According to Arab legend, Abraham (patriarch of the Hebrew Bible, the Quran and other Islamic writings) visited this oasis at Al Asad on his journey from Ur to Haran. According to the legend, Abraham stopped at the oasis, drank from the water and bathed himself. He and his family camped here for a short time before moving on to Haran.
The Arabic name of the village near the oasis is Eyen Al Asad, which means Spring of the Lion. The name was derived from a time when this area was a wilderness with all kinds of wild animals to include lions.
The oasis had neither settlement nor village before 1920 other than the occasional occupation by Bedouins who passed through with their flocks and stopped for water. Over the centuries, most people in the region lived much closer to the Euphrates River, along it's banks or flood plains. They preferred to stay close to the lush and trade route that the river naturally provided.
A friend took me to the Oasis on one of my parts runs to Al Asad. No one knows for sure if Abraham truly stopped here, but it is a protected area and the Iraqi's and Americans treat it as a sacred piece of land.
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