Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/94

78 Besides which, one fact is sure to spoil every hypothesis which might be formed from them; and that is, that the Hebrew patriarchs Anúhá and Ibrahim are called Canaanites, which would seem to make that word synonymous with Israelites. We must wait for the solution of this enquiry till the entire publication of the “Agriculture.” Two things, however, appear certain. The first, that the name of Canaanites with the Babylonians did not always refer to the ancient inhabitants of Phœnicia; and the second, that this theory of a Canaanite dynasty of which Nimrod was the founder, is of Biblical origin. “After the deluge,” says Masoudi, “mankind established themselves in different countries; such were the Nabathæans, who founded the city of Babylon, and those of the descendants of Ham, who settled in the same province, under the guidance of Nimrod, son of Kanaan, son of Sínkhárib, son of Ham, and grandson of Noah.” “The Nabathæans,” says Dimeshki, “descended from Nabit, son of