Semitic people

"Semitic" redirects here. For the group of related languages, see Semitic languages.

In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical "Shem", Template:Lang-he, translated as "name", Template:Lang-ar) was first used to refer to a language family of [West Asia]]n origin, now called the Semitic languages. This family includes the ancient and modern forms of Ahlamu, Akkadian (Assyrian-Babylonian), Amharic, Amorite, Arabic, Aramaic/Syriac, Canaanite/Phoenician/Carthaginian, Chaldean, Eblaite, Edomite, Ge'ez, Hebrew, Maltese, Mandaic, Moabite, Sutean, Tigre and Tigrinya, and Ugaritic, among others.

As language studies are interwoven with cultural studies, the term also came to describe the extended cultures and ethnicities, as well as the history of these varied peoples as associated by close geographic and linguistic distribution.

Origin and history

The term Semite means a member of any of various ancient and modern Semitic-speaking peoples originating in the Near East, including; Akkadians (Assyrians and Babylonians), Eblaites, Ugarites, Canaanites, Phoenicians (including Carthaginians), Hebrews (Israelites, Judeans and Samaritans), Ahlamu, Arameans, Chaldeans, Amorites, Moabites, Edomites, Hyksos, Arabs, Nabateans, Maganites, Shebans, Sutu, Ubarites, Dilmunites, Bahranis, Maltese, Mandaeans, Sabians, Syriacs, Mhallami, Amalekites, Palmyrans and Ethiopian Semites. It was proposed at first to refer to the languages related to Hebrew by Ludwig Schlözer, in Eichhorn's "Repertorium", vol. VIII (Leipzig, 1781), p. 161. Through Eichhorn the name then came into general usage (cf. his "Einleitung in das Alte Testament" (Leipzig, 1787), I, p. 45). In his "Geschichte der neuen Sprachenkunde", pt. I (Göttingen, 1807) it had already become a fixed technical term.

The word "Semitic" is an adjective derived from Shem, one of the three sons of Noah in the Bible (Genesis 5.32, 6.10, 10.21), or more precisely from the Greek derivative of that name, namely Σημ (Sēm); the noun form referring to a person is Semite.

Map showing the distribution of Semitic languages

The concept of "Semitic" peoples is derived from Biblical accounts of the origins of the cultures known to the ancient Hebrews. Those closest to them in culture and language were generally deemed to be descended from their forefather Shem. Enemies were often said to be descendants of his cursed nephew, Canaan. In Genesis 10:21–31, Shem is described as the father of Aram, Ashur, and Arpachshad: the Biblical ancestors of the Arabs, Aramaeans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Sabaeans, and Hebrews, etc., all of whose languages are closely related; the language family containing them was therefore named "Semitic" by linguists. The Canaanites and Amorites also spoke languages very closely related to Hebrew and attested in writing earlier, and are therefore termed Semitic in linguistics, despite being described in Genesis as sons of Ham (See Sons of Noah). Shem is also described in Genesis as the father of Elam and Lud, however the Elamites were not Semitic, they spoke a language isolate, and the equally non Semitic Lydians spoke an Indo-European language. Equally, the Hittites are described as sons of Ham, but in actuality spoke an Indo-European language.

The reconstructed Proto-Semitic language, ancestral to historical Semitic languages in the Middle East, is thought to have been originally from either the Arabian Peninsula (particularly around Yemen), the Levant, Mesopotamia or even the Ethiopian Highlands. However, its region of origin is still uncertain and much debated, with, for example, a recent Bayesian analysis identifying an origin for Semitic languages in the Levant around 5,750 BP with a later single introduction from what is now southern Arabia into north Africa around 2,800 BP. The Semitic language family is also considered a component of the larger Afroasiatic macro-family of languages. Identification of the hypothetical proto-Semitic region of origin is therefore dependent on the larger geographic distributions of the other language families within Afroasiatic.

The earliest historical attestation of any Semitic people comes from Mesopotamia, with the East Semitic Akkadian-speaking peoples entering the region dominated by the non-Semitic Sumerians (who spoke a language isolate). The earliest known Akkadian inscription was found on a bowl at Ur, addressed to the very early pre-Sargonic king Meskiang-nuna of Ur by his queen Gan-saman, who is thought to have been from Akkad. However, some of the names appearing on the Sumerian king list as prehistoric rulers of Kish have been held to indicate a Semitic presence even before this, as early as the 29th century BC. By the mid 3rd millennium BC, many states in Mesopotamia had come to be ruled by Akkadian speaking Semites, including Assyria, Eshnunna, Akkad, Kish, Isin and Larsa. During this period, another East Semitic speaking people, the Eblaites, appear in historical record north eastern Syria, founding the state of Ebla.

The Akkadian Empire (2335 BC - 2193 BC) enabled the Mesopotamian Semites to unite all of Mesopotamia under one rule, and further spread their dominance over much of the Near East and Asia Minor.

Of the West Semitic speaking peoples who occupied what is today Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories, the earliest references concern the Canaanite speaking Amorites of northern and eastern Syria, and date from the 24th century BC in Mesopotamian annals. The technologically advanced Sumerians, Akkadians and Assyrians of Mesopotamia mention the West Semitic peoples in disparaging terms, as uncivilised semi nomadic barbarians, ignorant of agriculture, reading, writing and building. However, after initially being prevented from doing so by powerful Assyrian kings intervening from northern Mesopotamia, these Amorites would eventually overrun southern Mesopotamia, and found the state of Babylon in 1894 BC, where they became Akkadianized and adopted Mesopotamian culture and language. Babylon became the centre of a short lived empire in the 18th century BC, and subsequent to this southern Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia, whilst northern Mesopotamia had long before already coalesced into Assyria.

In the 19th century BC a similar wave of Canaanite speaking Semites entered Egypt and by the early 17th century BC these Canaanites (known as Hyksos by the Egyptians) had conquered the country, forming the Fifteenth Dynasty.

A number of Pre-Arab (or non-Arab) Semitic states are mentioned as existing (in what was much later to become known as the Arabian Peninsula) in Akkadian and Assyrian records as colonies of these Mesopotamian powers, such as Meluhha and Dilmun (in modern Bahrain). A number of other non-Arab South Semitic states existed in the far south of the peninsula, such as Sheba, Magan and Ubar, although the histories of these states is sketchy, as there was no written script in the region at this time.

Proto-Canaanite texts from northern Canaan and the Levant (modern Lebanon and Syria) around 1500 BC yield the first undisputed attestations of a written West Semitic language (although earlier testimonies are possibly preserved in Middle Bronze Age alphabets), followed by the much more extensive Ugaritic tablets of northern Syria from around 1300 BC in the city-state of Ugarit in north west Syria. Ugaritic was a West Semitic language, the same language family as the Amorites, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Moabites, Edomites and Israelites. The appearance of nomadic Semitic Aramaeans and Suteans in historical record also dates from around 1300 BC, the Arameans coming to dominate Syria, including founding Aram-Damascus. The Chaldeans appeared in south east Mesopotamia circa 1000 BC. The Canaanite-speaking Phoenicians came to dominate the coasts of Syria and Lebanon, and eventually spread their influence throughout the Mediterranean, founding Carthage in the 9th century BC.

At around this time a number of small Canaanite speaking states arose in Southern Canaan, an area approximately corresponding to modern Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and Sinai peninsula, these were the lands of the Edomites, Moabites, Hebrews/Israelites, Ammonites and Amalekites, all of whom spoke closely related west Semitic Canaanite languages. Edom and Moab were first to appear in the mid to late 13th century BC, both coming into conflict with Egypt. The Hebrews (who spoke a Canaanite dialect) make an appearance in historical record, with the founding of the state of Israel in the late 11th century BC in southern Canaan (and later also Judah and Samarra in the 8th century BC, the latter of which was founded as a puppet kingdom by the Assyrians). The Hebrew language, closely related to the earlier attested Canaanite language of the Phoenicians, would become the vehicle of the religious literature of the Tanakh and Torah, which were eventually to have global ramifications. Alongside and at the same time as the Hebrews/Israelites, other closely related West Semitic/Canaanite nations such as Ammon and the Amalekites also appear, often involved in local rivalries with Israel.

The Arabs first appear in record in Assyrian Annals as vassals of the Assyrians from the mid 9th century BC, and later still, written evidence of Old South Arabian and Ge'ez (both related but separate languages to Arabic) offer the first written attestations of South Semitic languages in the 8th century BC. These, along with writing, were later imported to Ethiopia by migrating South Semites from Southern Arabia during the 8th and 7th centuries BC, who intermingling with the native African peoples, gave rise to Ethiopian Semitic speaking peoples whose languages survive to this day.

The Nabateans, an Aramaic speaking people of mixed Canaanite, Aramean and Arab origins appear in the 4th century BC around the Negev, Sinai Peninsula and northern Arabia, forming an independent Nabatea between the 2nd century BC and 2nd century AD, with its capital at Petra.

The East Semitic Mesopotamian states of Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia proved to be not only the oldest, but the most advanced and powerful in the Near East and its surrounds between the mid 24th and late 6th centuries BC, often asserting dominance over the West, Northwest and South Semitic speaking peoples, as well as the Non-Semitic peoples of the region.

There were a number of Non-Semitic races living in the same regions, and whose histories are interwoven with the Semites at various times; these included peoples who spoke Language Isolates, stand alone languages unrelated to any other recorded language, living or dead. Language isolate speakers included; Sumerians in Mesopotamia from the 35th century BC, Elamites in south western Ancient Iran from the 30th century BC, Lullubi, Kassites, Gutians and Manneans in north western Ancient Iran between the 25th and 18th centuries BC, as well as Hattians, Hurrians and Urartians in Asia Minor from the 25th century BC onwards. A number of Indo-European speaking peoples also appeared; In Asia Minor, the Kaskians, Luwians, Ancient Greeks and Hittites emerged between the 23rd and 19th centuries BC, and the Mitanni in the 17th century BC, the Phrygians and Dorian Greeks arrived in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) during the 13th century BC, followed by Cappadocians, Lydians, Carians, Cilicians, Lycians, Cimmerians, Scythians, Armenians and Corduene (Kurds) during the late Iron Age and early Classical Period. The non-Semitic Philistines, (one of the Sea Peoples) are conjectured to have arrived in southern Canaan sometime in the 12th century. The Philistines are conjectured to have spoken an Indo-European language, as there are possibly Greek and Luwian traces in the limited information available about their tongue, although this is not certain. At approximately the same time or shortly before the Iranic Indo-Europeans, the Medes, Persians, Parthians, Sogdians and Bactrians entered Ancient Iran. Circa 1000 BC nations speaking Kartvelian (Georgian) languages arose, Colchia and Tabal in Asia Minor. In Egypt, the people were speakers of a stand alone Afroasiatic tongue, a language loosely related to but distinct from those of the Semitic peoples, as were the Berbers of the Sahara and the coasts of North Africa, Semitic Carthage aside. Nilotic peoples such as the Nubians and Kushites dwelt to the south of the Egyptians.

During the Middle Assyrian Empire (1366-1050 BC) and in particular the Neo Assyrian Empire (911-605 BC) much of the Near East, Asia Minor, Caucasus, Eastern Mediterranean, Egypt, Ancient Iran and North Africa fell under Assyrian domination. During the 8th century BC the Assyrians introduced Aramaic as the lingua franca of their empire, and this language was to remain dominant among Near Eastern Semites until the early Medieval Period.

The Assyrian Empire collapsed by 605 BC after decades of internal civil war followed by a combined attack on the weakened sate by an alliance of its former subject peoples (their own Babylonian relations, together with the Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Scythians and Cimmerians), and after the collapse of the succeeding Neo Babylonian Empire in 539 BC, the Semitic peoples found themselves largely under the domination of various Indo-European speaking empires for over twelve centuries; the Achaemenid Empire, Seleucid Empire, Parthian Empire, Roman Empire, Sassanid Empire and Byzantine Empire.

During these periods there were spells of varying degrees of independence in Israel, and among the Assyrians (with the Neo-Assyrian states of Adiabene, Osrhoene and Hatra, as well as for a time the old Assyrian capital of Ashur itself), in the Aramean state of Palmyra, the Syriac speaking Nabatean state of Petra, and most notably the powerful Phoenician state of Carthage which rivaled Rome.

During the Seleucid period, the Greek rulers of both Mesopotamia and Aram (modern Syria) applied the terms Syria and Syrian, the Indo-European name for Assyria and Assyrians, not only to Assyria itself, but also to Aram to the west. From this point (and particularly from the early Christian period) onward, both the Arameans of the Levant and the Assyrians of Mesopotamia were collectively referred to as Syriacs or Syrians in Greco-Roman culture and later also by western Europeans.

By the 1st century AD various Aramaic dialects had come to dominate an area stretching from eastern Turkey in the north to the northern Arabian Peninsula in the south, and from Assyria, Mesopotamia and the borders of Persia in the east to the Near Eastern coasts of the Mediterranean in the west.

Particularly Semitic religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Mandaeism and Gnosticism took root among the Semites, with Judaism long centered in Judaea (Israel) and Mesopotamia, and Christianity first spread initially among the largely Aramaic speaking Semitic races of Judaea, Syria, Assyria, Babylonia, Nabatea and Phoenicia during the 1st century AD, an area encompassing the modern states of Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait, south eastern Turkey and the Palestinian Territories. Syriac Christianity was largely centered in areas outside of Roman control, such as in Persian-occupied Assyria (Athura/Assuristan) and Coptic Christianity spread from Egypt to the Ethiopian Semites by the 3rd century AD. Mandeanism was centered in Assyria and Mesopotamia, and Gnostic sects all over the Semitic world.

With the advent of the Arab Islamic conquest of the 7th and 8th centuries AD, the hitherto largely uninfluential Arabic language (and Islamic culture) gradually replaced many (but not all) of the indigenous Semitic languages and cultures of the Near East and North Africa. The previously dominant Aramaic dialects gradually began to be sidelined, however descendant dialects of Aramaic, including Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, survive to this day among the Assyrians (and Mandeans) of Iraq, Northwestern Iran Northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, with the dialects of the Assyrian Christians still containing hundreds of Akkadian loan words and an Akkadian grammatical structure.

By the 21st century AD, people identifying as Arabs now make up the largest population of Semites in the Near East, followed by large numbers of Ethiopian Semites in the Horn of Africa. A number of ancient Pre-Arab and Pre-Islamic Semitic peoples maintain their identities. In Israel, the majority population are Hebrew speaking ethnic Jews, with a tiny minority of Samaritans still extant. In Iraq and the areas of northeast Syria, northwest Iran and southeast Turkey bordering Northern Iraq, the indigenous Assyrian people (also known as Chaldo-Assyrians) still maintain their Akkadian-influenced dialects of Eastern Aramaic as spoken and written tongues, together with their ancient forms of Eastern Rite Christianity. In these same areas the Mandeans retain their distinct pre-Arab Mandean language and Gnostic religion. Among the Syrian Christians and Mhallami of modern Syria, the advocacy of a pre-Arab Aramean or Syriac-Aramean identity is still strong, although only tiny minorities now speak their native Western Aramaic tongue. In Lebanon and some coastal regions of Syria the concept of Phoenicianism is endorsed, particularly by Maronite Christians who reject Arab identity and instead assert their ethnic roots lie with the pre-Arab and pre-Islamic Canaanites and Phoenicians.

Malta is the only Semitic nation in Europe, with Maltese being a member of the Semitic language group.

Semitic-speaking peoples

Approximate distribution of Semitic languages around the 1st century AD

The following is a list of ancient and modern Semitic speaking pe

• Mandaeans
• Akkadians (Assyrians/Babylonians) — migrated into Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC and amalgamate with non-Semitic Mesopotamian (Sumerian) populations into the Assyrians and Babylonians of the Late Bronze Age. The remnants of these people became the modern Assyrian Christians (also known as Chaldo-Assyrians) of Iraq, Iran, south eastern Turkey and northeast Syria.
• Eblaites — 23rd century BC
• Chaldeans — appeared in southern Mesopotamia circa 1000 BC and eventually disappeared into the general Babylonian population.
• Aramaeans — 16th to 8th centuries BC / Akhlames (Ahlamu) 14th century BC The modern Syriac Christian population of Syria are largely of Aramean stock, with a minority in the north east being Assyrians.
• Mhallami – Tiny minority of Syriac-Arameans who converted to secular Islam but retained Syriac identity.
• Ugarites, 14th to 12th centuries BC
• Suteans – 14th century BC
• Canaanite language speaking nations of the early Iron Age:
  • Amorites — 20th century BC
  • Ammonites
  • Edomites
  • Amalekites
  • Hebrews/Israelites — founded the nation of Israel which later split into the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The remnants of these people became the Jews and the Samaritans.
  • Moabites
  • Phoenicians/Carthaginians — founded Mediterranean colonies including Tyre, Sidon and Carthage. The remnants of these people became the modern Maronites of Lebanon.
• Old South Arabian speaking peoples
  • Sabaeans of Yemen — 9th to 1st centuries BC
• Shebans
• Ubarites
• Maganites
• Ethio-Semitic speaking peoples
  • Aksumites — 4th century BC to 7th century AD
• Arabs, Old North Arabian speaking Bedouins
  • Gindibu's Arabs 9th century BC
  • Qedarites tribe 7th-century BC descendants of the Ismaelites and descendant of the Patriarch Ismaels son Kedar
  • Lihyanites — 6th to 1st centuries BC
  • Thamud people — 2nd to 5th centuries AD
  • Ghassanids — 3rd to 7th centuries AD
• Nabataeans — Mix of Aramaiac and Arabic speakers.
  • Maltese

Languages

Main article: Semitic languages

The Harvard Semitic Museum at Harvard University

The modern linguistic meaning of "Semitic" is derived from (though not identical to) Biblical usage. In a linguistic context the Semitic languages are a subgroup of the larger Afroasiatic language family (according to Joseph Greenberg's widely accepted classification) and include, among others: Akkadian, the ancient language of Babylon and Assyria; Amorite, Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia; Tigrinya, a language spoken in Eritrea and in northern Ethiopia; Arabic; Aramaic, still spoken in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Armenia by Assyrian-Chaldean Christians and Mandaeans; Canaanite; Ge'ez, the ancient language of the Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox scriptures which originated in Yemen; Hebrew; Maltese; Phoenician or Punic; Syriac (a form of Aramaic); and South Arabian, the ancient language of Sheba/Saba, which today includes Mehri, spoken by only tiny minorities on the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula.

Wildly successful as second languages far beyond their numbers of contemporary first-language speakers, a few Semitic languages today are the base of the sacred literature of some of the world's great religions, including Islam (Arabic), Judaism (Hebrew and Aramaic), and Syriac and Ethiopian Christianity (Aramaic/Syriac and Ge'ez). Millions learn these as a second language (or an archaic version of their modern tongues): many Muslims learn to read and recite Classical Arabic, the language of the Qur'an, and many Jews all over the world outside of Israel with other first languages speak and study Hebrew, the language of the Torah, Midrash, and other Jewish scriptures. Ethnic Assyrian followers of The Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Ancient Church of the East and some Syriac Orthodox Christians, both speak Mesopotamian eastern Aramaic and use it also as a liturgical tongue. The language is also used liturgically by the primarily Arabic speaking followers of the Maronite, Syriac Catholic Church and some Melkite Christians. Mandaic another dialect of Aramaic is both spoken and used as a liturgical language by followers of the Mandaean faith.

Geography

Semitic peoples and their languages, in both modern and ancient historic times, have covered a broad area bridging North Africa, Western Asia, Asia Minor and the Arabian Peninsula. The earliest historic (written) evidences of them are found in the Fertile Crescent (Mesopotamia), an area encompassing the Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (modern Iraq), extending northwest into southern Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and the Levant (modern Syria and Lebanon) along the eastern Mediterranean. Early traces of Semitic speakers are found, too, in South Arabian inscriptions in Yemen, Eritrea, Northern Ethiopia, and after this in Carthage (modern Tunisia) and later still, in Roman times, in Nabataean inscriptions from Petra (modern Jordan) south into Arabia.

Later historical Semitic languages also spread into North Africa in two widely separated periods. The first expansion occurred with the ancient Phoenicians from around the 9th century BC, along the southern Mediterranean Sea all the way to the Atlantic Ocean (Phoenician colonies which included ancient Rome's nemesis Carthage). The second, a millennium later, was the expansion of the Muslim armies and Arabic in the 7th and 8th centuries AD, which, at their height, controlled the Iberian Peninsula (until 1492) and Sicily. Arab Muslim expansion is also responsible for modern Arabic's presence from Mauritania, on the Atlantic coast of West Africa, to the Red Sea in the northeastern corner of Africa, and its reach south along the Nile River as far as the northern half of Sudan, where, as the national language, non-Arab Sudanese even farther south must learn it.

Modern Hebrew was reintroduced in the 20th century, and together with Arabic, is a national language in Israel. Western Aramaic dialects remain spoken in Malula near Damascus. Eastern Mesopotamian Neo-Aramaic is spoken along the northern border of Syria and throughout Iraq, Southeast-Turkey (Turabdin), in far northwestern Iran and in Armenia, Georgia and southern Russia. These speakers are predominantly ethnic Assyrians (also known as Chaldo-Assyrians). Mandaean Aramaic is still spoken in parts of southern and northern Iraq. Semitic languages are also found in the Horn of Africa, especially Eritrea and Ethiopia. Tigrinya, a North Ethiopic dialect, has around six million speakers in Eritrea and Tigray. In Eritrea, Tigre is the language of around 800,000 Muslims. Amharic is the national language of Ethiopia and is spoken by at least 10 million Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. Semitic languages today are also spoken in Malta (where an Italian-influenced language derived from Siculo-Arabic is spoken) and on the island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean between Yemen and Somalia, where a dying vestige of South Arabian is spoken in the form of Soqotri. The Maltese language is the only officially recognized Semitic language of the European Union.

Ethnicity and race

Further information: Caucasian race, Hamitic race, and Scientific racism

A stylised T and O map, depicting Asia as the home of the descendants of Shem (Sem). Africa is ascribed to Ham and Europe to Japheth.

Some recent genetic studies have found (by analysis of the DNA of Semitic-speaking peoples) that they have some common ancestry. Though no significant common mitochondrial results have been found, Y-chromosomal links between Semitic-speaking Near-Eastern peoples like Arabs, Hebrews and Assyrians have proved fruitful, despite differences contributed from other groups (see Y-chromosomal Aaron). Sayyid, who are Shia Muslims, are of Semitic origin, and many of them live in Iraq, Iran and as far east as the Indian Subcontinent. In North India, researchers have tested the DNA of Sayyid and have linked them closely to Arabs and Jews, more than to their geographic neighbors, due to migration to India a few hundred years ago from the Middle East. The studies attribute this correlation to a common Near Eastern origin, since Semitic-speaking Near Easterners from the Fertile Crescent (including Jews) were found to be more closely related to non-Semitic speaking Near Easterners (such as Iranians, Anatolians, and Caucasians) than to other Semitic-speakers (such as Gulf Arabs, Ethiopian Semites, and North African Arabs).

Anti-Semitism and Semiticisation

Main article: Antisemitism

The word "Semite" and most uses of the word "Semitic" relate to any people whose native tongue is, or was historically, a member of the associated language family. The term "anti-Semite", however, came by a circuitous route to refer most commonly to one hostile or discriminatory towards Jews in particular.

Anthropologists of the 19th century such as Ernst Renan readily aligned linguistic groupings with ethnicity and culture, appealing to anecdote, science and folklore in their efforts to define racial character. Moritz Steinschneider, in his periodical of Jewish letters Hamaskir (3 (Berlin 1860), 16), discusses an article by Heymann Steinthal criticising Renan's article "New Considerations on the General Character of the Semitic Peoples, In Particular Their Tendency to Monotheism". Renan had acknowledged the importance of the ancient civilisations of Mesopotamia, Israel etc. but called the Semitic races inferior to the Aryan for their monotheism, which he held to arise from their supposed lustful, violent, unscrupulous and selfish racial instincts. Steinthal summed up these predispositions as "Semitism", and so Steinschneider characterised Renan's ideas as "anti-Semitic prejudice".

In 1879 the German journalist Wilhelm Marr, in a pamphlet called Der Weg zum Siege des Germanenthums über das Judenthum ("The Way to Victory of Germanicism over Judaism") began the politicisation of the term by speaking of a struggle between Jews and Germans. He accused them of being liberals, a people without roots who had Judaized Germans beyond salvation. In 1879 Marr's adherents founded the "League for Anti-Semitism" which concerned itself entirely with anti-Jewish political action.

See also

• Afroasiatic languages
• Battakhin
• Hamitic
• Japhetic
• Proto-Semitic

External links

• Semitic genetics
• Semitic language family tree included under "Afro-Asiatic" in SIL's Ethnologue.
• The south Arabian origin of ancient Arabs
• The Edomite Hyksos connection
• The perished Arabs
• The Midianites of the north
• Ancient Semitic peoples (video)