Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/264

 him and then killed him by nailing him to a cross.—The territory of the tribe of al-Ǧuḏâm extended from the present position of the railway station of al-Muʻaẓẓam on the south as far as Maʻân on the north, and it would be possible for the chief of this tribe to be the governor of the frontier stronghold of Maʻân situated in the province Palestina Tertia.

Ḥaǧǧi Ḫalfa, Ǧihân numa’ (Constantinople, 1145 A.H.), p. 539, relates that the stronghold of Maʻân belongs to the district of aš-Šera’ and was built and provided with an aqueduct at the command of Sultan Suleiman, but that there is no good water there.

According to Meḥmed Edîb, Menâzil (Constantinople, 1232 A. H.), pp. 70 f., Maʻân was originally called Maʻâl and belongs to the district of aš-Šera’. This prosperous settlement has two strongholds, of which one was built during the reign of Sultan Suleiman. the southeast of Maʻân there are several thorny trees known as umm ʻAjjâš. This kind of tree does not thrive north of Maʻân. Besides them nothing grows there, and therefore all articles are made from a wood similar to that of the acacia.—Meḥmed Edîb was perhaps thinking of the ṭalḥ trees, which grow in every valley of any size southeast of Maʻân; whereas nothing is to be seen of them to the northeast.

According to Genesis, 10: 23; 22: 21, the clan of ʻÛṣ belonged to the Aramaic clans related to Abraham. We might look for the land of ʻÛṣ to the north of Palestine, but in Genesis, 36: 28, and 1 Chronicles, 1: 42, it is recorded that Ûṣ was related also to the Seʻîr clan of Dîšân and is located in Edom. In Lamentations, 4: 21, the poet invites the daughter of Edom living in the land of ʻÛṣ to exult.

It seems that separate Aramaic clans settled to the east and southeast of the Dead Sea among their kindred, the people of Moab and Edom, who likewise were descended from the Aramaic kinsmen of Abraham. We may therefore locate Job’s land of ʻÛṣ in Edom. This is borne out by the friends who visited Job as well as by his manner of life.

Job was the most important man among all the Bene Ḳedem (“men of the east”) (Job, 1: 3). He was engaged in agriculture, but he also bred cattle, including not only oxen, but also sheep, asses, and even camels. He thus dwelt upon the borders between the tilled land and the desert, in which his camels grazed. The camels were fallen upon and stolen by the Chaldaeans (Job, 1: 17).

These Chaldaeans dwelt or camped for the greater part in Babylonia itself, whence they could undertake raids to the east and southeast of the Dead Sea, just as various nomadic tribes in modern Irak do at the present day. Moreover, according to Jeremiah, 25: 9, 20, destruction at the hands of the “king of Babylon” is threatened to all the Arabs and