The Origins of Islam Biblical Topography: ‘‘Nabatēnē’’There is another significant aspect to Josephus’ consistent tendency to make
these allusions more concrete and to relate them to the contemporary world.
As in the passage cited above, where he identifies the area where the descen-
dants of Ishmael lived as ‘‘Nabatēnē,’’ it is specifically to the Nabataeans that
he attaches the terms ‘‘Arab’’ and ‘‘Arabia’’ (and never specifically to either
the ‘‘Itouraioi’’ or the ‘‘Idoumaioi’’).^23 Thus he speaks of Jonathan Macca-
baeus as invading ‘‘Arabia’’ and making war on the ‘‘Nabatēnoi.’’^24 What is
more, he also intervenes in the biblical narrative to make concrete allusions
to the Nabataeans. The most striking instance is his account of the death of
Aaron, developed from the narrative in Numbers :–. There the death
takes place on Mount Hor situated ‘‘on the frontier of Edom.’’ There is noth-
ing to suggest that these expressions would have conveyed any necessary and
unambiguous identification of a precise place to readers in the Hellenistic
or Roman periods (except that it was south of the river Arnon, Num. :
). Josephus therefore had a choice: to leave his version equally vague, or to
import a precise identification. He took the latter course:
After a purification held in such wise in consequence of the mourning
for the sister of their chief, he led his forces away through the desert and
came to a place in Arabia which the Arabs have deemed their metropo-
lis, formerly called †Arce†, to-day named Petra. There Aaron ascended
a lofty mountain range that encloses the spot, Moses having revealed
to him that he was about to die.^25The Semitic name which Josephus gives to Petra here is certainly corrupt in
the text, for he returns to it later in another passage where he equally makes
the deliberate choice to import into his narrative a reference to the capital
of the Nabataeans, here significantly described as ‘‘the whole Arab nation.’’
This is the point (Num. :) at which Moses’ forces slaughter theMadianites,
including all five of their kings, of whom one is called RQM/LXX:Rokom.
Josephus transliterates the name asRekemos, giving it a Greek ending as usual.
He then continues, with no authority from the biblical text: ‘‘the city named
after him had the highest prestige of all in the land of theArabes, and to this
day is called by the whole Arab nation by the name of the king who founded
. See K. H. Rengstorf,ACompleteConcordancetoFlaviusJosephus, supp. I (),Namen-
wörterbuch, ed. A. Schalit, s.vv.
.Ant.,.
. Josephus,Ant. , –, Loeb trans.