Page 14 - Arabian Studies (V)

4 Arabian Studies V

Beside the recent reconnaissance,10 there has been a fresh review
of the inscriptions of Dcdan and al-Hijr by a mission from the Uni­
versity of Toronto11 while a new survey was carried out recently by
another mission from the Institute of Archeology, London
University.12 Ansari defined the remaining areas of disagreement as
to the chronology of Dedanites, Lihyanites, Minaeans and
Nabataeans, each of which held control of the area at certain
times.13
Reed and Winnett collected many pieces of scattered pottery
from Khuraybah (Dedan) during their visit to the area in 1962 both
for dating purposes and for the study of ceramics.
In their book, Ancient Records from North Arabia (1970), Reed
indicated that most of the pieces are early and medieval Arab. He
believes that the city of the present site of Khuraybah flourished
during the Iron Age, and continued to be inhabited at least until the
Middle Ages.14
However, there exists no inscription, nor are there any remains
which belong to the Islamic era, or to the time immediately preced­
ing it. Moreover, the British Expedition from London University
which visited the area in 1968, also made a collection of pottery
fragments and in their report of 1970 they feel that most of the
pottery probably dates from the last occupation of Dedan which
fell in the ‘Persian or late Hellenistic periods’.15
Winnett also refers to the inscriptions left by the South Arabian
Minaeans at Dedan which indicate that the Lihyanite Kingdom
belonged to the Persian and Hellenistic periods.16 However, it is
generally agreed that Dedan was deserted when the Nabataeans
achieved hegemony over the area of al-Hijr, and were able to
displace Dedan from its position as the main trading centre of the
north west of the Arabian Peninsula. This probably took place
during the first century B.C. Musil says that the Nabataeans, in
order to weaken the trading position of Dedan, changed the trading
route by a distance of seven km. to the east. He adds that even with
the rise of Islam the transport and pilgrims continued to use this
route.17 It seems that this is correct, because there still exists a
deserted route running to the east of Dedan, which is known to the
people of al-‘Ula as ‘Darb al-Hajj’.
In reality however, this route was only used by pilgrims in more
recent times, around the second half of the eighteenth century. As
for the period before this, from the time of the rise of Islam, the
caravans and pilgrims used to use the old trading route which
passed through Dedan and al-‘Ula, to which the Arab travellers
refer. Indeed this was the route which the Prophet Muhammed
used during his expedition to Tabuk.18