Iram dhat al-'imad

Accounts differ about the site of Iram of the Pillars. According to al-Mas'udi, Jayrun ibn Sa'd ibn Ad built it in Damascus, and gathered marble and alabaster columns for it, and called it Iram of the Pillars. The Palace of Jayrun remained there with a great building and copper doors by the gate of the Umayyad Mosque until the year 332 AH. He reports that Ka'b al-Ahbar transmitted other accounts of it. ²

Ibn Khaldun reports that some commentators made Iram a city of pillars built by Shaddad ibn Ad in the deserts of Aden, and that al-Tabari, al-Tha'alibi and al-Zamakhshari mention it. He rejects this, and says that no news of it has been heard in any part of the earth, and that the deserts of Aden are populated in succession and their guides recount their routes. He mentions those who said it was Damascus, because the people of Ad ruled it, and describes other views as more like fables. ³