38 Preface وَعادًا وَثَمودَ وَأَصحابَ الرَّسِّ وَقُرونًا بَينَ ذٰلِكَ كَثيرًاYusuf AliAs also ‘Ād and Thamūd, and the Companions1 of the Rass, and many a generation between them.Commentators are not clear as to who the “Companions of the Ross” were. The root meaning of “rass” is an old well or shallow water-pit. Another root connects it with the burial of the dead. But it is probably the name of a town or place. The “Companions of the Rass” may well have been the people of Shu'ayb, as they are here mentioned with ‘Ād, Thamūd, and Lot’s people, and the people of Shu'ayb are mentioned in a similar connection in 26:176-190 and in 11:84-95. Shu'ayb was the prophet of the Madyan people in the northwest of Arabia, where many old wells are found. There is however, an oasis town al Rass in the district of Qasim in Middle Najd, about thirty-five miles southwest of the town of 'Unayzah, reputed to be the central point of the Arabian Peninsula, and situated midway between Mecca and Basrah. See Doughty’s Arabia Deserta, thin paper onevolume edition, London 1926, II. 435 and Map. Lat. 26?N., and Long. 43?E.