Kamal Salibi and the "Israel from Yemen" theory

One highly tenuous theory, is by Professor Kamal Salibi's of American University in Beirut. In his 1985 book Bible Came from Arabia, he compares place names in the Bible with names in Arabia today, and concludes that Palestine had absolutely no historical Hebrew presence, and rather South West Arabia is what the Bible refers to as Israel! Moreover, Moses and Pharaoh were not in Egypt, but rather in Yemen! Egypt in the Bible is not today's Egypt, ...etc.

To bring both sides of the argument to the table, I have to mention that I received an email on April 2005 from Dr. Bernard Leeman stating the following:

I have just published "Queen of Sheba and Biblical Scholarship" (AWP, New Jersey) which concludes that Kamal Salibi's hypothesis is correct - that ancient Israel and Judah until 722 and 586 BCE were indeed in Western Arabia. Chaim Rabin's work (1951) (which Salibi didn't consult) on Ancient West Arabian concludes that there is too much Hebrew in certain South West Arabian dialects to be coincidental (in the same area that Salibi locates the Old Testament) . Also the map references, ancient legal code and other items in the Sheba-Melelik cycle of the Ethiopic (Ge'ez) Kebra Nagast support Salibi. Roger Schneider's discovery of Sabaean inscriptions near Mekele in Ethiopia not only confirms the presence there of Hebrews ca 800 BCE but also the narrative of the Kebra Nagast.

There is a lot more evidence, and Salibi should be taken very seriously, even though it means a major reassessment of faith-based history.

I emailed Dr. Leeman twice that I would be willing to publish a one page summary of his book on this site. I have not yet heard from him.



The Name of Palestine

This is a comment on Noureddine reply of 2010/05/23.
When the jews (and not the Israelites) were released from the captivity in Babylon forty years after the persians invaded it the year 529 B.C.; they went back to their homeland in Yemen and not to Palestine where they tried to rebuild their Temple in the original Yerusalem in Yemen. The description cited in the Torah (in Izra) explaining how their prophet distributed the tasks to the different jewish families who were present at then and participated in the rebuilding; leaves no doubt that the Torah discribes Yemeni Geography and not Palestinian locations.
Please note that the name "Palestina" was known to the Greeks and the Romans. The name "Philishtim" is an old name used by the Yemeni
tribes to denote the "Ti" people, followers of the god "Al-Philis".
The name appeared in the Torah as "Philishtiim" in the plural. There were no pure letter "S" in the old yemeni language. Instead it was pronounced more like "Sh". Also,they used to add "im" to the names to reach at the plural version. The old Yemeni Language was known as
Himyar and Sheba tongue and was used by all yemeni tribes including
Bani Israel. Bani Israel were "Ibran" before they settle down. The word "Ibran" designated the wandering bedouins who move from one
place to another in the neighbouring desert. On the opposite side,
the Philishtiim were "can'anites" from the verb "cana'a" meaning
settled down. So, the words ibran or canaan are not names of certain
tribes or peoples. They are nothing but description or adjectives of
the state of those two peoples. When the "Philishtiim"-Philistiein in
pure Arabic- migrated to the south of Syria; they migrated as philistinieins and not as cana'anites. They named the new homeland
after their name. At that time; there were no ibrans or Bani Israel in south of Syria. The first time some Jews appeared outside Yemen in Syria and Egypt was 250-350B.C..(The jews appeared in Iraq before
that time as a result of the captivity in Babylon). We conclude that
the name Palestine is a Yemeni and Arabic name and it was there in use before the Torah was translated and written in the greek language in Alexandria starting from the year 283BC.


Dr.Nur from France,jewish convert to Islam: I want to ask Nourdine-of-Florida where to get more data,the source of his info on Mt.Moriah-Marwah & Yeru/Shulaym. It is exciting... I want to add that Tajdeed.org has a blogspot on this at www.altajdeed.blogspot.com .My research confirms the "theory"as fact and truth just like Dr.Bernard-Leeman,Dr.Ze'ev-Herzog & Israel-Finkelstein etc.,of Archeology Dept. at Tel-Aviv University,it is the old theory that remains as longest lasting historical fraud of zionist "Cosa Nostra"mafia. Salibi's books free at www.4shared.com


Dear Dr. Nur. I have left my email address settings to be possible to respond to. Please send me your questions. It is sufficient to read the old testament and especially Genesis in light of the Arabian map to understand all the facts. Also please compare the pronunciation of names with their "Hebrew" version. Why then are names like Moriah, Namrah, Misfilah, Thawr, gathered in one area? Whrer did Arabs and Arabians bring their Abraham stories from?

Evolution in time

The question why the Hebrew language is not spoken in Arabia today is because languages evolve when used by the living nations. Historians do not take the evolution factor into consideration. However, the majority of modern historians admit that the Hebrew language is the old Arabic, and if the Modern Hebrew is far different from the Language of Arabia, it is because it is read and composed by approximation. The authors of the Modern Hebrew in the mid-19th century were non-semitic in thier majority, i.e. from Slavic Khazar descent. These scholars had to borrow from Yiddish, Latin and some Arabic to complete the language of their future Israel.
On the other hand, The Jews of Arabia by the time of Muhammad spoke Arabic and had pure Arabic names. This means that the language of their ancestors back for centuries before the Christian era, was Arabic by excellence and there was no Islam at that time. Arabic was THEIR language. However, this language was frozen in the Scrolls for centuries to be read by generations whose language had evolved through time. In other words, if we teleport an Arabian of the Islamic era into the Moses era, this Arabian would not understand the people around him at all.
The same goes for the climate change, when Arabia used to enjoy a lush vegetaion and a rich production. I invite you to refer to The National Geographic Magazine issue of October 1985 to know more about life in Arabia in the deep past, especially the Frankincense Trail. The drought story and the Babylonian and Assyrian invasions were the reasons why the Jews disappeared from the Arabian landscape towards the North.

City of Judah

I recently wrote articles on Wikipedia about the origin of the name Meccah but also the origin of the name Juddah, I could prove by refrence to historical writings that the real pronunciation of the Saudi city of Jeddah, was indeed Juddah, which recalls the Hebrew name of the Kingdom of JDDH. In the book of Judges the Mother of King Josiah of "Judah" was Judaidah. So the Bible keps talking about a kingdom of the Israelites a thousand years before Islam, and this kingdom was a city kingdom in the heart of Arabia. The history of the Israelites was no where but in Arabia. The Israelites were roaming in the Peninsula migrating from one place to another until the great powers of that time destroyed their hejemony and forced them to wander towards Babylon, and from Babylon towards Palestine. In the meantime the Arab population was growing and developing to take over but indeed to enjoy a country without Israelite influence. Their language kept beautifying and crystallizing with poetry until the coming of Kur'an who set the basis of speech and eloquence.


as-salaamu alaykum noureddine,

Not sure if you're aware, but the Anglicised word 'Judah' actually comes from Yehudah (ie. where Yahud comes from). So the idea that Judah/Jeddah are linked doesn't seem to make a lot of sense since the first harf is 'yaa' not 'jim'. Hebrew actually has no 'jim' letter, it has 'gimel', but the letter 'yaa' always gets translated into European languages from Hebrew as English 'j'.


The origine of the name Juddah

Dear Abu Rashid:
The intersection between the Je and the Ye is a commonly admitted by all linguists. The examples are innumerable just like Jehova and Yahweh, Jaffa and Yafa. The English transliteration is not a wrong confusion between two consonants. Other letters in the alphabet are also common rule like the Ayn and the Ghayn (Gaza and Ezzeh), the Shin and the Seen (Sa'a and Sha'a - Salam and Shalom); Tha'a has an intersection with Sheen and Seen (Thaalab and Shaalab - Thamaniah and Shmoneh). The Modern Hebrew has slaughtered enough the language of Sam because it was composed by Ashkenazi Jews from Central Europe. They were based on what Edward Robinson had said about the name places in Palestine. Otherwise the letters V, P, Ga which are pure slavic intonations do not exist in the Semitic tongue and the letter Je is confused with Ye all the way to Hayarushalayim. The tahreef of the Holy Letters by the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Quran is still on-going.
By the way, I give you credit for comparing the name of Yahoda and the name of Juddah. In fact Yahoda and Isarel are names of kingdom countries; you cannot find them on the ground while the names of cities still survive through the ages. Whether the name of the City of Juddah comes from King (Yoshiyahu) Josiah's mother Juddah or from the Kingdom of Yahoda, the English use of Je is correct for Ye and the location is in Arabia for sure.




Bernard Leeman to me Dr.NURDIN/FRANCE<<<< PUT IN BLOG PLEASE !!
show details 29/12/2009 (7 days ago)

Many thanks for your kind email. I closed my Facebook account today.
I'll send you my new work when it is ready.

Best wishes

Bernard Leeman

The Correct Pronounciation of Kan'aan

The name Kan'aan which is writen in the modern Torah is pronounced wrongly. I believe it should be pronounced Kanan without stop after the first letter N. The arabic tribes named Banu Kanana used to
live in Hijaz Coast 1500 years BC, at the same time when Banu Israel used
to live in Yemen especially Asir (Asir was part of Yemen at that time).


The ' in Can'an is actually a عين so Can'an is كنعان

كنانة is Kinanah

Do you have evidence or proof for what you assert?