Академия Корана:Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān/ʿĀd

Tottoli, Roberto, "ʿĀd" in: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, General Editor: J. D. McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC.

An ancient tribe to whom the prophet Hūd (q.v.; q 7:65; 11:50; cf. 46:21) was sent. They are mentioned twenty-four times in the Qurʾān.

The ʿĀd are described as a powerful tribe which existed after the people of Noah (q.v.; q 7:69). They were mighty and proud of their strength (q 41:15; cf. 26:128-9) as well as very tall of stature (q 7:69). The prophet Hūd was sent to the ʿĀd, but his preaching was largely unsuccessful (q 7:70-1; 11:53-4; 46:22). Other messengers were also sent to the ʿĀd, but they too were rejected (q 26:123). Hūd tried to convince his people to invoke God’s intervention after a period of drought (q 11:52) and God punished them. The ʿĀd were devastated by a violent wind (q 41:16; 46:24; 51:41; 54:19; 69:6; see air and wind), «the chastisement of a dreadful day» (q 26:135), which blasted for a week (q 69:7) and left only their dwelling-places standing (q 46:25). Only those who believed Hūd were saved (q 7:72; 11:58; 26:139). Some other references are unclear. It is said that God caused the death of the «first ʿĀd» (q 53:50). The ʿĀd were summoned to faith in a place called al-Aḥqāf (q 46:21). Another verse connects the ʿĀd with the mysterious Iram Dhāt al-ʿImād (q 89:6-7; see iram). In other verses the ʿĀd are briefly mentioned with Noah (q.v.), the Thamūd (q.v.) and others (q 9:70; 14:9; 22:42; 29:38; 38:12; 40:31; 50:13).

Frequent references in pre-Islamic poetry show that legends about the tribe of ʿĀd were well known among Arabs before the time of the Prophet (Horovitz, ku, 126-7) and the qurʾānic versions of these stories apparently belong to this cycle of genuinely Arabian traditions. Qurʾānic exegesis and works on the early prophets created a complete and coherent narrative of the vicissitudes of the ʿĀd, adding many remarkable details (see punishment stories). According to differing interpretations, Iram was either the name of a place associated with the ʿĀd or the name of the most representative subtribe of the ʿĀd. The ʿĀd were originally a nation of ten or thirteen subtribes and one of the first Arab tribes. Al-Aḥqāf, which literally means "the sand dunes, " was identified as a place called al-Shiḥr, located between Oman and Hadramawt. An utterance attributed to Muḥammad specifies that the wind which killed the ʿĀdites was a western one. The ʿĀd were giants between ten and five hundred cubits in height and on one occasion they sent a delegation to Mecca to ask for rain. Stories are told about the tribe’s legendary eponym ʿĀd and his powerful sons Shaddād and Shadīd. According to some reports, the sage Luqmān (q.v.) belonged to the ʿĀd. The surviving ʿĀdites sought refuge in Mecca according to some stories while others place them in the mythical towns of Jābalqā and Jābarsā.

Bibliography

Primary

• ʿAbd al-Malik b. Ḥabīb, Kitāb al-Taʾrīkh, ed. J. Aguadé, Madrid 1991, 40-3
• ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Tafsīr, ii, 217, 370
• Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Beirut 1992, ii, 384
• Isḥāq b. Bishr, Mubtadaʾ al- dunyā wa-qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, Bodleian Library, MS Huntingdon 388, 116a-139b
• Kisāʾī, Qiṣaṣ, 103-10
• al-Majlisī, M. Bāqir, Biḥār al-anwār, 105 vols., Beirut 1983, xi, 343-70
• Māwardī, Nukat, v, 282
• Muḥammad b. Ḥabīb, Kitāb al-muḥabbar, ed. I. Lichtenstädter, Hyderabad 1942
• Muqātil, Tafsīr, iv, 23-6, 687-8
• Muṭahhar b. Ṭāhir al-Maqdisī, al-Badʾ wa-l-taʾrīkh, ed. C. Huart, 6 vols., Paris 1899—1919, iii, 31-7
• Sibṭ Ibn al-Jawzī, Mirʾāt, i, 253-62
• Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, Cairo 1968, viii, 216-22; xxvi, 22-4; xxvii, 78; xxx, 175-7
• id., Taʾrīkh, Leiden, i (1), 68, 231-44
• Thaʿlabī, Qiṣaṣ, 53-7
• Tirmidhī, Ṣaḥīḥ, v, 391-2

Secondary

• J.E. Bencheikh, Iram ou le clameur de Dieu, in remmm 58 (1990), 70-81
• F. Buhl, ʿĀd, in ei2, i, 169
• Horovitz, ku, 125-7
• G.D. Newby, The making of the last prophet, Columbia, SC 1989, 50-7
• Speyer, Erzählungen, 118-9