narrow straits of B&b-el-Mandeb into Abyssinia, “ Arabia T r o g lo d itic a a n d gave
their patronymic ¿TJBaL, to the Aualites Sinns, Abalites emporium, Avalitw, and perhaps
Adoulitce (D for B), on the African coast of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean,
recorded in classical geography. Tolney sees them in Edreesee’s Hobal; or in
El-Hamza’s Obil, that, with nine other tribes, succumbed, about 230 years A. o., in
wars with Akdottan, Radowan, king of Persia,, better known as the Sassanian Arm -
sheer-Babeghnf51
StfO’DN — ABIMAL — ‘A bimael.’ .
ABI-MAL, in Arabic, is “ Father of MAL;” the meaning of which is also “ possession
of property in allusion, perhaps, to the wealth accruing to this tribe from their
occupancy of the myrrh, incense, balsam, and spice districts of Yemen.
They are the Mali of Theophrastus, the Malichce of Ptolemy; surviving in the town
Malai, or el-Kheyf; not far from the tomb of Mohammed at MedeSneh.662
68. NSB' — S B A — ‘Sheba.’
The perplexities accruing to ethnic geography from the presence of four SBAs in
the book of Genesis, three of them in the Xth chapter, have been set forth in our
analysis of the Eamitic Saba of Himyar \ubi supra, p. 498]: nor is it possible to
escape from confounding this JoJclanide’s properties with some of those that appertain
to the former’s inheritance.
Nothing daunted, Forster says, “ the Joktanite Sheba gave its origin, and his own
name, to the primeval and renowned kingdom of the Sabteans of Yemen.” Perhaps
he did. Possibly the Cushite SaBA may have done so before him. “ Quien sabe?”
I Nevertheless, “ the concurrent testimonies of Eratosthenes, Dionysius Periegetes, .
Priscian, Festus Avienns, and others of the ancients,” collected by Bochart, place the
Sabaeans between the Mirnei and the Katabeni, at Sdba and Mdreb : whilst the notice
by Aboo’l-Feda that 8 Mareb was inhabited by the Beni-Kahtan,” or Joktanidce, really
favors our author’s somewhat peremptory identification of this SBA.653
69. “131N — A U P R — f Ophir.’
A volume would not suffice to display the aberrations of intelligence printed on this
name! Some are exposed in Kitto and in Anthon.
Munk very properly cuts short discussion by reminding those who see Ophir at
Madagascar, Malacca, or Peru, that the writer of Xth Genesis places AUPR in the
midst of the Arabian Joktamdae: which doctrine Yolney had previously sustained,
and supported by vigorous researches that identified it with the ruined site of Ophor
on the Persian Gulf.
Bochart and Michaslis held the same judicious views; and Forster has left nothing
more to be desired; by proving, once for all, that Ofor, a town and district of Oman,
is the true ABPAiR of the Old Testament— that Pliny’s “ littus Hammeeum ubi auri
metalli” is the true Gold Coast of Solomon’s expeditions — and that the whole of
them are comprehended within the domains of the Joktanidoe
to. nSnn—kattilh—‘Havilah.’ jjjp
Our prefatory remarks on ASUR, and its ante-diluvian existence, apply ■with equal
force to that “ land of Havilah where (there is) gold,” which, an universal Flood notwithstanding,
now reappears exactly where it stood, antefluvially, on the gold-coast of
Arabia. „
We are not free, either, from chances of error in attributing to the present KAUILH
.'the Joktanide affiliation of Shem) some possessions that may have belonged to his
namesake, KAUILH the &i£shite.
However, the Nubian geographer indicated to Bochart (father of genesiacal geographers)
the country of Chaulan in Arabia Felix; and Forster, with propriety selects
the province of Khaul, south-east of Sanaa ( TJzal) ; site of Pliny’s tribe of Cagulatce ;
now inhabited by the i?em-KHOLAN. Its topography, moreover, in the immediate proximity
of Omanite gold regions, satisfies the mineralogical exigenda of the praediluvian
“ land of Ha v il a h ” demanded by the letter of Gen. ii. 11, 12 ; and insisted upon, as
a preliminary step towards precision, by Yolney.655
71, 3 3 ]*— I I I B B — ‘ J o b a b . ’
The lobaretai of Ptolemy, through the ready change of the Creek b into the Latin
r, by a mistake of copyists, revealed themselves to Bochart as the Jobabitce of Xth
Genesis. But, “ the flexible genius of the Arabic idiom ” suffices to explain such difference
of pronunciation; and Forster triumphantly points out “ the Iobaritse of
Ptolemy, in Beni-J ubba r , the actual name of a tribe or district, in the country of the
Beni-Kahtan, south-east of Beishe, or Baisath Joktan, in the direction of Mareb; and
the original, or Scriptural form of this name, in Beni-J obub or J obab, the existing
denomination of a tribe and district situated in the ancient Katabania, half-way between
Sanaa and Zebid ” -— Katabania being the Greek inversion of Beni-Qahtcin, the
old J oktanidas. “ All these are sons of J oktan ; ” wrote the venerable compiler of
this precious ethnic chart, Xth Genesis, above 2500 years ago.656
We have shown that every name (but NIMROD’s, which is mythological) in the Xth
chapter of Genesis, excepting those of N oah and “ Shem, Ham, and Japheth,” is a personification
of countries, nations, tribes, or cities: ^ th a t there is not a single “ man” among
the seventy-nine cognomina hitherto examined. [N. B. The number 79 is~ obtained by
adding the 8 cities, founded by Nimrod, to the 71 names above enumerated.]
Abundant instances are patent, even in king James’s version, where Israel, or Jacob, is
put for all the Jewish community; and so ASUR, for example, means Assyria in such passages
as “ ASUR shall come as a torrent; ASUR shall arise like a conflagration; J ehovah
will raise up ASUR against Moab, against Ammon, against Judah, against Israel.” Now,
none will suppose that Asur, Moab, Ammon, or Israel, are individuals, human beings. It
is evident that these are collective names, employed according to the genius of Oriental
minds and tongues. And upon whose authority, let us ask, must we modern foreigners
offend the spirit of old Oriental writers (apart from common sense itself), in order to find
men in the seventy-nine ethnico-geographical appellatives of Xth Genesis ?
. That, in some instances, the name of an ante-historical founder of a nation has been perpetuated
by the nation itself, no one denies. Classical history teems with such; e. g. Hellas
for the Hellenes ; Dortjs for the Dorians; Lydus for the Lydians; but they are, in general,
about as historical as Afrik is of the Arabs; whom the Saracens made the “ Father of
Africa,” after they had learned the Latin name of this continent! In most cases, however,
the nation or tribe invented a founder; to whom they gave the name of the country
they happened to occupy: nor does archaeology concede to the Hebrews any exemption
from this universal law, merely for the sake of conformity to time-honored oaprice.
But, if seventy-eight of the seventy-nine names in Xth Genesis are those of countries,
nations, tribes, or cities; such is not the case with four others, catalogued as the parental
NwKA, N oah, and his three sons SAeM, KAaM, and IaPAeTtf.
Our observations on these names limit themselves to guessing, as nearly as we can, what
may have been meant, by the writer of Xth Genesis.
1st. NuKA— (Noah), or NUKA, in Hebrew lexicons, among its various meanings,
^ signifies Repose and also Cessation. We place the word “ o b sc u r ity ” beneath it
on our Genealogical Tableau. To the chorographer of Xth Genesis this name NKA