The Gold of Ophir

Alice C. Linsley


The Bible names two sites from which massive amounts of gold were exported: Havilah and Ophir. Havilah was in Africa (Gen. 2:11) and Ophir was in southwest Arabia, probably Yemen (Biblical Sheba and Ramah). It appears that both mining regions were under Horite control. The peoples of the east African seaboard and Yemen have been linked by archaeologists.

In 2007, archaeologists from the Oriental Institute discovered a 4000 year gold-processing center along the middle Nile in the Sudan. The site is called Hosh el-Guruf and is located about 225 miles from Khartoum. More than 55 grinding stones made of granite-like gneiss were found at the site. The ore was ground to recover the gold and the water was used to separate the flakes from the particle residue. Similar grinding stones have been found in Egypt and at Timnah in southern Israel.The oldest mines at Timnah are at least 6,000 years old and the patron of the miners was Hathor-Meri, the mother of Horus. Her totem was a cow and she is shown at Nile shrines holding her offspring in a manger.

In 1939, the American mining engineer Karl Twitchell led an exploration in southern Arabia where he discovered a mining site of several square miles. Arabs call the place Mahd adh Dhahab, "Cradle of Gold." Between 1934 and 1954, a British company extracted substantial amounts of gold from that site and also discovered fifty-five other ancient mines in the area.

In 1946 an inscribed pottery shard was found at Tell Qasile (Tel Aviv) dating to the eight century BC. The Paleo-Hebrew inscription says, "gold of Ophir for Beth-Horon [...] 30 shekels." This, and other such finds, confirm that gold was exported from Ophir and that it was connected to Horus, the Golden One.


The Horites and Gold

Gold was associated with the sun, the Creator's emblem and with Horus to whom the Horites were devoted.This meant that gold served as a symbol of Horite belief in Ra and Horus.

Horus the Golden

Every three years Solomon received tribute of gold, silver, sandalwood, precious stones, ivory, apes and baboons (some say peacocks) from Ophir. Solomon's navy traveled to Ophir, taking "four hundred and twenty talents of gold from there" (1 Kin. 9:26-28; 22:48; 2 Chr. 8:17-18; 9:10). This gold probably came from the Dedanite and Joktanite tribes of southern Arabia.

I Kings 10:18,19 tells of a great ivory throne with two lions standing beside the arm rests. Golden lions were a common motif found on royal thrones. Even today, the throne of the Coptic Pope retains this symbolism. Often the back of the ancient thrones was an ivory and gold inlay with an image of Horus the Golden.


Ophir of the Jokanites

Ophir is a variant of O-pir. The O-piru are known in biblical and extra-biblical texts as Ha-piru and Ha-biru. The English for Habiru is Hebrew. O-piru and Ha-biru are Horites. Even today Jews refer to their distinguished ancestors as Horim and the Joktanites refer to their distinguished ancestors as Houris.

The homeland of the Dedanites extended the length of the Red Sea to the northern boundary of Ophir. The word Dedan means red and is a cognate to the Egyptian didi (red fruit) and the Yoruba diden (red). The Dedanites probably had a reddish skin tone like their Horite kinsmen the Edomites (Gen. 36).

The homeland of the Joktanites includes Yemen and southern Arabia. Abraham's firstborn son was named Joktan (Yaqtan) after his maternal grandfather, Joktan the Elder.

Horites were dispersed throughout all of Arabia and served as priests at water shrines and shrine cities such as Hazor, Jerusalem and Petra. The Horites were devotees of Horus, after whom they take their name.


Horite Beliefs

The Horites believed that the "Seed" of God would be born of their blood because of a promise the Creator made to their Edenic forefathers (Gen. 3:15). They expected a woman of their Horite caste to be overshadowed by the Sun, the Creator's emblem, and to thereby conceive. This is why the wived of Horite ruler-priests word a solar image on their foreheads. The mark is called a tikla. From this Hindu women developed the custom of the bindi. Here we glimpse the solar imagery of the Proto-Gospel.

The oldest evidence of this is found on the mummy of Amunet, devotee of Hathor-Meri (2160-1994 BC). Hathor-Meri was the virgin mother of Horus. As Abraham and Sarah were Horites, it is likely that the mark on Sarah's forehead in the recent Bible mini-series was like that of Amunet. This mark on Sarah, their Horite beliefs, and the miraculous events surrounding Isaac's birth, suggest that Abraham may have believed Isaac to be the promised Seed.

Christians believed that the Edenic Promise has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Seed/Son of God. He alone fulfills the pattern of Horus, to whom the Horites were devoted.  Jesus' true identity was recognized, not in Jerusalem, but rather in Tyre (Matt. 15:21-28; Mark 7: 24). In Tyre, Jesus "could not pass unrecognized" because the Horus myth was still remembered there.

The rulers of Tyre were kinsmen of David and Solomon. King Hiram and David had a common Horite ancestry, as analysis of the Genesis king lists indicates. This Horite lineage can be traced back to Eden. Hiram (Huram /Horam) sent skilled artisans to help David build a palace in Jerusalem. Hiram is a variation of the names Hur or Hor, and refers to Horus.

According to Midrashic tradition, Hur was Moses’ brother-in-law. Hur’s grandson was one of the builders of the Tabernacle. I Chronicles 4:4 lists Hur as the "father of Bethlehem", David's city. It was a Horite shrine long before it was taken by the Horite warrior Caleb. I Chronicles 2:51 gives Caleb's son Salma as the founder of Bethlehem. One of Caleb's grandsons was named Korah (I Chron. 2:43), which refers to the Horite priesthood. Moses' half-brother was Korah. The name means "shaved one" as Horite priests shaved their bodies before their time of service.

The Horites were devotees of Horus and his mother Hathor-Meri who conceived miraculously by the overshadowing of the Sun. Horus is the archetype by which Abraham's descendants would recognize Jesus as the promised Seed of the Woman (Gen. 3:15). His authentication was His rising from the dead on the third day, in accordance with Horite expectation. Abraham's ancestors believed in the resurrection of the body and awaited a deified king who would rise from the grave and deliver his people from death.



Related reading: Kushite Gold; The Afro-Arabian Dedanites; Afro-Asiatic Metal Workers; Who Were the Horites?; The Shock of Mohammad Atta's Afterlife

How the Deuteronomist Changes the Genesis Narrative

The Joktanite clans of Southern Arabia
Among them were Horite Hebrew priests.

Alice C. Linsley

The whole canon is inspired and has been superintended by the Holy Spirit. The Bible is self-interpreting. We must use our God-given intelligence to sort through the material, context by context, to discover the various concerns of Biblical writers. For example, the Deuteronomist Historian seeks centralized worship at the Jerusalem temple, and the reshaping of the Passover and Tabernacles into national observances. This theological account does not align well with the historical, archaeological, and anthropological data concerning Abraham and his cattle-herding ancestors.

The Deuteronomist Historian is the final hand on the Genesis. This presence represents fundamentalism and iconoclasm and attempts to reshape Hebrew history. The book of Genesis contains information about Abraham and his ancestors who lived long before the Neo-Babylonian Period (about 700-300 BC), the period of the Deuteronomist Historian.  The DH stresses rejection of images, exclusive devotion to Yahweh, and obedience to his prophet Moses (Deut. 18:18; cf. Mark 6:125; Matt. 16:13-20; John 1:21).

Thankfully, this source preserved the King Lists in Genesis, by which another version of the history of Abraham's ancestors is told. These were the Nilo-Saharan and Saharo-Nubian cattle herding rulers who lived between the Nile and Lake Chad. Analysis of their marriage and ascendancy pattern reveals that Moses, Aaron and their half-brother Korah were Horite priests, as was their father Amram. The idea of Moses as a prophet is an anachronism.

From the Neo-Babylonian perspective, Genesis is about the people who dwelt in the Western Asian satrapy of Eber-Nahar which was comprised of Syria, Phoenicia, and Cyprus. Eber-Nahar or Eber ha-nahar means the "territory beyond the river." Eber as the eponymous ancestor of the Hebrews is problematic since analysis of the Genesis king lists makes it clear that Eber is a descendant of both Ham and Shem and the father of both Afro-Arabians (the Joktanite clans of Southern Arabia) and Afro-Asians (the Mesopotamian clans of Peleg).

An overlooked effect of the Deuteronomist's perspective is that it cuts out of the picture the importance of the Arabians, especially the Horites of Edom (Gen. 36). The word "Hebrew" does not come from Eber, as is often reported. It comes from ha-biru and refers to an ancient priest caste that included Arabians. In fact, one of the oldest words for priest is "Korah" from which comes the Arabic word for priest which is Khouri or Hori, referring to the Horite priesthood.

Some Jews and some Arabs have Horite blood. Arab historians identify twenty Jewish clans living in Arabia, including two priestly lines. The priestly lines intermarried exclusively, with priests marrying the daughters of priests according to a fixed marriage and ascendancy pattern. This intermarriage began long before Jews can be identified as a distinct ethnic group. The ruling ancestors of Jews and Arabs intermarried so that the two groups are blood kin.

One of Moses' older brothers held the title "Korah" before Aaron was consecrated a priest. Korah relates to the practice of the Horite priests to shave in preparation for their terms of service in the temples. (See Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2007, p.37)

The Neo-Babylonian Empire had two main provinces: Eber-Nahar and Babylonia.The satrap of Eber-Nahar resided in Babylon and he was served by governors who lived in Eber-Nari. One of the local governors was Tettenai, who is mentioned in the Bible and in Akkadian cuneiform documents.

Genesis took shape under the Neo-Babylonian rulers. In other words, the story is told from the perspective of those who lived east of Arabia. This perspective does not recognize the traditions of the Arabians who were never Babylonian subjects. The Babylonians and Assyrians were not able to defeat the warriors of Arabia. Nor were the Greeks able to defeat the Nabataean warriors. The Greeks called them the Idumea, meaning red people. 

The Deuteronomist Historian shapes Genesis in a way that distorts the image, just as photo-shopping a portrait gives a false impression. Ignoring the Arabians in Genesis makes it appear that they have no place in Biblical history. Nothing could be farther from the truth! 

The Horite ruler-priests of Arabia are among the great rulers named in Genesis 1-12. Abraham spoke Proto-Arabic dialects. His firstborn son was Joktan, which is Yaktan in Arabic. Josephus knew him as Joctan and his name is preserved in the ancient town of Jectan near Mecca. The Joktanite clans of Arabia are related to Abraham, and are the descendants of his Afro-Arabian forefathers Ramah, The brother of Nimrod, and Kush's grandsons, Dedan and Sheba.

Genesis 10:7 indicates that the Dedanites are related to the Kushite ruler Dedan. Dedan means "red" and is a cognate to the Egyptian didi (red fruit) and the Yoruba diden (red). Here we are scratching the older pre-Babylonian layer of Genesis. Old Arabic texts provide the closest cognates to the older stratum, which is Afro-Arabian. Dedan is where the largest collection of the oldest Arabic texts have been found at the oases of Tema and Dedan in the Hijaz. Tema (Taima) lies about 70 miles north-east of Dedan. Tema, Dedan and Dumah were caravan stops along the trade route from Sheba to Babylon.

Red Nubians wearing feathers
(Ippolito Rosellini)

Red Nubians wearing feathers
(Dr. Arthur Brack)

These resemble the Nabataean warriors (shown below) with their feathers and long wavy hair.

Dedan was the son of Ramah, the brother of Sheba and the grandson of Kush. This means that the peoples of the regions of Ramah, Dedan and Sheba were kin and Kushites. They appear to be related to the red Nubians. They spoke a North Arabian dialect referred to as Dedanite or Dedanitic. It has been grouped with Canaanite and Aramaic (Faber 1997).

We would expect to find parallels between Dedanite and the Kushitic/Nilotic languages. This is evident in the Dedanite and ancient Egyptian use of the root mr. The Egyptian word for love is mer which is related to the word for mother ‘m in Egyptian and in Dedanite. In both languages the word for woman is mr’t. Mer is also the root of the name Meri/Mary.

Dedanite shares some features with Hebrew also. The final /a/ was represented by –h, as in Hebrew, so the bi-consonantal word Rama (rm) becomes a tri-consonantal word Ramah (rmh). In both Dedanite and Hebrew the final /u/ is replaced by –w.

Linguistic connections between the Proto-Saharan, Nilotic, Dedanite, and Dravidian languages adds to the evidence of the Kushite expansion out of Africa. An example is the correspondence between Dedanite, the Nilotic Manding, and the Dravidian first person singular pronouns. The first person singular pronoun in Dedanite is ‘n which corresponds to the Dravidian first person singular an and to the Manding na.

It has been noted also that the qiblahs in the oldest mosques in Cairo and in Baghdad point to Dedan, about 500 miles north-northwest of Mecca.


Related reading: Abraham's Firstborn Son; Abraham and Job: Horite Rulers; Petra Reflects Horite Beliefs; The Afro-Asiatic Dominion: The Shock of Mohammed Atta's Afterlife; The Afro-Arabian Dedanites; Understanding Violence in the Old Testament by Eric Jobe

Etymology of the Word "Horite"

Alice C. Linsley



The term Horite is derived from the root HR which in the ancient world pertained to Horus, to gold, to elevated persons, and to the Sun, the Creator's emblem. The word is associated with the functions of the Horite priesthood who weighed and evaluated commodities at the rock (kar) shrines and the river shrines. In ancient Egyptian inscriptions Khar referred to a commercial unit of measurement. (See James Orr, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, page 1421.)

The association of the roots gr (trader) and hr (Horite) is evident in Southern India in place names such as Gurgaon Haryana and in Leviticus 27:25, which equates twenty gerahs to one shekel. The custom of the priests weighing and placing value on offerings and traded commodities explains the linguistic connection between the Gurjar tradesmen and smiths and the Horites.

The words khar, kur and gur are related. Kur and gur means man or person in Ainu. Recent DNA and anthropological studies reveal that the Ainu, whose point of origin appears to have been the Nile Valley, dispersed widely. In Akkadian gurguri means metalworkers or copper smiths. In Oromo gurguru means to sell (gurgurtaa = sale, gurguraa = seller). In Somali gur- means to collect something and gurgure means one who Collects and Keeps Collecting. The Gurgure clan of the Dir refers to traders who collect wares and resale them. Among the Dir guri means stick, rod or firearm.

In Abraham's time, the Horite ruler-priest caste and metal working traders ranged from the Nile to ancient Babylon and into Pakistan and Southern India. They were rulers who controlled the major water systems which they used for commerce. They were a sufficiently important people to attract the attention of Chedorlaomer, King of Elam who attacked the Horites of Mount Seir (Gen. 14). Jews call them Horim (חרי), and Arabs call them Houris. In the Qur'an the Houris are deified ancestors. Some Jews and some Arabs share this common ancestry.

Analysis of Genesis 36 indicates that the Horites and Edomites intermarried, as is evidenced by this diagram which shows two named Esau. Esau the Younger was Jacob's brother. Possibly they were half-brothers.

These are all Horite clans. Job of Uz was a Horite.

In the region of Edom in modern Jordan and in Dedan they lived in caves as is mentioned in the Genesis 14:6, 36:20 and Deuteronomy 2:12. Their descendants built Petra in Edom (modern Jordan).

The Persian and Urdu word Saudagar means trader. This contains the gr root in connection with Arabia. However, Horites dispersed across the ancient world and their religious beliefs are reflected among the Scythian Saka. The Saka of the Kurgan (rock fortress) culture traded in horses about 3000 BC.

According to Hindu sacred texts, the Saka ruled the ancient world for 7000 years. They were ethnically Kushites. Genesis calls these rulers of the archaic world "the mighty men of old"(cf Nehemiah 3:16). Some of these rulers dispersed far from their ancestral homes and established kingdoms in Syria, Southern Europe, Northern India and the Tarim Valley of China.

A linguistic connection to the Horites is retained in the name Horowitz (also spelled Hurwitz or Gurvich), a surname found among Jews. The word Horite takes many forms including Hur, Horonaim, Horoni, Horovich, Gurwitz, and Hori. Hori was the son of Lotan son of Seir whose pre-Edomite descendants were the "lords of the Horites in the land of Seir" (Gen. 36:20-29 and 1 Chronicles 1:38-42). Lot, Lotan, and Nim-Lot are Egyptian titles. Nimlot C was the High Priest of Amun at Thebes during the latter part of the reign of his father Osorkon II.

The Gir-gam tells the story of Abraham's Proto-Saharan ancestors Cain, Seth and Noah. All were trader-rulers who controlled the water ways of West Central Africa.

The Jews call their ancestors Horim because many are direct descendants of the Biblical Horites. "Horite" does not refer to the ethnicity of the people, but to their caste. The ancient world had a caste structure. This explains why Horites are found among many peoples across the Afro-Asiatic Dominion.



Related reading:  The Horite Ancestry of Jesus Christ; The Relationship of Somali Kushitic Languages and Somali Oromo; Petra Reflects Horite Beliefs; Nimrod and the Baptism of Jesus; Edom and the Horites; Horite Expectation and the Star of Bethlehem; "The Horites" by The Rev. John Campbell, M. A.; Ha'biru, Ha'piru, 'Abiru or Hebrew?

Petra Reflects Horite Beliefs

Alice C. Linsley

Sela was the capital of Edom. It is mentioned in Isaiah 16:1 and 2 Kings 14:7. Sela probably was not a major site in Abraham's time. Petra is the later name, when it came under the control of the Nabataeans who then controlled much of modern-day Jordan until the third century BC.

Petra reflects the pillared architecture of the Horite shrines of the Nile, and the first ruler of Petra, Obodas, took his name from the Edo/Edomite name for ruler which is Oba. The linguist Helene Longpre says that Nabataean Aramaic most closely corresponds to Meroitic or Old Nubian. (H. Longpre, "Investigation of the Ancient Meroitic Writing System", Rhode Island College, 1999.)

Red mountains of Edom (BAR photo)

Petra is the Greek name, and refers to the rocky location of the Nabataean capital in the red sandstone mountains of Edom. The Greeks called the Edomites the Idumea, meaning red people. Esau of Edom was described as having a red skin tone in Genesis 25:25.

Nabataean warriors

This suggests that the Edomites of the Bible may be related to the Edo or Idu of Nigeria and Benin whose rulers dress in red. The title of their rulers is further evidence. The ruler of the Edo is called "Oba" and the first ruler of Petra was King Obodas. (Likely, there is a linguistic connection to the Turkish word for ancestor or grandfather which is oboko and the Japanese word for a regional ruler which is obito.)

Edom was controlled by the Horite Hebrew, a caste of royal priests who spread from the Nile into Mesopotamia, Babylonia and beyond. Seir the Horite is listed as one of their kings in Genesis 36.

Job was of the clan of Uz. Uz was the son of Dishan. Dishan was the son of Seir the Horite. These chiefs were horse handlers and appreciated the power and beauty of the horse. In questioning Job, God asks, “Do you give the horse it’s strength or clothe it’s neck with a flowing mane?”

The Nabataean kings, such as Harithath IV, bear the Horus name. King Harithath is called King Aretas in II Corinthians 11:32. Coins have been found bearing the image of Aretas, and inscriptions have been found in the Nabataean town of Avdat with his name and the names of other Nabataean rulers. He was called "King of the Nabatu, who loves his people" (Philopatris), and it was during his reign that the greatest of Petra's tombs were created.

The connection to the kings of Egypt is evident in the name of Petra's central temple: Qasr al-Bint al-Faroun which means "The Fortress of the Daughter of Pharaoh." Its walls rise to over 75 feet. The temple was built between the late first century BC and the first century CE. Its precinct covers about 81,376 square feet or 7,560 square meters. A large open plaza was lined with 120 columns. The columns were adorned with Asian elephant-head capitals and provide evidence of connections between ancient Edom and India and other lands of the ancient Near East. At its height of glory, Petra rivaled the grandeur of Herod's Jerusalem.

The word Nabataean is likely related to Naba or Nabu, the guardian of scribes and prophets. This is the origin of the Hebrew word nabi, meaning prophet. The earliest scribes were Horite priests. The cult of Nabu was introduced into Mesopotamia and Babylon by the Kushites. Kushite kings sometimes bore the name Nabu, as with Nabu-shum-libur, an early Kushite king in Babylon and Nabu-aplu-iddina.

The Horites traced blood line through the mother while social status was based on the father's rank and occupation. Married women could hold and bequeath property and rule over their clans. Anah is listed as a "chief" in Genesis 36. Her name is also spelled Anat and Anath. Joseph married the daughter of a Horite priest. Her name was Asenath, a variant of Anath.


A Monumental Complex

Petra is a 400-acre complex cut from the rock well before the time of Jesus. It is called the "Rose City." The city reveals a sophisticated system of water management. There were aqueducts, piping systems and channels that directed water to the city center, to the temple, and to the homes and gardens of prominent citizens. Retention dams prevented flooding.

The Treasury at Petra

Note the three-portal design. Jordan has done restoration at this and other Petra edifices.

North-facing Petra temple

The Petra temple exhibits the typical Egyptian Divine Triad of Supreme God, the Divine Son (Horus, associated with Jupiter), and the Mother Goddess (Hathor). Generally, the architecture reflects the Egyptian three-part structure. Excavations at the foot of the Treasury reveal that there were three stories, not just the two shown in photographs.

Hundreds of rock-cut tombs have been found at Petra. The Tomb of the Obelisks is distinctively Egyptian in architectural style.


Nabataeans Related to Other Biblical Peoples

The Nabataeans are mentioned in historical records such as Diodorus Siculus' Bibliotheca (book 19), dating to 312 BC, and in an Egyptian papyrus dating to 259 BC. They are mistakenly classified as Arabs. However, in 1 Maccabees 5 (v. 25) we note that the Nabataeans were allied with Judas Maccabees while the Arabs are named as his enemies (v. 39).
The Nabataeans were involved in the lucrative South Arabian spice, incense and perfume trade and apparently were related to the royal House of Sheba.

The rulers of Sheba were descendants of Raamah and their territory extended from the southwestern part of Arabia northward to Beersheba (the well of Sheba). Sheba and Dedan were brothers (Gen.10:7) who ruled separate territories. The qiblahs in the oldest mosques in Cairo and in Baghdad point to Dedan, about 500 miles north-northwest of Mecca.

Dedanite Y

The largest collection of ancient Arabic texts have been found at the North Arabian oases of Tema and Dedan in the Hijaz. Tema is known by Arabs as Taima and lies about 70 miles north-east of Dedan. Tema, Dedan and Dumah were caravan stops along the trade route from Sheba to Babylon.


The Horite Hebrew Warriors and Horses

Sheba is credited with early domestication, breeding and export of Arabian horses. Likely the word "horse" is derived from Horus or Horite. The word horse appears as hors in Old English texts before the 12th century. Onager horses, (related to gur or khur?) were bred by Kushites along the Tigris before 3000 BC. Rock and cave images of horses in the Sahara predate the 1670 BC Hyksos invasion of Egypt, so the Hyksos cannot be credited with introducing horses to Egypt.

The Nabataean cavalry was camel mounted with two archers, one facing forward and one facing either front or back. The warriors wore ribbons in their long wavy hair. The camel was well suited to the desert environment in which they fought, but with their expansion into Syria, the Nabataeans adopted horses for war. They preferred fast lighter horses that could, in the words of Diodorus "… flee into the desert, using this as a stronghold."

The Nabataean warriors had long wavy hair and wore feathers. These Nabataean warriors appear to be related to the red Nubians shown below.

Petra's Last Days

The power and influence of Petra's rulers was subjugated to that of Rome when the emperor Trajan formally annexed the city in 106 A.D.

After the decline of the Roman Empire, Petra became a provincial capital under Byzantine rule.

Inn May 363 A.D., Petra sustained significant damage during an earthquake. The city sits near the boundary of the Arabian plate and has suffered from numerous quakes. The quake of 363 was especially devastating. It was reported that half the city was destroyed and the water system was disrupted. Archaeologists confirm damage to the main theater, the principal temple of Qasr al-Bint al-Faroun, and the Colonnaded Street.

Petra was in economic decline before the earthquake of A.D. 363 due to changes in trade. The flourishing land trade from East Africa and South Arabia to the Mediterranean and India had declined by the 2nd century A.D.


Related reading: Edo, Edom and Idumea Architecture Links Horites and Petra; The Genesis Record of Horite Rule; Who Were the Horites?; Abraham's Camels; 7000 BC Horse Burial Linked to Sheba; The Afro-Arabian Dedanites; The Arabian Horse and the Nabataeans; Who Was Oholibamah?; Some Jews and Some Arabs Have Common Horite Ancestry; New Petra Monument Spotted Through Satellites

The Shock of Muhammad Atta's Afterlife

Alice C. Linsley

Who are the houris mentioned in the Qur'an?

Many Muslims believe they are buxom maidens to be enjoyed by martyrs in the afterlife. In a note to his fellow hijackers, September 11 ringleader Muhammad Atta reminded them of their impending "marriage in Paradise" to the 72 virgins mentioned in the Quran. Islamic extremists refer to suicide bombing as a "wedding to the black-eyed in eternal Paradise."

The German scholar Christoph Luxenberg says the "houris" with "swelling breasts" refers instead to "white raisins" and "juicy fruits" and are symbolic of the restoration of the lushness of Paradise. Luxenberg's research was featured in a Newsweek article titled "Challenging the Quran" on July 28, 2003.

However, Luxenberg mistakenly argues that Arabic was not a written language until 150 years after Muhammad's death. In reality, Arabic is older than Hebrew and both languages have common roots in the Proto-Afro-Arabian languages. Many of those ancient roots are found in Aramaic and ancient Akkadian.

The Danish linguist Holger Pedersen (1867-1953) explained in The Discovery of Language that “Hebrew, Aramaic and Accadian languages had all undergone significant linguistic degeneration. Only Old Arabic, due to its relative isolation in the Arabian peninsula, remained closer to the old stratum of the ‘Semitic’ form of the language.” Old Arabic is sometimes called "Dedanite" because that is where the largest concentration of old Arabic scripts has been found. Further, the oldest mosques were aligned to a site in Dedan.

Dedan the Elder was a grandson of Kush by his son Raamah (Gen. 10:7).  Dedan the Younger was the son of Joktan, Abraham's first-born son (Gen. 25:3).

Dr. Maher Hathout argues that Luxenberg is wrong about the Houris being raisins and fruits. Hathout explains, "It is his [Luxenberg's] prerogative but this does not provide anything supernatural to look forward to the life of eternity. It seems that what he was referring to as raisins is 'kawaib.' Dr. Hathout argues that the Arabic meaning of "beings with swollen breasts" refers to "beings of distinction."

Dr. Hathout is Correct

The Houris are Horite beings of distinction or deified ruler-priests and the number 72 further establishes the connection to the Horites. The ancient ruler-priests were aware of the precession of the equinoxes. The number 72 represents the number of years it takes for the constellations to move one degree due to precession. The Great Pyramid and Angkor Wat are nearly 72° apart, along the circle's circumference (diagram below).  It has been noted also that Angkor Wat is located 72° of longitude east of the Pyramids of Giza. The name Angkor correlates with the ancient Egyptian Anhk-Hor, meaning "Long live Horus."

Point A represents the Angkor Wat complex of 72 shrines and G represents the Great Pyramid of Egypt.
Point I represents Har-Appa in the Indus valley. Har-Appa means "Horus is Father." 
Point M is the pyramid at Machupicchu with 72 steps. Point E is Easter Island.
Credit: Jim Alison

Apparently the Horites believed that each year of the precession is represented by a deified ruler and the Heavenly Council is comprised of these 72 rulers. To enter heaven is to come before this Council.

The Egyptians marked time by 36 ten-day increments (half of 72) and each increment was ruled by a different righteous ruler or rising star. This is based on the number of "decan" stars which were seen to rise during summer nights in Ancient Egypt. A "decan" star was a star that rose just before sunrise at the beginning of a 10-day "decade" in Ancient Egypt. The Egyptian year was marked by 36 decan stars or 36 ten-day periods. During summer nights, 12 decan stars rose; one for each hour. This is the apparent basis for the appointment of the 12 Apostles as rulers. Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." (Matt.19:28)

The coincidence of celestial events and deified rulers is evident in Job 38:4-7, where God asks Job the Horite:

 "Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
    Tell me, if you understand.
⁵ Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
    Who stretched a measuring line across it?
⁶ On what were its footings set,
    or who laid its cornerstone —
⁷ while the morning stars sang together
    and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

This appears to be a reference to January 2, 2900 BC when Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn visibly aligned within a few degrees of one another and appeared as morning "stars." This event is described from the point of reference of a surveyor at the Great Pyramid, and the Pyramid's structure serves as a memorial to this celestial event. As Bernard I. Pietsch had written, "Its shape, dimensions, and internal design communicate very specific information about where it is located on the earth and in the cosmos as well in one single moment."

In ancient Egypt, the superior planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were associated with Horus. Mars was named "Horus of the Horizon" or "Horus the Red." Jupiter was called "Horus Who Illuminates the Two Lands" and Saturn was named "Horus, Bull of the Sky." These three planets were always depicted with the falcon-head of Horus (Krupp 1979).

Messianic texts speaks of the Son of God, a title given to Horus, the archetype of Jesus the Messiah. Jesus is called the Messiah eleven times in the Qur'an. It is not a coincidence that Psalm 72 is a Messianic text.

Psalm 72

1 Endow the king with your justice, O God,
the royal son with your righteousness.
2 He will judge your people in righteousness,
your afflicted ones with justice.
3 The mountains will bring prosperity to the people,
the hills the fruit of righteousness.
4 He will defend the afflicted among the people
and save the children of the needy;
he will crush the oppressor.

5 He will endure as long as the sun,
as long as the moon, through all generations.
6 He will be like rain falling on a mown field,
like showers watering the earth.
7 In his days the righteous will flourish;
prosperity will abound till the moon is no more.

8 He will rule from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
9 The desert tribes will bow before him
and his enemies will lick the dust.
10 The kings of Tarshish and of distant shores
will bring tribute to him;
the kings of Sheba and Seba
will present him gifts.
11 All kings will bow down to him
and all nations will serve him.

12 For he will deliver the needy who cry out,
the afflicted who have no one to help.
13 He will take pity on the weak and the needy
and save the needy from death.
14 He will rescue them from oppression and violence,
for precious is their blood in his sight.

15 Long may he live!
May gold from Sheba be given him.
May people ever pray for him
and bless him all day long.
16 Let grain abound throughout the land;
on the tops of the hills may it sway.
Let its fruit flourish like Lebanon;
let it thrive like the grass of the field.
17 May his name endure forever;
may it continue as long as the sun.

All nations will be blessed through him,
and they will call him blessed.



The Common Horite Ancestry of Some Jews and Arabs

As many Arab Muslims and Jews have a common Horite ancestry, it seems more likely that the houris are their Horite ancestors who have entered into Paradise or the "lap of the Houris." This appears to be equivalent to the Bosom of Abraham, the Horite. This is suggested by the fact that Abraham's bosom in the Greek text is kolpos, which means lap. So righteous Arabs and righteous Jews will be in the same lap in the afterlife where they will await judgment.

Jews call their ancestors "horim" and the Arab Kohanan recognize Aram, Shem and Noah as their ancestors. The Horim of Jews and Arabs are traced differently in the Torah and the Qur'an, but there are clear connections showing their common Horite ancestors.  Consider ʿĀd, who according to Arab tradition was the son of Uz. Uz the Elder is mentioned in Genesis 10:23. His grandson was Uz, the son of Dishan (I Chron. 1:42). Dishan was a son of Seir the Horite and the brother-in-law of Esau the Younger. Uz the Younger was Seir's grandson.

Abraham's ruler-priest caste is traced back to ancient Kush where the oldest known shrine to Horus is located at Nehken. The Horites spread their devotion to Horus, Re and Hathor across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. Horus was the archetype by which Abraham’s descendants would recognize Jesus as the Messiah and the fulfillment of the Edenic promise (Gen. 3:15). Jesus was born of Mary, a woman of the Horite bloodline. She brought forth the Seed who would crush the serpent's head and restore the faithful to Paradise, just as God promised to Abraham's ancestors in Eden.

Abraham the Horite had 9 sons. The firstborn sons ruled among Abraham’s people. However the first-born sons of wives were ranked above the firstborn sons of concubines. This means that Joktan (Qahtan in Arabic) ranked over Eliezar, and Yitzak ranked over Yishmael. Joktan ruled over the southern settlements of his maternal grandfather (Dedan, Ramaah and Beersheba) and Yitzak ruled the northern settlements of his father Abraham (Hebron, Bethel and Shechem). To this day the Joktanite tribes live in southern Arabia.

The Joktanite tribes of Southern Arabia are descendants of Abraham by Keturah

Genesis 10: 26 tells us that Joktan had 13 sons. Almodad appears to be the first-born, as his name is listed first. If Joktan followed the pattern of his fathers, his two wives would have maintained separate households on a north-south axis. The sons of his concubines would have been sent away to the east and to the west. This may be the meaning of Gen. 10:30 which describes the Joktanite territory as extending "from Mesha [Mecca?] all the way to Sephar in the eastern mountains [Mount Zafari on the Indian Ocean?]."

Some of the descendants of Joktan and Sheba hold an annual autumn feast at an oasis in the wilderness to celebrate the date harvest. This is the one time of the year that women and men may dance together. The date palm (“tamar”) is a symbol of prosperity and fertility. The ‘Id el-Tamar is a festival when the unmarried check out the pool of available matches. As is the custom from time immemorial, wife selection takes place at a well or an oasis. Abraham met Keturah at the well of Sheba (Beersheba). Moses met Zipporah at the well of her father, the priest of Midian. Midian was another of Abraham's sons, born to Abraham by his second wife Keturah. Jacob met Rebekah at a well in Padan-Aram.

Some of Abraham's descendants are Jews and some are Arabs. Both Arabs and Jews have Horite ancestors because the Horite clans intermarried. Mt-DNA studies confirm that the Horite ancestors of the priests among Abraham's people did marry exclusively within the priestly lines. This is why the Kohan genetic marker is found among Arabs and Jews. Both Arabs and Jews are descendants of Ham and Shem whose lines exclusively intermarried, as did the lines of Cain and Seth before them.  The distinctive Kohan DNA or "priest marker" is identifiable because Horite priests married daughters of priests who maintained flocks and herds at wells or river shrines. They selected animals for sacrifice from these flocks and herds. Joachim, the Virgin Mary's father, was a shepherd priest.

Related reading:  Fruit, Not Females Promised in Islam Afterlife; Why Does Genesis Speak of Gods?; Abraham's Horite Mother; Some Jews and Arabs have Common Horite Ancestry; What Language Did Abraham Speak?; Busting Myths Concerning Abraham, Geographic Geometry by Jim Alison

28,000-Word Akkadian Dictionary Finished

Love notes and divorce papers. Accounting ledgers and legal briefs. Omens, letters between kings, thoughts on the benefits of flaxseed and the fortune-telling properties of sheep livers.

All were carved in stone or written in cuneiform on clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia — the cradle of human civilization — between 2500 BC and AD 100. Scholars at the University of Chicago have worked for nearly a century on a comprehensive guide for those reading the ancient language in which some of the earliest days of human history were written.

Ninety years in the making, the 21-volume, 28,000-word Chicago Assyrian Dictionary is complete. Started in 1921, the dictionary was created over the years by about 85 employees writing on millions of index cards in up to five large offices at the school’s Oriental Institute at University Avenue and 58th Street.

Read it all here.


Akkad was one of the "cities" founded by Abraham's ancestor Nimrod according to Genesis 10: 8,9:  "Kush fathered Nimrod who was the first potentate on earth... the mainstays of his empire were Babel, Erech and Akkad."

Nimrod is probably Sargon I who lived from about 2290 to 2215 BC.  It is assumed that he died in 2215 BC because that is when his son Rimush (Ramesh) by his sister-wife ascended the throne.  Nimrod was ethnically Kushite.

Akkadian cuneiform script was used to write Sumerian, Elamite, Hurrian, and Hittite. The University of Minnesota Classical and Near Eastern Studies Department provides this explanation: "Akkadian is attested in writing from the mid-third millennium BCE until the early first millennium CE, and during this long span of time it became the vehicle for literature and scholarship as well as for practical record-keeping, legal documents, correspondence, and public inscriptions. The Akkadian language and the cuneiform script were adopted as the international medium of written communication throughout the ancient Near East, from Iran to Egypt, during the second millennium BCE."

In other words, Akkadian was the script of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion and it was a simplified system which made communication across a vast empire easier. For example, all of the 29 Proto-Semitic consonants are preserved as distinct sounds in the ancient Southern Arabian languages (the languages of Sheba and Dedan), but Akkadian has only 18 consonants.

The Afro-Arabian Dedanites

The oldest mosques in Egypt and Baghdad were oriented to Dedan, not Mecca.

Alice C. Linsley

Islam claims that Mecca has always been the sacred center of that faith system. Yet the mosque build by Mohammad in Medina was aligned to Jerusalem. Later the alignment changed to Mecca.

The qiblahs in the oldest mosques in Cairo and in Baghdad point to Dedan, about 500 miles north-northwest of Mecca. This is also where the oldest Arabic scripts have been found. The script is sometimes called "Dedanite" after the location of the trove of archaic Arabic documents. The highest concentration of Old Arabic texts has been found in the region of Dedan (shown on the map on the right side of the Dead Sea across from the word Ham.)

Dedan was home to an industrious Afro-Arabian people who had close association with the Joktanite clans of Arabia and the peoples of Raamah, Sheba, Ophir, and Kush.

The Dedanites were famous as traders and caravan merchants. The regions where they did business were rich in gold, copper, onyx, and fragrant resins used for making incense and perfumes.

Isaiah 21:13 speaks of the "caravans of Dedanites" and Ezekiel 27:20 speaks of Dedan as supplying Tyre with precious things. They traded in spice, ivory, incense, and textiles with lands as distant as India, Cambodia and China. They probably also traded in horses which were bred in Sheba. They traded in copper from the 4000 B.C. mines in the Air region of Niger where there are rock drawings of chariots, evidence of early copper smelting, and copper weapons.

The Joktanite clans are related to the Dedanites and to Abraham's Horite Hebrew clans. Joktan is the name of Abraham's first born son by his cousin wife, Keturah. In Hebrew Keturah (qeṭûrâh) refers to incense. Keturah resided in Beersheba, at the southern boundary of Abraham's territory in Edom. This was a stop of the incense road that the Dedanites traveled.

Genesis 10:7 tell us that Dedan the Elder was a grandson of Kush by his son Raamah. Raamah was Nimrod's brother. Raamah settled in the region to the southeast of Dedan while Nimrod built a kingdom in the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley. Genesis reveals a kinship connection between the Afro-Arabian Dedanites and the Afro-Asiatic Arameans. The separation of the two groups in the time of Peleg and Joktan was territorial only, as the ruling lines continued to intermarry.

Dedan the Younger was the son of Abraham's first-born son Joktan (Gen. 25:3). Most Arabs are descended from Abraham through Joktan. He is remembered by Arabs as Yaqtan. Josephus knew him as Joctan and his name is preserved in the ancient town of Jectan near Mecca.

Related reading: The Gold of Ophir; Kushite Gold; Peleg: Time of Division; Biblical Sheba and East African Settlements Linked; Who Were the Kushites?; Afro-Asiatic Metal Workers; Was Keturah Abraham's Wife?

Why Rachel Didn't Trust Laban

Alice C. Linsley

Rachel had the misfortune of having a father who few people trusted. Even Leah, Laban's other daughter, didn't trust him.  When Jacob proposed a plan to escape from servitude to Laban, his two wives were quick to support him, saying: "Are we still likely to inherit anything form our father's estate?  Does he not think of us as outsiders now? For not only has he sold us, but he has completely swallowed up the money he got for us." (Gen. 31:14,15, NJB)

Rachel and Leah had seen how Laban treated Jacob. As Jacob explained, "You yourselves know that I have worked for your father with all my might, and that your father has tricked me, changing my wages ten times over..." (31:6, NJB)

As Rachel and Leah were Jacob's cousin brides, one of them should have named their first born son after Laban.  The fact that neither did this suggests the possibility that neither son was in line to inherit Laban's territory. It is also possible that they declined their prerogative of naming their first-born sons after their father because by doing so they designated the sons as Laban's possession.[1]

Jacob and his wives were aware that Laban didn't plan to honor any agreements that might strengthen Jacob's position as a ruler.  Laban had other sons and they were jealous of Jacob's successes. These sons were saying, "Jacob has taken everything that belonging to our father; it is at our father's expense that he has acquired all this wealth." (31:1, NJB)  Rachel and Leah's brothers were watching for the right moment to deal with Jacob, for Jacob had to make plans with his wives out in the fields where he kept his flocks (31:4).  That way they wouldn't be overheard.

The plan involved leaving Paddan-Aram while Laban was away shearing sheep. Laban formed a war party with his brothers and went after Jacob.  When he located him, Laban pitched his tents on Mount Gilead from which he has a view of Jacob's tents on the hills below.  Laban was extremely angry because he felt that Jacob had stolen his daughters and the ancestor figurines which he had inherited from Terah, called Teraphim.  His thoughts were murderous, but the Lord cautioned Laban in a dream not to cause trouble with Jacob (31:24). For all his faults, Laban apparently feared God enough to seek a non-violent resolution.

According to Hurrian records, ancestor figurines [2] were passed to the son who would be heir to the father's territory. Laban intended that the Teraphim would go to one of his first-born sons. [3]  Jacob would never rule over Laban's territory, but there was still the threat of Leah's first-born who was named for the great Afro-Asiatic ruler Reu, son of Peleg in whose time the tribes became geographically separated.  At some point after Peleg, the Arameans became jealous of their control in the north while their brother Horites controlled the southern territories. The time of division began about 5 generations before Abraham, and involved a geographical separation, not a change in the marriage pattern of these ruling houses.

By taking the ancestor figurines, Rachel hoped to gain legal leverage for her first-born son in the southern territories. Rachel's first-born son was Joseph. Might this have given Joseph's brothers greater motivation to get rid of him?

This explains why Jacob named Rachel's second son Ben-Jamin, which means "son of the south." It was in the south, in Judah, that the promise of Genesis 3:15 would be fulfilled [4]. See diagram below.

This also explains why, according to Judges 1:21, the men of Benjamin did not force out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem.  The Jebusites and the Dedanites were southern kin to Benjamin.

NOTES

1. The famed Cultural Anthropologist Claude Levi-Stauss observed in 1949 that mother and son do not belong to the same clan in a patrilineal system of descent. The bride belongs to the house of her husband, but the first-born son of the couin or niece bride belongs to the house of the bride's father.  Example from the Genesis 4 and 5 King Lists: While Lamech's daughter belonged to the house of her husband, Methuselah, her first-born son belonged to her father's house. That was indicated by naming the son Lamech after his maternal grandfather.

2. The ancient Sao culture of Chad and Cameroon produced elaborate human figure sculptures, representing deified ancestors. Carbon-14 dates for the Sao figurines range from the 5th century BC to the 18th century AD. The Sao are the ancestors of the Sara who make up to 30% of Chad's population. About a sixth of them are Christians.  The Sara (meaning to laugh) have a 3-tribe confederation like that of Abraham's African ancestors.

3.  Afro-Asiatic chiefs had two wives and therefore almost always had two first-born sons.

4. Gen. 3:15 is the first divine promise made in the Bible. It involves the promise made to "the Woman' that she would bring forth a Son who would crush the head of the Serpent.

Mohammed and Kain's Descendants

Alice C. Linsley


Mohammed left Mecca in 622 A.D. after the Meccan chiefs of his own tribe had attempted to kill him. He went to Medina which was then called Yathrib. Compared with arid Mecca, Yathrib was a paradise with lush gardens, date-palm groves, and productive farms. It was originally a Horite settlement.  Yathrib (yt-rb) means "that which belongs to the son." The Y is a solar symbol also used to designate rulers such as Yaqtan, Yitzak, Yisbak, Yacob, Yosef, etc.

Medina is situated on the western edge of the central Arabian plateau in the heart of the region of Dedan. The Dedanites descended from Kush and from Abraham by his couisn wife, Keturah. Dedan the Younger was the son of Abraham's son Joktan.

Most Southern Arabians are descended from Abraham through Joktan, his first-born son.  He is remembered by Arabs as Yaqtan. Josephus knew him as Joctan and his name is preserved in the ancient town of Jectan near Mecca.

Medina had a population of roughly 10,000 people when Mohammed arrived. Word of his prophetic utterances had gone before him and he was greeted by the common folk as a prophet, many urging him to stay in their homes which they believed would bring a blessing upon their households. In Medina there were three clans of Kenites, descendents of Kain, the earliest ruler named in the Bible.[1] The Kenites had communities throughout the territories of Ham, Shem, Midian, Dedan, Raamah, Sheba and Joktan/Yaqtan.

In Medina, Mohammed built an open-air mosque with a shaded area to the south called the suffah and he aligned the prayer space facing north towards Jerusalem. The qibla (prayer direction) was later changed to face Mecca, to the south. Adjoining this mosque were homes for Mohammed’s two wives Sauda and Aisha. Aisha lived long after Mohammed died and was regarded as a prophet in her own right. Later Mohammed added other apartments for his many concubines. One of these was a Jewish girl named Safiya, who had been betrothed to the chief Kinana, who was slain when Mohammed’s raiders attacked the Khaibar Jews in their settlement six days journey northeast of Yathrib.

Among the people in Medina, there was a small community of Jews, a three-clan confederation who had resided in this area from before recorded history. These Jews agreed to protect Yathrib alongside Mohammed were the Meccans to attack. The agreement, called the Constitution of Medina, stated that “The Jews shall be responsible for their expenses and the Believers for theirs. Each, if attacked, shall come to the assistance of the other.” It also stated that “The Jews shall maintain their own religion and the Muslims theirs.” The nature of this treaty is the subject of dispute among historians. Many maintain that it is a cobbling together of oral and written agreements, and likely reflects different periods.[2]

The Banu Kainuka (بنو قينقاع‎) was one of the Jewish clans living in Medina. In 624, they threatened Mohammed's political authority by rejecting his claim to be The Prophet of Allah. Around this time, a Moslem girl visited a goldsmith shop owned by one of the Kainuka Jews. As she sat in the shop a mischievous Kainuka pinned her skirt behind her to her upper dress. When she arose she cried out in shame at her exposure. A Moslem then slew the offending Jew, whose brothers retaliated by killing the Moslem. For fifteen days, Mohammed blockaded the Kainuka Jews in their quarter until they surrendered. He then ordered them to leave Medina without their possessions.

These Jews were descendants of Kain or "Kenites" who had intermarried with their Arab brothers for many centuries. They numbered about 700, and their principal occupation was metal work. They resided in two fortresses in the south-western part of the city and they had Arabic names. Old Arabic, sometimes called "Dedanite" was in use in this region since the 8th century B.C.[3] 

Mohammed considered himself at war with the rulers of Mecca and felt justified in removing hostile elements living in Medina. He attacked the Banu-Nadhir Jews, charging them with helping his enemies and plotting against his life. After a three-week siege, these Jews were forced to leave Medina. This time, each family was allowed to take as much as a camel could carry.[4]

Mohammed appropriated their date orchards to support his household, and distributed other lands among his supporters.

Arab historians identify twenty Jewish clans living among the Arabs, including two priestly lines. These priestly lines are traced back to Abraham's Afro-Arabian ancestors. The priestly lines intermarried, with priests marrying the daughters of priests. This intermarriage began long before Jews can be identified as a separate group in about 580 BC. The ruling ancestors of Jews and Arabs intermarried so that the two groups are blood kin.


NOTES
 
1. Kain is associated with metal smiths and one of his descendents – Tubal-Kain – is said to be the “father” of smiths. Smiths held a high social status in the ancient world. Early in the Upper Nile, Badari smiths smelted copper. These are the same people who used ritual flint knives for circumcision, such at that used by Zipporah.

2. Ibn Ishak, an 8th century A.D.,  historian wrote a history for Muslims which includes genealogies representing the Islamic tradition. He appears to be the principal source of information about the Constitution of Medina.
 
3. The highest concentration of Old Arabic texts has been found in the region of Dedan. Genesis 10:7 tell us that Dedan the Elder was a grandson of the Kush by his son Raamah.
 
4. A large bull camel can carry up to 1323 pounds (600 kg) and smaller camels up to 882 pounds (400 kg). To read about Abraham's camels, go here.


Related reading: The Shock of Mohammed Atta's Afterlife; Some Jews and Some Arabs Have Horite Blood

Alignment of the Oldest Mosques

Alice C. Linsley

The prayer alignment of some 200 mosques is not to the Ka'bah in Mecca. Neither do the original prayer orientation of the oldest mosques in Cairo, Baghdad and Wasit. They triangulate to a single point a little north of Dedan, probably Al-`Ula, one of several important ancient Afro-Arabian sites that were shrines in ancient times. Another is Al-Hijr, to the northwest of Al-Ula.  Al-Hijr which was earlier simply HR, a reference to Horus, the "son" of the Creator born to Hathor. Hathor was the patroness of the metal workers among Abraham's Horite people. Incense was supplied to these ancient shrines in ka-Hr-ka-jars, that is royal jars consecrated to Horus by Horite priests.

Al-Hijr is in northern Saudi Arabia, about 1400 km to the north of Riyadh. It is called "Mada'in Saleh" and is considered one of the oldest settlements in the Saudi Arabia. Mada'in Saleh was recognized by the UNESCO as a site of patrimony, the first world heritage site in Saudi Arabia.

The people of these ancient settlements spoke languages identified as Thamudic. Within this group three dialects have been identified by linguists: Thamudic B, C and D. These were spoken at Petra and are mentioned several times in the Quran along with prophet Saleh.

The oldest mosque in Egypt is Fustat in Cairo. It dates to the reign of Qurra b. Shira between 709-714 A.D. The oldest mosque in Saudi Arabia is Quba Mosque. It was rebuilt in the 1980's.

All mosques have a niche called a "qiblah" which shows the direction of prayer. The older mosques are aligned with a point north of Mecca but south of Jerusalem. If early mosques were aligned toward northern Arabia or Jerusalem, a qiblah facing the Ka'bah represents a later development. (Source: BBC News)

The qiblahs of the oldest mosques in Mecca, Iraq and Egypt do not align with Mecca. Instead they align to the region of Dedan, home of some of Abraham's Horite ancestors. Abraham's Horite people spoke languages in the North Arabian group (sometimes called "Dispersed Oasis North Arabian"). Abraham's ancestors controlled this area and spread their religious beliefs along the water ways, expanding their influence across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. Abraham's six sons by Keturah are the founders of the Joktanite clans who dwell in the region of Mecca and Southern Arabia.

The ancient Afro-Arabians included the clans of Joktan and Yishbak, Abraham's sons by Keturah and the clans of Yishmael the Egyptian, Abraham's son by his concubine Hagar. The Afro-Asiatic Arameans became linguistically distinct in the time of Peleg and his brother Joktan the Younger. However, the ruling lines of the Afro-Arabians and the Arameans continued to intermarry exclusively according to the marriage and ascendency pattern of the ancient Horites.

Mount Ithlib (map) is located to the north-east of Al-Hijr. It was a Horite shrine later dedicated to the Nabatean deity Dushara. Đū Shará (Arabic: ذو شرى‎) means "Lord of the Mountain." It is transliterated as "Du-sares." The Lord of the Mountain was worshipped by the Nabataeans at Petra and Madain Saleh. The Dushara sanctuary at Petra contained a great temple in which a large cubical stone (Ka'ba) was the centrepiece. Ka-Ba is an Egyptian word that refers to the body-soul.

Abraham's Horite ancestors controlled this part of Arabia. The Nabateans appear to be descendants of the Horites. Keturah and Abraham were the progenitors of the Joktanite clans of Arabia who still reside in this region.

The three mosques under consideration reflect a late development over a very ancient earlier religion. The Wasit Mosque (built 705 A.D.) and the Kufa Mosque (built about 698 A.D.) align to a point in northwest Arabia, not to Mecca. According to Islamic tradition, Mohammad's household taught that Kufa Mosque was founded by Adam. Another tradition states that it was built by the angels in accordance with Gabriel's revelation to Prophet Muhammad. No other narrator of Islamic tradition has referred to this however.

Related reading:  The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; Hittite Religion; The Dedanites and the Edomites Intermarried; The Afro-Arabian Dedanites; Who Were the Horites?; Peleg: Time of Division