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NEWS October 2024
OCTOBER 2024 The recent cyber attack on the Internet Archive is deplorable and can be reasonably compared with the repeated burning of the Great Library of Alexandria. I have used the Wayback Machine extensively, but, until the full extent of the permanent damage is clear, I am unable to assess its effect on Atlantipedia. At […]Read More »
Joining The Dots
I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
Ad
Islam *
Islam itself does not offer any evidence in support of Atlantis’ existence. However, the Qur’an was not intended as a history book(a). Nevertheless, several renowned medieval Arabic writers such as Al-Biruni, Al-Idrisi and Al-Mas’udi have been referred to as offering indirect but relevant evidence for the submergence of Atlantis in the Mediterranean following the breaching of a dam at Gibraltar. A more contemporary Iraqi scholar, Salah Salim Ali, in a twenty-page essay entitled Arabic References to Plato’s Lost Atlantis[077], discusses a possible link between Atlantis and “the City of Brass” referred to by medieval Arabic writers.
In 2014 an Indonesian website offered a more recent view of the Qur’an and Atlantis(b).
Adlantis was imagined by Ignatius Donnelly to be another form of Atlantis. He noted that the first inhabitants of Arabia were known as Adites. They were named after Ad who was fourth in line from Noah. Without any convincing reason, Donnelly states [0021.276] that “these Adites were probably the people of Atlantis or Adlantis.” The Qur’an (89:6-9) does refer to Ad(c) – Do you not see what your Lord did with ‘Ad-Iram of the Columns whose like was not created in any land? Iram has been identified as the city of Ubar discovered some decades ago(e), but, while Ad, Iram and Ubar may refer to the same place there is no way that either can be linked to Plato’s Atlantis.
It is claimed that the Qur’an contains scientific knowledge that was not known fourteen hundred years ago(d).
(a) The Qur’an on the Lost City of Atlantis – Understanding Islam -under construction (archive.org) *
(c) Archive 3021 | (atlantipedia.ie)
Adlantis *
Adlantis was imagined by Ignatius Donnelly to be another form of Atlantis. He notes that the first inhabitants of Arabia were known as Adites (Pt. IV Chap1). They were apparently named after Ad who was fourth in line from Noah. Without any convincing reason, Donnelly states[121] that “these Adites were probably the people of Atlantis or Adlantis”. He also quotes an Arabic tradition that they are descended from Ad, son of Ham although this is not confirmed by the Qur’an. However, the Qur’an does claim that Noah was allowed by God to warn the people of Ad of the impending Deluge.
A short discussion paper in Atlantisforschung mentions that the Ad people are referred to 14 times in the Qur’an and attributes the first identification of the Ad people as Atlanteans to Uwe Topper in 1977, nearly a century after Donnelly(a)!
The lost city of Ubar, also known as ‘Iram of the Pillars’, was discovered using satellite imagery in 1992 in southern Oman. The city had been sought after by Lawrence of Arabia and referred to by him as the ‘Atlantis of the Sands’, a name that has stuck. Its discovery prompted speculation that this was the city of the people of Ad mentioned in the Qur’an. An article by Harun Yahya discusses this idea from an Islamic viewpoint(b).
The location of Ubar has centred on the ancient Bedouin site of Shisr in the Dhofar province of Oman, but, as usual, there is controversy about this identification(c).
(b) The People of ‘Ad and Ubar, the Atlantis of the Sands (archive.org) *
(c) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis_of_the_Sands#Shisr