Sons of Noah - Table of Nations - Ham's Descendants

Ham's Descendants

• Cush, son of Ham. The Empire of Kush to the south of Egypt is known from at least 1970 BC, but this name has also been associated by some with the Kassites who inhabited the Zagros area of Mesopotamia, the Sumerian city of Kish.
  • Seba, son of Cush. Has been connected with both Yemen and Ethiopia, with much confusion with Sheba below. (The Shibboleth-like division amongst the Sabaeans into Sheba and Seba is acknowledged elsewhere, for example in Psalm 72, leading scholars to suspect that this is not a mistaken duplication of the same name, but a genuine historical division. The significance of this division is not yet completely understood, though it may simply reflect which side of the sea each was on.)
  • Havilah, son of Cush. Usually considered to be a part of the Arabian peninsula near the Red Sea.
  • Sabtah, son of Cush. Sometimes connected with Hadhramis (their ancient capital being Saubatha) in eastern Yemen.
  • Raamah, son of Cush. Has been connected with Rhammanitae mentioned by Strabo in the southwest Arabian peninsula, and with an Arabian city of Regmah at the head of Persian Gulf.
    • Sheba, son of Raamah. Has been connected with Sabaeans and peoples on either side of the narrowest part of the Red Sea, in both Yemen/South Arabia, and Eritrea/Ethiopia/Somalia.
    • Dedan, son of Raamah. Apparently a region of the Tabuk Province of Saudi Arabia.
  • Sabtechah, son of Cush. Possibly Sabaiticum Ostium, Sabaeans living around a specific harbour in Eritrea.
  • Nimrod, son of Cush, also identified as a mighty hunter before God, and the founder of ancient Babel, Akkad, Sumer, and possibly cities in Assyria. The Hebrew wording of Genesis 10:11 has led to some ambiguity as to whether Asshur here is the son of Shem or a city built by Nimrod; either interpretation can be found in various modern versions.
• Mizraim, son of Ham. Mizraim is a name for Upper and Lower Egypt and literally translates as Ta-Wy in Ancient Egyptian ("The Two Lands"). The -aim in Mizraim represents dual number. Arabic-speaking modern Egyptians refer to their country as Miṣr.
  • Ludim, offspring of Mizraim. Sometimes considered a scribal error for Lubim, a reference to the Lebou of Eastern Libya.
  • Anamim, offspring of Mizraim. There is a reference in an Assyrian inscription from Sargon II's time to Anami, a tribe located in Cyrene, Libya.
  • Lehabim, offspring of Mizraim. Identification uncertain, possibly Libya.
  • Naphtuhim, offspring of Mizraim. Has been connected with Na-Ptah, the Egyptian form of Memphis.
  • Pathrusim, offspring of Mizraim. Possibly connected with Egyptian word Pa-To-Ris meaning southerners.
  • Casluhim ("out of whom came Philistim").(Genesis 10:14, 1Chronicles 1:12)
  • Caphtorim, offspring of Mizraim, associated with Caphtor in northeast Egypt near Philistia.(Genesis 10:14, 1Chronicles 1:12)
• Phut, son of Ham. Ancient authorities are fairly universal in identifying Phut with the Libyans (Lebu and Pitu), the earliest neighbors of Egypt to the west. (Although more recent theories have tried to connect Phut with Phoenicia, or the currently unidentified Land of Punt.)
• Canaan, son of Ham. This is known to be the name of a nation and people who settled the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean in what is now called Israel and Lebanon and Syria.
  • Sidon, firstborn son of Canaan, and name one of the oldest city-states on the Phoenician coast.
  • Heth, son of Canaan, considered ancestor of "Hittites", a people of Canaan, possibly connected with Hatti, a powerful entity in Anatolia.
  • "the Jebusite", offspring of Canaan, a tribe that lived around Jerusalem, that was formerly known as Jebus according to the Books of Chronicles.(1Chronicles 11:4)
  • "the Amorite", offspring of Canaan, a people living between the Jordan and Euphrates rivers by at least 2000 BC, known as Amurru to the Akkadians and Egyptians.
  • "the Girgasites", offspring of Canaan
  • "the Hivite", offspring of Canaan
  • "the Arkite", offspring of Canaan, probably city-state of Arqa in Phoenicia.
  • "the Sinite", offspring of Canaan, possibly connected with the Wilderness of Sin, or the Sinn river in Syria.
  • "the Arvadite", offspring of Canaan, refers to the Phoenician city-state of Arwad, now; inhabited island in Syria.
  • "the Zemarite", offspring of Canaan, refers to the Phoenician city-state of Zemar.
  • "the Hamathite", offspring of Canaan, refers to Syrian city of Hamath.

Africans were thus anciently understood to be the sons of Ham, particularly his descendant Cush, as Cushites are referred to throughout scripture as being the inhabitants of East Africa, and they and the Yoruba still trace their ancestry through Ham today. Beginning in the 9th century with the Jewish grammarian Judah ibn Quraysh, a relationship between the Semitic and Cushitic languages was seen; modern linguists group these two families, along with the Egyptian, Berber, Chadic, and Omotic language groups into the larger Afro-Asiatic language family. In addition, languages in the southern half of Africa are now seen as belonging to several distinct families independent of the Afro-Asiatic group. Some now discarded Hamitic theories have become viewed as racist; in particular a theory proposed in the 19th century by Speke, that the Tutsi were supposedly Hamitic and thus inherently superior.

The 17th-century Jesuit, Athanasius Kircher, thought that the Chinese had also descended from Ham, via Egyptians.