1

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 Ḥam’s children are first mentioned in the Hebrew

writings of the Pentateuch (Genesis 10:6-7): “And the sons of Ḥam were Kūš
and Miṣrayim and Fūṭ and Kena’an. The sons of Kūš are Sebā and Ḥawīlah
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and Savtah and Ra’amah and Savteḫā, while the sons of Ra’amah are Ševā 1
and Dedan.2”

As noted, Ḥam had four sons. Three of these sons (viz., Miṣrayim, Fūṭ
and Kena’an) kept their own denomination as late as 1,300 BCE. According
to Jewish tradition,3 the descendants of Miṣrayim settled in the land that is
called Egypt. One of Miṣrayim’s sons, Lehavim, settled in the country which
is now called Libya;4 the descendants of Fūṭ also settled in the land called
Libya,5 and the descendants of Kena’an occupied the countries of Lebanon,
Syria and Judea (Palestine).

As for Kūš, 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

1
In Ezekiel chapter 27, there are two places having the name Ševā (Heb. ‫)שבא‬. One is mentioned alongside
Ra’amah, in Ezekiel 27:22, which is no doubt an African city in the far west of Africa. The other Ševā is
mentioned alongside places in Arabia in Ezekiel 27:23, and which by tradition refers to the city of Māʼrib
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 Qanīʼ, 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 Ḥaḍramawt 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. ‫)דדן‬. 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-‘Ulā 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.
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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
ages have adopted foreign languages, such as the Berbers of North Africa
who now speak Arabic.

Ḥam, 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 pseudo-
Yonathan ben Uzziel on Genesis 10:6-7.

Josephus says (ibid.) that Sebā, the son of Kūš, founded the nation of
the Sabaeans. In another place (Antiquities ii, x, 2), he mentions their chief
city, Saba (Sebā), 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-Fiḥrist (Book I, pp. 35-36)
mentions its inhabitants, saying: “The races of Negroes are the Nubians, the
Bijah [i.e. Beja], the Zaghāwah, 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 “Zaghāwah.” The medieval Jewish scholar and Rabbi, Rabbi
Saadia Gaon (882 - 942 CE) writes in his Judeo-Arabic translation of the
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Pentateuch on Genesis 10:7 that the Zaghāwah are descended from Savtah,
the son of Kūš.

Ḥawīlah, another son of Kūš, 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 Ḥawīlah 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 Ḥaukal (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 Ḥawīlah in the land of
Gana7 (i.e. Fezzan, south of Tripoli). In this desert there are mountains of
sand, etc.”

6
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.
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It is to be noted here that there are two places known by the name
“Ḥawīlah” in the Hebrew Bible, one in Africa and the other in India, where
there was gold (Gen. 2:11). The River "Pišon" is said to encircle the land of
Ḥawīlah 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 "Giḥon" (Gen. 2:13) encircles the entire country
of Kūš, 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 Ra’amah: Ševā 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 Ḥam were Kūš and
Miṣrayim and Fūṭ and Kena’an, and the names of their districts are called
Arabia, and Egypt, and Alīḥerūq (poss. a region in Libya) and Kena’an. The
sons of Kūš are Sebā and Ḥawīlah and Savtah and Ra’amah and Savteḫā,
[while the sons of Ra’amah are Ševā and Dedan]. The names of their
districts are called Sīnīrae (a place in present-day Sudan), and Hīndīqī (a
place on the sub-continent of India), Samarae (a place in present-day
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Sudan),8 Lūbae (i.e. Byzacium, or what is now called Tunisia), Zinğae9 (i.e.
those countries in Africa bordering on the Indian Ocean), while the sons of
Mauretinos (i.e. the father of the Moors, whose name was Ra’amah) are [the
inhabitants of] Zemarğad and [the inhabitants of] Mezağ (which is now El-
Jedida in Morocco).” Rabbi Saadia Gaon believed that the two sons of
Ra’amah, Ševā and Dedan, were the fathers of the Pakistani (Sind) and
Indian (Hind) nations. Likewise, Rabbi Saadia Gaon associates Savteḫā with
the town al-Damis (possibly Demas in Tunisia). However, the old Aramaic
Targum of pseudo-Yonathan ben Uzziel on Genesis 10:7 associates Savteḫā
with Zinğae, 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 Pliny’s 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. The

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

8
Pliny describes this place as being situate along the banks of the Nile River.
9
This name is sometimes wrongly associated with the Songhai of Mali in West Africa. However, the Arab
geographers gave the name Zinğ or Zinj to the African people who dwell along the Indian Ocean.
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the city of Carthage. It was here that women came out to greet Alexander the
Great.

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 Ḥawīlah. It is
assumed that the Gaetulian tribes are the ancestors of the Berbers, for we
10
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.
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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
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 Kena’an 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,
11
The Yemenite MS. of the Babylonian Talmud (Yevamot 63b) writes "Mastenaeans" in place of
"Mauretanians," but it may have simply been a scribal error. “Sefer Ha-Arukh,” s.v., ‫ברבר‬, also writes ‫אנשי‬
‫ = מרטניא‬the people of Mauretania (i.e. Moors), as does the Munich MS. of the Babylonian Talmud.
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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 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 Ḥaukal 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.”