were well acquainted with the coast, mentioned the royal city of the Laeanites as being by the sea.
The same city is referred to by Pliny, op. cit., VI, 157, as Haegra (var., Hegra) in close connection with a reference to the Tamudaei, in whose territory al-Ḥeǧr was situated. I believe that the Arreni (var., Araceni, Arraceni, Anagemi), in whose city Pliny (loc. cit.) asserts that all the trade was concentrated, are also identical with the inhabitants of the city of Hagra or Hegra, or the modern al-Ḥeǧr. The work of Pliny is a compilation of extracts from various other works, and it is not surprising that various accounts are given there of the same city and that its name is written in various ways. The northwestern part of Arabia Felix, with which Pliny here deals, did not contain at his time any city, except al-Ḥeǧr, in which it would have been possible to say that all the trade was concentrated.
Ptolemy, Geography, VI, 7: 29, lists the city of Egra between Soaka and Salma. Soaka is identical with the modern ruins and oasis of Swâk 140 kilometers to the west, and Salma is the modern Abu Salama, sixty kilometers still farther west.
Stephen of Byzantium, Ethnica (Meineke), Vol. 1, p. 260, refers to the Arabian city of Egra by the Ailanitic Gulf.
Aṭ-Ṭabari, Taʻrîh (De Goeje), Ser. 1, p. 215, says that the Ṯamûd resided at al-Ḥeǧr and in its environs between the Ḥeǧâz and Syria as far as Wâdi al-Ḳura’.
Ibn al-Aṯîr, Kâmil (Tornberg), Vol. 2, pp. 3 f., relates a tradition concerning a priestess dwelling at al-Ḥeǧr, to whom the people journeyed from afar in order to ask her counsel in important matters.
On his expedition to Tebûk, the Prophet Mohammed visited al-Ḥeǧr (aṭ-Ṭabari, op. cit., Ser. 1, p. 1697; al-Wâḳedi, Muhammed [Wellhausen], p. 397; Ibn Hišâm, Sîra [Wüstenfeld], Vol. 1, p. 898) and those accompanying him obtained water from the well there. When they continued their journey, the Prophet gave orders that nobody was to drink the water obtained at al-Ḥeǧr; nor were any ceremonial ablutions to be performed in it; and the bread, with the dough of which the water had been mixed, was not to be eaten; but the water was to be given to the camels to drink.
Al-Iṣṭaḫri, Masâlik (De Goeje), p. 19, mentions al-Ḥeǧr as a small settlement with a few inhabitants, a day’s march distant from al-Ḳura’ in the midst of isolated rocks known as al-Aṯâleb, in which are the houses of the Ṯamûd.
At the time of al-Muḳaddasi, 985 A. D., al-Ḥeǧr was a small fortified settlement with numerous wells and cultivated fields (Aḥsan [De Goeje], p. 84). Not far away on a high, rocky level rose a mosque of the Prophet Ṣâleḥ, hollowed out in a rock, and around it were various strange houses of the Ṯamûd, the doors of which were adorned with images and inscriptions.
Al-Bekri, Muʻǧam (Wüstenfeld), p. 270, calls al-Ḥeǧr a city of the Ṯamûd located between Syria and the Ḥeǧâz.
Al-Idrîsi, Nuzha, III, 5, writes that the fortress of al-Ḥeǧr, frequented by spirits, is situated a day’s journey from the valley of al-Ḳura’ among rocks known by the natives as al-Aṯâleb. These rocks are entirely isolated, and in them are hollowed out the houses of the Ṯamûd. Not far away is a well. The surrounding region is one of rocks and sand, so that it is very difficult to cultivate anything there. From al-Ḥeǧr to Tejma is