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Return of Arabia to being full of pastures & Rivers

Prophet Mohammad made a very significant prophecy. He prophesied in a Hadith (transmitted in 2 variations) that the land of the Arabs (Arabian Peninsula) will return to being paradises and rivers. Through our analysis of numerical values of words in this prophecy, we have managed to discover in which this is likely to happen.

عن أبي هريرة رضي الله عنه أن النبي صلى الله عليه و سلم قال : " لا تقوم الساعةُ حتى يكثر المال ويفيض ، حتى يخرج الرجل بزكاة ماله فلا يجد أحداً يقبلها منه ، و حتى تعود أرض العرب مروجاً و أنهاراً " . صحيح مسلم

Based on Abu Huraira, Prophet Mohammad صلى الله عليه وسلم  said: " The Hour (of Resurrection) will not occur..... until the land of the Arabs returns to being pastures and rivers." (Sahih Muslim).

A variation of this Hadith appears in Musnad Ahmad:  

لن تقوم الساعه حتى تعود جزيرة العرب كما كانت جنات وأنهار

The Hour (of Resurrection) will not occur until the Arabian Peninsula returns, as it used to be, paradises and rivers." (Musnad Ahmad)

The Quran in verses 131-135 of Sura Al-Shu'ara (Chapter 26)  mentions that the land of people of Aad in Arabia used to be like paradise before God destroyed the city and turned Arabia into desert because they disobeyed God. There are lots of indications that the U.S. is similar to Aad and will receive a similar punishment from God:

أرض العرب كانت أرضاً خصبة ، و هي حقيقة أكدها القرآن الكريم فيما ذكره تعالى من قول نبي الله هود عليه السلام و هو يدعو قومه عاد الذين كانوا يسكنون في الجنوب من أرض العرب ، قال تعالى : { فَاتَّقُوا اللهَ وَ أَطِيعُونِ ( 131 ) و اتَّقُوا الذَّي أَمَدَّكُم بِمَا تَعلَمُونَ ( 132 ) أَمَدَّكُم بِأَنعَامٍ وَبَنيِن ( 133 ) وَجَنَّاتٍ وَ عُيُونٍ ( 134 ) إنّي أَخَافُ عَلَيكُم عَذَابَ يَومٍ عَظِيمٍ } [ الشعراء : 131 - 135 ]

131. So fear Allah and obey me. 132. And fear Him (Allah) Who has helped you with the things which you know. 133. He has helped you with cattle and children, 134. And (also) with gardens and springs. 135. Surely I fear the torment of a Terrible Day coming upon you. (Chapter 26: 131-135)

At the time of Prophet Mohammad and until today, Arabia has been a desert.

This indicates that the Arabian Peninsula used to be green pastures many centuries ago, instead of its current condition as a desert. More importantly, this means we should expect a major cosmic event in the upcoming years that will cause such a dramatic change in World climate.

This prophecy has started to materialize:

A Muslim man named Zaheer has recently reported on his blog ( http://zaheersblog.blogspot.com ) that he went to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah. He went to Madina first and then Makka. On June 27, 2010, on his way to Makka, may be about twenty five miles from it, he started noticing greenery. The whole desert looked like a faint green meadow. This greenery was not the result of some intentional gardening or landscaping. This is what used to be a bare desert and it is miles and miles of land.

Another Muslim, Faraz Omar, reported, in his March 16, 2010 article, noticing after visiting Mecca that Saudi Arabia is becoming green. A long stretch of the highway, for God knows how many kilometers, has unmistakably become quite green with desert grass:.

The following are photos taken by Faraz Omar showing the new greenery in Saudi Arabia:

Furthermore, the following video below talks about a major crack in the earth in Ethiopia that has formed in 2005, due to an earthquake, which may lead Africa to split into two continents separated by an ocean. This will make the Arabian Peninsula on the ocean. This will make the climate in Arabia milder, turning Arabia into green pastures as Prophet Mohammad has prophesied.

Kuwait & Wadi Al-Batin valley River

Dr. Farouq El-Baz, NASA scientist and Professor at Boston University piqued the interest of Biblical scholars around the world with his announcement of the so-called Kuwait River. The idea that a river once flowed across the deserts of Arabia, and somehow connected with the Tigris and/or Euphrates River, seemed far-fetched. Yet evidence for such a river came from the satellite radar images taken during the 1994 mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavor. Al-Baz studied the images, and noticed that traces of a defunct river that crossed northern Arabia from west to east were visible beneath the sands, thanks to the ground-penetrating capabilities of the radar technologies. He called it the Kuwait River (believed to have ran through Wadi Al-Batin valley in Northeastern Saudi Arabia, in ancient times) for that is where it apparently connected with the Euphrates or emptied into the Persian Gulf.

New Scientist magazine in April 3, 1993 reported the following article:

"Geologists studying remote sensing images of Arabia have found a dry riverbed covered by desert sands. The 850-kilometre channel begins in the Hijaz Mountains of western Saudi Arabia and ends in a delta that covers more than two-thirds of Kuwait, says Farouk El-Baz, director of the centre for remote sensing at Boston University. Parts of the ancient channel had been mapped as 'wadis', but no one had recognised it as a large river system because large dune fields cut across it.

Arabia has had wet periods at times over the past 200 000 years. Water last flowed in what El-Baz calls the 'Kuwait River' between 5000 and 11 000 years ago; some stretches of the river may have been up to 5 kilometres wide. Then as the region became one of the driest in the world, blowing sands covered the channel. The river runs along a fault, so that there should still be ground water deep in the channel. El-Baz says this water might be tapped by wells several hundred metres deep. Sand-covered parts of the old channel may contain the remains of prehistoric settlements, from the time before the river dried.

El-Baz sees signs to the south of three other dry rivers that would have drained other parts of Arabia."

Fig. 1 Map Showing Eden’s Long-lost River
 

Four rivers are mentioned in the narrative of the ordering of creation in Genesis 2, but as any commentary will tell you, only three are known. The commentaries, it turns out, will have to be rewritten.

Eden’s Pishon river, mentioned only in the Bible (Genesis 2:11), is said to have flowed “around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold...” Three other rivers which Genesis said were alongside the Pishon are known to us as the centers of the world’s earliest civilizations, but the Pishon was a complete enigma to readers for millennia, until recently. The earliest known civilizations, Sumer and Egypt, knew nothing of it, and these civilizations were flourishing over 1500 years before Abraham! Satellite imaging and later Space Shuttle echolocation revealed a pock-marked section of the desert caused by river stones which still lay buried deep under the desert sand. Blue is limestone, yellow-orange is desert sand; the pock-marked area in the yellow sand (below left) is caused by the influences of subterranean topography and wind on the desert sand. (the river was discovered by Farouk El-Baz of Boston University).

The imagery also overturned the prevailing assumption of climactic stability since the end of the last ice age (ending c. 9000BC) held by a majority of ancient Near Eastern scholars until recently. It would appear, as James Sauer puts it, that Genesis contains some very ancient historical memory about ancient Near Eastern geography. How ancient? The presence of this river far predates the geography described by the Sumerians and the Egyptians, which are the earliest civilizations known to historians, yet its existence and location are just as they are found in the Bible.

This brings to mind an obvious question: where’s all that gold? It turns out that the gold of that land is good! The ancient river, it turns out, runs right by the best producing site in the world today. "Only one place in Arabia has such a deposit -the famous site of Mahd ed-Dahab, the "Cradle of Gold." This mine, ancient and modern [it was re-discovered in 1932] currently produces more than 5 tons of gold a year. The mining site is located about 125 miles south of Medina, near the headwaters of the Kuwait River" (Sauer, op cit, p. 64).

“This quartz-sulfide-gold vein at Mahd edh-Dhahab is still mined today. The mine, which some identify as King Solomon’s mine (1 Kings 9:26–28), produces more than 5 tons of gold a year” (Sauer, op cit).

The Earliest Civilization and the Bible
By Carl Olof Jonsson, Göteborg, Sweden, 2002

Disclaimer: This article is authored by a non-Muslim. We do not endorse this article, but it is informative and worth reading.

According to the first chapters of the Bible, the earliest human civilization on earth began in and around Mesopotamia in the Near East. If this is correct, we should expect to find in this area traces of the earliest human settlements and villages, the earliest traces of stock-farming and agriculture, the earliest metallurgy and handicraft, the earliest cities, states, trade and writing. How does this tally with the findings of modern archaeology?
 
A.  THE GARDEN OF EDEN
 
According to the Bible the earliest dwelling-place of the first human couple was a ”garden” located in an area called ”Eden”.  Scholars generally dismiss this story as a legend or myth. Dr. E. A. Speiser, however, who before his death in 1965 was Chairman of the Department of Oriental Studies at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, in a careful examination of the story noted that at least its physical background is authentic. In an article originally published in 1959 he stated:
 
 ”Although the Paradise of the Bible was manifestly a place of mystery, its physical setting cannot be dismissed offhand as sheer imagination. To the writer of the account in Gen 2:8ff., in any case, and to his ultimate source or sources, the Garden of Eden was obviously a reality.” – E. A. Speiser, ”The Rivers of Paradise,” reprinted in R. S. Hess & D. T. Tsumura (eds.), ”I Studied Inscriptions from Before the Flood” (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1994), p. 175.
 
The geographical details given by the Biblical writer helps to at least approximately identify the location of the site:
 
”Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. … A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.” – Genesis 2:8, 10-14, NIV.
 
The names of the last two rivers are easily recognizable as the two great rivers flowing toward southeast from eastern Turkey in the north through the modern country of Iraq. About 180 kilometers north of the Persian Gulf the two rivers join into one river, Shatt al-A’rab, which empties its waters into the Persian Gulf. What about the other two rivers, Pishon and Gihon?
 
1.  Gen. 2:10: The four ”heads” or ”headwaters”
 
Before attempting to identify the Pishon and Gihon rivers, it must be determined whether the writer means that the four ”headwaters” started out from a common source somewhere in eastern Turkey, or whether they converged into a common river channel in the south.
 
Normally, a river does not break up on its way downstream from its source into several rivers that reach the sea separately, although such a break up may occur in a delta area near the sea, as in the Egyptian Nile delta. Rather, a river is joined during its downstream course by other rivers or tributaries to form one common river channel that finally empties its waters into the sea. This is clearly the case with the rivers of Euphrates and Tigris today. That Eden, where the four headwaters or rivers converged was located in the south also has linguistic support, as Dr. Speiser argues:
 
”It would seem to follow, then, that the ’four heads’ of which the text speaks (v. 10) are meant to be viewed upstream rather than down, something very few authorities appear to have realized. Yet both Akkadian and Hebrew usage support such a view. Thus Akk. ina reš Uqnê stands for ’on the upper Kerkha.’ And A. Ehrlich has pointed out that the Hebrew term for the lower course of a stream is qatsê [’mouth’] (cf. Josh 15:5, 18:19); hence roš [”head”] must refer to the opposite end, the upper course or headstream.” – Speiser (1994), pp. 178-179.  
 
Thus Speiser, on page 20 of his commentary on Genesis (The Anchor Bible: Doubleday, 1962), concludes that ”the term ’heads’ can have nothing to do with streams into which the river breaks up after it leaves Eden, but designates instead four separate branches which have merged within Eden.”
 
Very interestingly, the ancient Sumerians, too, who inhabited southern Mesopotamia, located the original paradise, which they called Dilmun, at the mouth of the rivers, in an unknown territory to the east of the Sumerian cities. – Theresa Howard-Carter, ”The Tangible Evidence for the Earliest Dilmun,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol. 33 (1981), pp. 217-220.
 
All of this means that the area where the four rivers converged should be sought in the south. We have already seen that the Euphrates and Tigris rivers join into one river not very far from the Persian Gulf. If the region of Eden embraced or adjoined this area, the other two rivers, Gihon and Pishon, also merged with the other two somewhere in the same general region.
 

2.  Gihon, the river of Cush
 
The ”land of Cush”, through which the Gihon river is stated to have wound, is most often used in the Bible of the region south of Egypt, i.e., Nubia or Ethiopia. However, in ancient times there was also another ”land of Cush,” which lay to the east of Mesopotamia in what is today western Iran. Speiser explains:
 
”The source of most of our geographical troubles with the biblical Paradise is the mention of a land called Cush in Gen 2:13. Normally, the Bible understands by that term the region of the Upper Nile, cuneiform Kus/šu, Kas/ši, Eg[yptian] K’š. But there was also another, and wholly unrelated, Cush; the Nimrod fragment (Gen 10:8-12) connects this homonym unmistakably with Mesopotamia, by assigning it to the father of the hero who is said to have founded a number of Babylonian and Assyrian capitals. This particular Cush, then, is the eponym of the Kassites, Akk. Kaššû; its Nuzi form Kuššu- and its Greek derivative Kossaîoi, actually contain the same vowel as the biblical name.” – Speiser (1994), pp. 176-177.  
 
Much later, these Kassites conquered Babylon and ruled Babylonia c. 1500-1150 BCE.
 
Today, two major rivers flow from the Iranian mountains in the east down to the southern part of the Mesopotamian flood-plain, viz., Kerkha and Karun, the latter joining Shatt al-A´rab about 50 kilometers north of the Persian Gulf, while Kerkha, ancient Choaspes, flows past the site of ancient Susa down to the marshes north of Shatt al-A’rab.
The Samaritan version actually ”renders Gihon, the name of the river of Cush, by ’Asqop, evidently the Choaspes, modern Kerkha.” (Speiser, 1994, p. 177) Owing to variations of the river flows, changes of the sea level prior to the third millennium BCE, and the marshy flood-plain in southern Iraq, the lower courses of these rivers have changed considerably since ancient times. It is even possible that the two adjacent rivers amalgamated into one river before reaching the Gulf area. If one of them, or perhaps both jointly, is the Gihon river, as seems likely, where is Pishon?
 

3.  Pishon, the river of Havilah
 
According to Genesis 2:11-12, Pishon ”winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.)” Speiser first considered either Kerkha or Karun as possible candidates. But as the land of Havilah is most commonly connected with the Arabian Peninsula (Gen. 10:26-29; 25:18; 1 Chron. 1:20-23), he also suggested that one of the now dry wadis (dry riverbeds) that slope down from the south, could be identified with the Pishon river, adding: ”It remains to be shown, however, that any of the present wadis was sufficiently active during the period in question to constitute a sizable and perennial river.” – Speiser (1994), p. 182.
 
That a ”sizable and perennial river” once did exist in this area that in every respect meets the description of the Pishon river has, in fact, been clearly demonstrated in later years by modern climatological research and satellite studies. James A. Sauer, former curator of the Harvard Semitic Museum’s archaeological collections and up to his death in the late 1990’s a leading excavator of various sites on the Arabian Peninsula, has summarized these findings in his article, ”The River Runs Dry. Creation Story Preserves Historical Memory,” published in the Biblical Archaeology Review, Vol. 22:4, July/August 1996, pp. 52-57, 64.
 
James Sauer starts by saying that he speaks ”as a former skeptic.” He had long doubted that archaeology could uncover evidence of the earliest Biblical stories, having previously written numerous papers in which he had criticized the optimism of W. F. Albright and many of his students. ”Now I am recanting,” he says. ”My current work on climate change had led me to conclude that Albright and his students were clearly correct to look for connections between the archaeological evidence and early Biblical traditions.” (Sauer, p. 52)
 
Contrary to the previously prevailing view, recent research has shown that dramatic climatic changes have occurred within historical times in the Near East and elsewhere. According to carbon 14 datings (that are very rough and uncertain at this early period), a global wet phase began in about 7500 BCE that lasted until about 3500 BCE. The warm wet humid climate during this period encouraged the growth of subtropical vegetation in the areas around the Persian Gulf. In southern Saudi Arabia, ancient lakes existed in what is today the largest sand desert in the world, and further north, a river originating in the Hijaz Mountains in the west run toward northeast across the whole Arabian Peninsula into the head of the Persian Gulf.
 
This large river, which in places was 3 miles wide, was discovered in the early 1990’s by Boston University scientist Farouk El-Baz while studying a satellite photo of central Arabia. Much of the river channel is today concealed by sand dunes. It has been named the ”Kuwait River”, as it reached the Persian Gulf via the now dried riverbed called Wadi Al-Batin that runs along the northern border of Kuwait.
In about 3500 BCE, the climate suddenly changed, and a drier period followed that peaked in the period 2350-2000 BCE, causing the ”Kuwait River” to dry out. (This climatic disaster also brought the Akkadian empire to an end. See the Science magazine, Vol. 261, 20 August 1993, p. 985: ”How the Akkadian Empire Was Hung Out to Dry”, and ibid., pages 995-1004: ”The Genesis and Collapse of Third Millenium North Mesopotamian Civilization.”)  
 
Sauer concludes that the ”Kuwait River” most probably was the Pishon River. Citing Genesis 2:11-12, he gives the following interesting comments:
”Although the meaning of some of the details in this passage is uncertain, it does seem to describe a river flowing into the head of the Persian Gulf from the low mountains of western Arabia, the path followed by the recently discovered Kuwait River. An important key is the Biblical phrase ’the gold of that land is good.’ Only one place in Arabia has such a deposit—the famous site of Madh Ed-Dahab, the ’Cradle of Gold.’ This ancient and modern gold mining site is located about 125 miles south of Medina, near the headwaters of the Kuwait River.
”The Biblical text also mentions bdellium and onyx. Aromatic resins (bdellium) are known in Yemen to the southwest, and, although they are not thought to have been produced in the vicinity of Medina, they could easily have been brought there. Semiprecious stones such as alabaster also come from these areas, but it is uncertain whether other precious stones, such as onyx, do.” (p. 64)

Sauer adds:
”In any event, no other river would seem to fit the Biblical description. I am therefore inclined to think that the Kuwait River could be the Pishon of the Bible. If so, it implies extraordinarily memory on the part of the Biblical authors, since the river dried up sometime between 3500 and 2000 B.C.E.”

4.  Under the Persian Gulf
 
Most likely, the region of Eden included parts of which is now the Persian Gulf. That the Persian Gulf now covers areas that once have been inhabited has been known for a long time. Referring to an article published in 1957, Speiser says:
 
”Significantly enough, aerial photographs still show traces of ancient cultivation under the present northwest reaches of the Persian Gulf.” – Speiser (1994), p. 180 + note 26 (P. Buringh, ”Living Conditions in the Lower Mesopotamian Plain in Ancient Times,” Sumer 13, 1957, p. 36).
 
The Persian Gulf is shallow, only about 25 meters deep on the average, the deepest place being 102 meters. At the end of the last Ice Age, now usually supposed to have occurred some time between 12000 and 9000 BCE, the sea level was more than 100 meters, perhaps up to 150 meters below the present level, meaning that the Persian Gulf back then must have been an entirely dry basin. This was confirmed by the researches in the Gulf area performed in the 1960’s by the German exploration ship Meteor. It was found that the Gulf had been an 800 kilometers long valley, along which the extended Shatt al-A’rab river carved its course all the way to the Straits of Hormuz and debouched directly into the Gulf of Oman. – Theresa Howard-Carter, ”The Tangible Evidence for the Earliest Dilmun,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol. 33 (1981), p. 213.
 
In recent years, evidence has been accumulating to show that the end of the last ice age was a surprisingly sudden event. Professor Richard A. Muller and Dr. Gordon J. MacDonald, two leading experts on the Ice Ages, explain:
 
”The abruptness of the termination is startling. Agriculture, and all of our civilization, developed since this termination. The enormous glacier, several kilometers thick, covering much of North America and Eurasia, rapidly melted. Only small parts of this glacier survived in Greenland and Antarctica, where they exist to this day. The melting caused a series of worldwide floods unlike anything previously experienced by Homo sapiens. … The flood dumped enough water into the oceans to cause the average sea level to rise 110 metres, enough to cover the coastal areas, … The water from melting ice probably flooded down over land in pulses, as ice-dammed lakes formed and then catastrophically released their water. These floods left many records, including remnant puddles now known as the Great Lakes, and possibly gave rise to legends that persisted for many years.” – Richard A. Muller & Gordon J. MacDonald, Ice Ages and Astronomical Causes (Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer-Verlag, 2000), page 4.
 
It is believed that the earliest inhabitants in Mesopotamia originally lived in this valley that is now the Persian Gulf. The examination of drowned coast lines and sea plateaus shows that the Gulf was filled from the Indian Ocean in the south in carefully-measured stages, forcing the inhabitants to retreat northwards to higher grounds. About 5500 BCE, most of the Gulf basin was evidently filled, although the sea level was still 17 meters lower than that of today. (W. Nuetzel, ”On the Geographical Position of as yet Unexplored Early Mesopotamian Cultures,” Journal of the American Oriental Society [JAOS], Vol. 99, 1979, pp.288-296; also J. Zarins, ”The Early Settlements of Southern Mesopotamia,” JAOS, Vol. 112:1, 1992, pp. 55-77.) This was the time of the Ubaid culture. During this whole period, the climate was temperate and pleasant.
Then, in about 3500 BCE, an enormous flood catastrophe occurred in the area that suddenly brought an end to the Ubaid civilization. Most probably, this event is that reflected in the Mesopotamian and Biblical Flood stories. –  Howard-Carter, op. cit., pp. 214-216, 220-222.
 
Before this catastrophe, however, the civilization of man had spread all over the Near East, and also to other parts of the world. The earliest traces have been found in Mesopotamia, western Iran, Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine.

The Edenic Pishon River (Pison River) is Wadi Bishah (Bishain) and Wadi Baish (Baysh) and

Havilah (Hebrew: Hawila; Targum: Chavila) is the Khaulan/Khawlan/Haulan/Hawlan Yemeni Tribes

by Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld y de la Torre, M.A. Ed.

Source: http://www.bibleorigins.net/pishonrivermapwadibishahasir.html

Disclaimer: This article is authored by a non-Muslim. We do not endorse this article, but it is informative and worth reading.



16 June 2006 (Revisions through 30 July 2010)


This article in a nutshell:

Since 1875 (for over 100 years) the Pishon/Pison River associated with the land of Havilah has been identified by some scholars with Wadi Baish (Baysh) and Havilah with the Khaulan in SW Arabia, present-day Saudi Arabia near the Asir mountains. Two wadies, Bishah (Bisheh) and Baish (Baysh) are understood to have been conflated and identified with the Pishon/Pison.

Strong notes Havilah is pronounced in Hebrew with a Ch or Kh sound Khav-ee-law':

"Strong # 2341, Chaviylah, khav-ee-law', probably from # 2342 Chuwl, khool or Chiyl, kheel, a primitive root, to twist or whirl in a spiral manner." (James Strong. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, Complete and Unabridged. Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary. Waco, Texas. Word Books. 1977)

I note that Hebew "w" can also be rendered "u" or "o" and that Chuwl/Khool is the possible "root form" of

Havilah/Khav-ee-law, if this be so, then the Arabic form Khaulan/Khawlan on the below maps seems (?) to preserve the Hebrew Havilah's root of Chuwl, Khool and the Hebrew Ch/Kh sound rather than the English "soft" H pronounciation of Havilah.



Havilah

Below, a map showing Havilah (Hebrew: Hawilah) which was associated in Genesis with the Pishon river, one of the four rivers of Genesis' Garden of Eden (Ge 2:10-12). This region of South West Arabia (the Yemen and vicinity) also has the kingdom of Sheba and a region called Hazarmaveth (Arabic: Hadramawt). Genesis portrays Havilah as a land of gold, bdellium (a resin) and precious stone. The Queen of Sheba brought Solomon much gold, spices and incense (resins) and precious stones (1 Kings 10:1-13). Genesis portrays Havilah as being the son of Joktan and his brothers are Sheba and Hazarmaveth (Ge 10:26-30), localities associated with SW Arabia, the Yemen and Dhofar areas. So, Havilah and Sheba are not only brothers, their lands have similar valuable products (for the below map cf. p. 59. James B. Pritchard. Editor. The Harper Concise Atlas of the Bible. New York. HarperCollins Publishers. 1991). I have superimposed an earlier map of 1851 ("Arabia," R. M. Martin & J. & F. Tallis, New York) showing in greater detail the location of Havilah as Khaulan/Khawlan, south of Wadi Bisheh/Bishah (the Pishon River?); note that the great trade route road from Jerusalem to Havilah/Khaulan/Khawlan passes over Wadi Bishah (Note: Hebrew "-on" is a sufformative word ending and when dispensed with renders the Pishon river as the Pish); so to get to Havilah/Khaulan from Israel, one must cross the Pishon/Bishah River via this spices and incense trade route. The Jewish Targum renders Havilah as Chavilah/Khavilah, a pronunciation closer to the Arabic tribal territory and federation of Khaulan, Khawlan. Wady Bishah's headwaters drain ENE from the mountain heights of Asyr (modern: Asir). Genesis' knowledge of the Pishon and Havilah probably is a result of trade with the Queen of Sheba in the Yemen in King Solomon's time. Modern Yemeni Jews claim their Jewish ancestors came as "traders" from Jerusalem in Solomon's days and settled in the Yemen.

Professor Hess on Joktan's association with South Arabia:
"Joktan...Son of Eber, brother of Peleg, and father of thirteen descendants, whose settlements ranged from Mesha to Sephar, in the hill country to the east (Gen 10:25-30). As a descendant of Shem, Joktan represents that part of the line which, in the Table of Nations, is found in South West Arabia. There is a possible relationship between the name and a figure remembered as the ancestor of the Southern Arabs, Qahtan (Winnett 1970:181; Simons GTTOT, 48-49).


Although it is unclear whether Joktan is a prefixed verbal form of the Sabaean root qtn (cf. Ryckmans 1934 1:190; Biella 1982:452), its meaning, "to be small," is associated with this root in West Semitic and appears in geographical names such as Qatna." (p. 935. Vol. 3. Richard S. Hess. "Joktan." David Noel Freedman. Editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday. 1992)


Professor Sayce (1898) on Havilah being the Khaulan of SW Arabia:
"Havilah...A son of Cush according to Gn 10:7, 1 Ch 1:9, of Joktan according to Gn 10:29, 1 Ch 1"23...A district of Khaulan (Haulan) is mentioned in the inscriptions of South Arabia; this is either Khaulan in Tihamah, between Mecca and San'a, or another Khaulan SE of San'a...The name, in fact, was widely spread in Arabia, and Yakut states that Hawil was the name of a dialect spoken by the people of Mehri in the east of Hadramaut [biblical Hazarmaveth]. The Mehri is the modern representative of the language of the Sabaean inscriptions." (p. 311. Vol. 2. A. H. Sayce. "Havilah." James Hastings. Editor. A Dictionary of the Bible. Originally published 1898 by T& T Clark of Edinburgh, Scotland. Reprinted 1988 by Hendrickson Publishers. Peabody, Massachusetts in 5 volumes)

Below two locations within the Yemen bear the geographical designation Khawlan (Khaulan, Haulan). A Khawlan just east of the capital of Yemen, San'a, and the other Khawlan lying further south near Radman and Himyar, said area(s) being proposed by some scholars to be Havilah (the Targum's Chavilah) of the Bible. Strangely, no Khawlan lies between San'a and Mecca as stated above by Hastings in 1898. However Muller (cf. below) cites Halevy about gold being found at Sirwah in stream beds in the Khawlan and Sirwah does appear on the below map between Saba and Khawlan, so apparently Muller favors the "gold of Havilah" to be the Khawlan east of San'a (for the below map cf. p. 37. Map 3. "South Arabia" Robert G. Hoyland. Arabia and the Arabs, From the Bronze Age to the coming of Islam. London & New York. Routledge. 2001).

Special note: Muller states that there is a THIRD tribal federation in the Yemen called the "Northern" Haulan near Sa`dah. Unfortunately the below map does not show the city of Sa`dah and this tribal federation. Sa`dah lies south of Najran and north of Nashq on the below map. Sayce (1898) noted a Khaulan in Tihamah between Mecca and San'a (cf. above).

I have established that this Khaulan is today in Saudi Arabia in the province of Asir. It appears in a Google Saudi Arabian Gazeeter as a "Tribal Region" located to the south of the city of Abha, east of the port of Jizan on the Red Sea and west of the village of Aba Saud. The Saudi "Khaulan Tribal Area" is very near the northern border of the Yemen in the Asir mountains which border the seacoast plain called Tihamah.

Please click here to see the location of the Saudi Khaulan (Sayce's Tihamah Khaulan). All this is to say that Hoyland's below map shows only TWO of the FOUR tribal federations known as the Haulan, Khaulan, Khawlan Tribal Areas. Note: Wadi Baish and Wadi Bishah are both in Saudi Arabia not the Yemen.


Could the Ma'Afir be biblical Ophir, a brother of Sheba (Yemenite: Saba) and Havilah (Yemenite Khawlan), and Hazarmaveth (Yemenite: Hadrawmawt) the sons of Joktan (South West Arabian: Qahtan) (cf. Ge 10:29)?

If Bishah is the Pishon River, then the FOUR Khaualan Tribal Areas all lie to the south of the Bishah. In other words to get to the Khaulans, Wadi Bishah must first be crossed, perhaps this is why the Pishon encircles the land of Havilah in Genesis?

The Bible takes note of another great river that served as a border to a region (Judah), the "river of Egypt" a wadi like Bishah, today called Wadi el Arish in the midst of the Sinai peninsula. The Septuaginta Bible written in Greek at Alexandria, Egypt in the 3rd century BC by Jews for Jews identified the Nile with the Gihon that flows through Cush (Ethiopia of the Septuaginta). Like the Bishah, the Nile drains "northward" too.

As regards the possibility of Wadi Bishah (conflated with Wadi Baish/Baysh) being the Pishon river (Pison river in the King James Version of the Bible), and Arabic "b" possibly preserving "p", cf. the late professor Yohanan Aharoni's remarks on "p" becoming "b" in Arabic and the loss of the Hebrew sufformative "-on" (Beth-Horon losing its "-on" sufformative to become Beit Ur in Arabic):


"Pe (unaspirated p) when coming by the gradual process, appears in Arabic as fa (ph), e.g. (Beth-)tappuah -Taffuh, Sippori (Sepphoris) -Saffuriyeh. In the immediate borrowing pe becomes beit (b) in Arabic, e.g. Mizphah -Tell en-Nasbeh, Pharpar -Barbar. By the same token, Greek pi in Hellenistic names always becomes Arabic beit. This is not a matter of rapid or gradual transmission, but rather a straight phonetic shift in the transcription of non-Semitic words, e.g. Tripolis -Tarabulus, Neapolis -Nablus, Paneas -Baniyas...Sufformatives were not permanent elements of the name, that is to say, many names were formed by the addition of sufformatives which can be changed without altering the geographic meaning of the term, e.g. Geba, Gibeah, Gibeon...Thus the sufformatives are usually changed in the Arabic form...a few examples: Almon, Almeth -Khirbet 'Almit; Shaalbon, Shaalabbin, Shaalbim -Selbit; Dothan, Dothain -Tell Dothan; Shiloh (Shilon) -Seilun...(Beth-)nimrah (the waters of) Nimrim -Wadi en-Numeirah. Sometimes the sufformative disappears entirely, e.g. Chesulloth -Iksal; Beth-horon -Beit 'Ur."  (p. 120. "The Study of Toponymy." Yohanan Aharoni. The Land of the Bible, A Historical Geography. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Westminster Press. 1962 (Hebrew text); English texts: 1967, 1979)

How does a "dry" wadi in SW Arabia "link" to Eden's river, the progenitor of three other streams, the Gihon (Nile) of Cush (Sudan) and Hiddekel (Tigris) and Euphrates of Mesopotamia? The answer will surprise you. In Mesopotamian myths, the Sumerian god called Enki (Akkadian Ea meaning "house of water" according to some scholars) lived at Eridu in Lower Mesopotamia (Sumer) and it was he who filled the Tigris and Euphrates with clear sparkling water in the form of "sperm" from his penis! He is THE ONE SOURCE OF the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamian myths. On cylinder seals Enki is shown with two streams erupting from his shoulders suggesting his body as Ea, "the house of water," is the ONE source of the waters for the Tigris and Euphrates. He dwells in the midst of a freshwater stream called the apsu or abzu that "in the beginning," before any land existed, erupted to the surface of the briny sea and the "first land" gathered about this freshwater stream and Eridu was built by Enki. He is the god all the kings and princes of Sumer seek out to provide their cities with freshwater via various wells, springs and rivers. Enki (and his subterranean apsu abode) is THE ONE SOURCE of all the world's rivers, springs and wells. Ipso facto I understand that he is the "one source" of the Nile and and Wadi Bishah as well as the Tigris and Euphrates.

The Homeric Greeks believed that a freshwater RIVER OCEAN encircled the world and it was in the midst of the briny sea. From this mythical freshwater stream subterranean rivers flowed which emerged in various parts of the world as rivers. So the Homeric Greeks, somewhat similarly to the Mesopotamians had a mythical SINGLE STREAM as the source of all the world's rivers via subterranean streams or channels. Greek mercenaries served in Judah under the Saitic pharaohs who slew King Josiah and hauled off his successor Jeho'ahaz in chains to Egypt, appointing in his place Jehoi'akim. Perhaps via Greek mercenaries the Jews learned of a Freshwater stream called River Ocean the source of all rivers via subterranean channels?

Smith (1898) on Josephus' (A 1st century AD Jewish historian) notion the Edenic stream is River Ocean: "That the ocean stream which surrounded the earth was the source from which the four rivers flowed was the opinion of Josephus." ' (p. 220. "Eden." William Smith. Editor. A Dictionary of the Bible. Hartford, Connecticut. S. S. Scranton & Co. 1898)

So, via either Mesopotamian notions of a single freshwater apsu stream at Eridu or Homeric River Ocean the 7th/6th century BC Jews could in good conscience portray a single river as the source of rivers appearing in Cush (Sudan), SW Arabia and Mesopotamia. Egyptian myth claimed the Nile emerged from the underworld from two caverns or spring holes near Aswan (the Nile's first cataract as one goes "upstream" from the Egyptian delta). Please click here for a picture of the god of the Nile Hapi within a subterranean cavern, holding two vases from which pour the waters of the subterranean Nile. Please click here for pictures of the Nile as a great circle flowing in heaven as well as "under" and "atop" of the earth. The Egyptian sun-god Ra rode in a solar bark or boat on the heavenly Nile and at night he rode in this bark, the Nile of the underworld.

Some, but not all, scholars have thought the Pishon and its land of Havilah as being somewhere near Mesopotamia, or the mountains of Armenia as the Euphrates and Tigris (biblical Hiddekel) flow through these regions. They apparently are unaware that in Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Homeric Greek myths (8th-6th century BC) of a single stream whose many channels, flowing underground, could give birth to rivers all over the world. Because these scholars could not find a stream on the earth's surface linking any stream in SW Arabia or the Nile in Cush (Sudan) with the Tigris and Euphrates, they dismissed as "nonsense" the clues preserved in the Septuaginta that Cush was Ethiopia, and they dismissed Genesis' statements about Havilah being a son of Joktan and brother of Sheba and Hazarmaveth (Hadramawt) who in Arabic traditions are assoicated with SW Arabia.


Muller on the Pishon being possibly a conflation of wadies Bishah and Baish/Baysh:

"Pishon. The first of the four rivers into which the stream that springs from the Garden of Eden is divided (Gen 2:11). The Pishon surrounds the land of Havilah, where there is gold. Several proposals have been made to identify this country and its river. If, however, Havilah is to be equated with the large and old tribal federation of Khaulan in SW Arabia, the Pishon likewise is to be localized in that region...A. Springer (1875:49) was the first who compared the biblical Pishon with the Wadi Baish in the SW of the Arabian peninsula. Al-Hamadi (1884:73) nevertheless writes that the Wadi Baish is fed from tributaries from the north of the land of Khaulan before it flows into the Red Sea. As was probable already in antiquity, in the 10th century the wadi Baish, abounding in water, formed the north boundary of the densely populated and terraced mountainous region of Khaulan (and until 1934 it was the border between the kingdom of Yemen and Saudi Arabia). Moreover, it is quite possible that the names of the rivers Baish and Bishah are contained in the name Pishon, since both rise not far from each other in the mountains of `Asir." (p. 374. Vol. 5. W. W. Muller. "Pishon." David Noel Freedman. Editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday. 1992)

Below, Wadi Bishah, divided into three maps for clarity. (cf. Map titled Africa, North East Arabia. Michelin. No. 954. Paris, France. Scale: 1:4,000,000. 1990)

Below, another map showing Wadi Bishah as Wadi Bishain. If Bishain is not an "error," and if it is a legitimate alternate rendering of Bishah, could the "n" preserve the Pishon? (cf. Map titled Near & Middle East. Hammond World Atlas. Scale: 1:4,000,000. Langenscheidt Publishing Group. Munich, Germany. 2006)

Below, Wadi Baysh (Wady Baish on earlier maps), a possible contender for the Pishon river according to Muller. Wadi Bishah is the blue dotted line above Khamis Mushayt going by Al Maddah (cf. map titled Africa, North East. Map number 954. Paris, France. Michelin. Map scale: 1:4,000,000. 1 centimeter: 40 kilometers. 1990). This map suggests Wadi Baysh/Baish is about 60 miles or 100 kilometers in length. Sayce's Tihamah Khaulan between San'a and Mecca is apparently today in the Asir province of Saudi Arabia just south of Abha which appears on the below map. That is to say Wadi Baysh/Baish flows through this Khawlan, hence the reason Muller suggests it might be the Pishon associated with the land of Havilah. The border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen is the line of crosses (+++++++) on the below map.

Below, another cartographical rendering of Wadi Baysh/Baish, the Pishon? (cf. map titled Near & Middle East. Hammond International. Scale: 1:4,000,000. Langenscheidt Publishing Group. Munchen [Munich], Deutschland. 2006). The map to the viewer's right reveals that Wadi Baysh (Wadi Baish on maps before 1970) is in the midst of the Khaulan (Havilah) area, draining it and providing it water, it is a very remarkable river in that it has water year-round, a rare sight in this part of the world (compare the location of Sabya on the left map with Sabiya on the right map). Also note Havilah is the "son of Joktan" in Genesis 10:26-29 and how close Khaulan is to the Beni Kahtan "Sons of Joktan" tribal federation on the below map (1929, Milan, Italy).

The below extracts on Havilah the person and Havilah the region by W. W. Muller  from the Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992. Volume 3. pp. 81-82. New York. Doubleday):

 

HAVILAH (PERSON) [Hebrew hawila]

Two individuals with this name, whose identities are closely associated with the place which bears this name, appear in the Bible.

1.A son of Cush listed in the so-called Table of Nations (Gen 10:7; 1 Chr 1:9).

2.A son of Joktan listed in the so-called Table of Nations (Gen 10:29; 1 Chr 1:23).

Havilah is the biblical form of the name of the large and old tribal federation of Haulaµn in SW Arabia, which is divided into two or three branches. The identification originates from Niebuhr (1772: 292f.), who associated Haulan to the SE of San'a with Havilah, the son of Joktan, and Haulan to the W of Sa`da with Havilah, the son of Cush. He found it remarkable that two tribal districts in different regions of Yemen have the same name and are also mentioned twice in the Table of Nations (Gen 10:7, 29).

Two tribal groups of Haulan continue to exist today. The E (or S) branch are the Haulan al-Aliya or Haulan al-Tiyal, the territory of which extends from the E of San`a over Tan`im to Sirwah and into the Wadi Dana just before reaching the oasis of Marib. The N branch is the federation of the Haulan bin `Amr or Haulan Quda`a, the territory of which lies to the NW of Sa`da. The Haulan were probably originally one single tribe, the territory of which was later separated when the Minaean realm arose and the Hasid and Bakil invaded the Yemenite highland and settled there. Place names in the region of these two tribes still indicate the former presence of the Haulan. Also, in other parts of Yemen, dispersed groups of the Haulan are encountered at a later date.

The earliest epigraphic attestation of Haulan is to be found in the Old Sabean record of the ruler Karib`il Watar, set up at Sirwah, RES 3946,3, where vassals of a certain Ya`tuq of Haulan (`dm y`tq dhwln dyrrt) are mentioned. In the Minaean inscription M 247 = RES 3022,2 from Baraqis from the time about 340–330 B.C., the donors of the text give thanks to their gods for having saved them and their possessions from the raids which Saba` and Haulan undertook against them on the caravan route between Ma`in and Ragmatum (Nagran). Also in the Qatabanian inscription RES 4274,1 a member of Haulan (dhwln) is attested as a person who makes a dedication to the goddess Atirat.

In the Sabean inscriptions from the time of the kings of Saba` and Du-Raydan there are numerous references to Haulan, which can be subdivided into three different groups. The E branch is the tribe which settles around Sirwah and is called the tribe Haulan Hadilim (s`bn hwln hdlm; e.g., Iryané 28,1); through common leaders it is closely connected with the tribe of Sirwah and Hainan (s`bn srwh whwln hdlm whynn; e.g., Fakhri 3,2). In the genealogy of the N Haulan around Sa`da, which in Islamic times are the Haulan bin `Amr, the older name Banu Gudad or al-Agdud is still quoted by al-Hamdani (1965: 143–45). In the inscriptions these are the tribe Haulan Gudadim (sû`bn hwln gddm; Ja 577,8) or the tribe Haulan Gudadan (s`bn hwln gddn; Umm Lailà 1,1–2) or the groups of Haulan `Agdudan (`sûr hwln `gddn; Ja 658,13); the largeness of Haulan is sometimes expressed by the plural `s`bn placed in front of the name (“the tribes of Haulan;” Ja 601,10) or by the designation “the tribes and groups of Haulan Gudadim” (`s`b w`sr hwln gddm; Ja 616,12); their territory is the land of Haulan Gudadim (`rd hwln gddm; Ja 2109,4) or Haulan Gudadan (`rd hwln gddn; Ja 601,5) respectively, or the land of Haulan `Agdudan (`rd hwln `gddn; Ja 658,10). Once the term Haulan Gudadatan (hwln gddtn; Ja 671,5) is found. In pre-Islamic times there existed in SE Yemen around the town of Wa`lan in the ancient district of Radman a further branch of Haulan, which is often attested in the inscriptions of the 2d and 3d centuries A.D., namely, the tribe of Radman and Haulan, the leaders of which came from the clan Ma`ahir and Du-Haulan (bn m`hr wdhwln qyl rdmn whwln; e.g., RES 3958,1–2).

HAVILAH (PLACE) [Hebrew hawila]

The rich land surrounded by the river Pishon according to the story of the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:11). Its richness derives from the gold, resin bdellium, and onyx stones present there. All three of these products point to S Arabia as the location of Havilah, since S Arabia is the homeland of valuable resins and precious stones. According to Pliny (Natural History 12.23), the tree which yields bdellium also grows in Arabia, and the resin from Commiphora mukul, Arabic muql, is up to now a Yemenite product (cf. Schopen 1983: 176f.). Onyx (Arabic gaz`) is found at all times in various places in Yemen; and among the sorts which were usually named after the places where they were found, there was also a “Haulanite onyx” (al-Hamdani 1884: 202–3). Among the gold mines of the Arabian peninsula, the mine of `Asam in the region of the Quda`a is attested, the gold of which is red and excellent; also attested are the mines of al-Qufa`a in the land of Haulan, which yield gold of a superior quality (cf. al-Hamdani 1968: 138–41). J. Halévy reports that, as an eyewitness in 1870 in Sirwah in Haulan, he saw Arabs washing gold and noted that gold was found in small grains in the sand and in the river bed (1872: 54) (p. 82. Vol. 3. W. W. Muller. "Havilah." David Noel Freedman. Editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday. 1992)

Since in Old South Arabic dhb does not only mean gold but also a type of incense, it is possible that zahab tob in Gen 2:12 does not refer to “good gold” but rather to a fragrant resin (cf. de Langhe 1959: 493).In Gen 25:18 hawila, which by the Israelites might have been connected with Hebrew hol, “sand,” designates presumably the SE desert border of the region where the Ishmaelites settled. From this fact and from the reference to the Chaulotaîoi by Eratosthenes (Strabo, Geog. 16.4.2), H. von Wissmann (1970: 905–80, esp. 947–54) concluded that there must have existed a colonial Sabean Haulan in NW Arabia along the incense road before or perhaps still during the Minaean period in the oasis of Dedan. Probably this N Arabian hawila is to be distinguished from the S Arabian Haulan and perhaps to be compared with the tribe of hwlt, which is repeatedly mentioned in the Safaitic inscriptions and which might be identified with the Avalitae of Pliny (HN 6.157) and the later Arabian tribe of Hawala. Possibly the old biblical name of this region survives in the name of the N Arabian town of Ha`il (cf. Knauf 1985: 64). The borders of the Ishmaelites in Gen 25:18 with the local destination hawila have also been taken over in 1 Sam 15:7 and transferred to the Amalekites.

It should also be noted that other less convincing identification of hawila have been proposed, e.g., in the central Arabian Yamama, in NE Arabia at the Persian Gulf, or even with Avalites (Periplus maris Erythraei 7; Ptolemy, Geog. 4.7.10), the later Zayla` at the NE African coast. For further bibliography, see Westermann (1984: 214–15).

 

W. W. Muller.

According to Genesis 10:26-30 Joktan and his progeny are enumerated as Joktan, Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah and Jobab, living in a region described as extending from Mesha to Sephar and the hill country of the east.

The below maps showing the locations of various Arab tribes (as of 1968) and may be of some help in identifying the location of some of Joktan's "sons."

The tribe called Qahtan (in the province of Asir, Saudi Arabia) might be Joktan. Of interest is that Wadi Bishah lies just about where the word Qahtan is. Genesis suggests the Pishon river surrounds the land of Havilah (Hebrew: Hawila) which might be the tribal group called Wayliah, south of Wadi Bishah (the Pishon?), which lies _north_ of Sana'a the capital of Yemen. Note: Muller (cf. above) places a "northern" Haulan tribal federation in the area of the city of Sa`dah, which although not on the below map is just about where the tribal group called the Wayliah are located. Another tribal group is the Al-`Awaliq _south_ of Sana'a near Radman which does not appaear on the below map. "Missing" from the below map is the tribal "south" federation of Haulan centered to the east of Sana'a and extending towards ancient Marib (cf. p. 54. "Tribal Map of the Arabian Peninsula." Aramaco Handbook, Oil and the Middle East. Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Arabian American Oil Company. Revised Edition 1 July 1968. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 68-24022. Printed in the Netherlands by Joh. Enschede en Zonen-Haarlem. Note: no author or editor's name is given for this book).

Could Ophir, identified with the fine gold of Ophir in the Bible be recalled in the tribal group called al-'Ifar, in Dhofar (Zhufar on some maps), west of Wadi Hadrhramaut (some scolars identifying Joktan's son Hazarmaveth with Hadhramawt)?

Could the tribal lands of Joktan and his sons said to extend from Mesha to Sephar and the hill country of the east be alluding to present-day Khamis Mushayt, in the mountains of Asir (Saudi Arabia) lying just south of Qahtan (and north of Najran) and could Sephar and its eastern hill country be modern-day Dhofar and its hill country (famed for its frankincense trees), alternately rendered on some maps as Zufar or Zofar? This region is a land of precious stones, incense and gold, items associated with Joktan's patrimony (Sheba, Havilah, Ophir). The main caravan route appears to have left the Yemen heading north to Najran and Khamis Mushayt. That is to say "if" Mesha is Mushayt, it was a major stop on the caravan route to Israel from the Yemen?

Below, a "Metallic Minerals Map" of the Yemen showing some 19 locations possessing GOLD as a mineral resource (the small olivedrab green circles mark gold bearing lodes). Is it any wonder Havilah was "the land of gold" with 19 locations? The Wayilah are located north of San'a and in this same general area are approximately 6 or 7 locations for gold. Please click here for an "interactive version of the below map which allows one to scroll through the various regions of the Yemen. The Google internet search engine by keying in "Yemen Gold" offers numerous articles by Geologists on this region's gold bearing sites including articles on Iron Age Gold-processing Camps of the first millennium BC (the World of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba).

Below is Yemen's Gold Map:

A report assessing potential gold lodes in the Yemen made in 2007 has identified some 12 locations, cf. "Investment Opportunities in the Metallic Minerals Sector in Yemen. Evaluation and Promotion." Republic of Yemen. Ministry of Oil and Minerals. Geological Survey and Minerals Resources Board. 2007(Please click here for the report).


Twelve locations in the Yemen have been surveyed as possibly being gold-bearing: (Note: Wadi al Jawf and its tributaries lies southeast of Sa`dah and northeast of Sana`a)

1. Wadi Rubaq (Al Jawf)

2. Wadi Al Mamasah (Al Jawf)

3. Al Matammah (Al Jawf)

4. Wadi Falahan (Al Jawf)

5. Shaharah (Amran)

6. Bahrah (Marib)

7. Khowlan (Sana'a)

8. A'ithayn (Dhamar)

9. Waraqah (Dhamar)

10. Magrebah (Dhamar)

11. Al Waz'yyah (Taiz)

12. Am Surrah-Habalain (Abyan)



The report noted:

"Metallic minerals are not currently (2006) being mined in Yemen. During ancient times...silver was mined...and gold from small quartz veins scattered over northern and western Yemen."

Cf. below a report on Iron Age gold mines in the Yemen, King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba were Iron Age monarchs, Note: the al Maraziq area is located within the al Jawf region northeast of Sana'a, the capital of Yemen:

Leanna Mallory-Greenough, John D. Greenough & Charles Fipke. "Iron Age Gold Mining: A Preliminary Report on Camps in the Al Maraziq Region, Yemen." Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. Vol. 11. No. 2. Nov. 2000. pp. 223-236.



"Abstract:

Ancient geologists in Yemen and Egypt recognized that quartz veins surrounding caldera-collapse complexes (exhumed explosive volcanoes) were gold bearing and actively sought out these geologic environments. Rock hammerstones, anvils and grinders are found in camps on both sides of the Red Sea, indicating that mining and metallurgical extraction technology and knowledge were also widespread during the Iron Age. The technology and overall layout of the Yemen sites is equivalent with New Kingdom to Late Period Egyptian sites, and there is no evidence of smelting, which is a Greco-Roman Period development. It is not known who controlled the Yemen mines, but the large number of adits in the Al Maraziq area suggests that these gold mines may have been important to local, regional and possibly international economies."

An internet map search for al Maraziq gives the following co-ordinates:

Latitude: 14 degrees 25' 0
Longitude: 46 degrees 34' 0



These co-ordinates place al Maraziq in the al Jawf region ENE of Sana'a (cf. the below map for al Jawf).

Leanne Mallory-Greenough et al. (My thanks to her for providing me a copy of her below article):
"The Yemen ore deposit may have been discovered because it was close to trading routes, or trade route proximity may have been a product of gold exploitation." (p. 223. Leanne Mallory-Greenough et al. "Iron Age Gold Mining: A Preliminary Report on Camps in the Al Maraziq Region, Yemen. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. Vol. 11. No. 2. Nov. 2000. pp. 223-236.)

"Five ancient mining sites were visited in the Al Maraziq area, Al Jawf region, northern Yemen...A tape measure and compass were used to survey building and artefact positions...Excavations were not attempted. Al Maraziq inhabitants contend there are over 200 ancient adits in the area and at least one ancient community we did not visit..." (p. 225. Leanne Mallory-Greenough et al.)


"The ore processing technology found in Yemen was widespread in the Near and Middle East at about 1000 BCE, and can be found at Egyptian/Nubian sites ranging from the New Kingdom to Late Period, reaching a peak during the twenty-sixth Dynasty." (p. 233. Leanne Mallory-Greenough et al.)

"Based on the technological similarities with Egyptian gold mines, Yemen sites may range from Bronze to Iron Age. Preliminary thermoluminescence measurements on pottery from site 4 are consistent with the presumed antiquity of the site. The stone block bearing South Arabian script (Sabaean) suggests site 1 was occupied at some time between 800 BCE and 600 CE although mining may have occurred earlier. There is no information about how long mining went on at the Yemen sites. Mines in southeast Egypt and Nubia were mined for over two thousand years with individual mines first opened during the Middle Kingdom, re-opened in the New Kingdom, Late Period and Greco-Roman times." (p. 234. Leanne Mallory-Greenough et al.)

"It appears that the Yemen mining camps are close to the frankincense trade route. It is not known if the trade route existed because of the gold or if the deposits were discovered as a result of through traffic. Legend (Sheba's gifts to Solomon) suggests the gold trade was internationally important. Regardless of whether these stories are true, processing and geological (prospecting) similarities between Iron Age gold mines in Yemen and Egypt suggest ties and an exchange of technological knowledge between distant places in the Near and Middle East." (p. 234. Leanne Mallory-Greenough et al.)

Below, a map (figure 1. p. 224. Leanne Mallory-Greenough, et al.) showing the location of the gold mines marked off as "Study Area" (NE of Sana'a) and a close-up map showing a Wadi Kuhayl in the area of the mines. To the degree that Strong derives Havilah from Chuwl, khool or Chiyl, kheel (Strong 2342), might Wadi Kuhayl preserve the Hebrew Chaviylah, khav-ee-law'' English, Havilah and its gold?

A Google search turned up a listing of semi-precious stones found in the Yemen: carnelian, sky agate, honey agate, opal, gasber, flourite and onyx. Note that Sauer (below) understood onyx was associated with Havliah. Onyx is found in the Yemen. Perhaps these represent the precious stones associated with the lands of Havilah and Sheba?

(cf. Yemen Geological Survey & Mineral Resources Board. Yemen Geological Museum. "Local semi-precious stones found in the Yemen.")

http://www.ygsmrb.org/museum.htm


Below, a map showing Yemeni Rock Quarries for "Building and Ornamental Stone." Please click here for an "interactive version of the below map which allows one to scroll through the various regions of the Yemen.

Please click here for a "Rough Tribal Map of Arabia." 1949. H. R. P. Dickson. The Arab of the Desert. London.

To "enlarge" this map place your mouse on the map's lower right corner and a square will appear to click on, enlarging it.



The Queen of Sheba brought Solomon gold, incense, spices and precious stones. According to the below article by Bouton such items are attested for the Yemen in the Iron Age (Note that the Iron Age Gold Mines of the al Maraziq region are located in the al Jawf/Jof region northeast of Sana'a on the above minerals map):

"At present there is no archaeological evidence to prove that the meeting of Solomon and Sheba took place, or that the queen actually existed. But, recent excavations have found that some aspects of the story can be verified. This exhibition investigates these aspects and aims to shed light upon the mysterious but magnificent civilization of ancient Yemen, the land of Sheba.

Some scholars have disputed the Old Testament passage on the basis that the Queen of Sheba’s gifts - spices, gold and precious stones - are inconsistent with her homeland in southern Arabia. However these are not as incongruous as it may at first seem. The ‘spices’ mentioned are likely to be a reference to aromatics principally burnt in religious rituals in the temple and the home. Foremost among these were frankincense and myrrh, both natural gums which exuded from their trees after the bark was scraped away. A number of ancient incense burners found in Yemen are even inscribed with the names of different aromatics. In terms of the ‘gold’, geological surveys (most recently in the Maraziq area of the Jawf region of northern Yemen) have uncovered the remains of ancient camps and ore-crushing and grinding equipment. These have been found close to ancient test pits and mines running along quartz veins exposed on the surface. In addition, a small collection in the British Museum of high-quality gold beads, earrings, bracelets and appliques suggest these are the work of a previously unrecognized high-quality goldworking tradition. Examples of this goldwork can be seen in the show. Detailed depictions on funerary sculptures of necklaces, earrings, armlets and finger rings offer a further glimpse of the types of high-status jewellery worn by men and women alike. Certain ‘precious stones’ such as coloured chalcedonies occur naturally in Yemen; other types were probably imported from India and Somaliland. These stones were popular across the Near East for carving beads and seals."

(cf. Ms. Hannan Bouton, Press Officer for the British Museum, London.

"The Queen of Sheba: Treasures from the Ancient Yemen."

9 June-13 October 2002 Exhibition sponsored by Barclays PLC)

http://www.islamictourism.com/PDFs/Issue%204/English/Ancient%20Yemen%20English.pdf

 

My"Critique" of the Pishon River being the "Kuwait River" (Wadi al Batin) as proposed by the late James A. Sauer in 1996:


The late James A. Sauer (died 1999) suggested in 1996 that the Pishon river might be Wadi al-Batin also called the "Kuwait River" because it drains from an area near Mahd adh-Dhahab,"the cradle of gold," an ancient gold bearing region worked in antiquity in western Saudi Arabia, this river ends near modern Kuwait.

Below a map showing the so-called "Kuwait River" alternately, Wadi Batin, which Sauer proposed might be Eden's Pishon River, draining from the area of Mahd adh-Dahab (viewer's lower left). The Gihon is identified on the below map with the Iranian Karkheh River draining from the Zagros mountains and ancient Susa (viewer's right):

Below, Wady Rujm el Khulil, biblical Havilah (From the Hebrew root: khool?) E of Carmel/Kurmul and Telem/Tell Main (?) where Saul launched his attack from (?) on Amalek? When Israel attempted to invade the Hill Country of Seir she was routed from Seir to Hormah by Amalekites, Cananites, and Amorites (Nu 14:39-45 and De 1:44):. Could Hormah, pronounced in Hebrew Khormah, be Khasm el Kurm S of Khulil and the Amalekites at Wady Malaki (PEF Map sheet 21)?

Below, Wady Malaki may preserve Amalek (?) in the wilderness of Judah E of Carmel/Kurmul attacked by King Saul (PEF Map 1878 Sheet 21). Wady Malaki is N of Wady Rujm el Khulil.

Below, Wadi el-Khulil (1861) draining south from el-Khulil (Hebron) to Beersheba is paralleled on its north side by the Great Caravan Trade Route from Jerusalem to Wadi et-Tumilat, Egypt and Bir Abu Suwayr, my Shur, via Hebron, Beersheba and Muweilah ("Palestine or the Holy Land." The Royal Atlas of Modern Geography. London & Edinburgh. William Blackwood & Sons. 1861). Was Saul's rout of Amalek "from Havilah to Shur" from that portion of the Great Trade Route near Wadi el-Khulil to Shur/Suwayr (the Great Caravan Trade Route being alluded to as "what" Amalek was fleeing upon to get to Egypt)?

Below, a map (1878) showing the Great Caravan Trade Route paralleling Wady el-Khulil (Havilah?) near Beersheba.

Below, Bir Abou Soyair, modern map's (1970s) Abu Suwayr, on the great caravan route from Jerusalem, Hebron, Beersheba, Khalasa, and Muweilah to Belbeis in the Egyptian Delta (C. L. F. Panckoucke. Paris. 1:100,000. 1826. Flle 31 Suez Canal), my proposal for "Shur that is before Egypt."

Below, Bir Abou Soyair (1826) is rendered (1970s) Abu Suwayr and is the site of a military air base (white circle). For me the Hebrew rendering of Shur as Shuwr (Strong 7793 Hebrew & Chaldee Dictionary) resembles somewhat Suwayr.

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