Hud (Hūd) was a prophet of ancient Arabia mentioned in the Quran. The eleventh chapter of the Quran, Hud, is named after him, though the narrative of Hud comprises only a small portion of the chapter.
Arabian Desert and Rub' al Khali
Hud has sometimes been identified with Eber, an ancestor of the Ishmaelites and the Israelites who is mentioned in the Old Testament.
He is said to have been a subject of a mulk (مُلك, kingdom) named after its founder, 'Ad, a fourth-generation descendant of Noah (his father being Uz, the son of Aram, who was the son of Shem, who in turn was a son of Noah):
The ʿĀd people, with their prophet Hud, are mentioned in many places. See especially , and . Their eponymous ancestor ʿAd was fourth in generation from Noah, having been a son of 'Aus, the son of Aram, the son of Sam, the son of Noah. They occupied a large tract of country in Southern Arabia, extending from Umman at the mouth of the Persian Gulf to Hadhramaut and Yemen at the southern end of the Red Sea. The people were tall in stature and were great builders. Probably the long, winding tracts of sands (ahqaf) in their dominions (46:21) were irrigated with canals. They forsook the true God, and oppressed their people. A three years famine visited them, but yet they took no warning. At length a terrible blast of wind destroyed them and their land, but a remnant, known as the second ʿĀd or the Thamud (see below) were saved, and afterwards suffered a similar fate for their sins. The tomb of the Prophet Hud (qabr Nabi Hud) is still traditionally shown in Hadhramaut, latitude 16 N, and longitude 49 E, about 90 miles north of Mukalla. There are ruins and inscriptions in the neighborhood.
The other tribes claimed to be present at this time in Arabia, were the Thamud, Jurhum, Tasam, Jadis, Amim, Midian, Amalek Imlaq, Jasim, Qahtan, Banu Yaqtan and others.
The Quran gives the location of ʿĀd as being Al-Aḥqāf (ٱلْأَحقَاف, "The Sandy Plains", or "The Wind-curved Sand-hills"). It is believed to have been in South Arabia, possibly in eastern Yemen and/or western Oman.