Al-Toubad .. Mountain of Love

Mount Al-Toubad was immortalized in human history due to its association with one of the strongest stories of platonic love in Arabic literature, which is the story of Qais bin Al-Mulawwah and his cousin Layla Al-Amiriyah.

Mount Al-Toubad and the village of Al-Ghayl became famous for hosting the most beautiful platonic love story immortalized by Arabic literature, and from which world literature was inspired by similar stories. It had a clear impact on French, Spanish, Indian, and other literatures, as the troubadour poets sang their lyrical poems which were derived from the love story of Qais and Layla and other Arabic love stories. On the slopes of Mount Al-Toubad, the events of the story of the Madman of Layla, who wandered in love with her, took place, and the mountain had a share of his poetry:

I sobbed for Al-Toubad when I saw it.. and it glorified the Merciful when it saw me / I shed tears of the eye when I recognized it.. and it called out with its loudest voice and summoned me

The green carpet and pools of water surround Mount Al-Toubad and breezes flirt with it in the town of Al-Ghayl, which is located northwest of the Al-Aflaj vernorate and is famous for its orchards and farms.    

Reason for Naming the Mountain

A specific event explaining the reason for naming Mount Al-Toubad by this name was not mentioned, but linguistic dictionaries trace the name back to its first linguistic origins which may give us some explanation. In Mu'jam Maqayis al-Lugha, the entry for W-B-D: "Wabd: the Waw, Ba, and Dal is a word that indicates a bad condition. It is said: a land that has become 'Wabidat', if the condition of its people has worsened. And they say: Al-Wabd: a hollow in a rock, and a man who is 'Mustawbid' in a place: ignorant of it." Likewise, the linguistic origin in "Lisan al-Arab" was Al-Wabd: the need for people, and Al-Wabad: the severity of living. It can be concluded from all these meanings that the name of the mountain es back to a stage when the condition of the place in which it is located worsened due to lack of rain and scarcity of herbs, or that its name is due to its containing several hollows where water collects. Whatever the reason for the naming, the name of this mountain was immortalized in human history for its association with one of the strongest stories of platonic love in Arabic literature, which is the story of Qais bin Al-Mulawwah and his cousin Layla, and they both belong to one of the tribes most famous for platonic passion: the tribe of Bani Amer. 

The Cave of Love

It is not easy to reach Mount Al-Toubad due to the similarity of the geographical nature of the region's terrain and the abundance of rocky mountains in this geographical spot. Access to Al-Toubad requires seeking help from the people of the town of Al-Ghayl. Mount Al-Toubad is characterized by a gradual height that tends to be high from the west and its length is about 300 meters. In the middle of it is a cave believed to have been the meeting place of Qais and Layla when they were herding sheep in their childhood. Genealogists agree that the tribes of Bani Amer are among the most famous and ancient Arab tribes and they descend from the Hawazin Qaisiya tribes from Qais Aylan bin Mudar bin Nizar from Ma'ad bin Adnan from the lineage of Ishmael bin Abraham, peace be upon them both. The tribes of Bani Amer settled in the central southwest of the Arabian Peninsula between Hijaz, Najd, and Tihamah, in what is now known as Wadi Al-Layth and Ranyah.