Page 25 - Arabian Studies (V)

The Identification of the Wadi ’l-Qura 15

Al-‘UIa, the main town in Wadi ’l-Qura today.

is surrounded by villages and fields for the cultivation of palm-
trees. The dates are inexpensive, the bread delicious, and the water
plentiful. The dwellings are pleasing to the eye, and there is much
activity in the markets. The town is surrounded by a trench,
and it possesses three iron gates. In the centre of the town the
mosque is situated, and in the Mihrab, there is to be seen a bone,
which legend has it, spoke to the Prophet, warning him, “Eat me
not, for I am poisoned”. Indeed, it can be said of the town that it is
Syrian, Egyptian, Iraqi, and HijazI, all at once. Its water, however,
is not wholesome, and the dates are not exceptional.’ Al-Maqdisi
points out that the public bath is situated outside the town, and
there were many Jews living in Wadi ’l-Qura.106 He says that Wadi
’l-Qura is ‘the mart of both Syria and Iraq’.107
However, it seems to me that when the authority of the central
government declined during the last years of the ‘Abbasid cali­
phate, anarchy and unrest spread throughout the Peninsula, and
stability was lost. The political situation caused Qurh and other
towns to become abandoned, but there were probably contributory
factors involved also in this, such as the drying-up of springs,
flooding, etc.
Thus al-‘Ula, which is the main town in Wadi ’l-Qura today, was
built at a narrow point of the valley, at the foot of a hill where it
would be easy for the inhabitants to protect themselves against
raiding, and flooding of the valley. As for ‘Udhrah and the Jews,