Arabian Tribes. Arabia eventually became the home of many of the post-Flood families listed at Genesis chapter 10. In the Semitic branch, Joktan fathered the heads of some 13 different Arabian tribes; while three of Aram’s descendants, Uz, Gether, and Mash, appear to have settled in the area of N Arabia and the Syrian Desert. (Ge 10:23, 26-29) The tent-dwelling Ishmaelites ranged from the Sinai Peninsula, across N Arabia and as far as Assyria. (Ge 25:13-18) The Midianites were located mainly in the NW part of Arabia just E of the Gulf of ʽAqaba. (Ge 25:4) Esau’s descendants were based in the mountainous region of Edom to the SE of the Dead Sea. (Ge 36:8, 9, 40-43) From the Hamitic branch several descendants of Cush, including Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and his sons Sheba and Dedan, and Sabteca, seem to have occupied mainly the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula.​—Ge 10:7.

Ancient Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions make mention of various tribes of Arabia. Shalmaneser III lists “Gindibuʼ, from Arabia.” Zabibe and Samsi are mentioned as Arabian queens in the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III. Sargon II mentions “Samsi, queen of Arabia (and) Itʼamar the Sabaean.” Other cuneiform inscriptions refer to the Sabai, the Nabaiti, the Qidri, and the Idibaili, the Masai, and the Temai.​—Compare Ge 25:3, 13-15.

A number of Arabian tribes were Semitic, descending from Shem through Joktan; others were Hamitic, descending through Ham’s son Cush. (Ge 10:6, 7, 26-30) Some of Abraham’s descendants by Hagar and Keturah also came to dwell in Arabia, as the sons of Ishmael who “took up tabernacling from Havilah near Shur, which is in front of Egypt, as far as Assyria.” (Ge 25:1-4, 12-18) Esau’s offspring, dwelling in the mountainous region of Seir, also came within the general classification of Arabian.​—Ge 36:1-43.