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5 CHAPTER 2 Arabs and Israelites The terms “Arab” and “Muslim” describe different aspects of identity. “Arab” refers to a geography, a language, and a culture. “Muslim” refers to a religious identity. And while this book is an introduction to the religion of Islam rather than the ethnicity of Arab culture, the two are closely associated because Islam emerged out of an Arabian geographical, cultural, and linguistic context. Arabs existed long before Muslims, but Islam emerged as an Arabian—as opposed to Israelite or Greco-Roman—monotheism. Arabia and the Bible The Bible is one of the earliest sources referring to Arabia and Arab peoples, and it does so repeatedly, particularly in its early genealogies in the book of Genesis. These genealogies show how the Israelites viewed their relationship with neighboring peoples; they also set the stage for the great biblical saga of the Israelites and their relationship with God. In the ancient world, where there were no mass media and people tended to stay in their towns and villages from birth to death, travelers who journeyed beyond their districts would notice that the farther they traveled, the more difficult it was to understand the language of the people they met. If they traveled far enough, they would encounter people who spoke a truly foreign language that was completely incomprehensible to them. The farther away one moved from one’s home, the less protected one was. In this world, people appeared to exist on a spectrum of relationship in 6 A N I N T R O D U C T I O N T O I S L A M F O R J E W S which kinship, language, physical characteristics, and geographical proximity were all related. The many genealogies in the Bible were a means for making sense of these complex interrelations from the perspective of ancient Israel. The nearby Moabites, for example, who spoke a language that is so similar to Hebrew that the Israelites and Moabites could easily understand one another, were considered to be close relatives through Abraham’s nephew, Lot (Genesis 9). Other peoples, who lived farther away and who spoke dialects or languages that were more difficult to understand, were placed farther away from Israel in the genealogical tables of Genesis. The Arabs are an interesting group, because they exist in a number of biblical genealogies, some placing them distant from Israel through the genealogical lines of Kush and Yoktan in Genesis 0, or very close to Israel through Ishmael and Keturah in Genesis 25. This placement probably reflects the fact that, while Arabic-speaking peoples originated and were concentrated in the Arabian Peninsula, which was relatively far away from the Land of Israel, some lived in nomadic Arabian tribes based in desert or arid areas right on the border. Some of the names that are closely associated with Arab peoples are listed in both sets of genealogies. Sheba and Dedan, for example , are both descendants of the faraway Kush in Genesis 0, but also of Abraham and Keturah in Genesis 25. This probably reflects the reality that different traditions had arisen to explain the relationship of these two groups with Israel. Since it wasn’t clear which was more correct, both were included in the genealogies. None of these families, nor any of the individuals listed in these biblical genealogies, are called Arabs. It seems that the term did not become common in the Bible until later. But we know that they refer to Arabs because the names seem to reflect Arabic linguistic forms or roots, are associated with places that are known to be in Arabia, or reflect economic or cultural aspects of nomadic groups such as Arabs. Hagar, for example, whose son Ishmael would become closely associated with Arab peoples, was told by an angel in Genesis 6:2 that he would live outside of settled areas and engage in the common nomadic activity of raiding settled peoples. In 2:20, Ishmael is again described as living outside of settled areas and engaging in hunting rather than farming. These references reflect the different economies of pastoral nomadism, which was closely associated with Arabian culture , and village agriculture, which was associated with Israelite culture. Some of Ishmael’s sons have strong Arabic names, such as Hadad, which means “smith” and is a common name among Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Arabs today. In the genealogy reflecting Abraham’s relationship with Keturah after the death of Sarah, Midian is their son and...

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