The Northern Ḥeǧâz/Appendix 10
APPENDIX X
AL-ḤEǦR
Strabo, Geography, XVI, 4: 24, relates that Aelius Gallus on his march from southern Arabia came through a desert in which there were only a few wells to the settlement of Egra, situated in the territory of the Nabataean king, Obodas, near the sea. Thence he sailed across with his army to Myos Hormos in eleven days and near the town of Koptos reached the Nile, down which he sailed to Alexandria.
Aelius Gallus certainly returned from southern Arabia upon the great transport route leading to Syria. Upon this highroad was situated the important Nabataean trading center of al-Ḥeǧr. Accordingly we infer that the Egra mentioned by Strabo is identical with al-Ḥeǧr. It is true that al-Ḥeǧr lies not by the sea, but inland; but near this town Aelius Gallus left the trade route and branched off to the coast, upon which the port of al-Ḥeǧr was situated. It is possible and indeed probable that this harbor was also called al-Ḥeǧr, just as the port of Madjan was likewise known as Madjan, and it is perhaps identical with the modern harbor of al-Weǧh. Strabo nowhere mentions that the Roman army returned along the coast. The journey from al-Ḥeǧr to its port and thence across the Red Sea to the African harbor of Myos Hormos (lat. 27° N.) could have taken eleven days. In southern Arabia the Romans were two days’ march distant from a region whence various spices were exported, and from there sixty days’ march brought them to the town of Egra. According to Strabo, op. cit., XVI, 4: 4, the trade caravans performed the journey with spices and incense from the region in question to the town of Aelana (or Aila), about 350 kilometers distant from al-Ḥeǧr, in seventy days. As the figures sixty and seventy are only approximate and Aila is about ten days’ march from al-Ḥeǧr (Egra), these particulars confirm our surmise that Egra is identical with al-Ḥeǧr.
Pliny, Nat. hist., VI, 156, calls Hagra (variants are Agra, Hagrat) the royal city of the Laeanites, from whom the gulf also received its name. The Laeanites are the Arabian Leḥjân, whose name has been preserved in various places of the northern Ḥeǧâz. They were the rulers of the land before, and perhaps for some time together with, the Nabataeans. Their original center was the oasis of Dajdân, or Dedan, about twenty kilometers to the south of al-Ḥeǧr. At the beginning of the second century before Christ the power of the Nabataeans increased, and they spread from north to south, settling in al-Ḥeǧr, which gradually supplanted the ancient Dajdân. The Nabataeans in al-Ḥeǧr were originally subject to the Leḥjân, who certainly also resided in al-Ḥeǧr as well as in Dedan. From this it may be inferred that Hagra, the royal city of the Laeanites, is identical with al-Ḥeǧr. We cannot locate the capital of the Laeanites on the coast, because they were engaged in trading by land rather than by sea. Moreover, the great transport route did not lead along the coast, and none of the ancient authors, although they 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 four days’ march, and from Tejma to the oases of Ḫajbar, or Dûmat al-Ǧandal, likewise four days’ march. Tejma is three days’ march from the Syrian frontier.
Jâḳût, Muʻǧam (Wüstenfeld), Vol. 3, p. 634, relates that Šuʻejb with his family dwelt in the land of Madjan; Ṣâleḥ in the environs of al-Ḥeǧr; and Hûd, with his fellow-tribesmen the ʻÂd, at al-Aḥḳâf (in southern Arabia). According to Jâḳût (op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 208) al-Ḥeǧr is the name of the houses of the Ṯamûd in Wâdi al-Ḳura’ between al-Medîna and Syria.
Jâḳût also gives the name of al-Aṯâleb to the rocks near al-Ḥeǧr, and he reckons al-Ḥeǧr as part of Wâdi al-Ḳura’; according to others, however, it is a day’s journey distant from Wâdi al-Ḳura’.
Jâḳût, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 115, erroneously transcribes al-Aṯâleb as al-Aṯâleṯ, as is clearly shown by his explanation that al-Aṯâleb are mountains in the territory of the Ṯamûd at al-Ḥeǧr not far from Wâdi al-Ḳura’.
Ibn Baṭṭûṭa, Tuḥfa (Defrémery and Sanguinetti), Vol. 1, pp. 259 f., at the end of the year 1326 A. D. visited a well with abundant water at al-Ḥeǧr of the Ṯamûd, and with admiration he describes the fine houses of the Ṯamûd, hollowed out in the red rocks and provided with steps. These houses were as well preserved as if they had been built quite recently. Inside the houses could be seen numerous remains of bones. Between two rocks he was shown the place where the camel of the Prophet Ṣâleḥ knelt down, as well as the remains of the mosque where Ṣâleḥ used to pray.
Ḥaǧǧi Ḫalfa, Ǧihân numa’ (Constantinople, 1145 A. H.), p. 521, calls al-Ḥeǧr, or Ḳerâja Ṣâleḥ, a rocky, bare region covered with isolated hills called Aṯâleb. In this region sand drifts can be seen here and there. About half a day’s march from al-ʻEla’ is the mosque of Ṣâleḥ, hollowed out in a crag, as well as numerous rock dwellings of the Ṯamûd.
In Meḥmed Edîb, Menâzil (Constantinople, 1232 A. H.), p. 79, al-Ḥeǧr is already known as Medâjen Ṣâleḥ, Ḳura’ Ṣâleḥ, or ʻAdâl. It is here placed nineteen hours distant from Dâr al-Ḥamra and stated to have once belonged to the Ṯamûd. The buildings at Medâjen Ṣâleḥ are large, hollow rocks, in which nobody dwells. At that place there is also a stronghold and a reservoir, which is filled from the large well dug in the stronghold. The water in the other wells is not fit to drink. Not far away rises the mountain called Enân, and on one elevation there is a mosque, which the Prophet Ṣâleḥ hollowed out in the rock. Everywhere many fine ruined buildings of the Ṯamûd nation can be seen. The pilgrims at the time of Meḥmed Edîb (about 1773 A. D.) stayed a whole day there, paid the tent bearers their wages, and distributed gifts.
Often the pilgrims proceeded from al-Ḥeǧr by another route (see above, p. 295) to avoid the halting place of al-ʻEla’. From Sahl al-Maṭrân the stronghold of Zumrud can also be reached. This other road branched off from the old trade route at al-Ḥeǧr in a southeasterly direction through the hollow between the mountains of al-Ḥawra and al-Bâẓa to the plain of al-Muʻtedel and through the defile of al-ʻAḳejb southward to the water of al-Bedâje’, where it rejoined the highroad leading to al-ʻEla’.