Africa
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Biblical Age.
The Bible has no general name for Africa, any more than it has for Europe or Asia. The word "Ham," from the Hebrew root (missing hebrew text) (to be hot), which is applied in the later Psalms (lxxviii. 51; cv. 23, 27; cvi. 22) to Egypt, is the nearest approach to a general name, inasmuch as it applies directly to the hot southern countries (Book of Jubilees, viii.). Next in importance is the term "Cush," corresponding to the Greek ἔθνος Κουσσαῖον, the Cushite tribe, in Plutarch's "Lives" ("Alexander," lxxii.), and also occurring frequently in the works of other Greek writers in the form Κοσσαῖοτ (Knobel, "Völkertafel der Genesis," p. 250, Giessen, 1850). The "Kossaioi" or the "Kissia Chora" of the ancients, it is true, are to be sought in Asia, but it is supposed that a migration of these peoples took place, and there are many philological, historical, and ethnological proofs of such an occurrence. Since two of the peoples mentioned as belonging to the sons of Ham (Gen 10:6), Mizraim and Canaan, are perfectly well known, it is evident that the enumeration proceeds from south to north; and on this basis Cush must be the southernmost of the Hamitic peoples. The ancient Greeks and Romans regarded these peoples collectively as Ethiopians (Knobel, "Völkertafel der Genesis"), which goes far to prove that the terms "Cush" and "Ethiopia" are nearly equivalent. Both terms were used originally to designate various nations in Asia and Africa, but their use was afterward limited to the countries south of Egypt. Even in its closer application, the Hebrew term "Cush," as used in Gen. x., includes peoples outside of Africa. One, at least, of the descendants of Ham, Sheba (Gen 10:7), must be identified with a nation in southwest Arabia (Dillmann, "Die Genesis," 5th ed., p. 181, Leipsic, 1886). A definitely bounded African continent, as known to-day, was not thought of by the Biblical writers. On the contrary, the territory on both sides of the Red Sea formed for them an ethnic unit, which was sharply distinguished from the rest of Africa.
Extent of Africa.
After Ethiopia, Egypt and Libya are the two most important lands of Africa. The Hebrew name for Egypt is (missing hebrew text) (compare the Phenician Muẓra, for which read Musra in Stephanus Byzantinus under the word Αίγυπτος; Babylonian, Muẓri, Miẓir—(Schrader, "K. A. T.," 2d ed., p. 89; ancient Persian, Mudraja; Septuaginta, Mestrem; South Arabian, Miẓr; Arabic Maẓr). The Hebrew term has not been sufficiently explained, but it certainly shows a dual form which can best be interpreted as referring to the upper and lower districts. From a philological standpoint, however, the form may be differently explained, and the seeming sign of the dual may be regarded as a locative ending (Barth, "Nominalbildung in den Semitischen Sprachen," p. 319). The two names Cush and Mizraim, therefore, designate the entire eastern portion of the African continent known to antiquity. Several of the countries adjacent to Egypt are also found in the table of peoples as given in Genesis. "Phut" is mentioned as of equal rank with Egypt (Gen 10:6; compare also Nah 3:9; Jer 46:9; Ezek 27:10, xxx. 5, xxxviii. 5). The Septuagint, a recognized authority in Egyptianmatters, Josephus, and Jerome, all interpret Phut as referring to Libya (Dillmann, "Die Genesis," p. 178), from which it may be assumed that the Biblical writers included in their perspective also that great expanse of territory west of Egypt called Libya, by which name ancient writers often designate the whole of Africa. Authors like Herodotus were unacquainted with any African countries to the west of Libya. Some, indeed, have endeavored to explain the Biblical Havilah as an African region; and Josephus ("Ant." i. 6, § 1) even identifies it with the land of the Gætuli, which view is also held by the medieval chronicler Jerahmeel ("Jew. Quart. Rev." xi. 675; Gaster, "Chronicles of Jerahmeel," 1899, p. 68). The land of the Gætuli is placed by the ancients on the borders of the Sahara (Sallust, "Bellum Jugurthinum," xix. 11); though it is hardly probable that writers who do not appear to have known even the western coast of North Africa should have been acquainted with an interior country south of ancient Numidia, now Algeria. The Old Testament takes no cognizance of the negro race, though Jer 13:23 may be considered a passing reference to a dark-skinned people. Cush refers only to Ethiopia, and there exists no ground for assuming that the Biblical writers had a more extended knowledge of the African continent.
All other Biblical names that have been supposed to apply to individual parts of Africa belong to the realm of myth.
Other Biblical Identifications.
The term "Sofala" for the east coast of Africa is of the same origin as the Hebrew (missing hebrew text) (shefelah), or coastland (Winer, "B. R." 3d ed., s.v. "Ophir"), but the assertion that the Biblical gold-producing Ophir is to be located in that region is utterly without foundation. This semifabulous land has been located with more justification in Mozambique and Zambesia. The statement that Tunis is the Biblical Tarshish is erroneous, and was long ago refuted by Abraham Zacuto ("Yuḥasin," p. 231b, London, 1857). Nevertheless, it is the serious opinion of Zacuto that Epher (Gen 25:4) gave his name to the continent when, as Zacuto thinks, the children of Keturah migrated thither ("Yuḥasin," p. 233b). This is also the opinion of the Arabian Ibn Idris (Rapoport, "'Erek Millin," p. 184). Benjamin of Tudela, a noted traveler of the twelfth century, considered Tunis the same as Hanes (Isa 30:4), and also identified the modern Damietta with the Biblical Caphtor. According to legend, the city Sabta ( (missing hebrew text) ) was built by Shem, the son of Noah, and it is even related that Joab, the general of David, reached it ("Yuḥasin," p. 226a). Israel ben Joseph Benjamin, a traveler of more recent times, whose descriptions of various countries were written in French, German, and English, and translated into Hebrew by David Gordon ("Mas'e Yisrael" [Israel's Travels], p. 109, Lyck, 1859), relates the same legend, but does not mention the "Yuḥasin." In a geographical work by Abraham Farissol, "Iggeret Orḥot 'Olam" (Letter on the Ways of the World), fols. 18 and 30, even paradise is said to have been situated in the Mountains of the Moon, in Nubia (Zunz, "Geographische Literatur der Juden," in "Gesammelte Schriften," i. 179, Berlin, 1875).
Egypt.
Without doubt Egypt is, historically, the most important of the countries of Africa. Indeed, it was considered by the ancients as belonging rather to Asia than to Africa, and was, with Palestine, the classic land of Jewish history. For centuries an important historic connection existed between the land of the Israelites and the kingdom of the Pharaohs, a connection which the tablets discovered in 1887 at Tell el-Amarna have established beyond the possibility of doubt. When the national life of Israel in Palestine ceased, an important section of the people, carrying with them the prophet Jeremiah, wandered back to Egypt. Thus, for the second time, Egypt became the home of the Jewish race, and much of later Jewish history was made upon its soil. To what importance the Jews attained here can best be inferred from legends concerning them, originating in other countries. An Ethiopic apocryphal book contains a legend respecting Jeremiah which narrates that, in answer to a prayer of the prophet, the reptiles of the dry land and the crocodiles of the rivers were exterminated (R. Basset, "Les Apocryphes Éthiopiens," i. 25, Paris, 1893; and also "Chron. Paschale," ed. Dindorf, i. 293; Suidas, under the word 'Αργολαι). According to Jewish legend similar blessings descended upon Egypt at the advent in the land of the patriarch Jacob (Midrash Tanḥuma on Gen 67:10, quoted by Rashi). A native legend declares also that, previous to the arrival of Joseph, the son of Jacob, the present province of Fayum was covered by a great lake, which received its water from the Nile, but that Joseph drained it and turned it into a dry plain (Baḥr Yusufs; Ritter, "Erdkunde," part i., "Afrika," p. 804, Berlin, 1822).
Jewish Soldiers in Egypt.
In ancient times the Jews performed military service for the Egyptians; for, according to the letter of Aristeas, King Psammetichus, probably the second of the name, employed Jewish mercenaries in a war against the Ethiopians, and it is reported that these Hebrew soldiers distinguished themselves by their courage. Even more remarkable is the legend recounted by Josephus ("Ant." ii. 10, § 2), according to which Moses himself was an Egyptian general, and conducted a successful invasion of Ethiopia (Meroe?). The Hebrew Josephus (Josippon, i. chap. ii.), indeed, reports that Zepho, son of Eliphaz, son of Esau, who was brought to Egypt as a captive by the viceroy Joseph, escaped thence to Carthage, where he was appointed general by King Angias. The source of this legend is not known, but it recalls the Talmudic legend (Yer. Shab. vi. 36c), that the Girgashites went to Africa, a statemenṭ based upon the fact that Carthage was colonized by Phenicians; hence from Canaan. Again Jerome, in "Onomastica Sacra," ed. Lagarde, Göttingen, 1887, represents Gergesæus as establishing colonies (colonum eiciens), which story is undoubtedly based on the Talmudic legend. This recalls the inscription said by Procopius to have been found in Africa, which describes Joshua as a robber, because he conquered Canaan (see "Jew. Quart. Rev." iii. 354; Barker, "Supposed Inscription upon 'Joshua the Robber,'" illustrated from Jewish sources). These wide-spread legends are ample proof that the continent of Africa occupied an important place in the thoughts of Jews.
Ethiopia.
The next most important land of Africa, from the point of view of Jewish history, is Cush (Ethiopia), the influence of whose king, Tirhakah, upon the history of Israel in the days of King Hezekiah is plainly discernible. According to 2Chr 14:8 et seq., the Ethiopian king Zerah invaded Judah and advanced as far as Mareshah; but the passage offers many historical difficulties. A war of the Ethiopian king Kyknos with the Syrians and the Children of the East is described in Yalḳuṭ. (Ex. § 168, 52d) and in the Sefer ha-Yashar (on Ex. ii.), but the source of the legend is unknown. Ezekiel indicates Ethiopia as the border-land of Egypt, and designates(xxix. 10, xxx. 6) Syene, the present Assouan, as the most southern city. This probably exhausts what the Biblical sources and the legends connected with the Bible contain on Africa.
Greek and Roman Age.
About the time that Greek and Roman culture began to influence the northern portion of Africa the Jews began to spread into these regions; indeed, they went even beyond the confines of the Roman empire. Egypt, according to the testimony of Philo, was inhabited, as far as the borders of Libya and Ethiopia, by Jews whose numbers were estimated at a million. The great mercantile city of nullAlexandria was the intellectual and commercial center of African Jewish life. Alexander the Great had conferred upon the Jews full rights of citizenship, and they guarded these rights jealously. In Cyrene also they were of importance; and their progress may be traced by the aid of inscriptions as far as Volubilis, in the extreme west of Mauretania (Schürer, "Gesch." 3d ed., iii. 19-26). Throughout the Grecian countries they formed themselves into separate political communities (πολίτευμα; see P. Prerdrizet, in "Revue Archéologique," 1899, xxxv. 45), while in the Latin districts they not only founded communities, but built synagogues, some of which were very beautiful. According to Jerome, the Jews dwelt in a continuous chain of settlements, from Mauretania eastward, throughout the province of Africa, and in Palestine, reaching as far as India ("Ep. 129 ad Dardanum," ed. Vallarsi, i. 966). If they were interrogated on Biblical matters they gave no answer ("Ep. 112 ad Augustinum," i. 744), probably in order to avoid being drawn into disputes with Christians. Jerome, it is true, claims they did not know any Hebrew. When Jerome's Bible translation, the Vulgate, was to be introduced among the African Christians, the Jews spread the report that the translation was false and thereby aroused strife among the Christian congregations (Jerome, ibid., and S. Krauss in the "Magyar Zsidó Szemle," vii. 530, Budapest, 1890). But Judaism in these regions did not dissolve or merge into Christianity; on the contrary, it continued to maintain its independent existence. Only in Egypt, particularly in Alexandria, where the path to Christianity had been smoothed by Jewish Hellenism, undoubtedly great masses of Jews went over to Christianity; but even there they continued to exist until the beginning of the fifth century, when Bishop Cyril expelled them from that city, which had been their home for many centuries. They must have returned at the first favorable opportunity, for in 640 the calif Omar, the conqueror of Egypt, found 40,000 Jews in Alexandria.
Rabbinic Accounts.
Rabbinical sources show much familiarity with, and great interest in, this part of the world. The Biblical names of Hamitic peoples are explained in the Talmud and Midrash from the standpoint of Greco-Roman geography. According to the researches of Epstein ("Les Chamites de la Table Ethnographique," in "Rev. Ét. Juives," xxiv. 8; S. Krauss, "Die Biblische Völkertafel im Talmud, Midrasch, und Targum," in "Monatsschrift," xxxix. 56) the following African peoples are mentioned: Syenians, Indians (that is, African Indians), Sembritæ (south of Meroe), Libyans, Zingians (on the east coast of Africa), Mazakians (in Mauretania, mentioned in Sifre, Deut. 320 and in Yeb. 63b; in Ex. R. iii. 4 reference is made to a Mauretanian girl). A collective term for the dark-skinned Africans is Cushites, which often occurs in this literature. The terms "Barbar" and "Barbaria," which very frequently occur in connection with the term Cushites, do not indicate the Berbers or Barbary country of Africa, but the Scythian peoples of the north of Europe. The word "Barbaria," which occurs in Ptolemy and in Cosmas Indicopleustes in about the same sense as the modern Barbary, and which has come to the Arabs in the form "Barbara" (Yakut, i. 543), only appears in later Jewish literature in this sense, and is applied to the coast of Somaliland (see Tomaschek, under the word "Barbaria," in the "Realencyklopädie für Classische Alterthumswissenschaft").
Meaning of "Africa."
On the other hand, the rabbinical term (missing hebrew text) , which has been wrongly explained as Phrygia, or Iberia in the Caucasus, means nothing else than the present Africa ("Monatsschrift," ibid.), and is intended to denote either the entire continent or the Roman province Africa. Thus, when the "sons of Africa" appear before Alexander the Great to accuse the Jews of the reconquest of Palestine (Sanh. 91a), and the Egyptians almost immediately present another charge against them, the reference can only be to the province of Africa, since the "sons of Africa" who demand the restoration of Canaan are, without doubt, the Girgashites, who had been compelled to emigrate to Africa (Yer. Sheb. vi, 36c.). Since the legend of this Girgashite emigration is intimately connected with the founding of Carthage, Africa is thus identified with it even more closely (Tamid, 32b, and the parallel passage, where (missing hebrew text) , "African land," is evidently the same as Carthage). The Septuagint (Isa 23:1), and Jerome (on Ezek. xxvii.), who, though a Christian, was taught by Jews, and very often the Aramaic Targum on the Prophets, identify the Biblical Tarshish with Carthage, which was the birthplace of a number of rabbis mentioned in the Talmud (compare above the identification with Tunis). Africa, in the broader sense, is clearly indicated where mention is made of the Ten Tribes having been driven into exile by the Assyrians and having journeyed into Africa (Mek., Bo, 17; Tosef., Shab. vii. 25; Deut. R. v. 14; and especially Sanh. 94a). Connected with this is the idea that the river Sambation is in Africa. The Arabs, who also know the legend of the Beni Musa ("Sons of Moses"), agree with the Jews in placing their land in Africa (compare Bacher, "Ag. Tan." i. 298; Epstein, "Eldad ha-Dani," p. 15). The probable basis of this legend must be sought in the actual existence of the Falashas in Africa. Rabbi Akiba, who traveled in Africa, on one occasion made use of an African word (Rapoport, in "Bikkure ha-'Ittim," iv. 70, 1823).
Besides the north of Africa, the great region to the west of the Red Sea—the land of Ethiopia or Abyssinia (Habesh), together with its adjacent countries, inhabited from time immemorial by the tribe of the Falashas, who profess the Jewish faith—possesses a special interest for Judaism. The native legend narrates that the queen of Sheba (I Kings, x.) bore a son called Menelek to Solomon, and that Menelek was educated in Jerusalem and afterward introduced the Mosaic law into his own country. This, however, only makes intelligible the rapid dissemination of Christianity in Ethiopia. With this may be compared the conversion of the eunuch of the queen Candace in Acts 8:27. According to the royal annals of Abyssinia, a large part of the land was inhabited by Jews, even before the common era. This refers, in all probability, to the Falashas (Ritter, "Erdkunde," part i., "Afrika," p. 218, Berlin, 1822). The undeniable relationship of the Ethiopian language (Geez) to other Semitic dialects stamps the Ethiopiansas a Semitic tribe, an assumption that is confirmed by their physical appearance. The nomadic Zalans, who live apart from the state church, also consider themselves Israelites (Flad, "Die Abyssinischen Juden," Basel, 1869; also the monograph of Metz in "Monatsschrift," 1879, xxviii.; and Epstein, "Eldad ha-Dani," Presburg, 1891).
