Salih

The Thamud were a tribal confederation in the northwestern region of the Arabian Peninsula, mentioned in Assyrian sources in the time of Sargon II.

[11] Saleh is not mentioned in any historical texts or in any of the Abrahamic scriptures that precede the Qur'an, but the account of Thamud's destruction may have been well known in ancient Arabia.

We are certainly in alarming doubt about what you are inviting us to.”[12] Saleh reminded his people of the castles and palaces they built out of stone,[13] and of their technological superiority over neighbouring communities.

Some of the people of Thamud believed Saleh's words, but the tribal leaders refused to listen to him and continued to demand that he demonstrate a miracle to prove his prophethood.

Whilst the she-camel is not mentioned explicitly in this chapter, it states that nine men plotted to kill Salih and his whole family,[21][22] a crime for which they were struck down by God three days later.

Al-Tabari states that Saleh summoned his people to a mountain, where they witnessed the rock miraculously split open, revealing the camel.

But God informed Saleh that a boy who would hamstring the camel would soon be born to the tribe, and that child was evil and grew unnaturally fast.

[24] A similar tradition is related in an eighth-century commentary on Islam by John of Damascus[25][26] and is also mentioned in the works of Ibn Kathir.