Stories about the patriarchs, who lived for several hundred years, are often perceived with scepticism.
As well as stories about giants, known from the legends and fairy tales of all peoples. Perhaps this is the fruit of the lushed imagination of the ancient poets?
Alexander Kudryavtsev, an authoritative Russian scientist, and director of the Institute of General Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, recently stated that in the past, human life expectancy reached 900 years.
In his opinion, the cause of mutations that led to genetic diseases of modern man is sins, both the original sin committed by the fore parents Adam and Eve, and personal sins committed by everyone during his life.
The scientist was severely criticised and forced to leave his leadership position. This is a typical example of the tyranny of public opinion, accustomed to being guided by certain ideas that in ancient times were taken as truth.
That which contradicts the meagre historical experience of mankind is rejected with particular bitterness.
After all, we have the most general idea of what happened in several small regions near the mouths of the great rivers. And this is only one per cent of the Earth’s territory. Some ancient countries, known only by name, rarely can be shown on the map. Like, for example, the land of Ophir.
The title in the headline sounds exotic to the vast majority of people. Only those who are well acquainted with the Bible can recall the repeated mention of Ophir gold as the highest value. Where is the country famous for its precious metal located?
The extreme east of the country, known to the Romans as Arabia Felix (Happy Arabia), has retained its ancient name Dhofar to this day. The root of this word suggests the answer to the above question.
But gold is not mined in this southern province of the Sultanate of Oman, which borders Yemen. However, there is one indirect proof of the truth of the Bible’s testimony.
To this day the grave of the prophet Ayyub (Biblical Job) buried in the mountains near Salalah the main city of Dhofar, the land of Ophir, is revered.
It is in the Book of Job that Ophir gold is mentioned more often than anywhere else, and this is hardly an accident. Much that seemed like a legend appeared to the world as an indisputable fact from the shovel of an archaeologist!
But so far no archaeological evidence has been found of such mining in the distant past.
But to this day the collecting of frankincense, the hardened resin of the stunted tree (Boswellia sacra) growing on the slopes of the Dhofar mountains, flourishes.
Two thousand years ago, the trade in this incense formed the basis of the wealth of Hadhramaut (one of the kingdoms of Happy Arabia). On the ruins of the Sumhuram fortress, which guarded the harbour where incense was shipped for export, a slab was found with inscriptions from disappeared civilisation that report the decree of the founder king, backed up by references to the will of Sin (the god of the Moon, who was especially revered in pre-Islamic Arabia).
Frankincense was one of the most prized commodities of antiquity, serving as incense in countless temples of countless gods.
Perhaps the legend of Ophir gold arose because the treasury of the rulers of this region was full to the brim.
In any case, the Queen of Sheba who arrived in Jerusalem shocked the imagination of its inhabitants with the amount of gold presented as a gift to the local ruler Suleiman. We do not know the exact outlines of Sheba where the fabulously generous queen ruled, we only know that she was an ally of Hadhramaut, and it is appropriate to assume that her wealth had the same source.
In Dhofar incense is burned at the entrance to shops, near taverns, in the mansions of the rich, and in shepherds' huts. Probably this was not always the case, in ancient times the aroma of incense was primarily intended for the gods, and was used in places of worship of the great prophets.
In addition to Ayyub the local tribes have since ancient times revered the prophet Hud, whom we know about from the surah of the Quran of the same name (11th).
His grave is located in Hadhramaut near the city of Shibam famous for its clay skyscrapers. The one who rests in this burial under a three-meter tombstone lived in those times, which we can consider only by the fragmentary data preserved in sacred texts.
The place of burial of the prophet Ayyub near Salalah is also indicated by a tombstone testifying to the enormous growth of the deceased. Perhaps the size of these graves, preserved despite the vicissitudes of turbulent millennia, confirm the legend that giants inhabited the Earth in ancient times.
Numerous legends that tell about the people of Ad, to which Hud belonged, say that the Adites were people of the powerful constitution, and their city, multi-columned Iram, amazed with wealth and splendour.
The Bible knows Hud as Eber and claims that he lived for over 400 years. Such a respectable age was common in the time of the biblical patriarchs, but the sceptical science of modern times began to perceive such information as mythical or, at best, to attribute a long life to a tribe whose ethnonym was one or another biblical character.
Sergey Plekhanov
The writer is the author of ‘A Reformer on the Throne: Sultan Qaboos bin Said’
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