Shem - Racial Connotations

Racial Connotations

Some writers have associated Noah's sons with different skin colors or alleged races. For instance the Jewish text Pirqei R. Eliezer, depicts God as dividing the earth among Noah‘s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, and attributing different skin colors to them (literally, —blessing“ them with different skin colors): light colored skin for the Japhetites, medium dark or brown for the Semites, and very dark or black for the Hamites.

This passage from Pirqei R. Eliezer, a writing which was composed in Israel after the Islamic conquest, is paralleled in an Arabic text of approximately the same period but gives some noticeably different information. The Persian historian Tabari quotes Ibn Abbas (d. 686-8) as saying: "Born to Noah were Shem, whose descendants' colors are a black complexion with a light-brownish undertone (bayādh) and a dark blackish brown (Udmah); Ham, whose descendants' colors are true black (sawād) and a few are a black complexion with a light-brownish undertone (bayādh qalīl); and Japheth, whose descendants are very fair-skinned (al-shuqrah) and olive-skinned (al-humrah)".

Tabarī repeats this tradition again in the name of Ibn Abbas, but this time has dark, blackish brown (Udmah) and a few are a black complexion with a light-brownish undertone (bayādh qalīl) for Ham. So dark blackish brown (udmah) is used instead of true black (sawād). "Udmah" is described as deep sumra. Ibn Mandhur describes sumrah as wurqah, which is translated as blackness in the color of the earth (sawaad feel-ghabrah), and ranges all the way to true black (sawād).

Al-Tha'aalabi says in his book Fiqh Al-Lughah (Understanding Language) in chapter 13 titled 'The Degrees of Blackness in Humans': "If there is a slight blackness in his/her complexion, he/she is asmar (sumrah). If his/her blackness is more intense with some yellow showing, he/she is as-ham. If his/her blackness is more intense than asmar, he/she is Adam (udmah). If his/her blackness is more intense than that of Adam, he/she is asham. If he/she is extremely black, he/she is adlam (dalam)."

Bar Hebraeus speaks of Noah dividing the world among his three sons, with Ham getting the Land of the Blacks (sūdān), Shem the Land of the Browns (sumra), and Japheth the Land of the Reds (łuqra).

Josiah Priest (1788–1851) believed that Shem, because he was a descendant in the Adamic line, and because "Adam" means reddish in Hebrew, that Shem too was of the "reddish race". Further, he believed that because Christ was a descendant in the line of Shem, that Christ was of "copper-colored stock".

According to ISBE, Shem means "dusky", and Japheth means "fair."

According to Armenian tradition, Shem had the region of the "tawny".