# The Northern Ḥeǧâz/Appendix 9

APPENDIX IX
THE CITY OF MADIAN, THE MADIANITES, AND THE MOUNTAIN OF GOD
THE CITY OF MADIAN
Flavius Josephus, Archaeologia (Naber), II, 257, writes that Moses fled to the city of Madiana opposite the Red Sea. This shows that in the first century of our era the city of Madian was commonly known. The old Madianite settlement of Ḥawra near the oasis of al-Bedʻ was not enlarged and fortified by the Nabataeans until about the first century before Christ. Thus we can understand why it is that the older writers are silent about it, although they are well acquainted with the region in which Madian is situated.
​Ptolemy, Geography, VI, 7: 27, records on the northwestern border of Arabia Felix a settlement Madiama, which I identify with Madian.
Eusebius, Onomasticon (Klostermann), p. 124, notes that Madiam, a town called after one of the sons of Abraham by Keturah, is situated beyond Arabia in the south, in the desert of the Saracens to the east of the Red Sea. Eusebius and Jerome (see op. cit., p. 125) locate the city of Madian beyond the border of the province of Arabia, the fixed southern frontier of which would correspond approximately with the northern border of Arabia Felix and the southern foot of the aš-Šera’ range.
According to the Ḳorân, 11: 85; 22: 43; 29:35 f.; 50: 13, the preacher Šuʻejb came to the inhabitants of Madjan or the inhabitants of the woods (ahl al-ajka), and rebuked them for their idolatry and for various social shortcomings. As they would not listen to him, they were struck by a sudden blow, so that they all fell dead in their houses.
Some traditions say (aṭ-Ṭabari, Ta’rîḫ, [De Goeje], Ser. 1, p. 458) that Moses departed from Egypt to Madjan, a distance of nine night, encampments, or, as it was said, about as far as from al-Kûfa to al-Baṣra. Having no food, he lived on the leaves of perennials and journeyed barefooted, so that he reached Madjan with lacerated feet.
Ibn Hišâm, Sîra, (Wüstenfeld), Vol. 1, p. 994, records that after the expedition against the Ǧuḏâm in Ḥesma, Zejd ibn Ḥâreṯa, at the order of Mohammed, made an inroad in the direction of Madjan and returned with numerous prisoners from the harbor situated on the inhabited shore.—The account does not state whether Zejd reached the city of Madjan; but, since reference is made to the harbor in connection with Madjan, we must suppose that Zejd gained possession of the harbor of that place, though, it is true, the latter was situated nearly forty-three kilometers from the city, perhaps near the mouth of the al-Ḳijâl valley. The shore of the Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba is much nearer, scarcely twenty-five kilometers distant from the city, but the journey thither is difficult whether by land or sea. The sea passage is dangerous on account of the rocks restricting access from the Red Sea into the gulf, in which there is neither safe landing place nor anchorage. Ptolemy, Geography, VI, 7: 2, refers to the harbor of Madian south of the city of Madian and thus beyond the Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba.
Ibn Ḫordâḏbeh, Masâlik (De Goeje), p. 129, and Ibn Roste, Aʻlâḳ (De Goeje), p. 177, mention among the districts belonging to the city of al-Medîna the areas of al-Furʻ, Ḏu-l-Marwa, Wâdi al-Ḳura’, Madjan, and Ḫajbar.
At the time of al-Jaʻḳûbi (Buldân [De Goeje], p. 341) there were living in the ancient town of Madjan people of various tribes, who cultivated gardens and date palms irrigated by numerous wells and streams with fairly good water.
Al-Hamdâni, Ṣifa (Müller), p. 129, refers to Madjan in the territory of the Ǧuḏâm tribe.
Al-Muḳaddasi, Aḥsan (De Goeje), p. 155, does not reckon Madjan among the districts of al-Medîna but assigns it to the Syrian district of aš-Šera’ with the principal city of Ṣoṛar, to which belong also Moab, ar-Rabba, Maʻân, Tebûk, Aḏruḥ, Wajla (Ajla). Elsewhere (ibid., p. 178) he states that Madjan actually forms the borderland of the Ḥeǧâz, as all ​the places enclosed by the sea belong to the peninsula of Arabia. In his time they exhibited a stone at Madjan, which Moses lifted when he wished to water the flocks of sheep and goats belonging to Šuʻejb. Plenty of water was found there. The inhabitants used Syrian weights and measures.—Thus, according to al-Muḳaddasi, the district of aš-Šera’ extended from the stream of al-Môǧeb, the northern frontier of Moab, in the north, to south of Tebûk. The effect of incorporating Tebûk and Madjan in the administrative district of Syria was that both places were regarded as part of Syria. The northern frontier of the Ḥeǧâz was thus often changed, the determining criterion sometimes being the natural and sometimes the administrative border.
Al-Bekri, Muʻǧam (Wüstenfeld), p. 516, assigns to Syria the settlement of Madjan on the highroad leading to Gaza. It is said that the Prophet despatched an expedition against Madjan, which was led by Zejd ibn Ḥâreṯa. Zejd returned with numerous prisoners from the harbor (mîna)—for according to Ibn Isḥâḳ mîna denotes shore.
According to Ibn ʻAbbâs (al-Bekri, op. cit., p. 135; see az-Zabîdi, Tâǧ al-ʻarûs [Bûlâḳ, 1307—1308 A. H.], Vol. 7, pp. 104 f.; Ibn Manẓûr, Lisân al-ʻArab [Bûlâḳ, 1300—1307 A. H.], Vol. 12, pp. 274 f.) the woods of al-Ajka mentioned in the Ḳorân, in which the kinsmen of Šuʻejb encamped, extended either between Madjan, Šaṛab, and Bada’ or between Madjan and the shore. It was formed of low, luxuriant dûm palms.
Down to the present day the whole valley between al-Bedʻ and the sea is covered with thickets, from which project numerous dûm palms. But the road from Madjan to Bada’ also leads through several oases which are well watered and thus well provided with vegetation; formerly these also belonged to the people of Madjan. There is an interesting statement (Ibn Manẓûr, Lisân al-ʻArab, loc. cit.) to the effect that the word al-Ajka means thicket and Lajka a neighboring settlement. Lajka recalls the Greek leuke (λευχή), meaning white; and the part of the ruins of Madian bordering on the thickets is still called Ḥawra, which also means white.
Al-Idrîsi, Nuzha, III, 5, following al-Balḫi, states that the distance between the towns of Madjan and Ajla was five days’ march and between Madjan and Tebûk, situated to the eastward, six days’ march. In his time (1154 A. D.) the town of Madjan was greater than Tebûk; a well was exhibited there from which Moses watered the cattle.—According to this, it appears that there were two highroads which crossed at Madjan, the first running from Palestine and Egypt by way of Ajla along the seashore southward with branch roads to al-Medîna and Mecca, and the second running eastward to Tebûk and thence to Tejma, or al-Ḥeǧr.—From Madjan to Ajla is about 125, and to Tebûk about 140 kilometers, so that al-Balḫi gives distances both as traversed by trade caravans and by travelers proceeding at a slow pace.
Jâḳût, Muʻǧam (Wüstenfeld), Vol. 4, p. 451, records various reports about Madjan. He writes that according to Abu Zejd al-Balḫi (died 931 A. D.) Madjan is situated by the Ḳolzum Sea opposite Tebûk, at a distance of six days’ march. It is larger than Tebûk and contains a well from which Moses watered the flocks of Šuʻejb. Al-Balḫi himself inspected this well, above which a house had been built. The inhabitants of Madjan obtained water from the well. Madjan originally was the name of the ​tribe to which belonged Šuʻejb’s fellow countrymen, who asserted that they were descended from Madjan, the son of Abraham. Muḥammed ibn Salâma ibn Ǧaʻfar al-Ḳuḍâʻi (died 1062 A. D.) reckoned Madjan with its environs among the districts of southern Egypt. Muḥammed ibn Mûsa al-Ḥâzimi (died 1188 A. D.) said that Madjan was situated between Wâdi al-Ḳura’ and Syria. The poet Kuṯejjer mentions the monks in Madjan.
Al-Ḳazwîni, ʻAǧa’ib (Wüstenfeld), Vol. 2, p. 173, calls the town of Madjan the trade center for Tebûk between al-Medîna and Syria. It contained a well from which Moses watered Šuʻejb’s sheep. He was told that this well had been covered and a house built above it, to which the pilgrims used to go.—According to this report it appears that the trade caravans proceed along the road by the sea, and the inhabitants of the town of Tebûk obtained their supplies in Madjan, situated on the second highroad mentioned by al-Idrîsi (loc. cit.).
Author:Al-Maqrizi|Aḥmed al-Maḳrîzi]] made two pilgrimages to Mecca and thus visited Madjan. In the work entitled al-Mawâʻiẓ (Codex Vindobonensis, No. 908 [A. F. 69], Vol. 1, fol. 10 v., 36 v., 134 v.; Wiet’s edit., Vol. 1, p. 311) he includes in the Egyptian province of al-Ḳible the following districts of the Ḥeǧâz: aṭ-Ṭûr, Fârân, Ajla, Madjan, al-ʻUwajnid, al-Ḥawra, Bada’, and Šaṛab. According to him the settlement of Madjan is situated by the Gulf of Ḳolzum, five days’ march from Ajla. It affords its inhabitants only a modest livelihood, and trade does not prosper. Various strange memorials and huge buildings were exhibited there.—
It is interesting that even the districts of aṭ-Ṭûr and Fârân, though situated on the peninsula of Sinai, are here officially reckoned with the Ḥeǧâz. Fârân is identical with the town of Târân referred to on page 61 of Wiet’s edition; Târân is here an error, the correct spelling being Medîne Fârân, inasmuch as the island of Târân is out of the question. In the Codex Vindobonensis, fol. 10 v., occurs a passage to the effect that the town of Fârân is situated between the towns of al-Ḳolzum and Ajla. Equally incorrect is the spelling in Wiet’s edition al-ʻAwnîd for al-ʻUwajnid, as is shown by a note in the manuscript L 3 (in the library of the University of Leiden, sig. 828; see note 21 in Wiet’s edition, Vol. 1, p. 311) where the first consonant is provided with the vowel u, indicating a diminutive; furthermore, the natives say al-ʻUwejned or ʻWejned.
At the beginning of the fifteenth century, therefore, the once renowned town of Madian survived merely as a wretched settlement. The huge buildings which al-Maḳrîzi mentions are perhaps the Nabataean burial places cut out from the surrounding rocks.
Ḥaǧǧi Ḫalfa, Ǧihân numa’ (Constantinople, 1145 A. H.), p. 525, describes Madjan as ruined town on the shore, situated six days’ march to the west of Tebûk. Not far away the people exhibited a rock from which water gushed forth at the command of Moses. Many eṯel and muḳl trees grew there, together with date palms. In the valley there were ruined walls and also stone slabs, upon which were cut the names of various kings.—
The statement about the rock from which water gushed forth at the command of Moses is of late origin, for in the earlier centuries this rock had been exhibited near Petra. The boulder in question is situated to the west of the burial place, but no water flows from it or near it. The stone slabs with the inscriptions on them referred to by Ḥaǧǧi Ḫalfa ​are possibly the smoothly cut rocky walls of the separate graves, upon which here and there the remains of Nabataean inscriptions are visible. It is perhaps possible, however, that at the time of Ḥaǧǧi Ḫalfa there were actually exhibited at Madian stone slabs with ancient inscriptions covering the separate tombs. The present natives have no knowledge of such slabs and are not aware of any place which contained stones and inscriptions.
The halting place of al-Bedʻ is called Moṛâjer Šuʻejb, because the Prophet Šuʻejb is said to have lived there in caves, in one of which he worshiped God upon a large, flat stone. Somebody who had been there explained to ʻAbdalṛani that he noticed a pleasant fragrance, which led him to a cave where he found a coffin with a corpse swathed in linen. The corpse emitted a pleasant odor and radiated a luster which aroused reverence (ʻAbdalṛani an-Nâbulusi [1698], Ḥaḳîḳa, Codex Vindobonensis, No. 1269 [Mxt. 712], Vol. 2, fol. 12 v.).
THE TRIBE OF MADIAN
In the environs of the oasis of al-Bedʻ I locate the settlements of the tribe of Madian. According to the Bible the Madianites belonged to the descendants of Abraham by Keturah. Reference to these descendants is also made in the Assyrian records, but there are not enough particulars given in these records to enable us precisely to fix the limits of the area they occupied in the south and east. The Assyrian and Biblical records place their camps and settlements to the south and southwest of Maʻôn (Maʻân) as well as to the east and southeast of the Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba. The southernmost of their settlements hitherto known was the oasis of Dedan, or the modern al-ʻEla’. Their main group, those known as Madianites, were encamped in the region of Ḥesma and in the neighboring territories; that is to say, where the classical writers also located the Madianites.
There is an interesting remark in Genesis, 25: 6, that the descendants of Abraham by Keturah during Abraham’s lifetime went “eastward into the land of Ḳedem (eastern land).” As Abraha and Isaac dwelt in southern Palestine and in the northern part of the Sinai peninsula, the descendants in question left the Sinai peninsula and went “eastward into the eastern land.” This phrase is still used by the present-day camel breeders. Among the Bedouins šerḳ denotes the interior of the desert as well as the east. If at the end of August they leave the border of the inhabited territory, “they go eastward into the eastern land, šarraḳaw,” irrespective of the direction they take. If the Rwala go “eastward into the eastern land,” they usually proceed in a southerly or southeasterly direction; while the ʻAmârât, camping westward of Babylon, go “eastward into the eastern land” but in reality make their way to the west. Similarly the Hebrew ḳedem must not always be translated by the word “east,” because it frequently denotes also the interior of the desert. Thus the meaning of Genesis, 25: 6, is that the descendants of Abraham by Keturah left the Sinai peninsula and proceeded into the interior of the desert, ḳedem. We cannot seek their camps and settlements west of the rift valley of al-ʻAraba.
The Bible refers to Madianites in two regions completely separated and at some distance from each other. The first one may be defined fairly closely. It is situated to the east and northeast of the Dead Sea. ​Although the position of the second cannot certainly be recognized from the Biblical account, it undoubtedly must be placed to the south and southeast of Edom, to which region Assyrian and classical indications point.
Genesis, 37: 25, relates that Ishmaelite merchants came from Gilead on camels, bringing various fragrant spices to Egypt, and arrived at the well into which the sons of Jacob had cast their brother Joseph. According to Genesis, 37: 28, the Madianite merchants drew him out, bought him, and took him to Egypt. The names Madianite and Ishmaelite would here seem to be used interchangeably. The trade caravan bearing fragrant spices to Egypt had perhaps branched off through Gilead from the main transport route leading from southern Arabia to Phoenicia and Damascus. It is impossible therefore to say with certainty that it proceeded from Gilead and that the Madianites encamped there. If the trade caravan had branched off from the transport route connecting the south with the north, there might have been both Ishmaelites and Madianites in it. Whether the fragrant spices belonged to these Madianite and Ishmaelite merchants or to a south Arabian wholesale trader, the Bible does not say. We do not know what fragrant spices are here meant, for the Ishmaelites and Madianites could have collected fragrant resin from terebinth and various species of acacia, which likewise were sold and still are sold in Egypt. Instead of Madianite merchants, we might have expected Sabaeans or else Maʻônites, or Meʻûnites (to give the variant form of the name of the inhabitants of the south Arabian halting place of Maʻôn). It is impossible to say precisely whence these Madianites came, whether from the region to the northeast of the Dead Sea or from that to the south of Edom, since they might have rented their camels to the caravans in whichever region they were encamped.
In Numbers, 22: 4, 7, it is stated that the elders of the Madianites made an agreement in northern Moab with the king of Moab against Moses and the Israelites. According to Numbers, 25: 17 f., the latter are urged to wage war upon the former, because the daughters of Madian led the Israelites astray at Sittîm by Jordan.
By the orders of Moses (Num., 31: 1—12) the Israelites made an expedition against the Madianites, killed four of their kings, captured their beasts of burden and their flocks as booty, and set fire to all the settlements in their territory and all their encampments.
According to Joshua, 13: 21, these kings of the Madianites dwelt in the land of Sihon, king of Heshbon.—Sihon of Heshbon was not a Moabite but a foreigner who had deprived the Moabites of their territory north of the Arnon and had settled in the town of Heshbon. It is hence possible and extremely probable that the Madianites accompanied him from his original country and encamped in the land which they helped him to obtain. Nowhere is it stated that they dwelt in towns and settlements or that they were engaged in agriculture or handicrafts. The towns which they owned were settlements paying them tribute, and the inhabitants tilled the soil for them in return for one-half or two-thirds of the total yield.
The Israelites under Moses defeated the Madianites but did not destroy them, for in Judges, 6, there is an account of the fresh sufferings which the Israelites endured from the Madianites. The Madianites allied themselves with the Amalekites and the Bene Ḳedem and came with ​their camels into the Promised Land, ravaging the fields and gardens, plundering the sheep, cattle, and asses throughout the country as far as Gaza. According to Judges, 6: 33, the Madianites came across the Jordan; and according to 7: 24, they fled back across that stream.
In Judges, 8: 10 ff., it is related how two chiefs of the Madianites, during their retreat eastward, came from Jordan to Ḳarḳor and how Gideon pursued them with his men on the “Road of the Nomads” eastward from Nobaḥ and Jogbeha. Having taken their camp by surprise, Gideon captured the two chiefs, scattered their troops, and (Judg., 8: 13) returned home again by the Ascent of Ḥeres.
This account clearly indicates that it was not only the Madianites who harassed the Israelites but that the chiefs of the Madianites were leaders of various Bedouin tribes, for Bene Ḳedem was a current expression for camel breeders. When, therefore, these allied tribes ravaged and plundered the Promised Land as far as Gaza, it was easy for the Amalekites to join them.
The Madianites and the Bene Ḳedem, to whom, according to the Bible, belonged various Ishmaelite tribes encamped to the east of Moab and Ammon, came from the east across the Jordan and fled to the east. Gideon pursued them upon the “Road of the Nomads.” If a similar occurrence were narrated at the present time, I should not hesitate to define this “Road of the Nomads.” The territory of an-Nuḳra extends from Damascus as far as the ancient Jabbok, the present stream of az-Zerḳa. To the east it is bordered by the Ḥawrân mountain range and volcanic territory which is very difficult of access. To the east of Damascus, between this volcanic territory and the chain of mountains extending from the Antilebanon to the Euphrates, there remains a passage, in places only six hundred meters broad, through which it is possible to pass easily from the desert to the territory of an-Nuḳra. A similar ntural gateway affords an opening southeast of Ḏerʻât between the southeastern spurs of the Ḥawrân and the broken hills in which az-Zerḳa has its source. Through these two gateways the camel breeders enter the territory of an-Nuḳra from the desert at the end of June, and through them at the end of August they return to their desert. The roads leading through these gateways (see Jâḳût, Muʻǧam [Wüstenfeld], Vol. 2, p. 46; Vol. 4, p. 669) used to be and still are called the “Roads of the Nomads.” We may therefore locate the Road of the Nomads referred to in Judges, 8: 11, southeast of Ḏerʻât, to which country the settlements of Nobaḥ and Jogbeha also point. The defeated chiefs of the Madianites together with their allies, the Bene Ḳedem, certainly fled along the road leading into the depression of Sirḥân, in which they found both pasturage and water. Knowing that Gideon was pursuing them, they fled a considerable distance and encamped by Karkor (which I identify with the modern Ḳarḳar or Ḳerâḳer), at the junction of important routes. Here they supposed that they had gone far enough and that Gideon would not follow them.
The wells of Ḳerâḳer are situated in a capacious basin surrounded by almost impassable limestone hills, from which only a single, convenient, but not very broad, outlet, leads to the depression of Sirḥân. Gideon, on coming up, stationed some of his men at this outlet, while with the others he climbed the hills surrounding the basin, took the camp by ​surprise, and defeated the enemy. He pursued them as far as the Ascent of Ḥeres (which I locate at Darb al-Mneḳḳa), whence he returned. Gideon’s companions took from the enemy many gold rings and other ornaments,
The victory of Gideon over the Madianites is recalled in Isaiah, 9: 3—4 and in Psalms, 83: 9—10.
Concerning the battles of the Madianites with the Moabites on the Moabite plain there is a reference also in Genesis, 36: 35.
It is difficult to determine who the Madianites were whom the Bible mentions as abiding to the east and northeast of the Dead Sea. In Genesis, 37: 25, 28, the names Madianite and Ishmaelite are used interchangeably, and there is a similar confusion in Judges, 8: 24. From this it would seem that the Madianite clans may have joined the Ishmaelite clans and encamped by the latter’s camping grounds to the east of Moab and Ammon. We do not know where these Madianite clans came from, but we may suppose that they had migrated from the land of Madian along the great transport route running from south to north. They rented their camels to the southern Arabian traders, who also hired camels from the Ishmaelites, the northern neighbors of the Madianites; thus they became acquainted and in common they harassed both the Moabites and the Israelites.
THE LAND OF MADIAN
Where was the land of Madian situated? The Bible refers to it for in Exodus, 2: 15, it is recorded that Moses sought a refuge from Pharaoh in the land of Madian, where he rested by a well at which the daughters of the priest of Madian were watering their flocks.
We cannot, however, after the manner of the Bible, give the name of the land of Madian to the region in which some Madianite clan was encamped only from time to time or temporarily, but should apply it to the land which formed, as it were, the headquarters of this tribe and which had belonged to it from a very early period.
According to the Biblical account, Moses, fostered by the daughter of Pharaoh, committed high treason by murdering an Egyptian official and thus setting an example of revolt to the immigrant Israelites. Knowing that he was threatened with death, he had to flee not only from Egypt proper but also from the bordering territory, to which Egyptian influence extended.
If we acknowledge that the story of Moses has an historical foundation we must suppose that Moses fled from Egypt somewhere about the beginning of the fifteenth century before Christ. At that time the whole of Palestine and a large part of Syria belonged to Egypt. Egyptian garrisons guarded the important transport routes on the peninsula of Sinai, and the chiefs of all tribes encamped upon this peninsula had to obey the Egyptian commanders and officials if they wished to barter, sell, or buy anything in Egypt or in southern Palestine. If a political culprit were to settle down among them, this would soon be discovered by the commander of the nearest frontier garrison, who would order the guilty man to be brought immediately before him, if the garrison themselves did not wish to incur punishment. So it was at that time and so it is still done today.
​In 1910 I found two men on the southern border of the aš-Šera’ range. One was from al-ʻAriš, where he had robbed an Egyptian soldier; the other from Ḳalʻat an-Naḫl, where he had severely wounded another Egyptian soldier. Both of them were in fear of the English commanders of the respective garrisons and had fled to the nomads on the Sinai peninsula, first of all to the Tijâha, then to the Terâbîn and ʻAzzâzme, and finally to the Ḥêwât; but with no chief could they remain longer than three days and a third, the length of time accorded to the guest by the law of hospitality, for each chief excused himself for not being able to protect them any longer, saying that if he did so, the English officers would be angry with him and his tribe and would hinder them from trading with Egypt and Egyptian merchants. There was nothing left for the two culprits but to seek a refuge to the east of al-ʻAraba, which they crossed at the watering place of Ṛaḍjân.
If Moses wished to save his life, he likewise had to escape beyond the range of Egyptian authority and thus beyond the rift valley of al-ʻAraba. He did not flee alone through the desert; but, as he was disguised, he probably joined some trade caravan, with which he proceeded along the transport route eastward and thus reached the land of Madian. From what has been said, therefore, it is clear that we must locate the land of Madian beyond and to the southeast of al-ʻAraba. In this we are justified by other Biblical reports.
Moses, when guarding the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro, priest of the Madianites, on one occasion (Ex., 3: 1) left the flock, when he came to the mountain of God, Ḥoreb. The mountain of God is hence situated in the desert of the land of Madian.
The daughter of Jethro, the wife of Moses, was a Madianite woman and yet she is also called a Kushite (Num., 12: 1).
In Habakkuk, 3: 7, there is a description of how the tents of Kûšân shook and the tent coverings of the land of Madian trembled.—From this it follows that Habakkuk thought of the Madianites as nomads living in tents near the Kushites. This tallies with the manner in which the Bible speaks of the Madianites, deriving several of their clans both from Abraham by Keturah and also from the descendants of Kush. We may assume that the camping grounds of the Madianites were in the vicinity of the southern Arabian clans, who hailed, according to the Bible, from Kush, and that they were also related to these clans. It is possible that the priest Jethro was also a member of some southern Arabian clan and had settled among the Madianites, who were politically dependent on the rulers of the main trading stations on the transport routes leading through the land of Madian. These rulers and their garrisons belonged to the southern Arabs.
Moses returned from the land of Madian (Ex., 4: 19—20) on the transport route to Egypt, with his wife and sons riding on an ass. He likewise joined some caravan and, according to Exodus, 4: 27, met his brother Aaron by the mountain of God. Moses also led the Israelites into the land of Madian, knowing that they would find a safe refuge there.
When setting out on the journey to the Promised Land, Moses asked Ḥobab (Num., 10: 29f.), the son of Raʻuêl, a Madianite, to guide the Israelites, but Ḥobab was unwilling to do so. He wished to return home to his kindred.
​All these passages show that the land of Madian must be located beyond the rift valley of al-ʻAraba and preferably to the east and southeast of the present settlement of al-ʻAḳaba at the former harbor of Ajla (Elath), for thither passed the important transport routes guarded by the southern Arabian garrison, whose headquarters were the settlements of Dedan (al-ʻEla’) and Maʻôn (Maʻân).
That this is the true situation of Madian is attested by 1 Kings, 11: 18, where it is narrated that the guardians of Ḥadad, the prince of Edom, fled before Joab from Madian to Pârân, where they took people with them to guide and protect them, and then proceeded to Egypt (see above, p. 276). Whether Madian denotes the territory of the tribe or the settlement, we cannot locate it elsewhere than to the south or southeast of Edom. The southern border of Edom is formed by the southern ridge of aš-Šera’, or the ancient Seʻîr. Thence Joab was spreading havoc northward with his army. The servants, wishing to save Ḥadad, did not flee with him either to the northeast or east of Edom but only to the south, for they knew that thence alone could they reach Egypt in the quickest and safest manner by the route rounding the Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba. They therefore endeavored to reach that route and, hiring guides at Pârân (which I identify either with Êl Pârân (Elath) or with the rift valley in which this settlement is situated), hastened with them to Egypt. These considerations show that the Madianites must be located to the east, or rather to the southeast, of Pârân (Elath), for at any distance north of Elath the servants could not have crossed al-ʻAraba, if they did not I wish to fall into the hands of Joab’s soldiers.
THE MADIANITE CLANS OF BIBLICAL AND ASSYRIAN RECORDS
The Biblical and Assyrian accounts of the various Madianite clans, or at least of those related to the Madianites, point to their habitat to the south of Edom (Seʻîr).
Genesis, 25: 1–2, mentions among the descendants of Abraham by Keturah the names of Zimran, Joḳšan, Medan, Madian, Jišbaḳ, and Šûaḥ. According to verse 3 of this chapter, the descendants of Joḳšan are Šeba’ and Dedan. From the latter are descended Aššûrîm, Leṭûšîm, and Le’ummîm. In verse 4 it is stated that the sons of Madian are ʻÊfa’, ʻEfer, Ḥanok, Abîdaʻ, and Eldaʻa. Genesis, 10: 7, mentions Šeba’ and Dedan also among the descendants of Kush, and in Genesis, 10: 28–29, Šeba’ is mentioned, together with Ḥawîla, among the Semitic sons of Joḳṭan. From these statements we may suppose that Dedan and Šeba’ were in touch not only with Kushite Eastern Africa—or the modern Somaliland, Abyssinia, and the northern Sûdân—but also with northwestern Arabia and southern Syria, where Abraham’s kindred dwelt; and it may further be assumed that Šeba’ exerted a considerable influence also in the interior of Arabia: the ancient Ḥawîla or the modern Neǧd.
This view is frequently corroborated both by the Biblical and the Assyrian accounts. In the second half of the eighth century before Christ the Assyrian kings endeavored to extend their sway to the great trade route leading through western Arabia from south to north towards Egypt, Damascus, and the Phoenician harbor towns. Tiglath Pileser IV subjugated the extensive surroundings of the modern Ḥawrân, encroached also farther ​to the south, and in 733 B. C. his Annals (Layard, Inscriptions, pls. 66, 72 b; Rost, Keilschrifttexte, Vol. 2, pls. 23, 18), lines 218—226, 240 (see also Rost, op. cit., Vol. 1, pp. 36, 38, 40, 70), record that from the tribe of Mas’a, the city of Têma, and the tribes of Saba, Ḫajappa, Badana, Ḫatti, and Idiba’il dwelling in the regions of the lands of the west in distant settlements, he received as tribute gold, silver, male and female camels, and spices of various kinds. He appointed Idibi’il of the land of Arubu as resident (kêpu) to keep him informed about Egypt. He separated fifteen settlements in the neighborhood of Askalon from the land of Askalon and gave them to Idibi’il.
In this account we meet with names which are familiar to us also from the Bible. The tribe Mas’a is probably identical with the Biblical tribe Massa (Gen., 25: 13—14). According to various reports this tribe had its encampments to the east or southeast of Moab and did not belong to the tribes of the Madianites but to the Ishmaelites.
By the town of Têma the Assyrian annals mean the oasis of Tejma, which, according to the Bible (Gen., 25: 13 f.; Septuagint, 25: 3), belonged either to the Ishmaelite clans or else to the descendants of Abraham by Keturah. The inhabitants of Tejma were engaged in trading by caravan (Job, 6: 19), and they therefore had to send gifts to Tiglath Pileser IV, who had control of the trade route leading to the Mediterranean harbors.
Šeba’ or Saba: the Sabaeans
The Saba are identical with the Biblical Šeba’, whose caravans together with the caravans of Tejma are referred to in Job, 6: 19. This tribe must therefore be located near the oasis of Tejma. To the west of Tejma the great transport route leads from southern Arabia to Syria and Egypt. This route was at times in the possession of the Sabaeans and at times in that of their kinsmen the Minaeans, who shared with them the supremacy in southwestern Arabia and thus also the predominance in the regions through which their caravans journeyed. In all the oases on this great transport route the rulers of southwestern Arabia had their garrisons and trading centers. These posts were a source of gain to the native settlers and tribes camping in the vicinity, to whom they supplied both clothing and food and over whom they exercised some sort of supremacy. As the home of these important traders was in southwestern Arabia, whence they had frequent relations with Kushite Africa, many Kushites settled among them; thus the Bible is able to attribute both them and their settlements on the route in northwestern Arabia partly to the descendants of Abraham by Keturah and partly to the descendants of Kush. I regard their colonies in northwestern Arabia as having been Dajdân, or the Biblical Dedan near the modern oasis of al-ʻEla’, and also the oasis of Maʻôn, or the modern Maʻân.
The center of the authority of the Sabaeans in northwestern Arabia was the oasis of Dajdân, and it is there that I locate the headquarters of their governor, kebîr, Chief It’amara of the land of Saba, who before 707 B. C. sent his tribute to King Sargon II (Great inscription of Khorsabad [Botta and Flandin, Monument, Vol. 4, pl. 145$_2$, line 3; Winckler, Die Keilschrifttexte Sargon’s, Vol. 2, pl. 65, line 27; see also Winckler, ​op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 100; Peiser in: Schrader, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, Vol. 2, p. 54]).
Settled as they were in oases and carrying trade by caravans (Job, 6: 19), the Sabaeans were also engaged in breeding camels, goats, and sheep, and it was urgently necessary for them to camp in tents, at least from time to time. Both their flocks and their caravans were now and then attacked by remoter tribes and clans, and therefore they too, like all the inhabitants of the oases, were fond of setting out on warlike, plundering expeditions, partly to punish the troublesome tribes, partly also to satisfy their longing for adventures and to provide themselves with camels and other animals. There is an account of such a plundering expedition in Job, 1: 14–15. This narrative is entirely probable and shows not only that the writer was well acquainted with the habits and customs of the Sabaeans but also that we should locate the residence of Job near some Sabaean oasis and thus to the southeast of the Dead Sea, where their caravans passed.
Other Biblical writers refer to the tribe of Saba only as traders. Ezekiel, 27: 22, records that the traders from Saba and Raʻama conveyed the best balsam, various precious stones, and gold to the market at Tyre.
According to Joel, 4: 8, the Jews sold slaves to the Saba nation, dwelling afar off. Ezekiel, 38: 13, refers to the trade relations between the Saba and the merchants from Tarshish. Isaiah, 60: 6, promises that young camels shall come to Zion from Madian and ʻÊfa’ bearing gold and incense of the Saba traders. From this reference it is clear that the great transport route from Saba proper, or southwestern Arabia, passed through the territory of the tribes of Madian and ʻÊfa; for otherwise the latter could not have participated in the trade of Saba. This shows that the camping places of the tribes of Madian and ʻÊfa must be located somewhere near the oasis of Tejma. As the inhospitable desert of the Nefûd, through which no great transport route led, extends to the east of the oasis of Tejma, it must further be supposed that these camping places were situated to the west of the oasis and thus in the territory through which the great transport route of Saba actually passed.
Ḫajappa or ʻÊfa’
Friedrich Delitzsch, Wo lag das Paradies?, Leipzig, 1881, p. 304, identified the Ḫajappa tribe of the Assyrian annals quite accurately with the Biblical tribe of ʻÊfa (Septuagint: Gafa(r) or Gajfa(r) of Isaiah, 60: 6). This tribe belonged to the descendants of Abraham who were the kinsmen of Saba and formed the first clan of the tribe of Madian (Gen., 25: 4). There is a reference to this kinship also in Isaiah, 60: 6. The name ʻÊfa has still been preserved in the ruin of the ancient temple of Ṛwâfa, as this name is pronounced by some clans of the Beni ʻAṭijje, although others, as well as all the Ḥwêṭât at-Tihama, say Rwâfa. The interchange of ṛ and ʻ with r is fairly frequent. Ṣadaṛ is said instead of ṣadar, azṛaḳ instead of azraḳ (azṛaḳ al-ʻajnên), šarrâṯa instead of šaʻʻâṯa, taḳanṭaʻ instead of taḳanṭar, etc. If the modern pronounciation Ṛwâfa is correct, we may conclude that the ʻÊfa tribe had its camping grounds in the territory of Ḥesma. It is impossible to identify ʻÊfa with Ṛajfe (Jâḳût, Muʻǧam ​[Wüstenfeld], Vol. 3, p. 829). This Rajfe is situated not far from Bilbejs in Egypt, and in the year 733 B. C. the authority of Tiglath Pileser IV did not extend at all to the southwest of the town of Gaza. There is not a single Biblical or Assyrian record which would imply with certainty that any of the tribes of Madian pitched their tents on the Sinai peninsula in the first half of the first millennium before Christ.
Badana
The tribe of Badana is not referred to elsewhere. The name itself recalls the tribe of Bdûn, or Mdûn, whose camps are found in the highest mountains of the Ḥeǧâz to the southeast of the oasis of al-ʻEla’, or the former Dajdân. The surrounding tribes assert that these folk are of very ancient origin and are related to nobody. A clan of Bdûn, or Mdûn, dwells near Petra.
The name Badana is very similar to Badanatha (Pliny, Nat. hist., VI, 157), but the reading Badanatha is not certain. There is better authority for the form Baclanaza (in Detlefsen’s edition of the Naturalis historia, loc. cit). If the reading Badanatha were certain, we might surmise the inhabitants of the oasis of Bada’, which is to the west of al-ʻEla’ (Dajdân) and is mentioned also by Ptolemy, Geography, VI, 7: 30, as Badais, and by Stephen of Byzantium, Ethnica (Meineke), p. 155, as Badeos. In the whole territory of former Madian there are no ruins of a place called Beden, with which Badana was identified by F. P. Dhorme, Les pays bibliques et lʻAssyrie, p. 196. Beden is an incorrect transcription of Bedʻ, as the classical oasis of Madiama (Madian) is now called, and this cannot at the same time be identical with the classical oasis of Badanatha.
The Assyrian name Badana is somewhat like the Hebrew Madan, as it is vocalized in the Septuagint version of Genesis, 25: 2. At the beginning of a word b is often interchanged with m. According to the Bible, Madan is related to the Madianites just as is ʻÊfa’, the Assyrian Ḫajappa. The Assyrian record unites the last-named with Badana, thus justifying us in assigning Madan or Badana to the Biblical tribe of ʻÊfa’ and in locating its camping place near the oasis of Tejma: that is to the southeast of the present settlement of al-ʻAḳaba, or the ancient Elath.
The southern Arabian inscriptions likewise record a settlement of Madan in northwestern Arabia (Glaser’s inscriptions [collated by Adolf Grohmann], National-Bibliothek, Vienna, No. 1238).
Ḫatti
I place the tribe of Ḫatti in the immediate vicinity of ancient Edom upon the basis of Genesis, 26: 34; 36: 2, where reference is made to the kinship of the Edomites with the Ḫatti. It seems that the Ḫatti, who in 710 B. C. stirred up strife at Asdod against the Assyrians (Great Inscription of Khorsabad [Botta and Flandin, op. cit., Vol. 4, pl. 149, line 10; Winckler, op. cit., Vol. 2, pl. 70], lines 95 f.; see also Winckler, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 115; Peiser in: Schrader, op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 64), likewise belonged to the same tribe. There is no reason for identifying these two Ḫatti, mentioned in the Bible and the Assyrian sources as dwelling or camping ​to the south of Palestine, with the Ḫittites rather than with the Arab clan of the Ḫatti.
Idiba’il or Adbe’êl
The tribe of Idiba’il and the Kêpu Idibi’il, to whom Tiglath Pileser IV assigned fifteen settlements in the territory of Askalon, are certainly the same. Idiba’il, or Idibi’il, was probably the name of the ruling family, and a tribe subordinate to it might well be designated by its name.
The Assyrian Idiba’il is identical with the Biblical tribe Adbe’êl, which Genesis, 25: 13, includes among the Ishmaelites. Its encampments were near and to the southwest of Gaza, near the actual Egyptian frontier, and it had to report to the great Assyrian king on whatever happened near the frontier.
Tamudi
To cite another Assyrian account, we find that Sargon II narrates (Cylinder Inscription [Rawlinson, Cuneiform Inscriptions, Vol. 1, pl. 36; Lyon, Sargon, p. 4], line 20; see also F. E. Peiser in: Schrader, op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 42) that in 715 B. C. he defeated the tribes of the Tamudi, Ibadidi, Marsimani, and Ḫajappa and settled their survivors in Samaria.
The Tamudi are identical with the classical Thamudeni. Agatharchides, Periplus (Photius’ version [Müller, Geographi, Vol. 1]), p. 179, refers to a stony shore one hundred stades long lying behind the small islands situated near the long gulf of the Red Sea and belonging to the territory of the Thamudenoi Arabs. The same statement, with minor changes, is repeated by Diodorus, Bibliotheca historica, III, 44.
Uranius, Arabica (Müller, Fragmenta, Vol. 4), p. 525, states that Thamuda borders upon the Arabian Nabataeans.
Ptolemy, Geography, VI, 7: 4, mentions the Thamyditai and (op. cit., VI, 7: 21) the Thamydenoi in northwestern Arabia.
According to the inscription the temple at Ṛwâfa, built between the end of the year 166 and the beginning of the year 169 A. D. by the “Thamudenon ethnos” or Thamudenic tribe, the Thamudeni owned the Ḥarrat al-ʻAwêreẓ and the Ḥarrat ar-Ṛha’ in the middle of the second century of our era. Their encampments were thus to the west of the oasis of Tejma near the great trade route leading from southwestern Arabia to Syria and Egypt.
The Moslem tradition asserts (Ḳorân, 7: 71; 26: 141; 54: 28; 91: 13) that the Ṯamûd tribe built rock dwellings in the oasis of al-Ḥeǧr. Ṣâleḥ, the messenger of Allâh, warned them not to be proud of their earthly possessions but to fear Allâh. They did not believe him and wanted him to attest his message by miracle, but, instead of granting them a miracle, Ṣâleḥ admonished them not to grudge their water to Allâh’s camel and not to harm it. The people of Ṯamûd killed the camel at the instigation of a wicked man, and there arose a terrible storm which destroyed them all. This tradition tallies with the classical accounts and with the inscription at Ṛwâfa. The environs of the oasis of al-Ḥeǧr belonged to the people of Ṯamûd, and it is certain that the whole shore also belonged to them, for the tribes encamping on the shore had to acknowledge the ​supremacy of the tribe in whose territory the trade center of al-Ḥeǧr was situated and who ensured their trade relations. We see that the Ṯamûd tribe, which is mentioned in the Assyrian records, encamped in the same territory as the Ḫajappa, or the Biblical ʻÊfa, the name of which, as we have seen, is preserved in that of Ṛwâfa. The Bible makes no reference to the Ṯamûd tribe.
Ibadidi or Abîda
I identify the Ibadidi with the Biblical Abîdaʻ, who, according to Genesis, 25: 4, was descended from Abraham by Keturah. The second half of the word Ibadidi is formed by the name of the deity Dad. In the Bible this name, like similar names, was changed into Daʻ in order that any offence might thus be obviated. The Abîdaʻ, and hence also the Ibadidi, belonged to the Madianite tribes related to the ʻÊfa, and we must locate their camping place by the great trade route to the southeast of Elath (al-ʻAḳaba).
Ibadidi or Marsimani
The Assyrian record refers to a Marsimani tribe, which is not mentioned in the Bible. On the other hand, the classical authors knew of a tribe to the southeast of al-ʻAḳaba, the name of which recalls the Assyrian Marsimani. Agatharchides, Periplus (Photius’ version [Müller, Geographi, Vol. 1]), pp. 177—179, mentions a Batmizomaneis tribe on the shore to the southeast of the mouth of the Laeanitic Gulf or the modern Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba; and Diodorus, Bibliotheca, III, 43 f., records a Banizomaneis tribe in the same region. According to both these authors, the neighbors of this tribe on the southeast are the Thamudenoi, our people of Ṯamûd, a circumstance which justifies us not only in connecting the Ṯamûd of the Assyrian inscription with the classical Thamudenoi, but also the Marsimani with the Banizomaneis, as the name should be transcribed. The Arabic dialects often put z in place of ṣ and interchange b with m. Thus, they say rezâz, Zoṛar, instead of reṣâṣ, Ṣoṛar; and Madḥ, Tereb, Ḥeseb, instead of Badḥ, Terem, Ḥesem. The Assyrian Marsimani may therefore be read Barsimani. Furthermore, Bani and Bar mean the same thing. This view is confirmed also by Ptolemy, op. cit., VI, 7: 21, who mentions a Maisaimaneis tribe in the northwestern part of Arabia Felix in the interior of the country. But his statements, whether they refer to the interior or to the coast, are not accurate in the case of towns and are all the more likely to be erroneous in the case of tribes. Agatharchides and Diodorus locate the Thamudi on the coast, while Ptolemy places them in the interior of the country; nevertheless in the second century they certainly exercised supremacy over the coast. In Ptolemy’s spelling of Maisaimaneis, either an n was omitted between the first a and i or else the first i arose through a faulty transcription from r. At the beginning of words m is commonly interchanged with b. The Aramaic trader, from whom Ptolemy obtained his information about northwestern Arabia, might easily have interchanged the Arabic Bani with the Aramaic Bar. If we admit the identity of the Maisaimaneis and Banizomaneis with the Marsimani of the Assyrian records, we likewise ​arrive at the region west of the oasis of Tejma and west of the great transport route from southern Arabia to Syria and Egypt, and thus at the region where the classical writers locate the oasis of Madiama and where, according to the Bible, we seek the land of Madian.
All four of the tribes mentioned by Sargon II in the year 715 B. C. may be associated with the Biblical tribes of the Madianites. The Ḫajappa, or ʻÊfa, certainly belonged to them; the Ibadidi, or Abîdaʻ, very probably; and we may include the Tamudi and Marsimani likewise, considering their camping places. According to this identification Sargon’s army made an expedition along the trade route southwards, attacked various camps and oases of the tribes mentioned, and settled the captured inhabitants in devastated Samaria. We cannot tell how deeply the army penetrated, but it did not reach either the oasis of Tejma or Dajdân; for, had it done so, the Assyrian annalist would certainly have recorded the fact. The inroad induced the Sabaean It'amara, whom I infer to have been the Sabaean resident at Dajdân, likewise to send gifts to Sargon.
Other Madianite Tribes
Concerning the Zimran and Jišbaḳ tribes, among the descendants of Abraham by Keturah mentioned in Genesis, 25: 2, we have no other accounts either in the Bible or in other ancient records, as far as they have been published.
Joḳšan is perhaps identical with the descendant of Sem called Joḳṭan, from whom the Bible derives the tribes of Central Arabia. Bildad of the tribe of Šûaḥ visited the great sufferer Job (Job, 2: 11; 8: 1; 18: 1; 25: 1; 42: 9). The land of ʻÛṣ, where Job dwelt, I locate in the neighborhood of the modern town of aṭ-Ṭefîle in the northern part of Seʻîr. We may therefore also place Bildad’s home, the camping place of the tribe of Šûaḥ, on the southeastern or southern border of the Seʻîr mountain range, or the ancient Edom, and thus in the area of the Madianite tribes.
Among the descendants of Madian (Gen., 25: 4) we know that the tribe of ʻÊfa’, or the Assyrian Ḫajappa, camped to the west of the oasis of Tejma and near the above-mentioned transport route. The name of the ʻEfer tribe has perhaps been preserved in the name of the valley of al-ʻEfâr, or al-ʻEfâl, which winds through the oasis of Madian, or the modern al-Bedʻ. We have identified the Abîdaʻ with the Assyrian Ibadidi, and we locate their camping place between the Tamudi, to whom the Ḥarrat al-ʻAwêreẓ belonged, and the Marsimani, who were masters of the oases on the coast to the northwest of al-Mwêleḥ. Ḥanok and Eldaʻa are not mentioned anywhere else.
We have already discussed Saba’. Concerning the clans of the Aššûrîm, Leṭûšîm, and Le’ummîm, the kinsmen of Dajdân, we know nothing.
Dedan of Dajdân
To Dedan belonged the oasis of the same name, the modern al-ʻEla’. The latter is situated on the great transport route uniting southwestern Arabia with Syria and Egypt. From this route another great route here branched off along the southern border of the sandy desert of Nefûd to the interior of Arabia, the Persian Gulf, and Babylon. As we know ​from inscriptions which have been preserved in the oasis of Dajdân, the kings of southwestern Arabia held sway over these great transport routes. The population comprised natives and Sabaean emigrants from southern Arabia. This explains why the Bible thus derives Dedan, partly (as in Genesis, 10: 7) from the Kushites of southern Arabia and partly (as Genesis, 25: 1—4) from the Semitic descendants of Abraham by Keturah.
No reference to Dedan has yet been found in the Assyrian inscriptions. It is extremely probable that during the Assyrian period the oasis of Dajdân was completely subordinate to the Sabaean kings and that where the Assyrian records speak of Saba they mean the Sabaean lord of the oasis of Dajdân and not the Sabaean king from southwestern Arabia. The Bible very often connects Dedan with Saba (Gen., 10: 7; 25: 3; Ezek., 38: 13). The great prophets were acquainted with Dedan. In Isaiah, 21: 13—15, there is a reference to the trade caravans of Dedan, who are urged to spend the night in the wilderness in the wood, and the inhabitants of the land of Têma are admonished to hasten to them with water and bread, because they are thirsty and hungry.—The context shows that a great danger threatened Edom and the people of Têmân, through whose territories passed the transport route upon which the trade caravans of Dedan used to proceed. In order to escape the danger they had to flee into the wilderness and seek quarters for the night in the wood. Fugitive travelers, very sleepy in the night time, do not keep watch and can easily be attacked. They therefore gladly spend the night in the wood—i. e. in a valley or hollow covered with a growth of acacias and tamarisks, of which there are many to the southeast of Edom. The inhabitants of the land of Têma were to have mercy on the fugitives and to offer them water and bread. This is done even today by the inhabitants of the oases when they learn that a tribe with whom they are on friendly terms has been plundered and is escaping from its enemies.
In Jeremiah, 25: 23, there is also a record of the danger by which Dedan, Têma, and Bûz were threatened. The people of Dedan are urged to hide themselves in deep basins (Jer., 49: 8). Jeremiah is thinking of the basins in the volcanic territory which afford a safe refuge to all refugees, each one being generally elliptical in shape, strengthened by a natural rampart of lava boulders up to a height of fifty meters, and reached only by a narrow footpath, in places artificially made. The footpath is enclosed by boulders, the lava rampart can be held by a few defenders, and the pursuing party must return baffled. The volcanic territory extends to within two hundred kilometers north of the oasis of Dajdân.
In Ezekiel, 25: 13, Jehovah threatens that he will turn Edom into a wilderness from Têmân as far as Dedan. Têmân is the name of the settlement and territory on the northern border of Edom. The latter marched on the south with the territory of Dedan. The phrase “from Têmân as far as Dedan” therefore denotes the whole of Edom from the valley of al-Ḥasa’ as far as the southern foot of the aš-Šera’ range.
In Ezekiel, 27: 20, it is stated that Dedan sold to Tyre coverings for riding saddles. Such coverings are made to this day in the oases of al-ʻEla’, Ḫajbar, and Ḥâjel. Goatskin with long, soft, black fur is tanned until it is quite soft and is then decorated and hemmed and placed on the saddles of either horses or camels. Before the War of 1914—1918 ​a covering of this kind cost the equivalent of two to ten dollars according to quality. In southern Arabian inscriptions Dedan is often mentioned as a place from which temple servants were imported (Glaser’s inscriptions [collated by Adolf Grohmann], National-Bibliothek, Vienna, 942=1277, 944=1268, 946=1270, 961=1241, 963=1243, 974, 976=1255, 1025.
From the inscriptions discovered at Dedan (D. H. Müller, Epigraphische Denkmäler, pp. 1—96) we see that the people of Dedan had not only a king of their own but also a southern Arabian resident, who was called kebîr. The native clan ruling in Dedan is called Leḥjân on the inscriptions; whereas the residents exercised authority in the name of the kings of Maʻîn, or the Minaeans, but no longer in the name of the Sabaeans. From this it follows that the Dedan inscriptions are more recent than the Assyrian records concerning Saba and date from a period after the sixth century before Christ. This is also proved by the Septuagint, which frequently refers to the Minaeans. Although the Bible does not record the name Leḥjân even once, the classical writers are familiar with it and from the time of Agatharchides call the Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba the Laeanitic Gulf. This name is a proof that the Leḥjân, or Laeanites, held sway not only over the land trade route but also over the maritime route leading to Elath and that the Hellenic traders and sailors used to pay toll to the Leḥjân collectors. This was perhaps the case in the fourth and third centuries before Christ, for Agatharchides, who wrote about the Red Sea in the second century, knew only the name Laeanitic Gulf but says nothing about a Leḥjân ruling family. It seems that the Nabataeans supported the settlement of al-Ḥeǧr to the detriment of the southern Arabian colony of Dajdân and that the Leḥjân kings from the time of their decline settled in al-Ḥeǧr. Only thus can we explain the record which has been preserved for us by Pliny, Nat. hist., VI, 156, who, writing about the town of Hagra, says that it is the royal seat of the Laeanites. This record is an extract from some older source now lost, for at the time of Pliny the Nabataean kings themselves held sway at Hagra. Concerning the native Leḥjân kings the classical authors give no details. In one southern Arabic inscription (Glaser, 9851264) the settlement of al-Ḥeǧr is likewise mentioned.
Through the decay of the Leḥjân the authority of the Tamudi and their oasis, al-Ḥeǧr, increased, and it would seem that by the action of the Nabataeans the transport route from this oasis southward changed its direction, passing about seven kilometers to the east of the old oasis of Dajdân and thus completing the ruin of that place. Even at the rise of Islâm the transport and accordingly also the Pilgrim Route led east of the oasis of Dajdân, and the latter disappeared both from historical and geographical literature. The old town fell into ruins, and about three kilometers to the southwest of it another settlement was built, originally called Ḳurḥ and later al-ʻEla’. Only a few clans of the old Beli tribe are still aware that the ruins of al-Ḫrajbe to the northeast of al-ʻEla’ were formerly called Dajdân. This form of the name, recorded by the Septuagint instead of the Hebrew Dedan, is mentioned by Jâḳût, Muʻǧam (Wüstenfeld), Vol. 2, p. 639, where he writes that ad-Dajdân is the name of a town situated on the transport route from the territory of al-Ḥeǧâz to al-Belḳa’, once a place of fine buildings but now in ruins.
Summary
The evidence in all the foregoing records, therefore, shows that we are justified in locating the camping places of the tribes descended from Abraham by Keturah to the south of the Edom range of Seʻîr, or the modern aš-Šera’, and to the west of the sandy desert of Nefûd. It is there that Flavius Josephus, Archaeologia, II, 257, locates the place Madiana; Ptolemy, Geography, VI, 7: 27, the settlement of Madiama; Eusebius, Onomasticon (Klostermann), p. 124, the town of Madiam; and the Arabic tradition the center of the Madjan tribe.
The Assyrian records mention the oasis of Têma together with the Biblical tribes of Madian. This, with the position of the oasis of Tejma to the southeast of the former Seʻîr, strengthens our supposition that the inhabitants of the oasis of Tejma likewise belonged to the tribes descended from Abraham by Keturah and not to the Ishmaelite tribes. The Hebrew text (Gen., 25: 15) mentions Têma among the descendants of Ishmael, but the Septuagint has in this passage the tribe of Taiman, who, according to Biblical accounts, possessed the eastern half of northern Edom. In the enumeration of the sons of Abraham by Keturah the Septuagint, in Genesis, 25: 3, records between the accusatives Saban and Daidan, also the accusative Taiman. I judge that the nominative of this form Taiman is Taima, just as in the case of the preceding Saban the nominative is Saba, and that in his Hebrew manuscript the translator found the tribe of Têma among the tribes of Saba and Dedan, to which they actually belong.
According to this view, Moses sought and found a refuge in the land of Madian to the southeast of the harbor of Elath (al-ʻAḳaba) where also was the mountain of God, to which he led the Israelites.
THE MOUNTAIN OF GOD
The mountain of God, where the Commandments to the Israelites were issued is called both Ḥoreb and Sinai.
In Exodus, 3: 1, it is narrated that Moses, while guarding the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of the Madianites, once drove them across the desert and came to the mountain of God, to Ḥoreb.—Mount Ḥoreb is therefore situated in the land where the Madianites were encamped but at some distance from the place where Jethro dwelt. Knowing that the land of the Madianites was situated to the southeast of the northern extremity of the Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba, we must locate Mount Ḥoreb likewise there.
According to Deuteronomy, 1: 2, it is possible from Mount Ḥoreb to reach Ḳadeš Barneʻa by way of Mount Seʻîr in eleven days.
According to Deuteronomy, 1:19, the road to Mount Seʻîr is identical with the road to the mountain of the Amorites, upon which the Israelites after leaving Ḥoreb passed through a great and terrible wilderness as far as Ḳadeš Barneʻa. (See above, pp. 263—264.)
We locate Ḳadeš Barneʻa in the vicinity of the famous Petra, and we know that Mount Seʻîr rises to the east of the rift valley of al-ʻAraba close to ruins of Petra, while the mountains of the Amorites extend to the northwest of it. The road in question went along the western foot ​of Mount Seʻîr. But as this range extends from north to south, we know that the road must also go in a southerly and northerly direction, and this likewise brings us to the southeast of al-ʻAḳaba. Here, therefore, we locate Ḥoreb in the land of Madian. The Bible does not say that the road in question led through Mount Seʻîr but that it is the road to Mount Seʻîr; that is, in a direction towards Mount Seʻîr. From other passages we know that the Israelites, when passing along it, proceeded along the very border of Seʻîr, or Edom, but they did not encroach upon its cultivated and inhabited parts. Furthermore, this circumstance entirely tallies with the road leading through the al-Abjaẓ valley, along Mount Iram (Ramm), and by the ruins of al-Ḥomejma to Petra and thence farther to the north-northwest.
According to Deuteronomy, 1: 2, from Ḥoreb to Ḳadeš Barneʻa is eleven days’ march. If we locate Mount Ḥoreb in the vicinity of the šeʻîb of al-Ḫrob, from there to Ḳadeš Barneʻa in the vicinity of Petra is about 240 kilometers, which quite agrees with the eleven days’ march of goods caravans or of migrating nomads.
It was to Mount Ḥoreb that Elijah hastened when he was persecuted (1 Kings, 19: 8). From the neighborhood of the capital city of Samaria he proceeded to Beersheba and thence southward. On the day of his journey from Beersheba he was miraculously supplied with food and drink, and he journeyed for forty days and forty nights to Mount Ḥoreb, where he spent the night in a cave.
The round figure of forty days and forty nights shows that he journeyed for a very long time. The statement that he proceeded from Beersheba southward proves that he traveled in the direction of Elath, or the modern al-ʻAḳaba, and that he thus went to the land of Madian. After he had been strengthened by the Lord, he was to return through the wilderness to Damascus (1 Kings, 19: 15). He accordingly must have proceeded by caravan along the great transport route on the eastern frontiers of Edom and Moab northward, thus along the ʻAraba road, which the migrating Israelites reached near Maʻân (Deut., 2: 8).
These are the only Biblical records from which it is at all possible to determine the position of Ḥoreb, the mountain of God.
From the rock near Ḥoreb Moses obtained water with his rod (Ex., 17: 6) and upon Ḥoreb the Lord gave him the Commandments for the Israelites (Deut., 1: 6; 4: 10; 4: 15; 5: 2; 18: 16; 28: 69; Malachi, 3: 22). Near Ḥoreb the Israelites prepared the Golden Calf (Psalms, 106: 19), and, after they had been punished for that act, they laid aside their ornaments by Mount Ḥoreb (Ex., 33: 6). By Mount Ḥoreb Moses placed the stone tablets of the Covenant in the ark (1 Kings, 8:9). Besides these there is no other historical source referring to Ḥoreb.
It is nowhere stated that Mount Sinai lay in the land of Madian, but, if we locate the halting place of Êlîm (Ex., 16: 1) in Êl Pârân (Elath) or in its vicinity in the oasis of ad-Dejr, we find ourselves with the migrating Israelites at the northern extremity of the Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba and thus nearly at the frontier of the land of Madian. We must accordingly locate Mount Sinai in the same region.
Exodus, 16: 1, notes that the wilderness of Sîn extends from Êlîm to Sinai, and it was through this wilderness that the Israelites proceeded to Sinai. From Egypt to Êlîm their journey had taken them a whole ​month (Ex., 16: 1); from Êlîm to the camp opposite Mount Sinai it took at least sixteen days (Ex., 19: 1 ff.); but they were then advancing much more slowly, as they felt themselves in no danger.
Around Mount Sinai visible bounds were to be set (Ex., 19:12), which the people were forbidden to cross under penalty of stoning and death. Sinai must, therefore, have been an isolated peak, presumably near the šeʻîb of al-Ḫrob on the northeastern border of the undulating plain of al-Hrajbe.
According to Exodus, 19: 16, thunder rumbled, lightning flashed, a heavy cloud rested on the mountain, and a loud voice of a trumpet was heard, so that the people trembled. Moses led the people out of the camp (Ex., 19: 17) and drew them up at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was entirely wrapped in smoke (Ex., 19: 18) because Jehovah had descended upon it in fire, and the smoke from it arose as the smoke from a furnace. The cloud rested on the mountain for six days (Ex., 24: 16).—Many of these phenomena seem to indicate that Sinai was a volcano, but the description is fundamentally different from that of an active volcano. Moreover, it cannot be supposed that Moses would have encamped with the people in the vicinity of an active volcano. The land of Madian, the only place where we can locate Mount Sinai, has always been a notably volcanic region. In the southern half of Madian there is an abundance of volcanoes, many of which were active not only in the middle of the second millennium before Christ but as recently as four to six hundred years ago. The poetical description of the phenomena accompanying the descent of the Lord upon the mountain must have been taken from actual experience, and the punishment incurred by those who crossed the bounds and encroached upon the mountain was the usual one among the tribes guarding sacred places. Not wishing to touch the culprit, they would discharge arrows at him if he was some distance away or throw stones at him if he was near by.
We have no other particulars indicating the position of Mount Sinai. In Deuteronomy, 33: 2, it is mentioned that Jehovah came from Sinai and shone to his people from Seʻîr; he gleamed from Mount Pârân and came from Merîbat Ḳadeš.—
Concerning Seʻîr, we know that it extends to the south-southeast of the Dead Sea. Pârân is situated to the south of the Dead Sea, parallel with the southern part of Seʻîr. Merîbat Ḳadeš is located on the northern border of Pârân near Petra by Seʻîr. As, therefore, all the places through which Jehovah passed with the Israelites are situated to the south and southeast of the Dead Sea, we must look for Sinai also in the same direction, and this brings us to the land of Madian.
According to Judges, 5: 4—5, Deborah praised Jehovah, who came out of Seʻîr and proceeded from the fields of Edom. The mountains trembled before Jehovah; even Sinai, before Jehovah, the God of Israel.
“Even Sinai” is certainly a remark of the expositor. It was thence taken by Psalms, 68: 9; but in Psalms, 68: 18, it is directly stated that God came from Sinai, and in Nehemiah, 9: 13, it is noted that God descended upon Mount Sinai, where he gave the laws.—
From this it is clear that one tradition calls the mountain of God Ḥoreb, the other Sinai, but that in both the same place is meant. This place must be located in the land of Madian to the southeast of the modern settlement of al-ʻAḳaba.