (إرم), who was the son ofShem, the son of Noah (سام بن نوح). Therefore,Noah (نوح) is said to be ʽAd's great-great-grandfather. After ʽAd's death, his sons Shadid and Shedad reigned in succession over the Adites. ʿĀd then became a collective term for all those descended from ʽAd.