The Road to Ubar (39 page)

18. Seasons in the Land of Frankincense

1.
a Mesopotamian-Persian sphere of influence.
A link between Ubar and Mesopotamia tallies with a fragment of myth in which "the 'Adites quarreled with the children of Ham and left Babylon. They peopled a district in southern Arabia contiguous to 'Umman, Yaman, and Hadramaut. There they built palaces, erected temples, and worshipped deities as stars."

2. 
eastern versus western Arabia.
An Arabian east versus west map can be drawn with archaeological evidence, admittedly sketchy, and with a brand-new cultural resource: genetic mapping. The division on the map on page 209 is based on the mean strength of the genes ESD*1 and GC*1F.

3. 
a temple as well as an administrative center.
In
Ancient Yemen
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), Andrey Korotoyev analyzes a settlement pattern in which a
hagar
was a
dual
religious and political center for a "
sha'b,
" a surrounding territory of several dozen square kilometers. Ubar would have been a hagar.

4. "Show us our Christ, alas!" and "Whereupon, after a terrible storm...," Sale, "Preliminary Discourse,"
Koran,
p. 16.

5. 
traditions of desert life.
The renowned Cambridge Arabist Robert Serjeant found southern Arabia ideal for the concept of "Interpretation of the Antique by Reference to the Present" (Serjeant,
South Arabian Hunt
[London: Luzac, 1983], p. 80).

19. Older Than Ad

1. 
At these sites
... Archaeologically, the sites near Shisur contemporary with the Rub' al-Khali's lakes are Upper Paleolithic (40,000–100,000 years before the present). Juris Zarins homed in on some forty small settlements from this era by plotting the courses of late Pleistocene rivers found on space images, then methodically searching their banks.

2. 
the rains withdrew.
The onset of hyperaridity was caused by a phenomenon called "Milankovitch forcing," in which Earth wobbled slightly in its orbit around the sun. This precipitated a global climactic change that to a large extent initiated the desertification of Arabia, Africa, India, and Australia.

3. 
retreating to the north
... It has long been argued—and counterargued—that the Semitic populations of the Middle East arose from the deserts of Arabia. A migration north twenty thousand years ago is how and when this could have happened. Though the date of this migration is far earlier than biblical scholars would like, the idea has an appealing fit. It has recently been championed by geologist Hal McClure.

4. 
waiting hunters would rise up
... The outline of Shisur's impressive Neolithic animal trap was photographed—quite unintentionally—by an Omani military overflight in the late 1970s. In 1990, Shisur's new village obliterated all traces of it.

5. "smelled the sweet savor...," Alexander Heidel,
The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), p. 87; "its resin was considered...," Walter W. Miiller, "Notes on the Use of Frankincense in South Arabia," in
Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar for Arabian Studies
(London: Seminar for Arabian Studies, 1976), p. 131.

20. The Incense Trade

1. "the rising of the Dog Star...," Bostock and Riley,
Natural History of Pliny,
vol. 3, pp. 126–27.

2. 
the surrounding oasis.
An ancient oasis appears to have extended east from Shisur along a fault line that tapped an aquifer charged by the runoff from the Dhofar Mountains. To this day, the wadi overlying this fault is called Umm al-Hait, the Mother of Life.

3. "The fairness of beautiful girls...," Thomas,
Alarms and Excursions,
p. 288.

4. "Thou shalt cast incense...," Master of Belhaven (A. Hamilton),
The Kingdom of Melchior
(London: John Murray, 1949), pp. 21, 20; "A stairway to the sky...," Raymond O. Faulkner,
The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), p. 76.

5. "called sacred and ... not allowed...," Bostock and Riley,
Natural History of Pliny,
vol. 3, p. 125.

6. "The whole city now is conceived...," Joseph Campbell, "The Hieratic City State,"
Parabola
18, no. 4 (Nov. 1993), pp. 41–43.

7. 
The language of the 'Adites
... Though only a two-letter fragment of the 'Ad script has surfaced at Ubar, inscriptions abound in the Dhofar Mountains. It appears to have preceded not only other languages of southern Arabia, but also Hebrew, which has nine fewer sounds, and Arabic, which has eight fewer.

8. "broken heads ... and to bind bloody wounds...," Oldfather,
Diodorus of Sicily,
p. 45.

9. "It is the luxury of man...," Bostock and Riley,
Natural History of Pliny,
vol. 3, p. 127. As a measure of the value of frankincense, there are records of the denarii paid for a measure in the markets of Rome. To translate its cost into modern terms, the Smithsonian's Gus Van Beek worked out the formula that a pound of frankincense was worth between 2.5 and 5 percent of the minimum annual urban cost of living. In 1990 dollars, that would be over $1,000 a pound.

21. Khuljan's City

1. 
summer's night in
350
B.C.
This year could have been as early as 410 or as late as 290
B.C.
The earliest carbon-14 date associated with Ubar's New City is 350
B.C.
plus or minus sixty years.

2. "After the sun has set...," Thomas,
Arabia Felix,
pp. 52, 290.

3. 
a fence woven of gnarled branches...
Duwwar construction is still used by the Shahra of the Dhofar Mountains. Its use at Ubar would explain why there is no "meltdown" from dissolved mud brick walls.

4. "To thee from Babylon we made our way...," Faris,
Antiquities of South Arabia,
p. 30.

5. 
a large plastered basin...
Water installations—including fountains and sheets of water one walked through—were an important feature of Arabian temples. To ensure a fresh water supply, there may have been a rock-cut passage between Ubar's temple and the spring. Our Shisur friend Baheet recalled that as a boy, he found and squeezed through such a passage that had since collapsed.

6. 
the kahin shuffled the arrows
... Divination by arrows is called
istqam
in Arabic, "rhabdomancy" in English. The rite may have an echo in the Bible when Yahweh, through his soothsayer Gad, speaks to David, saying: "I offer you three things; choose one of them for me to do to you" (2 Samuel 24:12). Similarly, in legend, the fate of the Ubarites is sealed as they choose one of three clouds.

7. 
Once ... the religion of the 'Ad may have been more meaningful
...As historian Karen Armstrong has noted, "In Arabia the original symbolic significance of the old gods had been lost during the nomadic period and Arab religion had no developed mythology to express this pagan insight" (Armstrong,
Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet
[San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1992], p. 98).

8. "Were it not for her whose wily charms...," Faris,
Antiquities of South Arabia,
p. 29.

9. "Roast flesh, the glow of fiery wine...," Lyall,
Ancient Arabian Poetry,
p. 64.

10. 
to Eriyot, his royal city.
Eriyot may have been Ain Humran. But there is also reason to believe that Eriyot may have been obliterated by the construction of the sultan of Oman's Robat palace in Salalah.

22. City of Good and Evil

1. "A singular thing too...," Bostock and Riley,
Natural History of Pliny,
vol. 2, p. 91 (italics added). Elsewhere (vol. 3, p. 135) Pliny notes an interesting exception to his "they purchase nothing in return" statement. He tells us that "in Arabia there is a surprising demand for foreign scents, which are imported from abroad; so soon are mortals sated with what they have of their own, and so covetous are they of what belongs to others."

2. 
Ubar continued to prosper.
The coastal incursion by the kingdom of the Hadramaut could actually have been a boon for Ubar, as the 'Adites chose to ship more and more of their incense overland rather than sell it to the Hadramis garrisoned at the port of Sumhuram.

3. 
a Jewish king sat on the throne
... Yusuf As'ar Yath'ar, lord of Dhu Nuwas, was "King of all Tribes." He ruled over the Himyar, a people who conquered the old city-states of Ma'in, Qataban, and Saba.

4. "which Shaddad ibn 'Ad built...," Thackston,
Tales of the Prophets,
p. 126.

5. 
the vocabulary of pre-Islamic Arabians
... The glossary of Father Jamme's
Inscriptions at Mahram Bilqis
provides an excellent overview of what was on the minds of the southern Arabians from approximately 750
B.C.
to 450
A.D.

6. "Brothers are held in higher honor...," Jones,
Geography of Strabo,
pp. 365–66.

7. "when an Arab had a daughter born...," cited in Sale,
Koran,
p. 94.

23. Sons and Thrones Are Destroyed

1.
the story became part and parcel of Jewish folklore.
The historian al-Tabari reports that
before
the time of Muhammad the Jews of western Arabia threatened their enemies: "We shall kill you as 'Ad and Iram were killed" (Edshan Yar-Shater, ed.,
The History of al-Tabari,
vol. 6 [Albany: State University of New York Press,
1989],
pp.
124–25).

2. "We, the dwellers in this palace..." and "I, Shaddad ben 'Ad, ruled...," Louis Ginzberg,
The Legends of the Bible
(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1913), pp. 590, 571.

3. "Whoever doth read this writing...," Angelo'S. Rappoport, An-
cient Israel: Myths and Legends
(New York: Bonanza Books, 1987), vol. 3, p. 106.

4. "As old as 'Ad...," Thomas P. Hughes, A
Dictionary of Islam
(Lahore: Premier Book House, 1986), p. 18; "Roast flesh, the glow of fiery wine..." Lyall,
Ancient Arabian Poetry,
p. 64; "And ninety concubines ...," Philby,
Empty Quarter,
p. 157; "O delegation of drunks...," Thackston,
Tales of the Prophets,
pp. 114, 116; "Wealth, easy lot...," Lyall,
Ancient Arabian Poetry,
p. 64; "An ignominious punishment...," Dawood,
Koran,
pp. 128–29; "Sons and thrones are destroyed...," Thackston,
Tales of the Prophets,
p. 116; "Now all is gone...," Philby,
Empty Quarter,
p. 157; "Checkmate ... It was a great city ...," Thomas,
Arabia Felix,
p. 161; "At the end of life...," Edward Rice,
Captain Sir Francis Burton
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1990), p. 440.

Epilogue: Hud's Tomb

1. 
patriarchs and prophets holy to Islam.
This tier of mythological landscape includes figures that Islam shares with Judaism and Christianity. In the seaside town of Salalah, the tomb of Nebi Umran, father of the Virgin Mary, is venerated; in the mountains above Salalah, pilgrims leave offerings of incense and flowers at Job's tomb; in the desert beyond, at a spring called Mudhai, the bedouin will show you where Moses hit a rock seven times with his staff, and water magically flowed. It still does.

2. 
perhaps original tomb ...
The medieval traveler Ibn Battuta reported that in Dhofar there was a building containing a grave on which is inscribed "This is the grave of Hud ibn 'Abir. God bless and save him." Here was a choice bit of evidence linking Hud to Ubar ('Abir).

3. 
a perhaps less authentic ... Hud's tomb...
His second tomb, in the Valley of the Hadramaut, came into prominence at the earliest in the 900s, when it was "rediscovered" under questionable circumstances by a pair out of the
Arabian Nights,
a saintly descendant of Muhammad and a camel-driving scoundrel. For the record, there are even more Hud's tombs: a third is near the well of Zamzam in Mecca; a fourth is outside the town of Salt in Jordan; and a fifth is in the south wall of the great mosque of Damascus.

4. 
the world's first skyscrapers.
Some of Shibam's skyscrapers date to as early as the 900s. Well before then, as revealed by recent archaeology, pre-Islamic buildings in the Hadramaut rose as high as seven stories. (See Jacques Seigne, "Le Chateau Royal de Shabwa: Architecture, Techniques de Construction et Restitutions,"
Syria
68 [1991].)

5. "You camel men, go..." and "O Khon, no girl in Khon...," cited in R. B. Serjeant, "Hud and Other Pre-Islamic Prophets of Hadramawt,"
Le Museon
57 (1954), p. 25.

6. "God curse you, infidel woman," Serjeant, "Hud and Other Pre-Islamic Prophets," p. 29; "invoke peace on all the prophets...," Harold Ingrams,
Arabia and the Isles
(London: John Murray, 1942), p. 215.

7. "As I went in, I saw...," Faris,
Antiquities of South Arabia,
pp. 79–80. For another version of this, see al-Kisai's tale of the prophet Hud in Chapter 7, page 87.

8. "So sacred that a stick...," Ingrams,
Arabia arid the Isles,
p. 216.

9. 
a sulfurous portal to the underworld.
The account of one al-Qazwini in 1250 tells us: "The bit of earth most hated by Allah is Wadi Barhut, in which there is a well filled with evil-smelling, black water, wherein go the souls of the unbelievers." He also cites a Hadrami belief that "whenever we notice a foul smell in the neighborhood of Barhut, then, later on, we are informed of the death of one of the most prominent among the unbelievers" (Ferdinand Wustenfeld, ed.,
'Adjaib al-Makhluqat,
vol. 1 [Gottingen, 1849], p. 198).

Albright, Frank P.
The American Archaeological Expedition in Dhofar, Oman.
Washington: American Foundation for the Study of Man, 1982.