Kamal Salibi
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Kamal Suleiman Salibi (Arabic صليبي) (born Beirut, 1929) is the Director of Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies and Emeritus Professor at the Department of History and Archaeology at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. He is of Christian background.
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[edit] His theory that the pre-exilic Jews never lived in Israel
Kamal Salibi has written several books advocating the controversial "Israel in Yemen" theory. In this view, the placenames of the Bible actually allude to places in Arabia, and were later reinterpreted to refer to places in Palestine when the Jews moved to Palestine after the Exile; and the ancient Jews actually came from Yemen, on the Arabian peninsula. In his view, the epigraphic evidence for Jewish presence in Palestine comes from a later period, or is mere coincidence of names. One Palestinian historian, Jarid al-Kidwa, agrees, claiming that the pre-exilic Jews never lived in Israel. However, the theory has not been widely accepted anywhere, neither in the Arab world nor outside it.
Salibi's arguments have been exytensively cited by Anti-Israel lobbies as proof that HJews have no claim on Israel and have been quoted by extremist religious groups as justifying the genocide of Jews and destruction of the state of Israel, as one might eject any illegal squatter. Steve Berry has recently written a novel, "The Alexandria Link" which uses Salibi's theories to popularize the view that Jews have no claim on Israel.
Most historians have cited, in contradiction of Salibi, the extensive written records of non-Jewish, non-Arab nations such as the Nabateans, Greeks (under Alexander), Romans, Muslims from the 8th century and the crusading Christians which have documented extensively the location, destruction, rebuilding, desecration and further destruction of Solomon's temple, as well as the presence of Jews in Jerusalem and modern day Israel for at least 2,600 years. However, as is traditional in the Arab world, written historical records of non-Arab peoples are ignored and as the Arabs themselves were an illiterate race until the emergence of Muhammed, anecdotal and "non-evidence evidence" is the most often used "proof" to deny the existence of Israel. Several Arab-bared scholars have noted that the areas under discussion were unlikely to have a "Jewish" character in ancient history as they would have been subject states of the various conquering powers listed previously.
Salibi has dismissed the written historical records of other peoples as being irrelevant to his argument, principally because they directly contradict his claims.
[edit] Quotes
A Palestinian TV show broadcast on PLO Television in June 1997 featured Palestinian Arab historian Jarid al-Kidwa. He claimed that "all the events surrounding Kings Saul, David and Rehoboam occurred in Yemen, and no Hebrew remnants were found in Israel, for a very simple reason--because they were never here."
According to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz (July 6, 1997), al-Kidwa said: "The stories of the Torah and the Bible did not take place in the Land of Israel — they occurred in the Arabian peninsula, primarily in Yemen. The identity of our father Ibrahim [Abraham] who is mentioned in the Qur'an is clear. From the Qur'an's description of him it arises that he lived in the southern Hejaz [Saudi Arabia], near Mecca."
[edit] Partial listing of books by Kamal Salibi
- Salibi, Kemal. The Modern History of Lebanon, 1965.
- Salibi, Kamal, The Bible Came from Arabia, London, Jonathan Cape, Ltd., 1985.
- Salibi, Kamal, Secrets of the Bible People, Brooklyn, N.Y., Interlink Books, 1988.
- Salibi, Kamal, A House of Many Mansions - The History of Lebanon Reconsidered, I.B. Tauris, 1993.
- Salibi, Kamal, The Historicity of Biblical Israel, London, NABU Publications, 1998.
- Salibi, Kamal, A Modern History of Jordan, London, I.B. Tauris, 1998.
[edit] External links
- Phillip C. Hammond's 1990 Review of The Bible Came from Arabia, in The International Journal of Middle East Studies (August, 1990) is a dead link; use the Internet Archive link instead
- Language Similarities. Mentions Kamal Salibi and lots of links.
[edit] References on his theory of Jewish history
Al-Ahram weekly, a major Egyptian publication, briefly alluded to it [1]
Some critical reviews:
- Beeston, A.F.L., Review of Salibi's The Bible Came from Arabia, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1988, pp. 389-93)
- Cardinal, P., "La Bible et L'Arabie", Revue des Etudes Palestiniennes 26 (1986, pp. 63-70)
- Dahlberg, Bruce. Comments in the Ancient Near East Digest, 1994.
