It was definitely a local occurence of the levant and arabia or atleast some classical scholars believed that. Tabari in tarikh al rusul wa al muluk records
the following tradition:
The Children of Sam (Shem) settled al-Majdal, the center of the Earth, which is between Satidim and the sea and between Yemen and Syria.(central arabia) Allah made the prophets from them,revealed the Books to them, made them beautiful, gave them a dark complexion, luminous and free of blemish (
al-udma wa l-bayad). The children of Ham settled in the south, along the course of the south and west wind-this region is called al-Darum
. Allah gave them a
dark complexion, a few of whom were also luminous and free of blemish…The children of
Japheth settled in al-
‘afå
n, along the course of the north and east wind. They are ruddy-complexioned and very fair-skinned (
al-
È
umra wa l-shaqra
).
19
An 8th century rabbi confirms this believe aswell
Pirke de rabbi eliezer-
"Noah brought his sonsand his grandsons, and he blessed them with their (several) settlements, and he gave them as an inheritance all the earth. He especially blessed Shem and his sons, black but comely, and he gave them the inhabitable earth. He blessed Ham and his sons, black like a raven, and he gave them as an inheritance the coast of the sea. He blessed Japheth and his sons, they entirely white, and he gave them for an inheritance the desert and its fields; these (are theinheritances with) which he endow
ed them."