This T and O map, from the first printed version of Isidore's Etymologiae (Augsburg 1472), identifies the three known continents (Asia, Europe, and Africa) as respectively populated by descendants of Sem (Shem), Iafeth (Japheth), and Cham (Ham).
The term Japhetites (sometimes spelled Japhethites; in adjective form Japhetic or Japhethitic) refers to the descendants of Japheth, one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis.[1] The term was used in ethnological and linguistic writings from the 18th to the 20th centuries as a Biblically derived racial classification for the European peoples, but is now considered obsolete.[2] medieval ethnographers believed that the world had been divided into three large-scale groupings, corresponding to the three classical continents: the Semitic peoples of Asia, the Hamitic peoples of Africa, and the Japhetic peoples of Europe.[3][4]
The term has been used in modern times as a designation in physical anthropology, ethnography, and comparative linguistics. In anthropology, it was used in a racial sense for White people (the Caucasian race).[2] In linguistics, it referred to the Indo-European languages.[2] Both of these uses are considered obsolete nowadays.[2] Only the Semitic peoples form a well-defined language family. The Indo-European group is no longer known as "Japhetite", and the Hamitic group is now recognized as paraphyletic within the Afro-Asiatic family.
Among Muslim historians, Japheth is usually regarded as the ancestor of the Gog and Magog tribes, and, at times, of the Turks, Khazars, and Slavs.[5][6]
^Hirsch, Emil G.; Seligsohn, M.; Schechter, Solomon (1906). "Japheth". Jewish Encyclopedia. Kopelman Foundation. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
^ abcdAugstein, Hannah F. (2014) [1999]. "Shifting ideas on the origin of humankind – Shifting geographies: Blumenbach and the Caucasus". In Ernst, Waltraud; Harris, Bernard (eds.). Race, Science and Medicine, 1700–1960. Routledge Studies in the Social History of Medicine (1st ed.). London and New York: Routledge. pp. 61–74. ISBN 9780415757478.
^Reynolds, Susan (October 1983). "Medieval Origines Gentium and the Community of the Realm". History. 68 (224). Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell: 375–390. doi:10.1111/j.1468-229X.1983.tb02193.x. JSTOR 24417596.
^Javakhishvili, Ivane (1950), Historical-Ethnological problems of Georgia, the Caucasus and the Near East. Tbilisi, pp. 130–135 (in Georgian).
^Heller, B.; Rippin, A. (2012) [1993]. "Yāfith". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. J.; Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_7941. ISBN 978-90-04-16121-4.
^Leslie, Donald Daniel (1984). "Japhet in China". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 104 (3). American Oriental Society: 403–409. doi:10.2307/601652. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 601652.
The term Japhetites (sometimes spelled Japhethites; in adjective form Japhetic or Japhethitic) refers to the descendants of Japheth, one of the three sons...
in the Book of Genesis, together with the parallel terms Hamites and Japhetites. In archaeology, the term is sometimes used informally as "a kind of shorthand"...
proposed divisions of mankind based on the story of Noah: Semites and Japhetites. The appellation Hamitic was applied to the Berber, Cushitic, and Egyptian...
Göttingen school of history derived the race terminology Semites, Hamites and Japhetites. Certain of Noah's grandsons were also used for names of peoples: from...
Caucasian race Groups claiming affiliation with Israelites Japhetic theory Japhetites Proto-Indo-Europeans Sons of Noah Wives aboard the Ark Hunt 1990, p. 430...
Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews), which made Japheth the ancestor of the "Japhetites", i.e. the Indo-European speaking peoples. Iapetus was linked to Japheth...
list. The early modern equation of the biblical Semites, Hamites and Japhetites with "racial" phenotypes was coined at the Göttingen school of history...
black, and yellow. The biblical division into Hamites, Semites, and Japhetites is for Gobineau a division within the white race. In general, Gobineau...
prince of the Semites, and to Phenech son of Dodanim, as prince of the Japhetites. Twelve men are arrested for refusing to bring bricks, including Abraham...
the founder of the Arabs, the connection of "Semites", "Hamites" and "Japhetites" to the classical nations of the world, and the story of the siege of...
"Gog, prince of Magog" in Ezekiel 38:2 and 39:1, and is considered a Japhetite tribe, identified by Flavius Josephus with the Cappadocian "Mosocheni"...
Jewish historian Josephus knew them as the nation descended from Magog the Japhetite, as in Genesis, and explained them to be the Scythians. In the hands of...
texts is received by Georgius Hornius (1666). In Hornius' scheme, the Japhetites (identified as Scythians, an Iranic ethnic group and Celts) are "white"...
Asia and those of Ham peopling Africa. Identification of Europeans as "Japhetites" is also reflected in early suggestions for terming the Indo-European...
curse was fulfilled when Canaan was occupied by Semites (Israel) and Japhetites. The commentary further notes that Canaanites ceased to exist as a political...
section known as the table of nations. Among Japheth's descendants were the Japhetites, which are the maritime nations. Ham's son Cush had a son named Nimrod...
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