Diklah

Dik'lah (Hebrews Diklah´ דִּקּלָה, fem.; Sept. Δεκλά, Joseph. Δέκλας, Ant. 1:6, 4; Vulg. Decla), the seventh son of Joktan (B.C. post 2414); also the name of a district settled by a tribe descended from him (Ge 10:27). As the name in Aramaic and Arabic means a palm-tree, it has been judged necessary to seek the seat of the tribe in some territory rich in palm-trees; of such there are several in Arabia (comp. Strabo, 16:776; Pliny, 6:32). One famous place of palm-trees existed at the very entrance of Arabia Felix, hence called by the Greeks Φοινικών (Ptolemy, 6:7, 23); but this was remote from the other tribes of the Joktanidee. SEE UZAL. Bochart (Phaleg, 2:22) finds it in Southern Arabia, in the district of the lMincei, which was also rich in palm-trees (Pliny, 6:28), now called Yemen (Niebuhr, Descr. page 201); Michaelis (Spicileg. 2:176) in the region of the Tigris (from the analogy of the name Diglath); but where the ground of search is so uncertain, it is impossible to obtain any certain result (see Fressnel's Lettres, in the Journal Asiatique, 10:90-96, 176-200; Jomard's Essai, in Mengin's Hist. de l'Egypte, 3). As, however, there is still an Arab tribe in the region of Arabia Felix called Duklai, which is probably descended from Diklah — for the Arabs have always been as retentive of family names as the Jews themselves (Forster's Geog. of Arabia, 1:115, 147) — we may conclude that the Diklaites settled in Yemen, and occupied a portion of it a little to the east of the Hejaz. SEE ARABIA.