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(Symbol missingHebrew characters) below) only 12, which may be the original number. The few names that can be satisfactorily identified (Sheleph, Ḥaẓarmaweth, Sheba, Ḥavilah) point to S Arabia as the home of these tribes.


(1) (Symbol missingHebrew characters) ((Symbol missingGreek characters))] unknown. The (Symbol missingHebrew characters) is variously explained as the Ar. art. (but this is not Sabæan), as 'Ēl = 'God,' and as 'āl = 'family'; and (Symbol missingHebrew characters) as a derivative of the vb. for 'love' (wadda), equivalent to Heb. (Symbol missingHebrew characters) (Wi. MVAG, vi. 169); cf. Glaser, Skizze, ii. 425; DB, i. 67.

(2) (Symbol missingHebrew characters) ((Symbol missingGreek characters))] A Yemenite tribe or district named on Sabæan inscrs., and also by Arab. geographers: see Homm. SA Chrest. 70; Osiander in ZDMG, xi. 153 ff., perhaps identical with the Salapeni of Roman writers. Cognate place-names are said to be still common in S Arabia (Glaser).

(3) (Symbol missingHebrew characters) ((Symbol missingGreek characters))] The modern province of Ḥaḍramaut, on the S coast, E of Yemen. The name appears in Sabæan inscrs. of 5th and 6th cent. A.D., and is slightly disguised in the (Symbol missingGreek characters) of Strabo (XVI. iv. 2), the Chatramotitæ of Pliny, vi. 154 (Atramitæ, vi. 155, xii. 52?).

(4) (Symbol missingHebrew characters) ((Symbol missingGreek characters))] uncertain. The attempts at identification proceed on the appellative sense of the word (= 'moon'), but are devoid of plausibility (see Di.).

(5) (Symbol missingHebrew characters) ([E] (Symbol missingHebrew characters), G (Symbol missingGreek characters))] likewise unknown. A place called Dauram close to Ṣan'a has been suggested: the name is found in Sabæan (Glaser, 426, 435).

(6) (Symbol missingHebrew characters) ([E] (Symbol missingHebrew characters), G (Symbol missingGreek characters))] mentioned by Ezk. (2719: rd. (Symbol missingHebrew characters)) as a place whence iron and spices were procured. It is commonly taken to be the same as 'Azāl, which Arab. tradition declares to be the old name of Ṣan'a, now the capital of Yemen. Glaser (310, 427, 434, etc.) disputes the tradition, and locates 'Ûzāl in the neighbourhood of Medina.[1]

(7) (Symbol missingHebrew characters) ((Symbol missingGreek characters))] Probably the Ar. and Aram. word (daḳal, (Symbol missingHebrew characters), [Syrian: **]) for 'date-palm,' and therefore the name of some noted palm-bearing oasis of Arabia. Glaser (MVAG, 1897, 438) and Hommel (AA, 282 f.) identify it with the (Symbol missingGreek characters) of Procopius, and the modern Ǧōf es-Sirhān, 30° NL (as far N as the head of the Red Sea).

(8) (Symbol missingHebrew characters) ([E] and 1 Ch. 122 (Symbol missingHebrew characters), GL (Symbol missingGreek characters))] supposed to be the word 'Abil, a frequent geographical name in Yemen (Glaser, 427). The name is omitted by many MSS of G, also by GB in 1 Ch. 122 (see Nestle, MM, 10), where some Heb. MSS and S have (Symbol missingHebrew characters).

(9) (Symbol missingHebrew characters) ((Symbol missingGreek characters))] apparently a tribal name (= 'father is God'), of genuine Sabæan formation (cf. (Symbol missingHebrew characters), ZDMG, xxxvii. 18), not hitherto identified.

  1. In view of the uncertainty of the last three names, it is worthy of attention that the account of Asshurbanipal's expedition against the Nabatæans (KIB, ii. 221) mentions, in close conjunction, three places, Ḥurarina, Yarki, and Azalla, which could not, of course, be as far S as Yemen, but might be as far as the region of Medina. In spite of the phonetic differences, the resemblance to Hadoram, Yeraḥ, and 'Ûzāl is noteworthy. See, however, Glaser, 273 ff., 309 ff.