An iron Wabar meteorite: etched section showing the Widmanstätten pattern found in Rub’ al Khali, Saudi Arabia.
The vast desert wasteland of southern Saudi Arabia known as the Empty Quarter, or Rub’ al Khali in Arabic, is one of the most desolate places on Earth. In 1932, St. John Philby who was hunting for a city named Ubar, had heard of Bedouin legends of an area called Al Hadida (‘city of iron’ or ‘place of iron’ in Arabic) with ruins of ancient habitations, and also an area where a piece of iron, shaped roughly like a saucer, the size of a camel had been found, and so organized an expedition to visit the site.
The Wabar site covers about 500 by 1,000 meters, and the most recent mapping shows three prominent, roughly circular craters. Five were reported by Philby in 1932, the largest of which measured 116 and 64 meters wide. The layout of the impact area suggests that the body fell at a shallow angle, and was moving at typical meteorite entry speeds of 40,000 to 60,000 km/h. Its total mass was more than 3,500 tonnes. The biggest piece struck with an explosion roughly equivalent to the atom bomb that leveled Hiroshima. Thermoluminescence dating by Prescott et al. (2004) suggest the impact site is 290 years old. This coincides with observations of fireball on 1st September 1704 from Tarim, Yemen.
Al Mahdi’s and Rub’ al-Khali
Mawlana Shaykh Nazim al-Qubrusi said, “By the Prophet’s order, he (al Mahdi) was first taken away to behind Mountain Qaf. Nujaba, Awtad, Budalla and Akhyar took him. Their Imam is Shihabuddin. Then, he was ordered to be in the Empty Quarters (Rub’ al-Khali). That is where Yemen and Hijaz join. It is a dead desert…God will send people from behind Mountain Qaf. No one will be alone at that time. When the Mahdi (alaihi salam) comes, he will bring so many new people with him who will be coming from around (outside) this earth. There are so many unknown worlds around (outside) our world. People will come from Nujaba, Awtad, Budalla and Akhyar.”