Adhruh

Adhruh: a place mentioned by Ibn Ishaq in the account of the expedition to Tabuk. Its people came to the Prophet there and gave him the poll-tax. ¹

The place data gives its approximate location as the present-day town of Adhruh in southern Jordan near Ma'an. This identification is at the level of the district, not the exact site.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), signed H. Lammens and L. Veccia Vaglieri, describes Adhruh (also Udhruh) as a place between Ma'an and Petra, with a magnificent Roman camp whose remains were described by Brunnow and Domaszewski, and a gushing spring. In pre-Islamic times it lay in the Judham country and was visited by the Quraysh caravans. It submitted to Muhammad on payment of tribute during the expedition to Tabuk in 9/630; the treaty of capitulation transmitted by the sources is probably authentic. Mu'awiya is said to have received there the homage of al-Hasan b. 'Ali. Some Arab geographers made it the chief town of the district of al-Sharat in the province of al-Balqa'. It is not mentioned after the Crusaders, who held places such as Wadi Musa. ²

Adhruh became famous in Islamic history for the conference held there after the battle of Siffin, to settle the conflict between 'Ali and Mu'awiya. The article notes that al-Hamdani's statement in the Hudud al-'Alam that its people were Kharijites comes from a confusion between al-Sharat and al-Shurat, which means the Kharijites. ²