NO LOST TRIBES - Israelites and Judaeans in Medieval Arabic Sources and Ancient South Arabian Epigraphy

     In the book African and Arabian Origins of the Hebrew Bible it was concluded from an array of evidences that the tribes of Israel, Aram, Israel and Canaan referred to in the Torah were in actuality the tribes of Arabia that had emerged from the African Arabian or Afro-Tihama civilization of western Yemen in the early part of the 2nd millenium BC. 

     The tribes of  "Israel" - Benjamin, Simeon, Judah, Issachar, Joseph including Ephraim(n), Reuben, Dan, Naphtali, Levi, Zebulon, Gad and Asher and Joseph comprised of the Ephra'in and the half-tribe of Manasseh, have been found to be the documented early South Arabian tribes of  Jeman or Bin Yemani and Yam, Sam'ani, Wada'in, Yashkur, Manaseir and Ferain, Rubayyin, Da'an, Muphtala, Luwai, Zabala, Jadda and Asha'r.  The below posting contains more detail on the formation of the people known as "Judah" or Yehud in the Bible stretching from Yemen to the Asir and Tihama regions south of Mecca and their tie to the later tribes known as Quda'a and Kinda thriving at the start of the Christian era.

    Woman of the tribe of Banu Hud in westernYemen. In Arabic sources "Hud" is sonnected to Salih and Abir, who are the biblical Shelah of Judah and Eber. The genealogy goes Salih (Shelah) son of. Ubayd son of  Asif  son of  Masikh son of Ubayd son of  Khadir son of Thamud son of  Abir (Eber). 

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Part III – Identification of the Old Testament Israelites in Early South Arabian Epigraphy  and Medieval Sources: Between Kindah, Quḍāʿa and “Judah” – No Lost Tribes

 Children of  Hadramaut's Al-Sadara village near Shabwa (Sabbothes) and the ancient land of Kindah.

INTRODUCTON

       This paper seeks to further elaborate on the connection of the ancient and medieval Sulaym (or Soleym) bin Mansur tribal confederation (including their Quḍāʿa vassal clans), with the Yehudim or “Judaeans” of Hebrew scripture. It is proposed that the bulk of these tribes although perhaps trading with the Levant at a very early period, for the most part lived far to the south in the region of the Yemen and the Tihama in the time of the conquest of Jericho and later happenings of the Old Testament. They also continued under their biblical and medieval designations and places in Arabia until the most recent period of European and Ottoman colonial administraton.  

      The Quḍāʿa appear to have emerged from the same tribal confederation or confluence of clans as was known as Kindah further south in the Yemen. The earliest period of inscriptions mentioning the Kinda go back to at least the 2nd century BC.[1] By the early Christian era, however, the South Arabian Musnad inscriptions had already mentioned a king of both Kinda and Qahtan from the lineage of Thawr (or Twrm) named Rabi’a, in the region of Qaryat al-Faw south of the Wadi Dawasir or southern Nejd.[2]  In the 5^th and  6^th century AD, the area of Dumat al-Jandal in the Saudi Arabian Jawf was also one of their their capitals[3],  but traditional genealogies are very clear about their earlier presence in places like Hadramaut and the southern Nejd.[4] 

      On the other hand, the same tribes belonging to Kindah also appear under the name Quḍāʿa in the Levant around the same period. The latter include Thawr and Kalb, Wabara, Nahd through Bal-Haf [5] – the latter being the name of a tribe and place on the coast of Aden. The clan of Bait al-Bilhaf from Quḍāʿa is mentioned by Bertram Thomas in Yemen and a harra is named after the tribe not far southwest of Mukalla in Hadramaut.[6] 

     The name Wabara is in fact associated with the semi-legendary “Wabar” or “Ubar” of the  A’ad  or “Adites” in the region of Hadramaut and the Rub al-Khali.[7]  Many believe in fact the “Iobaritae” mentioned in the map of Ptolemy were meant to represent the Wabara. The exact boundaries of Wabar have never been pinpointed with exactness, but it was generally believed to be somewhere between Yabrin in the southern Nejd, Hadramaut and the Nejran areas.[8]

     By colonial times the Thawr are mentioned by the colonial administrator and ethnologist Henry Carter[9] in the mid-19^th century as a people living between and part of the Gara (Al-Qara) and the Mahra settled between Hadramuat and Oman.[10] The Nahd or Nahad in Central Hadramaut, a well-known tribe of  Quḍāʿa [11] are mentioned as a tribe of Kindah in the Handbook of Arabia (Vol. 1) and in the neighborhood of the Yafa tribe occupants of Aden.[12] They are, it was suggested, the people of the biblical “land of Nod east of Eden” (Genesis 4:16) associated with where “Kain” or “Cain” settled after being punished by God. 

      In the African and Arabian Origin of the Hebrew Bible, African and Arabian Origins of the Bible  it is noted that the tribal eponyms of Quda’a and Kindah can be identified as the names of the biblical “Kain” and the “Kenites” “Caleb”, “Kenaz” brother of Caleb, “Shelah”, “Shur”, “Nod”, and “Ezrah” or “Ezdrah” (Udthrah) living together in what was apparently an early homeland of theirs. Tabikha is a brother of Al-Qama by tradition and this is the “Tebah” or “Tabakh” who is brother of “Kemu’el”, child of Nahor. 

       The Mahra or Mahara were traditionally close kinsmen of Qara (the Gara or Kara of Bertram Thomas, Henry Carter and other colonial observers), the former being in texts from the  .... SEE CONTINUATION OF THE ARTICLE BELOW THESE 12 REFERENCES

[1] Beeston,A. F. L.(1986). See “Kinda — The Relations of Kinda with Saba and Himyar”, In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume 5  (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. p.120. 

[2] “Les inscriptions sabéennes du III s. mentionnent deux rois de Kinda: Rabi'at du lignage de Tawr (attaqué par le roi sabéen Sar^um Awtar,vers 220) 10 et Malik b. Badda' (évoqué par un envoyé des rois sabéens Ilïsarah, Yahdub et Ya'zil Bayan, une trentaine d'années plus tard). Tous ces noms se retrouvent dans le Jamharat al-Nasab d'lbn al-Kalbï:-Tawr, le fondateur de la dynastie, devient l'éponyme de la tribu, puisqu'il est affirmé que Kinda s'appelait aussi Tawr.” See Christian Julien Robins, “Ḥimyar, des inscriptions aux Traditions”, in Jerusalem Studies on Arabic and Islam, 30, 2005, pp. 1-51. See also p. 75, M. V. McDonald, “Reflections on the Linguistic Map of Pre-Islamic Arabia”. Arab. Arch. Epig. 2000:11:28–79

[3] See p. 47 of Guillaume Charloux, and Romolo  Loreto. Dûma1.(2010) Report of the Saudi-Italian-French Archaeological Project at Dûmat al-Jandal.2011, in Hal Science.

[4] According to Freya Stark, Yaqut al-Hamawi mentioned the tradition that the Kinda  descended upon the people of Shabwa - the “Sabota” of Pliny (biblical Sabtah, according to some) - in Hadramaut and founded Shibam not far from there around 300 AD. See p. 5 of Stark’s, Southern Agates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadramaut. (1940).  London: John Murray, 1938.

[5] The genealogy being, “Thawr b. Kalb  b. Wabarah b. Taghlib b. Halwan b. 'Imran b. al-Haf  b. Quda'ah who is considered  the “Himyarite”.  Quda’a  is considered the son of   a “Malik b. 'Amr b. Murrah b. Malik b. Himyar”. At the same time they are traditionally descended of the Quda’a woman Khindif along with Kinana and Asad b. Khuzaimah, Tamim b. Murra and Adi ibn Tabikha and Hudhail b. Mudrika all inhabitants originally of the Tihama. And, “Ilyäs married Laylä, daughter of Hilwän of Qudä’a whose laqab was Khindif. She gave him three sons: Tabikha, Madraka, and Qam’a.” Doctoral Dissertation: “Tribalism and Political Change as Reflected in the Poetry of the Early Umayyad Period”. Marzouk ibn Tenbak. 1982. The name of the clan of “Yas” or Banu Iyas is still found among the Hudhail living around the outskirts of Mecca and Taif in the late 20^th century. The name Tabikha was mentioned by European colonials colonials like Thesiger as “Tobaqi” and “Tobuk” among the Qara (otherwise known as al-Hun b. Khuzaimah. Al-Hun’s mother was “Barra” sister of Tamim b. Murra and great-granddaughter of Tabikha. The early observer Charles Forster said the Qara tribe of Temin came to be Temim elsewhere. He wrote,  “Thus the ancient Themi or Thimanei are self-evidently identical with the Beni Temim or Temin of modern Bahrein:…”,  p. 198 of  The Historical Geography of Arabia: Patriarchal Evidences of Revealed Religion. (1844). Vol. 1, London: Duncan and Malcolm.        

[6] See p. 86 of Thomas, B. (1932). “Anthropological Observations in South Arabia”. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 62, 83–103. https://doi.org/10.2307/2843879

[7] According to one specialist -  “(Wabaritae) or 'Ioßocpvcoci (Ubaritae) "are the Wabâr”. Edgell, H. Stewart. “The Myth of the ‘Lost City of the Arabian Sands.’” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 34 (2004): 105–20. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41223810.

[8] Juris Zarins considered the latter could also be the area of modern Habarut in Yemen on the Oman border. Habarut has been a stronghold of the Bait Kethir according to Thesiger and is also used by the Mahra. The Afar branch of Kethir was rooted there. W. Thesiger, 1946.  “A New Journey in Southern Arabia” Thesiger, W. (1946). A New Journey in Southern Arabia. The Geographical Journal, 108(4/6), 129–145. https://doi.org/10.2307/1789822.  See also BA 182311 J.. Walker April 1960, Tribes of Oman. https://www.agda.ae/en/catalogue/tna/fo/371/149153/n/6 

[9] Dr. Henry Carter was “Secretary of the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society”.

[10] In Notes of the Mahrah Tribe of South Arabia, Carter wrote -  “Next the Garas, inland, I am told, are the Thoar…, a large branch of the Mahrah tribe, the Afar, also a large tribe, and the Al Kathiri; these inhabit the table laud called Ncjd, or Nejdi, … on which the frankincense tree grows, two days inland from the shore.” On p. 314 of Journey of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,  Vol. II, Issue 11. Carter mentions the Gara tribes as being Beni Kahtan, Mashanee, Ayesa - which he puts in parentheses as “Esau”, the Makheir and Tobuq, Jabob and Temin. Wilfred Thesiger, too, mentions the tribes of the Gara or Qara as being similarly  Samhan, Makheir, Masheni, Beit Jabub, Itboq, Beit Qatan, Baram, Said, and Beit Essa, consisting of Beit Aqaq, and Shimasa, beit Tobaqi,  see  p. 130 fn. 1   Thesiger, Wilfred. “A New Journey in Southern Arabia.” The Geographical Journal 108, no. 4/6 (1946): 129–45. https://doi.org/10.2307/1789822.   These are celebrated tribes included biblical ones, the people of “Joktan”, “Esau”, “Makhir” or “Machir”, “Tebah” or “Tebakh”, as well as “Jobab’ and “Teman” “grandsons of Esau” and  “Horite”. This is the Jobab took over when Bela died, also said to be Job.   It explains why genealogical tradition makes “Tabikha”  an ancestor of Thawr.  Charles Forrester’s contention was that the Temin of the Qara was the Tamim of elsewhere. That is to say Temim or Tamim b. Murrah,  The Gara or Qara being considered Al-Hun b. Khuzaimah are thus closely related to the Tamim of medieval genealogists both descendants of Il-Yas.

[11] “Of  Quda’a are [the Banu] Nahd ibn Zayd ibn Suwwid ibn Aslam ibn al-Haf ibn Quda’a,”  The Unique Necklace, by Ibn Abd Rabihu of 12^th century, Cordoba. translation Issa Boullata (2012), p. 277.

[12] Hogarth, Handbook…op. cite, p. 541. Aden may also be the Eden where was “Thelassar” (or Eleazar/Ilisarus or the ruler “Dhu El- Adhar”?). 

CONTINUATION IS HERE 

Caption -  {  The Gara or Al-Qara tribe in Oman ("Hun b. Khuzaima").  The picture illustrates why the colonialists in the early 20th c. said they looked like the Somali and Beja. Like many South Arabians many clan Qara names are identical to those found in the Horn of Africa. They and the Mahra were the "Ethiopian" and "Arabian"  "Troglodytes"  of the ancient world. They were closely related to the Hudhail .b Mudrika and Kenana b. Khuzaima brother of "Hun". } 

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Haydan ibn al-Haf ibn Quda’a,[1] while the Qara are considered the same as Hun ibn Khuzaimah,[2] brother of Kenanah, whose descendants lived in the Tihamah near and south of  Mecca. According to texts of the British both the Mahri and Qara were accustomed to living in huge cavernous dwellings with their cattle and were most likely the “Arabian” or “Ethiopian” trogodytes of classical writers.[3]

       .  The Qara are otherwise known as Hun ibn Khuzaima ibn Mudrika b. Il-Yas in the medieval period.[4] Thawr ibn Kalb supposedly married the daughter of Murr b. Udd, a son of Tabikha ibn Il-Yas. Tabikha is the name “Tobuk” or “Tobaq” clan, H. Carter and Wilfred Thesiger spoke of among the Qara tribe. [5]    

Caption -   { The Gara or Al-Qara tribe in Oman ("Hun b. Khuzaima").  The picture illustrates why the colonialists in the early 20th c. said they looked like the Somali and Beja. Like many South Arabians many clan Qara names are identical to those found in the Horn of Africa. They and the Mahra were the "Ethiopian" and "Arabian"  "Troglodytes"  of the ancient world. They were closely related to the Hudhail .b Mudrika and Kenana b. Khuzaima brother of "Hun".  }

      Another clan of al-Qara were the Sa’b according to colonialists, and the medieval traditions make Sa’b the son of Asad ibn Khuzaima, brother of Hun and Kenanah ibn Khuzaima  demonstrating the affiliation of Qara and Thawr with the tribes in the Tihama and maintenance of tribal names for 2000 years in different geographical regions.  This also explains in part explains why the Qara told the colonialists they were the same people as the Qureish of Kenanah.          

      Quḍāʿa  in northern Arabia extending to the southern Levant in the early Christian era was comprised of a group of client clans that were vassals of Banu Sulaym. They were in part genealogically-linked with Sulaym[6] and involved during the early medieval period in mining activities in the region between northern Arabia and Iraq.[7] In the book, the African and Arabian Origins of the Hebrew Bible, it was pointed out that the tribal name Mansur is considered an eponym of the Manaseir tribe that moved from Yemen.[8] It was furthermore already confirmed that it was the group of people known as Sulaym, and possibly the affiliated Salma and Sulayman bin Mansur that were designated Salamians in pre-Islamic Nabataean inscriptians, as well as “Solymi” or “Solymians” among Roman and Greek authors.[9]

      In Part 1 -  “Identification of Early Israelites in Medieval Sources and Arab Genealogy” it was noted that the Mansur tribal confederacy, whose clans included the Hawazin and Sulaym were present in the desert near Khaibar and Medina/Yathrib and considered to be the descendants of the Israelite personage,“Manasseh”[10] by certain medieval authors.[11]  It was also suggested that the Quḍāʿa tribe of Banu’l-Ka’in[12], clients of Sulaym, were in fact the Kainuka or Qaynuka of Yathrib (Medina). In fact, both Sulaym ibn Mansur and Hawazin ibn Mansur (such as Beni Hilal.b. Amir b. Szasza) were present around Khaibar and Medina.  

       It was reiterated that the medieval Al-Ka’in/Qa’in were likely the remnant of the people known in the Torah as “Kenites” as mentioned by Irfan Shahid and others, just as the tribe and ancestor Mansur (signifying Manaseir) was considerecd the Israelite “Manasseh” whose clans were present in southern Yemen in the pre-Islamic period.

     Al-Ka’in/Qa’in was a clan of Faran b. Baliyy (Bali or Bila’a)* among the Sulaym[13] in the neighborhood of Yathrib (Medina). M. J. Kister wrote, “A corroborating report counts among the Jewish tribal groups at Medina three groups belonging to the Bali.” [14]  Al-Qa’in were miners and workers in silver and gold, and Sahih Bukhari (hadith 340) speaks of a goldsmith from the tribe of Banu Qainuqa, an apparent reference to the al-Qain of Bali at Medina. In the medieval period, al-Zuhra, a suburb of Medina, alone had over 300 jewelers, and the goldmths of the town of Khaibar were also "regionally renowned".[15]

       The medieval genealogy of Ba’al Qa’in b. Djasr (also transliterated Jasr or Yasr) makes them a clan descended from Bali or Bela,[16] and the first mention of the former appear to be in the ancient inscriptions of Yemen.  According to findings of Musnad specialists, two affiliated clans named dhu-Kbr-'Qyn^m or Qayn and Shym^m or  dhū Sukhaym (Suhaym^um)  appear together in Middle Sabaean inscriptions.[17] This ancient Yemenite name of Sukhaym, “is the same one mentioned in medieval sources as “Sukheim” in the region of Sana’a,[18] and is the Suqamah tribe which Kamal Salibi had also identified as Shechem (Šăkēm) in Asir. [19]

      It is thus of interest that in the first century Josephus in his Antiquities, IV, vii, 3 in fact refers to the “Kenites” as the “race of the ‘Shechemites’”. At the same time the Targumim call the “Kenites”, “sons of Jethro, Salamians: the sons of Salma'a.[20]  And of course Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, was a “priest of Midian”.  In the time of Al-Hamdani ( 9^th c.),  the Sukheim were still dominating the Nihm/Nehm district north of Sana’a.  The name Nehm, alternatively spelled Nahum and Nahm as said in Part 1 has been suspected to be associated with that of the ancient biblical prophet “Nahum” (circa 7^th c. BC).

      In the Old Testament, Moses’ father- in-law is called “Hobab”. The “Kenite” clan of “Hobab”[21] could well have been present in Yemen as the “powerful clan” of dhu-Habab (d-HBB), once dominant in the area of Sirwa (a town still extant in the Amran province of Yemen).[22] In fact the Faran of Bali were largely descended from the Hubayb clan of Sulaym.[23]

      This “Salma” or “Shalmai” that came of the “Kenites” according to 1 Chronicles 2:53 -2:55 was the one whose children were “Bethlehem, and the Netophathites, Ataroth, the house of Joab, and half of the Manahethites, the Zorites and the clans of scribes who lived at Jabez: the Tirathites, Shimeathites and Sucathites. These are the Kenites who came from Hammath, the father of the Rechabites.” This “Salma” is also directly descended from Caleb and thus the biblical “Kenites” are actually descendants of “Judah”. 

     In biblical genealogy "Kenites" are descendants of the Hamathites who are designated children of Ha or Cham the name of a deity and town in Yemen. They are closely related to the "Rechabites" or Rekab - people that the 19th c. missionary Joseph Wolff came upon in the area of Sena'a in Hadramaut where they are spoken of by him as B'nê-Arhab.^[24] They connected themselves to the ancient ruler “Jonadab” or “Jehonadab”, the “Kenite” (2 Kings 10:15-31), who championed the worship of YHWE, and whose name is also that of Banu Jundub - a tribe of the Yemenite Tayyi in the genealogies,[25] and significantly, analogous to Jindibu (or Gindibu),[26] the name of a very early ruler or chief of the “Arabs” (Arba-a-a or “Arbaya)”[27] mentioned in a text of the Assyrian king Shalmanezzar in the 9th c. BC).

       Wolff claimed that the tribe of “Dan” (or “Da’an”) lived near the B'nê-Arhab  in the region of Tarim (in Hadramaut).[28] This is the noted area of the Habban or Habbaniyya, Jews, who not only claimed to be from “Dan”, but according to at least one Arabic source were from Bahila[29] whose clan names were demonstrably the same as those of the biblical “Bilha”[30]  Like Rekab, the Da’an tribe is still present in Hadramaut.

      In genealogy, the Jundub tribe (Jonadab) in Arabia were, along with a tribe called Banu Hur, considered from the Tayy tribe called Jadila.[31] To reiterate, Chronicles 1:255 says. “Among the descendants of Caleb (through his son Hur and grandson Salma) are listed three 'clans of scribes who lived at Jabez, the Tirathites, Shimeathites and Sucathites….”

        Notably, today the names of Al-Qa’in, Bahra (nizba Bahran), Bali or Bela, Salih and Juhayna were still found in the late 20th century associated with Quda’a  just as they were in traditional medieval genealogy. Fu’ad Hamza mentions the former as Kawiyyin (plural for Ka’in/  Kayyin), Bila, and Juhaynah.[32] Kawiyyin, are considered part of “Bila” by Hamza who also asserted that the Bila (Bali) were from the Azd and that Bila together with Juhaynah are called Quda’ah, “the Yemeni tribe”.[33]   

   

      Among the 20^th century tribe of Juhayna, which Hamza mentioned were the “Qudah” and Kalb – the latter considered  a tribe of Quda’a in the medieval genealogies, along with Salih and Beli/Bali.  In the book, The African and Arabian Origin of the Hebrew Bible, (2020), it was demonstrated that the name of Salih was associated with the biblical name of “Shelah” a son of Judah, while that of Beli, (variously written Baliyy, Bila, Bela or Balawi), was that of  “Bela” of  “Benjamin”(1 Chron. 8:1) and Bil’am, on the other hand. In addition, evidence  was provided that the tribe of Kalb was that of “Kaleb” or “Caleb”, and that Qunays or Qunus, brothers of Qudah ( sometimes even considered another name of Quda’a), were in fact representative of the biblical name of  “Kenaz”, brother of “Caleb”.[34]

 The maintenance of the name of Al-‘Aradhat or Iradhat among the Bila’a[35] is also interesting in that “Bela” is mentioned as a brother of “Ard” in the Torah, and these “Ardites” (as it is often written) are mentioned as a clan from “Benjamin” in Numbers 26 40, which reads, “The descendants of Bela through Ard and Naaman were: through Ard, the Ardite clan; through Naaman, the Naamite clan.” Finally, to make matters more obvious, the name of al-Ka’in, i.e.  Faran b. Baliyy is officially No’man (Na’man)[36] which is reminiscent of ‘Bela’s” son, “Na’aman”, brother of “Ard”.  The Handbook of Arabia, compiled in the early 1900s by colonial administrator George David Hogarth, says the Billi and Juheina in fact are the people that extended “between Na’man and Yambo”.[37]

  As with Fu’ad Hamza’s ethnology, Hogarth divides the “Juheina” into the Musa and the Bani Malik.  He also asserts that they were descendants of the Himyarites, and names such clans again among the Billi as Sehamah, Quweyyin, Zubala,[38] Aradat[39] and interestingly enough a clan called Jeman.[40]  According to Hamza and Hogarth among the Juhayna/Juheina again are the Al-Kalb, Suweilhi (plural for Salih; Otherwise Sawalihiyyin in Sinai. The latter are named by Hamza as part of the Musa in Asir).[41] Also named are the Refa’i[42] Thobyani[43] Hibeishi.[44] and Rubeikah.[45]  In addition, we have the important clan names of  Seidani,[46] Hamadi,[47] Mehadi,[48] Hamdani[49], Hazimi (singular for Hawazim/Awazim)[50], Qufah[51], Ibrahim. Al-Sarasirah[52] Nazzah[53], Al-Fada'in[54], Dhawu Salim, Al-Safarin[55],Al-Utayfah[56], Matutti[57] and Boran (perhaps Bahran of Quda’a)  listed as clans of the Juheina by Hogarth[58]. In addition, Sulaym and Hawazim are the grandsons of Khasafa,[59] a name which sounds much like “Chasupha” another head of a Nethinite “family”. (Ezra 2:43)       Another important Quda’a clan is Udhra whose name appears to be the same as the biblical “Ezrah” or “Ezdrah”.  The genealogy is “Udhra b. Zayd al-Lat b. Rufayda b. Thawr b. Kalb b. Barra b. Tha'lab b. Hiww b. 'Imran b. al-Auf b.  Quda’a .'al-Kalbi”[60] 

             And these are just some of the names of families and clans of the “Levites”, “Nethinites” (inhabitants of “Gibeon”), “Benjaminites” and “Judaeans” mentioned in Chronicles, Nehemiah and Ezrah and other books of the Hebrew Bible that appear synonymous with many tribal eponyms and genealogies of the confederations of Sulaym and Quda’ah still extant in western and southern Arabia. The problem is that they either traced themselves from the tribes of Himyar or else, to groups that appeared early in Musnad inscriptions - and sometimes both. Even leaving out Salibi’s toponymic correlations with the Asir and Tihama there is obviously something amiss or flawed in the current officially-accepted version of who the Israelite people and Judah were, and where they originated.

 There is little doubt that the rest of people of the “Levites” and “Nethinim” were found in regions further south where names like Barakish (“Barqos”)[61] in the Yemenite Jawf, east of Sana’a and Jabal Faridah (“Peridah”) in the region of Sana’a and where modern Nehm/Nihm can be found.      

     The “Nethinites” of Nehemiah 7 include: Tabaoth. Keros, Sia, Padon, Lebana, Hegaba, Shalmai, Hanan, Giddel,  h, Uzza, Pasea, Bezai, Me’unim, Nephusim, Bakbuk, Natupha, Harhur, Bazlith, Mehida, Harsha, Gahar, Reia, Rezin, Nekoda, Barqos, Sisera, Temah, Neziah, and Hatipha.

        Kamal Salibi identified the bulk of them with clans or villages under similar sounding names in Jizan of the Asir, except for a few. He makes note of them as the villages of Atibiyeh,[62] Kirs, Kurus, Al-Sa’i, Fadanah, Lebanah, Huqbah, Aqibah, Shamula, Haninah,  Jadal, Juhrah, Rayah, Razinah, Najid, Al-Safa, Baswah, Ma’in, Nasifan, Jubjub, Jazayim, Khatfa and so on.[63]

      Many of these names, however, were once designated tribes, and thus, peoples and districts with similar names are found perhaps far earlier chronologically further south in westernYemen as well and until this day.  For example there is al-Kurush in Hudaydah as well as al-Karish in Abyan and Dhamar; Ghayl as-Sa’i near Sana’a; Fadanah in Ta’izz; Huqbah in Dhamar, but also an al-Hujayb (“Hagab”?) in Sada’a and Lahij; Al-Aqibah in the Ibb Governate; Al-Haninah in Hudaydah or Mahal al-Haninah (the abode of al-Haninah); Al-Rayah in the Amran governate; Al-Razinah in Hajjah, al-Juhrah in the Sana’a Governate; al-Nafish in the Ibb region; Al-Jubjub in the regions of Ibb, Ta’izz and Ad-Dali; and a Jabal al-Khatfa is near Sana’a.

       Furthermore there is a Nā'iţ situated nearby to the village Naʽat, in the Amran district of Yemen, which may be connected to the name of the “Nethinites”. (Salibi however suggests a connection with Tanatin, a village in Jizan - which may also have validity.)

     It is thus probable that the cluster of clans known as Benjamin” and “Judah” along with “Nethinites” were the early peoples of the Asir and Jizan that settled in the region after the time when Nebuchadnezzar attacked Yemen[64] not far from their homelands in the Shara’at, i.e.  “Shara” mountains of Yemen and low-lands called Tihama.

NOTES - the tribe of "al-Afarin" are still found among the Hawazin in western Arabia according to the Hamza's Near East Report,  p. 26. It's major tribe being the al-Raba'in. 

 

---

[1]  History of the Imâms and Seyyids of 'Omân: From A.D. 661-1856, Hakluyt Society, 1846 by Hamid ibn Muhammad ibn Ruzayk, pp. 57-58, fn. 4.

[2] See  Al-Iqd Al-Farid by Ibn Abd Rabbihu  Boullata,Issa J. 2012,  The Unique Necklace, Vol. III, Garnet Publishing, p. 253.

[3] When Muhammed left Mecca fleeing from the Qureish he spent time in a cave in the Jabal of Thawr just south of a district called Misfalah. Kamal Salibi took this to be the names of “Shur” and “Machpelah” (Genesis 49:30). Ghar Thawr (cave of Thawr) is also written “Ghar Soor”. Further north is another Mount “Tor” and the tribe of Salih and related are still called the Tuwara or Towara. The Qara or Gara tribes appear on the African side of the Red Sea in the region of the Djibouti and other Somalis Eesa, Makhir, Sa’b,and the Mahra are still called Mahri or Meheri there.     

[4] See p. 546 in The Works of Ibn Wadih al-Ya’qubi, Vol. 2, Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson et al. Brill.

[5] See p. 13 of “A New Journey in Southern Arabia. " Thesiger, Wilfred. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 108, no. 4/6, 1946, pp. 129-145. JSTOR   www.jstor.org/stable/1789822. Accessed 16 Nov. 2020

[6] Lecker, Michael. 1989, The Banu Sulaym: A Contribution to the Study of Early Islam.  p. 67, fn.19,  and p. 199. Furthermore in one South Arabian inscription a Salamian servant named “Hawliyyat” is mentioned suggesting the servile status of a woman of the Hawl^an tribe of Quda’a as well. [6] It reads -“Hawliyyat, slave of [the clan of] Sulaym, has confessed and done penance to Dhu Samawi, lord of Bayan” (Haram 35); Hoyland, R., 2001, Arabia and the Arabs,  p. 211.

[7] See p. 63 of Phillips, Rodney, 2009, The Muslim Empire and the Lnd of Gold. Strategic Book Publishing. A 1999 article mentions the mines of Juhayna and Bahran, two Quḍāʿa tribes -along with those of the Sulaym. See also p. 372 of George Heck’s “Gold Mining in Arabia and the Rise of the Islamic State” in the Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient. Vol. 42, No. 3 (1999), pp. 364-395. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3632396  According to Heck, at least one of these mines in Arabia was in operation in the time of Solomon was supposed to have lived.

[8] See entry for “Banu Hajir” by  G. Rentz, G. and J. Mandaville, 2001, in Encyclopaedia of the World Muslims: Tribes Castes and Communities. Vol II  p. 505.  Editors, N.K. Singh, and A. M. Khan, 

[9] For the classical authors they were a people who spoke the Phoenician tongue. Explaining the writings of Choerilus on the Solymi Josephus says - “At the last there passed over a people, wonderful to be beheld; for they spake the Phoenician tongue with their mouths; they dwelt in the Solymean mountains, near a broad lake: their heads were sooty…”  Interestingly, the author intimates these Solymi of Choerilus were Jews by refering to them as “us”.  He wrote - “I think, therefore, that it is evident to everybody that Cherilus means us, because the Solymean mountains are in our country, wherein we inhabit, as is also the lake called Asphaltitis…”  This lake is considered the Dead Sea to the south of which dwelt the “Nabataean” and “Salamian” people. According to the Tabaqat of Ibn Saad, the original “Nabataeans” were the same people as the Thamud  who inhabited “Dumath” in the Saudi Arabian Jawf region. “Ptolemy and Strabo agree that the Idumaeans originally were not Judaeans, but Nabataeans (Strabo) or Phoenicians and Syrians (Ptolemy)” (Cohen, Shaye J. D.). The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties 2001,  p. 113.

[10] Se  fn. 2, p. 27 of  Ambraseys, N. N.,  Melville, C. P.,  Adams, R. D., 2005, The Seismicity of Egypt, Arabia and the Red Sea: A Historical Review.  Cambridge University Press, See also fn. 207, pp. 132 -133 in The African and Arabian Origins of the Hebrew Bible, (2020). Reynolds-Marniche. Mellen Press.

[11] “Manasseh” and “Ephraim(n)” were sons of Joseph, a son of Jacob/Israel.

[12] Quḍāʿa were a “group of tribes living north of Medina as far as Syria, including Juhayna, 'Udhrah, Bali, Bahra', Kalb, al-Qayn (Bal-Qayn), Tanukh, Salih, and Sa'd Hudhaym, as well as Nahd and Jarm in South Arabia and 'Umin. See El', s.v. ‘Kuda'a’ (M. J. Kister)” in Fred M. Donner’s, History of Al -Tabari, Vol. 10, p. 17, fn.

[13] “ The Sulaym mine was operated by Faran b. Baliyy, of a group of Baliy.  They are of Banu al-Aktham bin ‘Awf bin Habib bin ‘Usayya bin Khufaf bin Amri al-Qays bin Buhthha bin Sulaym” See. p. 374  of  Heck, G. W. (1999). “Gold Mining in Arabia and the Rise of the Islamic State”. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 42(3), 364–395. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3632396

[14] One scholarly publication 2005, The Seismicity of Egypt, Arabia and the Red Sea: A Historical Review.  Cambridge University Press, p. 27, fn. 2) mentions  “the tribe of Sulaim b. Mansur (Qais b. 'Ailan), with stations around Khaibar, and at Harrat Sulaim, Harrat al-Narain ('the Two Fires'), Wadi al-Qura and Taima, see Kahhala (1968), II, 543-4; and III, 1221, for the Hilal b. 'Amir (also of Qais b. 'Ailan), further to the south, round Mecca. See also al-Biladi, II, 213”.  2005, The Seismicity of Egypt, Arabia and the Red Sea: A Historical Review. op. cit. 

[15]  G. W. Heck, op. cit. p. 371.

[16] Al-Qayn b. Jasr b. Al-Asad b. Wabara b. Imran b. al-Haf b. Quda’a.  The Faran b. Bali were the group that were called Al- Qain. They were recognized as a tribe of Yamanite origin.  See p. 40 and 211 of The Mufaddaliyyat: An Anthology of Old Arabian Odes, Vol. 2, Oxford,  1918.

[17] ⁾ Kropp, Manfred, Free and Bound Propositions: A New Look at the   Korotayev, A. (1994).  “The Sabaean Community (SB', 'SB'N) in the Political Structure of the Middle Sabaean Cultural Area”, Orientalia.  Vol. 63,  p. 77.  See also the slab dating from the 2^nd c. BC on p. 113 in “Before Ḥimyar. Epigraphic Evidence for the Kingdoms of South Arabia “ in  Arabs and Empires before Islam, edited by Greg Fisher, Oxford University Press, 2015, pp. 90-126. Sukhaym^um  is mentioned. See also 1996  Also, pp. 28, 46 and 47 in  Pre-Islamic Yemen: Socio-political Organization of the Sabaean Cultural in the 2^nd and 3^rd Centuries AD.  by A. Koroyatev,  Harrasowitz Verlag.

[18]  Shibam or Hijrat Sibum of Musnad inscriptions (likely biblical Sebam or Shibmah - in northern Yemen was known as :Yarsum Shibam" and “Shibam Bani al-Sukheimi”  in the 1400s.  Christian Robin speaks of the Yarsum Shibam in “ʿAmmīʾanas, dieu de Khawlān (Yémen) », in Pensée  Grecque et Sagesse d'Orient, Hommage à Michel Tardieu, sous la direction de M.-A. Amir-Moezzi, J.-D. Dubois, C. Jullien et F. Jullien (Histoire et prosopographie — Bibliothèque de l'ÉPHE, Sc. rel., 142, Turnhout (Brepols), 2009, pp. 537-560.  See also https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/yemen/shibam.htm

[19] See Salibi’s, The Bible Came from Arabia (2007) Naufal, p. 127

[20]  He refers to the “Kenites” or “Kenetides”.  See p. 406 H.  Cuvigny. ( 2021). Kinaidokolpitae in a Greek Ostracon in the Eastern Desert - Chapter 26 in Rome in Egypt’s Eastern Desert, Vol. 2, NYU Press MUSE

[21] H, Cuvigny. Ibid.

[22] A. Korotayev, (1996). Pre-Islamic Yemen: Socio-political Organization of the Sabaean Cultural Area in the 2^nd and 3^rd Centuries AD.  Harrasowitz Verlag. See pp. 30, 67, and 160. It is curious that in Sirwah (in Amran, Yemen) has also been noted the territories of Yasran, Qnt, along with Dhu Hbb. Yasran is perhaps the early name of the tribe of Yasr/Jasr from which the medieval Al-Qa’in b. Jasr branched. The irrigated works of Yasran one half of the Marib oasis, dated back to the era of the ruler Sumhu’ali Yanuf , son of Dhamar’Ali of the 8^th century BC.  The Yasran were noted Bronze workers that settled in Eritrea and Ethiopia by the 8^th century BC. See “An Inscription in Ancient Sabaic on a Bronze Kettle from Färäs May, Tigray” by Norbert Nebes. (2011). p. 159-166. ITYOP IS  Vol. 1.

[23] Philips, Rodney J. (2009). The Muslim Empire and the Land of Gold. Strategic Publishing. pp. 64-65. 

[24] The Arhab/Rekab were present in Hadramaut, and there is a place called Usni Rekab (Asnah?) in Yemen. “The children of Asnah were among the Nethinim who returned with Zerubbabel.” Ezrah 2:50 mentions the “children of Asnah,  Me’unim and Naphusim”.  Arhab is also the name of the district next to Bilad Nehm or Naham, a tribal area in the vicinity of Sana’a. The Arhab tribe is still found in the area of northern Sana’a and is considered originated from Hamdan next door, just as the Rechabites were considered from the house of “Hamath”.

[25] As pointed out by Salibi the Banu Jindib are still found in the Asir area of what is now Saudi Arabia.

[26] See p. 360 “Judæo-Arabic Relations in Pre-Islamic Times”. Islamic Studies, 52(3/4), 357–391 published 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43997228

[27]  Gindibu was undoubtedly South Arabian as he is connected with the kingdom of Kedar, like, Uaite or Yauthe or Iata-a-a.  “Eph'al stated that Ia-Iu-u/u, Ia-ta'-, Ia-ta-a, Ia-u-ti/te', who was the king of the Arabs during Esarhaddon’s reign, is the same person who appears under the name Yaute' during Ashurbanipal’s reign, replaced by an Abiyate, chief of Kedar.  Shuaib, Marwan, p. 163, (214). The Arabs of North ARabia in later PreIslamic Times: Qedar, Nebaioth, and Others. (PhD. Dissertation) Unitversity of Manchester.   

     It turns out that South Arabian archaeology has now come to reconcile the timelines of these rulers with South Arabian ones. Originally it was believed Qidar or “Kedar” referred to North Arabian peoples. Thus, Yaute appears to have been the Yathi-Amar of Saba, and  Abi-Yati to be Abiyada' Yathi, a documented ruler of the  Minaeans and of Yamnat. Contrary to what has commonly been believed then, “Kedar” or al-Khadra, like Al-Shara’a, is a name that relates originally to the far south of peninsular Arabia, and the southwest in particular.   A mountain of “Kedar” or Jebel Khaḑrā is located in Ta’izz in southern Yemen. Localities called Al-Khaḑrā (signifying verdant or green) are found in Abyan, Al-Bayda and Ibb in Yemen and in Hadramaut, and more can be found in Jizan and Nejran. The battle of Qarqar near Aram in Yemen thus was more likely the Qarqar mentioned by Al-Hamdani near Iram in Yemen. See p. 111, fn. 178 of  The African and Arabian Origin of the Hebrew Bible, (2020) op. cit.

     It was noted in the book -  “Alexandra Avanzini has remarked the following the Sabaeans in the Jawf  region of Yemen: ‘The identification of king Ita-amra in the Sargon inscription, … was still purely hypothetical. Today, though, identifying Ita-amra as king Yatha-amar Watar, son of Yakrub malik has become highly credible.’” See p. 39 of “The Sabaean Presence in the Jawf in the Eighth to Seventh centuries BC” in Leggo! Studies presented to Frederick Mario Fales on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, 2012. Harrasowitz-Verlag. pp. 37- 52.    

[28] Wolff, Joseph (1835). Researches and Missionary Labours among the Jew, Mohammedans, and Other Sects. London: James Nisbet & Co. p. 360. Wolff wrote,  “In Yemen I spent six days with the Rechabites. They drink no wine, plant no vineyards, sow no seed, live in tents, and remember the words of Jonadab, the son of Rechab. With them were the children of Israel of the tribe of Dan, who reside near Terim in Hatramawt,” He was most certainly talking of the Habbaniyya who still dwell near Tarim and claim descent from the tribe of “Bene Dan”. See p. 207, Weingrod, Alex (1985). Studies in Israeli Ethnicity: After the Ingathering. Gordon and Breach Science Publishers. .  

[29] Apparently the Arab sources are in agreement that the Habaniyya were a tribe of Bahila, mother of Dan. Harold MacMichael in his History of the Arabs in the Sudan, mentioned an Arabic manuscript he uncovered on p. 182 of the 1922 Vol II version published by Cambridge,  “The Habbania are the descendants of Habban son of el-Kulus son of ’Amr son of Kays , a sub - tribe of Bahila”.  

    Bahil was an ancient tribe of Yemen mentioned in pre-Islamic Musnad inscriptions with Maddhij, Kinda, Himyar and Saba. See Christian Robin’s “La Penetration des Arabes Nomades aux Yemen” inscription (Iryani 32)  p. 80 (Ja 665) p. 81 Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de las Mediterranee.

[30] As illustrated in The African and Arabian Origins of the Hebrew Bible, pp.267 -271 - the eponyms of the clans of Bahila until medieval times are recognizable as the names of the “children” and “grandchildren” of “Bilha”.mother of “Dan” and “Naphtali”. In addition, town names of “Dan” mentioned in the Torah are also identical to those in the Qunfudhah and Asir region of the Tihama. In Arab lore she was evidently a woman of Hamdan. Al-Hamdani also claimed Da’an was an ancient ruler of the area of Tihama descended from “Tubba b. Zayd  b. Amr b. Hamdan”. Robert Wilson, (1978). “Early Sites of Jabal Iyal Yazid” in Arabian Studies IV. R. B. Sergeant Editor.  Da’an also exists as a name of a locale in the Amran governate of Yemen.

[31] See p. 294 of The Unique Necklace (2011) Vol. 3, by Ibn Abd Rabbihu, ed. Issa Boullata.  

[32] Hamza, p 7.

[33] Hamza, p. 10.

[34] See p. 144 op cit., Reynolds-Marniche.

[35] Hamza, p. 7, and Hogarth in Handbook of Arabia vol.1. Aradat are also named a sub-tribe of Bali (“Billi”) on p. 63.

[36] Brill Encyclopedia online with regard to “al-Kain” says, “ The official Arabic genealogy gives as its true name al-Noʿmān b. Ḏj̲asr”. https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-1/al-kain-SIM_3823  Ibn Hisham (d.233/828) wrote “Ma'add had four sons: Nizar, Quda'a (he being his first born he was called Abu Quda'a), Qunus, and Iyad. Quda'a went to the Yaman to Himyar b. Saba' whose name was ‘Abdu Shams; the reason why he was called Saba' was that he was the first among the Arabs to take captives. He was the son of Yashjub b. Ya'rub b. Qahtan (15). Of Qunus b. Ma'add according to the genealogists of Ma'add, none has survived. Al-Nu'man b. al-Mundhir king of al-Hira belonged to their tribe. Al-Zuhri told me that this Nu'man belonged to the Qunus b. Ma'add”.

[37] This may suggest their naming of Yambu by the Bela /Bali tribe, a region around which they had been still settled by Hamza’s time or well into the 20^th century.

[38] Hamza’s “Zabbala” p. 9, and the tribe name Salibi felt to be connected with the name “ Zebulon”.in the Asir region.

[39] Hogarth, Handbook of Arabia, op. cit., p. 63.

[40] Reminiscent of the name of “Jemin”, a grandson of Jacob through Simeon.

[41] Hogarth’s, Handbook of Arabia.(1916)., p. 64.

[42] Rifa’ah mentioned by Hamza as a major division of Juhayna. p.10 Near East /South Asia Report (1983). Possibly connected to “Repha’im”.

[43] Hamza refers to the “division” of Dhubyan in Juhaynah, sometimes spelled Zubyan and the equivalent of the name” Zibeon”, a “Hivite” of Canaan, and a “Horite”.  In traditional medieval genealogy Zubyan (also Dhubyan or Thibyan) was g-grandson of Ghatafan the brother of Sad, son of Khasafa.

[44] This is the Juhayna “division” called Hubaysh by Hamza - a major tribe of medieval and probably pre-Islamic Arabia, not to be confused with the “Abyssinians”. This is not to say that the name of Abyssinia did not derive from this name in the remote past. The Bani Malik further south in Asir retain the name as Al-Hibshi. Habshiyya or Hubshiyya according to Arab genealogies it was also the name for the core group in fact of the Khuza’a (“Hazo”) of Azd. On the other hand, perhaps the name Hubaysh in the context of Juhayna is simply connected to a later individual named Hubaysh among the Quda’a. One that was celebrated in the texts was Hubaysh al- Dalja al-Qayni of Quda’a – a tribal chief living in the 7^th century or Umayyad period. 

[45] In the Hebrew Bible “Rebecca” is mother of Jacob.

[46]  The name of Seidani is likely identical to “Sidon” - “Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he [shall be] for an haven of ships; and his border [shall be] unto Sidon”. Genesis 49:13.

[47]  This is the Al-Humayd of Fu’ad Hamza and the Humeidah of other colonialist observers in Jordan.’ Thesiger talked about encountering the Humeidah at Barik in south-west Saudi Arabia with cultivated lands in his book, Journey through the Tihama, the ‘Asir and the Hijaz Mountains (1947). But they also had numerous nomads among them and a branch or clan named “Salim”, like the Hamidah of the Harb further north in Hijaz (Burton, R., 2011, Personal Narrative of Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah. Cambridge University Press, p. 378).  This particular group however claims descent from the Barik or Birayk - a direct descendant of the semilegendary “Muzaikiyya” of Ma’rib”.  Orientalists believed the Humeidah further north just south of the Dead Sea were descendants of the Mo’abites.  In Unexplored Syria we read, “The Banu Humaydah, who appear to be veritable descendants from the ancient Moabites, and who deserve especial study, are the most savage and intractable tribe of the Belka” (Burton, Richard, and Drake, Charles F. Tyrwhitt, 1872, p. 336).  Still another Orientalist article, “Report on the Geographical Exploration of the Country of Moab” says “the Hamaydeh ... have been spoken of as an independent tribe, and the remains of the ancient Moabites” ( 1873, p. 230). See Reynolds-Marniche,  The African and Arabian Origins of the Hebrew Bible, 2020, pp. 188-189.^.

[48] Mehadi are a clan on p. 63, Hogarth’s Handbook.op. cit.  A “Mehida” was ancestral to some of the “Nethinites”.(Nehemiah) 7:54. The latter name might bare some relation to the al-Natta’in tribe mentioned by Hamza, who were among the Musa section of  Juhaynah.  See Hamza op. cit. p. 11.

[49] Hamadi (or Hameida) and Hamdani are both clans of the Juhayna. It is this group that was claimed to be “Mo’abite” by other Orientalists further north. Tabari claimed that Hamdan was called Hamada.

[50] A lineage of Hawazim b. Mansur retained amongst the Quda’a. Hawazim is plural for the name Hazim. They also have a major branch called Awazim,  possibly a name related to the biblical “Azem”.  “Baalah, Iyyim and Azem (in one source translated “Husham”) lived together or were placed together in southern Judah. “Baalah” or “Baale” and “Azem” and “Iyyim” are sometimes called towns given to “Simeon”. (Joshua 15:9-11).  The area extended to the region of “Naphtuhim”, which may have been the Mafatih mentioned by Salibi.op. cit. p. 159. But, as usual there is a town by the same name in Yemen - this one located in the Marib Governate area.

[51]Al-Qufa of Juhayna - Among the Nethinites was “Hakupha”; Hamza, op. cit. p. 10.

[52] Al-Sarasira of Juhayna - Among the Nethinites was “Sisera”; Hamza, ibid.

[53] Al-Nazzah of Juhayna - Among the Nethinites was “Neziah”; Hogarth op. cit. p. 64.

[54] Al-Fada’in of Juhayna - Among the Nethnites was “Padon”; Hamza, op. cit. p. 11

[55] Al-Safarin of Juhayna - Among the children of “Solomon’s Servants” was “Sophereth”, also “Ha-Sophereth” in some translations. Hamza, op. cit. p. 10.

[56] Al-Atayfat of Juhayna  - Among the “Nethinites” was “Hatipha”

[57]  Al-Matutti of Juhayna individual named “Matittithiah” was one of the Levites, who was the firstborn of “Shallum” the Korahite/Levite.(1 Chron. 9:31.) See Hogarth, op. cit. p. 63.

[58] Hogarth, ibid.  

[59] Al-Khasafin are part of the Thaqif tribe who were largely Hawazin in origin and partly from Quda’a as well. Hamza, op. cit., p.8.

[60] Al-Harthi, Jokha.  The Body in Arabic Love Poetry.  Edinburgh Univerity Press. .p. 25, n. 5..

[61] “Barqos” is named immediately after “Mehida”  in Ezrah 2 and before “Harsha”, perhaps a reference to the Banu Harish (or Huraysh) of the Beni Amir b. Szasza (of Hawazin b. Mansur). See p. 150, fn. 1009. The  History of al-Tabari, Vol. 9, translation Ismail Poonawala. SUNY Press.

[62] It appears here Salibi is making reference to the Ateiyiba tribe, also written Utaibah. This tribe is also considered to be from Hawazin b. Mansur. Hamza uses the spelling Utaybah and notes that among them were the ‘Awazim and Hizman along who were found the Dhawu Thubayt and al-Thabatah.  Further east in Nejd the “Uteybah” according to Kupershoek are simply known as the Tebah.  See p. 46 of Marcel Kupershoek, 1999, Oral Poetry and Narratives from Central Arabia: Bedouin Poets of the Dawasir Tribe. NY: E. J. Brill. 

[63] Salibi, op. cit., pp. 101-103.

[64] According to Arabic sources “Ma’add”, the father of Quda’a, left “Samran” in Yemen in the time of “Bukht al-Nasr” (or “Nebuchadnezzar”) with “Jeremiah” (or “Armiah”) after Shu’aib (“Shuah”) al-Hadhuri was killed in Hadhur in Yemen (considered Hazor of the Torah by the Arab sources). See p. 37, The History of al-Tabari, Vol. 5, trans. W. Montgomery Watt and M. V. McDonald. SUNY press.  Jeremiah was from the tribe of “Benjamin” (according to the Torah) and born in “Anatoth”, which Salibi identified with Antutah in Jizan. Shamrān is a name of towns located in Ibb and in Hadramaut and near Sana’a. Salibi believed the  Shamrān mentioned in Arabic sources to be the biblical “Samaria” and located it near the Qunfudha region “downhill” from the Sara’at of Yemen. Salibi, op. cit. p. 111. 

 

To be continued

 

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