Tubal
Encyclopedia
Tubal, תובל or תבל in Genesis 10 (the "Table of Nations"), was the name of a son of Japheth
, son of Noah
.
Many authors, following the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (1st century AD), related the name to Iber- Caucasian Iberia
. Concerning the question of the ethnic affinity of the population of Tubal, Josephus wrote: "Tobal gave rise to the Thobeles
, who are now called Iberes" - Caucasian Iberia
. This version was repeated by Patriarch Eustathius of Antioch
, Bishop Theodoret
, and others. However, Jerome
, Isidore of Seville
, and the Welsh historian Nennius
stated another tradition that Tubal was ancestor to not only Iberians
, but also the 'Italians' [i.e., Italic tribes] and 'Spanish' [who were also called Iberians
]. A divergent tradition recorded by Hippolytus of Rome (3rd cent.) lists Tubal's descendants as the "Hettali" (or Thessalians in some later copies), while the Book of the Bee
(c. 1222) states that he was progenitor of Bithynia
ns.
The Caucasian Iberians
were ancestors of modern Georgians
. Some modern Georgians also claim descent from Tubal, Togarmah
and Meshech
; a Georgian historian, Ivane Javakhishvili
, considered Tabal
, Tubal, Jabal and Jubal to be ancient Georgian tribal designations.
Tabal was a post-Hittite Luwian state in Asia Minor
in the 1st millennium BC
, and is often connected with Tubal (similar to their neighbors, the Mushki
, traditionally associated with Meshech
). Some historians further connect Tabal and Tubal with the tribe on the Black Sea coast later known to the Greeks as Tibareni
, though this identification is uncertain. The Tibareni and other related tribes, the Chalybes (Khalib/Khaldi) and the Mossynoeci
(Mossynoikoi in Greek), were sometimes considered the founders of metallurgy
.
According to Catalan legend
, Japheth's son Tubal is said to have sailed from Jaffa
with his family and arrived at the Francolí
river of Spain in 2157 BC, where he founded a city named after his son Tarraho, now Tarragona
. He then proceeded to the Ebro
(like Iberia, named after his second son Iber), where he built several more settlements, including Amposta
. His third son's name is given as Semptofail. Noah himself is said to have visited them here about 100 years later. Tubal is said to have reigned for 155 years, until he died while preparing to colonize Mauretania
and was succeeded by Iber. Other traditions make Tubal son of Japheth (sometimes confounded with Tubal-Cain
son of Lamech, a figure from before the flood) to be the founder of Ravenna
in Italy, Setúbal
in Portugal, and Toledo
and many other places in Spain. Various authors state that his wife's name was Noya, that he was buried at Cape St. Vincent
in Portugal, or that he had 65,000 descendants when he died. The source for many of these legends seems to have been the Pseudo-Berosus published by Annio da Viterbo in 1498, now widely considered a forgery. However, the earlier Chronicle of San Juan de la Peña by the historian-king Pedro IV of Aragon (c. 1370) includes the basic premises, that Tubal was the first person to settle in Spain, that the Iberians were descended from him as Jerome and Isidore had attested, and that they had originally been called Cetubales and been settled along the Ebro, before changing their name to 'Iberians' after that river. An earlier scholar-king, Alfonso X of Castile
(c. 1280), also included similar details in his history, but claiming Tubal had settled in the "Aspa" mountains
(part of the Pyrenees
), and deriving the first part of the name Cetubales from cetus, which he said meant "tribe". In his version, they later changed their name to 'Celtiberians
'. A still earlier version is found in the history of the Muslim conquest of Spain by Abulcasim Tarif Abentarique, written around AD 750. It holds that Japheth's son Tubal or (Sem Tofail) divided Iberia among his 3 sons — leaving his eldest Tarraho the northeast section (called Tarrahon, later Aragon); to his second son, Sem Tofail the younger, he left the west, along the ocean (later called Setubal); and to his youngest, Iber, he left the eastern part, along the Mediterranean, called Iberia. Tubal then built for himself a city he called Morar (today Mérida, Spain
) — where Abentarique claimed to have seen a large stone above the main city gate inscribed with these details, which he translated into Arabic.
Basque intellectuals like Poza (16th century) have named Tubal as the ancestor of Basques, and by extension, the Iberians. The French Basque author Augustin Chaho (19th century) published The Legend of Aitor, asserting that the common patriarch of the Basques was Aitor
, a descendant of Tubal.
Tubal's sons are given different names in rabbinic sources. In Pseudo-Philo
(written c. AD 70), his son's names are Phanatonova and Eteva, and they were given the land of "Pheed". The later mediaeval Chronicles of Jerahmeel
gives these sons' names as Fantonya and Atipa, and says they subdued "Pahath"; elsewhere these chronicles include information derived from Jerome, identifying Tubal's descendants with Iberia and Hispania. In still another place, the Chronicles of Jerahmeel reproduces a more detailed legend taken from the earlier Yosippon (c. 950): Tubal's descendants, it says, camped in Tuscany
and built a city called "Sabino", while the Kittim
built "Posomanga" in neighboring Campania
, with the Tiber
river as the frontier between the two peoples. However, they soon went to war following the rape of the Sabines by the Kittim. This war was ended when the Kittim showed the descendants of Tubal their mutual progeny. A shorter, more garbled version of this story from Yosippon is also found in the later Book of Jasher
, known from c. 1625, which additionally names Tubal's sons as Ariphi, Kesed and Taari.
The Arabic dictionary Taj al-Arus by al-Zubaidi (1790) notes that although some Islamic authors make the Khazars
descendants of Japheth's son Khasheh (Meshech), others hold both the Khazars and Saqaliba
(Slavs) to have come rather from his brother, Tubal.
Japheth
Japheth is one of the sons of Noah in the Abrahamic tradition...
, son of Noah
Noah
Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...
.
Many authors, following the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (1st century AD), related the name to Iber- Caucasian Iberia
Caucasian Iberia
Iberia , also known as Iveria , was a name given by the ancient Greeks and Romans to the ancient Georgian kingdom of Kartli , corresponding roughly to the eastern and southern parts of the present day Georgia...
. Concerning the question of the ethnic affinity of the population of Tubal, Josephus wrote: "Tobal gave rise to the Thobeles
Tibareni
The Tibareni were a people referred to in Herodotus, Xenophon, Strabo and other classical authors. In classical times, they and other related tribes, the Chalybes and the Mossynoeci, were considered the founders of metallurgy...
, who are now called Iberes" - Caucasian Iberia
Caucasian Iberia
Iberia , also known as Iveria , was a name given by the ancient Greeks and Romans to the ancient Georgian kingdom of Kartli , corresponding roughly to the eastern and southern parts of the present day Georgia...
. This version was repeated by Patriarch Eustathius of Antioch
Eustathius of Antioch
Eustathius of Antioch, sometimes surnamed the Great, was a bishop and patriarch of Antioch in the 4th century.He was a native of Side in Pamphylia. About 320 he was bishop of Beroea, and he became patriarch of Antioch shortly before the Council of Nicaea in 325...
, Bishop Theodoret
Theodoret
Theodoret of Cyrus or Cyrrhus was an influential author, theologian, and Christian bishop of Cyrrhus, Syria . He played a pivotal role in many early Byzantine church controversies that led to various ecumenical acts and schisms...
, and others. However, Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
, Isidore of Seville
Isidore of Seville
Saint Isidore of Seville served as Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and is considered, as the historian Montalembert put it in an oft-quoted phrase, "le dernier savant du monde ancien"...
, and the Welsh historian Nennius
Nennius
Nennius was a Welsh monk of the 9th century.He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the Historia Brittonum, based on the prologue affixed to that work, This attribution is widely considered a secondary tradition....
stated another tradition that Tubal was ancestor to not only Iberians
Caucasian Iberia
Iberia , also known as Iveria , was a name given by the ancient Greeks and Romans to the ancient Georgian kingdom of Kartli , corresponding roughly to the eastern and southern parts of the present day Georgia...
, but also the 'Italians' [i.e., Italic tribes] and 'Spanish' [who were also called Iberians
Iberians
The Iberians were a set of peoples that Greek and Roman sources identified with that name in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian peninsula at least from the 6th century BC...
]. A divergent tradition recorded by Hippolytus of Rome (3rd cent.) lists Tubal's descendants as the "Hettali" (or Thessalians in some later copies), while the Book of the Bee
Book of the Bee
The Book of the Bee is an historical/theological compilation containing numerous bible legends. It was written by Syrian Nestorian Solomon, Bishop of Bassora . It was written in Syriac.-Book:...
(c. 1222) states that he was progenitor of Bithynia
Bithynia
Bithynia was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor, adjoining the Propontis, the Thracian Bosporus and the Euxine .-Description:...
ns.
The Caucasian Iberians
Caucasian Iberians
Caucasian Iberians was a Greco-Roman designation for ancient Georgians, Ibero-Caucasian people who inhabited the east and southeast of the Transcaucasus region in prehistoric and historic times...
were ancestors of modern Georgians
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
. Some modern Georgians also claim descent from Tubal, Togarmah
Togarmah
Togarmah third son of Gomer, and grandson of Japheth, brother of Ashkenaz and Riphat...
and Meshech
Meshech
In the Bible, Meshech is named as a son of Japheth in Genesis 10:2 and 1 Chronicles 1:5.Another Meshech is named as a son of Aram in 1 Chronicles 1:17 .-Interpretations:...
; a Georgian historian, Ivane Javakhishvili
Ivane Javakhishvili
Ivane Javakhishvili was a Georgian historian whose voluminous works heavily influenced the modern scholarship of the history and culture of Georgia...
, considered Tabal
Tabal
Tabal was a Luwian speaking Neo-Hittite kingdom of South Central Anatolia. According to archaeologist Kurt Bittel, the kingdom of Tabal first appeared after the collapse of the Hittite Empire....
, Tubal, Jabal and Jubal to be ancient Georgian tribal designations.
Tabal was a post-Hittite Luwian state in Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
in the 1st millennium BC
1st millennium BC
The 1st millennium BC encompasses the Iron Age and sees the rise of many successive empires, and spanned from 1000 BC to 1 BC.The Neo-Assyrian Empire, followed by the Achaemenids. In Greece, Classical Antiquity begins with the colonization of Magna Graecia and peaks with the rise of Hellenism. The...
, and is often connected with Tubal (similar to their neighbors, the Mushki
Mushki
The Mushki were an Iron Age people of Anatolia, known from Assyrian sources. They do not appear in Hittite records. Several authors have connected them with the Moschoi of Greek sources and the Georgian tribe of the Meskhi. Josephus Flavius identified the Moschoi with the Biblical Meshech...
, traditionally associated with Meshech
Meshech
In the Bible, Meshech is named as a son of Japheth in Genesis 10:2 and 1 Chronicles 1:5.Another Meshech is named as a son of Aram in 1 Chronicles 1:17 .-Interpretations:...
). Some historians further connect Tabal and Tubal with the tribe on the Black Sea coast later known to the Greeks as Tibareni
Tibareni
The Tibareni were a people referred to in Herodotus, Xenophon, Strabo and other classical authors. In classical times, they and other related tribes, the Chalybes and the Mossynoeci, were considered the founders of metallurgy...
, though this identification is uncertain. The Tibareni and other related tribes, the Chalybes (Khalib/Khaldi) and the Mossynoeci
Mossynoeci
Mossynoeci is a name that the Greeks of the Euxine Sea applied to the peoples of Pontus, the northern Anatolian coast west of Trebizond.-Herodotus:...
(Mossynoikoi in Greek), were sometimes considered the founders of metallurgy
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
.
According to Catalan legend
Catalan myths and legends
Catalan myths and legends are the traditional myths and legends of the Catalan-speaking world, especially Catalonia itself, passed down for generations as part of that region's popular culture.Among the figures of Catalan mythology are:*Aloja...
, Japheth's son Tubal is said to have sailed from Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
with his family and arrived at the Francolí
Francolí
The Francolí is a river in Catalonia . Its source is in the Prades Mountains and it flows into the Mediterranean Sea at Tarragona....
river of Spain in 2157 BC, where he founded a city named after his son Tarraho, now Tarragona
Tarragona
Tarragona is a city located in the south of Catalonia on the north-east of Spain, by the Mediterranean. It is the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and the capital of the Catalan comarca Tarragonès. In the medieval and modern times it was the capital of the Vegueria of Tarragona...
. He then proceeded to the Ebro
Ebro
The Ebro or Ebre is one of the most important rivers in the Iberian Peninsula. It is the biggest river by discharge volume in Spain.The Ebro flows through the following cities:*Reinosa in Cantabria.*Miranda de Ebro in Castile and León....
(like Iberia, named after his second son Iber), where he built several more settlements, including Amposta
Amposta
Amposta is the capital of the comarca of Montsià, in the province of Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain.It is located at 8 metres above the sea, by the Ebre river, not far from its end. Population 18,841 ....
. His third son's name is given as Semptofail. Noah himself is said to have visited them here about 100 years later. Tubal is said to have reigned for 155 years, until he died while preparing to colonize Mauretania
Mauretania
Mauretania is a part of the historical Ancient Libyan land in North Africa. It corresponds to present day Morocco and a part of western Algeria...
and was succeeded by Iber. Other traditions make Tubal son of Japheth (sometimes confounded with Tubal-Cain
Tubal-cain
Tubal-cain is an individual mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, in . He was a descendant of Cain, the son of Lamech and Zillah, and the brother of Naamah.-Name:...
son of Lamech, a figure from before the flood) to be the founder of Ravenna
Ravenna
Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and the second largest comune in Italy by land area, although, at , it is little more than half the size of the largest comune, Rome...
in Italy, Setúbal
Setúbal
Setúbal is the main city in Setúbal Municipality in Portugal with a total area of 172.0 km² and a total population of 118,696 inhabitants in the municipality. The city proper has 89,303 inhabitants....
in Portugal, and Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
and many other places in Spain. Various authors state that his wife's name was Noya, that he was buried at Cape St. Vincent
Cape St. Vincent
Cape St. Vincent , next to the Sagres Point, on the so-called Costa Vicentina , is a headland in the municipality of Sagres, in the Algarve, southern Portugal.- Description :This cape is the southwesternmost point in Portugal...
in Portugal, or that he had 65,000 descendants when he died. The source for many of these legends seems to have been the Pseudo-Berosus published by Annio da Viterbo in 1498, now widely considered a forgery. However, the earlier Chronicle of San Juan de la Peña by the historian-king Pedro IV of Aragon (c. 1370) includes the basic premises, that Tubal was the first person to settle in Spain, that the Iberians were descended from him as Jerome and Isidore had attested, and that they had originally been called Cetubales and been settled along the Ebro, before changing their name to 'Iberians' after that river. An earlier scholar-king, Alfonso X of Castile
Alfonso X of Castile
Alfonso X was a Castilian monarch who ruled as the King of Castile, León and Galicia from 1252 until his death...
(c. 1280), also included similar details in his history, but claiming Tubal had settled in the "Aspa" mountains
Aspe peak
Aspe peak, also known as Pico de la Garganta de Aísa, is a mountain in the western Pyrenees of Huesca, situated on the west side of the Aragon Valley near the towns of Villanúa and Canfranc . The peak is 2,645 meters AMSL high....
(part of the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
), and deriving the first part of the name Cetubales from cetus, which he said meant "tribe". In his version, they later changed their name to 'Celtiberians
Celtiberians
The Celtiberians were Celtic-speaking people of the Iberian Peninsula in the final centuries BC. The group used the Celtic Celtiberian language.Archaeologically, the Celtiberians participated in the Hallstatt culture in what is now north-central Spain...
'. A still earlier version is found in the history of the Muslim conquest of Spain by Abulcasim Tarif Abentarique, written around AD 750. It holds that Japheth's son Tubal or (Sem Tofail) divided Iberia among his 3 sons — leaving his eldest Tarraho the northeast section (called Tarrahon, later Aragon); to his second son, Sem Tofail the younger, he left the west, along the ocean (later called Setubal); and to his youngest, Iber, he left the eastern part, along the Mediterranean, called Iberia. Tubal then built for himself a city he called Morar (today Mérida, Spain
Mérida, Spain
Mérida is the capital of the autonomous community of Extremadura, western central Spain. It has a population of 57,127 . The Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida is a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1993.- Climate :...
) — where Abentarique claimed to have seen a large stone above the main city gate inscribed with these details, which he translated into Arabic.
Basque intellectuals like Poza (16th century) have named Tubal as the ancestor of Basques, and by extension, the Iberians. The French Basque author Augustin Chaho (19th century) published The Legend of Aitor, asserting that the common patriarch of the Basques was Aitor
Aitor
Aitor is a Basque masculine given name, created by Agosti Xaho for a Basque ancestral patriarch descending from the Biblical Tubal in his work "The Legend of Aitor" ....
, a descendant of Tubal.
Tubal's sons are given different names in rabbinic sources. In Pseudo-Philo
Pseudo-Philo
Pseudo-Philo is the name commonly used for a Jewish pseudepigraphical work in Latin, so called because it was transmitted along with Latin translations of the works of Philo of Alexandria but is very obviously not written by Philo...
(written c. AD 70), his son's names are Phanatonova and Eteva, and they were given the land of "Pheed". The later mediaeval Chronicles of Jerahmeel
Chronicles of Jerahmeel
The Chronicles of Jerahmeel is a voluminous work that draws largely on Pseudo-Philo's earlier history of Biblical events and is of special interest because it includes Hebrew and Aramaic versions of certain deuterocanonical books in the Septuagint....
gives these sons' names as Fantonya and Atipa, and says they subdued "Pahath"; elsewhere these chronicles include information derived from Jerome, identifying Tubal's descendants with Iberia and Hispania. In still another place, the Chronicles of Jerahmeel reproduces a more detailed legend taken from the earlier Yosippon (c. 950): Tubal's descendants, it says, camped in Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
and built a city called "Sabino", while the Kittim
Kittim
Kittim in the genealogy of Genesis 10 in the Hebrew Bible, is the son of Javan, the grandson of Japheth, and Noah's great-grandson....
built "Posomanga" in neighboring Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...
, with the Tiber
Tiber
The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It drains a basin estimated at...
river as the frontier between the two peoples. However, they soon went to war following the rape of the Sabines by the Kittim. This war was ended when the Kittim showed the descendants of Tubal their mutual progeny. A shorter, more garbled version of this story from Yosippon is also found in the later Book of Jasher
Sefer haYashar (midrash)
The Sefer haYashar is a Hebrew midrash also known as the Toledot Adam and Dibre ha-Yamim be-'Aruk. It is known in English translation mostly as The Book of Jasher...
, known from c. 1625, which additionally names Tubal's sons as Ariphi, Kesed and Taari.
The Arabic dictionary Taj al-Arus by al-Zubaidi (1790) notes that although some Islamic authors make the Khazars
Khazars
The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...
descendants of Japheth's son Khasheh (Meshech), others hold both the Khazars and Saqaliba
Saqaliba
Saqaliba refers to the Slavs, particularly Slavic slaves and mercenaries in the medieval Arab world, in the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily and Al-Andalus. It is generally thought that the Arabic term is a Byzantine loanword: saqlab, siklab, saqlabi etc. is a corruption of Greek Sklavinoi for...
(Slavs) to have come rather from his brother, Tubal.
Literature
- Ivane Javakhishvili. "Historical-Ethnological problems of Georgia, the Caucasus and the Near East" (a monograph), Tbilisi, 1950, pp. 130–135 (in Georgian)
- Giorgi MelikishviliGiorgi MelikishviliGiorgi Melikishvili was a Georgian historian known for his fundamental works in the history of Georgia, Caucasia and the Middle East. He earned an international recognition for his research of Urartu....
. "About the history of ancient Georgia" (a monograph), Tbilisi, 1959, pp. 9, 13, 14, 18, 72–78, 108–110, 121, 175, 226, 227, 253 (in Russian) - Simon JanashiaSimon JanashiaSimon Janashia was an outstanding Georgian historian and public benefactor, one of the founders and Academician of the Georgian Academy of Sciences , Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor....
. "Works", vol. III, Tbilisi, 1959, pp. 2–74 (in Georgian) - Guram Kvirkvelia. "Foreign scientists about the metallurgy of the ancient Georgian tribes" (a monograph), Tbilisi, 1976, pp. 3–90 (in Georgian, Russian summary).
- Nana Khazaradze. "The Ethnopolitical entities of Eastern Asia Minor in the first half of the 1st millennium BC" (a monograph), Tbilisi, 1978, pp. 3–139 (in Georgian, Russian and English)
- *Electronic edition of G. Pujades, Crónica Universal del Principado de Cataluña (in Spanish)
- Jon Ruthven. The Prophecy That Is Shaping History: New Research on Ezekiel's Vision of the End. Fairfax, VA: Xulon Press, 2003. http://www.jon-ruthven.org/rosh.pdf. A major study on the historical geography of Rosh, MeshechMeshechIn the Bible, Meshech is named as a son of Japheth in Genesis 10:2 and 1 Chronicles 1:5.Another Meshech is named as a son of Aram in 1 Chronicles 1:17 .-Interpretations:...
, Tubal and the other northern nations listed in Ezekiel 38–39 and elsewhere.