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Qasr al-Ablaq is south-west of Tayma. It is an earth mound where levelled mud-brick walls remain. Yaqut al-Hamawi already described it this way in the 13th century: « على رابية من تراب فيه آثار أبنية من لبن » (“on a mound of earth, with remains of mud-brick buildings”). Its name comes from its colour, between white and red (“ablaq”).
Arab tradition attributes its construction to ʿAdiya, ancestor of the pre-Islamic poet as-Samawʾal. The book al-Aghani by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani says that ʿAdiya dug a well of sweet water in the fort and that the Arabs used to stop there.
In the 13th century, the geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi described it in ruins. In the 20th century, Sheikh Hamad al-Jasir noted that its remains were still there. The fort is mentioned in ancient poetry, notably by al-Aʿsha.
Excavations by the antiquities department of the Ministry of Education showed that the site was occupied from the early 1st millennium BC to the first centuries AD.
Tayma is also mentioned in the hadith. In Sahih al-Bukhari (no. 2338), Ibn ʿUmar reports that ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab sent the Jews of Khaybar away “to Tayma and Ariha” (حَتَّى أَجْلاَهُمْ عُمَرُ إِلَى تَيْمَاءَ وَأَرِيحَاءَ).
What is certain and what is not
- Certain: the site was occupied from the early 1st millennium BC to the first centuries AD, according to the excavations quoted by Saudipedia.
- Certain: Tayma is mentioned in Sahih al-Bukhari 2338.
- Tradition: construction by ʿAdiya and the link with as-Samawʾal (Arabic literary sources).
- Uncertain: the exact identification of the present ruins with the “Ablaq” of the poets. An article from 2021 notes that doubts remain.
- To check on site: access to the site, whether excavations are under way.
- Saudipedia, قصر الأبلق (source: M. as-Samir at-Taymaʾi, هذه بلادنا: تيماء, 1991): https://saudipedia.com/قصر-الأبلق
- Sahih al-Bukhari 2338: https://sunnah.com/bukhari:2338
- Aramco Life (2021, supplementary): https://www.aramcolife.com/en/publications/the-arabian-sun/articles/2021/week-24/20210610-tayma-travel