Salih
The accounts of the Arab prophet Salih and his people, the Thamud, are found
in numerous passages in the Quran. Muslim exegetes tend to locate the Thamud
and the activites of Salih in the modern city of Mada'in Salih (i.e. "cities
of Salih) in the Hijaz. Mada'in Salih is the classical Hegra (medieval "Hijra")
and was the site of many monumental tombs and mountain shrines (Jabal Ithlib)
in the Nabataean period.
The tomb of Salih is said to be located in Mada'in Salih, Mecca, or in the
Hadhramawt. According to the local people in the Hadhramawt, Salih was the father
of the prophet Hud, corresponding to the biblical Shelah
father of Eber. Both Hud and Salih are said to have been giants, thus accounting
for the extraordinary length of their tombs.
 |
This black and white photograph was
taken by W.H. Ingrams in the early twentieth century and published in
the account of his travels to visit the tombs of Salih and Hud in the
Hadhramawt. Ingrams reports that this tomb is 64 feet long. See: W.H.
Ingrams, "Hadhramaut: A Journey to the Sei'ar Country and Through the
Wadi Maseila," Geographic Journal 88 (1936): 524-51, esp. p.
535.
|
|
|
 |
Prints of the She-Camel of Prophet Salih
Bibliography on the
Arab Prophets
