Page 15 - Arabian Studies (V)

The Identification of the Wadi * l-Qura 5
The route more recently used was attractive to travellers, perhaps
because it avoided al-‘Ula, and therefore the need to break their
journey too close to the previous stop. It seems, therefore, that the
Nabataeans established a devious route, in order to deprive Dedan
of its main source of revenue, so weakening its position and causing
its eventual decline and ruin. Thus al-Hijr remained an important
trading centre in the north-west of Arabia, and it was the main
town of Wadi ’l-Qura, until the Nabataean kingdom fell to the
Romans in A.D. 106.
After this the curtain falls on the history, not only of this area,
but upon the whole of north-west Arabia, and nothing more is
known about Wadi ’l-Qura until the beginning of Islam. Its history
was no longer recorded on rock inscriptions as in former times, but
in the pages of Muslim writers. The principal town however, at the
time, was not Dedan or al-Hijr, but Qurh, which was later known
as Wadi ’l-Qura, and the main inhabitants were no longer Lihya-
nites or Minaeans, but some Jews and the tribe of ‘Udhrah.
However, we ask where was this city situated? The available
sources as far as I known, do not attempt to ascertain its position
and it is generally thought that al-‘Ula is in fact the Wadi ’l-Qura to
which the Arab geographers refer. For example, Musil believes that
al-‘Ula is Qurh, and he says that after the Nabataeans had trans­
ferred the trading route, Dedan declined and fell into ruins. At a
distance of 3 km to the south-west, another settlement was
constructed, known as Qurh and later as al-4Ula.19 In another
article, however, he stated and, as we shall see below, correctly,
that Qurh the centre of Wadi ’l-Qura, was situated at a distance of
several kilometres to the south of al-‘Ula.20
At this point, it will be convenient to restate what was said by the
ancient Muslim writers about the location of Wadi ’l-Qura.

The location of Wadi ’l-Qura according to early writers
The Arab writers differ slightly in their location of Wadi ’l-Qura.
Some of them, such as Ibn Khurradadhbih,21 Qudamah22 and Ibn
Rustah23 locate it between al-Ruhbah on the pilgrim route in the
south and al-Hijr on the Syrian route and al-Bayda on the Egyptian
route in the north. Al-IdrlsI also says the same thing.24 Thus Wadi
’l-Qura, according to these geographers, was the point at which the
Syrian and Egyptian pilgrim caravans heading for Medina
converged. Al-HarbI25 and al-MaqdisI26 place Wadi ’l-Qura south
of al-Hijr and north of al-Suqya where the Egyptian and Syrian pil­
grim routes converge, although al-MaqdisI, in another passage,
lists Wadi ’l-Qura on the Egyptian caravan route.27 However,