Climate
and Inhabitants
In Arabia there is no river worth
mentioning. Almost the entire country comprises of burning desert and barren
land and the areas lying along the seacost alone are in a flourishing state
with population. Scarcity of water has made human habitation almost impossible
in the middle areas. All the populated areas lie at the seacost except Najd,
which is situated to the north of Ar-Rub' Al-Khâli and in the middle of the
country. Najd is actually a plateau, it is mostly desert and the desert range
of Najd meets the vast deserts of Syria.
Arabia is dotted with mountains here
and there but no mountain is fresh and green. Yemen and Hijâz, situated on the
coast of Red Sea, are fresher and greener than the rest of the area. The entire
Arabian population is 12.5 million meaning ten people per square mile. [The
figures relate to the past, at the time when the book was written.] The sun is
very hot there, and sunstroke is so sharp and violent that it is generally
considered poisonous. Even the camel, which is purely a desert animal, falls
down dead with a stroke of this poisonous and burning wind. The camel is very
useful in this country. For hundreds of miles one cannot find a trace of water.
The camel is a desert ship. Long journeys are made on its back. Nothing
significant grows except dates, and the population generally lives on camel's
milk and dates, fish is eaten on the coastal areas. A greater part of the
population of this country lives a nomadic life so there are few big
flourishing cities. [After the establishment of a single union territory by
King Abdul-Aziz bin Âl Saud, and by the current development in Arabian
Peninsula, the above mentioned status has been changed.]
The scope of this book doesn't
permit more space for writing about the geography of the Arabian Peninsula.
Ancient
Peoples of Arabia
Since very early times the progeny
of Sâm (Shem), the son of Nûh (Noah) ( عَلَيْهِ
السَّلَامُ ), has inhabited Arabia. As regards designating eras, the
historians have put the inhabitants of Arabia into three categories namely,
Arab Bâ'idah, Arab Musta'ribah and Arab 'Âribah. Some of them have held both
'Âribah and Musta'ribah as the same and designated them in two categories only
Arab Bâ'idah and Arab Bâqiyah. Arab Bâ'idah refers to only those peoples who
had inhabited Arabia from the earliest age and they have all perished without
leaving any trace behind. Arab Bâqiyah means those people who are still found
in Arabia. They also form two categories namely, 'Âribah and Musta'ribah. Other
historians have designated the Arabs into four categories — Arab Bâ'idah or
Arab 'Âribah, Arab Musta'ribah, Arab Tâbi'ah, and Arab Musta'jimah.
Arab
Bâ'idah:
Some of the earliest tribes were
called Ād, Thamud, Abil, Amâliqah, Tasm, Jadais, Umaim, Jurhum, Hadramout,
Hadur and Abd Dakhm etc. These all were the progeny of Laudh bin Sâm (Shem) bin
Nûh (Noah). They dominated the whole of the Arabian Peninsula and some of their
kings expanded their military conquests up to Egypt. Books of history do not
give any account about them and their conditions. Ruins of their buildings,
archaeological finds, some pillars of stone, ornaments and sculpture have been
found in Najd, Ahqâf and Hadramout, which tell us that they were the strongest
civilization of their time with much grandeur and awe. Among these tribes, Ād
was the most renowned. These people lived in Ahqâf. Ād bin Aus bin Iram bin Sâm
by whose name this tribe became famous, was the first and foremost king of
Arabia. He had three sons, named Shaddâd, Shadid and Iram. They ruled one after
another.
About the same Shaddâd bin Ād,
Allâmah Zamakhshari has written that he built the city of Iram in the desert of
Aden but it is now traceless. The Noble Quran has also made mention of Iram but
it refers to the Iram tribe, not the city of Iram nor the garden of Iram. The
Iram tribe was perhaps, another name for the Ād tribe or perhaps it was a
branch of Ād tribe or the Ād tribe was itself a branch of the Iram tribe,
Allâmah the Almighty says in the Quran:
"Did
you not see how did your Lord treat the Ād of Iram who were of so commanding
stature that no creature of such a physical strength was ever born in the
cities (of the world)?" (89:6-8)
Mas'udi has written that, before Ād,
his father Âs was also a king. A king named Jairun bin Saad bin Ād bin Aus of
this very dynasty had rampaged Syria and built a house of marble and precious
stone, and he had named it Iram. Ibn Asâkir has also mentioned the name of
Jairun in his history of Damascus. The Prophet Hud ( عَلَيْهِ
السَّلَامُ ) was sent to the Ād tribe or the people who were raised from
the same people. But his people disobeyed him and were sent to their doom. The
Glorious Quran has detailed this event. Ād was followed by Abil, Amâliqah,
Thamud, and Abd Dakhm, who ruled the country one after another until Ya'rub bin
Qahtân brought about their end and set the beginning of a new era. Prophet
Saleh ( عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ ) was sent to the
Thamud tribe or the people of Thamud. Thamud lived in Hijr while Yamamah was
the place where Tasm and Jadais lived; Amâliqah lived in Tihâmah and Jurhum in
Yemen. As mentioned above, all the tribes of Arabia were the progeny of Sâm,
the son of Nûh (Noah) ( عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ
), which are shown in the genealogical table.
Arab
'Âribah:
This category of Arabs is the
progeny of Qahtân. Prior to Qahtân from Nûh ( عَلَيْهِ
السَّلَامُ ) none of these ancestors had Arabic as their language. The
progeny of Qahtân used Arabic for the first time, which they amalgamated from
the Arab Bâ'idah. The Qahtân tribes are divided in two types, Yemeniah and
Sabâiyah.
Scholars are widely divided over the
genealogical issue of Qahtân. Some of them say that he was the son of Aber bin
Shâlikh (Shelah) bin Arfakhshand bin Sâm bin Nûh, and the brother of Qane and
Yaqtan. Torah doesn't mention it, but Qane and Yaqtan are mentioned therein.
According to others, Yaqtan is derived from Qahtân, in other words, what has
been called Yaqtan is actually Qahtân. Ibn Hishâm says that Ya'rub bin Qahtân
is also called Yemen and the country of Yemen was named after him. Now, if
Qahtân belonged to the progeny of Ismail (Ishmael) ( عَلَيْهِ
السَّلَامُ ), the whole of Arabia would be descending from Ismail ( عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ ) for only two
persons, Qahtân and Adnân are the remote ancestors of all the tribes of Arabia.
But the most confirmed and acceptable understanding is that Qahtân and Yaqtân
are the same person and the Qahtân tribe does not precede Banu Ismail.
Arab 'Âribah or Qahtân tribes have
produced some famous kings who had the whole of Arabia under their control.
Ya'rub bin Qahtân did away with all the races and traces of the Arab Bâ'idah. A
short genealogical table of Banu Qahtân may be seen on the next page.
Yemen is supposed to be origin and
the ancient land of the Qahtân tribes. Among them, Himyari and Azdi tribes are
most renowned. Azdi tribes ruled over the city of Saba and southern Arabia.
They paid special attention to the progress and prosperity of the Yemenite
population. Queen Bilqis was from them and she was a contemporary of Sulaiman
(Solomon) ( عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ ). The Tâbi'iyah
kings who reigned over Yemen and Hadramout also belonged to them. One of the
tribes of Azdi shifted to Al-Madinah, settled and ruled there. Khuzâ'ah turned
towards Makkah and defeated the Jurhum tribe who was then in control of the
affairs there. Nasr, the son of Azd settled in Tihâmah; and Imrân, a son of
Khuzâ'ah settled in Oman, and their children came to be known as Azd Oman,
while another one named Ghassân settled in the frontier area of Syria and ruled
over the frontier tribes. In Yemen, the rule of Qahtâni sultans extended up to
7 CE. Ghassân bordered on the Roman Empire, while the Qahtâni state of Hirah
was near the Persian Empire. At the time of the advent of Islam, the Qahtân
tribes were very strong and in a commanding position in the whole of Arabia.
No comments:
Post a Comment