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IDENTIFYING THE PROGENY OF HAM or African Prototypes

This study is based on early Jewish and Arab sources, as well as on one Greek source (Strabo) and one Latin source (Pliny). The names of ams children are first mentioned in the Hebrew writings of the Pentateuch (Genesis 10:6-7): And the sons of am were K and Mirayim and F and Kenaan. The sons of K are Seb and awlah and Savtah and Raamah and Savte, while the sons of Raamah are ev1 and Dedan.2
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In Ezekiel chapter 27, there are two places having the name ev (Heb. ). One is mentioned alongside Raamah, in Ezekiel 27:22, which is no doubt an African city in the far west of Africa. The other ev is mentioned alongside places in Arabia in Ezekiel 27:23, and which by tradition refers to the city of Mrib

As noted, am had four sons. Three of these sons (viz., Mirayim, F and Kenaan) kept their own denomination as late as 1,300 BCE. According to Jewish tradition,3 the descendants of Mirayim settled in the land that is called Egypt. One of Mirayims sons, Lehavim, settled in the country which is now called Libya;4 the descendants of F also settled in the land called Libya,5 and the descendants of Kenaan occupied the countries of Lebanon, Syria and Judea (Palestine). As for K, his five sons spread out and established colonies, calling the countries after their own individual names (i.e. eponyms), some of which names having now been lost in antiquity or either having been changed. Our inquiry will concern itself with the identification of these peoples in ancient times, although, today because of widespread migration of peoples and interbreeding, it is almost impossible to determine who these peoples are in our own time. Even if we were to study the linguistics of a people, it too is no accurate indicator of their ancestral origins, since people throughout the

in Yemen. Although the Aramaic Targum of Yonathan b. Uzziel places Kaneh and Eden (ibid., vs. 23) as Nisibis and Adiabene (in the frontier of Northern Iraq) respectively, it is more likely that Kaneh was the ancient city known as Qan, mentioned in Periplus Maris Erythraei, and in Historia Naturalis of Pliny the Elder, as well as in Claudius Ptolmaeus Geography, as the chief port city of aramawt in South Arabia, and as the marketplace for trade in aromatic spices and condiments which passed through northern Arabia. Eden is more likely the port city of Aden in Yemen, a port formerly used by the Romans. Both, in Arabic and in the Hebrew of Ezek. 27:23, the word Aden is written with an ayin. 2 In Ezekiel chapter 27, there are two places having the name Dedan (Heb. ). The one in Ezekiel 27:15 is traditionally associated with a place in the far west of Africa. The Dedan mentioned in Ezek. 27:20 is now known by the name al-Ul in Saudi-Arabia. 3 Based on Yosef ben Mattithiah (alias, Josephus) in his book, Antiquities. 4 Pliny, in his Natural History, says that as one goes south of Libya beyond the Gaetulians, after a strip of desert, the first inhabitants are the Egyptian Libyans. In saying so, he may have been referring to the descendants of Lehavim, who eventually moved southward into the regions of Burnu and Wadai. 5 According to the book, Sefer Hayashar, the sons of Phut (Libya) were Jabal and Hadan and Bannah and Aden.

ages have adopted foreign languages, such as the Berbers of North Africa who now speak Arabic. am, the son of Noah, is the progenitor of the predominately black peoples of Africa. Our earliest Jewish sources for his progeny are the Jewish historian, Yosef ben Mattithiah (alias, Josephus), in his book Antiquities (Book i, chapter vi, verse 2), and the old Aramaic Targum of pseudoYonathan ben Uzziel on Genesis 10:6-7. Josephus says (ibid.) that Seb, the son of K, founded the nation of the Sabaeans. In another place (Antiquities ii, x, 2), he mentions their chief city, Saba (Seb), which name was later changed to Meroe by Cambyses. This city is situate in Northern Sudan, between the Nile and Atbara rivers. As late as the 10th century CE, there were already distinctive African tribes living in the region now known as Sudan. Al-Firist (Book I, pp. 35-36) mentions its inhabitants, saying: The races of Negroes are the Nubians, the Bijah [i.e. Beja], the Zaghwah, the Murawah [i.e. the inhabitants of Meroe], the Istan, the Barber [i.e. Berbers] and the type of blacks like the Indians. They write like the Indians because of their proximity, but have no known script or writing of their own.

To this very day, there is an African tribe in Sudan that calls itself by the name Zaghwah. The medieval Jewish scholar and Rabbi, Rabbi Saadia Gaon (882 - 942 CE) writes in his Judeo-Arabic translation of the Pentateuch on Genesis 10:7 that the Zaghwah are descended from Savtah, the son of K.

awlah, another son of K, are said to be the inhabitants of North Africa that were later called by the Greeks Getuli (Antiquities, ibid.). Getuli is a place named after its inhabitants, also described by Strabo, and is placed in Africa proper, adjoining to Algeria, Tunis and Libya, in a mountainous district and desert county (See: Strabo's Geography, last book, pp. 161-177). Rabbi Saadia Gaon agrees, who, in his Judeo-Arabic translation of Genesis 10:7, calls awlah by its Arabic corruption, Zoweilah. Even today, there is a town which bears its name in Libya. Some of the Berber clans may have been descended from him. The Arab chronicler and geographer, Ibn aukal (travelled 943-969 CE), says of Zoweila that it is a place in the eastern part of the Maghreb, adding that from Kirouan (Tunis) to Zoweilah is a journey of one month. The Maghreb, by the way, extended from present-day Morocco to Algeria, incorporating Tunisia and parts of Libya. The Jewish traveler, Benjamin of Tudela in Navarre (Spain),6 writes similarly in his Itineray (1165-1173 CE): From Aswan (Egypt) it is a distance of twelve days to Helwan where there are about 300 Jews. Thence people travel in caravans a journey of fifty days through the great desert called Sahara, to the land of Zoweilah, which is awlah in the land of Gana7 (i.e. Fezzan, south of Tripoli). In this desert there are mountains of sand, etc.

It is to be noted here that there are two places known by the name awlah in the Hebrew Bible, one in Africa and the other in India, where
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The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela (MS. 27089 in the British Museum). Helwan, in Egypt, is located fourteen miles from Cairo. 7 Not to be confused with the old kingdom of Ghana in West-Africa. According to the Arab geographer, Ibrahim al-Fazari (died 804 CE), there was a kingdom in West-Africa that was called the "kingdom of Ghana." He was referring to "the kingdom of the war lord [of Uagadu]," since Ghan-a literally means "war lord" in the Soninke tongue. Later, this kingdom was taken over by the Mande king of Mali.

there was gold (Gen. 2:11). The River "Pion" is said to encircle the land of awlah and which, according to Josephus in his "Antiquities" (Book i, chapter i, vs. 3), "denotes a multitude" and runs into India, or what is now called the Ganges. Since the "Gion" (Gen. 2:13) encircles the entire country of K, it is believed to be, both, the Nile and the Niger rivers, formerly understood by the ancients as being one and the same river.

Josephus (ibid.) also speaks somewhat about the West Africans, called in the Greek tongue of his day, "Western Aethiopians," saying that they were descended from the two sons of Raamah: ev and Dedan. As is known to Greek scholars, the word "Aethiopia" means "land of burnt faces," or "land of black faces," and encompassed the ENTIRE continent of Africa.

The old Aramaic Targum of pseudo-Yonathan ben Uzziel on Genesis 10:6-7 mentions all of the sons of Ham, and the diocese (or districts) wherein they settled. While his tradition agrees with that of Josephus, we find some discrepancies between him and Rabbi Saadia Gaon. These are the words of the old Aramaic Targum: Now, the sons of am were K and Mirayim and F and Kenaan, and the names of their districts are called Arabia, and Egypt, and Alerq (poss. a region in Libya) and Kenaan. The sons of K are Seb and awlah and Savtah and Raamah and Savte, [while the sons of Raamah are ev and Dedan]. The names of their districts are called Snrae (a place in present-day Sudan), and Hndq (a place on the sub-continent of India), Samarae (a place in present-day Sudan),8 Lbae (i.e. Byzacium, or what is now called Tunisia), Zinae9 (i.e.

Pliny describes this place as being situate along the banks of the Nile River.

those countries in Africa bordering on the Indian Ocean), while the sons of Mauretinos (i.e. the father of the Moors, whose name was Raamah) are [the inhabitants of] Zemarad and [the inhabitants of] Meza (which is now ElJedida in Morocco). Rabbi Saadia Gaon believed that the two sons of Raamah, ev and Dedan, were the fathers of the Pakistani (Sind) and Indian (Hind) nations. Likewise, Rabbi Saadia Gaon associates Savte with the town al-Damis (possibly Demas in Tunisia). However, the old Aramaic Targum of pseudo-Yonathan ben Uzziel on Genesis 10:7 associates Savte with Zinae, those countries in Africa bordering on the Indian Ocean.

Pliny (died ca. 79 CE) has given us an excellent description of North Africa and its inhabitants in his Natural History. He divides the Maghreb into seven autonomous regions with a strip of desert in between. If one were to look at a map of North Africa, the country furthest west (where is now Morocco) was called in Plinys day the First Mauretania. Next to it on the east was the Second Mauretania, or what is now called Algeria (opposite of Malaga, Spain). These two regions were named after the ancestor of the Black Moors, Mauretinos. Next to it on the east was Numidia, where is now Constantine. Th e River Zaina flows through this country, and which country was inhabited by nomads. Next to it on the east was Zeugitania or what is properly called Africa. It is now called Tunisia, but was formerly called Libya, wherein is the city of Carthage. It was here that women came out to greet Alexander the Great.
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This name is sometimes wrongly associated with the Songhai of Mali in West Africa. However, the Arab geographers gave the name Zin or Zinj to the African people who dwell along the Indian Ocean.

Next to it on the east was Byzacium, also in present -day Tunisia, or what was then called Africa Proper. The people who inhabited this region were called Libyphoenicians (or Canaanites). This vast region incorporated the towns of Sousa, Demas, etc. Lempta, Monastir, Sabapt and the edge of the Lesser Syrtis.

Next to it on the east was the Gulf of Cabes (Gabes) and Gulf of Sydra (Syrtis) near to which place was once a Girgishi village. To the east of this country is a stretch of desert, followed by a stretch of forest, and again a desert. Afterwards, on the east, one comes to the Garamantes tribes in Western modern-day Libya, whose territory is twelve days walking distance from Aujelah. They are the denizens of Phazania, Fezzan and the last oasis in the Sahara.

Pliny makes note of the fact that, in his day, the province known as Tangier (in Morocco) was formerly inhabited by the tribe known as the Moors, from which tribe Mauretania takes its name. However, Pliny adds that in his day only a few Moorish families remained in that country, since their country had been occupied by the Gaetulian tribes10 the tribe mentioned by us earlier whose native country was in the region in and around Fezzan of Libya, and who are descended from awlah. It is assumed that the Gaetulian tribes are the ancestors of the Berbers, for we find an ancient Jewish Midrash (Sifrei on Deuteronomy 32:21; BT Yevamot 93b) concerning the old inhabitants of this region which says that the people
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Several clans of the Gaetulian tribes are also mentioned by Pliny, such as the Baniurae and the Free State and the Nesimi, a sub-clan of the Autoteles, who split from them and formed a separate tribe of their own in the direction of the blacks.

of Barbary (i.e. Berbers) and the people of Tunis and Mauretania (i.e. Moors) used to walk naked in the marketplaces.11

As for the old Moorish inhabitants, they may have been pushed further south, into the region of sub-Saharan Africa, or what was called in Arabic Bilad es Sudan. Some of the descendants of Kenaan or Canaan, whose progeny settled in Judea and in Lebanon and in the regions thereabout, have since removed into North Africa (see: the Tosefta, Shabbat 7:25 [in some editions 8:12]): You will not find a people more circumspect than the Ammorites, since we find that they believed in the Omnipresent and exiled themselves into Africa proper, where G-d had given them a country as beautiful as their own. Moreover, the land of Israel was named after their own name! Epiphanius of Salamis (d. ca. 402 CE), in his "Treatise on Weights and Measures - Syriac Version," end, also mentions these Canaanites, saying that they settled in Africa proper in what is now Carthage (Carthagina) in Tunisia, and who were known in his day by the name of "Bizakanoi," meaning, "scattered [people]." These Canaanites were said to have come from Phoenicia. Procopius writes: They (the Canaanites) still live in the country and use the Phoenician language. They built themselves a fort in a city of Numidia, in the place where Tigisis stands to-day. There, near a great fountain, are two steps of white stone, on which are Phoenician inscriptions, saying: We are those that fled before Joshua the son of Nave (sic), the Brigand. Tigisis was once a fortified town in the neighborhood of
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The Yemenite MS. of the Babylon Talmud (Yevamot 63b) writes "Mastenaeans" in place of "Mauretanians," but it may have simply been a scribal error. Sefer Ha-Arukh, s.v., , also writes = the people of Mauretania (i.e. Moors), as does the Munich MS. of the Babylonian Talmud.

Lambese in north-east Algeria, in the Aures region, east of the town of Batna. At one point, this same stone inscription, or one like unto it, was found in Tangier (Morocco). Moses Chorenensis sets down the famous inscription at Tangier concerning the old Canaanites driven out of the Land of Canaan by Joshua ben Nun thus: "We are those exiles that were governors of the Canaanites, but have been driven away by Joshua the robber, and are come to inhabit here." The Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 91a) relates how that Alexander the Great visited Africa proper and was greeted by the Canaanites who claimed that Judea (the Land of Israel) belonged to them. Ibn aukal also mentions their country, saying: when one comes from the east and wishes to proceed to the west by the land of the Nubians, and the land of Khurhiz (Carthage?) and of Ghurghez, and by Kaimak to the sea, it is a journey of about four months. Jerome informs us in his Onomastica Sacra that the Girgashites established colonies in Africa, no doubt alluding to the country formerly called Ghurghez.