50 SETTLEMENTS IN YEMEN. [ c h a p . m
Seat o f flie
Himyarites.
Descendants
of Ham in
Yemen.
been a part of the Himyaritic Thafar.1 As will presently be
seen, the territory lying between the latter tract and Mekkah
was more particularly the seat of the Himyarites and the
Kahtânites. It comprised the southern part of Nedjd, and
nearly the whole of Yemen, or the greatest portion of the
country denominated Happy Arabia; whose most extended
limits included, as has been seen, not only Hadramaut, but also
the tract stretching eastward from thence to the Persian Gulf.
The hulk of the descendants of Ham, the followers of Mizraim
and Thoth, appear to have crossed from the western side of
Arabia Felix into Africa,3 but some traces of those who remained
are still supposed to be found in certain parts of
Arabia. Saba or Mâreb,4 the Mariaba of Pliny and Strabo,
and once the capital of the Sabeans, possibly took its name
from Seba, son of Cush ; 6 and the district of Khaalan, or
Kaulân, (south of Asir,) may have derived its appellation from
Havilah,6 the second son of that patriarch. Sabtah,7 Ramah,8
and Sheba,9 are also places whose names are presumed to have
been given by the posterity of Cush. There are, likewise, the
Beni Kusi,10 Beit el Khusi,11 and Beni ’A’d,12 whose language,
says Edrisi, is still spoken by the people of Khuryan Muryân,
1 Tliere is also a town in Yemen, near Jerim, called Dhafâr or Saffar.—
Niebuhr, Descr. de l’Arabie, tome I I I ., pp. 206, 231.
* See above, vol. I., pp. 656, 657. 3 Ibid-. P- 659.
4 Mâreb, once Saba, at which place, adds Edrisi, is the Dike.—P . 53, tome
Cinquième, Recueil deYoyages et Mémoires, &c., ed. Jaubert, Paris, 1836;
also ’Abu-1-Fedà, p. 323, translated by M. De la Roque, Amsterdam, 1718.
5 Compare vol. I ., pp. 624, 625, with Pliny, lib. V I., cap. xxviii., and
Strabo, lib. X V I., pp. 586, 777 ; also Niebuhr, vol. I I I ., p. 252, Descr. de
l ’Arabie, &c.
' Niebuhr, Descr. de l’Arabie, vol. I., pp. 234, 253.
7 See Appendix to vol. I., p. 722, Sabhah.
• Appendix to vol. I ., p. 716, Ramah, and also a village near San’â,
Niebuhr, p. 203.
9 Appendix to vol. I., Table 2, p. 705, and Table 3, p. 707 ; also Niebuhr,
Descr. de l’Arabie, tome I I I . , p. 224.
10 Dwelling in a district of the country of Rema.—Niebuhr, vol. I I I . , pp.
216, 253. 11 Ibid.—Niebuhr, pp. 228, 253.
“ 'Abü-1-Fedâ, p. 316, on the hills north of Dhafâr, translated by De la
Roque, Amsterdam, 1718, and also on the borders of E l Hajar, vol. I., p. 630,
and Haines’ Memoir on the South-East Coast of Arabia, vol. XV ., p. 112,
of the Royal Geographical Journal.
CHAP. II .] THE PURE ARABS FROM KAHTAN. 51
or Khartán and Martán ; 1 though unknown to the other Arabs Remains of
of the present day. Except a knowledge of the former existence ¡n
of these tribes, and some traditions handed down of the idolatry
of the last,2 also some remains of the Amalekites in ’Omán and
Bahreïn,3 no traces remain of the Cushite settlers in Arabia ;
and the gradual intermixture of these with the posterity of
Kahtán, will probably account for the almost total extinction
of the people of ’A ’d, and those of Thamiid, Tasim, Jadis,
the Imlik or Amalék, and other sections faintly known to us
as the lost tribes.4 Doubtless the people of Kahtán, who are Yemen and
designated pure Arabs by their descendants,6 had their principal
seat in Yemen, where they lived under Ya’rab ben Kahtán,
probably Jerah ; 6 his brother Jurham or Hadoram being ruler
of the Hijáz :7 and both names are still preserved by the Beni
Jurham, or Beni Jerâh, near Mekkah.8 Eastward of Mekkah
we still find the large tribe of Beni Kahtán ; and on the eastern
side of the province of Asir, is the district of Kahtán or Ned-
jeran, and a tribe bearing the former name ; likewise an ancient
site, Beït-el-Kahtàn, or dwelling of Kahtán,9 and again in
Hadramáut is the tomb of the patriarch, and that of his father
Heber or Houd ;'° also, a town called Kohhtân,11 which was no
doubt connected with the former name.
Southward of San’á is the small district of Khaulan or San’á, once
Havilah, probably from the twelfth son of Joktan, and the ®saI or Uzal-
ancient name of the capital itself, once Esal or Osal,12 appears
to have been derived from Uzal, his sixth son.
I The Curia Muria Isles.—See Edrisi, ed. Jaubert, pp. 48, 49, tome
Cinquième, Recueil et Mémoires, P aris, 1836; and Haines’ Memoir, vol. X V .,
p. 121 of the Royal Geographical Journal.
! Among the people of Mahri.—See vol. I ., p. 639.
8 Add. Arabic MS. 7357 in the British Museum, translated by Aloys
Sprenger, M.D.
4 Arabic MSS.7505and7496intheBritishMuseum,andLane’sK orán,p. 12.
* See Table 2, vol. I., Appendix. 6 Gen., chap. X ., v. 26.
7 Arabic MS. 7357 in the British Museum, translated by Aloys Sprenger,
M.D. 8 Appendix, vol. I ., pp. 705, 711.
8 Niebuhr, Descr. de l ’Arabie, tome I I I ., pp. 238, 252.
’10: See above, vol. I., p. 638 ; and Edrisi, p. 54, ed. Jaubert, tome Cinquième,
Recueil et Mémoires, &c., Paris, 1836.
II Niebuhr, tome I I I . , pp. 249, 252.
1! Vol. I., p. 623, and Gen., chap. X., v. 27.
E 2