PART I - KING SOLOMON'S MINERS: MODERN BANU SOLEYM CLANS AND THE SOLYMI OF JOSEPHUS

 Rediscovering Ethiopian "Solymi", "Shalmai" or Soleym Settlements of the Levant, Mediterranean and Aegean: Roots of Ancient Israel  by Dana W. Reynolds

   (Parts I, II and III  of King Solomon's Miners were especially inspired by and are now dedicated to the memory and works of two early African American griots way ahead of their time, William Leo Hansberry and Drusilla Dunjee Houston, as well as Martin Gardiner Bernal and Kamal Suleiman Salibi, two wise men never straying from the right path.) 

 “But at that moment, the mighty Earthshaker, returning from the Ethiopians, saw him from the distant mountains of the Solymi. Poseidon watched Odysseus sailing and his spirit grew enraged.” (Homer, The Odyssey, translated by Ian Johnston, 2007, p 105)

 “Cheorilus’s description of the Solymi (quoted in Josephus, Against Apion I.173) accords with the account in the catalogue of Xerxes’ army (Herodotuss 7.70) of the Eastern Ethiopians; both Choerilus’s Solymi and Herodotus’s Eastern Ethiopians, strikingly, wear on their heads hides of horse heads.” (Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian   1996, Louis H. Feldman, p. 192)

“The Cilicians and Solymi, as well as the as the kindred Pisidians and Isaurians, were peoples of the Semitic race; who entering Asia Minor by the pass round the Gulf of Issus, overspread the sea-board beneath the chain of Taurus, and occupied its slopes and heights.” (The Ancient history of the East from the Earliest Times to the Conquest  Philip Smith. p 474). 

Modern view of the ancient world

“The ethnic character of the Solymi depends mainly upon the assertion of Chaerilus that they spoke a Phoenician dialect. It is confirmed by their name which connects them very remarkably with the Hebrew… Salem and Jerusalem, by their habit of shaving the head with the exception of a tuff, by their special worship of Saturn, and by the occurrence of a number of Phoenician words in their country. If we regard the Solymi as Semitic on this evidence, we must suppose an early Semitic occupation of the whole southern coast of Asia Minor, followed by an Indo-European invasion before which the primitive inhabitants yielded losing the more desirable territory and only maintaintng themselves in the mountains” (Rawlinson, G. 1862, The History of Herodotus, p. 540).

The 18^th and 19^th century Discovery of the Solymi  

       In this post will be discussed the connection of modern Afro-semitic peoples of Arabia with the medieval tribes of Harrah named Sulaym or Soleym and their likely connection with the "Solymi" of Josephus and earlier writers. It will be shown that once again, earlier Western scholars came closer to exposing the facts about “Ethiopic” civilization in the Levant and Mediterranean, than some of our modern “Biblical Archaeologists” are able to do. For example, although some of these modern scholars have tried to malign the theoretical foundations of Martin Bernal’s Black Athena volumes, and suggestions that ancient “dark-skinned” “Ethiopians” and Egyptians must have had some substantial influence on these regions, Bernal was in fact far from the first, nor even the most prolific on the subject.  Similar suggestions, and in many cases, assertions, were in fact directly made by a number of Orientalist historians as well as the ancient Greeks and Romans, themselves.

       One encyclopedia in the last century makes note of the comments of a  Greek historian living near the end of the 5^th century, “According to Hesychius, the Island of Lesbos was anciently called Ethiopia, and its people Ethiopes; having been colonized, perhaps from the Syrian coast. The Leuco-Syri, or White Syrians seem to have received the name as a distinctive term by which any confusion between them and their darker neighbours to the South might be avoided” (This appeared in, Encyclopedia Metropolitana edited by Smedley, Rose and Rose in  1945, p. 642. See also Ralph Griffiths, Sept. 1774, “The Monthly Review”).

     Furthermore, Cheikh Anta Diop and Bernal and more recent authors had only been pointing out and throwing light on what was expressly and consistently repeated by the ancient Greeks themselves - Strabo, Pliny, Hesychius, and many others. To pretend that there is something radical, politically-motivated and/or “Afro-centric” about the suggestion that ancient black Africans or affiliated peoples once inhabited and significantly influenced these regions has gone on unwarrantedly, at the expense of not only the reputations of these scholars, but of the study of world history.   

      From the time of Homer until the period of Strabo, “Ethiopians”, or “black peoples” from the coasts of north Africa and the Levant (Syro –Arabia) were considered by the Greeks to have at one time occupied other coasts of the Mediterranean and the Aegean, including such regions as Crete, Lycia, the Taurus, Pisidia and Cilicia, before the coming of their own ancestors. Cheikh Anta Diop thus, rightly, remarked that earlier scholars had previously found that Boeotia, Cilicia, Lesbos, Lemnos, Lycia, Euboea and other countries of the coastal Mediterranean and Aegean had once been classified by the ancient Greeks as formerly “Ethiopian”. 
       Josephus living in Strabo's era probably referred to these Ethiopians when mentioning "the children of Ham" and his "Ethiopic wars" -

 "The children of Ham possessed the land of Syria and Amanus, and the mountains of Libanus; seizing upon all that was on its sea-coasts, and as far as the ocean, and keeping it as their own.  Some indeed of its names are utterly vanished away; others of them being changed, and another sound given them, are hardly to be cdiscovered; yet a few there are which have kept their denominations entire."  ( Josephus' 1st century, Antiquities of the Jews, Book I, Chapter 6 )  

     Greek geographers like Strabo still considered the remnants of the Solymi living in the Taurus mountains and a few other places as descendants of early or proto-Greek populations of Lycia and Cilicia encompassing part of coastal Anatolia and northern Syria. These were the very same places the Greeks themselves said were once designated Ethiopia by their own ancestors.

       In the 18^th century, Jacob Bryant, another early specialist on ancient myth makes reference to ancient commentators’ remarks about Cassius and Belos, whose sons Aigyptos (the “goat-footed”) and Danaus, came to rule Egypt and Greece respectively. Josephus claimed the people of Tyre in Phoenicia were ruled by Belus. The latter deity was in fact called “king of Sidon”. 

       The connection of Jupiter or Jove to the semites is also illuminated in these myths. The author of Primitive History, from the Creation to Cadmus, wrote in 1789,  “Diodorus Siculus (from Euhemerus) says that ‘Jove was entertained by Belus at Babylon; when Cassius, whose name Mount Cassius bears, ruled Syria, and Cilix, Cilicia’” (William, W., 1789, p. 234).

     The mythological name of Cassius was connected to a deity named Zeus Hyksius or Jupiter Casius. Ptolemy wrote the name of the place where this Cassius was venerated as Kassion and Kassiotis. It was situated between the city of Pelusium a locale at the eastern extremity of the Nile Delta and a lake named Sirbonis.

      Bryant in 1776 wrote, “I have observed that the sons of  Chus are said to have come under the titles of  Casus and Belus into Syria and Phenicia”. And a little further he adds,  

 “in the account of the Cadmians who are styled Arabians… I have shewn that Eubeoea was the place to which they first came and here was an Ethiopium.( Strabo, lib. 10)  Samothrace was called Ethiopia. (Hesych.) Lesbos had the name of Ethiopa and Macaria. (Plin. Lib. 5.c. 31.).  The extreme settlement of this people was in Spain, upon the Baetis, near Tartessus and Gades: and the account given by the natives according to the historian Ephorus was that colonies of Ethiopians traversed a great part of Africa; some of which came and settled near Tartessus; and others got possession of different parts of the sea-coast. (Strabo lib.)  They lived near the Island of Erythrea which they held (Dionys. Perieg. V. 558)” (Bryant, J., 1776, p. 183).

     Tartessos was located in Spain only two days distant from Gibraltar. Rightly or wrongly, the above author relates the name of Casus to Kush and then proceeds to relate these Ethiopic colonizers of Syria and the Aegean with peoples who ended up settling North Africa. He quotes Strabo as saying, “It is on this account that we find some of the same family on the opposite coast of Mauritania. Who are represented as a people of great stature.”

      He then translates Strabo’s words as follows with regard to Mauritania or northwest Africa across from Spain – “the people of this country are Ethiopic and they are the largest of any stature with which we are acquainted’ (Bryant, 1776,. p. 138)

      There are two people once known to have dwelt in this “Mauretanian” region – coastal northwest Africa that were black or considered “Ethiopians” and whose least modified descendants not infrequently still reach or surpass heights of up 7 feet.  One of them are the Woodabe or that original group of Fulani or Peul who now inhabit mainly the region of Sahel. The other are the veiled Tuareg, once described by some colonialists as “giants of the Sahara”, who were still claiming descent from the “Phoenicians”. Their. indigo-colored dress or coverings, like those of certain Yemenites (Mahra) and the ancient Arabs, are likely what the Greeks referred to as “Tyrian” or “Phoenician purple”. 

        

      Philip Smith wrote:

 “Strabo regards both the Milyans and Cabalians – another mountain-tribe of Northern Lycia – as Solymi; and he considers that a people of this name had once held the heights of Taurus from Lycia to Pisidia. The Pisidians are also represented by other writers as being Solymi.  It is clear that the Solymi were driven back into the mountains by the entrance of a new race, whose long and arduous struggles with the old inhabitants are indicated by the conflicts of Bellerophon and other mythical heroes with the Solymi…. (Smith, 1871, p. 432).

      Thus, the Cabalians or “Cabalian Maeoneans” of Herodotus were considered a remnant of the Solymi that had as well once occupied Lydial. At a certain point these populations are considered to have entered North Africa where they are mentioned on the coast. (The word Cabali is said to derive from qabila (and its variants) simply meaning tribe in the semitic or African-Asiatic dialects. Others relate the name to Kybele, a mother goddess venerated in associated with Attys or Attis another deity of Lydia).

       According to legend, Solymus, ancestor of the Solymi was son of the nymph “Chaldene”, a “daughter of Pisidus”. His sister and wife was named “Milyas”. Early on, the Solymians occupied a place called Termessos. Pisidia was a little north of Lycia in Anatolia and corresponding also to the area of Sagalassos and Termessos, two affiliated towns in the region. Thus, Strabo notes that the mountain at the foot of Termessos was in his day called Mt. Solymos, where there was also a cult called Zeus Solymos.
    The presence of the Solymi in this region might explain why certain specialists studying the ancient town of Sagalassos have noted an ancient "affinity of the Sagalassos population with the sub-Saharan populations from Gabon and Somalia" (Ricaut, F.X. and Waelkens, M., 2008, p. 555). 

        Matthew Gonzales in his article on the cult of Ares writes:  “‘Indeed, in the land of the Termessians one could be shown the former camp of Bellerophon and the tomb of his son, cut down by the hand of Ares (Strab. 13. 4.16), who was the father of the Solymoi in some traditions (Etym. Magn. …). (Gonzales, p. 269 )
     Ares was also known as Aretas the name of the deity Hareth related to the name Erithrea. The Axumite and other peoples of the Horn were well known to have worshipped Ares also under the name of Mahrem (Phillipson, D.W., 2012, pp.95-96).   

       Philip Smith in his Ancient History of the East also noted the Solymian historical connection to the original semitic inhabitants of Cilicia:  “The Cilicians and Solymi, as well as the kindred Pisidians and Isaurians, were peoples of the Semitic race; who entering Asia Minor by the pass round the Gulf of Issus, overspread the sea-board beneath the chain of Taurus, and occupied its slopes and heights.”

       Josephus identified the founders of Lydia with the “Lud” of Genesis 10 :22 ( Gmirkin, 2001, p. 142, fn. 15). The biblical Lud in Arabic is Al-Aoud or Wadd signifying “the lion’s whelp”, a name of more than one famed ancient Arabian chief. Not surprisingly, Herodotus relates that the original “Lydians”  were named from one of their ancient kings. 

      The Cabali or Maonians of Lydia also were known to have worshiped “Atys” or “Attis”, a God whose associated mythos bears similarities to that of the deity Ad, Hadad or Adad of Babylonia and Arabia on the one hand, and Adonis, “Lord” of the Phoenicians, on the other. Hesiod in fact said Adonis was “son of Phoenix” (Evelyn-White, H., 1914, p. 171).

       Atys is a God who underwent crucifixion and “resurrection”, like Adonis. Atys came to be venerated by the royal families of early Phrygia as well. Attis and other deities of apparent “semitic” origin are most probably testimony to a legacy of an “Afro-semitic” i.e. Ethiopic presence in Anatolia.

Afro-Semites in Greek Mythology: Minaean Connections to the Solymi of  the Levant and Aegean

“From the Lud, Maon, and Maacath settled round Palestine, came the Ludoi, Maones and Makedones of Lydia.” (Origines Celticae 1883, p. 408 by Edward Guest, William Stubbs and Cecil Deeds)

“According to Hesychius, the Island of Lesbos was anciently called Ethiopia, and its people Ethiopes; having been colonized, perhaps  from the Syrian coast. The Leuco-Syri, or White Syrians seem to have received the name as a distinctive term by which any confusion between them and their darker neighbours to the South might be avoided.” ( Encyclopædia Metropolitana; or, Universal Dictionary of Knowledge, 1845, p. 642)

“Agenor sent his sons Phenix, Celix, and Cadmus to find Europa: they failed but founded the Phoenician, Cilician, and Boeotian (Theban) peoples.” (Cited in the book of writings by Gabrielle Suchon: A Woman Who Defends All Persons of Her Sex, p. 301.)

       In our past posts we discussed the archaeological and linguistic evidence connecting the Minim or Minaeans with the Levites, or priestly caste of the Yehudim (Judaeans). The apparent connection of the Maonians with the Solymi is perhaps more testimony that the Solymi were, in fact, Soleym. In the Bible, the Arabian name of the Ma’an, Ma’in or Minaean, is also sometimes translated as “Maonian”.   A place called Ma’on is in fact called a city of Judah (See I Sam. 25:2, 3, Smith, Hackett, Abbott, 1877, p. 1875).

       It is thought that the word Lud in the Bible had connection to Lydia.. As the book, Origines Celticae, pointed out in the 19^th century, Abulfeda is one of the Arab writers who identify Lud as the ancestor of the Amalekites, “and many hints, gathered both from Scriptural and classical sources, lead us to the conclusion that several races, Amalek, Maon, and, claiming Lud for their ancestor, dwelt south of Palestine.  The Hebrew word rendered Mehunim in 2 Chron. 26.7 is merely the plural form of the word Maon, which appears in Judges 10. 12; and therefore the same people must be alluded to in both passages…The Septuagint renders the Mehunim of 2 Chron. By the term Minaioi, …” From the book (Origins Celticae, 1883, p. 178)

      Thus, whatever might be said of the ethnicity and dialect of the inhabitants of Lydia in the time of Strabo, it is highly likely the proto-Lydians of the region, and probably the name of Lydia itself, originated amongst the descendants of the Afro-Semitic people the Greeks considered of Phoenician i.e. Canaanite, affiliation. Later, European- speaking Greek invaders settled in the region amalgamating with the Maonians, while the name of Lydia or Lud, descendant of "Belos" and “Ninos” was retained for the people of that country..

       When all is said and done, to conceive of the Solymi of the Taurus and Aegean as “semitic” is not as far-fetched as certain modern scholars have tried to make it appear. The ancient mythos surrounding the Solymi and Ogygia and Gyges appears to relate them to the Amalekites, “the Phoenician shepherds” of Joseophus and the names of two of their kings -  "Agag".

It is hard to to unravel these obscure mythi, but the marriage of the mythical Tremilos with Ogygia seems to show that the people whom the Termilai subdued were Agagi or Amalekites, and therefore that the Solumoi were a branch of this people – a conclusion to which we have been already brought by other considerations” (Guest et al., 1883, p. 239).

      According to Greek mythology the son of the Phoenician Agenor, “King of Tyre”, is Cadmus. Agenor sent his son to search out his sister in Boeotia in Greece. Cadmus is considered the founder of Thebes. He is in fact called the father of Ogygia in one tradition and in another, he is his son. Pausanius of the 2^nd century A,D, claimed “The first to occupy the land of Thebes are said to have been the Ectenes, whose king was Ogygus, an aboriginal”. (Pausanius 9 .5.1.) Aeschylus who lived in the 6^th – 5^th century B.C. also makes reference to Thebes as “the Ogygian Thebes”.

      The names of Gyges and Ogyia occur, not surprisingly, in both Lycia and Lydia. Apparently a lake in Lydia was named Gygia named for a nymph that inhabited it. Ogygos is called “King of the Titans” in one tradition and he had at one time fled to Tartessus a(mentioned above) after his defeat by Zeus. According to Stephen of Byzantium the early Lydians themselves were called Ogygioi (Fontenrose, 1959, p. 237, fn. 27).         The history of settlement of peoples in Egypt and the Nilo-Saharan affiliation of peoples in the Mediterranean is also captured, or represented in the many myths surrounding the legendary figure of king Minos and his family. And the original proto-Minoan people of Garamantian (Nilo-Saharan) affiliation seem to have settled in the Mediterranean along with the Ethiopic semitic-speaking peoples that came by way of the Levant or Aegean to Libya. The daughter of Minos named Akakallis (sometimes called a nymph) is supposed to have had a son named Garamas (otherwise called Amphithemis), ancestor of the Garamantes (Green, P., 2007, p. 348) - i.e., inhabitants of Garama or Djerma in Libya.

       It was said that “Nasamon”, another son of “Amphithemis”, was ancestor of the Nasamonians, a people whom we have discussed in earlier posts that possessed similar customs and with obvious links to the Tuareg.  These myths all seem to suggest that African-Semitic” populations of the Levant (Solymi, Cabali-Maonians) had met and intermingled with other African people in the Mediterranean, Aegean and in North Africa or “Libyan” landscape, giving rise to early populations there.

     Minos, himself, was son of the Phoenician princess "Europa" and thus a considered colonizer of Egypt.

"The Lycians were from Crete in ancient times (for in the past none that lived on Crete were Greek). Now there was a dispute in Crete about the royal power between Sarpedon and Minos, sons of Europa; Minos prevailed in this dispute and drove out Sarpedon and his partisans; who, after being driven out, came to the Milyan land in Asia. What is now possessed by the Lycians was in the past Milyan, and the Milyans were then called Solymi. 1.173.3 For a while Sarpedon ruled them, and the people were called Termilae, which was the name that they had brought with them …” ( Herodotus: The Histories)

 

       The people ruled by Minos may have been the Carians or Garamantes, while Sarpedon appears to have come to rule over the original Milyans “then called Solymi”.  Although there was conflict between them early on, these peoples of Minos and Sarpedon, two sons of Europa, appear to have been viewed as affiliated with the Levant.

      Later of course, the descendants of classical Greeks were to claim descent from all of these earlier “Pelasgic” peoples, though Pelasgians were said to have been a dark-skinned race or "melanthes…genus". Herodotus did maintain the belief that almost all of the names of the Gods had come to Greece from Egypt by way of the Pelasgians to the Greeks.

       Another early 19^th century text entitled, A Geographical and Historical Description of Asia Minor, reads as follows:

 Next to the Pelasgic migrations, we must place the settlements formed by Minos, who seems to have reigned, not only over Crete and the Cyclades, but to have had possessions on the coast of Caria and Lycia.  In the former country, Sarpedon, his brother, is said to have founded Miletus; in the latter the same chief established his Cretan bands, named Termilae, after having driven from the coasts or exterminated the Milyae and Solymi, the first possessors of the country, and descended, as appears most probable from the Syrians or Phoenicians”. (Cramer, p. 24)

    

      The 19^th century historian unabashedly recognized that the ancient Greeks considered there to be a close ethnic connection between the Solymi and the original Phoenician inhabitants of Cilicia.

“Strabo speaking of the small district Cabalis, which must certainly be referred to this people, remarks, that many authors looked upon it as the seat of the ancient Solymi of Homer, who were doubtless of Phoenician origin… their arms and accoutrements were precisely those of the Cilicians.” (Herod. VII.77.) ( Cramer,  p.  421)

     The appearance of Afrosemitic people in the Aegean is likely linked to the rise of the "Hyksos" and their appearance in the Syria, the Aegean and Egypt. An artistic style associated with the flying gallop appears deep within the Sahara in the Ahaggar and Tassili regions around the same time it does in the Mediterranean and Aegean. In the Sahara it is found at a certain period in association with Tuareg inscriptions called Tifinagh.  
     The representations recall the Mycenaean and Cretan models, rather than the Egyptian type according to the author of An Early History of Horsemanship (1985). "The style "seems to have dominated the art of the Sahara for few centuries starting roughly 1000 B.C."  Also of note are the similarities in chariot styles associated with the art. Two-shafted chariots similar to those from the eastern Mediterranean appear among those of the Fezzan (Azarolli, A. 1985, p. 59).  
         Evidently, the "great route" of the Garamantes from the Mediterranean coast to the Adrar region of the Iforas is also marked with rock paintings of flying gallop representations (Azzarolli, A.,1985, p. 61).
 
     Martin Bernal offerred the following with regards to the inhabitants of Thera. 

     "The presence of both the griffin an its flying gallop is fascinating.  As argued in the last chapter and above both the mythical animal and its motion appear to have been hallmarks of the Hyksos princes in Syria and the Aegean"  (Bernal, 1987, p. 388).       

"FLYING GALLOP" representation of stags on ancient fresco from the isle of Thera in the Mediterranean

       
      Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos wrote of the above art found on Thera that this "'African" fresco "should be assigned for preference to the turbulent Hyskos period with which some scholars have connected the legend of Danaus and Aigyptos.'" (Bernal, p. 388).

Man of Mycenae (mainland Greece) dated to the 12th century B.C.

        

MYCENAEAN FLYING GALLOP AND CHARIOTEER REPRESENTATION

The popular flying gallop representations in "Caballine" (horseman) rock art of  the Tassili region of Sahara. 

     Although the Greeks seem to have implied the Solymi were semites, i.e. Phoenicians, it was Homer that appears to have first implied that the Solymi or Phoenicians were an “Ethiopic” population. Alluding to the trident-bearing Neptune or Poseidon, the author of the Odyssey writes “Now the lord, the shaker of the earth, on his way from the Ethiopians espied him afar off from the mountains of the Solymi: even thence he saw Odysseus as he sailed over the deep; and he was mightily angered in spirit, and shaking his head he communed with his own heart. ‘Lo now, it must be that the gods at the last have changed their purpose concerning Odysseus, while I was away among the Ethiopians” (Book V, The Odyssey).

        Homer, however, wasn’t the only author whose writings suggest that the Solymi were ancestral “Ethiopians”.  The Solymi are implied to be “Ethiopians” in the writings of Cheorilus as well.  Feldman noted both the Solymi of Choerilus writings and the Eastern Ethiopians wore said to have worn horse hides on their heads (Feldman, L,  1996, p. 192). John Kenrick in his book, Phoenicia, also notes this:

The epic poet Cheoerilus, contemporary with Herodotus, describing the armies of Xerxes, says, ‘Behind these came a race of men wonderful to behold, speaking the Phoenician tongue; they dwelt on the Solymian mountains, beside the broad lake. With squalid heads, shaven round, and above they wore the stripped-off skins of horses’ heads, hardened in the smoke (Kenrick, pp. 86-87).

        Some have tried to dismiss the obvious connection the ancients were making between the Aegean Solymians, the Ethiopians, and founders of Jerusalem.

Choerilus says that they wore helmets of hide, made out of horses’ heads. That is the distinctive badge of the eastern Ethiopian levies in Herodotus [7.70]; and Homer [Od. 5.283] provides the link between Solymi and Ethiopians – when Poseidon paused and surveyed the seas from the vantage-point on the Solyma mountains he was returning from Ethiopian festivies. Choerilus must be abandoned, though not without reluctance (Syme Anatolica 189). 

      Smith in his Ancient History of the East also notes that the description of the way the Solymi shaved their hair was typically Arabian, and adds.

     “All this agrees with the theory that the Solymi were a semitic people, perhaps of that ancient type which is blended with Hamitic characters.  The chief direct testimony to this effect is that of Choerilus of Samos, the contemporary of Herodotus, who wrote a poem on the Persian War, in which he mentions the Solymi as serving in the army of Xerxes, and says that their language was Phoenician.  This statement is confirmed by their habit of shaving the head with the exception of a tuft – a custom ascribed by Herodotus to the Arabians, and mentioned in Scripture as practiced by the Edomites, Moabites and Ammonites…” (Philip Smith 1881, p. 433)

        While the contention that these Dead Sea Solymi of the time of Josephus had "Ethiopic" or “Eastern Ethiopian” connections can hardly be doubted, more recent observers have been hesitant in making the same connection. Ancient historians saw the Solymi as peoples settled centuries earlier amongst populations in Lycia in Anataolia, a long way off from Israel and the Dead Sea.  Historians of  "the classics" and biblical archaeologists view this as “problematic”  – as usual - even though Strabo in the 1^st century cites Ephorus of the 4^th century B.C. as claiming that the southern seaboards or southern coasts of Asia (which includes Asia Minor) were once occupied in their entirety by “Ethiopians”, i.e. black populations.

       By the time of Strabo, however, the Solymi had for the most part disappeared from many of their coastal habitats in Anatolia and the Aegean.  According to Book V of Pliny Natural History (1^st c. A.D.), the Greek Erastosthenes of the 3rd century B. C. of Cyrene stated that "the nations of the Solymi, Leleges, Bebrices, Colycantii, and Trepsedores, are utterly perished from Asia." 

      Still long after the coming of the Hellenic Greeks, Josephus had made the claim that the Solymi were connected to the Dead Sea region and were responsible for the foundations of a town called Jerusalem.      

CONTINUED IN PART II


SEE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES AT THE END OF PART II

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CANAANITES IN THEIR LANDS - Part 3 Edomites, Hebrews and Israelites in ancient and modern Afro-Arabia

  EDOMITES, HEBREWS AND ISRAELITES i.e. The Ancient Azd and Himyarites of the Asir Tehama

  By D. W. Reynolds

“To Aram b. Shem was born Uz b. Aram, whose home was al-Ahqaf.” Al-Tabari 9th AD,  From the book 

Prophets and Patriarchs, p. 16, William M. Brinner.

       In Arabian genealogy referencing the Azd tribes the eponymic ancestor of the tribe of “Ghanim” is said to be the “Ghanim” ibn “Daws” or Ghanim son of “Daus” which is still the name of the Dawwas or Daws of the modern tribe known as Dawasir. In turn, Daws bin Udthan was grandson of Zahran, or as the translation of Ibn Khallikan’s Biographical Dictionary goes -  “Ghanim ibn Daus ibn Adnan ibn Abd Allah ibn Zahran” (Ibn Khalikan lived in the  13^th century.)  (De Slane, B. M., 1845, p. 38)  Zahran in turn was grandson of the famous Azd group of the king or chief Harith bin Kab, whom named the Zahran region of Asir.

       It is clear that this Ghanm whose descendants live in the Asir region of Liyyah (Leah) are being referred to also by al-Tabari of the 9th century who writes in  Tarikh al-Rusul wa’l –Muluk also of  “Ghanim b. Daws al-Azdi”, but also he notes the tradition  that the tribes of Ghanm and Makhramah were “the full blooded brothers of al Nadr” son of Kinanah. Their names are curiously like Ghanim, Makhramah and Nadir closely related Dawasir tribes for the last 1000 years in the Nejd region (Lorimer, p. 393-394; Watt, W. M. and MacDonald, M. p. 31, 1988).

A man from a Dawasir family (Abdulla al-Dousari) awaits his fate in an embassy in Central Saudi Arabia

      The Dawasir tribe of Makharim or Makharam (also called Makhir or Makharib) and Nadir are still extant in the Wadi Dawasir region of Nejd. Both Makharim and Nadir are part of the Farjan division of al Hasan Dawasir there (Lorimer, 1908, p. 394; Kupershoek, 1999, p. 45; Juhany, U. M., 2002, p. 68).

       In fact the groups named Kinanah and Quraysh today are still considered close relatives within the Dawasir confederation in Zahran (Asir). The Banu al-Nadr are literally a section of the Kinanah, a tribe whose descendants still inhabit  the Asir region. Thus, one translated genealogy in abridged form reads Nadir b. Humayl b. Munahhim, Lafath b. al-Sabuh b. Kinanah b. al-Awwam b. Nabt b. Qaydar b. Ismail (Watts, 1988, p. 40).  Still another longer version cited by Tabari apparently replicating the biblical text of Genesis 22 is "al-Awwam b. Nashid (Kasdana/Chesed) b. Bildas (Pildash) b. Yidlaf (Jadleph) b. Tabakh (Tebah) b. Jaham (Gaham) b. Tahash b. Makha b. 'Ayfa (Yafa) b. Abqar (Abchor) b. 'Ubayd  b. al-Da'a  b. Hamdan b. Sanbar (Bashmani/Eshban) b. Yathribi (Ithran/Bathran)" the latter being a descendant of Qaydar b. Ismail (Watt, W. M. and McDonald, M. V., pp. 39-40).
        Most of these were well- known Arab tribes stretching from the Yemen to the region of Mecca and Madina. As we have shown in the previous Part II, in particular the tribes of Dahash, Hamdan, Basman and Bidaran/Badran are counted among the Dawasir of Najd and Asir even today (Lorimer, 1908, p. 394). 

      This Ayfa, Ubayd and Al-Da'a are likely Ephah Abidah and Eldah/Eldad the Midianite peoples mentioned in Genesis 25:4 who supposedly settled in Africa See Josephus Antiquities Chapter 15. And the sons of Midian: Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch and Abida and Elda'ah. All these were the children of Keturah." See Josephus Antiquities Chapter 15 on the Midianites in Africa.
     There was a temple dedicated to "Awam" at Marib.

     Further north in modern Jericho of the modern Israel/Palestine are another section of the Kinanah and within it the clan of Quraysh. It is not that there are two separate tribes of Kinanah or Quraysh with separate genealogies in the north and the south, but simply that as certain clans left and branched off over generations new lineages were abridged attached and repeated. Kinanah is just one of many so called northern Arab tribes or Adnanites that have a southern genealogy as well due to the fact that the northern Arabs were originally southerners as well. 

                                                    Kinaniyya boy of modern Jericho (Israel/Palestine)

    Robert Spencer wrote, "It is said that the Quraysh explained their short stature and dark skin by
the fact that they always carefully adhered to endogamy." That is to say, they never bred outside of their kind. Several hundred years ago, it was a near black or black skin and kinky hair that was said to be the usual color of the Arabs.  And if we are to believe Ibn Abd Rabbihu the Maddhij tribe of the Kahlan apparently believed it to be one of  "the 7 wonders of the world" and even "unthinkable" for an Arab to be fair in complexion. Of course, times have changed. 

      Tabari wrote, some said  “… the descendants of al-Nadr ibn Kinana were called Quraysh because al Nadr came out one day to his tribal assembly and they said to one another look at Nadr he looks like a quraysh camel…Others say the Quraysh was so-called after a creature who lived by the sea and eats other sea creatures, namely the shark…”(Watt and McDonald, p. 22).

     Most interestingly some of  the names of the Zahran tribe of the Dawasir are early on found in a region called Khanawna (Kanunah or Kunawnah) up until early Islamic times (Khanam, 2005, p. 66 ). 
       One specialist  "has identified a number of Azd Sarat settlements as reflected in early Islamic sources.  Most of the Daws groups and the B. Masikha were in the Wadi Dawqa, though some were northeast of Ta’if.  Zahran groups, by which Strenziok apparently means the B. Hunais, were in the east and southeast, while in the Sara Ghamid from Wadi Khanawna to the east one found the Namir b. Uthman of Azd Shanu’a…” (Ulrich, 2008, p. 87).

       As we shall see it is indisputable that Tabari mentions numerous clan names identical to Dawasir or Azd names that were native to the Kanawna area and Asir (including al-Shara’a mountain range) in connection to groups that are specified in the Torah/Bible in Genesis 36 as Canaanites and Edomites and descendants of Abraham through Nahor in Genesis 22.  

      It suggests that Salibi was correct in concluding that the valley in southwest Arabia called Kanawna (the plural for Kan’an) was part of the true land of Kana’an or Canaan mentioned in the Old Testament. According to the Bible, the dukes of the Horites are the peoples of Edom who are called Hivites or Canaanites. Looked at in this light we should not be astonished to find that many if not the majority of the names both “Canaanites” and “Edomites” or children of Esau are, or were at one time present in the region.

       The genealogy recorded by Tabari of “al-Hamaysa…Nadir b. Humayl b. Munahhim, Lafath b. al-Sabuh b. Kinanah b. al Awwam b. Nabt b. Qaydar b. Ishmael” is possibly reference to biblical names of the Edomites or Horites named “Alvan” son of Shubal of Genesis 36:23. While Manahath is Munahhim or the modern Manhib clan of the Daws and Onam may also be the name of Ghunam or Ghanm. Together “These were the sons of Shubal (or Shobal): Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam” Genesis 36:23.
       In any case Shubal is almost certainly the same name as Shubayl of the Azd tribe of Banu Shihr in modern Asir (Jizan region) and Arab linguists should be able to tell us if this name of Al-Sabuh or Sabihi of the Dawasir in Nejd is a metathesis of the word Shubayl or Shubal.  The tribal name Hawamilah, like Nadir is part of the Farjan division of the Dawasir and corresponds to (or  the plural of ) Humayl, father of Nadir mentioned above. Hamaisa is perhaps the same as Khamais or Khamis a clan name of the Bidaran Dawasir (Lorimer, 1908, p. 394).

       Roger Upton in his book Gleanings from the Desert of Arabia mentions a related genealogy of the children of Ishmael or Kedar this way. “Kidar his son Hamal, then Nabt or Nabet, then Salaman the son of Nabet, then Al-Yas the son of Al-Hamaisa, then Odad the son of Al-Yas, then Od, Ad, or Oddo, the son of Odad, then Adnan the son of Oddo. Some authors place Nabet as the son of Kidar and others as the son of Ismail himself…” (Upton, 1881, p. 139)  Tabari mentions still another version “Udd ibn Udad ibn Yamin ibn Yashjub ibn Mun­har ibn Sabugh ibn Hamaysa” and he adds that one authority mentions “al‑Hamaysa` ibn Salaman ibn Nabt ibn Hamal ibn Qaydar”.  This Munhar just mentioned is evidently the Munahhim grandson of al-Sabuh b. Kinanah mentioned above.

       Still other genealogy cited in Ibn Sa’d and Tabari shows this Al-Awwam is in fact Alwan of the biblical Edomite list of the Horites: Alwan, and Manahath, and Aibal. He writes al-Awwam is son of  "Nashid b. Haza b. Bilda b. Yidlaf b. Tabakh b. Jaham b. Tahash b. Makha b. "Ayfa b. Abqar b. 'Ubayd b. al-Da'a b. Hamdan b. Sanbar b. Yathribi".
      Or else, as cited in the book Ar-Raheeq al Makhtumi, Ibn Sa'd has it "Humaisi b. Salaman bin Aws bin Buz bin Qamwal bin Ubaid bin ‘Awwam bin Nashid bin Haza bin Bildas bin Yadlaf …bin Hamdan bin Sanbir bin Yathrabi bin Yahzin bin Yalhan bin Ar’awi bin Aid bin Deshan bin Aisar bin Aqnad bin Aiham…Aram bin Qidar bin Ishmael” (Mubarakpuri, 2002, p. 63). (Corresponding to the children of Esau or Hamdan, Ishban, Ithran, Lotan (Yahzan al' Tana), Bilhan Reu'el, Dishan Eser Akan Aia and then Iram bin Kedar).
      The first part of this list corresponds to the biblical "children of Nahor" (in Genesis 22) who are Kemu'el, Uz, Buz, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidleph, Teba, Gaham, Tahash, Makha of Genesis 22.  Ayfa is obviously "Yifi” said to be a son of Chesed in the “Book of Jasher” which says “And the sons of Kesed were Anamlech, Meshai, Benon and Yifi”. “Meshai” is called Mashha by Tabari who he says was also “Tahash” corresponding to the modern and ancient tribes of Dahash (Dawasir clan) and Yafi or Yafa'i.

Men of the Yafi bani Qased ("Yafi son of Chesed") (Ayfa/Yifi) tribe probably looking much like their Sabaean and  "Khasdim" or Chaldaean ancestors. 

 

        But the name of Khasid or Chesed has also survived until today in Yemen as the generic ancestor "Hashid". The sons of Yaf or Yafi'i are mentioned in the ancient Sabaean inscriptions as a clan of the Hashid (Kuryotev, p. 69; Schiettcatte, p. 40). Outside of the biblical genealogy the "Hashid" of the ancient world however were originally just but a small  tribe of the Sabaean tribe of Hamdan named in Sabaean inscriptions. According to Ibn Khaldun, Hashid was son of  "Jusham, son of Habwan son of Nauf son of Hamdan" ( Kay, H. C., 1892, p. 175). 
      Chasid or Hashid is the namesake of the  "Khasdim" of the Arabian Hauran (biblical Harran) and Numayr ibn Kassit, (Nimrod bin Arfakshad)  or Nimrod "son of Kush" who came to take over Babylon. Still another version of Nimrod's genealogy makes him son of Falaj (Peleg) son of Abir (Eber) son of Arfakshad - "the Ur (Aur) of the Chaldees". Thus Josephus also wrote, in his Antiquities of the Jews -  "Arfaksad named the Arfaksadites who are now called Chaldaeans". 
      The Banu Jusham were meanwhile one of the Jewish tribes of Arabia even in the Prophet Muhammed's time known as  "Banu Jusham ibn Yam, sub-tribe of Hamdan" (Kay, H. C., 1892,  p. 216). The Banu Yam are better known as the Israelite tribe of Beni -yamin or "Benjamin". Ben-oni was another name for Benjamin. Benon and Yafi were "sons of Chesed" in the book of Jasher. 
     There is no escaping the obvious. The biblical Khasdim and the tribe of Benjamin were the same as the tribes of the Qased ("Hashid"), Hamdan and Yam tribes of Kahlan from the Sabaeans and mentioned in Sabean inscriptions. Salibi identified Aur/Ur of the Khasdim or Arfakhshad with the modern name of "War Maqsud" in southern Arabia.  Thus, did several writers in ancient times say that the Jews or Judaeans and were from the philosophes of the same people from the "Kalani" or Kalantaean Indians, i.e.  southern Arabians the Kahlan of Himyar and Kahlan tradition.

A man of the Ba'l Obeid branch of the Masha'i (possibly the Meshai or Mashha) son of Kesed of the book of Jasher.

  

         The "dukes of the Horites" of Genesis 36:26-29 in these genealogies include Abchor, Bedad, Hadad, Hamdan, Eshban, Ithran, Bilhan, Reuel, Dishon, Dishan, Ezer, Aia or Ashjaa and Iram. And as both the book of Genesis and 1 Chronicles 1 say - these were "the dukes of Edom". The confirmation that the Dawasir or those known anciently as Kahlani and Himyari or Humayr were in fact the peoples once known in early texts as “Canaanites” or “Edomites” is illustrated when Tabari speaks of Hamdan being a son of Yashbin whom he says was “Bashmani,” son of Bathrani, son of Bahrani who was son of Yalhan, corresponding to the sons of Dishon and Dishan.
     Basman and Badran are Dawasir tribes. The Banu Djushain or Dishan and his brother Dishon are designated children of Se'ir the Horite. of Genesis 32: 26. They are Hamdan, and Eshban, Ithran, Aran sons of Dishan and Bilhan son of Ezer.And the name of Himyar is probably the same as "Hamor" ruler of Shechem, one of the first kings of Canaan to be mentioned in the Torah/Bible.
     Tabari writes the name Ezer as "Isar" or "Assir" which is another spelling of the name of the modern Asir or Asyr people and region. It suggests the area was named for a chief there in remote times. Tabari writes Eshban or Ishban  in three places as "Yashbin" and Bashman" and "Sanbar" (which is possible through metathesis), while the King James spelling of  Ithran was obviously Tabari's  "Bathran". And these names correspond to the Dawasir clans of Basman and Badran /Bidarin/Badrah (Lorimer, p. 394). The latter word is a name for the pleiades once venerated by these Afro-Arabians. (In fact all of these names likely have astronomical connections because that is what the original Arabian i.e. African Asiatic peoples religious beliefs were founded on.)
      Thus when the 11th century author of the Akbar al-Zaman wrote that Ishban was a "son of Sudan, son of Kan'an" it was specific reference to the Basman Dawasir of the region of Wadi Kanawna, i.e. the real "Canaan". When "Botr" is claimed to be descended from Mazik or Mazigh son of Canaan, it is also obviously reference to the Badr section of the Badran Dawasir whose lineage is "Badr bin Khamis bin A'amir bin Badran", while the name Mazik is found in the Azd tribe of Masikha" also once living in Wadi Kanawna (the valley of the Canaanites). Hamdan the biblical son of "Dishon" is also the name of a tribe of Dawasir (Lorimer, p. 394), and in the genealogy is in factt named grandson of Badr. The tribe is mentioned in pre-Islamic Sabean inscriptions as one that ruled over the clan of Hashid (Chesed/Kasdim) (Korotayev, A., 1996, p. 67-69). 

      Dishon’s brother is Dishan or  (antelope or gazelle). Tabari writes it as “Dayshan b. Isar”, which is apparently the same as the name of  the Banu Djushayn or Jayshain another well-documented  tribe, part of  the Himyarite clan of Ru’ayn of Yemen noted in early Islamic texts (Mad’aj, p. 91).  

       Tabari makes Hamdan the father of a “Yazan al-Ta’an”, or Lotan one of the sons of Se’ir (the goat) (Genesis 32:22) whose sons are "Hori" and "Hemam". He says he was called “Yazan al-Ta’an” because he was the ruler who invented the lance.  This Hemam could only be referring to the Dawasir tribe of Hamamah. Bahran another Arabian tribal name is apparently Aran (he-goat) son of Dishan. This may be the Berane that appears in genealogy surrounding Berber origins. Although Berber and Arab historians claimed both the Berber ancestor Botr and Berane were descended from the same individual named “Berr” the Arabic writers claimed they were too different “Berrs” (Jones, 1958, p. 67-68). Abd al-Hakam wrote “These say that the Beranes were the children of Berr, a descendant of Mazigh, the son of Canaan; and that the Botr were the posterity of Berr the son of Cais…” from the sons of Ghailan.  
     This "Berr" is likely Barr said to be one of the sons of A'ad, as was Sawar or Sawr another legendary Tuareg (Sanhaja) ancestor (Hopkins, J.F. P and Levtzion, N., 2000, p. 236; Crosby, 2007, p. 89). The Tuareg claim to have come anciently from the Yemen and from "Canaan". Their early writers called him "Soowar son of Abd Shams son of Wathil (Wa'il)" or  "Suwar son of Wa'il son of Himyar" (See The Bombay Quarterly, 1853, Vol. 3 p. 64; Salem, S. I. and Kumar. A., 1991, p. 38).

       In any case both the Qays Ailan and the Mazigh had their roots in the Yemen. The former were ultimately descended from Akk who were from the Azd as well. (See Part I)

      “Yalhan” is Tabari’s spelling of  the  biblical name Bilhan, “son of Ezer” whom Tabari calls “Asir” and is likely testified to in south Arabian inscriptions where a tribe of Alhan is mentioned among south Arabian inscriptions (Kuryotev, 1996, p. 175).  Furthermore the biblical Ezer has a son named Akan which is doubtless the tribe of "Yaqna" also mentioned in Sabaean inscriptions Kuryotev, 1996, p. 175). The biblical Se'ir is not Asir as some have suggested but most likely the name of the tirbe still known as Sei’ar in the Yemen and Hadramaut region even today.   

      In addition Tabari notes that the son of  “Daws” or Daus was in fact also called Bahami which suggests that the name of Daws was in fact corollary to Jeush “son of Oholibamah” (though the latter is said to be a woman in the Bible.) Daws remains the name of an important Dawasir tribe of the Azd Shara’t. As with other Azd tribes such as Masikha, they lived and live in the Asir Tihama Kanawna (Canaan) and in Nejd of Central Arabia as well (Khanam, p. 66; Lorimer,  p. 394). As mentioned previously scholars have identified “a number of Azd Sarat settlements as reflected in early Islamic sources”  – including Daws and Masikha  (Ulrich, 2008, p. 87.)
     In addition, there is another Dawasir tribe called Nahadh likely corresponding to the biblical Nahath son of Reul son of Esau (Genesis 36:13), the name of the modern Rou'ala or Ruwala bin An'aesa of modern Syria (and now partly Syrian in biological origin) descends from the name of  this "Reul". The original An'aeis or Anaeza (signifying the tribe of Aeis or "Esau") were originally from the Taghlib bin Wa'il an early branch of the Dawasir that came to be considered "Adnanite"(Hamzah, 1983, p. 17; Khanam, 2005, p. 180).

        In fact many other Dawasir clans of Azd are clearly listed in each of these genealogical versions which include a considerable portion of the Edomite/Horites of the Genesis book. However the ancestors of the Azd – including the Kahlan and Himyarites as a whole - seem to have preserved the majority of names the Biblical peoples in general. This begins with Shem and through the children of Nahor, and generations of Esau (Aeis), “who is Edom”. 

Dawasir ("Sebaim") of Central Arabia are traditional remnants of Sabean Azd, i.e. the stock of Ad  from Edom (al Shahra) and the lowland of Kanawna (Canaan) in southern Arabia.

          The Hebrew book of  Genesis concerning Abraham’s direct descendants, and Genesis 36 concerning the Edomites mentions the many clans of  Kahlan deemed clans of Hamdan and Azd all situated today  within a region between the Asir, Najd and Hadramaut in what was then known as the Yaman – anciently considered part “Ethiopia” or “India Minor”. Beginning with Genesis 5: 10-20  are named the Dawasir clans of Nejd - Hanaish or Hanais, Qainan, Wusailah, Araimah (also Aryamah), Al-Mahli, seemingly corresponding to Enosh or Enos, Qainan, Uzal, Aram, Mahali’el, direct descendants of Adam’s son Seth according to in the Bible.

       Al- Hanaish  (Enosh) are a large clan of the Dawasir (Enosh/Hanaish - means serpent) (Lorimer p. 395) “And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters”.

     Qainan clan of the Dawasir  (Cainan ) - is the name of a major proportion Dawasir tribe (Lorimer, p. 393). They are named in Yemenite texts a batn or clan of Aus from the Azd  (Madhaj, p. 229)  The 4th century Syriac work “Cave of Treasures” the explanation that Canaan's curse was actually earned because of his connection with Cain. “And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel” 
      El-Mahli or Mahl (Mahali’el/Mahaleel) clans found among both the Dawasir and Mahra   “And Mahali’el lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared” Genesis 5:6.  The current Mahl belong to the Farjan subdivision of al-Hasan Dawasir.

      Gharid (Jared meaning locust) still exists as the name of a Mahra tribe, and elsewhere as Jahrad or Yahrad. The tribe of "Yahrad" is mentioned in ancient Sabaean inscriptions. “And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch:  And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters” 

      An-Nakha/Nakha'l  (Enoch) -  a branch of the Maddhij of Yemen.

         These Afro-Arab ancestors were supposed to have lived before “Nuah al Djurhumi (Hadoram)” whose son Eber or Heber (A’aber or Abir) according to the Hebrew tradition bore Peleg (Faligh or Falaj) and Joktan (Kahtan or Qahtan). This is why the chief deities of the south Arabian Minaeans and Sabeans  Wadd, Suwa, Nasr, Yaghuth  or Ya’uq worshipped even in early Islamic times by the Maddhij, Murad, Kalb and Hudhail are considered by Muslims and the Quran  “the idols of Noah's folk” (Mubarakpuri, p. 45).

       Shem’s first son was Ailam (Elam) the name of an Arabian tribe who probably settled early in southern Iran, and others were Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram. “Aram was the ancestor of Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash”.  Early Muslim historians of the Middle east and Central Asia  like Tabari and Suyuti have provided similar genealogies “Salih b. Ubayd b. Asif b. Masikh b. Ubayd b. Hadhir b. Thamud b. Ad b. Uz b. Aram b. Shem” (Wheeler, p. 76).  Suyuti used the name “Mashij” for Masikh. In 1 Chroncles 1:17 the name is given as "Meshech" (meshekh), and the Septuagint uses "Mosoch" for Mash son of Aram.

     Other writers make Thamud the son of Abir bin Aram who is biblical "Eber". Or else he is said to be the son of Jatiar or Jathar bin Aram, who is the biblical Gether or Jetur.  Ibn Kathir wrote “Thamud bin ' Athir bin Iram.” And Surah 11: 61 of the Quran reads “So Allah sent unto them His Prophet Salih, a man from among them. His name was Salih Ibn 'Ubeid, Ibn Maseh, Ibn 'Ubeid, Ibn Hader, Ibn Thamud, Ibn Ather, Ibn Eram, Ibn Noah.” Surah 11: 61 This line clearly represents the children of Ishmael, Abdeel or Abdi’el,  Massa, Hadar, Dumah,  Ithran or Jetur.  

        They also agree that Uz or "Aws" was son of Aram and the ancestors of Ad lived in southern Yemen in what is now Hadramaut or Al-Akhaf where Noah’s people the Djurhum or Hadoram once dwelt.

      Today the Mahra a tribe of Hadramaut and Oman still have clans called Samudayt and Masikha or Masaka. And according to Ibn Mudjawir who traveled in southern Arabia, the Mahra of his time were tall and remnants of the stock of Ad.  He wrote, “the origin of the Mahra is to be sought in the remains of the people of 'Ad; when God destroyed the greater part of them, this group of people was saved and went to live in the mountains of Zufar and the islands of Sukutra (Socotra), and al-Masira” (Muller, W., 1986, p. 82).

       Shelah or Sala in the book of Genesis is called Salih, Saleh or Caleh in the Quran and in Arab accounts. And he is designated the father of Eber or Abir or A’aber in Chronicles Genesis 11.  While in Arab tradition Abir or A’aber is said to be a cousin of Salih, both are from the Adite tribe of Thamud, sometimes translated as ‘Samud”.  Traditionally “Samud the son of A’aber had two sons: one was Arem and the other was Jaber who begat Caleh … It is also said that “ When the people of the first A’adites were destroyed by a terrible wind, some of them took refuge among the Ahkaf sands, where they settled but worshipped idols. There they were visited by the prophet Caleh, a cousin of A'aber Ben Arem, the reigning king of the Samudites…” (Rehatsek, E., 1869 p. 208).

       The people known as Samud, (Thamud, Damud or Thamudenoi named the town of Duma’at al- Jandal, It was the Adummatu of Assyrian texts in Jordan. And in fact it is seen that Thamud is Dumah son of Ishmael of the Bible.  A commentary of Al Beidawi makes Salih “the son of Obeid or the son of Asaf, the son of Masekh, the son of Obeid, the son of Hâdher, the son of Thamûd”.  Masekh is also translated as Masih or Masihah by some authors, and these names correspond to the biblical translators’ Massa, Abde’el, Hadad or Hadar, Dumah and Ithran or Jether, "children of Ishmael" of Genesis 25:13-15.

         As just mentioned the Mahra have a clan named Masaka or el-Masaka (Badger, G., 1871, p. 57 and 58; Newton, L. S., 2007, p. 360 ). They may have a connection to the historical Masikha of the Azd belonging to the Azd Sarat (or Sharawi) mentioned by Sa’id of Andalusia and others. Speaking of the Azd dispersal after the bursting for the dam at Marib, he says that the peoples called  "Masihah, Myda’an, Lahab, Amir, Yashkur, Bariq, Ali ibn Uthman, Shamran, al Hujr ibn al Hind, and Daws went into al- Surat" (See Science in the Medieval World, Alok Kumar and Sema’an Salem, p. 43, 1996).

       Please note here that in Part I and 2 of this posting and in previous postings we have identified this south Arabian Marib as Meribah of the Exodus in the land of Sura’t or Shahrawat as Edom near the valley Canaan (Kanawna) and its people as the biblical Mashek or Mash of Aram/Iram, Midianites (Myda'an),  Lehubim (Lahab), Issachar (Yashkur) the Israelite, Barak the Israelite, Shimran (Shamran -who are better known as Samaritans) and Jeush (Daus) the Edomite. It is not impossible that the Kudha' or Qudha'a tribes were thus nothing other than the Kuthaeans or Samaritans in the ancient world.

Historically Documented “Children of Shem” in their Lands and Places

“Joktan was the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal Abimael, Sheba, Ophir Havilah and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan.”

       As mentioned in earlier posts the name Qahtan in the book of Genesis is Joktan. Although most people living in southern Yemen claim Qahtan ancestry, the present speakers of the ancient Qahtan dialects who besides still also resembling sub-Saharan Africans with their dark brown complexions and “fuzzy hair”, also retain tradition of African descent.  These are in the main the “Ethiopians” that the early Greek writers spoke of as sending great armies into foreign countries. It is these true African-Asiatics or blacks of peninsular Arabia and the “Arabia” in Africa from which were derived the traditions of Noah and his Ark or  “Nu” as the ancient Nilotes called him, and much of the mythology of the countries they settled in to the east to the north and to the west.  

        Hadramaut is the name of a country today which was named for a tribal region in the south of the Yemen. Hadoram that is the people named after a Sabaean tribe mentioned in inscriptions called Hadrami. Arab authors like Ibn Abd Rabbih write the name is Djurham or Djorhum, sometimes said to be a clan pre-Arabs was the same the Hadoram of the Hebrew texts.Some of them lived in the vicinity of Mecca until the 1930s.

      Sulaf (Sheleph a partridge) -  Al- Sulaf are designated  a batn or clan of the Himyarites a branch of Dhu al- Kala’a in the early Islamic period (Mad'aj, p. 1988, p. 88). The second in order of the tribes of Joktan in the book of Genesis is Sheleph. Yaqut mentions them in the Yemen as Es-Selif or As-Shulaf. Sixty miles south of Sana’a is the district named from them as-Sulaf.  (Dr. William Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible. 1888,Volum 4,  p. 2967)

       Ebal -  The town of Obal is found in Sabean inscriptions and one mentions the “children of Abalim”. It was also a place name mentioned by the 9^th century al-Hamdani between Sana’a  and Asir (Retso p. 220) There is also an Ubal located between Hadeida ((Hudaydah) and Sanaa, the capital of Yemen which must be the same. (Hamilton, 1990 p. 345).

      Jobab -  A Sabean tribe of Yuhaybab is known to have existed from inscriptions. (Mathews, K. A., 1996,  p. 465)  According to modern archaelogists these  inscriptions state that during the second half of the 2nd millennium b.c. during the reign of the kings of Saba, a confederation of Sam’i or Sumay consisted of the tribes of Yursham, Yuhaybab and Madhnahan or Ma'dhin  (Kuryotev, 1996, p. 175; Schiettecatte, 2011, p.  ) The first of these names is obviously Jursham possibly "Gershom" of the Bible whose son or otherwise descendant is named “Shubael” (Shobal). (See above the Shubayl of the Azd Part II) Gershom is son of Moses in 1 Chronicles 26:24 from the clan of Amram (father of Moses). Meanwhile Ma'dhan or Madhin sounds curiously like Madan "brother of Midian".

        Almodad, in Arabic works called Al-Mudad or Al-Mirith’ad in Yemenite records was another Himyarite ruler whose land was in Yemen.. He is called the chief of the Djorhum who settled in Hijaz and sometimes said to be son of Shedad of Hadramaut, the son of A’ad. It is said that Ishmael son of Hagar of Misrah married a daughter of Al-Mudad and from them sprang the Northern Arabs (Smith, W. and Fuller, J. M., 1893, p. 215).

      Shedad or Shaddad the brother of Luqman (see part I on Loqman) is considered to have conquered much of Iraq and India in ancient times, and his cousin was said to be Zohhak or Az Dahhak who had been ruling Central Asia. Also, “According to Makrizi (1' I441), the Adite king who marched against Egypt was Shaddad ben Haddad ben Shaddad ben Ad, …’  But this “Egypt” may have been comprised of or  included the Arabian region Misra which archaeologists have called Musri or Musur (Cheyne, T., 1899, p.555). In the Bible “Hadad son of Bedad” is called an Edomite king who reigned over Aram in the time of Solomon.

      Shaddad erected the fabled magnificent city in the deserts of Aden called Arem or Iram (Aram in English). It had a large towers and golden palaces with lofty pillars, perfumed gardens with richly laden with fruit. Supposedly because of the pride of Sheddad the city was destroyed by God. Shaddad and Ad are today pictured in fable as of extraordinary stature some up to 100 cubits high that have become extinct, due to the fact that the stories surrounding Ad are based on mythology and cosmological notions.

      The stories of Shadad, Hadad, Ad, Adad and Attis of the Lydians and Babylonians, Titans, Atlantaeans etc., are all closely connected folklore incorporating cosmoastronomical knowledge. Like the Aad or Adites, the Thamud were said to have been giants as well dwelling in caves and rocks.  As has been shown previously, neither the A’adites nor the Thamud, nor Amalek the first rulers of the Himyarites and their Azd descendants (Canaanites) were ever giants in that sense although apparently many of their probable descendants apparently remain a lot taller in Arabia and Africa than surrounding populations.  Nor were they made extinct - the Azd, A’ad Amalek and Thamud being real populations who have to some extent retained their tribal names and appearance. A tribe of Shadad is mentioned in early Sabaean inscriptions.

     The children of A’ad according to Abid and al-Hamdani included As, Bahar, Thamud, as-Sawr, Rifd, Sawd, Barr, Abu Sa'id al-Mu'min Marthad and Sudd.  Thamud, as-Sawr, Rifd, Sawd, Barr and Sudd. Barr is probable the Berr and Sawar of Tuareg legend.
     This Mumin or Marthad (Almodad) may have served for the story or mythology of Maimoun or Mammon. If so, he is probably best known as Memnon “the Ethiopian”, son of Tithonus. (See Elyse Crosby,  pp. 90, 100, 128, 137) Richard Burton wrote that in the area of the Musra Harb tribal confederation (western Arabia) was what was known in Pliny's writings as "the shore of Hammaeum (var. Mammaeum and Mamaeum, now the coast of Hamidha or El-Hamidah), in which there are gold mines; the region of Canauna : the nations of the Apitami, and the Cassani” (See Burton's, Gold-mines of Midian p. 254). The names Apitami and Cassani (Ghassan) refers to Abida and Jokshan brethren of Midian in Genesis.  …(to be continued).

***Please note that with little difficulty we have identified the many ancient and modern Sabaean clans of the Dawasir or Azd and of the Mahra and Maddhij from the ancient Hamdan Sabaeans as the peoples known biblically and in the Quran as Shem and Ham.  In the coming posts we shall see how these clans of African-Asiatics expanded northward and eastward colonizing various places in EurAsia coming to be known as “Japhet”. We will also provide evidence of the totemistic, astro-cosmological and allegorical origins and significances of these tribal names.

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