The Casluhim or Casluhites () were an ancient Egyptian people mentioned in the Bible and related literature.

Biblical accounts

According to the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purpor ...

() and the

Books of Chronicles The Book of Chronicles ( , "words of the days") is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third section of the Jewish Ta ...

(), the Casluhim were descendants of

Mizraim Mizraim (; cf. ) is the Hebrew and Aramaic name for the land of Egypt and its people. Mizraim - king of Egypt Linguistic analysis '' Mizraim'' is the Hebrew cognate of a common Semitic source word for the land now known as Egypt. It is similar t ...

(Egypt) son of

Ham Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term '' ...

, out of whom originated the

Philistines Philistines (; LXX: ; ) were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the Philistines origi ...

Archaeology

The Egyptian form of their name is preserved in the inscriptions of the

Temple of Kom Ombo A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engl ...

as the region name ''Kasluḥet''. In the Aramaic ''

Targum A targum (, ''interpretation'', ''translation'', ''version''; plural: targumim) was an originally spoken translation of the Hebrew Bible (also called the ) that a professional translator ( ''mǝṯurgǝmān'') would give in the common language o ...

''s their region is called ''Pentpolitai'' understood to be derived from the Greek ''

Pentapolis A pentapolis (from Ancient Greek, Greek ''penta-'', 'five' and ''polis'', 'city') is a geographic and/or institutional grouping of five cities. Cities in the ancient world probably formed such groups for political, commercial and military rea ...

'' which locates the area as the north west in what is now the

Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika (, , after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between the 16th and 25th meridians east, including the Kufra District. The coastal region, als ...

region of

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

.''Navigating the Bible'', World ORT, 2000, commentary ''Pathrusim'', ''Casluhim'' Another name for their region is ''Pekosim'' used in

Bereshit Rabbah Genesis Rabbah (, also known as Bereshit Rabbah and abbreviated as GenR) is a religious text from Judaism's classical period, probably written between 300 and 500 CE with some later additions. It is an expository midrash comprising a collection of ...

37.

Identifications

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

mentions the Casluhim in his ''

Jewish Antiquities ''Antiquities of the Jews'' (; , ''Ioudaikē archaiologia'') is a 20-volume historiographical work, written in Greek, by the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus in the 13th year of the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian, which was 94 CE. It contains ...

'' I, vi, 2 as one of the Egyptian peoples whose cities were destroyed during the Ethiopic War and who thus disappeared from history. Arab historian

Ibn Khaldun Ibn Khaldun (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808 Hijri year, AH) was an Arabs, Arab Islamic scholar, historian, philosopher and sociologist. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, and cons ...

(1332–1406), citing

Abu Bakr bin Yahya al-Suli Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn al-‘Abbās al-Ṣūlī (Arabic: ) (born c. 870 Gorgan – died between 941 and 948 Basra) was a Turkic scholar and a court companion of three Abbāsid caliphs: al-Muktafī, his successor al-Muqtadir, and ...

, wrote that the

Berbers Berbers, or the Berber peoples, also known as Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arab migrations to the Maghreb, Arabs in the Maghreb. Their main connec ...

of North Africa were descended from Casluhim, the son of Mizraïm (قبط بن مصر). In

Saadia Gaon Saʿadia ben Yosef Gaon (892–942) was a prominent rabbi, Geonim, gaon, Jews, Jewish philosopher, and exegesis, exegete who was active in the Abbasid Caliphate. Saadia is the first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Judeo-Arabic ...

Judeo-Arabic Judeo-Arabic (; ; ) sometimes referred as Sharh, are a group of different ethnolects within the branches of the Arabic language used by jewish communities. Although Jewish use of Arabic, which predates Islam, has been in some ways distinct ...

translation of the

Pentateuch The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () o ...

, the ''

Sa'idi people A Ṣa‘īdī (, Coptic language, Coptic: ⲣⲉⲙⲣⲏⲥ ''Remris'') is a person from Upper Egypt (, Coptic language, Coptic: ⲙⲁⲣⲏⲥ ''Maris''). Etymology The word literally means "from Ṣa‘īd" (i.e. Upper Egypt), and can al ...

'' (i.e. the people of Upper Egypt) are listed in the position of the Casluhim in , while ''Albiyim'' is listed in the position of

Pathrusim Pathrusim together with Casluhim were descendants of Mizraim (i.e., Egypt) according to the genealogies in Genesis, who inhabited Pathros (i.e., Upper Egypt). In Saadia Gaon's Judeo-Arabic translation of the Pentateuch, the '' Sa'idi people'' ( ...

, however the ordering of Casluhim and Pathrusim sometimes vary in translations and the mainstream understanding is that it is the Pathrusim who are the Sahidic people and the Casluhim the people of eastern Libya.

Matthew Poole Matthew Poole (1624–1679) was an English Nonconformist theologian and biblical commentator. Life to 1662 He was born at York, the son of Francis Pole, but he spelled his name Poole, and in Latin Polus; his mother was a daughter of Alderman T ...

suggests that Casluhim and Caphtorim were brother tribes who lived in the same territory, presumably in

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

References

{{Authority control Noach (parashah) Mizraim

Biblical accounts

Archaeology

Identifications

See also

References