arrive at the region west of the oasis of Tejma and west of the great transport route from southern Arabia to Syria and Egypt, and thus at the region where the classical writers locate the oasis of Madiama and where, according to the Bible, we seek the land of Madian.
All four of the tribes mentioned by Sargon II in the year 715 B. C. may be associated with the Biblical tribes of the Madianites. The Ḫajappa, or ʻÊfa, certainly belonged to them; the Ibadidi, or Abîdaʻ, very probably; and we may include the Tamudi and Marsimani likewise, considering their camping places. According to this identification Sargon’s army made an expedition along the trade route southwards, attacked various camps and oases of the tribes mentioned, and settled the captured inhabitants in devastated Samaria. We cannot tell how deeply the army penetrated, but it did not reach either the oasis of Tejma or Dajdân; for, had it done so, the Assyrian annalist would certainly have recorded the fact. The inroad induced the Sabaean It'amara, whom I infer to have been the Sabaean resident at Dajdân, likewise to send gifts to Sargon.
Other Madianite Tribes
Concerning the Zimran and Jišbaḳ tribes, among the descendants of Abraham by Keturah mentioned in Genesis, 25: 2, we have no other accounts either in the Bible or in other ancient records, as far as they have been published.
Joḳšan is perhaps identical with the descendant of Sem called Joḳṭan, from whom the Bible derives the tribes of Central Arabia. Bildad of the tribe of Šûaḥ visited the great sufferer Job (Job, 2: 11; 8: 1; 18: 1; 25: 1; 42: 9). The land of ʻÛṣ, where Job dwelt, I locate in the neighborhood of the modern town of aṭ-Ṭefîle in the northern part of Seʻîr. We may therefore also place Bildad’s home, the camping place of the tribe of Šûaḥ, on the southeastern or southern border of the Seʻîr mountain range, or the ancient Edom, and thus in the area of the Madianite tribes.
Among the descendants of Madian (Gen., 25: 4) we know that the tribe of ʻÊfa’, or the Assyrian Ḫajappa, camped to the west of the oasis of Tejma and near the above-mentioned transport route. The name of the ʻEfer tribe has perhaps been preserved in the name of the valley of al-ʻEfâr, or al-ʻEfâl, which winds through the oasis of Madian, or the modern al-Bedʻ. We have identified the Abîdaʻ with the Assyrian Ibadidi, and we locate their camping place between the Tamudi, to whom the Ḥarrat al-ʻAwêreẓ belonged, and the Marsimani, who were masters of the oases on the coast to the northwest of al-Mwêleḥ. Ḥanok and Eldaʻa are not mentioned anywhere else.
We have already discussed Saba’. Concerning the clans of the Aššûrîm, Leṭûšîm, and Le’ummîm, the kinsmen of Dajdân, we know nothing.
Dedan of Dajdân
