Page 21 - Arabian Studies (V)

The Identification of the Wadi ’l-Qura 11

Savignac. They say, only, that some of the railway employees give a
description of a site, being at a distance of 14 km. to the south of
al-‘Ula, and as not being far from the Badayi* station. It is thought
that the site consists of the remains of a city such as Khuraybah.
Jaussen and Savignac thought that the employees perhaps exagger­
ated, but they admit that the information from various sources at their
disposal indicated that there does indeed exist a site in the area.90
Although al-‘Ula and its vicinity were visited by several western
scholars, after Doughty and Jaussen and Savignac, the ruins of al-
Mibyat remained unexplored until the 1968 expedition of P. Parr,
G. Harding and J. Dayton. Their preliminary report is a compre­
hensive description of the site and the archaeological remains, and
a series of photographs was taken. Some of the shards of pottery
which covered the surface of the site, in large quantity, were collec­
ted, and were studied closely. It was considered that some of the
shards date from the eleventh or twelfth centuries A.D., and others
from the ninth or tenth centuries A.D. This indicates that the last
occupation of the site occurred during the latter part of the twelfth
century, which agrees with the already quoted accounts of the Arab
writers. The expedition considered that two of the shards probably
date from early Islamic times, or even the Byzantine period. It is
said, however, that no object of certain Byzantine origin was found
at Mibyat.
The group concluded, however, that the ruins of al-Mibyat date
from the Umayyad period, saying that ‘there remains, nonetheless,
a strong possibility that Ma’abiyat (Mibyat) is an Ummayyad
(Umayyad) foundation, and it is clearly an important medieval
site*. They were unable, however, to identify the site, and thought
that Mubbia(t), which Doughty lists among the seven ancient town­
ships of North Arabia, is the original name of the site of al-
Mibyat.91 Moreover, it is accepted that al-Khuraybah is the modern
name for the ruins of Dedan, and likewise it is our contention that
al-Mibyat is the present name for the ruins of Qurh. The present-
day village of Mughayrah is also listed by Doughty among the
seven ancient towns. It is a small Bedouin settlement, clustered
round palm trees, which do not need irrigating, because water is
very close to the surface. It is situated several kilometres south of
al-Mibyat between the station of al-Badayi‘ and al-Mashhad, but
farther to the west of the defunct railway line, and the newly-
constructed asphalt road. Doughty places it a distance of 80 miles
(135 km.) from al-Hijr,92 while it is in fact no more than about 50
km. It is inhabited by some of the Walad ‘Alt and al-Ayda, from
‘Anazah tribe. So far as I am aware, there are at that place no
archaeological remains.