Tubal - Early Theories

Early Theories

Many authors, following the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (1st century AD), related the name to Iber- Caucasian Iberia. Concerning the question of the ethnic affinity of the population of Tubal, Josephus wrote: "Tobal gave rise to the Thobeles, who are now called Iberes" - Caucasian Iberia. This version was repeated by Patriarch Eustathius of Antioch, Bishop Theodoret, and others. However, Jerome, Isidore of Seville, and the Welsh historian Nennius stated another tradition that Tubal was ancestor to not only Iberians, but also the 'Italians' and 'Spanish' . A divergent tradition recorded by Hippolytus of Rome (3rd cent.) lists Tubal's descendants as the "Hettali" (or Thessalians in some later copies), while the Book of the Bee (c. 1222) states that he was progenitor of Bithynians.

The Caucasian Iberians were ancestors of modern Georgians. Some modern Georgians also claim descent from Tubal, Togarmah and Meshech; a Georgian historian, Ivane Javakhishvili, considered Tabal, Tubal, Jabal and Jubal to be ancient Georgian tribal designations.

Tabal was a post-Hittite Luwian state in Asia Minor in the 1st millennium BC, and is often connected with Tubal (similar to their neighbors, the Mushki, traditionally associated with Meshech). Some historians further connect Tabal and Tubal with the tribe on the Black Sea coast later known to the Greeks as Tibareni, though this identification is uncertain. The Tibareni and other related tribes, the Chalybes (Khalib/Khaldi) and the Mossynoeci (Mossynoikoi in Greek), were sometimes considered the founders of metallurgy.

According to Catalan legend, Japheth's son Tubal is said to have sailed from Jaffa with his family and arrived at the Francolí river of Spain in 2157 BC, where he founded a city named after his son Tarraho, now Tarragona. He then proceeded to the Ebro (like Iberia, named after his second son Iber), where he built several more settlements, including Amposta. His third son's name is given as Semptofail. Noah himself is said to have visited them here about 100 years later. Tubal is said to have reigned for 155 years, until he died while preparing to colonize Mauretania and was succeeded by Iber. Other traditions make Tubal son of Japheth (sometimes confounded with Tubal-Cain son of Lamech, a figure from before the flood) to be the founder of Ravenna in Italy, Setúbal in Portugal, and Toledo and many other places in Spain. Various authors state that his wife's name was Noya, that he was buried at Cape St. Vincent in Portugal, or that he had 65,000 descendants when he died. The source for many of these legends seems to have been the Pseudo-Berosus published by Annio da Viterbo in 1498, now widely considered a forgery. However, the earlier Chronicle of San Juan de la Peña by the historian-king Pedro IV of Aragon (c. 1370) includes the basic premises, that Tubal was the first person to settle in Spain, that the Iberians were descended from him as Jerome and Isidore had attested, and that they had originally been called Cetubales and been settled along the Ebro, before changing their name to 'Iberians' after that river. An earlier scholar-king, Alfonso X of Castile (c. 1280), also included similar details in his history, but claiming Tubal had settled in the "Aspa" mountains (part of the Pyrenees), and deriving the first part of the name Cetubales from cetus, which he said meant "tribe". In his version, they later changed their name to 'Celtiberians'. A still earlier version is found in the history of the Muslim conquest of Spain by Abulcasim Tarif Abentarique, written around AD 750. It holds that Japheth's son Tubal or (Sem Tofail) divided Iberia among his 3 sons — leaving his eldest Tarraho the northeast section (called Tarrahon, later Aragon); to his second son, Sem Tofail the younger, he left the west, along the ocean (later called Setubal); and to his youngest, Iber, he left the eastern part, along the Mediterranean, called Iberia. Tubal then built for himself a city he called Morar (today Mérida, Spain) — where Abentarique claimed to have seen a large stone above the main city gate inscribed with these details, which he translated into Arabic.