and utterly destroyed them, there being scarce any mention made from that time
of either of these tribes.4
The former tribe of Jorham (whose ancestor some pretend was one of the
eighty persons saved in the ark of Noah, according to a Mohammedan tradition5)
was contemporary with Ad, and utterly perished.6 The tribe of Amalek were
descended from Amalek the son of Eliphaz the son of Esau 7, though some of the
oriental authors say Amalek was the son of Ham the son of Noah,8 and others
the son of Azd the son of Sem.9 The posterity of this person rendered
themselves very powerful,10 and before the time of Joseph conquered the lower
Egypt under
5 D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. 740. 6 Bochart Geogr. Sac. 7 See D'Herbel.
366. 8 Ebn Shohnah
9 Poc. Spec. 57. 10 Kor. c. 15. 11 Abu Musa al Ashari. 12. Vide
Poc. Spec. 37. 1 Abulfeda.
2 A like custom is said to have been i n some manors in England, and also in
Scotland, where it was called "culliage," having been established by K. Ewen,
and abolished by Malcolm III. See Bayle's Dict. Art. Sixte IV., Rem. H.
3 Poc. Spec. 60. 4 Ibid. 37, &c. 5 Ibid. p. 38. 6 Ebn Shohnah.
7 Gen. xxxvi. 12. 8 Vide D'Herbelot, p. 110.
9 Ebn Shohnah 10 Vide Numb. xxiv. 20.
their king Walîd, the first who took the name of Pharaoh, as the eastern
writers tell us;11 seeming by these Amalekites to mean the same people which
the Egyptian histories call Phoenician shepherds.12 But after they had
possessed the throne of Egypt for some descents, they were expelled by the
natives, and at length totally destroyed by the Israelites.13
The present Arabians, according to their own historians, are sprung from
two stocks, Kahtân, the same with Joctan the son of Eber,14 and Adnân
descended in a direct line from Ismael the son of Abraham and Hagar; the
posterity of the former they call al Arab al Ariba,15 i.e., the genuine or
pure Arabs, and those of the latter al Arab al mostáreba, i.e., naturalized or
institious Arabs, though some reckon the ancient lost tribes to have been the
only pure Arabians, and therefore call the posterity of Kahtân also Mótareba,
which word likewise signifies insititious Arabs, though in a nearer degree
than Mostáreba; the descendants of Ismael being the more distant graff.
The posterity of Ismael have no claim to be admitted as pure Arabs, their
ancestor being by origin and language an Hebrew; but having made an alliance
with the Jorhamites, by marrying a daughter of Modad, and accustomed himself
to their manner of living and language, his descendants became blended with
them into one nation. The uncertainty of the descents between Ismael and
Adnân is the reason why they seldom trace their genealogies higher than the
latter, whom they acknowledge as father of their tribes, the descents from him
downwards being pretty certain and uncontroverted.1
The genealogy of these tribes being of great use to illustrate the Arabian
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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