Biblical Cush is not Egyptian Kasu

[James Dahl]

Cush is a confused land. Kasu was the ancient Ethiopian name for Sudan, but not the Hebrew name, the Cush the Hebrew legendary history refers to is in Iraq, Kish, and is referring not to Sudanese but rather to the Sumerians of ancient Iraq and Arabia. Semitic people are originally from Northern Mesopotamia, while southern Mesopotamia and Arabia was originally inhabited by a different, now lost people, who we refer to as Sumerians. Egyptians never referred to Sudan as Kush, but rather as Ta-Seti, the land of the Bow, as the people of the upper nile were skilled archers.

The ancient Hebrews had no understanding of Sudan and the furthest reaches of the world that they were aware of were basically people nearby to them in Northern Mesopotamia. The ancient Hebrew world was divided into Semites, or people who were either them or like them, then unrelated people who lived to the south of them (Kham literally means burnt, refers to the hotness of the south and has acquired the meaning of dark skin), and the pale, lighter haired people to the north of them (Yafet literally means fair or pale, and has acquired the meaning of pretty because racism).

The 'sons of Shem' are all Semitic speaking people who lived nearby to the Hebrews:

• Arfakhshad, an ancient region in Upper Mesopotamia in what is now southeastern Turkey and the homeland of Hebrews
• Elam, what is now Khuzestan in Iran, land of the Elamites
• Asshur, when this was written the Assyrian Empire ruled Mesopotamia, but this refers to all Akkadian speaking people and later Aramaean speakers.
• Aram, a region corresponding to Northern Syria.
• Lud, which was originally in what is now northwestern Iran west of Tabriz inhabited by a long-extinct Semitic people known to the Assyrians as the Lubdu.

The 'sons of Kham' are relatively unrelated peoples who all have one thing in common, that they lived south of the Semites and were known to them:

• Kush, they mean the Sumerian speaking peoples. Kush comes from Kish which is the first royal city in the Sumerian king list.
• Misraim, or literally "the Egypts" referring to the two kingdoms of Egypt, upper and lower.
• Phut, which was the Hebrew and Akkadian word for Libya which here means everything west of Egypt
• Canaan, or the Levant

The 'sons of Yafet' lands are similarly huge and unrelated people who the only thing they have in common is being north of the Semites.

• Gomer, from the Akkadian Gimirru, here they mean the Cimmerians, who lived in the Caucasus region in what is now Georgia or Armenia, and are the progenitors to Caucasian people like Chechens, Georgians and Circassians.
• Gog, or Magog refers to the Lydians.
• Madai are the Medes, when this was written the Medes ruled over all of Iran so this is referring to all Iranian peoples.
• Javan or Yawan refers to Ionians, one of the two constituent tribes of the Greeks, but most Greek merchants were Ionians so to the eastern world all Greeks are Yawan.
• Tubal, here they mean Tabal, who succeeded the Hittite empire. This actually helps date when Genesis was written to about 700 BCE.
• Tiras, the Thracians

Let's look at the Cush sons, all of whom are regions and empires in southern Mesopotamia and Arabia:

• Nimrud, a land centered on Uruk, center of Sumerian civilization
• Raamah, the original name of Yemen
  • Sheba, both a son of Raamah and also of Jokshan son of Abraham, Jokshan literally means beating, a symbolic explanation for the conquest and semiticization of the ancient Yemenis. Sheba is of course the Sabean region.
  • Dedan, this refers to the ancient capital of the Thamudi people of Northern Hejaz. Also a son of both Raamah and Jokshan. The Thamudi were conquered and semiticized by the Assyrian Empire and came to be ruled by the Qedarites. Qedar is in some genealogies the ancestor of the Arabs.
• Havilah, the region of central Hejaz near Medina. Conquered and semiticized by the Assyrian Empire
• Sabtah, this refers to Zabid and refers to the Himyar region. Conquered and semiticized by the Assyrian Empire
• Seba, refers to modern Oman, the as-Sabi region being the al-Hajar mountains.
• Sabtecha, unknown region of ancient Arabia, perhaps Dilmun, ancient Bahrain and Haasa.

The reason why Cush is not "Kasu" or the kingdom of Kush, is because there was no kingdom of Kush yet, Kush is named after Kashta, the first king of the 25th Dynasty of Egypt. When his dynasty was driven out of Egypt by the Assyrian Empire they held on to their Sudanese territories and continued their dynasty in Sudan, first in Napata and later at Merowe. Other kingdoms called the people of Napata and Merowe the Kush or Kasu starting in the 7th century BCE, a hundred years after Genesis was written.

This is why Cushitic to refer to the language family, distantly related to Semitic and Egyptian, is erroneous. Better terms I think would be Puntite Languages perhaps, or Azanian Languages and Azanian peoples.

 

[Yaquub]

M8 bible says Ham was the father of all the dark races including cush, shem was the father of arabs. Don't get confused the Genesis describes all the races lineage including blacks if were not the cushites then who are we? think before you write such obvious nonsense.

 

[James Dahl]

M8 bible says Ham was the father of all the dark races including cush, shem was the father of arabs. Don't get confused the Genesis describes all the races lineage including blacks if were not the cushites then who are we? think before you write such obvious nonsense.

Incorrect, it doesn't say that at all.

This is the entire text regarding the sons of Ham:

6 And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.

7 And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.

8 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.

10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

11 Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,

12 And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.

13 And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,

14 And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim.

15 And Canaan begat Sidon his first born, and Heth,

16 And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite,

17 And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,

18 And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.

19 And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.

20 These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.

 

[Yaquub]

Incorrect, it doesn't say that at all.

This is the entire text regarding the sons of Ham:

6 And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.

7 And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.

8 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.

10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

11 Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,

12 And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.

13 And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,

14 And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim.

15 And Canaan begat Sidon his first born, and Heth,

16 And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite,

17 And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,

18 And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.

19 And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.

20 These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.

You high or something? then where did we come from if not ham? the slain abel perhap's? how come all of the lands ham's sons inhabited were in africa? and not he coastal regions like japeths sons were described as inhabiting.

 

[Keo]

Cush was Ancient Egypt probably. Maybe reer T1a are Sumerian.

 

[Keo]

Canaanites spoke Semitic language and they were not Shem.

 

[Keo]

Misraim, Phut and Canaan. Where are these people today? We only see Cush.

 

[Yaquub]

Misraim, Phut and Canaan. Where are these people today? We only see Cush.

Who says it's only cush how do you know? plus i think Allah destroyed mizraim when he drowned pharaoh and all his men the rest died from the plagues.

 

[James Dahl]

You high or something? then where did we come from if not ham? the slain abel perhap's? how come all of the lands ham's sons inhabited were in africa? and not he coastal regions like japeths sons were described as inhabiting.

Genesis is an allegorical story, not a factual account of events, if ancient Hebrews did not know about the existence of a tribe, they are not included in Genesis

 

[Yaquub]

Genesis is an allegorical story, not a factual account of events, if ancient Hebrews did not know about the existence of a tribe, they are not included in Genesis

It was from god not written by the hebrews themselves. It even describes the events of the garden of eden obviously no jews were present then.It is fact the world was populated by Nuh's three son's after the flood, if that wasn't true then science would prove that we didn't have any common ancestor and our mitochondrial dna would be different.

 

[James Dahl]

It was from god not written by the hebrews themselves. It even describes the events of the garden of eden obviously no jews were present then.It is fact the world was populated by Nuh's three son's after the flood, if that wasn't true then science would prove that we didn't have any common ancestor and our mitochondrial dna would be different.

I'm pretty sure noone has ever claimed that Genesis was literally written by God, it is a book of different stories, each chapter is self-contained and is itself a separate story, tied together only by narrative means, and the different chapters are contradictory. For instance in the first chapter, God creates all the animals and plants then creates Man and Woman at the same time "in his image", in the second chapter Man is created first "molded from clay", then creates woman from Man's rib. Chapter 4 says Cain is the father of Enoch, in chapter 5 Seth is the father of Enoch. Each chapter is a self-contained story with it's own beginning and end and they aren't supposed to be coherent or not contradict each other because each chapter of Genesis was originally its own story.

The Genesis chapters were most likely originally campfire stories and ancient legends that were over time collected and written down.

 

[Yaquub]

I'm pretty sure noone has ever claimed that Genesis was literally written by God, it is a book of different stories, each chapter is self-contained and is itself a separate story, tied together only by narrative means, and the different chapters are contradictory. For instance in the first chapter, God creates all the animals and plants then creates Man and Woman at the same time "in his image", in the second chapter Man is created first "molded from clay", then creates woman from Man's rib. Chapter 4 says Cain is the father of Enoch, in chapter 5 Seth is the father of Enoch. Each chapter is a self-contained story with it's own beginning and end and they aren't supposed to be coherent or not contradict each other because each chapter of Genesis was originally its own story.

The Genesis chapters were most likely originally campfire stories and ancient legends that were over time collected and written down.

In that case if the bible is wrong then we don't know any of our forefathers and what they looked like, since the quran doesn't go into detail about any other lineages other than bani israel.

 

[James Dahl]

In that case if the bible is wrong then we don't know any of our forefathers and what they looked like, since the quran doesn't go into detail about any other lineages other than bani israel.

Yes I believe this is the case, and I don't think it's that the bible is wrong exactly, Genesis is a collection of stories, I have no doubt the stories were all written down accurately, but legendary campfire stories are what they are, not exact history.

Legendary history often tells us more about the people who wrote it and how they saw the world than an accurate portrayal of legends or myths.

 

[Stay Woke]

From time you're using King James Version of the bible as a source to back up this nonsense you already know you're wrong

 

[Prince Abubu]

• Nimrud, a land centered on Uruk, center of Sumerian civilization
• Raamah, the original name of Yemen
  • Sheba, both a son of Raamah and also of Jokshan son of Abraham, Jokshan literally means beating, a symbolic explanation for the conquest and semiticization of the ancient Yemenis. Sheba is of course the Sabean region.
  • Dedan, this refers to the ancient capital of the Thamudi people of Northern Hejaz. Also a son of both Raamah and Jokshan. The Thamudi were conquered and semiticized by the Assyrian Empire and came to be ruled by the Qedarites. Qedar is in some genealogies the ancestor of the Arabs.
• Havilah, the region of central Hejaz near Medina. Conquered and semiticized by the Assyrian Empire
• Sabtah, this refers to Zabid and refers to the Himyar region. Conquered and semiticized by the Assyrian Empire
• Seba, refers to modern Oman, the as-Sabi region being the al-Hajar mountains.
• Sabtecha, unknown region of ancient Arabia, perhaps Dilmun, ancient Bahrain and Haasa.

The reason why Cush is not "Kasu" or the kingdom of Kush, is because there was no kingdom of Kush yet, Kush is named after Kashta, the first king of the 25th Dynasty of Egypt. When his dynasty was driven out of Egypt by the Assyrian Empire they held on to their Sudanese territories and continued their dynasty in Sudan, first in Napata and later at Merowe. Other kingdoms called the people of Napata and Merowe the Kush or Kasu starting in the 7th century BCE, a hundred years after Genesis was written.

This is why Cushitic to refer to the language family, distantly related to Semitic and Egyptian, is erroneous. Better terms I think would be Puntite Languages perhaps, or Azanian Languages and Azanian peoples.

Is this in reference to the theory that the Cushitic speaking people originally inhabited the arabian peninsula before the Semites overran and replaced them?

Modern South Arabian languages are known for their apparent archaic Semitic features, especially in their system of phonology. For example, they preserve the lateral fricatives of Proto-Semitic.


Additionally, Militarev identified a Cushitic substratum in Modern South Arabian, which he proposes is evidence that Cushitic speakers originally inhabited the Arabian Peninsula alongside Semitic speakers (Militarev 1984, 18-19; cf. also Belova 2003). According to Václav Blažek, this suggests that Semitic peoples assimilated their original Cushitic neighbours to the south who did not later emigrate to the Horn of Africa. He argues that the Levant would thus have been the Proto-Afro-Asiatic Urheimat, from where the various branches of the Afro-Asiatic family subsequently dispersed. To further support this, Blažek cites analysis of rock art in Central Arabia by Anati (1968, 180-84), which notes a connection between the shield-carrying "oval-headed" people depicted on the cave paintings and the Arabian Cushites from the Old Testament, who were similarly described as carrying specific shields.[6]

I agree btw, that Cushitic peoples/languages should be renamed to Puntic, Kerman or Erythrean.

 

[James Dahl]

Hmm could be, though substratum language theories are very theoretical with a lot of conjecture.

The Cushitic substratum hypothesis includes analysis of Amharic and Tigray, but those languages acquired their Cushitic substratum from conquering Cushites, not the other way around.

The Thamuud and Caad of ancient Arabia, the original and 'vanishing Arabs', existed in Arabia before the Arabs arrived, and spoke a different language. This is verified archaeologically as well as historically, Arab histories state this as fact and the bronze age Arabian population was replaced by an Iron Age civilization from the north. In Arab histories these were the Qedarites, and many genealogies of Adnaan and Qahtan for instance trace to Qedar.

The Biblical Genesis identifies a kinship between Thamuud and Caad (who Genesis call Havilah and Raamah respectively) with the Sumerians of Kish. While Genesis is of course not a reliable historical document, this could point towards a historical tradition.

Thamuud and Caad were not the only vanished Arabian tribes, there were also the Magan of ancient Oman and were the people identified as the Seba in Genesis (Aseba), and also the Dilmun civilization of Bahrain and Haasa, which by process of elimination is probably Genesis' Sabtecha.

If the Genesis stories are transmitting a traditional account of the "Sons of Cush" or the descendants of the Sumerians, then perhaps these tribes (of whom we know nothing of their languages, only Sumerian was ever written down) spoke a Sumerian language.

 

[Prince Abubu]

Hmm could be, though substratum language theories are very theoretical with a lot of conjecture.

The Cushitic substratum hypothesis includes analysis of Amharic and Tigray, but those languages acquired their Cushitic substratum from conquering Cushites, not the other way around.

But Modern South Arabian is actually not a closely related to the other South Semitic language groups like Old South Arabian (e.g. himyarite, Sabean) and Ethiopic (Ge'ez, Tigray-Tigrinya, Amharic) as liguists first thout. The name Modern South Arabia is actually a misnomer, it should really be call Hadhramauti or Socotri or Omano-Yemeni as it is really restricted to the south-eastern portion of this countries and the island of Socotra.

You are right in that the Ethiopic languages are largely influenced by the Cushitic languages they absorbed, especially Amharic which is basically a Central Cushitic language with South Semitic grammar. But the Cushitic influence in the MSA languages seems different as the linguists seem to allude to a population of Cushitic speakers that remained in the arabian peninsula, quite separate from those in the horn. But this is all hypothesising and conjecture without solid physical evidence.

The Thamuud and Caad of ancient Arabia, the original and 'vanishing Arabs', existed in Arabia before the Arabs arrived, and spoke a different language. This is verified archaeologically as well as historically, Arab histories state this as fact and the bronze age Arabian population was replaced by an Iron Age civilization from the north. In Arab histories these were the Qedarites, and many genealogies of Adnaan and Qahtan for instance trace to Qedar.

The Biblical Genesis identifies a kinship between Thamuud and Caad (who Genesis call Havilah and Raamah respectively) with the Sumerians of Kish. While Genesis is of course not a reliable historical document, this could point towards a historical tradition.

Thamuud and Caad were not the only vanished Arabian tribes, there were also the Magan of ancient Oman and were the people identified as the Seba in Genesis (Aseba), and also the Dilmun civilization of Bahrain and Haasa, which by process of elimination is probably Genesis' Sabtecha.

If the Genesis stories are transmitting a traditional account of the "Sons of Cush" or the descendants of the Sumerians, then perhaps these tribes (of whom we know nothing of their languages, only Sumerian was ever written down) spoke a Sumerian language.

I can't speak as to who the 'Ad and Thamud were, I assumed from my Qur'an lectures they were archaic Arabs. But, they could have belonged to an entirely separate populuation as the Arabs may have only descended into what would be called the Arabian Peninsula after the 1st Millenium BC.

Side-question: Why did the Hebrews refer to the Canaanites as descendants of Cush, when Canaanite and it's daughter languages Phoenician, Amorite, Ugaritic etc are the closes languages to Hebrew? In fact Hebrew is a Canaanite language. It must've been political. Judging from the Bible, the Hebrews were very racist towards other peoples, especially other Semites.

 

[Pirate]

Cush is a confused land. Kasu was the ancient Ethiopian name for Sudan, but not the Hebrew name, the Cush the Hebrew legendary history refers to is in Iraq, Kish, and is referring not to Sudanese but rather to the Sumerians of ancient Iraq and Arabia. Semitic people are originally from Northern Mesopotamia, while southern Mesopotamia and Arabia was originally inhabited by a different, now lost people, who we refer to as Sumerians. Egyptians never referred to Sudan as Kush, but rather as Ta-Seti, the land of the Bow, as the people of the upper nile were skilled archers.

The ancient Hebrews had no understanding of Sudan and the furthest reaches of the world that they were aware of were basically people nearby to them in Northern Mesopotamia. The ancient Hebrew world was divided into Semites, or people who were either them or like them, then unrelated people who lived to the south of them (Kham literally means burnt, refers to the hotness of the south and has acquired the meaning of dark skin), and the pale, lighter haired people to the north of them (Yafet literally means fair or pale, and has acquired the meaning of pretty because racism).

The 'sons of Shem' are all Semitic speaking people who lived nearby to the Hebrews:

• Arfakhshad, an ancient region in Upper Mesopotamia in what is now southeastern Turkey and the homeland of Hebrews
• Elam, what is now Khuzestan in Iran, land of the Elamites
• Asshur, when this was written the Assyrian Empire ruled Mesopotamia, but this refers to all Akkadian speaking people and later Aramaean speakers.
• Aram, a region corresponding to Northern Syria.
• Lud, which was originally in what is now northwestern Iran west of Tabriz inhabited by a long-extinct Semitic people known to the Assyrians as the Lubdu.

The 'sons of Kham' are relatively unrelated peoples who all have one thing in common, that they lived south of the Semites and were known to them:

• Kush, they mean the Sumerian speaking peoples. Kush comes from Kish which is the first royal city in the Sumerian king list.
• Misraim, or literally "the Egypts" referring to the two kingdoms of Egypt, upper and lower.
• Phut, which was the Hebrew and Akkadian word for Libya which here means everything west of Egypt
• Canaan, or the Levant

The 'sons of Yafet' lands are similarly huge and unrelated people who the only thing they have in common is being north of the Semites.

• Gomer, from the Akkadian Gimirru, here they mean the Cimmerians, who lived in the Caucasus region in what is now Georgia or Armenia, and are the progenitors to Caucasian people like Chechens, Georgians and Circassians.
• Gog, or Magog refers to the Lydians.
• Madai are the Medes, when this was written the Medes ruled over all of Iran so this is referring to all Iranian peoples.
• Javan or Yawan refers to Ionians, one of the two constituent tribes of the Greeks, but most Greek merchants were Ionians so to the eastern world all Greeks are Yawan.
• Tubal, here they mean Tabal, who succeeded the Hittite empire. This actually helps date when Genesis was written to about 700 BCE.
• Tiras, the Thracians

Let's look at the Cush sons, all of whom are regions and empires in southern Mesopotamia and Arabia:

• Nimrud, a land centered on Uruk, center of Sumerian civilization
• Raamah, the original name of Yemen
  • Sheba, both a son of Raamah and also of Jokshan son of Abraham, Jokshan literally means beating, a symbolic explanation for the conquest and semiticization of the ancient Yemenis. Sheba is of course the Sabean region.
  • Dedan, this refers to the ancient capital of the Thamudi people of Northern Hejaz. Also a son of both Raamah and Jokshan. The Thamudi were conquered and semiticized by the Assyrian Empire and came to be ruled by the Qedarites. Qedar is in some genealogies the ancestor of the Arabs.
• Havilah, the region of central Hejaz near Medina. Conquered and semiticized by the Assyrian Empire
• Sabtah, this refers to Zabid and refers to the Himyar region. Conquered and semiticized by the Assyrian Empire
• Seba, refers to modern Oman, the as-Sabi region being the al-Hajar mountains.
• Sabtecha, unknown region of ancient Arabia, perhaps Dilmun, ancient Bahrain and Haasa.

The reason why Cush is not "Kasu" or the kingdom of Kush, is because there was no kingdom of Kush yet, Kush is named after Kashta, the first king of the 25th Dynasty of Egypt. When his dynasty was driven out of Egypt by the Assyrian Empire they held on to their Sudanese territories and continued their dynasty in Sudan, first in Napata and later at Merowe. Other kingdoms called the people of Napata and Merowe the Kush or Kasu starting in the 7th century BCE, a hundred years after Genesis was written.

This is why Cushitic to refer to the language family, distantly related to Semitic and Egyptian, is erroneous. Better terms I think would be Puntite Languages perhaps, or Azanian Languages and Azanian peoples.

in the islamic tradition cannann is the father of nimrod not Cush. it makes sense as canon was the cursed son of ham while in the islamic tradition Cush is a blessed son of ham a lot of the stories the bible has been remixed like the story of nimrods right hand man in the bible is called haman when in the islamic tradition it says haman was the economist of Egypt and adviser to the pharaoh of Moses time... now that we can read ancient Egypt there was a discovery that Egypt had a figure close to the pharaohs named haman

 

[James Dahl]

in the islamic tradition cannann is the father of nimrod not Cush. it makes sense as canon was the cursed son of ham while in the islamic tradition Cush is a blessed son of ham a lot of the stories the bible has been remixed like the story of nimrods right hand man in the bible is called haman when in the islamic tradition it says haman was the economist of Egypt and adviser to the pharaoh of Moses time... now that we can read ancient Egypt there was a discovery that Egypt had a figure close to the pharaohs named haman

Interesting, which tradition is this?

 

[James Dahl]

But Modern South Arabian is actually not a closely related to the other South Semitic language groups like Old South Arabian (e.g. himyarite, Sabean) and Ethiopic (Ge'ez, Tigray-Tigrinya, Amharic) as liguists first thout. The name Modern South Arabia is actually a misnomer, it should really be call Hadhramauti or Socotri or Omano-Yemeni as it is really restricted to the south-eastern portion of this countries and the island of Socotra.

You are right in that the Ethiopic languages are largely influenced by the Cushitic languages they absorbed, especially Amharic which is basically a Central Cushitic language with South Semitic grammar. But the Cushitic influence in the MSA languages seems different as the linguists seem to allude to a population of Cushitic speakers that remained in the arabian peninsula, quite separate from those in the horn. But this is all hypothesising and conjecture without solid physical evidence.

It's a misnomer now, but South Arabian includes extinct languages and once encompassed all of southern Arabia including all of Yemen.

I can't speak as to who the 'Ad and Thamud were, I assumed from my Qur'an lectures they were archaic Arabs. But, they could have belonged to an entirely separate populuation as the Arabs may have only descended into what would be called the Arabian Peninsula after the 1st Millenium BC.

Side-question: Why did the Hebrews refer to the Canaanites as descendants of Cush, when Canaanite and it's daughter languages Phoenician, Amorite, Ugaritic etc are the closes languages to Hebrew? In fact Hebrew is a Canaanite language. It must've been political. Judging from the Bible, the Hebrews were very racist towards other peoples, especially other Semites.

It's strange yes. The area of Semitic tribes like Aram, Asshur, Elam and etc, these are all East Semitic speaking areas, languages like Akkadian or Eblaite. During the Assyrian Empire the empire adopted Aramaic, a WEST Semitic language, as the official language, and this was significant as the Assyrian Empire conquered literally everyone in the region and ruled over them for a thousand years, essentially hitting the linguistic reset button on the whole middle east. It's possible that East Semitic is "Semitic" languages and the Hebrews originally spoke something like Eblaite, and West Semitic languages all have a Canaanite origin, since the Phoenicians were the first West Semitic language propagators and Aramaic is based on Phoenician (the tribe of Aram did not create Aramaic, it is a descendant of Phoenician).

This could be a Latin/Greek situation. The Roman Empire originally propagated Latin across much of Europe, but the second Roman Empire in Constantinople switched to Greek and instead spread Greek. It could be that sort of situation with Akkadian and then Aramaic.