| The term 'Semites' is applied to a group of people | | | | deserts. This episode could well be the historical |
| closely related in language, whose habitat is Asia | | | | substance and clearly is an echo of what Jews, |
| and partly Africa. The expression is derived from | | | | Christians and Muslims call the 'expulsion from |
| the Biblical table of nations (Genesis 10), in which | | | | paradise'. And this forced journey by Abraham's |
| most of these peoples are recorded as | | | | tribe into the desert is what definitely masks |
| descendants of Noah's son Sem. | | | | Semitic religious consciousness. Jewish, Christian |
| In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used | | | | and Islamic faiths are variants of Semitic religious |
| to refer to a language family of largely Middle | | | | tradition; though the term 'Abrahamic religions' is |
| Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages. | | | | used nowadays. |
| Ancient Semitic languages include Akkadian, the | | | | A recent study, using a technique based on the |
| language of ancient Babylonians and Assyrians; | | | | male or Y chromosome, has proved that Jews, |
| Phoenician and its descendant Punic, the language | | | | Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese, etc have all |
| of Carthage, the ancient enemy of Rome; the | | | | descended from a common ancestral population |
| classical form of Hebrew as recorded in the | | | | that inhabited the Middle East some four thousand |
| Hebrew Scriptures and later Jewish writings; many | | | | years ago. From these as well as from other |
| early dialects of Aramaic; the classical Arabic of | | | | circumstances the conclusion has been drawn that |
| the Koran and other Muslim writings; old Ethiopic | | | | Arabia should be considered the original home of |
| texts; and South Arabian languages attested in | | | | the Semitic peoples. All the racial peculiarities of |
| inscriptions found in modern Yemen, such as | | | | the Semites are best explained from the |
| Sabaean, the language of the ancient Sheba of | | | | character of a desert people. All Semites settled |
| the Bible. English has borrowed numerous words | | | | in civilized lands are, therefore, considered |
| from Semitic languages - including Alcohol, Algebra, | | | | offshoots of the desert tribes, which were |
| Alkali, Cipher, Nadir, Soda and Zero. | | | | detached one after the other from the parent |
| As language studies are intertwined with cultural | | | | stem. This pressing forward towards civilized land |
| studies, the term also came to describe the | | | | was a continuous movement, often in a slow |
| extended cultures and ethnicities, as well as the | | | | development lasting through centuries but often |
| history of these varied peoples as associated by | | | | also in mighty and sudden invasions, the last of |
| close geographic and linguistic distribution. The | | | | which appears in that of the Arabs of Islam. In |
| spread of Semitic language (that includes Arab, | | | | the second half of the 6th century AD, Northern |
| Hebrew and many more) is a good indication of | | | | Arabia had not yet found a way to political union |
| the spreading through history of Semitic tribes, | | | | and the entire peninsula threatened to become a |
| although many tribes also adopted it during | | | | battle ground of Persian and Byzantine interests. |
| Semitic conquest, especially the Muslim conquests | | | | In one district alone, the centre of which was |
| in the 7th and 8th centuries - reaching from | | | | Mecca, did pure Arabism maintain an independent |
| present day Pakistan to Spain and Portugal. | | | | position. In this city AD 570, Muhammed was |
| Abraham, Isaac and Jacob feature as ancestors in | | | | born, the man who was destined to put into |
| the historical consciousness of most of these | | | | motion the last and most permanent of the |
| tribes, notably in the Arab and Jewish tribes. The | | | | movements which issued from Arabia. And so in |
| myths around these ancestral figures indicate an | | | | the seventh century another evolution of |
| awareness, atleast a conscious claim to the | | | | Semitism took place, which in the victorious |
| common descendancy. Hammurabi (1795 -1750 | | | | power of its attack and in its mighty expansion |
| BC) and his followers and successors had driven | | | | surpassed all that had gone before; the offshoots |
| the Semites out of Mesopotamia, sentenced to | | | | of which passed forward to the Atlantic Ocean |
| wandering in search for shelter, prey to the | | | | and into Europe itself. |