Potter and Wellington note that the title of “the most fertile parts” seems to have been derived from the productivity of the farmlands. In writing about the period of Mohammed, Hitti notes of these oases that “most of these fertile tracts were cultivated at the time of the Prophet by Jews.” It has already been noted that these villages would have been home to the escaping Jews in Lehi’s time. (see the commentary on 1 Nephi 2:2) If such was the case, could Lehi’s family have stayed for some time there among people who were inclined to believe as they did? Nephi’s text seems to give a number of clues in this regard:
(1) The phrase “keeping in the most fertile parts” might be interpreted to mean “staying or remaining for some time in the most fertile parts.”
(2) During almost the entire journey in the wilderness, Nephi reports that they hunted or ate raw meat. The only part of the trail where he fails to refer to eating flesh seems to be in the most fertile parts. This makes sense. Why would they hunt while in rich farming villages?
(3) The absence of murmuring through the most fertile parts could also testify that they felt safe during this part of the journey. The fact that Jews were fleeing Jerusalem and coming to the Arab villages in large numbers suggests that the migrants from Jerusalem in Lehi’s time were welcomed in this part of Arabia by the controlling tribes. These were skilled craftsmen and farmers, both valuable assets in a wilderness community.
(4) One additional factor might have to do with Lehi and Nephi‘s calling to be the Lord’s servants. D&C 33:7-8 implies that somewhere Nephi might have been a missionary. Lynn and Hope Hilton suggested that it was perhaps to the predecessors of the Lihyanites (the people of Lihy) at al-Bada’a, Midian who came to power in northwest Arabia over four hundred years after the passage through Arabia of Lehi’s family. However, it also seems likely to Potter and Wellington that Nephi might have taught for a lengthy time in the most fertile parts. The Lihyanite capital city was in the Wadi Ula, and their temple at Dedan. The Hiltons go into great length to associate the cistern at the Dedan temple to the Brazen Sea of Solomon’s temple Apparently someone was a gospel missionary in this area. An intriguing story is related by al-Wohaibi of the old Arabia geographer “Ibn Zabalah and recorded by both al-Samhudi and al-’Abbasi, … they allege that there is an inscription on two stones at Medina, one of which says that a messenger of Solomon or Jesus was sent to Qura Arabiyyah or Yathrib (Medina) or to ’this village.’” It is worth noting from a missionary aspect that Arabiyyah villages were so close to each other that “travelers would leave a village in the afternoon and spend the night in another and so on for several days.” Thus, Nephi could conveniently move from village to village preaching the gospel. [George Potter and Richard Wellington, Discovering the Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript, 2000, pp. 118-123] [See the Hiltons’ commentary on 1 Nephi 2:14]
Note* The Hiltons note that history and tradition tell of the Jewish and Israelite families that settled in the northwestern part of the Arabian peninsula, called the Hijaz, from the time of Moses to the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar. Sir Richard F. Burton, the famous nineteenth century English explorer, reports a fascinating tradition of an Israelite army sent by Moses (on the island route paralleling this part of the western coast) to purge Mecca and Medina of all their “infidel” inhabitants. The army saved a young man of the royal family and some women and children. “When the army returned [to the children of Israel], they found that Moses had died during the expedition, and they were received with reproaches by the people for having violated his express command. The soldiers, unwilling to live … under this reproach, returned to al-Hijaz and settled there.”
Numerous traditions account for the origins of other Jewish families in Arabia. One is that some came during the reign of David, and many more during the reign of Hezekiah. It is well known in Islamic circles that much of the population in the Hijaz (the state in northwest Arabia) was Jewish when Mohammed rose to power in the seventh century A.D. [Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi, p. 117] [See the commentary on Helaman 7:7]
1 Nephi 16:14 Keeping in the most fertile parts of the wilderness ([Illustration]-Potter Theory): After traveling down wadi Jizl the family would have reached Dedan. A beautiful and fertile town in one of the most picturesque settings in Saudi Arabia. The ruins of the old town of Dedan are just a short way from the modern town of al Ula. [George Potter and Richard Wellington, Discovering the Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript, 2000, p. 124]
“And We Did Go Forth Again in the Most Fertile Parts of the Wilderness”
According to Potter and Wellington, after Lehi’s group finished hunting at Shazer (al-Gharr), they continued south-southeast (“the same direction”) on what appears to be the Gaza branch of the Frankincense trail and kept in what the text describes as “the most fertile parts of the wilderness” (1 Nephi 16:14). One might ask, How could there be “most fertile parts” in the desert land of northwest Arabia, where rainfall averages less than four inches per year and extreme summer temperatures bake everything? Isn’t this a contradiction?
In order to solve this problem, some LDS scholars have suggested that the phrase “most fertile parts” meant that Lehi rode his camels through the lowest spots in the wadis where slightly more desert bushes are found. This notion would seem to reinvent the definitions of “most” and “fertile,” especially in light of what these words would have meant to the author Nephi and Joseph Smith, the translator. Nephi came from Jerusalem, part of the “fertile crescent.” He came from an agrarian society and undoubtedly knew the precise meaning of fertility. Therefore, it seems reasonable to believe that the words Nephi used for “most” and “fertile” meant just what they imply.
As in many other instances, what might at first seem to be a great flaw in Nephi’s text is actually one of the most compelling witnesses for its historical accuracy. Based on research and explorations by Potter and Wellington, they believe there are two rational explanations for Nephi’s wording:
(1) Based on broad assumptions, the phrase “keeping in the most fertile parts of the wilderness” might have meant that Lehi’s family visited the large oasis towns which were mostly located on the Frankincense trail. These were, in order: al-Bada’a, Al-Aghra at wadi Sharma, Shuwaq, Shagbh, Dedan, Medina, Najran, etc. (see illustration below). Each of these oases had a farming community associated with it.
(2) It is more likely, however, that “the most fertile parts” was the particular section of the Frankincense trail from Dedan to Medina. That is to say, “the most fertile parts” was an actual place, a series of villages and farms called the Qura Arabiyyah which were found on the Frankincense trail.
1 Nephi 16:14 And we did go forth again … in the most fertile parts of the wilderness ([Illustration]-Potter Theory): Halts on the Frankincense Trail. [George Potter and Richard Wellington, Discovering the Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript, 2000, p. 122]
According to Groom, Qura or Qara means “a region or place of fixed abode; villages, a cultivated land.” Thus Qura Arabiyyah means villages of Arabia. To Nephi and fellow Palestinians of his day, the Qura Arabiyyah were the settled villages of the “’Arabs” who lived in a great desert; everything else in the peninsula was Bedouin country, the land of the “A’rabs.” The distinction of the two words in quotation marks is very important. Al-Wohaibi explains:
It is from Qura Arabiyyah that the name “’Arab” as opposed to “A’rab” is to be derived, since the word “Arab” denotes the settlers, as opposed to “A’rab” the Bedouin. This distinction is definitely pre-Islamaic and can be assumed to have originated in this region which is known to have possessed commercial, agricultural centres.
Al-Wohaibi infers that in ancient times, the only lands considered Arabia were the villages (occupied by “’Arabs”) between Wadi Qura, the home of the empire of Dedan, and the great oasis of Medina. Thus Qura Arabiyyah included twelve villages, a chain of fertile farmlands which ran for over two hundred miles to the south-southeast. Only these Qura villages are what ancient Palestinian and Syrian historians considered Arabia or Arabiyyah. The term Arabia or Bilad al-Arab (“the land of the Arab”) did not apply to the entire peninsula until well after the advent of Islam. Even more interesting to the Book of Mormon reader is the fact that the Prophet Mohammed referred to these villages as the Muhajirun, which means “the fertile parts [pieces] of land.” In essence, the title Muhajirun (fertile parts) or Qura Arabiyyah (villages or cultivated lands) seems only to have applied to the villages that were located on the Gaza or Egyptian branch of the Frankincense trail, the exact route that Lehi would have taken from Tayyib al-Ism (the valley of Lemuel) to Medina. In other words, when Nephi referred to the “most fertile parts,” he appears to have been using the actual place-name for the area that Lehi’s family was traveling in.
With this in mind it is interesting to note two things about the 1830 original translation of the Book of Mormon:
(1) capitalization was generally not a part of the text; and
(2) the phrase actually read, “keeping in the most fertile parts, which WAS in the borders.”
This implies once again that “the most fertile parts” was a place-name for a unique area, in essence, the Muhajurin, the Qura Arabiyyah
One final note. No reliable record existed of a westerner visiting these most fertile parts of the Frankincense trail until after the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The Department of Antiquities and Museums of Saudi Arabia cites: “Charles Doughty was the first who visited al-Ula (Dedan) in 1876 and opened the doors for study and research for the others.” [George Potter and Richard Wellington, Discovering the Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript, 2000, pp. 105-120]
1 Nephi 16:14 And we did go forth again … in the most fertile parts of the wilderness ([Illustration]-Potter Theory): Map showing the Trail Taken by the Family through Arabia. [George Potter and Richard Wellington, Discovering the Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript, 2000, p. 260]
1 Nephi 16:14 And we did go forth again … in the most fertile parts of the wilderness ([Illustration]-Potter Theory): Fields and palm groves line the route for many miles leading up to Medina. Amid the desert a line of farms stretches like a string across the barren terrain. [George Potter and Richard Wellington, Discovering the Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript, 2000, p. 124]