Joktan

Joktan or Yoktan (Hebrew: יָקְטָן, Yoqtan Yoqṭān Arabic: قحطان‎ ; literally, "little") was the second of the two sons of Eber (Gen. 10:25; 1 Chr. 1:19) mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. His name means "small" or "smallness".

In the Book of Genesis 10:25 it reads: "And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan."

Joktan's sons in the order provided in Gen. 10:26-29, were: Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab.

In Pseudo-Philo's account (ca. 70), Joktan was first made prince over the children of Shem, just as Nimrod and Phenech were princes over the children of Ham and Japheth, respectively. In his version, the three princes command all persons to bake bricks for the Tower of Babel, however twelve, including several of Joktan's own sons, as well as Abraham and Lot, refuse the orders. Joktan smuggles them out of Shinar and into the mountains, to the annoyance of the other two princes. The traditional history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church also maintains that Joktan's sons would take no part in the tower building, and that they were thus allowed to preserve the original Ge'ez language — which their descendants, the Agazyan, carried across the Red Sea into Ethiopia as they mixed with the Cushitic and Agaw people to form the hybrid Habesha race.

The Arab peoples comprise numerous clans and tribes. Many historians trace the peoples of the southern Arabian Peninsula to Joktan. However, early Biblical ethnographers, including Josephus and Hippolytus of Rome, identified Joktan's sons with peoples around the Indus river.

One scholar believes Joktan's family separated from his brother Peleg's near a place called Mesha - see Genesis 10:30, at or near Mashhad, he theorizes - and went east over the Silk Road toward the Orient, fathering the Sinitic peoples.