According to Islam the site of Al-Hijr was settled by the tribe of Thamud,[1] who "(took) for (themselves) palaces from its plains and (carved) from the mountains, homes".[Quran 7:73-79][Quran 11:61-69][Quran 15:80-84] The tribe fell to idol worship, and oppression became prevalent.[2] Salih,[3][4][5][6][7][8] to whom the site's name of "Mada'in Salih" is often attributed,[9] called on the Thamudis to repent.[2] The Thamudis disregarded the warning and instead commanded Salih to summon a pregnant she-camel from the back of a mountain. And so a pregnant she-camel was sent to the people from the back of the mountain, as proof of Salih's divine mission.[2][10] However, only a minority heeded his words. The non-believers killed the sacred camel instead of caring for it as they were told, and its calf ran back to the mountain from whence it came. The Thamudis were given three days before their punishment was to take place, since they disbelieved and did not heed the warning. Salih and his Monotheistic followers left the city, but the others were punished by God—their souls leaving their lifeless bodies in the midst of an earthquake and lightning blasts.[11][2]

According to the Qur'an and tradition, the Thamud existed much earlier than the 715BC inscription from Sargon II would suggest.[12] However, recent research in Islamic studies asserts that a definitive chronology of the Thamūd cannot be attained from the Quranic context and that this narrative does not "depict a continuous history of the ancient people, because these are not in any genealogical succession, nor do they interact with one another."[13] Robert Hoyland suggested that their name was subsequently adopted by other new groups that inhabited the region of Mada'in Salih after the disappearance of the original people of Thamud.[14] This suggestion is also supported by the narration of ʿAbdullah ibn ʿUmar and analysis of Ibn Kathir which report that people called the region of Thamud Al-Hijr, while they called the province of Mada'in Salih as Ardh Thamud (Land of Thamud) and Bayt Thamud (house of Thamud).[15][16] So the term ‘Thamud’ was not applied to the groups that lived in Mada'in Salih, such as Lihyanites and Nabataeans,[17][18] but rather to the region itself, and according to classical sources, it was agreed upon that the only remaining group of the native people of Thamud are the tribe of Banu Thaqif which inhabited the city of Taif south of Mecca.[19][20][21]

Recent archaeological work has revealed numerous rock writings and pictures not only on Mount Athleb, but also throughout central Arabia.[22] They date between the sixth century BC and the fourth century AD and are labelled as being Thamudic. "Thamudic" was the name invented by nineteenth-century scholars for these large numbers of inscriptions which had not yet been properly studied.[23]

Archaeological traces of cave art on the sandstones and epigraphic inscriptions, considered by experts to be Lihyanite script, on top of the Athleb Mountain,[1] near Hegra (Mada’in Salih), have been dated to the 3rd–2nd century BC,[24] indicating the early human settlement of the area, which has an accessible source of freshwater and fertile soil.[1][9] The settlement of the Lihyans became a center of commerce, with goods from the east, north and south converging in the locality.[1]

 

Myrrh was one of the luxury items that had to pass through the Nabatean territory to be traded elsewhere

The extensive settlement of the site took place during the 1st century AD,[25] when it came under the rule of the Nabatean king Aretas IV Philopatris (Al-Harith IV) (9 BC – 40 AD), who made Hegra (Mada’in Salih) the kingdom's second capital, after Petra in the north.[1][26] The place enjoyed a huge urbanization movement, turning it into a city.[1] Characteristic of Nabatean rock-cut architecture, the geology of Hegra (Mada’in Salih) provided the perfect medium for the carving of monumental structures, with Nabatean scripts inscribed on their façades.[24] The Nabateans also developed oasis agriculture[24]—digging wells and rainwater tanks in the rock and carving places of worship in the sandstone outcroppings.[9] Similar structures were featured in other Nabatean settlements, ranging from southern Syria (region) to the north, going south to the Negev, and down to the immediate area of the Hejaz.[24] The most prominent and the largest of these is Petra.[24]

At the crossroad of commerce, the Nabatean kingdom flourished, holding a monopoly for the trade of incense, myrrh and spices.[11][27] Situated on the overland caravan route and connected to the Red Sea port of Egra Kome,[24] Hegra, as it was known among the Nabateans, reached its peak as the major staging post on the main north–south trade route.[9]

In 106 AD, the Nabatean kingdom was annexed by the contemporary Roman Empire.[27][28] The Hejaz, which encompasses Hegra, became part of the Roman province of Arabia.[24]

The Hedjaz region was integrated into the Roman province of Arabia in 106 AD. A monumental Roman epigraph of 175–177 AD was recently discovered at al-Hijr (then called "Hijr" and now Mada'in Salih).[24]

 

Hegra Roman inscription dedicated to Emperor Marcus Aurelius

The trading itinerary shifted from the overland north–south axis on the Arabian Peninsula to the maritime route through the Red Sea.[9] Thus, Hegra as a center of trade began to decline, leading to its abandonment.[28] Supported by the lack of later developments based on archaeological studies, experts have hypothesized that the site had lost all of its urban functions beginning in the late Antiquity (mainly due to the process of desertification).[24] In the 1960s and 1970s, evidence was discovered that the Roman legions of Trajan occupied Mada'in Salih in northeastern Arabia, increasing the extension of the Arabia Petraea province of the Romans in Arabia.[29]

The history of Hegra, from the decline of the Roman Empire until the emergence of Islam, remains unknown.[28] It was only sporadically mentioned by travelers and pilgrims making their way to Mecca in the succeeding centuries.[9] Hegra served as a station along the Hajj route, providing supplies and water for pilgrims.[28] Among the accounts is a description made by 14th-century traveler Ibn Battuta, noting the red stone-cut tombs of Hegra, by then known as "al-Hijr."[24] However, he made no mention of human activities there.

 

The Ottoman Hajj Fort at Mada'in Salih, 1907

The Ottoman Empire annexed western Arabia from the Mamluks by 1517.[30] In early Ottoman accounts of the Hajj road between Damascus and Mecca, Hegra (Mada’in Salih) is not mentioned, until 1672, when the Turkish traveler, Evliya Celebi noted that the caravan passed through a place called "Abyar Salih" where there were the remains of seven cities.[31] It is again mentioned by the traveler Murtada ibn 'Alawan as a rest stop on the route called "al-Mada'in."[31] Between 1744 and 1757,[24][9] a fort was built at al-Hijr on the orders of the Ottoman governor of Damascus, As'ad Pasha al-Azm.[31] A cistern supplied by a large well within the fort was also built, and the site served as a one-day stop for Hajj pilgrims where they could purchase goods such as dates, lemons and oranges.[31] It was part of a series of fortifications built to protect the pilgrimage route to Mecca.[31]

According to the researches of Al-Ansari, the Ottoman castle was found near the settlement dating to the year 1600 A.D in 1984[32]

 

Spanish map of the Hejaz Railway that passed through Mada'in Salih

Following the discovery of Petra by the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812, Charles Montagu Doughty, an English traveler, heard of a similar site near Hegra (Mada’in Salih), a fortified Ottoman town on the Hajj road from Damascus. In order to access the site, Doughty joined the Hajj caravan, and reached the site of the ruins in 1876, recording the visit in his journal which was published as Travels in Arabia Deserta.[9][28] Doughty described the Ottoman fort, where he resided for two months, and noted that Bedouin tribesmen had a permanent encampment just outside of the building.[31]

In the 19th century, there were accounts that the extant wells and oasis agriculture of al-Hijr were being periodically used by settlers from the nearby village of Tayma.[9][28] This continued until the 20th century, when the Hejaz Railway that passed through the site was constructed (1901–08) on the orders of Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II to link Damascus and Jerusalem in the north-west with Medina and Mecca,[9][28] hence facilitating the pilgrimage journey to the latter and to politically and economically consolidate the Ottoman administration of the centers of Islamic faith.[33] A station was built north of al-Hijr for the maintenance of locomotives, and offices and dormitories for railroad staff.[9] The railway provided greater accessibility to the site. However, this was destroyed in a local revolt during World War I.[34] Despite this, several archaeological investigations continued to be conducted in the site beginning in the World War I period to the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the 1930s up to the 1960s.[24][35] The railway station has also been restored and now includes 16 buildings and several pieces of rolling stock.[36]

By the end of the 1960s, the Saudi Arabian government devised a program to introduce a sedentary lifestyle to the nomadic Bedouin tribes inhabiting the area.[24] It was proposed that they settle down in al-Hijr, re-using the already existent wells and agricultural features of the site.[24] However, the official identification of al-Hijr as an archaeological site in 1972 led to the resettlement of the Bedouins towards the north, beyond the site boundary.[24] This also included the development of new agricultural land and freshly dug wells, thereby preserving the state of al-Hijr.