Al-Masʿūdī
Meadows of Gold
947 CE
translated by Jason Colavito
2026
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NOTE |
The Arab historian and traveler Al-Masʿūdī (896-956 CE) sits among the most famous Islamic historians and is often called the “Herodotus of the Arabs.” He wrote a number of books, many lost, including volumes on geography, history, and religion and philosophy. Some were abridgments of his own longer works. His most famous volume, Kitāb Murūj al-Dhahab wa-Ma’ādin al-Jawhar, or the Meadows of Gold, brought together a lifetime of learning into a historical encyclopedia explaining everything he knew about the world. Al-Masʿūdī devotes a chapter to the empire of the ʿĀdites, which supposedly flourished immediately after Noah. The people of ʿĀd were said to be giants who left behind titanic ruins, especially the lost city of Iram of the Pillars, which is referenced in Qur’an 89:6-14 with Arabian Nights 276-279. Today, based on inscriptions discovered from the 1990s onward, many scholars believe that Iram was Wādī Rum, a desert valley in Jordan, and the ʿĀdites an ancient people of the valley.
Below I have translated Chapter 37 of the Meadows of Gold, which cover the history of Alexander. My translation is made from the 1863 French edition of C. Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille. As I am not a speaker of Arabic, the reader must forgive me if my transliterations of the Arabic names, despite my best efforts to cross-reference with works by scholars of Arabic sources, are not fully up to current standards. |
MEADOWS OF GOLD
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE ʿĀDITES AND THEIR FORESTS.
A great number of scholars versed in the study of history state that, after Noah, the empire passed to the early ʿĀdites—at a remote epoch predating all other Arab principalities—a fact substantiated by this word of God: “He exterminated the early ʿĀdites.” (Quran, LIII, 51.) This verse demonstrates to us the antiquity of this people, as well as the existence of the later ʿĀdites. God has revealed to us the existence of their empire; He has highlighted their violence; He has spoken of the towering edifices they constructed—structures which, despite the passage of centuries, still bear their name: al-Acliyah. God also informs us that His prophet Hud said to these unbelievers: “Will you build a monument upon every height?” (Quran 36:128.) According to the opinion of the authors mentioned above, the empire of the ʿĀdites was, therefore, the first to be founded upon the earth after divine vengeance had exterminated the infidels among the people of Noah. This is what God declares when He says: “Remember that He placed you in the stead of the people of Noah.” (Quran 7:67.) The ʿĀdites were men of gigantic stature, as tall as palm trees; the length of their lives was commensurate with the colossal magnitude of their physical size. Possessing a constitution of extraordinary toughness, they were hard of heart. There was no people on the face of the earth that could be compared to them in terms of strength, the grandeur of their works, vigor of intellect, or force of character. Decay held no sway over their bodies, so robustly had nature constituted them, so solid was their physical structure, and so perfect their form, just as God Himself has revealed.
ʿĀd was a man of athletic strength and gigantic stature. He was the son of Aws, son of Aram, son of Shem, son of Noah. He worshipped the moon. It is said that he fathered four thousand children and married one thousand women. His territory was contiguous with Yemen; it encompassed the lands of al-Ahkaf and Sohar, that is to say, Oman extending as far as Hadramout, as we have previously noted in this very work and in other treatises. According to an opinion generally accepted by those versed in the study of Arab history, ʿĀd, having reached the midpoint of his life’s journey, surrounded by the multitude of his children and grandchildren, and beholding his posterity extending to the tenth generation, observed the strength and prosperity of his empire growing alongside his family; consequently, he extended his benevolence to all mankind and practiced hospitality with great generosity. Thus, he lived for twelve hundred years in happiness and amidst the favors of fortune.
After his death, the crown passed to the eldest of his sons, Shadid ibn ʿĀd. This prince reigned for five hundred and eighty years—or thereabouts, according to other accounts. He was succeeded by his brother Shaddad ibn ʿĀd, who held power for nine hundred years. It is said that he extended his dominion over all the kingdoms of the earth. It was he who founded the city of Iram of the Pillars, as we recounted in our previous writings when we provided information regarding that city. There is no consensus regarding its description, nor the location it occupied. The people in question here are the later ʿĀdites, whom God mentioned when He said: “Hast thou not seen how thy Lord dealt with the ʿĀdites, and with Iram of the Pillars?” (Qur’an 89:5–6). Indeed, it was upon them that divine vengeance fell. Shaddad ibn ʿĀd, traversed the earth and visited every land; he displayed great valor in India and in the other kingdoms of the East and the West, where he was compelled to wage many wars. We shall not dwell upon these matters here, so as not to exceed the scope of an abridgment, and because, moreover, we refer the reader to the full details we have provided on this subject in our Historical Annals. Further on in this work, when we address the dispersion of mankind at Babel, the dissemination of the various races, and the verses composed in connection with that event, we shall offer a few brief remarks concerning the ʿĀdites and their prophet, Hud.
Throughout the ages, the question of what accounted for the prodigious stature of the ʿĀdites—and the extraordinary longevity of their lives—has been the subject of much debate. We have addressed this topic in that one of our works titled The Book of Seven Chapters on Royal Administration, as well as in the volume entitled The Book of Degrees. In those works, we explained to what factors one must attribute the complete absence of wild beasts and camels in Spain; we discussed the substances yielded by the plant and mineral kingdoms in that region; and we also provided a description of Galicia. It is from this land that the Kingdom of the Galicians, to which we referred earlier in the present work, derives its name. These peoples were the most formidable enemies and the most powerful neighbors of the conquerors of Spain. They themselves bordered a vast empire whose inhabitants were known as the al-Washkash, as we have noted previously, both in this volume and in those of our compositions dating from an earlier period.
ʿĀd was a man of athletic strength and gigantic stature. He was the son of Aws, son of Aram, son of Shem, son of Noah. He worshipped the moon. It is said that he fathered four thousand children and married one thousand women. His territory was contiguous with Yemen; it encompassed the lands of al-Ahkaf and Sohar, that is to say, Oman extending as far as Hadramout, as we have previously noted in this very work and in other treatises. According to an opinion generally accepted by those versed in the study of Arab history, ʿĀd, having reached the midpoint of his life’s journey, surrounded by the multitude of his children and grandchildren, and beholding his posterity extending to the tenth generation, observed the strength and prosperity of his empire growing alongside his family; consequently, he extended his benevolence to all mankind and practiced hospitality with great generosity. Thus, he lived for twelve hundred years in happiness and amidst the favors of fortune.
After his death, the crown passed to the eldest of his sons, Shadid ibn ʿĀd. This prince reigned for five hundred and eighty years—or thereabouts, according to other accounts. He was succeeded by his brother Shaddad ibn ʿĀd, who held power for nine hundred years. It is said that he extended his dominion over all the kingdoms of the earth. It was he who founded the city of Iram of the Pillars, as we recounted in our previous writings when we provided information regarding that city. There is no consensus regarding its description, nor the location it occupied. The people in question here are the later ʿĀdites, whom God mentioned when He said: “Hast thou not seen how thy Lord dealt with the ʿĀdites, and with Iram of the Pillars?” (Qur’an 89:5–6). Indeed, it was upon them that divine vengeance fell. Shaddad ibn ʿĀd, traversed the earth and visited every land; he displayed great valor in India and in the other kingdoms of the East and the West, where he was compelled to wage many wars. We shall not dwell upon these matters here, so as not to exceed the scope of an abridgment, and because, moreover, we refer the reader to the full details we have provided on this subject in our Historical Annals. Further on in this work, when we address the dispersion of mankind at Babel, the dissemination of the various races, and the verses composed in connection with that event, we shall offer a few brief remarks concerning the ʿĀdites and their prophet, Hud.
Throughout the ages, the question of what accounted for the prodigious stature of the ʿĀdites—and the extraordinary longevity of their lives—has been the subject of much debate. We have addressed this topic in that one of our works titled The Book of Seven Chapters on Royal Administration, as well as in the volume entitled The Book of Degrees. In those works, we explained to what factors one must attribute the complete absence of wild beasts and camels in Spain; we discussed the substances yielded by the plant and mineral kingdoms in that region; and we also provided a description of Galicia. It is from this land that the Kingdom of the Galicians, to which we referred earlier in the present work, derives its name. These peoples were the most formidable enemies and the most powerful neighbors of the conquerors of Spain. They themselves bordered a vast empire whose inhabitants were known as the al-Washkash, as we have noted previously, both in this volume and in those of our compositions dating from an earlier period.
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Source: Maçoudi, Les Prairies d’Or, vol. 2, ed. and trans. C. Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille (Paris: L’Imprimerie Impériale, 1863).
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