supremacy of the tribe in whose territory the trade center of al-Ḥeǧr was situated and who ensured their trade relations. We see that the Ṯamûd tribe, which is mentioned in the Assyrian records, encamped in the same territory as the Ḫajappa, or the Biblical ʻÊfa, the name of which, as we have seen, is preserved in that of Ṛwâfa. The Bible makes no reference to the Ṯamûd tribe.
Ibadidi or Abîda
I identify the Ibadidi with the Biblical Abîdaʻ, who, according to Genesis, 25: 4, was descended from Abraham by Keturah. The second half of the word Ibadidi is formed by the name of the deity Dad. In the Bible this name, like similar names, was changed into Daʻ in order that any offence might thus be obviated. The Abîdaʻ, and hence also the Ibadidi, belonged to the Madianite tribes related to the ʻÊfa, and we must locate their camping place by the great trade route to the southeast of Elath (al-ʻAḳaba).
Ibadidi or Marsimani
The Assyrian record refers to a Marsimani tribe, which is not mentioned in the Bible. On the other hand, the classical authors knew of a tribe to the southeast of al-ʻAḳaba, the name of which recalls the Assyrian Marsimani. Agatharchides, Periplus (Photius’ version [Müller, Geographi, Vol. 1]), pp. 177—179, mentions a Batmizomaneis tribe on the shore to the southeast of the mouth of the Laeanitic Gulf or the modern Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba; and Diodorus, Bibliotheca, III, 43 f., records a Banizomaneis tribe in the same region. According to both these authors, the neighbors of this tribe on the southeast are the Thamudenoi, our people of Ṯamûd, a circumstance which justifies us not only in connecting the Ṯamûd of the Assyrian inscription with the classical Thamudenoi, but also the Marsimani with the Banizomaneis, as the name should be transcribed. The Arabic dialects often put z in place of ṣ and interchange b with m. Thus, they say rezâz, Zoṛar, instead of reṣâṣ, Ṣoṛar; and Madḥ, Tereb, Ḥeseb, instead of Badḥ, Terem, Ḥesem. The Assyrian Marsimani may therefore be read Barsimani. Furthermore, Bani and Bar mean the same thing. This view is confirmed also by Ptolemy, op. cit., VI, 7: 21, who mentions a Maisaimaneis tribe in the northwestern part of Arabia Felix in the interior of the country. But his statements, whether they refer to the interior or to the coast, are not accurate in the case of towns and are all the more likely to be erroneous in the case of tribes. Agatharchides and Diodorus locate the Thamudi on the coast, while Ptolemy places them in the interior of the country; nevertheless in the second century they certainly exercised supremacy over the coast. In Ptolemy’s spelling of Maisaimaneis, either an n was omitted between the first a and i or else the first i arose through a faulty transcription from r. At the beginning of words m is commonly interchanged with b. The Aramaic trader, from whom Ptolemy obtained his information about northwestern Arabia, might easily have interchanged the Arabic Bani with the Aramaic Bar. If we admit the identity of the Maisaimaneis and Banizomaneis with the Marsimani of the Assyrian records, we likewise
