ʿĀd (, ') was an ancient tribe in pre-Islamic Arabia. The banū ʿĀd (people of ʿĀd) are best known for being mentioned two dozen times in the Quran, often in conjunction with Thamud. In 2025 it was shown that 'Ad was a tribe that existed two millennia ago in the Wadi Rum region of the southern Jordan.
The tribe's members, the ʿĀdites, formed a prosperous nation until they were destroyed by a violent storm. According to Islamic tradition, the storm came after they had rejected the teachings of a monotheistic prophet named Hud. 'Ad is regarded as one of the original tribes of Arabia, "The Extinct Arabs".
Etymology
There is a possibility that the tribal name ʿĀd represents a misinterpretation of a common noun: the expression min al-ʿād is today understood to mean "since the time of ʿĀd", but ʿād might originally have been a common noun meaning 'antiquity', which was reinterpreted as a proper noun, inspiring of the tribe 'Ad in Islamic conception.
Sources
The banū ʿĀd are mentioned in some pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, including the work attributed to Ṭarafa and in the Mufaḍḍaliyyāt, and in material recorded by ibn Hishām; in this material they are understood as "an ancient nation that had perished".
thumb|"And Ad, and Thamud, and the [[Companions of the Rass, and many generations between those – and to each of them We set forth parables, and each one We utterly razed. [...]"]]
The banū ʿĀd are mentioned twenty-four times in the Quran. According to the Quran, the ʿĀd built monuments and strongholds at every high point and their fate is evident from the remains of their dwellings. In Andrew Rippin's summary,<blockquote>the tribe of ʿĀd is frequently mentioned alongside Thamūd and Noah, as in Q 9:70. A prosperous group living after the time of Noah (Q 7:69), the ʿĀd built great buildings (Q 26:128) associated with the aḥqāf (Q 46:21), understood as the "sand dunes" and identified by tradition as a place in the south of Arabia ... Hūd and other prophets were sent to the people of ʿĀd but they rejected him; they were then destroyed by a violent wind (Q 41:16, 46:24, 51:41, 54:19, 69:6) that lasted for a week and left only their buildings standing. The remnant of the tribe who survived, were the followers of Hūd (Q 7:72, 11:58). The lines referring to 'Ad in pre-Islamic poetry were of disputed authenticity these suggestions have not been successful. Related issues pertain to the geographical location of 'Ad. In later folklore, multiple attempts have been made to identify the location of 'Ad, including based on the statement that they were at the "winding tracts of sands" (46:21). The most common location proposed in traditional sources is in South Arabia, but alternative opinions have also proposed the Levant, near Damascus, or even in Alexandria, in many situations based on the assumption of a relationship with the location of Iram of the Pillars. ʿĀd came from the northeast of Arabia, more exactly Iraq, and was the progenitor of the Adites, as well as the son of Uz (), who was the son of Aram (), who was the son of Shem, the son of Noah (). Therefore, Noah () is said to be Ad's great-great-grandfather. After Ad's death, his sons Shadid and Shedad reigned in succession over the Adites. ʿĀd then became a collective term for all those descended from Ad.
The 9th-century historian Al-Masudi reported that: "There was no people on earth who could be compared to [ʿĀd] in strength, in the grandeur of their works, in the vigor of their spirit, in the power of their character. Destruction had no hold on their bodies, so strongly had nature constituted them, so solid was their structure, so perfect was their form, as God himself revealed."