Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/310

 from inscriptions which have been preserved in the oasis of Dajdân, the kings of southwestern Arabia held sway over these great transport routes. The population comprised natives and Sabaean emigrants from southern Arabia. This explains why the Bible thus derives Dedan, partly (as in Genesis, 10: 7) from the Kushites of southern Arabia and partly (as Genesis, 25: 1—4) from the Semitic descendants of Abraham by Keturah.

No reference to Dedan has yet been found in the Assyrian inscriptions. It is extremely probable that during the Assyrian period the oasis of Dajdân was completely subordinate to the Sabaean kings and that where the Assyrian records speak of Saba they mean the Sabaean lord of the oasis of Dajdân and not the Sabaean king from southwestern Arabia. The Bible very often connects Dedan with Saba (Gen., 10: 7; 25: 3; Ezek., 38: 13). The great prophets were acquainted with Dedan. In Isaiah, 21: 13—15, there is a reference to the trade caravans of Dedan, who are urged to spend the night in the wilderness in the wood, and the inhabitants of the land of Têma are admonished to hasten to them with water and bread, because they are thirsty and hungry.—The context shows that a great danger threatened Edom and the people of Têmân, through whose territories passed the transport route upon which the trade caravans of Dedan used to proceed. In order to escape the danger they had to flee into the wilderness and seek quarters for the night in the wood. Fugitive travelers, very sleepy in the night time, do not keep watch and can easily be attacked. They therefore gladly spend the night in the wood—i. e. in a valley or hollow covered with a growth of acacias and tamarisks, of which there are many to the southeast of Edom. The inhabitants of the land of Têma were to have mercy on the fugitives and to offer them water and bread. This is done even today by the inhabitants of the oases when they learn that a tribe with whom they are on friendly terms has been plundered and is escaping from its enemies.

In Jeremiah, 25: 23, there is also a record of the danger by which Dedan, Têma, and Bûz were threatened. The people of Dedan are urged to hide themselves in deep basins (Jer., 49: 8). Jeremiah is thinking of the basins in the volcanic territory which afford a safe refuge to all refugees, each one being generally elliptical in shape, strengthened by a natural rampart of lava boulders up to a height of fifty meters, and reached only by a narrow footpath, in places artificially made. The footpath is enclosed by boulders, the lava rampart can be held by a few defenders, and the pursuing party must return baffled. The volcanic territory extends to within two hundred kilometers north of the oasis of Dajdân.

In Ezekiel, 25: 13, Jehovah threatens that he will turn Edom into a wilderness from Têmân as far as Dedan. Têmân is the name of the settlement and territory on the northern border of Edom. The latter marched on the south with the territory of Dedan. The phrase “from Têmân as far as Dedan” therefore denotes the whole of Edom from the valley of al-Ḥasa’ as far as the southern foot of the aš-Šera’ range.

In Ezekiel, 27: 20, it is stated that Dedan sold to Tyre coverings for riding saddles. Such coverings are made to this day in the oases of al-ʻEla’, Ḫajbar, and Ḥâjel. Goatskin with long, soft, black fur is tanned until it is quite soft and is then decorated and hemmed and placed on the saddles of either horses or camels. Before the War of 1914—1918