Dūmat al-Jandal (ancient Adummatu)

This oasis of northern Arabia (Jawf province, Saudi Arabia) played a major role in the Transarabian caravan trade between the Hedjaz, the Southern Levant and Mesopotamia during the pre-Islamic period. It was also the target of three campaigns led by Prophet Muḥammad and his companions against the local ruler Ukaydir in the Early Islamic Period.

Geographical setting

Dūmat al-Jandal (ancient Adummatu, Dumat, Dumata, Dūma; also called al-Jawf, ‘the vast depression’, in Arabic, see Charloux & Loreto 2014) lies at the southern extremity of the Wādī Sirḥān, in a remote desert environment, halfway between the Levantine coast and lower Mesopotamia. Encircled by low limestone hills, the oasis (c. 600 m a.s.l.) is a large V-shaped depression (ca. 8 x 6 km), which covers the lower part of the ‘Al-Wādī Graben’, which favoured the recharge of aquifers (Fig. 1). Small wādīs (Sh. al-Ḥawsh & Sh. al-Ḥimḍī) flow from the north-west of Dūmat al-Jandal into the Sabkhat al-Jawf, an infertile endorheic depression, and have pushed human occupation towards the western cliffs, where the water sources, palm groves, and gardens are located. 19th-century travellers repeatedly focused on the quality of water and hydraulic structures (canals, wells, etc.) in the oasis, while recent surveys allowed for the reconstruction of a complex qanat system, which in the past favoured the local development of agriculture and settlements (Charloux 2018, Loreto 2019a). Today, the water supply depends mainly on the exploitation of deep fossil and non-renewable groundwater. At the same time, modern facilities enabled the fast development of modern residential quarters on neighbouring desert hills, and allowed strong demographic development (+3% annually) in the last thirty years.

History of research

Mentioned by Niebuhr at the end of the 18th century, Dūmat al-Jandal was described in detail by 19th and 20th-century travellers (Burchardt, Wallin, Palgrave, etc., see Charloux & Loreto 2014). It was surveyed twice: between 1962 and 1967 by F.V. Winnett & W. Reed, and between 1976 and 1977 by the Saudi Comprehensive Survey, before excavations were carried out at a few locations in the 1980s by K.A. al-Dayel (1988) and K.I. al-Muaikel (1994). Since 2009, it has been the focus of exploration by a joint Saudi-Italian-French archaeological project (Charloux 2018, Loreto 2018, 2019a-b, 2021). The site’s long history was repeatedly mentioned in the Arab-Islamic tradition and by modern scholars (Musil 1927: 531–552, Sudayrī 1995, Veccia Vaglieri 2010), despite the relative scarcity of ancient textual sources (Charloux & Loreto 2014 and more recently Nehmé 2017, Norris 2018). Three main archaeological areas (Fig. 1), extensively surveyed and still under excavations, attest to the considerable variety and density of archaeological structures:

1. The historic sector (al-Ḍīrīya) in the central western part of the oasis, comprising the Qaṣr Mārid (Fig. 2), a fortress dominating the depression and the nearby so-called mosque of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (caliph from 634 to 644);
2. The so-called western settlement in the al-Ḥasiya quarter, with its rampart possibly enclosing a large part of the oasis (Charloux et al. 2021) (Fig. 3);
3. The ancient area of al-Ṣunīmiyat, located in between. Recent excavations provide insights on both the ancient necropolises and the extension of the settlement during the Assyrian and Nabataean periods.

History of the site

Prehistory

Although a large number of earlier Palaeolithic remains are scattered throughout the region (Hilbert et al. 2019), the discovery of a 35-m-long platform on the al-Burj promontory in the western area provides evidence for the first human presence in the oasis in the 6^th mill. BCE, at the end of the Neolithic period (Charloux 2018). The ten desert kites identified near Dūmat al-Jandal belong, chronologically, to the long gradual phase of aridification running from the 7th to the 4th millennia BCE. Remote sensing coupled with field surveys revealed more than 530 cairns around the oasis. Radiocarbon dating of collected bones yielded a sequence of recurrent human presence, ranging from the second half of the 6th millennium until the 1st millennium BCE. Moreover, the concentration of rock art sites in the region also bears witness to the density of occupation during this period.

Iron Age

In Gen. 25:14, Chron. 1:30, Dūma is one of the twelve sons of Ismael, and therefore a grandson of Abraham. The Arabic name of the oasis derives from “Adummatu”, a toponym found in the Neo-Assyrian annals (see Assyrian Royal Annals [Arabia in]) in the 7th cent. BCE (Anthonioz 2018), which was also one of the centres of the tribal confederation of Qedar from the 7th to the 5th/early 4th cent. BCE (see Qedar). Teʾelḥunu, “Queen of the Arabs” (see Queen [Arabian]), allied to a certain Hazael, fled to “Adummatu in the midst of the desert”. Sennacherib captured the “fortress of the Arabs” and Teʾelḥunu was carried off to Niniveh together with the gods of Adummatu (ʿAttaršamīn, Daʾay, Nuhay, Ruḍaw, Abīrīl, and ʿAttarqurumā). Three of these gods ̶ whose statues were later brought back to the oasis by king Esarhaddon ̶ can be identified amongst the twenty inscriptions in Dumaitic script found in the Southern Jawf region. These have been roughly dated to ca. 500 BCE (Norris 2018: 75). Despite two South-Arabian inscriptions in the area, few other sources confirm that caravans crossed North Arabia towards Assyria: these are a text in Akkadian mentioning people from Sabaʾ and Taymāʾ in the Euphrates in the mid-8th cent. BCE (Cavigneaux & Ismail 1990: 351) and the ‘Oracle against Duma’ in Isaiah (21:11), in which Dūma is mentioned together with Taymāʾ and/or the caravans of the Dedanites.

Archaeological discoveries strengthen the identification of the oasis with Adummatu and its role as a major trade crossroads between South Arabia and North Mesopotamia in the Iron Age. Excavations in the historic area (Fig. 4) and in al-Ṣunīmiyat revealed abundant material culture traces attributable to a Assyrian and post-Assyrian traditions (Loreto 2018, 2019b). An oven uncovered in the western sector was successively repaired from the 8th-6th century BCE until the 1st–2nd century CE according to ¹⁴C datings (Charloux 2018). A durable presence in the oasis during the 4th-2nd cent. BC is confirmed by radiocarbon dates in the historical and western settlements, and is also visible through the construction of the western rampart (Charloux et al. 2021). Today, the latter is preserved up to 2.6 km in length, nearly 5 m high, and 3 m thick in places (Fig. 3). Surveys suggest its extension far to the east ̶ as evoked by Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī (Kitāb muʿjam: 487). This monumental wall of stone and mudbrick was probably meant to protect the oasis gardens and population from raids by nomadic tribes; it was also a manifestation of the power of the oasis to people passing through.

The Nabataean period

The transition to the Nabataean period remains unclear at this stage (see Nabateans [in Arabia]). Nabataean presence seems likely in the region from as early as the mid-1st cent. BCE (Charloux 2020), although the few inscriptions and graffiti in Nabataean script date to the reign of Aretas IV (9 BCE–40 CE) at the very earliest (Charloux & Loreto 2014). In the 1st cent. CE, Nabataean Dūma is mentioned as “Domatha” by Pliny the Elder (HN 6.32) together** with Egra [Hegra], while “Dumaetha” is found in Ptolemy’s Geography (5.18) from the 2nd century. An inscription, today lost, documents that the oasis housed a sanctuary of Dūsharā and a fort commanded by a stratopedarch under Malichos II in 45 CE.

This fort would appear to have been a predecessor of the Qaṣr Mārid, inside which Nabataean pottery associated with stone walls was recently found (Loreto 2018). Along the eastern foot of Qaṣr Mārid, a residential building composed of an open courtyard bordered by porticoes and rooms and a storage building was extensively excavated (Fig. 5). The artefacts (among them terra sigillata africana) testify to a rich house whose pottery assemblage testifies to the link between the ancient oasis with the Levant. The necropolis composed of monumental collective tombs developed further west, in the al-Ṣunīmiyat quarter (Charloux 2018). In the western area, domestic farms or villas were sparsely distributed in a bucolic oasis landscape of cultivated plots with narrow streets, overlooked by a 1st–2nd century CE open-air triclinium (see Banqueting) (Fig. 3).

Besides typical “western” Nabataean pottery, indigenous and Nabataean-influenced vessels suggest a strong regional ceramic tradition, as well as the coexistence of diverse mobile/sedentary population entities in the region from the 1st cent. BC to 2nd cent. CE. This is also supported by the content of many Thamudic (B/C/E) texts sometimes found near Nabataean graffiti (Norris 2018). At that time, caravans circulated mainly on the transarabian tracks between the southern Levant, North Arabia and Mesopotamia, as shown by the imported archaeological material in the al-Ṣunīmiyat tombs and by inscriptions from several northernmost sites (e.g. Qārat Mazād). The routes towards Mesopotamia were controlled by Nabataean military units and were probably designed to circumvent Roman control over the northern Levant.

The Roman and Byzantine periods

Like most of Nabataea, Dūma was integrated into the Roman Province of Arabia, conceivably as early as 106 CE. Auxiliary cavalry units and infantry cohorts (with a centurion bearing the Nabataean name ʿAzīzū) patrolled between the oasis and Wādī Sirḥān around 114/115 CE and 125 CE (Nehmé 2017; Norris 2018). Later, an ancient proverb (Tamarrada Mārid wa ʿazza al-Ablak) supposedly pronounced by al-Zabbāʾ (Queen Zenobia), would suggest the resistance of Qaṣr Mārid during the Palmyrene conquest of the Near East in 269-272 CE (see Palmyra [and Arabia]). Although this episode is not documented in Dūma, Roman presence in the 3rd century CE (or early 4th cent.) is confirmed by an altar dedicated by a centurion of the legio III Cyrenaica (Charloux & Loreto 2014) (see Rome [and Arabia]). The praetensio stela from Azraq also hints at possible military operations on the route between Bosra and Dumata in the 3rd (or early 4th) cent. CE (lately Aliquot 2016). Additionally, a coin of Licinius (308-324 CE) found in the collapse of a tower built on top of the al-Burj promontory close to a Nabataeo-Arabic inscription suggests renewed Roman investment in the area in the 4th cent. CE. This corresponds well with some military actions conducted against the Persians. The main villa and the triclinium were also reoccupied at that period, possibly even into the early Islamic era. Trench 1 in the historic area shows continuous occupation up to the Late Pre-Islamic to Islamic periods (Loreto 2019a). Pottery assemblages in the oasis seem to display a strong connection with Levantine ceramics (Rodhian amphora sealed with Greek names and symbols of wine trade), thus providing additional arguments for the economic and political link between the Roman empire and local foederati rulers during the 5th-7th cent. CE.

Islamic times

One of the most famous sovereigns, Al-Ukaydir bin ʿAbd al-Malīk al-Kindī, ruler of Dūma and ally of Heraclius, was obviously a local Christian ruler, as mentioned by al-Tabarī. It appears that for a long time the oasis functioned as a central bastion of Christian Ḥujrid allies. A pre-Islamic Arabic text from nearby Wādī aẓ-Ẓilliyyāṭ attests to Christian presence in 548/549 CE (Nehmé 2017). At the same time, a recently discovered liturgical silver bell perhaps indicates the existence of a Christian cult in the oasis, possibly at the location of the ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb mosque (Loreto 2018; previously King 1978: 122) (Fig. 6).

Dūma is famous for being the target of three raids by the Prophet and his companions in 626, 628 under the command of ʿAbd al-Rahmān bin ʿAwf leading 700 men, and 630 after the battle of Tabuk (Veccia Vaglieri 2010). Khālid bin al-Wālid was sent with 420 men against Ukaydir, who was protected by his large fortifications. An agreement was finally reached, enabling Khalīd to enter the oasis, and Ukaydir was granted a pardon by the Prophet at Medina. According to al-Balādhūrī, he converted to Islam, but violated the treaty and fled towards Dūmat al-Hīra (Iraq) (Charloux & Loreto 2014). There are different narratives reporting his fate, but in Kitāb al-Aṣnām (see Cult of Idols), Ibn al-Kalbī claims that Khālid bin al-Wālid killed Ukaydir and later returned to Dūma to destroy the sanctuary of Wadd (a well known local Pre-Islamic god). This episode reminds one of the religious diversity in the oasis before Islam (ancient local religion and Christianity), as documented by the engraving on the above-mentioned Roman altar, dedicated to Roman emperors, as well as to Jupiter Hammon and Saint Sulmus, probably a local saint, whose origin might come from the local god Ṣalm. Moreover, idolatry (see Cult of idols) is confirmed by Porphyry, as well as by Eusebius of Caesarea and later on Stephanus of Byzantium, who explained in the 3rd century CE that each year the Dumathii sacrificed a child and buried it under the altar representing a deity.

In the early Islamic period, Dūmat al-Jandal seems to have gradually lost its status as an important crossroads. However, a large number of Arabic inscriptions from the first centuries of the Hijra have been recorded in the region (Charloux 2018) (Fig. 7). Arabic geographers rarely mention Dūma, and do so mostly in the context of the Prophet’s campaigns’ recounting; the oasis was no longer situated on major pilgrimage roads (in particular the Darb al-Zubayda passing eastwards between Kufa and Mecca), and seems occasionally to have played the part of a place of refuge. It was mainly known for its regional market in the medieval period. Results from excavations near the ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb Mosque confirm this gradual impoverishment of the oasis, as shown by the lower quality of construction and the archaeological material in Islamic levels (Loreto 2018).

Recent history

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the oasis consisted of more than twelve scattered villages, sometimes known as ‘Sūq’ (Charloux & Loreto 2014). Each village, inhabited by 2 to 130 families, was made of a group of houses in mud-bricks surrounded by a large circular brick wall with a single entrance. A courtyard at the centre was used for camels and the market, according to Burckhardt. The oasis was the stage of bloody tribal conflicts, in particular between the Rwala from Syria/Jordan and the Shammar from Najd. The latter were supported by the Ibn Rashīd family of Ḥāʾil, who built a fortress there around the mid-19th cent. After the fall of the Ibn Rashīd family, control over the oasis returned to the Shaʿlān tribe, but only until the takeover of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Ibn Saʿūd and the third Saudi State in 1921.

Guillaume Charloux & Romolo Loreto

References and suggested reading

Sources

• Ibn al-Kalbī/ed. W. Atallah, 1969. Les idôles (Kitâb al-Asnâm). Paris: C. Klincksieck.
• Porphyry/ed. J. Bouffartigue & M. Patillon, 1979. De l’abstinence. Collection des Universités de France, Association Guillaume Budé. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
• Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī, ed. 1995. Kitāb muʿjam al-buldān. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir.

Studies

• Aliquot, J. 2016. Un duc d’Orient en Arabie. Syria 93: 157–170.
• Alzoubi, M. & S. Smadi 2016. A Nabataean funerary inscription from the Blaihed Museum. AAE 27: 79–83.
• Anthonioz, S. 2018. Adummatu, Qedar and the Arab Question in Neo-Assyrian Sources, in G. Charloux & R. Loreto (eds) Dūma 3. The 2012 report of the Saudi–Italian–French Project in Dūmat al-Jandal. Riyadh: Saudi Commission for Tourism and Archaeology.
• Cavigneaux A. & B.Kh. Ismail 1990. Die Statthalter von Suḥu und Mari im 8. Jh. v. Chr. anhand neuer Texte aus den irakischen Grabungen im Staugebiet des Qadissiya-Damms. BaM 21: 321–456.
• Charloux, G. 2018. Rythmes et modalités du peuplement d’une oasis du nord-ouest de l’Arabie. Sept campagnes (2010-2017) sur le site de Dūmat al-Jandal. CRAI 2018 (1): 11–46.
• Charloux, G. 2020. A note on aṭ-Ṭuwayr, an Eastern Nabataean site? Jordan Journal for History and Archaeology 14(4): 97–124.
• Charloux, G., T. al-Malki & A. al-Qaeed 2021. The “walled oases” phenomenon. A study of the ramparts in Dūmat al-Jandal and other pre-Islamic sites in north-western Arabia. AAE 32: 256–290. DOI: 10.1111/aae.12177.
• Charloux, G. & R. Loreto 2014. Historical Overview, in G. Charloux & R. Loreto (eds) Dūma 1. The 2010 report of the Saudi–Italian–French Archaeological Project in Dūmat al-Jandal: 25–56. Riyadh: Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities.
• al-Dayel, K.A. 1988. Excavations at Dumat al-Jandal Second Season 1406/1986. Atlal 11: 37–46.
• Hilbert, Y.H., R. Crassard, G. Charloux & R. Loreto 2015. Nubian technology in northern Arabia: Impact on interregional variability of Middle Paleolithic industries. Quaternary International. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2015.11.047.
• King, G. 1978. A mosque attributed to ʿUmar B. al-Khaṭṭāb in Dūmat al-Jandal in al-Jawf, Saudi Arabia. JRAS: 109–123.
• Loreto, R. 2018. 2009-2016 excavation seasons in the historical core of Dūmat al-Jandal, ancient Adummatu. PSAS 48: 151–164.
• Loreto, R. 2019a. The ancient Adummatu, a caravan port of trade on the limes arabicus, in N. Andreade, C. Marcaccini, G. Marconi & D. Violante (eds) Roman Imperial Cities in the east and in central-southern Italy: 245–26. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.
• Loreto, R. 2019b. The Assyrians in Arabia. The archaeological evidence, in J.-F. Breton (ed.) La guerre en Arabie. XXIIe Rencontres Sabéennes, Paris 6-9 Juin 2017: 133–144. Paris: Geuthner-CEFAS.
• Loreto, R. 2021. The Role of Adummatu among the Early Arabian Trade Routes at the Dawn of the Southern Arabian Cultures, in G. Hatke & R. Ruzicka (eds) South Arabian Long-Distance Trade in Antiquity: "Out of Arabia": 66-110. Cambridge: Cambridge scholars Publishing.
• al-Muaikel, K.I. 1994. Study of the Archaeology of the Jawf Region, Saudi Arabia. Riyadh: King Fahd National Library.
• Musil, A. 1927. Arabia Deserta: a Topographical Itinerary. New York: AMS Press.
• Nehmé, L. 2017. New dated inscriptions (Nabataean and pre-Islamic Arabic) from a site near al-Jawf, ancient Dūmah, Saudi Arabia. AEN 3: 121–164.
• Norris, J. 2018. A survey of the Ancient North Arabian inscriptions from the Dūmat al-Jandal area (Saudi Arabia), in M.C.A. Macdonald (ed.) Languages, Scripts and their Uses in Ancient North Arabia: 71–93. Supplement to the PSAS 48. Oxford: Archaeopress.
• Sudayrī (-al), A.A. 1995. The Desert Frontier of Arabia: al-Jawf through the Ages. London: Stacey International.
• Theeb [Dhuyayb] (al-), S. b. A. 2010. Mudawwanat al-nuqush al-Nabatiya fi al-Mamlaka al-ʿArabiya al-Saʿudiya. Riyadh: Darat al-Malik ʿAbd al-ʿAziz.
• Veccia Vaglieri, L. 2010. Dūmat al-Jandal, in Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: Brill.

_{Alternate spellings: Adumatu, Dūma, Dûma, Dumah, Duma, Dumata, al-Jawf, Duma al-Jandal}