For another lost land believed to be in Arabia known as Ubar or Wabar, see
Atlantis of the Sands.
Ancient tribe mentioned in the Quran
Iram of the Pillars (
Arabic: إرَم ذَات ٱلْعِمَاد,
romanized: Iram dhāt al-ʿimād; an alternative translation is Iram of the tentpoles), also called "Irum", "Irem", "Erum", or the "City of the pillars", is considered a
lost city, region or tribe mentioned in the
Quran.[1][2]
Iram in the Quran
The Quran mentions Iram in connection with ʿimād (pillars): Surah
al-Fajr (6-14)[2]
89:6 Did you not see how your Lord dealt with
ʿĀd—
89:7 ˹the people˺ of Iram—with ˹their˺ great stature,
89:8 unmatched in any other land;
89:9 and Thamûd who carved ˹their homes into˺ the
rocks in the ˹Stone˺ Valley;
89:10 and the Pharaoh of mighty structures?
89:11 They all transgressed throughout the land,
89:12 spreading much corruption there.
89:13 So your Lord unleashed on them a scourge of punishment.
89:14 ˹For˺ your Lord is truly vigilant.
There are several explanations for the reference to "Iram – who had lofty pillars". Some see this as a geographic location, either a city or an area, others as the name of a tribe.
Those identifying it as a city have made various suggestions as to where or what city it was, ranging from
Alexandria or
Damascus to a city which actually moved or a city called
Ubar.[3][4][5] Ubar, according to ancient and medieval authors, was a land instead of a city.[6]
As an area, it has been identified with the biblical region known as
Aram.[7] A more plausible candidate for Iram is
Wadi Ramm in
Jordan, as the Temple of
al-Lat at the foot of
Jabal Ramm has some ancient inscriptions mentioning Iram and possibly the tribe of
ʿĀd.[8][9]
It has also been identified as a tribe, possibly the tribe of
ʿĀd, with the pillars referring to tent pillars. The mystic ad-Dabbagh has suggested that these verses refer to ʿĀd's tents with pillars, both of which are gold-plated. He claims that coins made of this gold remain buried and that Iram is the name of a tribe of ʿĀd and not a location.[10] The
Nabataeans were one of the many
nomadicBedouin tribes who roamed the
Arabian Desert and took their herds to where they could find
grassland and water. They became familiar with their area as the seasons passed, and they struggled to survive during bad years when seasonal rainfall decreased. Although the Nabataeans were initially embedded in the Aramean culture, theories that they have Aramean roots are rejected by modern scholars. Instead, archaeological, religious and linguistic evidence confirms that they are a North Arabian tribe.[1]
Iram in Western writings
Iram became widely known to Western literature with the translation of the story "The City of Many-Columned Iram and Abdullah Son of Abi Kilabah" in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.[11]
In 1998, the amateur archaeologist
Nicholas Clapp proposes that Iram is the same as another legendary place
Ubar, and he identifies Ubar as the archaeological site of Shisr in
Oman.[12] His hypothesis is not generally accepted by scholars.[6][8] The identification of Ubar as Shisr is also problematic, and even Clapp himself denies it later.[13]
Sunless Sea has Irem as a
port of call, the city having been transported underground to a subterranean ocean. Fallen London, which exists in the same setting, likewise includes Irem as a location the player can visit late in the game.
In Civilization VI, when the player captures the last city belonging to an AI-controlled
Suleiman I, Suleiman exclaims "Ruin! Ruin!
Istanbul has become Iram of the Pillars, remembered only by the melancholy poets."[15]