One highly tenuous theory, is by Professor Kamal Salibi's of American University in Beirut. In his 1985 book Bible Came from Arabia, he compares place names in the Bible with names in Arabia today, and concludes that Palestine had absolutely no historical Hebrew presence, and rather South West Arabia is what the Bible refers to as Israel! Moreover, Moses and Pharaoh were not in Egypt, but rather in Yemen! Egypt in the Bible is not today's Egypt, ...etc.
- Summary of the theory
- References to this theory
- Asir is the promised land
- Summary of Salibi's views (in Arabic)
- Discussion of Salibi's theory
To bring both sides of the argument to the table, I have to mention that I received an email on April 2005 from Dr. Bernard Leeman stating the following:
I have just published "Queen of Sheba and Biblical Scholarship" (AWP, New Jersey) which concludes that Kamal Salibi's hypothesis is correct - that ancient Israel and Judah until 722 and 586 BCE were indeed in Western Arabia. Chaim Rabin's work (1951) (which Salibi didn't consult) on Ancient West Arabian concludes that there is too much Hebrew in certain South West Arabian dialects to be coincidental (in the same area that Salibi locates the Old Testament) . Also the map references, ancient legal code and other items in the Sheba-Melelik cycle of the Ethiopic (Ge'ez) Kebra Nagast support Salibi. Roger Schneider's discovery of Sabaean inscriptions near Mekele in Ethiopia not only confirms the presence there of Hebrews ca 800 BCE but also the narrative of the Kebra Nagast.
There is a lot more evidence, and Salibi should be taken very seriously, even though it means a major reassessment of faith-based history.
I emailed Dr. Leeman twice that I would be willing to publish a one page summary of his book on this site. I have not yet heard from him.
Comments
Noureddine of F... (not verified)
Kanaan and the lettering
Sat, 2011/01/01 - 20:03Dear Khalid:
Yu have said a little that means a lot. So brief your statement it reflects a more reasonable response that the other Kimanah. I agree with you.
I also agree with Dr. Nur's articles below.
M. Essa (not verified)
كنعان وكنان
Thu, 2011/01/13 - 11:00اود ان اعلق باللغة العربية على موضوع كنعان وكنان
اولا: ان شعب كنانة او كنان هو اكبر الشعوب العربية (شعب تعني تجمع قبائل) وكان يقطن على الساحل الغربي لمكة الذي يدعى اليوم الحجاز حتى تهامة اليمن. والسيدة هاجر المذكورة في التوراة على انها مصرية هي بالحقيقة مضرية من مضر فالنبي ابراهيم ذهب الى السوق الموجود بالمحطة القائمة انذاك على خط التجارة الدولي والذي كان يمر غربي مكة حيث اشتراها وعاد بها الى ساره في عرفة. فالتوراة تصف هاجر بالمصرية بينما هي مضرية كما تصفها بالكنعانية بينما هي كنانية. ويظهر ان الاسم التبس على مترجمي التوراة الاصلية التي كانت مدونة باللغة الحميرية- السبئية القديمة والتي كانت منتشرة بين جميع القبائل اليمنية في زمن بني اسرائيل وهي اللغة التي سماها اليهود "اللغة العبرية" تجاوزا. فتللك اللغة لم تكن تعرف التنقيط. ويظهر ان المترجمين اما جهلا او قصدا ترجموا اسم كنان الى كنعان واسم مضر الى مصر. علما بان محطات القوافل التجارية على خط التجارة الدولي القديم والذي كان يمر على طول ساحل الجزيرة الغربي، كانت تدعى "امصار" ومفردها مصر. كما ان اسم كنعان كان موجودا في اليمن وليس في الحجاز. اذ ان اهل اليمن كانوا يطلقون اسم الكنعان على من استقر من القبائل في القرى والمدن واسم العبران على القبائل التي استمرت في حياة البدو الرحل. وبنو اسرائيل كانوا من العبران.ومن يريد الاستزادة من هذا الموضوع احيله الى كتاب "فلسطين المتخيلة" للكاتب العراقي فاضل الربيعي نشر دار الفكر في دمشق. وشكرا
DR.NUR (not verified)
DR.BERNARD-LEEMAN CONFIRMS ISRAEL-FROM-HIJAZ
Sat, 2010/03/13 - 14:35I NOTICED THAT FEW IRANIANS KNOW THAT IT WAS THEIR KING
CYRUS-THE-GREAT WHO BROUGHT THE JEWS TO PALESTINE FIRST AS YOU CAN GET
FROM MY WIDE COLLECTION OF DATA.
LIVING IN SAUDI ARABIA'S HIJAZ IN ABHA ASIR I HAD COME TO FEEL AND
KNOW THIS ON MY OWN AND FOUND I WAS NOT THE ONLY ONE...
IN FACT MOST RELIGIOUS AND ACADEMIC CIRCLES IN IRAN ITSELF DO NOT
SUSPECT THEMSELVES THEY HAVE BEEN FED A "ZIONIST" VERSION OF HISTORY.
SO SOME OF THIS MATERIAL HAS TO BE SUMMARIZED IN FARSI TOO.
I AM SUPRISED EVEN WHEN PRESSTV REFERS TO ISRAEL AS THE LAND OF "KING
DAVID AND SOLOMON" WHEN EVEN ISRAEL'S ARCHEOLOGISTS KNOW THAT IT IS
FALSE AND HAVE STOPPED BELIEVING IT.SEE BELOW.THANKS
/SEE WWW.KAMALSALIBI.BLOGSPOT.COM/
THE BOOK BY DR.BERNARD-LEEMAN "QUEEN OF SHEBA
AND ISRAEL" (PDF http://www.queenofsheba.info/files/part-1.pdf ) WHICH DEMONSTRATES CLEARLY HOW EARLY ISRAELITES WERE
ORDINARY ARABS AND THAT JERUSALEM,JERICHO.HEBRON WERE/ARE IN ARABIAN
HEJAZ IN THE MOUNTAIN RIDGE BETWEEN MEKKAH AND YEMEN,AND THAT ABRAHAM
AND MOST OTHER PROPHETS-LEGENDS OR TRUTH-WERE FROM THERE.
MODERN JEWS ARE THE TURCO-RUSSIAN DESCENDENTS OF A KHAZAR KING OF
KHAZARIA, DESCENDENT OF ATTILA THE HUN,
(FROM CHECHNYA TO CRIMEA AND KHAZAKHSTAN) WHO CONVERTED TO JUDAISM IN 8TH
CENTURY TO AVOID CHRISTIAN BYZANTINE SUZERAINTY OR BAGHDAD'S ISLAMIC
KHALIFA AS HIS WEALTH WAS THE RUSSIAN SLAVE TRADE TO BOTH HENCE THE
NAME "SLAVIC PEOPLES" AS EXPLAINED BY BRITISH JEWISHHISTORIAN
DR.ARTHUR-KOESTLER IN HIS http://www.fantompowa.info/koestlerindex.htm
http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/koestlerindex.htm
THE_THIRTEENTH_TRIBE BOOK AS A PDF/
I HEAR NO ONE IN MEDIA,INCLUDING OPEN MINDED PEOPLE LIKE YOU MASTERING THIS
KNOWLEDGE WHICH IS SO IMPORTANT IN UNDERSTANDING HOW FAR OUT THE
ISRAELO-AMERICO-EURO ZIONIST ARE IN THEIR COLONIAL PALESTINE INJUSTICE
FOR WHICH THEY ARE BANKRUPTING THE WORLD AND BRINGING IT TO THE EDGE
OF WORLD COLLAPSE AND WAR.
THESE CITIES WERE REBUILT IN THE FIRST ZIONIST MOVE WHEN THEY OBTAINED
AN ADMINISTRATIVE "GOVERNORSHIP" UNDER PERSIAN KING CYRUS THE GREAT
WHO PUT THEM IN HIS CIVIL SERVICE AFTER CONQUERING BABYLON AND THE
WHOLE MIDDLE EAST FROM GREECE TO LYBIA.
THEY PUT THE NAMES JERICHO,JERUSALEM ETC FROM THEIR MEMORIES AS
AMERICANS CALLED CITIES MEMPHIS,PHILADELPHIA,PARIS ETC.
THAT IS WHY THEY/JEWS ARE CALLED IN NEW TESTAMENT AS PHARISEES OR
FARSIS/PERSIANS.
WHAT IRONY TODAY THAT THEY ARE TURNING AGAINST IRAN THE PEOPLE OF
WHICH GAVE THEM THEIR FIRST EXCUSE FOR THE "CLAIM"...
SEE THE MAPS CLICK HERE http://www.tajdeed.org/article.aspx?id=10334
OR WWW.AL_HIJAZ_HOMELAND_OF_ABRAHAM.PDF
http://www.aaargh.codoh.info/fran/livres7/TEHERAN/achillesheel.pdf
Being a jew converted to Islam I just want justice for all,the
palestinians, and to save the "jews" and the world another "holocaust"
which they would have brought upon themselves...
IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBTS PLEASE READ MY POSTS ON DR.KAMAL-SALIBI'S BLOG
HERE http://kamalsalibi.blogspot.com AND in the comments at
www.altajdeed.BLOGSPOT.COM
THE IMPORTANT IS THAT ISRAEL'S MAIN ARCHEOLOGISTS KNOW IT IS TRUE
ALTHOUGH THEY ARE IGNORED BY THE ZIONIST "TEMPLE MERCHANTS" OF FALSE
KNOWLEDGE:
HAARETZ ARTICLE:
" Deconstructing the walls of Jericho: Who are the Jews?"
NOTICE: Please Read! ZEEV HERZOG IS CHIEF ARCHEOLOGIST TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY
By Ze'ev Herzog (Ha'aretz Magazine, Friday, October 29, 1999)
Following 70 years of intensive excavations in the Land of Israel,
archaeologists have found out: The patriarchs' acts are legendary, the
Israelites did not sojourn in Egypt or make an exodus, they did not
conquer the land. Neither is there any mention of the empire of David
and Solomon, nor of the source of belief in the God of Israel. These
facts have been known for years, but Israel is a stubborn people and
nobody wants to hear about it
This is what archaeologists have learned from their excavations in the
Land of Israel: the Israelites were never in Egypt, did not wander in
the desert, did not conquer the land in a military campaign and did
not pass it on to the 12 tribes of Israel. Perhaps even harder to
swallow is the fact that the united monarchy of David and Solomon,
which is described by the Bible as a regional power, was at most a
small tribal kingdom. And it will come as an unpleasant shock to many
that the God of Israel, Jehovah, had a female consort and that the
early Israelite religion adopted monotheism only in the waning period
of the monarchy and not at Mount Sinai. Most of those who are engaged
in scientific work in the interlocking spheres of the Bible,
archaeology and the history of the Jewish people - and who once went
into the field looking for proof to corroborate the Bible story - now
- Show quoted text -
EXCERPTS:Dr.Nur said...
The Messiah Myth: The Near Eastern Roots of Jesus and David
by Professor Thomas L. Thompson
and
The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel
and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts
by Professors Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman./( THEY
ARE THE ARCHEOLOGISTS FROM TEL AVIV UNIV WITH PROF ZEEV-HERZOG. WHO
ELSE ARE BETTER APOLOGISTS OF DR.KAMAL-SALIBI! ..)
Concluded:
There is no trace of evidence after 150 years of search that any
significant Jewish civilisation with some grand Temples ever existed
in Palestine. Thus search for the location of biblical stories has to
be directed southward to central Arabia.
Source(s):
January 25, 2010 4:48 PM
Dr.Nur said...
AND THIS TOO/ Deconstructing the walls of Jericho
Ze'ev Herzog of Tel Aviv University announced: "the Israelites
were never in Egypt, ... In addition, Herzog's colleague, Israel
Finkelstein, claims the Jews were nothing more .... Copyright
2007-2009 The7thFire.com. All Rights Reserved. ...
www.the7thfire.com/new_world.../who_are_the_Jews.htm
January 25, 2010 6:47 PM
Dr.Nur said...
I FOUND THIS PERTINENT TO DR.KAMAL-SALIBI'S WORK ON BIBLICAL
STUDIES AS IT GIVES SIMILAR REASSMENT OF SOME BIBLICAL AND PALESTINE
ZIONIST MYTHS AND THE IMPORTANT IS THAT IT IS BY PROMINENT JEWISH
SCHOLARS THE GOOGLE LINK TITLE ITSELF IS A SUMMARY OF SORTS:
" AT THE CUTTING EDGE OF JEWISH STUDIES; The Most Recent ...
The consensus was formed around three general issues: a) the
history of ancient Israel , b) the sources of the Torah, and c) the
biblical text. ...
www.arts.mcgill.ca/programs/Jewish/30yrs/rendsburg/index.html -
Cached " (TITLE):
" Down with History, Up with Reading: The Current State of
Biblical Studies[1] "
..........
By Gary A. Rendsburg, Cornell University
MAIN THESIS:" .. .[10] Accordingly, the Genesis stories are the
inventions of Jews during the Babylonian exile when such customs were
the way of life. And why have patriarchal stories at all? Why have
Abraham originating in Mesopotamia and emigrating to Canaan? BECAUSE
THIS WAS EARLY ZIONIST PROPAGANDA to get Jews to leave their homes in
comfortable Babylon to make the long journey to begin a new and
arduous life in the land of their forefathers. It is clear from Second
Isaiah and Ezra and Nehemiah, and from Babylonian textual remains—I
refer here to the Murashu documents which describe affluent Jewish
businessmen in Mesopotamia during this period—that not all Jews wanted
to return to Israel. Thus was Abraham invented.."
February 11, 2010 4:41 AM
Dr.Nur said...
AND THESE ARE OTHER BIG POINTS:"...As such, the Israelites had
never been to Egypt (well, perhaps a small number of them had, but
they were insignificant in the ethnic composition of the new people of
Israel). The Bible’s foundational story about the Israelites as slaves
in Egypt is not a reflection of any historical reality, but rather a
reflection of the fact that Israel had been slaves in the land of
Canaan, slaves to Canaanite urban centers..."AND OTHER BIG POINT
"..The fact that the Israelites originate as Canaanites explains why
there is so much polytheism present in the Bible’s description of the
people of Israel. Israel was not a monotheism or a monolatry fighting
polytheistic tendencies among its people under the influence of their
Canaanite neighbors, but rather just another group of Canaanite
polytheists, albeit one with a small but vocal and in the end
successful group of radical thinkers conceiving of the idea of one
god. ... "
Ibrahim (not verified)
Bani Israel
Tue, 2010/03/30 - 17:47I am an ismaili muslim living in Najran ( South west of Arabia) , and I belife so much in Dr. Salibi theory about the land of Israel and that all the prophet of Israel were living in Arabia. I would like to mention some point:
1. we beleife that the Pharaoh of Moses is named as " Al-waleed bin Mussab" which look like arabic name not egyptian king name such as Ramsees or Khovo.
2.As the main belief in ismailism is the belife of Imamat, we belife that the son's of Ismail were the Imam Mustagar and the sons of Issac were Imam Mustawda. and that Imam Mustaqar appoint the Imam Mustawda and I assume in this case that there was a close communication between the sons of Ismail and the sons of Isaac and that they where living closely.
Noureddine (not verified)
The name Pharaon
Sat, 2010/06/26 - 16:09Just a reminder that in the Hebrew Bible the name Phar'aon is never mentioned with "THE", which means it is not a surname. The same in the Quran where we read it as a person having that name. Phar'aon was a man and his name was Fir'aon. The Quran says: Aala Fir'aon as his tribe and descendents. They survived through generations and centuries and we find the Fir'aon tribe alive until today, along with the Tribe Emran, Eissa, Sham'oun, Manassa, Omeyr, Thabit, Yammim, etc... Don't ask me about the Egyptian Civilization wrongly dubbed as Fara'onic by mistake. The Nile Valley has always been the country of the Gypt or Kopt. We have to be careful not confuse the Greek influence in the interpretation of the Old Egypt. The Prophet himself wrote to the Sovereign of the Gypt, not of Misr, because the Nile Valley in his time was not called Misr. believe it or not. Also in the entire list of Egyptian dynasties there is not a single king by the name Fir'aon. Have we forgotten that the Al-Madina held the name of Yathrib, Moses' father-in-law?
Omar Ibrahim (not verified)
asir region
Thu, 2021/02/04 - 03:40Hello Ibrahim, if you are living in Najran you are very close to the region. This is very late, but I am willing to pay for maps of the asir region of saudi arabia. Please email me at yomar2220@gmail.com
Mohammad Essa Sirhi (not verified)
Return to the name "Kan'aan" in the Torah
Sat, 2010/04/10 - 10:52I have commented on the name "Kan'aan" on 2010.03.13 and I would
like to elaborate as follows:
1. I believe that Banu Israel were in Yemen-Asir and the prophet
Ibrahim was is Mecca Area which is at the same time "Beiteel" and
the "Beitullah".
2. the neighbours of Ibrahim were Banu Kananah (pronounce kananah
with fatha and not kinanah as in the name "the Land of Kinanah".
Banu Kananah were living in the northern eastern part of Hijaz between Mecca and the Red Sea. For this info you may review all the books of the Arab Historians and the book of Neda AlSurat as well as the book of "The Imagined Palestine" of the Iraqi author
Fadhel AlRubaiee.
Mohammad Essa Sirhi (not verified)
My last post was incomplete.
Sat, 2010/04/10 - 12:02My last post was incomplete. Here is the complete post:
I have commented on the name "Kan'aan" on 2010.03.13 and I would
like to elaborate as follows:
1. I believe that Banu Israel were in Yemen-Asir and the prophet
Ibrahim was is Mecca Area which is at the same time "Beiteel" and
the "Beitullah".
2. the neighbours of Ibrahim were Banu Kananah(pronounced kananah
with fatha and not kinanah as in the name "the Land of Kinanah".
Banu Kananah were living in the northern eastern parts of Hijaz between Mecca and the Red Sea. For this info you may review all the books of the Arab Historians and the book of Neda AlSorat of Tajdeed Society in Bahrain as well as the book : "The Imagined Palestine" of the Iraqi author Fadhel AlRubaiee.
3. the name "Kananah - Kananites" was deviated by the 70 Jewish
translators of what is known as "Spetuagint" around the year 250
B.C. either mistakenly or intentionaly. The name can be read correctly in the original copy of the Torah writen in the Aramiac
or Syriac tongue. Worthmentioning that the Hebrew itself was lost
and nobody was able to read the Torah at that time. So, the 70
Jewish translators took advantage of that and shifted the scenes
of Torah from Yemen and Hijaz to Iraq; Palsetine and Egypt.
Thank you.
Mohammad Essa Sirhi
Anonymous (not verified)
Except of Warsaw in Poland
Sat, 2010/12/04 - 09:12Look into: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw
As you may see people tend to take the names of places close to their hearts with them. Memento: New Amsterdam - today New York. So the theory presented by Kalibi should be taken seriously.
Vixi (not verified)
what is the explination then.
Mon, 2010/12/13 - 18:42I am baffeled at the similarities of names, one is a coinsidence , but 2,3,4 is mind blowing. I also noticed that when reading the Hebrew Bible in English alphabet, it is so much like or is Arabic of today, and also that many of the words and expressions are not used by Hebrews today...Why?
My mind is wanting to refuse this drastic change of geography, but i am not surprised seeing only recently The dwelling place of Moses and the Israelites for 40 yrs was discoverd to be in Arabia, with every single described archeiological item, writtings.
The problem is the Saudis do not realise that they are siting on mass History besides petrol. They carry the secret keys of religion...They are not interested in all and have banned any investigation concerning Moses mount....for this reason i beleive what i beleive
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