When Arabia was Eastern Ethiopia (Part 3) – by – Dana Marniche
It should be understood that many of the names of Cushitic speaking tribes today in the horn of Africa – Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia/Eritrea – were also known in early Arabia. In Somalia such clans as the Yahar, Darood, the Mahra or Maheyra of Somalia and the Yemen, Makhar or Makir (Machir), Bin Sama’al or Somali(or Sam’al and El Sama of Yemen), Rahawein (ancient Rahawiyyin or Ru’ayn or Rahawi of Yemen) and smith clans such the Hubir (Heber), Yubir, Sabi, Tumal and Wubar (or Wabar) are mentioned in ancient times and through the early Islamic period as Himyarite and Sabaean tribes in South Arabian inscriptions., They are in fact, found in earlier Mesopotamian inscriptions and later Arabic documents. The phrase as divided as the Sabaeans as Diop mentioned has everything to do with this dispersal.
Other tribes located today both in Arabia and in Africa claiming descent from Himyar and Kahlan, descendants of Qahtan, through Abd Shams Saba or Saba and his sons Himyar and Kahlan are the Afar (Afari or Afariyyah in Arabia), and Danakil or Anagil, (Nakh’l, Nakhawila or An-Nakha al Nakha of Arabia) and many other tribes. Thus, the bulk of the tall Cushitic speakers of Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Puntland are likely derived from African peoples who had settled in ancient times in south Arabia. This settlement very likely began during the Neolithic and/or Copper Age (between 7th and the 3rd millennium B.C. )when elements of the Doian neolithic of Somalia begin to appear in the Rub al Khali and tall, oval-headed “Negroids” as Anati put it, begin to appear in the rock art of the Central Arabian and Syrian Arabian deserts.
Another group of African affiliation appeared in the rock art along the coasts of Arabia, and this population was tied to the smaller or shorter-statured populations that appeared in the deserts of Egypt and Sudan as well as along the Nile in both places in the proto-dynastic period. This group was no doubt related to the Beja or Bega populations and the names of the Beja or Bega or Buga as they were called in earlier writings appear on both sides of the Arabia Sea as well. They include the Beza’a or Bayzan , Beni Amer or Amir, Abdah or Ababdah, Huweitat, Atmaan, Umar’ar, Hada or Hadandowa, Bishari, Erigat, Orteyga, Bediyat,. The Beja of Sudan of modern Eritrea and Egypt are descendants of ancient Afro-Arabian bedouin who had intermixed with later Islamic Arabians coming from Hejaz through Sinai during the hegemonic period of Islam. They in fact have always extended up to Sinai and into the area of Transjordan. They are also traditionally called Matat or Madid which may be related to the ancient Egyptian name for peoples in these same regions – “Madjayu”.
The most recent wave of Arabian origin to enter the region of Sudan and East Africa are the people whose names are still found on both sides of the Nile are the Sudanese Arabs who came after the birth of Muhammed and until the 18th century. They include the Manasse’ir (Mansour), Kababish or Kabsh, Beni Amer, Ja’aliya or Ja’aliin, Bishari’in, Humr, Muzeina, Haweitat, Hamar, Rufa or Ruwafa, Khuzam, Salamat,, Hamid, Gerar, Hamran, Mugharba, Lahawi, Ma’aza. Habbaniyya, Mahass, Rashaida, Djerafin (Terapin), Hawara, Kuwahla, Bayza’a, Rikab, Shaikyia, Dhubaniyya and Mesiria to name just a few. These tribes are in part and in full the descendants of tribes of the Arabian bedouin of North Africa Rabia, Sulaym, Hilal, and Ghatafan who began emigrating from the Hejaz area of northwestern Arabia into Egypt as early as the 9th c. A.D. and continued their immigration as late as a few centuries ago. They had originally conquered Egypt and North Africa and finally moved southward into Sudan, Chad and Eritrea.
The Last Living Descendants of Shem
Early Muslim writers outside of Arabia were often confused on the origin of the true Arabs. They sometimes divided them into Ishmaelites and Qahtanis or northern Arabians and southern ones. But most northern Arabian bedouin had traditions of coming from the Yemen from the kingdom of Himyar or Humayr and Saba who were descendants of Qahtan, while the dark skinned tribes of Qahtan in the Yemen in fact claimed an African origin.
Qahtan is sometimes said to be a child of A’abar or Abir (Biblical Eber or Heber) and otherwise of Asmah who was apparently the Isma’il of later writings. In addition Qahtan (Joktan) son of Abir (Eber) whose brothers were Aram (Aram), Awza or Aus (Uz) had fathered Amalek and A’d (the latter’s name was derived from Adah) are all closely related peoples in Arabian tradition. Amalek in particular ruled from Sana’a in the far southwest corner of Arabia in modern Yemen to Syria at one time. All historical accounts state that the near descendant (great grandson) of Qahtan was Saba (Seba) whose two sons according to most accounts were Himyar (or Humayr) and Kahlan (Nakhete Kalnis of Ethiopian genealogy). These went on to populate the whole of Arabia and to rule a great part of the ancient world under leaders such as Numayr ibn Qassit (Nimrod), the Amelekite rulers Cathim (Heth of the Hittites or Cetimus of Mythology), Anak and Sheshi the Hittite rulers of Canaan, Ak (Og), Kabus, Djurham or Darim (Hadoram) and the Sabaeans or Adite kings of Himyar such as Murath’ad from whom came the name of the Banu Murad (Amurath or Amorites), Akk ( Og the Amorite king of the Rephaim), Al Modad or Al Matat(Almodad), Numan, Ma’afir , and the later Himyarite rulers Awal (Hevila) Dhu’l Karnein and Afrikus who colonized Africa. Incidentally the rulers Anak and Sheshai have been identified as names of the Hyksos rulers Nakhi and Sheshi in Egypt by archeologist David Rohl.
1872A.D. -On the inhabitants of southwest Arabia in Yemen, “The inhabitants of this part of Arabia nearly all belong to the race of Himyar. Their complexion is almost as black as the Abyssinians,” see p. 121 in “Geography of Southern Arabia” by Baron von Maltzan, in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. 16, No. 2 , pp. 115-123.
1900 – In this year the sultan of the tribe of Yafa’a described as of “greenish brown” color See Mabel and Theodore Bent Southern Arabia p. 403
1932- Bertram Thomas describes individuals of southern Arabia. Men of the Yafi’i or Yafa’a clans of Ahl Yazid fuzzy haired, greenish–brown and Yahar tribe of the Yafa’a as dark chocolate Anthropological Observations in South Arabia, Bertram Thomas in The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Insdtitute of Great Britain and Ireland Vol. 62 83-103 Jan-June 1932. On a sultan of the Yafa’ai tribe who claim descent from Himyar ibn Qahtan through the tribe of al Haf. They are likely the Haiappa or Chayafa who figure in Assyrian inscriptions circa 8th c. B.C.. and the Ephah of the Bible.
1927 – “The people of Dhufar are of the Qahtan tribe, the sons of Joktan mentioned in Genesis: they are of Hamitic or African rather than Arab types…” See page 236 in “A Periplus of the Persian Gulf”, Arnold Wilson. The Geographical Journal Vol. 69l, No. 3 March 1927, pp. 235-255. (The Dhufar talked about here are the mountains of Oman.)
1929- Bertram Thomas on the modern remnants of the ancient Qahtan tribes: “…these tribes – with the exception of the Harasis – have a tradition of African origin, the order of their local antiquity being Shahara, Bautahara, Mahra, Qara.” Found in The South Eastern Borderlands of Rub-al Khali, Bertram Thomas vol. 73 (LXXIII) No. 3 March 1929.
1932 – Bertram Thomas also observed individuals from a number of clans in the Yemen a man from a tribe called Mashai’a man is described as “very dark brown” The Shahara are “dark brown” and the Bait Marhum of the Kathiri (Keturah) tribe are similarly described. Found in Anthropological Observations in South Arabia The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 62, (Jan. – Jun., 1932), pp. 83-103 The photos of a Mashai’a man and Shahara (of Sheherazade fame) and Kathiri children, Mahra and Qara can be found in Bertram Thomas books. The Shahara are a clan affiliated with the Mahra. The Mashai’a are those mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions. It has also been written or translated as Maasaai.
2001 – “Mahra is the Arab name for the Bedouin tribes who are different in appearance to other Arabs, having almost beardless faces, fuzzy hair and dark pigmentation – such as the Qarra, Mahra and Harasis… Also on “…the Qarra, Mahra and Harasis with parts of other tribes. The language is derived from the language of the Sabaeans, Minaeans and Himyarites. The Mahra with other Southern Arabian peoples seem aligned to the Hamitic race of north-east Africa… The Mahra are believed to be descended from the Habasha, who colonized Ethiopia in the first millennium BC” p. 250-251, Peoples on the Move by David Phillips, 2001.
Ancient Origins of the Afro-Arabian Qara tribes (also written Qarra, Gara, Kara)
The Qara or Kara claim descent from the Azdites of Kindah kingdom which existed in Central Arabia and the Persian Gulf. The Azd are descendants of Qahtan through Kahlan son of Himyar. They are among those remnants of peoples who claim they came from Africa at a remote period. The dialects of the Qara is related to the pre Arabic dialects of ancient Saba, Himyar and Ethiopia.
1929 – Bertram Thomas describes the Qara or Kara as “the most prosperous tribe of all the Hamitic group, possessing innumerable camels, herds of cattle and the richest frankincense country. They resemble the Bisharin tribe of the Nubian desert. Men of big bone , they have long faces long narrow jaws, noses of a refined shape long curly hair and brown skin.” Quoted on p. 200 in Richmond Palmer’s, The Bornu Sahara ans Sudan 1970 originally published 1936 by John Murray of London. The Qara are actually rather short in stature as well.
2004 On the Qara, “European observers have made much of their physical resemblance to Somalis and Ethiopians, but there is no historical evidence of any connections.” P. 261 J. E. Peterson “Oman’s Diverse Society: Southern Oman”, Middle East Journal Vol. 38, No. 2 Spring 2004.
Claudius Ptolemy mentions the town of “Gerra” in the Geographos (2nd cent CE). Strabo appears to have referred to them as Gerraeans salt traders in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea says they were the Chaldeans pushed from Harran (which was apparently Arabian Hauran) by Nebudchadnezzer. He wrote, “the Gerrhaeans have become the richest of all; and they have a vast equipment of both gold and silver articles, such as couches and tripods and bowls, together with drinking vessels and very costly houses; for doors and wall and ceilings are variegated with ivory and gold and silver set with precious stones.” (Frankincense and Myrrh, A Study of Arabian Incense Trade, Nigel Groom, p. 67).
“The city of Gerrha played a central role in the interchange of commodities of certain regions of the ArabianPeninsula during the reign of the Seleucid King Antioch III (223 – 187 BC) of Syria. Most notable was the frankincense and myrrh of southwestern Arabia in the Yemen and Hadramawt regions. Juba and Pliny refer to the city of Gerrae as Carra as mentioned in his Natural History 1.161-62 an Arabian tribe called Carrae or Carraeans who had the most extensive and fertile agricultural lands in Arabia.
The Qarra or Kara tribe also carry on a salt trade that was one of the hallmarks of the ancient Gerrhaeans or Carrae. Some have tried to relate the name of Carraeans to that of Hagar while others probably more accurately see some correlation with the Korahites of Southwest Arabia who appear to be the Biblical Korah.
oh by the way to answer another of your questions i’m a black American in the United States, not African. And people of other countries and even other Americans who have seen me in person have told me i look also look Brazilian, Moroccan, Afghani, Yemeni, while real Africans have said I look N like a “white woman”, native American Indian, and black Americans have said -“like a darkened- down Jew” whatever that is.lol! So no I”M NOT AFRICAN although I have many ancestors from Africa. And BTW when I say black I mean a heck of a lot blacker and more “black African” in appearance than me. : )!
thanks for replaying , ok now since we know who you are I got the point why you fighting so hard to prove what you are repeating everywhere since I don’t know how many years , and when you decided to start this mission and who behind that whether its the same old reason of African Americans to prove to European Americans that there ancestors were no slaves and barbarians but they belong to very civilized people and culture , ok I really don’t have anything against my brother Africans we both shared many things in this area between Asia and Africa , but for sure nobody can assure or (guarantee) as you said how you guarantee some thing happened millions, thousands , hundreds years ago have you been them that days and you saw them with your eyes ???!! and do you think those words written by a numbers of non Arabs historians or some Europeans anthropologians which remain as an assumptions built in some skeletons they found somewhere and no body can prove whether they were for native people of the area where they found them or for slaves brought from Africa in areas were populated by millions sorry this is a stupidity just to make your self happy . Sorry Dana it seems to me you have not read my comments above deeply and you keep repeating the same stereotype stories to satisfy something wrong in your soul sister . ok I can accept from some one who say it’s just an assumptions they may be right or wrong but using word ((( guarantee ))) my god . girl you need to be realistic and think logically don’t ever hearing only from your self or from those agree on your views and ideas open your ears and be proud of what you are and never think bringing such assumptions will make people respect you more cuz people also have abrains and common sense
Man, stop sermonizing and begin backing up your claims with fact otherwise they are nothing but robotic lies springing from a virus-like programming deep in your mind. That programming is called… “A phobia for Blackness”.. Identify it and deal with your virus. Nobody gives a fly about your uninformed opinions. Scientific facts..not nationalistic lies!
Umm lol! Assumptions – I know English isn’t your first language but your going to have to try to get some help because i couldn’t understand a single sentence you wrote.
I am assuming however that u are not using logic.
Am I just assuming that the Muntafik and other descendants of Ka’b bin Rabi’a, or Hawazin NORTH ARABIANS in Iraq today are called “abid” because they are white?
Be for real man. YOU mentioned the phrase “common sense” – so USE IT! These people were and are black and have been described as such for thousands of years. I am trying to figure out what your trying tosay.
Which Arab tribe are you ASSUMING wasn’t African in appearance., when even Chinese manuscripts mention the Arabs coming to them from Hijaz were “black men with high noses”. When the word Arab or Arapi means simply “the black man” today still means in Greek and Turkish. YOU USE SOME LOGIC AND BE REALISTIC ! LOL!
You are also obviously the one creating stereoptypes about Arabs. What “holy features” are you talking about. Syrian ones? Iranian ones?
That’s funny why did the Ibn Rabbih of Cordoba say in his book ,The Precious Necklace that a 7th century Middhij sheikh claimed one of the 7 rare things of this world is “an Arab with fair skin. ” Why would he claim that an Arab with fair skin was thought to be “inconceivable” and “unthinkable’. Why would these Iranian writers just make up such things. It would be against their interests.
Why did Chinese manuscripts of the 14th century describe the peoples of Hijaz as of a very dark purple color. And why do modern 19th century dictionaries claim Mecca and Jidda have been inundated or flooded with foreigners.
Why are the Quraysh, Hudhail and other Hashemite, Kinaaniyah related clans in Israel and Arabia still black. These people practiced endogamy and didn’t mix with other people. THAT’S WHY! They wanted to keep their blood pure. That is what THEY CLAIMED. your wishful thinking will not change history a bit.
If anything is a stereotype it is that early ARabs looked like modern Syrians and mixed people in the Middle East AND THEY DIDN'”T! GET IT!?
This is an African American posing as someone else. My gut instinct tells me he is an African American.
Ok it’s not my mother tongue who care nor yours and the fellow jahdey but I really surprised by you both last comments they are really aggressive and sorry to say impolite . You both from USA are not you ? correct me if I’m wrong , that mean both of you raised in democratic country belong to a culture ( the opinion and the other opinion ) . Then how you understood the previous comments ??! why this is not understandable ?! lol or because my last opinion was so transparent difficult to be swollen . so now when I faced you with some facts about you African Americans presence history in north America since your ancestors brought by Europeans as slaves to serve them and their farms you attack me that much lol . cmon Dana be realistic and proud of who you are . we when we talk about Arabs we don’t mean Syrian or Persian we are talking about the original Arab tribe in Arabia ( have you ever visited one of these tribe in their homeland arrange visit and go see them sit with them and then write about them but just by reading a translated books written by non Arabs and for your information the presence of our brothers Africans in Arabia very long so many of them were traders traveling to different country for business since hundreds of years so may be some of them went to china and the people their thought them were the real Arab ( with my full respect to them ) . cmon girl who said al muntafic tribe in Iraq blacks this is a joke . girl I told you Arabs have fair skin color when they exposed to the sun their skin will turn to black but their features never and ever will be black . I’m not repeating this thing again and again not because I think Arab is better than African or any other nation or race this is only simply the real fact which it seems to me not reached you tel now . cmon girl be proud of your ancestors history and heritage and don’t put your self from what you are writing that you are trying to steal other nations history to make your race bigger they are bigger but you will make them look small . and before I conclude I want to you to know I’m a black Arab and I’ve got many of my Arab friends and they are not for sure like what you want to prove . Again sorry for my broken English which the happiness fill your life and your family and your race
Update: lol! ” cmon girl who said al muntafic tribe in Iraq blacks this is a joke .”
National Arab Press 2008 – There are two main categories of blacks in Iraq, mostly in the south, who total about 300,000: those of East African origin, numbering around 100,000; and those of who are Arab and originate from the Hejaz, claiming to be descended from the Prophet Muhammad, who moved to this country mostly in the 1750s and 1980s. The latter are mostly from the Muntafek tribe to which ‘Abdul-Mahdi belongs. But both groups used to be far more numerous in the past centuries, many of them having inter-married with the locals and thus the colour of their skin has since been changed,…”
“girl I told you Arabs have fair skin color when they exposed to the sun their skin will turn to black but their features never and ever will be black . I’m not repeating this thing again and again not because I think Arab is better than African or any other nation or race …”
There is no such thing as “race”. Africans settled in Arabia. and they took each other as slaves and then the Syrians and Persians as slaves and then mainly Africans as slaves. They themselves were enslaved by the Persians directly before the birth of Muhammad.
Arabs were black because they were Africans not tanned Syrians. Semitic-speaking people moved northward and settled in Syria only after thousands of years.
Thus 1872, a European named von Maltzan commenting on the inhabitants of southwest Arabia in Yemen said, “The inhabitants of this part of Arabia nearly all belong to the race of Himyar. Their complexion is almost as black as the Abyssinians,” see p. 121 in “Geography of Southern Arabia” by Baron von Maltzan, in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. 16, No. 2 , pp. 115-123.
The same can be said of the tribe of Quraysh still living in Syria, and Hudhail near Mecca most of whom are still black and some as tar like their Hashemite ancestors. : )
For more information see Guide to the Ethnic Origins of the Infernal Black Saracen in the blogspot below
Assumption:
[ lol or because my last opinion was so transparent difficult to be swollen . so now when I faced you with some facts about you African Americans presence history in north America since your ancestors brought by Europeans as slaves to serve them and their farms you attack me that much lol .]
It’s obvious to me that you don’t know theTRUE story. You are basing your knowledge on HIS story. The FACT is: most African Americans were here before Columbus and Europeans. Do you know what Pangea is? Do you know who the Olmec are? Look it up and expand your knowledge….
Tel me the true story rasheeda ??! it look all of you in this site have the only true stories ?! lol . like your teacher Dana ok keep repeating the true stories and the facts in your minds and according to your wishes and all of them will justify nothing but the assumptions in your minds .. my opinion about all your stories , facts , thoughts , are just a debate built on afalse base to suit your false stories and you are doing exactly the same thing done by your executioner ( European settlers ) so keep on your god job . For me no use of continuing this useless urgement . may god help us all
You have no arguments, beggar. No facts, no logic, just wishful thinking. Now that you have been beaten bad and sore with knowledge on Rasta Livewire, its time you either confess up to the truth or to climb back down to your pale souless world of lies and ignorance.
Welcome to Rasta Livewire, where we burn and shock ignorance to oblivion!
I understand your concern assumptions. But my statements are based on fact not on wishful thinking and exagerrating. For example I would never be one to say most African Americans are descendants of Olmecs. obviously from the records of slave ships that we have they were not. That doesn’t mean there were not Africans here before the slave ships with the other Native American groups. The skeletons found among early Olmec include numerous African ones and the heads are found on top of some of the earliest pyrmaids. Now its a matter of putting two and two together. Modern Natives in that area are an obviously descended from both African and Asiatic people that came in that ancient period. The reason that offends people around the world is that they in their countries have been taught that the black people were only slaves, and thought they must be better then them. Now they are enraged, confused and angry, but there is nothing that can be done about that because true history of ancient civilization is coming not only from so-called Afrocentrics but from a number of European scholars who have been able to deal with the issue without nationalistic impulses and distortions. Its judgement day! lol!
Dana,
I appreciate your articles and your interviews. The information presented is well written and easy to understand (even for those who refuse to read the historical record). This is very informative and fills in historical gaps instilled by those who want us subservant.
I would like to state this, some “African-Americans” are descended from the Olmecs. We are all aware that Natives, Indians, North Africans, etc. had their classifications changed by William Plecker and his gang in the 1800’s to “black”, “negro”, “colored”, etc. Now, all of their descendants are called “African Americans”. Not all of us came from African Slaves. Many of our ancestors were right here.
Prime examples of those of us descended from the Olmecs are Yamassee, Witchitaw, Arawak, Carib, Muskito, et. al. During the Yamassee War, many Arawak tribes like the Timucuan of Florida were taken a sold as “Negro slaves” in South Carolina. Today, we assume they were from Africa as slaves. Then, when we hear about the millions taken from Africa as slaves, we put the two together, falling into the mental trap set by Europeans. Others were taken to Africa and Europe by Columbus and sold as “negros” or “moors”. We then see “negro” and assume these were African Slaves. Even Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. admitted that it was rare for us to find an actual slave ship. I say, just like proving NA ancestry, until you find an actual slave ship, don’t assume your ancestors came in chains. Many Africans came of their own free will and have descendants today claiming to be descended from slaves.
I am just saying we should not generalize our history to fit a story we were told by our oppressors. I have read many slave narratives from South Carolina and only about two of them actually mention being from Africa. The rest state that they were told they came from Africa but a grandmother or great-grandmother said otherwise. They make mention of everyone in the family being native to this land and the one father or grandfather being from Africa and talking funny.
They went on to separate us from our history and gave us a different one that promotes their superiority over us. I have noticed the slave story neglects to include the wars we fought with the Europeans and the multiple of POW’s taken and enslaved. What about those who live here and were enslaved?
I guess the best thing to ask is please define what an African American is so that we can be on the same page. If the term only applies to those descended from W. African slaves, then we have to find out who is and is not and AA. What of those descended from the Egyptian Army that came over here with the French Army? They weren’t slaves.
I mention this because I am referred to as an AA; however, my ancestry is Arawak, Egyptian, Algerian/Moroccan, and East Indian. Of course, some of them were also called Hebrews. Yes, I have found slave records, but I also found how they got here and it was not in chains on a slave ship. So, yes, I am descended from the Olmecs since the Arawak are. While I don’t embrace the term “African-American”, I am referred to as such.
LOL ..hahaha god help you
Hehehe…LMBAO! god help you too!
LOL , sadooooooh… what can we do this is the facts whether you accept them or keep swimming in your dreams sea which will lead to nowhere but keep accusing people who disagree with you of ignorance and inhuman . you people live in a lake of low self esteem . You are spreading the pathetic and need doses of self confidence … god help you brothers. …..haahaaaaaha loleen
^Animal chattering….
It appears that the intellectual beating you just got has been too much for you. You sound like you lost it. Now you are reduced to making monkey noises…
See how facts and logic can quickly send each one of us back to our origins…
LOL!