Almodad

Almo'dad (Hebrew Almodad', אִלמוֹדָד, signif. unknown; Sept. Ε᾿λμωδάδ, Vulg. Elmodad, Josephus Ε᾿λμόδαδος, Ant. 1, 6, 4), the first named of the thirteen "sons" of Joktan (Ge 10:26; 1Ch 1:20), doubtless founder of an Arabian tribe. B.C. post 2384. SEE ARABIA. The ancient interpreters afford no light as to the location of the tribe, either simply retaining the name (Sept., Vulg., Syr., Samar.), or giving fanciful etymological paraphrases (Saad., Pseudojon.). Syncellus (p. 46) understands the inhabitants of India (Ι᾿νδοί). Bochart (Phaleg, 2, 16) supposes the Allumoeotoe (Α᾿λλουμαιῶται) of Ptolemy (6:7, 24) to be meant; a people in the middle of Arabia Felix, near the sources of the river Lar, which empties into the Persian Gulf. The early Arabian genealogies contain the name Modad (Al- being the Arabic article) as that of at least two kings of the Jorhamidae reigning in Hejaz (Caussin de Perceval, Essai sur l'Hist. des Arabes avant l'Islamisme, 1, 33 sq., 168, 194 sq.), one of whom is said to have married the daughter of Ishmael (Pococke, Specim. p. 80); while another named Modar was the grandson of Adnan (Pococke, p. 46; Ibn Coteiba, in Eichhorn's Monum. Arabum, p. 63). Gesenius (Thes. Heb. p. 93) rejects both these names, as less likely than a corruption from Morad, the name of a tribe in the mountains of Arabia Felix near Zabid (see Abulfeda, Hist. Anteislamica, p. 190, ed. Fleischer), so called from their progenitor, a son of Kahlan, son of Saba, son of Jashhab, son of Jaarab, son of Kachtan, i.e. Joktan (Pococke, Specim. p. 42, ed. White; Abulfeda, p. 478, ed. De Sacy; Eichhorn, ut sup. p. 141; comp. generally Michaelis, Spicileg. 2, 153 sq.).