Semites

Semites, term first used towards the end of the 18th century for peoples cited in the Bible (see Genesis 10:21-32) as descended from Shem, the eldest son of the biblical patriarch Noah. The term “Semite” has since come to mean a speaker of a Semitic language. Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples included the inhabitants of Aram, Assyria, Babylonia, Canaan (including the Hebrews), and Phoenicia. Modern Semitic speakers are the Arabs and Jews, particularly those in Israel.

The original homeland of the Semites is not known. Some scholars locate it in south-western Asia, and others in Arabia. Archaeological evidence indicates that Semitic-speaking peoples were scattered throughout Mesopotamia before the establishment of urban culture there, and it is thought that waves of Semitic nomads, beginning presumably in prehistoric times, successively swept over the deserts westward into the Fertile Crescent, the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Today, Semitic speakers (mainly Arabs) are concentrated in the Middle East and North Africa. Their influence, however, has been extended by the Jews as far as Europe and America, and by the Arabs into Africa south of the Sahara, into Central Asia, and eastward to the subcontinent of India.

Semitic peoples have been credited with inventing the alphabet. The three major monotheistic religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism developed in their midst.