The Ancient Identity of Hungarians- The Hebrew Connexion

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

A lot of Hungarian researchers have made this claim over the years including Arthur Koestler (Hungarian born Jew) :

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Myths, Hypotheses and Facts

            Concerning the Origin of Peoples

           The Ancient Identity of Hungarians  -   The Hungarian-Hebrew Connexion

            - An essay realized with the valuable contribution of the Hungarian scholar Hargita Csaba -

        Preliminary remarks: Owing to the lack of conclusive evidences available until now, this research proposes likely hypotheses, not definitive solutions. The historic facts exposed here and the reasonable credit that may be bestowed on ancient myths allow the author to frame feasible hypotheses open to further discussion.

        Is it there any link that relates with each other peoples that apparently are quite different? Is it there any relationship between Sumerians, Hurrians, Mitanni, Habiru, Hyksos, Kassites, Chaldeans, Medes, Khwarezmians, Scythians, Massagetas, Alans, Sabirs, Avars, Huns, Magyars, OnOgurs, Khazars, Uyghurs and a present-day European nation? Can these peoples, having different origins - namely Kushitic, Semitic and Japhetic - converge into the ethnogenesis of a single modern nation? The answer to these questions is: Yes!
        Indeed, most of the peoples mentioned above had vanished leaving hardly any trace of themselves; yet, it is unlikely that entire nations that have even ruled over vast empires disappear: after their defeat or collapse, they have to be sought for somewhere else, known under different names.
        A further query: May two different, unrelated modern nations be mysteriously linked by a thread running through history of mankind since the dim and distant past, namely since the very beginnings of recorded history? May they still be organized States as they were then, after having undergone migrations, wars, exiles, and even temporarily "disappeared" from the historic scene? Also to these questions, the answer is: Yes!
        This is the case of Hungarians, a "non-European" people of Europe, and their enigmatic connexion with the Hebrew people... In fact, Hungary has not only been one of the most important centres of development of Jewish and Romany culture – not by chance –, but it is also certain that a good amount of Hebrew blood flows through the veins of the non-Jewish Hungarians... more than commonly thought.
        The complexity of this research requires an accurate, detailed fragmentation of topics arranged like the pieces of a puzzle, that may be understood once they all have been properly placed together in a meaningful order.

        The Legends of Origins

        There are very few records of the Hungarian ancient history except two myths of the origins, so that they have to be taken as the first reference in order to understand their beginnings through their own oral traditions. These two accounts are the Legend of the White Stag and the Legend of the Turul Hawk. Both of them, surprisingly for an Eurasian people of the steppes, mention characters having Biblical and ancient Mesopotamian names! Unlike other Asian or European myths, that may have some resemblances with the most ancient legends of the Middle East but usually with a completely different nomenclature, the Hungarian accounts keep the original names.
        The Legend of the White Stag ascribes the origin of the Hungarians to the merging of three peoples: Huns, Magyars and Alans. Since the Alans, together with the Yazyg and Roxlans are classified as Massagetas in early records and as Sarmatians in later ones, henceforth the terms "Alan", "Yazyg", "Roxlan" and "Massageta" will be mentioned as "Sarmatian" in order to make this essay more intelligible, avoiding synonymous or quasi-synonymous terms (unless specification is required). They are identified with the Moshkhi of the Assyrian chronicles and Meshekh of the Bible. For a detailed information on this topic, please see Eurasians and Sarmatians.
        This legend starts with Tana, that is undoubtedly the same as the Sumerian Etana of the city of Kish (Kush) and who is equivalent with the Biblical Kush, the father of Nimrod – The Kushan Scythians also had an ancestor called Kush-Tana. The Sumerian Etana was the first mighty one on earth who wanted to visit heaven, and did. This story coincides with the Biblical account concerning Nimrod, though it is feasible that Nimrod set up the construction of the Tower of Bavel on behalf of his father, being coherent with the Babylonian myth in which the founder of Babylon was Bel, the father of Ninus (Nimrud), that was the first king. In the Hungarian account, the son of Tana is Ménrót or Nemere (Nimrod), who had twin sons called Magor and Hunor. Also Nimrud's wife, Anuta/Bau, has similar names in the Hungarian version, Eneth/Boldog-asszony. The Assyrian accounts refer that Nimrud had twin sons, one of whose names was Magor, confirming the Hungarian myth.
        The legend says that Hunor and Magor were pursuing a female stag that led them into a foreign land and there she vanished without leaving any trace. The disappointed hunters however, met there two sisters, princesses of the Sarmatians, kidnapped and married them, becoming the forefathers of the Huns and Magyars. The stag is also relevant in Scythian mythology – the role of Scythians will be considered afterwards. It is significant that in the Hungarian legend the sons of Ménrót/Nemere were hunters, and Nimrod in the Bible is described as a "mighty hunter" (Genesis 10:9). His Sumerian name – or better, his title – was Nimb-ur-shag, meaning "Lord of the Panthers", which in Hungarian is translated "Parduc-Uraság", conveying the same meaning of the Hebrew name quoted in the Bible, related with the word "nimra", that means "panther, leopard", combined with the verb "rad", that is "to subdue". Therefore, the first part of the Sumerian name resembles the Hebrew one, but the second component is definitely quite similar to Hungarian. It is relevant that Nimrod had to "subdue" panthers in order to become a "mighty" hunter: this title is often misinterpreted as he being a leopard-hunter – because it was the most dangerous animal in those times – but the actual meaning is another; in fact, the "lord" or "subduer" of the panther, implies that he was able to tame these animals in order to use them as a valuable aid in hunting other wild beasts. Indeed, also the kings and notables of Central Asia (from where the Hungarians departed towards Europe) trained the panthers to employ them in hunting. Panther skin has traditionally been the most precious garment among Hungarian kings and leaders, recalling the very fashion in which Nimrod himself was portrayed.
        The historian Yosef ben-Gorion ha-Kohen, also known as Yosippon, thought that Ménrót was to be identified with the first Egyptian king Menes, later merged with the Mesopotamian Nimrod, and his wife Eneth with the Egyptian female deity Neith.
        The second account is the Legend of the Turul Hawk, a mythical bird identical to the Sumerian "Dugud", that is the emblem of both the house of Attila the Hun and the house of Árpád. This story is about Emeshe, a Sumerian princess that was sterile until the Turul hawk came down from heaven and gave her fertility. She was married to Ügyek, the king of Scythians, of the lineage of Magog – in agreement with the Assyrian chronicles, that report Magog as the founder of the Scythian nation in northern Mesopotamia. Emeshe conceived Álmos (the same name of Árpád's father, that was a descendant of Attila the Hun), and in her dream she saw her descent as a river flowing from her womb that was growing towards the west, passing over the mountains and from which a great golden tree arose, representing a royal lineage of kings ruling in a far away land in the west. This story recalls the dream of the Mede king Ištumegu (Astyages) concerning his daughter, from whose womb he saw spring a river that flooded the earth, and in a second dream he saw a grape vine growing from her womb that became a mighty tree that covered the continent. These dreams were interpreted as a royal line from his daughter's offspring that would have built an empire, though dethroning him. The parallelism between both legends is amazing. Indeed, there is a relationship between ancient Medes and Hungarians, that will be exposed later in this essay.
        The characteristic aspect of this story, that credits the actual Sumerian origin of Magyars, is that Álmos is described as dark complexioned and black-eyed, namely, a Kushite. His name means "dreamer", since according to the legend he was conceived after his mother's dream.
        Even though the most widely accepted hypothesis regarding the origin of Hungarians has been the Finno-Ugrian theory (promoted mainly by Austrians for political reasons), the fact that Hungarian legends have an indubitable Mesopotamian origin and that Magyar language has been proven essential to decipher Sumerian writings leads research in a different direction. Cuneiform writing was also found to be used by the Hungarians long before they entered the Carpathian Basin. However, language is only one of the elements to be considered, as there are others more relevant, like cultural features and spirituality of Hungarians, that show remarkable differences from Ugro-Finnic peoples and place them unexpectedly closer to ancient Middle-Eastern, Biblical peoples.
        A recurrent characteristic that is found throughout Hungarian history is the duality - within multiplicity: there are always two main components assembled in such a way that they constitute a solid unity, complementary to each other like male/female, black/white, north/south, east/west, consisting in two ethnic unities that vary from one period to another, resulting in the complexity that has generated all the different approaches and theories about the origins. This duality, expressed in the first legend through the twins Hunor and Magor, figures of the most representative ancestors of modern Hungarians, namely Huns and Magyars, existed since the very beginning: the first pair were Sumerians and Scythians. Since there is an interdependence between both components, before going on dealing with the Sumerians and their evolution, it is necessary to consider the Scythians in order to have a comprehensive view of the whole picture.

        The Ancient Scythians

        As I have written in my essay about the Eurasians, it is not easy to define who the true Scythians really were, since such term has been used with reference to different peoples sharing outwardly similar characteristics. This confusion is mainly caused by Greek historians, who were fond of creating myths and fanciful tales about the Middle Eastern peoples, that they did not understand properly - a clear example are the eccentricities ascribed to the Assyrian king "Sardanapalos" (that indeed did never exist), mixing together some actual historic facts related with four kings, Ashurbanipal II, Ashur-etif-ilani, Shamashshumukin and Sinsharishkun, but referred as belonging to one king alone and adding a series of oddities that were not typical of the Assyrian character. Even the name Sardanapalus is a distortion that may have more resemblance with Ashur-dan-apal or Ashur-dan-apli, that reigned a century before and whose name was just Ashur-dan (being "-apal" or "-apli" likely added by some chronicler). So, when quoting Greek classic historians it is convenient to have in mind that they are not quite reliable when dealing with non-Hellenic matters. The Hungarian scholar Gyula Mészáros remarked this fact: «It is a common fallacy to call Scythians Iranians based on the fact that the Greeks continued to use the Scythian name long after the disappearance of the northern Mesopotamian and Anatolian Scythians who were conquered and absorbed by the Iranian Sauromata. The association of the conquered with the conqueror however is common but still inaccurate. After this event there occurred such a confusion in the minds of the Greeks concerning their previous northern neighbours that they applied the term to other nomadic or equestrian people with similar outward habits, including the Sauromatians, Huns, Turks and later even Germanic tribes. This progression only occurred over a long time when the term "Scythian" became a gross generalization of a horse-nomad. Yet the original Scythians were not nomads and had cities, ships arts and trades, which the early Greeks admired. The later Pseudo-Scythians often copied some of their arts and habits but were but a poor imitation of the original». Nevertheless, as a much of the information we have about Scythians comes from Greek sources, we can try to give them a coherent interpretation, granting them credibility as founded on true facts.
        Professor Csaba Hargita quotes some classic historians:
        Justinus: «The nation of the Scythians was always regarded as very ancient; though there was long a dispute between them and the Egyptians concerning the antiquity of their respective races». (Annales)
        Trogus Pompeius: «The Scythians possessed the land of Chaldea (Mesopotamia) for 1500 years before any other nations and they are the oldest people of the earth vying even the Egyptians in ancestry».
        Plinius: «The Scythian nation by the Persians called Saka was kept as the closest nation to the Arameans of old». (Historiae Naturalis, Book VI)
        Who are the "Scythians" that these historians speak about? Not the Scythians of Herodotus or Diodorus Siculus that settled in present-day Ukraine until the Sarmatians subdued them, namely the "authentic" Scythians of history (properly or conventionally defined as such), but another people that shared with those Scythians the same homeland: the Subarians. Let us consider the assertions of the historians reported above: they "disputed with the Egyptians about who were the oldest" and "possessed the land of Chaldea before any other people"... It is clear that these writers are indeed referring to the Sumerians, who were actually the oldest established civilization and dwelled in southern Mesopotamia, that is Chaldea. They are also regarded as "the closest nation to the Arameans of old": this must be understood not ethnically but geographically, as it is known that the Arameans are Semites. This term belongs to the later period, replacing the earlier Akkadians, that were the first Semites that inhabited Chaldea and shared this land with the Sumerians. Therefore, these Scythians are indeed the Sumerians or their northern counterpart, the Subarians, and may also include other peoples of the same region and roughly the same stock, like Hurrian/Mitanni, Sarmatians (in that period called Massagetas), Togarmans and even Hittites.
        There is still another people usually regarded as "Scythian" by many writers, the "Askuza" of the Assyrian chronicles, and these are the "Scythians" mentioned by the Hungarian scholar Alfred Hámori in the following statement: «Cyaxares was the next Mede ruler (625 to 653 bce) who organized with the Chaldean Nebopalessar an alliance against the Assyrians. Their attack was unsuccessful partly because the Scythians under Madyas sided with the Assyrians. The Scythians were very well paid off too. Given an Assyrian royal bride and the usual lands and wealth to go with it». Indeed, they cannot be the Scythians that were pushed by the Assyrians to withdraw as far away as Ukraine, but the "Ashkenazi" of the Bible, who were engaged by the Assyrians to guard their boundaries from Scythian plunderers. They were the forefathers of the Scandinavians and the Rus', though in an early period they may have been closely related with the ancestors of the Hungarians, as it might be suggested by the enigmatic name of their leader: Madyas, a word that recalls the land of Madja, which will be mentioned later in this chapter as a name probably identical with Magyar.
        The land of Subartu was also the original settlement of Japhetic peoples, including the forefather of all the Scythians, Magog. This region was ruled by the Sumerian king Nimrod, as it is written in Genesis 10:10,11 that he extended his kingdom over [the region later known as] Assyria. It is very likely that the Japhetic nations were subdued by the Kushite king, as the Armenian tradition also refers to their eponymous hero, Haik son of Togarmah, as having delivered his people from the rule of Nimrod. Consequently, it is not unlikely that Magog's folk were once under Sumerian rule, and perhaps the Hungarian "Magor", supposedly son of Nimrod, is to be actually identified with Magog, son of Yefet, although belonging to a different lineage.
        The land known by Sumerians as "Subar-Ki" or "Subar-Tu" was inhabited by the Hurrians, whose language was the oldest form of Sanskrit - consequently, the mother of all Indo-European languages! Therefore, the Hurrians cannot be directly related with Hungarians. Yet, they were not the only people in that region and their tongue had also many words in common with Sumerian and Elamite, that are agglutinative languages. The Hurrites indeed were associated with (or subdued by) the Mitanni, that became the Hurrian élite in the same way as the Chaldeans and the Magi in other States, as it will be exposed later in this essay. In fact, the same country was known under different names, depending on the people taken as reference: in Assyrian documents they are mentioned as "Sapar-da", Egyptians called them "Magor", in Persian records they are known as "Sabarda" and "Matiene/Mada", while the Biblical name Haran/Charan is obviously connected with the Hurrians. Greek sources refer to those peoples as "Sapir/Sabir", "Makr/Magar" and "Matiene". All these terms point out to the denomination of two Hungarian tribes: Sabirs and Magyars. These two names however, may belong to one and the same people that probably split into two branches. The Sabirs seem to be the oldest group from which Sarmatians originated, as they dwelled in a vast area from Central Asia to the heart of Europe. Indeed, the name "Siberia" (Sibir') is ascribed to them, but also the Roman name of the western area of present-day Hungary was "Sabaria", and was indeed, inhabited by Sarmatians (Yazyg). The writer István Gyárfás in his work "The History of the Jász-Kun" ("The History of the Yazygs and Kumans"), vol. I, reports that the Greek geographer Ptolemy mentioned the Jász dwelling in present-day Szombathely, Hungary. The Jász (Yazyg) were known by the Romans as "Sabarians" or "Savarians". Byzantine documents concerning the Hungarian prince Termatzu from Árpád's lineage assert that the oldest name of the Hungarians was "Sabartoi Asphali", recalling their ancient Mesopotamian name Subar-tu and Sabir-ki, while Asphali was the Arab name of the Lower Zab river, in Assyria. Professor Csaba Hargita suggests another possible explanation: if they were speaking of themselves on their own language, Hungarians may have said "azfile Szavardok", that is "a kind of Sabartians", as it is an usual answer to say "I would be a kind of..." that could be heard by the Greeks like "Asphaloi Sabartoi".
        In reference to the Mitanni, the northern Mesopotamian region was also known as "Mada/Mata/Madja" (not to be confused with Maday, the land of the Medes, that was beyond the eastern border of Assyria). The term that may be transliterated as "mat", "madh", "madj" means "country" or "district" in Sumerian, Subarian, Parthian, and other related languages, and it was also used by the Assyrians and Egyptians with the same meaning. Notice that in those languages, the phoneme "dh" or "dj" is equal to the modern Hungarian "gy", and "megye" is still "district" or "province" in Hungarian. Therefore, if the denomination has been transferred along the generations, the Magyars might be the ancient tribe of Mitanni. The territory of the Mada or Mitanni is referred by some Egyptian documents as Magor. There are many other linguistic evidences that prove the close relationship between modern Hungarian and Sumerian/Subarian tongues; for example, in Hurrian/Subar language, the word "tarshua" means "all the people", while in Sumerian "shag" conveyed the meaning of people as well as head or high. In Hungarian, the combination of both is seen in "társaság", that means "society"; "köztársaság" is "republic" (notice that "s" in Hungarian sounds like "sh"). Also the name of the horse, warhorse and chariot in Hungarian are found in Northern Mesopotamia.
        Therefore, the Scythian component of the Hungarian ancestry was closely associated with the descent of the ancient Mitanni.

        Sumer, Chaldea

        Herodotus asserted that the Sarmatians were the offspring of Scythian males with the Amazons (legendary female warriors) and that Sarmatian women learnt the Scythian tongue, but the men could not learn the women's language. This is somewhat unlikely; although it is known that in Hunan, China, a written code -"nushu"- was known only by women, who taught it only to their daughters and kept it secret from male members of their family, it does not seem to be a spoken language and in any case there is no proof that such a peculiarity existed among Sarmatians. Nevertheless, this assertion of the Greek historian may have been founded on an ancient tradition, connected with the legend of the Turul hawk, or better with the female protagonist, the princess Emeshe:
        It is interesting to notice that Sumerians called themselves and their language "Emegir" (a word with apparent resemblance with Magyar), while their country was called "Kiengi". Yet, the Sumerian language was composed of two dialects: Emegir was the "tongue of men", and Emeshal was the "tongue of women", identified respectively as the northern and southern dialects. Professor Hargita proposes that it would be possible that the word "Amazons" might be associated with Emeshe and the Emeshal language. Therefore, the legend of the Amazons and their mysterious tongue may have been a Greek imaginative development of the Sumerian myth.
        The same figure may be applied to represent the Sumerian-Mitanni relationship ["Emeshal/Emegir-Madja"], as two counterparts of the early Magyar peoples.
        As well as in Subartu coexisted different nations of unrelated stocks, in Sumer emerged other people: the Semitic Akkadians, namely the early Assyrians, and it was in Sumer where the forefather of the Hebrews was born. The "Hungarian-Hebrew connexion" begins in Ur of the Chaldees, Ur haKasdim of the Scriptures. Who were the "Chaldeans" of Avraham's times? Many scholars raise objections concerning the date of the Bible text because the Chaldeans (those of the Neo-Babylonian Empire) were still not in that area until the 11th century b.c.e., about a millennium later. Nevertheless, the Scriptures say "Ur ha-Kasdim", and the Kasdim of Avraham's times not necessarily mean the people known to us as Chaldeans, but may very well apply to the Sumerians. On the other hand, also the name "Sumerian" has been arbitrarily given to them by others and not by themselves, and we have already shown how the term "Scythian" was used to indicate several different peoples. There are evidences that the term Kasdim referred originally to the Babylonians before the Chaldeans took control of the city in the 8th century b.c.e., and only after Babylon became a Chaldean city the older term Kasdim - or also Kashdim - was transferred to the new rulers, or maybe only to a particular social class, as it will be shown later. Consequently, those whom the ancient Israelites called Kasdim may comprise more than one defined ethnic entity. Indeed, they may also be the Akkadians, that were Semites as Avraham was. Notwithstanding, Avraham is not identified as one of the "Kasdim", but is called to leave the city where he dwelled, that belonged to the Kasdim. He is actually called, since the beginning, a "Habiru" (Genesis 14:13), never a "Chaldean", and his brothers are called "Arameans" (Genesis 25:20), confirming that they were Semites.
        On their way to Canaan, we know that Avraham and his family stopped and settled in Charan, the land of the Hurrians and Mitanni. It is meaningful that, even though that was an Akkadian family, they willingly stayed in a land whose inhabitants were closely related with the Sumerians that they had left behind. And in fact, most of Avraham's relatives remained there and did not go with him to the Promised Land. That he was attached to his Semitic bloodline is evident by the fact that he did not want that his offspring would marry other women than his own brothers' descent - and also his brothers would have kept their lineage pure; nevertheless, these Akkadian Habiru seem to have felt comfortable within the Sumerian/Subarian environment, as many Jews and Roma feel at home in Hungary since centuries...
        Avraham settled in Canaan, but kept in touch with his family in Aram-Naharayim. He visited also Egypt, where his offspring would have sojourned some time later. He was surely regarded as an "Apiru" by the Egyptians, but it is known that the term 'Apiru did not convey a meaning of defined nationality, but rather a social status; this word was used generally for Semitic tribes but they may have included also non-Semitic people - like the term "Gypsy", that refers mainly to Roma but not only, or even "Cossack", that is usually associated with Russians but indeed is not related with ethnicity. So Avraham was an Akkadian by nationality but also a Habiru. Nevertheless, according to his original homeland and his permanent contact with his family in Charan, he may have been also considered as one of the Kasdim. His son Yitzchak and his grandson Yakov kept strongly bound to their Semitic lineage and married their cousins. Then, Yakov and all his family settled in Egypt, to stay there for a long time.
        By the time of the Israelite Exodus from Egypt to Canaan, a mysterious people arose in Southern Mesopotamia: the Kassites (Kasu). They came from a still unknown place and after they lost control of Babylon they retreated to the Zagros Mounts and had not any further history. Very likely, they and not the Neo-Babylonian Chaldeans were the authentic Kasdim. The Kassites apparently spoke a language similar to Sumerian, if not identical, and probably they were indeed the Sumerians that came to take their land back after having been displaced by the Akkadians centuries before. Then the land of Shin'ar was no longer structured as autonomous city-states but as a centralized kingdom, therefore they founded their own capital, Dur-Kurigalzu. The Kassites were excellent horse-riders, a feature that primarily distinguished the peoples of the north, namely, those coming from the land of Subartu/Mitanni, peoples that were linked with Sumerians since the earliest times. In fact, in the Zagros region a kind of alliance between Northern and Southern peoples might have taken place, of which it will be discussed later in this essay. By some Kassite king names, which are evidently Indic (for example: Shuriash = Surya, Maruttash = Marut, Inda-Bugash = Indra-Bhaga), we can understand that they were also influenced by Hurrians or perhaps by the Medes, that in a later period were the owners of the Zagros and appointed the Magi as their priestly caste. Such kind of alliances between Sumerian/Subarian tribes and Indo-Aryan peoples seem to have been very common, and even achieved in taking control of the whole Mesopotamia during that period: the Kassite kingdom in the south preceded about 90 years the Mitanni kingdom in the north, and survived it for other 90 years.*
        At this point, the other meaning of the word Kasdim, "Chaldeans", and their relationship with Sumerians allows us to link our reasoning again with the "Hungarian-Hebrew connexion".
        The dynasty that ruled over Babylon about 130 years after the Kassites were dethroned is known as "Chaldean", the one to which Nebukhadnetzar the Great belonged. Now let us consider who the Chaldeans are in the Book of Daniel:

            "Youths in whom was no blemish, but well-favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and endowed with knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability to stand in the king's palace; and that he should teach them the learning and the language of the Kasdim". (Daniel 1:4)
            "Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the enchanters, and the sorcerers, and the Kasdim, to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king... Then spoke the Kasdim to the king in the Aramaic language, O king, live forever: tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation. The king answered the Kasdim, The thing is gone from me: if you don't make known to me the dream and the interpretation of it, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill". (Daniel 2:2,4,5)
            "The Kasdim answered before the king, and said, There is not a man on the earth who can show the king's matter, because no king, lord, or ruler, has asked such a thing of any magician, or enchanter, or Kasdai". (Daniel 2:10)
            "Then came in the magicians, the enchanters, the Kasdim, and the soothsayers; and I told the dream before them; but they did not make known to me the interpretation of it". (Daniel 4:7)
            "The king cried aloud to bring in the enchanters, the Kasdim, and the soothsayers. There is a man in your kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of your father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him; and the king Nevukhadnetzar your father, the king, [I say], your father, made him master of the magicians, enchanters, Kasdim, and soothsayers". (Daniel 5:7,11)  

        It results evident that here the "Chaldeans" (Kasdim) are not a people but a kind of social class or caste associated with the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, soothsayers, namely, they were astrologers, exactly like the Magi in Persia. They probably belonged to a different people, as they had their own language, "the language of the Kasdim", but spoke to the king in Aramaic, the Assyrian tongue of Babylon. Consequently, they may have been related to former rulers of the city, restored by the neo-Babylonian kings to their influent position because of their qualities. The likely hypothesis is that, after the Kassites were defeated by the joint Assyrian-Elamite armies and the 2nd Dynasty of Isin took the power, they withdrew to the Zagros Mountains, where probably the old Sumerians settled after having been obliterated from history by the rising Semites that took complete control over the whole Mesopotamia. When the 2nd Dynasty of Isin came to an end, it was replaced by the "Chaldean" Dynasty... but who were exactly these Chaldeans and where did they come from, is still subject to discussion.
        Those conventionally regarded as Chaldeans are indeed the southern branch of the Assyrians, the descent of the ancient Akkadians, namely a Semitic people to which the royal house belonged. It was the land that was known by the Assyrians as Kaldu, maybe an equivalent of the Biblical Shin'ar, having in mind the early inhabitants, the Sumerians. Therefore, it is very likely that Sumerian was the lineage of the Babylonian astrologers, although not that of the people and not even the king, whose language was Aramaic, that is Semitic like Hebrew. The mysterious language of the Kasdim should have been no other than Sumerian. They were the holders of the religious authority and it is a fact that the ancient Babylonian mysteries were built around the myths of Nimrod, who was deified as Merodakh/Marduk, and Nimrod was a Sumerian.
        The presence of Hebrews in this circle is not unlikely, as they have been always appreciated for their prophetic skills - indeed, the first act of King Nebukhadnetzar after his conquest of Jerusalem was to choose young Israelites to be appointed as "Kasdim", and Daniel himself was raised to the rank of Rab-mag, head of the Magi. Also Yosef was the Wise one of Egypt and regarded as a diviner (Genesis 44:15). With Daniel, at least other three Jews were appointed as Kasdim: Hananyah (Shadrakh), Mishael (Meshakh) and Azaryah (Aved-Nego). So, from the Book of Daniel we understand that the Chaldeans were like the Persian Magi, a social class into which individuals of different ethnic backgrounds may be accepted if they fulfil particular requirements and follow an initiation ritual. This spiritual development is a characteristic that Hebrews have in a special way, so that along history many of them have reached important positions at the royal courts as well as in democratic institutions.

        The Northern Complexity

        Southern Mesopotamia was inhabited by different peoples belonging to unrelated origins, and in the neo-Babylonian period we find that a Semitic dynasty is ruling but the early Sumerians are still present as a very influent caste close to the king, so that the dynasty itself is called after them, "Chaldean".
        The situation in Northern Mesopotamia is even more complex: indeed, this land is not only the heart of the Assyrian realm (Semitic), but also the very birthplace of the Indo-Aryan languages (the old form of Sanskrit spoken by the Hurrians), and is also the original country of the [non-Aryan] Eurasian peoples.* Such a complexity justifies the confusion and divergences between historians and scholars, that usually associate peoples with languages and consequently leading their research to a dead end.
        In the early period, we find the kingdom of Hanigalbat, a joint Hurrian-Mitanni state: we have already considered the possible identity of ancient Magyars with the Mitanni, whose land was known as Magor/Mada/Matiene/Subartu/Saparda, in Hurrian territory. Likewise we know that Hungarians are not Indo-Aryan and their language is agglutinative, not Indo-European. Yet, ancient documents reveal that the language of Mitanni was Hurrian: there is a clear evidence of the use of Indic vocabulary in the Mitanni documents; the gods of the Mitanni treaties are specifically Vedic gods: Varun-a and Mitra, Indra and N-satyau; and in addition there are a series of names of the noblemen or aristocracy of Mitanni which are clearly Indic, as well as the Mitanni kings: Barattarna, Saushshatar, Artatama, Shuttarna, Tushratta (Dushratta), Sattvara (Sattiwaza), Varashatta, all of them are undoubtedly Sanskrit names. Other Mitanni texts show Indic words for numbers and colours. What happened then, with the presumed Magyars? A likely explanation is the following: we have seen that the "Chaldean" kingdom of Babylon was actually a Semitic realm, whose inhabitants and royal family were Babylonians (namely, Southern Assyrians), and the official language was Aramaic, but the most influent class were the Kasdim, who had their secret language and that very likely was Sumerian. It is also the Sumerian religion that was adopted by the Semitic Akkadian/Assyrian/Arameans, originally monotheistic. A similar situation is feasible that happened in the enigmatic Hurrian-Mitanni kingdom, concerning which the scholars have still not taken a definitive position about the relationship between the two peoples, whether the Mitanni were the subduers or just the denomination of the Hurrian ruling class. The most likely hypothesis is that the Mitanni took control of the Hurrian lands in the same way as Israelites did in Canaan: it seems that the Hurrians in fact did not have an unified state but had their own self-governing tribal unities – some of them were also in Canaan (Hivvites, Yevusites) and another country in the south, around Mount Seir, that was subdued by the Edomites. So, the Mitanni conquered the Hurrian territories in Subartu and organized them in a solid state able to compete with their Hittite and Assyrian neighbours and to make treaties with Egypt. Such a state would have obviously adopted the language of the majority population, and even the rulers may have very well taken Hurrian names and religion in the same way as peoples of different ethnicities adopted Christianity and western names or Islam and Arabic names. The second possibility is that the Mitanni were like the Kasdim, not the royal family but the most influent social class, though this should not be the case in this period, but maybe later, after the Mitanni kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians.
        The Assyrians introduced a new ethnic element in the land of the Hurrians: the exiled Israelites of the Northern Tribes: "In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Ashur took Shomron, and carried Yisrael away to Ashur, and placed them in Chalach, and on the Chavor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Madai" (2Kings 17:6). There are some controversial opinions concerning the exact location of these places mentioned in the Scriptures, as they have been equated with Balkh and the Khyber Pass, or Bukhara, or even the Caucasus and the Volga Basin, where cities like Samara and Kazan remind us Samaria and Gozan, identifications that, if they were proven right would simplify our task as these are the lands where with certainty the Hungarians have dwelled since old. Yet, I prefer to discard all these supposed identifications and keep a more conservative line. Although it is certain that Assyrians extended their conquest beyond the Caucasus, it is also written that "Israel was carried away out of their own land to Ashur" (2Kings 17:23), and this implies that the land of exile was comprised within the territory of Ashur, Assyria. Therefore, these toponyms are rather the same as the Assyrian Halahhu and Guzana, districts of the empire in the former Hurrian kingdom. Only the cities of the Medes are outside this region, quite more eastwards.
        The Assyrians, as all the other nations, had a circle of astrologers close to the king, and it is certain that they appointed some of the Israelites within this special class as well as ministers.
        When Babylonians overran the Assyrian Empire, they did so in alliance with another people that was a rising power: the Medes. It is a common mistake to identify the Medes with the Mitanni just because of the apparent name similarity ‒"Madai" with "Mada/Mata/Madja"‒. Although the Persian name of Media was also Madâ; the Medes were a different people, or perhaps a group of associated tribes of which the Madai were the most relevant. Quoting again the Hungarian scholar Alfred Hámori, «Cyaxares was the next Mede ruler... Their attack was unsuccessful partly because the Scythians under Madyas sided with the Assyrians», it is clear that a name resemblance may be misleading; the enigmatic Scythian leader, called Madyas, was against the Medes. This scholar also asserts that Scythians and Medes may have common roots but developed separately, as the Scythians were mainly nomads while the Medes were city dwellers – this may be enough reason to find both parties on different fronts. On the other hand, also Assyrians distinguished the Medes from the Mitanni; in the Assyrian records the Medes are called Manda or Amadai. Concerning the geographic location, the Mitanni were to the west/northwest of Assyria, while Media was to the east/southeast. In fact, the Assyrian accounts report that Shalmaneser III received tribute from the Amadai from his wars against the tribes of the Zagros (Media). Among the names of the Mede kings, two are definitely Indo-Aryan: Kshatrita (Phraortes), and Hwakshatra (Cyaxares) – between them ruled Madyus, "the Scythian". What kind of Scythian was this Madyus? An Askuza, or a Magyar, maybe?
        At present there is a people that claims direct descent from the Medes: the Kurds. It is significant that they are genetically close to Armenians, Southern Italians, Hungarians and Ashkenazi Jews... This is not quite surprising, as the Israelite exiles dwelled in that area for centuries and intermarrying was unavoidable, mainly because many of those Israelites were no longer observing the whole of the Judaic rules. The Kurds are still dwelling in the land of the Northern Israelite exile, namely, ancient Assyria and Haran.
        Meanwhile, what happened with the Hurrians and Mitanni, of whom there is no mention since they were conquered by the Assyrians? After the fall of Nineveh, they were subject to Babylon, and then to the Medo-Persian empire. In this later period, most Hurrians with part of the exiled Israelites emigrated eastwards and founded Khwarezm. They had to pass by the Medes' land, and it is not excluded that some Mitanni settled among them, or among the Scythians of Media. In fact, the land of the Medes covered a vast territory: in 836 b.c.e. the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III received tribute from them after his campaign against the peoples of the Zagros Mounts; then in 715 b.c.e. Sargon II subjected them "up to the far mountain Bikni" (Elburz) and the borders of the desert, that is in Khorassan. They remained under Assyrian rule until the fall of Nineveh. However, concerning the Mitanni, it is likely that a consistent group of them settled in Atropatene (modern Adzerbaidzhan), as that land was called "Mada" - in fact, as well as many scholars still do, the Greek historians did not distinguish the Medes (Madai of the Bible, Manda/Amadai of the Assyrian inscriptions, Madâ of the Medo-Persian records) from the Mada of Atropatene; they confused both peoples so badly that they even called "Ecbatana" the capital of the Mada! According to pre-Hellenic documents, there was no other city named Ecbatana besides the best-known one in Media, the present-day Hamadan.
        A further misleading factor is that the Medes were likely related with Hurrians, at least by the Aryan elements that both peoples had in common. As it has been said before, the Medes were rather a group of tribes more than a homogeneous people; indeed, the "Umman-Manda" (hosts of the Medes) of the Babylonian chronicles apparently included many nomadic bands of probable Scythian or Sarmatian stock. According to Herodotus, the Medes were composed by six different tribes, of which one were the Medes properly (Madai), four of them seem to be actually Scythian-related groups, and one is the prestigious caste of the Magi. Who were the Magi, and which was their origin?...
        The Magi indeed belonged to a particular lineage traced from the earliest times: they were the same Kasdim of Babylon, namely, Sumerians. With the Semitic expansion and the Akkadian rule over Lower Mesopotamia, the displaced Sumerians moved towards the Zagros region, from where the Kasdim returned back to Babylon as the king's counsellors and from where the Magi that joined the Medes came from as well. Therefore, they were two branches of the same people: their name Magi probably referred in origin to their secret language, Emegir, while their Semitic name was Kasdim, meaning Sumerian ("Chaldean"). However, the Magi of Media - and later also of Persia - probably resulted from an alliance between two counterparts that met in the Zagros to gather and become one people: the Sumerians and the Subarians, Emeshal and Emegir, which reflects the constant duality of the Hungarian origins, like the most ancient pairs: male/female, black/white, north/south, east/west, Kasdim/Magi, Hunor/Magor... The Mitanni aristocracy joined the Chaldean one, the once influent castes in fallen kingdoms became the Magi of the rising Media. Of course, both the Magi of Media-Persia and the Kasdim of the Babylonian court were just a selected class (as perhaps also the Mitanni in the Hurrian realm), not the whole of the Sumerian/Subarian people. Besides this particular élite, there must have been a mass of non-aristocratic people, warriors, farmers, metal-forgers, horse-breeders, artisans, etc., that with the privileged caste of the Hurrian, Babylonian or Persian court had in common only the language and genetic features.
        The Magi are commonly associated with the Zoroastrian cult, yet in origin it seems that they did not follow such religious philosophy but the essential patterns of the ancient Sumerian religion, which they developed as a mystery belief, and only later they joined the revolutionary monotheistic-dualistic reformation of Zarathustra. Why did the Magi adopt such a novelty within a polytheistic environment? The following may be a feasible explanation:
        We have already established that the Magi, like the Kasdim, were a social class into which individuals of different ethnic backgrounds may be accepted if they fulfil particular requirements and follow an initiation ritual. The identity of both groups is also confirmed by the fact that the Jewish Prophet Daniel, appointed by King Nebukhadnetzar as the head of the Kasdim, was confirmed by King Dareyauvesh the Mede as one of the chief officers of the Medo-Persian Kingdom, a position that was a privilege of the Magi. On the other side, the very identity of Zarathustra is shrouded in mystery, and even the period in which he lived is uncertain. If the conventional date is correct, he should have lived some few years before Daniel, and was his contemporary for a while. Also his birthplace is subject of controversy, but the most commonly accepted one is Mada Atropatene, although his preaching is said to have taken place in Khwarezm. Also the original Zoroastrian philosophy is not known in detail as many things were added in later times, but it was essentially presented as the only widely known monotheistic belief in the Ancient World besides Judaism. Notwithstanding, there are some interesting elements concerning places and period: Mada Atropatene was a Mitanni settlement, Khwarezm was a Hurrian realm, and since the 7th century b.c.e. a consistent Israelite component was added to these peoples. As well as Daniel and at least three of his companions were appointed as ministers at the Babylonian court, it is very likely that some Israelites took similar positions at Nineveh –at least we know of Ahiqar, who may be only a legendary character, but may also be a real person. Also Assarhaddon's wife Naqi'a (Zakutu) was either an Israelite or an Aramean. After the fall of Nineveh, some of the Northern Israelites joined the Hurrians and Mitanni on their way eastwards, carrying with them their consciousness of the One God that they worshipped in the past. Consequently, Zarathustra may have been an Israelite, who was appreciated by his prophetic gifts at the court of Vishtaspa and promoted to the rank of Rab-mag in the same way as Daniel and probably Ahiqar. The land where it is thought he was born was inhabited by Mitanni, the one where he preached was founded by Hurrians, in both of them there were also Israelites.
        Even though the number of Northern Israelites deported was not so enormous (besides the 27,290 claimed by Sargon II we may guess that those previously exiled by Tiglat-Pileser III may double that amount), after two centuries they should have become an important component within the Mesopotamians, and not only influenced the priestly caste but also the common people. Besides these figures, if the Prism of Sennakherib is reliable, he exiled 200,250 people from Judah − although it is known that he failed in taking Jerusalem having great loss within his army, a fact that the most arrogant of Assyrian kings obviously did not mention. Nevertheless, he may have taken captives from the other cities of Judah during his campaign, as he himself settled at Lakish. The deportees of Judah were very likely resettled together with the Israelites of previous deportations. Part of the Israelites were relocated in the "cities of the Medes", a vague definition that may comprise from the Zagros region to the lake Urmiah. Besides this, as it was said before, the Magi were probably the result of an alliance between two counterparts that met in the Zagros, namely the Sumerians and the Mitanni, these ones already having Hebrews among them. Consequently, the adoption of Zoroastrianism by the Magi may be a direct influence of some Israelites that occupied key positions within their caste. It is significant that the Medo-Persian monarchs were quite sympathetic towards the Jews - one of the first Imperial decrees concerned the return to their homeland and the order to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. The Parthians followed the same favourable policy.
        The Assyrians did not only introduce the Israelite element in the Mesopotamian and Iranian population, but also carried away some of these peoples to Samaria: Babylonians, Elamites, Arameans, "Apharsathkites" (Aparni), and "Dehites", that is Dahae (Scythians). These immigrants intermarried with the Israelites left in Samaria and became Jewish after some centuries, so that in the only Hebrew records existing from the 1st century c.e., the Gospels and Josephus, we find that there were the Jews properly and others that were Jews by belief, but technically Goyim: the Galileans – indeed, their land was called "Galil haGoyim" (the Samaritans have a different background, but it is off-topic here). There were also some strange connections and spiritual movements that flourished mainly in Galilea, of which the best known were the Essenes, whose philosophy was close to that of the Magi – the reason of such a coincidence may be found in the ethnic origin of the Galileans.
        Of course, as it was elucidated before, the Magi by themselves were not an ethnic group but belonged to a people of Sumerian-Mitanni origin, to which the Israelites were added. Who are these peoples today is what this essay is concerned about. Going back to the Hungarian legend, it says that Nemere/Ménrót asked his twin sons what ability they wanted to develop: Hunor chose the art of war, while Magor preferred wisdom. This episode may represent the covenant between two parts, or the composition of the ancient people: wisdom as a characteristic of the Magi, the art of war as the main feature of the Huns. Apparently, there are not many things in common between these two groups as to suggest such an association, but we can at least consider the possibility that a link actually exists.

        Arpakhshad and the "Habiri"

        Arpakhshad was a son of Shem, a brother of Ashur, and ancestor of the Hebrews according to the Scriptures: "Shem, the father of all the children of 'Ever,... the sons of Shem: 'Elam, Ashur, Arpakhshad, Lud, and Aram... Shem was one hundred years old and became the father of Arpakhshad two years after the flood" (Genesis 10:21, 22; 11:10). The name of this mysterious ancestor of Avraham has been object of different interpretations: being one of the Patriarchs, as well as his brothers he must have given origin to a nation, the one from which the Hebrews came as a branch: that nation were the Akkadians. Yet, the name of the Akkadians is not related with their ancestor's name, and therefore some meanings have been suggested: Arpa-Kesed, "the coast/boundary of the Chaldeans", or else Ar-pa-Khesed, that is an Egyptian name equivalent to "Ur of the Chaldeans". These hypotheses seem to find support in Josephus' declaration that "Arphaxad named the Arphaxadites, who are now called Chaldeans..." (Josephus, Antiquities 1.6.4). These interpretations are however unlikely because Arpakhshad is a proper name and "the boundaries of the Chaldeans" do not indicate any specific people but rather an indeterminate geographic area; while an Egyptian terminology is completely out of place in this context. Concerning Josephus, he probably referred to the Akkadians calling them Chaldeans, based on the belief that Avraham was a "Chaldean" because he was born in Ur. As we have seen before, Avraham is never called himself a Chaldean, but that he "came out of a Chaldean city", in the same way as Mosheh is never called "Egyptian" (although he was thought to be an Egyptian by Yethro's daughters because he came from Egypt, where he was born, and was likely clad like an Egyptian - Exodus 2:19). The Chaldeans (Kasdim) of the Book of Genesis were indeed the Sumerians, not the Akkadians. Avraham is called "Hebrew" as well as Mosheh, regardless their birthplace. Another interesting detail is that Arpakhshad is Shem's third son, and was born two years after the Deluge. Unless Elam was born on the Ark, which is improbable, the most likely possibility is that Arpakhshad was Ashur's twin brother. Regarding this hypothesis, we can find a parallel with two ancient neighbour cities: Ashur and Arrapkha. From this viewpoint, the identity of Arpakhshad with Arrapkha seems to be the most likely. Nevertheless, Arrapkha was not always a Semitic land and was instead a centre of Hurrian culture. This divergence may anyway be solved: it is known that the Akkadians arrived in Sumer from the north, and that they were the same stock of the Assyrians. Previous to the Semitic takeover, we know that Nimrod extended his Sumerian kingdom over Northern Mesopotamia, and even Kalah, in the very heart of Assyria, was called Nimrod during the Assyrian dark ages. Therefore, it is feasible that the two original Semitic centres, Ashur and Arrapkha were colonized by Sumerian/Subarian peoples. While the Semites of Ashur remained in their original settlement, those of Arrapkha moved southwards and settled in Akkad, taking that city from the Sumerians and later the whole land. Arrapkha was first annexed to Assyria by Shamshi-Adad I about 1810 b.c.e. but conquered by the Mitanni by 1470 b.c.e., and remained a Hurrian city until the Assyrians took it back after they completely obliterated the Mitanni kingdom in 1270 b.c.e. The Semitic cultural identity of Arrapkha by the time of Avraham, ten generations after Arpakhshad, is proven by the Tablets of Nuzi, which show surprising coincidences with the Pentateuch concerning social practices and laws regarding family life, marriage, adoptions, birthright, blessings, trade, etc. In the tablets, also Habiru are mentioned, and a particular law that established that a Habiru servant can be hired for a maximum period of seven years, then must be left free (cf. Exodus 21:2). Through the centuries and different ruling powers, the region of Arrapkha/Nuzi remained a meeting point of Semitic and Subarian cultures.
        Now, what relationship has all this with our topic? It was said before that this essay is arranged like a puzzle, and this is one of the pieces... The geographic location of Arrapkha by the eastern border of Assyria on the way towards Media is relevant, as the descent of Arpakhshad may have been split following different directions. We only know the lineage of Avraham because it was recorded in the Scriptures, but obviously there were other descendants. The main line of the "Arpakhshadites" were the Akkadians of history, a branch of them were known as Habiru, others may have been assimilated into the Hurrian/Mitanni groups, or migrated eastwards, adopted Indo-European or Sumerian-related languages, settled as far as India or Central Asia - as the Sumerians had since old intense trade with Harappa and the Indus Valley civilizations. They may have prepared the ground for a future reception of Jewish exiles or favourable laws in the lands where they ruled.
        Notwithstanding, apparent name resemblances should be considered carefully in order to avoid speculative theories; please see: Names, Languages and Ethnicity.
        In the table of nations of Genesis 10, there are two Patriarchs who are mentioned in a special way as particularly important within their respective groups: one is Nimrod, renowned among the descent of Cham of whom is grandson through Kush, and 'Ever (conventionally written "Heber") as an illustrious descendant of Shem, and his great-grandson through Arpakhshad. He is so relevant among the Semites that Shem himself is called "the father of all the children of 'Ever" (Genesis 10:21). An essay concerning this subject is available at: Habiru – that is the name with which 'Ever's offspring was known in the dawn of history. The Habiri existed since the most ancient times. They are present in the first documents available to us, hundreds of years earlier than Avraham. They were scattered all over the Near East from Egypt to Mesopotamia, to the extremities of Assyria, along the coast of the Mediterranean through Canaan, and in the regions of Anatolia. They are not limited to any geographical area, any nation, or any social category; they appear at every level of society, in many different activities. They usually wandered from place to place. The movements of Terah, Avraham, and other members of that family were according to the habits of the general Habiri people. They certainly played an unique role in reconnecting us with the remote history of mankind. They also brought a genetic line down into historic times, with Avraham chosen as the outstanding representative of that blood blessing. The Habiru had a Deity whose Name was unknown to the other peoples, and also to themselves, as the Name was not revealed to anybody before Mosheh Rabainu. The fact that their Divinity's name was unknown is a further proof that identifies them with the "Children of 'Ever". Strictly speaking, the term Habiru would be equal to Hebrew, consequently, indicating a Semitic people of the lineage of 'Ever. Yet, the ancient records attest that there were also non-Semitic elements among them, particularly Subarian. 'Ever's descent was divided in two branches: a southern group (Yoqtan) and a northern group (Peleg). The Habiri of the ancient accounts belong to the line of Peleg. Besides this, it is important to distinguish two phases concerning their history: an early stage in which they are found mainly in Mesopotamia and Anatolia, in pre-Avrahamic times, and a later period that begins with their appearance in Egypt, that is recorded in connection with the arrival of Avraham's tribe in that land. While the northern branch of the Habiru gets progressively assimilated within the peoples of that region, the 'Apiru of the Egyptian accounts still exist as a distinguishable group until their settlement in Canaan, when the term Habiri/'Apiru is replaced by Israelite, the only Hebrew group that kept an identity as such.
        Concerning the descent of 'Ever, the Scriptures say: "Their dwelling was from Mesha, as you go toward Sefar, the mountain of the east" (Genesis 10:30). Where is that place, "Sefar, the mountain of the east"? The equivalent in the Assyrian chronicles is the land of Sapar-da, that is the Subar-ki of the Sumerian inscriptions and the Sapardia-Hunae of the Persian records. In Hebrew, it is identical with Sefarad, being written exactly like the Assyrian Saparda (f and p are the same letter in Hebrew and Aramaic, therefore, as vowels are not written, SeFaRaD = SaPaRDa). Notwithstanding, the exact location of this land is not clear, as in the Sumerian sources it indicates the traditional Subartu in Northern Mesopotamia/Eastern Anatolia, that is the Biblical Charan, while in other documents the same name is given to the region in the east of Assyria, namely between Arrapkha and the southwestern shore of Caspian Sea. In fact, the "mountain of the east" cannot be referred to the Caucasus or Ararat, but rather to the Zagros or Elburz. This last one appears to be the best interpretation. Only centuries later this name was applied to Sardis and then to Spain, as the term "Sefarad" conveys also the symbolic meaning of "end of wandering", namely, end of the Diaspora. Nevertheless, the name Sefarad/Saparda may indicate a population rather than a country, and then the lands where that people dwelled: the Habiru/Subar/Mada, that inhabited in Northern Mesopotamia, in the Caucasus, in Arrapkha and Atropatene, adopting cultural and linguistic features of their Indo-European neighbours, yet keeping their original characteristics. This people was a mixed company of Semitic Habiru and Kushitic Subarians (Sefar/Sapar/Sabir) with the Japhetic descent of Meshekh and Magog (Moshki/Mada/Magor), that shared much of their territory with the Indo-Hurrians in the west, with the Semitic Assyrians in the middle, and with the Iranic Medes in the east.
        The eastern location of Saparda/Sefar is confirmed by Herodotus, that stated: "The Persians live by the Southern, so called Red Sea. Medes live north to them, Sapeires over Medes and Colchians over Sapeires..." (Historiarum IV. 37) – The "Red Sea" here is the Persian Gulf; Greek historians called "Eritrean Sea" -translated "Red Sea"- the Indian Ocean and dependences (namely, all the annexed seas and gulfs, like Aden, Oman and Persian Gulfs, and the Red Sea properly). Colchians is the name given by the Greeks to the peoples of the present-day Georgia in the Caucasus, and the "Sapeires" in this list are placed between them and the Medes, that is immediately southeast of the Caucasus, in Atropatene. This location identifies them with the Mada/Subarians/Sabir.
        A further consideration regarding the Colchians is relevant now. Strabo in his Geography stated: "...the Tybareni and Chaldaei, extending as far as Colchis... Tybareni and Chaldaei and Sanni, in earlier times called Magor". The "Chaldaei" (Chaldeans!) here are identified with the Chalybes, a tribe of the Mitanni. Because of the presence of these "Chaldeans" in Asia Minor, some scholars have assumed that there was a "Northern Chaldea" - indeed, they were called that way because they were Subarians, therefore, closely related with the Sumerians, the original Chaldeans/Kaldu/Kasdim. It is likely that the Assyrians called Kaldu and the Hebrews Kasdim the peoples of the same stock to which Sumerians belonged, therefore including the Subarian/Mitanni. The Chalybes were renowned as iron-forgers and often appear associated with the Tybareni, the inhabitants of Colchis. In Achæmenid records they are identified with the people called Mushki by the Assyrians, consequently, they are no other than the Massagetas. The names Chalybes/Kaldi and Mushki are interchangeable. In fact, also their geographic location is the same, as the Moshkhi settled within the land of Tilgarimmu and beyond, in the north of Ararat, and their capital was Mtskhet in the Caucasus, in the land known as "Iberia", a name connected with the Armenian ethnonym "Ivirk", in reference to the Tybareni. Such variation from "Tybareni" to "Iberi" is typical of the ethno-toponyms of the classical times of the Black Sea and the Caucasus areas, which are often characterized by such a disappearing of the dental consonants d, t or t'. On the other hand, Tuval and Meshekh are frequently mentioned together – any apparent relationship between "Iberi" and "Ivri" (Hebrew) is unfounded. In history records, the Kavkaz Mountains are also known as "Moskhian Mountains". Josephus Flavius considered the Moschs, as well as the Iberians, as being of Anatolian origin. In his commentary he wrote that the Mosoch were derived from the Biblical Meshekh and that they afterwards received the name of Cappadocians, though from the designation of their capital Mazakha it is obvious that the name of their whole people was the same (Josephus, Antiq., I, 124-125). What is quite interesting is Strabo's statement that "Tybareni (Tuval) and Chaldeans (in this case, Meshekh) in earlier times were called Magor", giving us a further confirmation that these peoples were related with the ancestors of the Hungarians and with the land of the ancient Mitanni, known as Magor by Assyrians and Egyptians.
        In order to complete the ethnic picture of