WHEN ARABIA WAS “EASTERN ETHIOPIA” Part I
By Dana Marniche
The Indigenous Populations of Arabia
The following quotes are from 19th and early 20th century Western historians, whom unlike today’s historians, understood the strong connection of the original Arabians with the Ethiopic peoples of Africa.
1869 “The Cushites. the first inhabitants of Arabia, arc known in the national traditions by the name of Adites, from their progenitor, who is called Ad, the grandson of Ham.” — The New Larned history for Ready Reference Reading and Research, 1922citing F. Lenormant, Manual of Ancient History, bk. 7, ch. 2. published 1869.
1869 – “To the Cushite race belongs the oldest and purest Arabian blood, and also that great and very ancient civilization whose ruins abound in almost every district of the country. ..The south Arabs represent a residue of hamitic populations which at one time occupied the whole of Arabia. “ John Baldwin from Pre-historic nations or inquiries Concerning Some of the Great peoples and Civilizations of Antiquity. Harpers 1869
1881 “ A third body of the Cushites went to the north of the Egypt and founded, on the east of the Delta, the kingdom of the so-called Hyksos , whom tradition designated sometimes as Phoenicians sometimes as Arabians, and in both cases rightly…Lepsius has proved by excellent reasons the Cushite origins of the Hyksos statues from San (Tanis) now in the museum of Boulaq and has made more than merely probable the immigration of the Cushites into the region of the Delta…” p. 402 Heinrich Karl Brugsh in A History of Egypt Under the Pharaohs Derived Entirely from the Monuments, published by John Murray 1881, Vol 2, 2nd edition.
1872 – “Mr. Baldwin draws a marked distinction between the modern Mahomedan Semitic population of Arabia and their great Cushite, Hamite, or Ethiopian predecessors. The former, he says, ‘are comparatively modern in Arabia,’ they have ‘appropriated the reputation of the old race,’ and have unduly occupied the chief attention of modern scholars.” Traditions Superstitions and Folklore, Charles Hardwick , Manchester A. Ireland and Company, 1872
1891 – …the Cushite Arabians and the Chaldeans, the founders of the first historic civilization in Babylonia being certainly Hamitic, though early mixed with Semitic tribes, long before Assyrian rule. Charles William Hutson , The Beginnings of Civilization, The Columbian Publishing Co., New York. 1891.
1902 – Modern Arabians are described thusly – “Among ‘these Negroid features which may be counted normal in Arabs are the full,rather everted lips, shortness and width of nose, certain blanks in the bearded areas of the face between the lower lip and chin and on the cheeks; large, luscious,gazelle-like eyes, a dark brown complexion, and a tendency for the hair to grow in ringlets. Often the features of the more Negroid Arabs are derivatives of Dravidian India rather than inheritances of Hamitic Africa. Although the Arab of today is sharply differentiated from the Negro of Africa, yet there must have been a time when both were represented by a single ancestral stock; in no other way can the prevalence of certain Negroid features be accounted for in the natives of Arabia.” by Henry Field Anthropology, Memoirs Field Museum Press Anthropology, Memoirs Arabs of Central Iraq; Their History, Ethnology and Physical C haracters, Anthropology Memoirs Volume 4,
1923 “There is a considerable mass of evidence to show that there was a very close resemblance between the proto-Egyptians and the Arabs before either became intermingled with Armenoid racial elements.” Elliot Smith p. 54 The Ancient Egyptians and the Origins of Civilization, p.61 2007, earliest publication 1923.
1948 – “In Arabia the first inhabitants were probably a dark-skinned, shortish population intermediate, between the African Hamites and the Dravidians of India and forming a single African Asiatic belt with these. From the Handbook of the Territories which form the Theatre of Operations of the Iraq Petroleum Company Limited and its Associated Companies, First Edition, Compiled in the Companies Head office at 214 Oxford Street London 1948.
By the middle of the 20th century, whether due to corresponding the withdrawal of European colonialists from many lands or the establishment foundations of modern Europeans in the Levant and consequent flourishing of Biblical archeology, it appears that many historians became less acquainted or familiar with the early documented history and genealogical traditions of the Arabian peoples. The notion of a race of “black Caucasoids” had already been established in the late 19th century and the idea that developed in the 1st centuries after Christ in Neareastern Muslim and Judaeo-Christian tradition of different colored children of Noah had come to permeate the interpretation of Afro-Asiatic or Arabian genealogy.
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To Be Continued…..
“consideration of all facts will permit us to accept von
Luschan’s view that the earliest population of Asia Minor was
Armenoid. Evidence seems to point to the area between the
Parmirs and the Hindu Kush as the original home of the
Armenoid population… It is certain that they were in that
region before the close of the fourth millennium B.C. for the
Egyptians acquired Armenoid traits as direct result of their
intercourse with North Syria, and we know that this commerce
was in progress at the time of the Third Dynasty (2800 BC)
and possibly earlier and the strongly Armenoid Semite
represented upon the ivory of King Qas tomb takes us back
before 3000 BC. Moreover, the old Babylonian sculptures
demonstrate the fact that the earliest Semites to enter
Mesopotamia and Babylonia had acquired the Armenoid type of
nose and the characteristic flowing beard by the time they
had intruded into the dominions of the Kings of Akkad and
Sumer… The population of Arabia had certainly overflowed
into Palestine by the time of the Third Egyptian Dynasty, and
probably much earlier; and in this land they would have
intermingled not only with the autochthonous “mediterranean”
population there but also in Northern Syria, with the
Armenoid people. This blend of arabs, **KINSMEN OF THE PROTO
EGYPTIANS and ARMENOIDS**, would then form the big nosed,
long bearded semites, so familiar not only on the ancient
Babylonian and Egyptian monuments, but also in the modern
Jews…It is curious to reflect how it could have come to
pass that such a rude, untutored people, as the Arabs are
supposed to have been at the time, impressed their language
and customs on a sufficiently large proportion of the more
highly endowed Armenoids….it is perhaps even more a subject
for wonder that this Armeno-Arabian blend, at that time
relatively uncultured, could have overcome the highly
civilized Sumerian population established around the estuary
common to the Tigris and Euphrates…Upon a priori grounds
one would have expected the Sumerians to have assimilated the
Semites; but the reverse actually happened” -The ancient
Egyptians and their influence upon the civilization of Europe
By Sir Grafton Elliot Smith
There are two types of Armenians the armenoids type with the large hook nose and the Semitic type who mixed with the Nubians and kushites. This is why we are still in the oriental orthodox church with Egypt and Ethiopia. And for the record, because of some confusion out there with alot of africans about who came first, Armenia was the first Christian nation;not Aksum. St frumentius was an armenoid from syria and he brought Christianity to aksum
Greg – I understand where you are coming from with your information, but we just have to be careful how we are saying it. Amalek or Al-Amluk is not a some legendary people of Armenia, but a historical tribe documented in the region of northwest Arabia (Melukka) and southern Arabia well into colonial times. They were a historical tribe – not a nation or nationality.
Almost every group of people in the Near East get their names from the Ethiopic people of Arabia or black to near black Afro-Asiatics coming from the south and in fact from the rest of the Arabian peninsula in ancient times. That is where you get many peoples whose names such as Khazaras, Arman, Aram, Syria (or Assyria), and Chaldaeans who were traditionally said to have come from far to the south in Yaman. In fact the name and folk history of the hero Armen as found in early Arabic sources relating the genealogy is written both as Arman and Amran, an ancient leader or tribal chief from the Yemen of over 3,300 years ago settling in North Arabia (Hijaz). This Amran was said to have belonged to a group or clan of the Adites i.e. Amalekites of southern Arabia (which was then still considered Ethiopia). That is where your Armenian tradition originates!
It is not unlikely that these people, whom archaeologists normally call “Amurru” “Amorites” or “Martu” did move into and settle in places such as what is now called Armenia or the land of Arman/Amran and Khazaria and even further north and east as early as the Bronze Age, as we know that the earliest Akkadian dynasties or semitic-speakers in Akkad were of “‘Amurru” or “Martu” stock. (The Ancient Near East: A History by Hallo and Simpson), But since the chronology of the Middle East is probably somewhat distorted it has been hard scholars to accept such a conclusion.
Interestingly, according to many Arabic texts a tribe called the Khazaras or Khazraj (also written Ghazaras or Jazraj or Jazar depending on the text) who were in part descended from people of Amran or “Arman”, were said to have come from Aram or Iram in the vicinity of Sana’a before moving northward . They moved into Hijaz from the Yemen where tradition has them claiming descent from Amalekite and Azd people. Azd were people of the “Adites” who were the Amalekites in many sources, Thus we read
” The tribe of Amalek were descended from Amalek the son of Eliphaz, though some of the Oriental authors say Amalek was the son of Ham son of Noah, and others the son of Azd son of Shem.” Amalek and Azd were considered one Azd being a descendant of Amalek.
It is not impossible that such people carried their traditions and names with them further to the north into Syria and Armenia mixing with the Eurasiatic and other proto-Mesopotamians already there. In fact it is highly likely that they did.
As we can see from the paintings of Amorites of Mari they were still basically a dark brown-skinned people until a late period. Though obviously mixed with the non-black Syrians there they still resembled in complexion some of the African-affiliated peoples still present in Central and southern Arabia and Oman.
It is also important to note that although in Syria and Central Asia such allegorical figures as Ham, Shem and Noah were claimed to be fathers of different “nations” of people in early in early AfroArabian tradition they are representative patriarchs of closely related peoples that spread from the Yemen and region of Aden (Eden).
The early Arabian traditions say Amalek, Ad Aus (Uz) and Aram (Arram or Iram) were all people originated in Hadramaut and southern Arabia. Their ancestors are shem and ham and from them sprang the tribes of Japhet as well, long before they left the Yemen. Sometimes Amalek, Lud and Ad are said to be from Shem while others sources say they are Ham because and Ham and Shem after all were brothers. “The Arabians have a tradition, that Amalek was a son of Ham …” (See Calmet’s Dictionary of the Holy Bible). “Others, that Ad was the son of Amalek, the son of Ham …” (A Biblical and Theological Dictionary ).
Of course the Syrian and Central Asian descriptions of all of these clans of Adite or Amalekites or Azd, Arabians as giants and blacks in numerous accounts obviously leaves the idea of Amalekites being the only or primary ancestors of modern Armenians and Khazars an impossibility, though as you say these Amorites/Aram were probably absorbed in ancient times by other populations.
The Adites were supposed to have originated in Aram in the Hadramaut, not Syria.
Lastly, the so- called Armenian type characterized by broad or brachycephalic crania and large nose was not a substantial element in the ancient Arab or Arabian population. Certainly not until long after islamic times did such people come to play even a minor role in the peninsula when one looks at all of the descriptions of the tribes there. This is why Ibn Khaldun and others before him had considered Central Arabia part of his 2nd zone in “Bilad es- Sudan’. Most of the Syrian types one sees on the ancient monuments are not Arabs, nor Canaanites, although both of these did come to play a part in populating Syria or the Levant at various times.
Lastly – I forgot to mention but think it is important to remember Sumerians, Semites and Armenoid Semitic speakers were three different populations. The latter also had adopted also Hurrian from the Subarians either before or after they adopted Sumerian from the Dravidian like Sumerians, and the Semitic from the Afro-Arabian Akkad. They are represneted in the monuments in a far larger extent than were found human remains.
Don’t ask me which language came first though. : )
On the other hand archaealogists recently have been redressing or setting right this problem of when the broad-headed “Armenoid” type (as they used to call it) really does become dominant in different parts of the Middle East.
“this study suggests that the Himrin population was relatively dolichocranic and generally unaltered until the Parthian period as in southern Mesopotamia (Keith, 1927; Ehrich, 1939; Swindler, 1956), but sometime in or after the Parthian period a more brachycranic population came into this northern Mesopotamian area and craniofacial characteristics within the inhabitants in this area probably became more diverse, as preliminarily suggested by Ishida and Wada (1981) and Wada (1986). It has been suggested based on archeological data that the population of Mesopotamia began to be influenced by Persians AFTER the Achaemenean domination, and more foreigners were settled and mixed with the native population in the Parthian period (Roux, 1992). The present results do not contradict this view. Furthermore, this study depicts the dolichocranic population as tending to have a relatively lower orbit and broader (lower) nose, and vice versa in the brachycranic population. These results are consistent with the findings of Wada (1986), indicating that the present morphometric analysis successfully extracted the morphological characteristics derived from conventional craniometry.”
It is safe to say this influx also influenced the Arabian peninsula beginning mainly in the Parthian period especially in the east and around the southern coasts when Arabs were trading with Central Asians.
{Geometric morphometric study of temporal variations in human crania excavated from the Himrin Basin and neighboring areas, northern Iraq
by Naomichi Ogihara, Haruyuki Makishima, Hidemi Ishida, Anthropological Science (2009)
Volume: 117, Issue: 1, Pages: 9-17
“this study suggests that the Himrin population was relatively dolichocranic and generally unaltered until the Parthian period AS IN SOUTHERN MESOPOTAMIA (Keith, 1927; Ehrich, 1939; Swindler, 1956), but sometime in or after the Parthian period a more brachycranic population came into this northern Mesopotamian area and craniofacial characteristics within the inhabitants in this area probably became more diverse, as preliminarily suggested by Ishida and Wada (1981) and Wada (1986). It has been suggested based on archeological data that the population of Mesopotamia began to be influenced by Persians after the Achaemenean domination, and more foreigners were settled and mixed with the native population in the Parthian period (Roux, 1992). The present results do not contradict this view. Furthermore, this study depicts the dolichocranic population as tending to have a relatively lower orbit and broader (lower) nose, and vice versa in the brachycranic population.” }
What an article Dana. Will you ever write a book?
I never said the Amalekites or adites came from Syria I said that they settled in the north and they are only one of the elements of modern Armenians. If the Amalekites were a glass of milk and armenoids were a glass of coffee the milk would have been poured totally into the coffee. Do you see? We are said to have assimilated them entirely. The blended into a new population. Noahs ark landed in the Ararat mountains that’s in Armenia. Shem, ham and japhet all dwelled their for a while. There are numerous DNA studies which prove that Ethiopians are closer to Armenians than Africans even haile selassie adopted 40 Armenians. We brought Christianity to Ethiopia and share alphabet. Ethiopian professors have told me that Armenia gave Ethiopia its language and culture!