The Giant Camel of Thamudd
2006/10/08

Mathaba.Net, UK

The camel was so huge that grazing sheep fled from it in fright.

By Dr. Sahib Mustaqim Bleher

I read with interest that Swiss scientists had discovered an ancient
giant camel or dromedary in Syria. Professor Jean-Marie Le Tensorer
of the University of Basel said the camel’s shoulders stood three
meters high and it was around four meters tall, as big as a giraffe or
an elephant, adding "nobody knew that such a species had existed."
standing a good three meters tall. They also found bones of early
humans who appeared to be somewhere between the categorizations of
Neanderthal and Homo sapiens. The researchers suggested that their
find indicated that a group of humans killed the large animal when it
was drinking from a spring. Could this be the she-camel of the people
of Thamudd referred to in the Qur’an?

The Thamudd are an ancient Arab people thought to be the descendants
of the Arab tribe of ‘Ad. They had an impressive civilization, carving
houses out of rocks, some of which can still be seen in the region to
the North of the Arabian peninsula and today’s Syria. Their prophet
Salih gave them a she-camel as a sign which he instructed they had to
share their drinking space with and forbade them from harming
her. Instead they hamstrung her and brought upon themselves the doom
of total annihilation. The land once known for its abundance of water
returned to being a desert, exactly as the researchers from Basel
describe it.

According to Islamic folklore the camel was created by the prophet as
a sign from a rock and was so huge that grazing sheep fled from it in
fright and even cattle would keep their distance. As a one-off miracle
it would be unique rather than a remnant of an extinct
species. Further analysis should prove most interesting if the results
will be shared with the public. We are still waiting for the results
of the exploration of Noah’s ark on mount Judi in the Greater Ararat
range in Eastern Turkey (Western Armenia) which once excited
archaeologists, but has gone strangely quiet over the years.

— Dr. Sahib Mustaqim Bleher is a German living in England, a Muslim
and a pilot – in the oppressive neo-fascist climate of today, this
means walking a tight rope. And it requires speaking out. He has done
so through articles, pamphlets and books, many of which are available
via his FlyingImam web site which you can visit at FlyingImam.com.