What Did Medieval Arabs Believe About The Pyramids
The intriguing mystery of a lost superhuman race that presided over the world
Myths and legends have fed the Arabian soul since ancient times. They have endured for centuries and were a source of wisdom and inspiration. Arabs were fascinated by the pyramids of Giza.
In his book Paths, Ibn Fadl Allah mentioned different stories about the pyramids. Some said that pyramids were built as temples to worship stars, tombs, storehouses (built by Prophet Yusuf identified with the biblical Joseph), or shelters against the Great Flood.
Al Masudi noted that the pyramids were tombs of ancient kings.
There were three main Arabic legends related to the pyramids. First, the pyramids were built by the Arab Prophet Idris, who was identified with Hermes and the biblical Enoch.
Second, the pyramids were the work of King Surid ibn Salhouk before the Great Flood. The third legend attributes the pyramids to the South Arabian hero Shaddad ibn Ad. There was a popular belief among the Yemenis and Egyptian Sheikhs that King Shaddad built the pyramids after he invaded Egypt to serve as his victory monument.
Arabian Giants
Arabic sources suggest that Shaddad descended from the ancient tribe of Himyar, which later ruled Yemen. Shaddad was the king who reigned over hundreds of the Adite tribes. They were described as a powerful nation, very tall and strong, and highly intellectual.
Shaddad moved around the known world, conquering the unconquered. In the Syrian Umayyad era, a story circulated about a group of Arabs who saw Shaddad’s tomb in Yemen. The ancient King was seen lying on a large, pure gold bed with his body well-preserved.
Past civilizations believed that the giants were a great strength and aggression race. In Arabic, giants are known as Al Jababira, meaning “tyrants”. Shaddad was described as one of the Jababirat al Ard, “Powerful Tyrants of the Earth” which does not necessarily denote his great size.
There was a popular belief among Arabs that Shaddad and his tribe Ad were skilled giants who built enormous structures. It was common for Medieval Arab and Muslim scholars to see past figures such as Prophets Adam and Musa (Moses) as giants with massive bodies. The idea of Shaddad being a Nephilim giant was mentioned in the Medieval Arabic Book of Wonders (Akhbar al Zaman).
The Lost Civilization
As Shaddad became too powerful, he conquered city after city, becoming a universal King who ruled over the world. Arabic scholars wrote that he was fascinated with obtaining knowledge. He knew stories from previous prophets about the Paradise of God. He then decided to build Heaven on Earth, a great city with advanced technology developed by Ad, incorporating occult magic and possible djins and demons.
It was described in the Arabian Nights (also known as The 1001 Nights) as a lost city made of gold and overloaded with opulence and treasures. This marvelous city was named Iram.
According to the Holy Quran, the civilization of the Ad was indeed an advanced civilization. They had strong power and built gigantic structures, hoping they could live forever. They were also given the blessings of springs, livestock, and children. When a prophet named Hud emerged from the people of Ad, he advised them to worship the one true God. But their arrogant nature led to their doom.
Ad was afflicted with drought for a long time in the book Tarikh al Anbiya by Al Khatib Al Baghdadi. They rejoiced after seeing a black cloud moving towards their metropolis, thinking that it was holding rain. The powerful cold wind, which struck them for seven days and eight nights, was a painful torment.
They were blown away, and nothing remained. Their spectacular metropolis, Iram, of lofty pillars and blissful paradises, lies undiscovered until today, submerged beneath the Arabian desert.
The blissful paradise of Iram, its spectacular engineering, and the splendor of giant architecture caused the Arabs to believe that the famous Adite builders constructed the big stones they encountered in Egypt. A Medieval Arabic account mentioned that Shaddad built the pyramids because of a dream in which he was warned of a coming disaster. This echoes the popular belief that the pyramids were built as a shelter against the Great Flood.
Shaddad and Ad were associated with other cities including Petra in Jordan and Alexandria in Egypt. The author of the Arabic book Fatih Masr (The Conquest of Egypt) mentioned that Cleopatra had assistance from Arab builders to construct monuments in Alexandria. An inscription was found on one of the pillars:
I am Shaddad ibn Ad and I am the one who erected the columns, dug the quarries, and single-handedly dammed the valley. These achievements will never die nor fade away into oblivion.
Decoding the Hieroglyphs
In 831, Abbasid Caliph Abdullah Al Ma’mun visited the Pyramids of Giza. When he saw the enormous structures, he was seized with the desire to open them. To make that possible, the Arabs kindled fire, applied acids, tempered the iron, and used catapults to hurl missiles that could open an entrance.
Al Ma’mun’s scientific expedition and excavations were carried out at a great expense.
After great efforts, a breach was made inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the largest of the three standing pyramids. Al Ma’mun was the first person to enter the pyramid.
Arab scholars tried to decode the hieroglyphs. In the 10th century, the Iraqi Arab-Nabatean scholar Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr Ibn Wahshiyya was able to at least partly decipher hieroglyphs in his book Kitab Shawq Al Mustaham fi Marefat Rumooz Al Aqlam. He was the first to state that these Egyptian symbols mean words.
Ibn Wahshiyya was able to understand some of the hieroglyphs, but he was apparently working with the concept that a known script could be used to decipher an as-yet unknown one..Ibn Al-Nadim, the son of a 10th-century Baghdadi bookseller, recorded seeing Ibn Wahshiyya’s notebooks full of symbols. Not only was Ibn Wahshiyya able to understand some of the hieroglyphs, but, as Al-Nadim pointed out, he was apparently working with the concept — later employed by Champollion — that a known script could be used to decipher an as-yet unknown one- BBC
In Modern Works
The story of Ad was mentioned in several chapters in the Holy Quran: Al Araf verses 65–72, Hud verses 50–60, Al Shuara’ verses 123–140, Fusilat verses 13–16, Al Ahqaf verse 21, Al Thariyat verse 41, Al Qamar verse 18, Al Haqq verse 6, and Al Fajr verses 7–8.
These detailed explanations attracted modern scientists, scholars, and writers.
In his book “Secret Teachings of All Ages,” Canadian lecturer and author Manly P. Hall (1901–1990) had a chapter titled Initiation of the Pyramid where he wrote:
One Arabian historian declared that the Pyramid was built by the Egyptian sages as a refuge against the Flood, while another proclaimed it to have been the treasure house of the powerful antediluvian king Sheddad Ben Ad.
Shaddad was a hero in H. P. Lovecraft's (1890–1937) horror book Necronomicon, also known as “Book of the Dead” intended initially to be Kitab Al Azif in Arabic, with Azif defined as that nocturnal sound (made by insects) supposed to be the howling of demons.
The story is about an ancient text compiled by a “Mad Arab,” a Yemeni man who visited Babylon, Memphis, and Arabia called Abdul Alhazred in the 8th century. He worshipped the Lovecraftian cosmic entities Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu. The text contained magical spells and incantations for summoning monsters and deities. The work is inspired by a city inhabited by a race of giants. Their home, “The Nameless City,” reflects Shaddad’s Iram.
Arabs had amazing abilities to tell stories that passed from generation to generation. Through their tales and memories, we remember events and heroes from afar. The story of Shaddad, despite being unknown to many today, has an oral history that is more than a thousand years old. It preserves the memory of a supreme King who influenced Arabia, the Levant, Persia, and North Africa. But since not much is known about Shaddad, his history remains mysterious.
© Copyright Bibliotecanatalie 2024
References
- A. Fodoor. (1970). The Origins of the Arabic Legends of the Pyramids. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23656988
- Many P. Hall. (1928). The Secret Teachings of All Ages. https://shorturl.at/1hV7N
- Mohammad Izdiyan Muttaqin. (2022). The Mystery Of The Location Of The City of Iram, The Atlantis Of Arabia. https://scholarhub.ui.ac.id/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=meis
- The Origins of The Arabic Legends of The Pyramids
- The Treatise on the Egyptian Pyramids (Tuḥfat al-kirām fī khabar al-ahrām)
