Editing Thamud (section)

{{Short description|Tribal confederation in pre-Islamic Arabia}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{about|the ancient Arabian tribe|the town in Yemen|Thamud, Yemen}}
{{Infobox tribe
|name       = Thamud
|local name = ثَمُوْد
|type       = Ancient Arab tribe
|ethnicity  = [[Arabs|Arab]]
|nisba      = al-Thamūdi
|location   = [[Hegra (Mada'in Salih)|Hegra]], northern Hejaz
|language   = [[Thamudic]], [[Old Arabic]]
|religion   = [[Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia|Arabian polytheism]]
}}

The '''Thamud''' ({{langx|ar|ثَمُود|translit=Ṯamūd}}) were an ancient tribe or tribal confederation in [[pre-Islamic Arabia]]{{sfn|Hoyland|2001|p=68}} that occupied the northwestern [[Arabian Peninsula]]. They are attested in contemporaneous [[Mesopotamia]]n and [[Classical antiquity|Classical]] inscriptions, as well as Arabic ones from the eighth century BCE, all the way until the fifth century CE, when they served as Roman [[auxilia]]ries. They are also later remembered in [[pre-Islamic Arabic poetry]] and Islamic-era sources, including the [[Quran]]. Prominently, they appear in the [[Ruwafa inscriptions]] discovered in a temple constructed circa 165–169 CE in honor of the local deity, [[Ilah|ʾlhʾ]]. 

Islamic sources state that the Thamud were an early Arab tribe that had gone extinct in ancient days.{{sfn|Retsö|2003|pp=34–37}} Thamud appears twenty-six times in the Quran, where the tribe is presented as an example of an ancient [[polytheistic]] people destroyed by God for their rejection of God's [[Prophets in Islam|prophet]] [[Salih]].{{Sfn|Mackintosh-Smith|2019|p=29}} In the Quran, Thamud is associated with a pattern of rebellion and destruction of past groups of people. This is done the most times with [[ʿĀd|Ad]], but others as well, like [[Lot in Islam|Lot]] and [[Noah in Islam|Noah]]. When Salih calls Thamud to serve one God, they demand a sign from him. He presents them with a miraculous [[She-camel of God|she-camel]]. Thamud, unconvinced, injure the camel; for this, God destroys them, except Salih and his followers. This account is embellished with a more detailed background in the [[Tafsir|Islamic exegetical tradition]]. Some traditions locate the tribe in northwestern Arabia at [[Hegra (Mada'in Salih)|Hegra]], and in others they are identified as [[Nabataeans]].{{Sfn|Firestone|2006}} Islamic genealogy describes the Thamud as among the true Arab tribes, as opposed to the "Arabicized Arabs".{{Sfn|Mackintosh-Smith|2019|p=30}} 

It is possible that several, possibly unrelated groups, took on the name of Thamud; they probably spoke [[Old Arabic]].{{sfn|Macdonald|2015|p=48}}{{sfn|Hoyland|2001|p=69}} The Thamud are not specially connected to the [[Thamudic]] scripts, an aggregate term for understudied writing systems of Ancient Arabia.

{{Infobox country
| conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Thamud
| common_name            = Thamud
| native_name            = مملكة ثمود
| image_map              = Lihyan Map.svg
| capital                = [[Hegra (Mada'in Salih)|Hegra]]
| religion               = [[Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia|Arabian polytheism]]
| government_type        = [[Monarchy]]
| year_end               = 5th century AD
| year_start             = 8th century BC
| common_languages       = [[Old Arabic]]
| today                  = [[Saudi Arabia]]
}}