four days’ march, and from Tejma to the oases of Ḫajbar, or Dûmat al-Ǧandal, likewise four days’ march. Tejma is three days’ march from the Syrian frontier.
Jâḳût, Muʻǧam (Wüstenfeld), Vol. 3, p. 634, relates that Šuʻejb with his family dwelt in the land of Madjan; Ṣâleḥ in the environs of al-Ḥeǧr; and Hûd, with his fellow-tribesmen the ʻÂd, at al-Aḥḳâf (in southern Arabia). According to Jâḳût (op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 208) al-Ḥeǧr is the name of the houses of the Ṯamûd in Wâdi al-Ḳura’ between al-Medîna and Syria.
Jâḳût also gives the name of al-Aṯâleb to the rocks near al-Ḥeǧr, and he reckons al-Ḥeǧr as part of Wâdi al-Ḳura’; according to others, however, it is a day’s journey distant from Wâdi al-Ḳura’.
Jâḳût, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 115, erroneously transcribes al-Aṯâleb as al-Aṯâleṯ, as is clearly shown by his explanation that al-Aṯâleb are mountains in the territory of the Ṯamûd at al-Ḥeǧr not far from Wâdi al-Ḳura’.
Ibn Baṭṭûṭa, Tuḥfa (Defrémery and Sanguinetti), Vol. 1, pp. 259 f., at the end of the year 1326 A. D. visited a well with abundant water at al-Ḥeǧr of the Ṯamûd, and with admiration he describes the fine houses of the Ṯamûd, hollowed out in the red rocks and provided with steps. These houses were as well preserved as if they had been built quite recently. Inside the houses could be seen numerous remains of bones. Between two rocks he was shown the place where the camel of the Prophet Ṣâleḥ knelt down, as well as the remains of the mosque where Ṣâleḥ used to pray.
Ḥaǧǧi Ḫalfa, Ǧihân numa’ (Constantinople, 1145 A. H.), p. 521, calls al-Ḥeǧr, or Ḳerâja Ṣâleḥ, a rocky, bare region covered with isolated hills called Aṯâleb. In this region sand drifts can be seen here and there. About half a day’s march from al-ʻEla’ is the mosque of Ṣâleḥ, hollowed out in a crag, as well as numerous rock dwellings of the Ṯamûd.
In Meḥmed Edîb, Menâzil (Constantinople, 1232 A. H.), p. 79, al-Ḥeǧr is already known as Medâjen Ṣâleḥ, Ḳura’ Ṣâleḥ, or ʻAdâl. It is here placed nineteen hours distant from Dâr al-Ḥamra and stated to have once belonged to the Ṯamûd. The buildings at Medâjen Ṣâleḥ are large, hollow rocks, in which nobody dwells. At that place there is also a stronghold and a reservoir, which is filled from the large well dug in the stronghold. The water in the other wells is not fit to drink. Not far away rises the mountain called Enân, and on one elevation there is a mosque, which the Prophet Ṣâleḥ hollowed out in the rock. Everywhere many fine ruined buildings of the Ṯamûd nation can be seen. The pilgrims at the time of Meḥmed Edîb (about 1773 A. D.) stayed a whole day there, paid the tent bearers their wages, and distributed gifts.
Often the pilgrims proceeded from al-Ḥeǧr by another route (see above, p. 295) to avoid the halting place of al-ʻEla’. From Sahl al-Maṭrân the stronghold of Zumrud can also be reached. This other road branched off from the old trade route at al-Ḥeǧr in a southeasterly direction through the hollow between the mountains of al-Ḥawra and al-Bâẓa to the plain of al-Muʻtedel and through the defile of al-ʻAḳejb southward to the water of al-Bedâjeʻ, where it rejoined the highroad leading to al-ʻEla’.