( AD

See also: Arab Oliver Leaman

see: al-( Allaf, Abu

) l Hudayl

( AD The people of

( Ad are mentioned

twenty-four times in the Qur ) an, most

commonly in connection with the prophet Hud (see, e.g., 7.65-72; 11.50-60; 26.123140; 41.15-16; 46.21-25). They are also included in lists of the most notorious of those people who rejected their prophet and sinned against God (e.g. 9.70; 14.9; 22.42; 38.12; 40.31; 50.13; 65.38). According to the Qur

) an, the

( Ad

were destroyed by a violent wind after a long period of drought imposed upon them by God for rejecting the calls of their prophet Hud (see 51.41-42; 53.5052; 54.18-21; 69.6-8). Muslim exegetes state that the

( Ad are

descendants of Uz b. Aram b. Shem b. Noah. The

( Ad are grouped with the

Thamud, Jurhum, Tasm, Amin, Midian, Amalek, Abil, Jasi, Qahtan and Banu Yaqtan as the ‘Original Arabs’ (al-‘arab al-

( ariba) as opposed to the ‘Arabicized

Arabs’ (al-‘arab al-musta ( riba) des-

cended from Ishmael. In the exegesis of 7.69, it is said that the

people of ( Ad were giants, being 60-100

cubits tall, and had great strength. The ‘artifices’ mentioned in 26.129 are interpreted as references to great castles of gold and silver and artificial water containers constructed by the

( Ad. The ‘Iram dhat

al-( Imad’ of 89.6-14 is taken by Muslim

exegetes to be a reference to the great city of

( Ad, which is described in fantastic

terms and said to be located somewhere near the Hadhramawt in Yemen.