The Book of Exodus in Context: Formation of Banu Azd

“Following 70 years of intensive excavations in the Land of Israel, archaeologists have

found out: The patriarchs' acts are legendary, the Israelites did not sojourn in Egypt or
make an exodus, they did not conquer the land. Neither is there any mention of the
empire of David and Solomon…”, from the article, “Deconstructing the Walls of
Jericho”, by Ze'ev Herzog, October 29, 1999 - Haaretz Israel.

Immanuel Velikovsky, a promoter of an alternative chronological timeline for the Near

East, was one of the first Western academics of the “post-colonial era” to acknowledge that some
of the folklore concerning the origins of a number of South Arabian clans seemed to correspond
closely with or be analogous to stories of the Old Testament. Among these tales are the stories
concerning a man whose wanderings sound similar to those of Moses in the Torah, who is the
“Musa” of the Qur'an.
An “Amr Musaikiyya ibn Amir” (or Amr Muzaiqiyā), with wife “Zarifah” (or “Tarifa”) is
a venerated Yemenite tribal ancestor and folk hero (Hureiki, Jacques, 2003, p. 359). Amr
Musaikiyya ibn Amir (often referred to as 'Amr ibn Amir for short) is mentioned throughout the
early Islamic period by numerous Arabic-speaking historians and authors, and according to
medieval authors, he had an intimate and central place in the folk heritage of peninsular Arabia.
The highly regarded Arabist William De Slane’s translation of Ibn Khallikan’s “Biographical
Dictionary”, (Vol. 1), says, “Tarifa was the daughter of al-Khair al-Himyari and wife of Amr
Muzaikià” (De Slane, M., 1842, p. 448).1
Arabic commentators’ stories about 'Amr Muzaikiyya (surnamed Ma'a-Sama, or “water of
Heaven”) and his wife, the prophetess or diviner Zarifah, kāhinah “of the people of Radamān
from Himyar”, that revolve around pre-Islamic and pre-Christian happenings in the region of
Ma'rib in Yemen (in the vicinity of modern Sana'a), are plentiful (Hureiki, Jacques, 2003, p. 359;
Ulrich, Brian, 2008b, p. 312 and 313).2
Velikovsky suspected that the tradition surrounding this individual was a version of the

1
Another interpreter of the legend writes, “Among the kahinat famous for their involvement in high-level
tribal politics was Tarifa al-Khayr one of the seers of Yemen, who informed the king of Yemen 'Amr ibn
'Amir that the Ma'rib dam was about to burst and that storm floods would devastate the country. They
both left Yemen together with the people of Qahtan before disaster struck; then she directed them to settle
in the land of Jurhum (Mecca)...” Al-Amira al-Azhary Sonbol, Gulf Women, 2012, Bloomsbury
Publishing.
2
It is considered that the people called Sabaeans were at the height of their prosperity in this area around
the 8th century BC. Zarifah is al-Kahina “al-Himyari” (also transcribed as Tarifa or Turayfah). The
diviner in Arabian culture was used for “resolving the conflicts of every kind of problems, interpretation
of dreams, finding the lost things, fixing the crimes such as fornication, burglary and murdering, healing
the sickmen, and when Arabs decided to declare a war against the other tribe, they consulted with them,
or they could be considered as arbitrators in the solving of the familial conflicts.” See pp. 23-24 of Ilyas
Celebi’s “Approaches to Occultism in the Quran and the Sunnah”, Kelam Araştırmaları 1:1 (2003), s.21-
36, pp. 23-24).
story of Moses and Zipporah.3 In his essay - “Great and Terrible Wilderness” - Velikovsky
makes the following comparison between the “Muzaikiyya” of the Ma'rib tales and that of
Moses:

“The leaders of the Israelites were sons of Amram. The leaders of the tribe rescued at
Marib were sons of Amir. The divine brother of Moses was Aharon; the divine brother of
the ruler of the nomads at Marib was Amran. The sister of Moses was Miriam, his wife
was Zipora; the prophetess at Marib was Zeripha.”4

According to Brian Ulrich in The Azd Migrations Reconsidered (2008b), the 10th century
Al-Hamdānī’ describes Amr's older brother, “Imran b. Amir”, as a king and a kahin,
(etymologically related to “kohen”) who possessed knowledge of the religion of “Sulayman”
(Ulrich, 2008b, p. 312). In the various versions of this tradition which were recorded in the
writings of numerous Arabic-speaking historians and genealogists, the couple leads a group of
people to escape from a historical place that is at risk of being overwhelmed from flooding of a
large dam with the help of Zarifah’s powers of divination; frequently, the dam is
specified as being in the area of Ma’rib in Yemen - which ultimately bursts.
The people who flee in the stories ultimately settle near a river or brook called “Ghassān”
or “Ghasān” (‫)غسان‬. The clans descended from those people of the “Ghasān” settlement, which
according to some early Arabic texts, was between Zebid and Rima (modern Rema'a) in Yemen,
are subsequently known in historic tradition as Banū Azd (Upton, Roger, 1881, p. 107).5
“Zarifah” or “Tarifa” in the Arabic tradition is a Himyarite. In the Torah, Zipphora is a
“Kushite”, and daughter of a “Kenite” who is called variously “Re'ul” and “Jethro” or “Hobab”.
The fact that she is considered “Kushite” has often been interpreted as meaning she was a
“Nubian”, but there is little to support for this interpretation.

3
The 10th c. Ibn Ad Rabbih mentions the story of the Ghassan at the stream or fountain in Bayt Faqih
near in this region. Descendants of by ‘Amr ibn ‘Amir - “the Azd group left Yemen in seprarate divisions
and were dispersed in the country, the Banu Mazin camped at a fountain between Zabid and Rima’called
Ghassan, and so whoever drank from it was called a Ghassanid. When the Banu ‘Amr came out [of
Yemen], they severed themselves from their people and camped at Mecca, and then came Aslam, Malik
and Malakan, the sons of Afsa ibn Haritha, and they severed themselves; so they were called Khuza’a.
The remaining divisions of the Azd group were separated. The Ansar, Khuza’a Bariq, al-Hujun and
Ghassan were all from the Azd and all of them were descendants of “Amr ibn ‘Amir, and begat Jafna and
al-Harith...” See p. 292 of The Unique Necklace (Al Iqd al Farid) Volume 3, (2011) translation Issa
Boullata. The name of “Zarifa” is sometimes found written with such variants as “Saffureh”, “Tarika” or
“Turayfah” in English Orientalist translations. Thus, one author writes, “During the reign of Amru Ibn
Amir, a prophetess called Taripha, who lived in the city of Marab, was alarmed by nocturnal visions for
the fate of her country.” (Drummond, William, and Mathias, Thomas James, Origines. Or, Remarks on
the Origin of Several Empires, States and Cities, Vol. III, 1826, p. 323).
4
“The Great and Terrible Wilderness” an essay by Immanuel Velikovsky. Retrieved from March 18,
2018 from - https://www.varchive.org/ce/baalbek/desert.htm The Immanuel Velikovsky archives.
5
Incidently, there is also still a “Sarid” plausibly representing the biblical one in the Reimah area today.
According to Ibn Abd Rabbih,
 Velikovsky cites some of Masudi's writings about the followers of “Zarifa” and “'Amr
Musaikiyya”:

“According to Masudi, after a number of years they continued on their way and came
to camp between the land of the Aharites and Akk, near a pool named Gassan, between
two valleys called Zebid and Rima, and they drank the water of the pool.”

This Zebid ( ‫ )َز ِبيد‬of the Arabian legend is the name of a Wadi situated near Reima or
Rema'a in the Yemenite part of the Tihama (Donaldson, W.J., 1996, p. 42). The Yemenite ‘Akk
were a people in the Tihama north of the Banu Ash’ar. These tribes, along with people known as
Gassān (or Ghassān) are recognized as a presence in the region of Rema'a as late as the 13th
century when an early commentator, Al-Hassan al-Wahhas al-Khazradji, mentions them.
Al-Khazradji discussed the area with regard to the formation of the historical Banū
Ghasān people and its connection with the clan, called “‘Akk”, in an historical treatise entitled,
“The Pearl Strings”.

“Rima' is the name of the next valley of importance north of the vale of Zebid and south
of the vale of Siham. The Merasid mentions that in the lower part of the vale of Rima' was
the little stream named Ghassan, from which the tribe of Ghassān took its name, through
having lived on its banks in the land of 'Akk before migrating to Mekka and Syria. Ibnu
Batuta tells us that the legist, Ahmed son of Musa, the Saint from whom the Bayt al-Faqih
took its name, was buried at a village called Ghasana...That city has grown into the city
of Bayt al-Faqih” (Redhouse, James, W., Nicholson, R. A., et al., 1908, p. 70).

Velikovsky noted that biblical texts about the Israelites wandering in the land of “Zerid”
(often transliterated as “Sarid”) and “Seir” had similarities with the stories of the legendary
Arabian ruler named “Akk”, from whom the name of historical Banū Akk, a people of the Azd
confederation, was derived. This people existed in a region of the Kināna ( Kinaaniyya or -
Kanaunah) and the ‘Asir area south of Mecca, which is most probably of the biblical “Anak” or
“Anakim” of “Canaan” (also called “Emim”) in the biblical tradition.6
The name, “Akk”, appears to be the Og or “Uj ibn Anak” of Muslim tradition; this name
belonged to the giants and the biblical “Og” of the “Rephaim” or “Amorites”. Og is also said to
be from “Ba’shan”, that biblical scholars designated as Batanea in modern Syria. However, in
Arabic writings, “Akk” is an “Adite” who lives in the far south of Yemen where there is a
Bathan (in the Abyan Governate).7 These Arabian “Adites”, a semi-legendary folk, are
traditionally connected with the Sabaeans, Hadramaut, and the Rub-al Khali (“Empty Quarter”)

6
In Deuteronomy 1:10-12 we have - “...the Emim dwelt therein aforetime, a people great, and many, and tall, as
the Anakim; these also are accounted Rephaim, as the Anakim; but the Moabites call them Emim.”
7
According to Philip Hitti, Al-Hamdani also mentions Bathan in Sifat Jazirat al-Arab, p. 124, line 9, in
the Muller Edition. See p. 22, fn. 2, in The Origins of the Islamic State (2011). (First published 1916).
in southern central Arabia.
One Turkish tale published at the turn of the 20th century, and translated by Orientalist
Elias Gibb, thus makes Og an “Adite”, and goes as follows:

“One day Moses (peace on him!) went against a tribe, and they were of the people of 'Ad,
and they called their chief Og, the son of Anak. Moses (Peace on him!) assembled four
hundred and four-score thousand men and proceeded against the 'Adis. When they were
come near the 'Adis, he sent twelve men as ambassadors to that tribe. Now Og had gone
out to look about, and he saw the twelve men coming, so he put the whole of them into his
sack and slung it over his shoulder and turned back and went away. He brought them to
his tribe the 'Adis and said, 'See the host of the Messenger Moses which is come seeking
to make war with us; 'and he held the mouth of the sack downward and the twelve men
rolled out. 'And that tribe saw them that they were small of stature, for their own stature
was twice that of these....” (Gibb, E., J. W. and Zada, S., 1886, p.379).

Velikovsky also shows the likeness between the Yemenite people “Aharites” in Masudi's
story and the “Horites” or “Horim” of Edom and Se'ir of the Genesis tradition.
In his essay the “Great and Terrible Wilderness”, he examined the following biblical
passages that deal with Moses and his people:

“In the book of Deuteronomy it is said (2:1, 3): 'We compassed Mount Seir many
days...And the Lord spake... turn you northward.' They reached the border of Edom and
Moab (Deuteronomy 2:10-13)....”

“The Emim dwelt therein in times past. which also were accounted giants, as the
Anakim; but the Moabites call them Emim. The Horim also dwelt in Seir before time; but
the children of Esau succeeded them... And we went over the brook Zerid.”

“According to the book of Numbers (21:12-17): From thence they removed [i.e.,
from the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrising], and pitched in the
valley of Zared....”8

Velikovsky noted the story of the valley of Zebid in the Yemen to be like the one
concerning “Zerid” (“Sarid”or “Zered”) of the Torah (Numbers 21:12, and Deuteromy 2:13) - a
town on the southern border of “Zebulun” (Josh 19:10; Josh 19:12)9 - just as the brook, pool or river of
“Kishon” seems to correlate with the name of the water source or pool from which the historical
8
“The Great and Terrible Wilderness” retrieved March 18, 2018 from
https://www.varchive.org/ce/baalbek/desert.htm
9
“Dabbesheth” was also a town on the border of “Zebulun”, perhaps corresponding to the still extant
town of Ad-Dabesh in Hudaydah. Early Orientalists such as C. R. Conder identified it with Dabsheh near
Acco in Palestine. https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4841-dabbasheth
tribe of Ghassān was considered to have derived its name.10 Although suspected by Biblical
archaeologists of our contemporary period to have been in the vicinity of the Wadi Hasa in
modern Jordan, a biblical valley of “Zerid” has not been positively identified there (Craigie, P.
C., 1976, p. 111).11
On the other hand, rather than Zebid, the biblical name of “Zerid” or “Sarid” is more likely
that of “Sarid” in the area of Reima or what’s called today Muḩāfaz̧at Raymah in the gouvernerat of
Hodeidah/Hudaydah where was Bayt al Faqih and the “stream of Ghasan" and Ad-Dabbesh
(Dabbesheth)..
Velikovsky also suspected that the “Marib”, associated with the flight of Musaikiyyah
and Zarifah in the Arabian traditions, was connected to the name of “Meriba” of the Old
Testament Exodus book, so he asked the following -

“Does the name Marib occur in the Scriptures of the Hebrews? In the stony valley of
Rephidim near Horeb, the Israelites met the Amalekites, more exactly at a point called
Massa and Meriba (Exodus 17:7-8): 'And he called the name of the place Massa and
Meriba. Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim'.”

According to Ibn Khaldun and al-Tabari earlier, the tribal name of “Amalek” came from
a ruler who was one of the Tasm ( ‫( )طسم‬also “el-Tawsim” or “Djasim”) who lived in Yamamah
(Jaw) or Wadi Dawasir in the southern Nejd during ancient times (Kay, Henry Cassels, 1892, p.
179; Watt, W. Montgomery, and McDonald, M. V., p. 36). On the eve of Islam, al-Amluk was
the name of a batn (or clan) of the Ru’ayn branch of Himyar according to al-Hakami’s work,
Futuh III, 128 (al-Medej, Abdul Muhsen, 1983, pp. 163-164). In the British colonial period one
administrator even mentions the “Amelik” along with the Mahra and the tribe of ʿĀd or A'ad (‫عاد‬
),12 dwelling east of Mukalla (Latham, Robert Gordon, 1859, p. 84).
The name of Zebid itself, is derived from that of an Arabian clan that is also called Zabid
or Zubayd in the Yemen region. This clan belongs to the tribe of Madhh'ij, a people who are
found as “mdḥjm” in ancient Musnad inscriptions of the region. Until today they claim descent
from “the legendary semitic Qahtans” (Pescataing, 2003).
Furthermore, the tribe of “Akk” remained in the region of the Yemenite Tihama as late as
Islamic times when they are mentioned together with the people known as as Al- Ash'ār or
Ash’ayr, another known branch of Madhhij. Al-Khazraji considered the “Esh’arites” or Ash'ār,
10
Kishn or Qishn is a name for more than one port in the region of the Yaman. One encyclopaedia
description informs that the inhabitants of Kishn, north of Socotra live “mainly by fishing, pastoralism
and trading, the principal exports being frankincense, dried fish, and salt.” This Kishn is still the habitat
of the Bayt Kathir or al-Kathira tribes. See “Kishn” entry by J. B. Kelly in the Encyclopaedia of Islam
1954, p. 184.
11
As a place named “Sarid” hasn’t been located or identified in Palestine Biblical scholars have been
inclined to conjure up various explanations, including the suggestion that it should be read as Sadid and
identified with Tell Shaddu.
12
The Mahra of Hadramaut and Oman are called “Adites” in the writings of Ibn Mudjawir and others. See W. W.
Muller’s, “Mahra” entry on p. 82 in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. VI, 1986, Leiden: E. J. Brill.
as “the very oldest inhabitants of Yemen” (Redhouse, 1908, p. 189). The town of Zebid was
situated between the two tribes with the Ash'ār being on the south (Mad'aj, Abd'ul Muhsin, 1988,
p. 353).
According to al-Hariri of Basra (circa 11th c.), after the death of 'Amr Muzaikiya, the
husband of “Zerifah”, his followers wound up in the more northern parts of Arabia and became
the ancestors of the Ghassān and Azd groups of Aus and Khazraj (‫ )الخزرج‬that settled in Hijaz and
finally Syria during the Christian era.

“the emigrant families who went with him divided and settled in various countries. The
family of his son Jafneh established itself in Syria. Ows and Khazraj, sons of Tha’labeh,
fixed themselves at Yathrib, afterwards called Medina. Malik settled in Irak. The tribe of
Tay went to the Nejd. The history of these emigrations is very obscure; but it is
sufficiently established that many of the most powerful tribes of Arabia and the northern
country, including the royal race of Ghassan and the Khoza’ah at Mecca, came from
Yemen” (Chenery, Thomas, 1867, p. 426).

Furthermore, tradition has it that the followers of Musaikiya and Amran ended up in the
plain of al-Ash’ayr or "the Esh’arites" in Yemen with the Ghassān and Barik (al-Burayk),
similar to the Asherites who in one version of the Song of Deborah of Judges 5 speaks of
“Cushan” ("Kishon") and "Barak" in conncection with “Asherites” or “Ashurites” of Arabia. 13

When one learns of the names of the various pre-Islamic Yemenite tribes and their
genealogical connection with one another, a perplexing question thus arises. Numerous recorded
names of the early pre-Islamic Yemenite clans appear to be not only similar, but also identical to
the names mentioned in the Old Testament as “Israelites”, “Edomites”, “Aramaeans” and
“Canaanites”. More intriguingly, however, such groups are frequently found in close proximity

13
Early in the 20th century, the biblical scholar Thomas Cheyne recorded the version of phrases of the
Song of Deborah (Judges 5) found in the Masoretic Text (verses 12-13), which he translated as follows
“March on, march on, Daberath; March on, march on into Asshur. Arise, Barak, and take captives,
Subdue the sons of Arabia. Then they came down to the Asshurites, Yahwe’s force came down into
Arabia…. (19-21) The host of Cusham and Jerahmeel. Ishmael and the folk of Ashur. The Ashurites were
panic-stricken, they perished. In the stream of Kishon were their corpses...” See pp. 454-456 of Thomas
Cheyne’s Critica Biblica: Or, Critical Notes on the Text of the Old Testament Writings, 1904. London.
There is in fact a people and town of Al-Ashur in Yemen and Ashur that is mentioned with Sheba in
certain biblical texts probably had nothing to do with Assyria. For example, Ezekiel 27:23 – “The cities
of Haran, Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, the cities of Asshur and Chilmad,” are very likely
the ancient Yemenite towns of Hirran or Harran, Qane, Aden, Sheba (Saba) and Assur, rather locales in
Assyria and Turkey. The Minaean king - Abiyada Yathi - is named governor of “Assur”. Wilfred
Schoff’s annotated Periplus of the Erythraea Sea of 1912 probably rightly identified “Canneh” with the
the Cana of classical writings - the Qane of coastal Yemen. See p. 117. There is a town of Al-Ashur in the
Lahij district of Yemen. The early Assyriologist Thoephilus J. Pinches believed these were south Arabian
place names due to connection with Seba (the Sabaeans). Most Standard Bible sources, however, simply
assert the name “Calneh” of Isaiah 10:9 was intended.
to the same peoples they are listed with in the Old Testament. As one looks more into the
Yemenite tribal names and territories and the medieval historical accounts of their interactions
and settlements, there emerge an unusual group of coincidences that are inexplicable, unless one
assumes some direct connection between these southern Arabian populations and the peoples in
the stories of the Old Testament.

The “Sabaeans” and their Host

Although some scholars have interpreted the tradition of the dar of Ma'rib and “‘Amr
Muzaikiyya” as one related to relatively recent immigration directly from the Yemen to Syria, it
is clear that while these fables of a migration, are based on historical happenings, they are
folkloric and aetiological in essence and refer rather, to a period that led to the dispersion of
numerous Sabaean clans (often referred to as “Banū Azd” or (“Kaila”). This period also
subsequently led to the settlement or resettlement of the Horn of Africa, as well as areas further
north in Arabia like Hijaz, Jordan and Syria – this is likely how the Arab saying or proverb, “as
scattered” or “as divided as the Sabaeans” arose.
Unlike what has been suggested by some modern historians, Sa'id of Andalusia, in the
Book of the Categories of Nations, like other medieval authors, references the time of “King
David” as being the era in which the Ma'rib area was flooded and its inhabitants first scattered
(Salem, and Kumar, 2010, pp. 42-43).
Among the tribes that Sa'id mentions as moving into the al-Sharawat (Shahra'a or Surat)
of the Yemen were “Shamran” and “Myda'an”. The chain of mountains he mentions as the
“Surat” stretches from the Yemen to the borders of “al-Sham”.14 Traditionally this “Samran” (a
name identical to “Shimran” or “Zimran”, brother of Midian) came to inhabit the ʿAsīr, Shara'at,
and other places. The 11th century author Ibn Abd Rabbihu classifies Samran or “Shamran” as a
tribe of Madhh'ij (Boulatta, Issa J., 2012, p. 291).
Shamran (‫ )شمران‬is a village in Yemen on a mountain known as Jebel Masar, but as Salibi
noted, it is also still the name of a tribal territory in the Asīr in the Qunfudah hinterland 15
stretching to the Wadi Bisha, which he identified as the biblical “Samaria” in the vicinity of a
“Jizreel” (which he considered Al al-Zar’i, not far away).
The Samaritans were called “Kutim” by the Pharisees. Frank Cross writes in Traditions
in Transformation: Turning Points in Biblical Faith (1981): “Josephus knew and used the
tradition of the Kuthean origins of the Samaritan people”. Yaqut al-Hamawi (13th c.) mentions
the Kūth ( ‫ ) كث‬as an ancient people who moved north from the Yemen.16
The historic homeland of the Asd or Azd, judging from the Sabaean and Himyarite
14
The mountainous region takes its name from the resemblance to a horse’s back.
15
Qunfudah ( ‫ ) القنفذة‬comes from a word signifying “hedgehog”. “Shara’at” or “Sharawat” ( ‫) ٱلـَّسـَر َو ات‬
mountain range is said to have received its name due to its resemblance to the back of a horse.
16
In his book, Mujam al-Buldan or Glossary of Countries (‫) معجم البلدان‬, page 1502, Arab historian and
geographer Yāqūt al-Ḥamawi shares that Kūth is the name of a territory in Yemen. Al-Hamdani mentions
the land of “Khuta” in Al-Iklil book 8: 138, in connection with Ma’afir and Zafar in the south of Yemen.
inscriptions of the early Christian era was in a region encompassing the area Zerid
West of Bisha in the area of al-Baha and the Asīr highlands (Schiettecatte, Jeremie, 2016, p. 5). 17
This is the region that Kamal Salibi identified as once having been the land of ancient “Israel”,
and Judah.18 In sum, this tradition of Yemenite dispersal appears to be an accounting of the
formation, migration and settlement of tribes whose names sound similar and at times identical
to those of biblical patriarchs associated with early Israelite foundations like “Moses”, “Midian”
and “Jokshan” for good reason.
If the people associated with Moses are said to be “Midianites” or “Keturah's children”
and “Kenites”, it would be unsurprising if there is some connection between the folklore about
the ancient Ghassān peoples and the Midianites of ancient Arabia. In fact, we find these
connections in several elements of the stories.
Significantly, there is reason to believe the name of the Yemenite Ghassan can be
identified not just with the name “Cushan” and “Kishon” or the place or river where they settled,
but with “Kushan” of the book of Habakkuk, who is “Jokshan” in Genesis. As has been noted by
David Goldenberg (2009), Kushan is paralleled with Midian in the Torah. “Midian” is made
synonymous with “Kushan” of Habakkuk 3:7 where it is said, “I saw trouble in the tents of
Kushan and the tent hangings shaking in the l and of Midyan” (Goldenberg, David M., p. 2009,
p. 28).
Goldenberg also wrote:

“scholars have concluded that there is some historical connection between Kush(an) and
Midian.... Kush(an) is the ancient name of Midian, or the name of a tribe that had close
ties to Midian. This identity of the Arabian Kush with Midian is the key to understanding
the passage in Numbers that speaks of Moses' Kushite wife. According to the earlier
biblical narrative, Moses indeed had a wife, Zipporah, who a was a Midianite (Ex 2:21).
When the Bible says, theretofore, that Moses had a Kushite wife, it is referring to the
same Midianite wife Zipporah, but is using the ancient name of her people” (Goldenberg,
David, 2009, p. 28).

17
In the 4th century, another embassy was sent by the Himyarite King Shammar Yuhar'ish to Malik son
of Ka'b king of Asds. Two kings of Asd are thus known by name: al- Harith son of Ka'b and Malik son of
Ka'b.
Also, according to recent research, “The land of Asdān would thus have extended west of Bīsha, in
the south-western heights of Saudi Arabia, straddling the regions of al-Bāḥa and ʿAsīr. Their territory was
probably comparable to that of the tribe of Azd Sarāt on the eve of Islam, stretching from Bīsha to the
Tihāma shores, the southern limit being approximately al-Nimāṣ and the northern one the modern town of
al-Bāḥa (STRENZIOK 1960: 834).” See p. 5 of M. Arbach, and J. Schiettecatte’s, 2016, “The Political
Map of Arabia and the Middle East in the Third Century AD Revealed by a Sabaean Inscription” ,
Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, 2: 176-196.
18
It is also the area where archaeologists like Anati and Khan found iconographic evidence of what to
some have appeared to be different groups of African-affiliated people represented in rock art.
 Ibn Mudjawir said that the southern or Yemenite Tihama was called “Kush” (Kus) in his
time. Kush was an early name of the Yemenite region that included Zebid and Rema'a.19
Ghasan, whose name may be related to the Kushan” or “Jokshan” and “Kishon” was born in this
same area. Currently, the people of the ‘Amran tribe in the same region also refer to their land as
Kush. As Anton Schoors writes:

The Al-’Amran tribe gives the name Cush to the region of Zabid (Yemen). Thus, it would
be preferable to understand Cush as the territory on both sides of the southern part of
Red Sea (Schoors, Anton,1973, p. 73, fn. 1).

Velikovsky noted the connection of “Amran”, brother of Muzaikiyya, with “Aaron”,

brother of Moses in the Torah/Bible. Tabari also identifies Moses' father as “Amran” (who is
otherwise the “Amram” of western translations).
According to Brian Ulrich (2008), the 9th century Al-Hamdānī also mentioned the brother
of “Amr Musaikiyya” - “Amran” or “Imran” - as a “kahin” who warned the people and “who
possessed knowledge of the religion of Sulayman...” (Ulrich, 2008b, p. 312). It was
Imran/Amran who urged his brother to marry the kahina, “Turayfah al-Khair” (or “Zarifah”-
“Zipphora”) “who was the inheritor of his knowledge” and who was “of the people of Radaman
from Himyar” (p. 313).20 He also mentions a territory of Amran in the Jawf region of Yemen in
Al-Iklil 8, 110.21
Sabaean inscriptions mention “Benu-Marthad” and “al-Murithad” whom Lecker
mentions as a Jewish tribe, that is associated with the tribe of Amran (Lecker, Michael, 1993,
p. ; Margoliouth , D. S., 2004, p. 480) 22 Interestingly, al-Hamdani mentions Dhu’l Murathid as a
Himyarite that belonged to the family of Bilqis in Al-Iklil 8, 182.
19
See also Goldenberg, David, 2017, Black and Slave, p. 8, fn. 13 -” Ibn al-Mujāwir's Tärikh al-
Mustabsir, Kush is identified with southwest Arabia (Tihama); see A Traveller in Thirteenth-Century
Arabia: Ibn al-Mujāwir's Tärikh al-Mustabsir, ed. and trans. by G. Rex Smith (London, 2008), p. 109.”
See also Retso, 2003, p. 231, n. 5.
20
The tribe of Radman blonging to the Quran/Khuran branch of Madhhij and living in Arhab is
mentioned in South Arabian inscriptions. See Koroyatev's Pre-Islamic Yemen, 1996, pp. 12, 175 and 200.
Some texts say the Raduman tribe was a clan of Maddhij through Murad, from Kahlan “brother of
Himyar”.
21
Nabih Amin Faris’ translation of 8th Book of al-Hamdan’is al-Iklil is used for this text. See The
Antiquities of South Arabia, 1981 Edition, Hyperion Press.
22
Al-Hamdani says dhu Murathid’s family belonged to that of Bilqis and that the dhu Tha’laban
(Tha’laba) were descended from them. Bilqis, was daughter of Ili Sharha who lived in Solomon’s time.
(Al-Iklil 8, 180 and 182.) In Gen. 10:26 “Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah”.
Yaqut, Vol. iii, p. 366 speaks of a Dhu’l Marathid. Interestingly, it is the name of Marthad or Marathid
that was sometimes translated by Orientalist authors perhaps wrongly as “Almodad” or “Muwadad” son
of Joktan of the Genesis book. (See W. F. Prideaux, 1877, “A Sketch of Sabaean Grammar with
Examples of Translation”. Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, 5, p. 222). Marthad was
an ancient South Arabian king name. A plaque in the British Museum, E48461 - also speaks of
Marthadum and a Lord named Yafra ibn Marathid.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx
 The still extant tribe of al-Amran near Zebid is a historically-documented one that has
apparently lived in the region for a considerable period, perhaps since the time of “Amran” and
“Musaikiyya”.

How African was “Canaan”: The Origins of Banu Kinānah

In early medieval Arabic texts the names of “Kush”