Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/311

 a covering of this kind cost the equivalent of two to ten dollars according to quality. In southern Arabian inscriptions Dedan is often mentioned as a place from which temple servants were imported (Glaser’s inscriptions [collated by Adolf Grohmann], National-Bibliothek, Vienna, 942=1277, 944=1268, 946=1270, 961=1241, 963=1243, 974, 976=1255, 1025.

From the inscriptions discovered at Dedan (D. H. Müller, Epigraphische Denkmäler, pp. 1—96) we see that the people of Dedan had not only a king of their own but also a southern Arabian resident, who was called kebîr. The native clan ruling in Dedan is called Leḥjân on the inscriptions; whereas the residents exercised authority in the name of the kings of Maʻîn, or the Minaeans, but no longer in the name of the Sabaeans. From this it follows that the Dedan inscriptions are more recent than the Assyrian records concerning Saba and date from a period after the sixth century before Christ. This is also proved by the Septuagint, which frequently refers to the Minaeans. Although the Bible does not record the name Leḥjân even once, the classical writers are familiar with it and from the time of Agatharchides call the Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba the Laeanitic Gulf. This name is a proof that the Leḥjân, or Laeanites, held sway not only over the land trade route but also over the maritime route leading to Elath and that the Hellenic traders and sailors used to pay toll to the Leḥjân collectors. This was perhaps the case in the fourth and third centuries before Christ, for Agatharchides, who wrote about the Red Sea in the second century, knew only the name Laeanitic Gulf but says nothing about a Leḥjân ruling family. It seems that the Nabataeans supported the settlement of al-Ḥeǧr to the detriment of the southern Arabian colony of Dajdân and that the Leḥjân kings from the time of their decline settled in al-Ḥeǧr. Only thus can we explain the record which has been preserved for us by Pliny, ''Nat. hist.'', VI, 156, who, writing about the town of Hagra, says that it is the royal seat of the Laeanites. This record is an extract from some older source now lost, for at the time of Pliny the Nabataean kings themselves held sway at Hagra. Concerning the native Leḥjân kings the classical authors give no details. In one southern Arabic inscription (Glaser, 9851264) the settlement of al-Ḥeǧr is likewise mentioned.

Through the decay of the Leḥjân the authority of the Tamudi and their oasis, al-Ḥeǧr, increased, and it would seem that by the action of the Nabataeans the transport route from this oasis southward changed its direction, passing about seven kilometers to the east of the old oasis of Dajdân and thus completing the ruin of that place. Even at the rise of Islâm the transport and accordingly also the Pilgrim Route led east of the oasis of Dajdân, and the latter disappeared both from historical and geographical literature. The old town fell into ruins, and about three kilometers to the southwest of it another settlement was built, originally called Ḳurḥ and later al-ʻEla’. Only a few clans of the old Beli tribe are still aware that the ruins of al-Ḫrajbe to the northeast of al-ʻEla’ were formerly called Dajdân. This form of the name, recorded by the Septuagint instead of the Hebrew Dedan, is mentioned by Jâḳût, Muʻǧam (Wüstenfeld), Vol. 2, p. 639, where he writes that ad-Dajdân is the name of a town situated on the transport route from the territory of al-Ḥeǧâz to al-Belḳa’, once a place of fine buildings but now in ruins.