hadrani women working in the fields
i was just reading a fascinating book, the road to ubar: finding the atlantis of the sands by nicholas clapp. it details the quest and rediscovery of the previous-believed mythical city of ubar, also known under the names the city of brass, al-3iraam (anglicised as 'irem, the city of pillars') and al-3ad (biblical gåd). according to jewish, arab and south arabian lore, this great city was swallowed by the sands when God smoteth it for being (insert usual list of suspects: vain, self-centered, idolatrous; there's a new sin in every story, and a lot of stories.) it's mentioned in the qur'aan as the place the prophet huud (whose name is derived from the verb hwd 'to be jewish') prophesied.
as an atlantis-like site, famous argentinean writer luís borges used its name (altered slightly to uqbar) to represent a 'fake reality' - a dick-inspiring idea of a meme of a fictional place that infects the world so thoroughly that the fictional place becomes real. the story in question, "tlön, uqbar, orbis tertius" (sur magazine, 1940), is incredibly famous. as an example, last night i was watching the l-word as i was chewing over how to write this story and one of the characters mentioned this story in the course of a discussion about art. (it was bette, for those curious.) the story is available in english as a book here.
except that in the typical "fact inspires fiction which creepily borgesifies reality" manner of the real world, some researchers used NASA satellites and historical research and, after fifteen years of work, found ubar.
it had fallen into a hole and been covered by the sand.
i shit you not, my friends. just like the damn story said. you can read all about it in an interactive website for PBS' NOVA.
apparently, ubar was the pinchpoint for the camel caravans wanting to carry the most precious substance of the ancient world, frankincense, from the only place in the world where it existed (latin arabia felix "happy arab-land", now called "south arabia" - or yemen and oman) to the near east and the graeco-roman world (where it was in increasing and unceasing demand).
ubar had a large aquifer under it, and was the last waypoint before you and your camels hit the largest desert in asia, الربع الخالي ar-rub3 al-khaalii "quarter of the moon" (now understood to mean "the empty quarter", it composes the deadly desert between saudia arabia and modern yemen and oman [ancient ubar and "sheba"]).
over time, the himalayas' rapid vertical growth decreased the amount of monsoon rains reaching arabia felix and the aquifer emptied. once the land under the city was hollow, it was only a matter of time before the weight of the citadel caused the city to fall into the giant hole underneath it.
anyway, modern yemen and oman are still the source of frankincense for the whole world - the plant in question resists all attempts at husbandry - but it also is the source of some of the finest honey in the entire world and of the weird, caffeine-like chew called qat (chat in the ethiopic languages and khat in arabic). so now i bring you pictures of the descendents of the ancient enemies of the ubarites, the peoples of "sheba" (ancient saba3), who are now called hadrani for the region in which they live, the hadhramawt, a word borrowed from greek hydreumata "fortified watering hole". this picture is a crude and partial reconstruction of the hydreumata ubar from the nova site.
south arabian tribal use of a blue pigment to dye hair and faces is famous, as are the crazy hats the women wear when they go out to work in the fields.the first photo is of mabarika, a hadrani woman; the second of a hadrani woman herding goats.
i want to end this post with the linguistic anal-retentive note that the semitic languages are split into two branches, one of which comprises the (endangered) indigenous (non-arabic) languages of arabia felix, both modern (yemeni bathari, mehri & soqotri and omani hobyót, harsusi & shehri) and ancient (old south arabic).
a fascinating world, and a fascinating book as well. i recommend it highly.
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