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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