The Companions of the Rass, also known as the People of the Well or the People of Ar-Rass, were an

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian language, Sumerian c ...

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

, who are mentioned in the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...

. The

provides little information concerning them other than to list them with other communities, including

ʿĀd ʿĀd ( ar, عَادٌ, ') is an ancient tribe mentioned frequently in the Qurʾān. The tribe's members, referred to as ʿĀdites, formed a prosperous nation until they were destroyed in a violent storm. According to Islamic tradition, the st ...

Thamud The Thamud ( ar, ثَمُوْد, translit=Ṯamūd) were an ancient Arabian tribe or tribal confederation that occupied the northwestern Arabian peninsula between the late-eighth century BCE, when they are attested in Assyrian sources, and the ...

, the People of Noah and others; the

groups all these communities together as nations who went astray and were perished for their sins. Muslim scholars related that the Companions of the Rass were a community in the

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

region. The root meaning of ''rass'' is a well or water pit, but some scholars have stated that Rass was the name of a river or the city itself. It is speculated that modern

Aras River , az, Araz, fa, ارس, tr, Aras The Aras (also known as the Araks, Arax, Araxes, or Araz) is a river in the Caucasus. It rises in eastern Turkey and flows along the borders between Turkey and Armenia, between Turkey and the Nakhchivan excl ...

is ar-Rass. Another less common theory is that Companions of the Rass were an

Indus Valley civilisation The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900&n ...

. With Rass meaning "well" or "along the water channels" or "water tranches". Means refer to place which has lot of wells. Today we know that at

Mohenjo-daro Mohenjo-daro (; sd, موئن جو دڙو'', ''meaning 'Mound of the Dead Men';Harappa Harappa (; Urdu/ pnb, ) is an archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, about west of Sahiwal. The Bronze Age Harappan civilisation, now more often called the Indus Valley Civilisation, is named after the site, which takes its name from a mode ...

city itself 300 well. Same about

Dholavira Dholavira ( gu, ધોળાવીરા) is an archaeological site at Khadirbet in Bhachau Taluka of Kutch District, in the state of Gujarat in western India, which has taken its name from a modern-day village south of it. This village is f ...

, where many trenches were created to store water. Some Arabs referred to Indus people as Companions of the Rass.

Account in Exegesis

References

{{Qur'anic people Ancient peoples Semitic-speaking peoples

Rass Rass or RASS may refer to: Places * Ar Rass a city in central Saudi Arabia * Rass, Bareq, a neighborhood in southwestern Saudi Arabia :''See also Ar Rass (disambiguation) and Ras (disambiguation)#Places for similarly named places'' People * ...