ʿĀd

[5] Speculation by nineteenth-century Western scholars included identifying the ʿĀd with the better known Iyād or with a tribe allegedly mentioned by Ptolemy, the Oadites.

[6] The Qurʾān mentions their location was in al-ʾAḥqāf ("the Sandy Plains," or "the Wind-curved Sand-hills") which is in modern day Yemen,[1][7] often assumed to be in Southern Arabia.

[2] The Qurʾān also associates them with the phrase "Iram of the Pillars", so this is sometimes imagined to be a place where the ʿĀd lived — although it may have been the name of a region or a people.

[2][8][9] According to Andrew Rippin, "some modern speculation has associated Iram—and thus ʿĀd—with the buried city referred to as Ubar (Wabār), located at Shisur, Oman, because of the pillars found at that site.

A prosperous group living after the time of Noah (Q 7:69), the ʿĀd built great buildings (Q 26:128) associated with the aḥqāf (Q 46:21), understood as the "sand dunes" and identified by tradition as a place in the south of Arabia ... Hūd and other prophets were sent to the people of ʿĀd but they rejected him; they were then destroyed by a violent wind (Q 41:16, 46:24, 51:41, 54:19, 69:6) that lasted for a week and left only their buildings standing.