Midian

Midian (Hebrew: מִדְיָן‎), Madyan (Arabic: مدين‎), or Madiam (Greek: Μαδιάμ, Μαδιανίτης for a Midianite) is a geographical place and a people mentioned in the Bible and in the Qur'an. William G. Dever suggests it was located in the "northwest Arabian Peninsula, on the east shore of the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea (the "Hejaz") " Some scholars believe it to be somewhere in or around Sudan as the Bible does not make direct mention of its location.

Some scholars say it was not a geographical area but a league of tribes. We are also told that Midian was a son of Abraham.

The modern Hebrew pronunciation, "Midyan", is the result of a normal vowel shift changing an "a" sound to an "i" sound (compare Miryam in Hebrew versus Mariam in Greek or Maryam in Arabic).