George Sale, The Koran, commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed, translated into English immediately from the original Arabic; with Explanatory Notes, taken from the most approved Commentators. To which is prefixed A Preliminary Discource (1734)
The tragical destructions of these two potent tribes are often insisted on in the Korân, as instances of God’s judgment on obstinate unbelievers.
The tribes of Tasm and Jadîs.
The tribe of Tasm were the posterity of Lûd the son of Sem, and Jadîs of the descendants of Jether 1. These two tribes dwelt promiscuously together under the government of Tasm, till a certain tyrant made a law, that no maid of the tribe of Jadîs should marry, unless first defloured by him 2; which the Jadisans not enduring, formed a conspiracy, and inviting the king and chiefs of Tasm to an entertainment, privately hid their swords in the sand, and in the midst of their mirth fell on them and slew them all, and extirpated the greatest part of that tribe; however the few who escaped obtaining aid of the king of Yaman, then (as is said) Dhu Habshân Ehn Akrân 3, assaulted Jadîs and utterly destroyed them, there being scarce any mention made from that time of either of those tribes 4.
The tribes of Jorham and Amalek.
The former tribe of Jorham (whose ancestor some pretend was one of the 80 persons saved in the ark with Noah, according to a Mohammedan tradition 5) was contemporary with Ad, and utterly perished 6. The tribe of Amalek were descended from Amalek the son of Eliphaz the son of Esau 7, tho’ some of the oriental authors say Amalek was the son of Ham the son of Noah 8, and others the son of Azd the son of Sem 9. The posterity of this person rendered themselves very powerful 10, and before the time of Joseph conquered the lower Egypt under their king Walîd, the first who took the name of Pharaoh, as the eastern writers tell us 11 seeming by these Amalekites to mean the same people which the Egyptian histories call Phænician shepherds 12. But after they had possessed the throne of Egypt for some descents, they were expelled by the natives, and at length totally destroyed by the Israelites 13.
The present Arabians.
The present Arabians, according to their own historians, are sprung from two stocks, Kabtân, the same with Joctan the son of Eber 14 and Adnân descended in a direct line from Ismael the son of Abraham and Hagar; the posterity of the former they call al Arab al Ariba 15, i.e. the genuine or pure Arabs, and those of the latter al
1 Abulfeda.
2 A like custom is said to have been in some mannors in England, and also in Scotland, where it was called Culliage or Cullage, having been established by K. Ewen and abolished by Malcolm III. See Bayle’s Dict. Art. Sixte IV. Rem. H.
3 Poc. Spec. 60.
4 Ib. 37. &c.
5 Ib. p. 39.
6 Ebn Shohnah.
7 Gen. xxxvi. 12.
8 V. D’Herbelot. p. 110.
9 Ebn Shohnah.
10 V. Numb. xxiv. 20.
11 Mirât Caïnât.
12 V. Joseph. cont. Apion. l. I.
13 V. Exod. xvii. 18, &c. 1 Sam. xv. 2. &c. Ib. xxvii. 8, 9. 1 Chron. iv. 43.
14 R. Saad. in vers. Arab. Pentat. Gen x. 25. Some writers make Kabtân a descendant of Ismael, but against the current of oriental historians. See Poc. Spec. 39.
15 An expression something like that of St. Paul who calls himself an Hebrew of the Hebrews. Philipp. iii. 5.
