The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 146
CH. 11 HŪD discovered bearing the name "Aryan," therefore "Aryan" is only a fictitious name and no nation of that name ever existed. In the same way ‘Ād was not the name of a single tribe but of a group of tribes, whose different sections rose to power at different times. They left behind them inscriptions bearing the name of particular groups. But they all belonged to the main ‘Ād family. The fact that this name is found in ancient books of geography also shows that a people of the name of 'Ād did indeed live. The geographical works compiled in Greece state that in the pre-Christian era, Yemen was ruled by a tribe called Adramitai who were no other than the 'Ad who have been called ‘Ādi Iram in the Quran. The termination of the Greek name is a noun-suffix, the real name being 'Adram which is a corruption of 'Ādi Iram. Some European writers think that Adramitai stands for Hadramaut but this is incorrect, because Hadramaut is the name of a place while Adramitai is the name of a tribe. Moreover, the name Hadramaut occurs both in Greek and Latin books, and nowhere has it been given as Adramitai. In Greek books it is given as Adramotitai, while in Latin books it is given as Chatramotitai. It is not reasonable to think that in this particular case geographers abandoned a generally accepted spelling and invented a new form. Moreover, the same work which mentions the tribe of Adramitai also gives an account of Hadramaut PT. 12 (Adramotitai) which clearly shows that according to the author of that book, Adramitai and Adramotitai are two different names (Al-'Arab qabl al-Islam). The Quran gives the following facts about the 'Ādites: (1) They built lofty buildings, and no other people in Arabia attained to that height of power to which they had attained (89:9). The verse referred to above also shows that the tribe of ‘Ād mentioned in the Quran was called Iram. This Iram section of the 'Adites possessed a powerful kingdom which lasted up to 500 B. C. Their language was Aramaic, which is akin to Hebrew. The Aramaic kingdom was established after the fall of the Semitic kingdom and it included in its boundaries the whole of Mesopotamia, Palestine, Syria and Chaldea and, according to certain authorities, it extended even beyond these limits. Archaeological re- searches have discovered traces of this kingdom, 2. The people of ‘Ād as mentioned in the Quran lived immediately after the people of Noah (7:70). This shows that the Semites and other peoples referred to in history as existing before the Aramites were also sections of the ‘Ādites. 1354 3. They built monuments on elevated places (26:129). There still exist ruins of great buildings in Arabia. Only a few miles from Aden there can still be seen remains of lofty buildings erected on high hills, 4. It appears from 46:26 that the