The Origins of Islam ‘‘Itouraioi’’ and ‘‘Idoumaioi’’By contrast, Josephus does not devote any interpretative effort to the other
eleven names of the sons of Ishmael which he could find in Genesis :–
(see above text to nn. –). Of these eleven names, nine appear, in the
Hellenised form which Josephus gives them, only here (Ant. , ), and
no explicit or implicit associations are attached to them: Kēdaros, Abdeēlos,
Massamos, Masmēmos, Masamsas, Chaddalos (or Chodamos), Thaimonos
(or Thamnos), Naphiasos, and Kadmasos.^31 Two of the eleven, Idoumas and
Ietouros, do of course bear a close resemblance to ethnic names of neigh-
bouring groups current in Josephus’ time,IdoumaioiandItouraioi. But it is
striking that in these cases too Josephus attaches no particular associations
either to the relevant personal name or to the ethnic. It is all the more sig-
nificant moreover, that he makes no such connection even when he records
the conquest of theItouraioiby Aristoboulos in /.., and his compul-
sion on them, if they wished to remain there, ‘‘to be circumcised and live
according to Jewish customs.’’^32 There is nothing to suggest that Josephus
saw the Itouraioi as descendants of Ishmael, as ‘‘Arabs,’’ or as having already
practised circumcision (even if at age thirteen); they are in fact mentioned
by him only here.
A much larger part is played in Josephus byIdoumaiaand theIdoumaioi—
and not least because as (originally) forced converts to Judaism the Idumaeans
were to play a major role in the Jewish history of the first centuries..
and..But in fact Josephus not only fails to connect them with ‘‘Idou-
mas’’ the son of Ishmael but explicitly says that their territory had origi-
nally been calledAdōmos(‘‘Edom’’), and that it had been the Greeks who had
called itIdoumaia.^33 In fact, he hardly could have deployed this item of mythi-
cal genealogy, for he subscribed instead to the conception, already found
in Maccabees, that the Idumaeans were descended from Esau.^34 Whether
this claimed genealogy had originally provided any ideological basis for their
forced conversion is another question. In their case also, when Josephus refers
to this forcible conversion to Judaism, imposed by John Hyrcanus, he makes
clear that circumcision was a novelty, which—like other Jewish observances
—the Idumaeans accepted under duress, as being preferable to losing their
. See K. H. Rengstorf (n. ), s.vv.
. Josephus,Ant. , –. One other passage,Ant. , , identifies a person as an
Itouraios.
.Ant.,–.
. Macc. : (defined by locality, i.e., Hebron and Marisa); cf. Josephus,Ant.,,
typically expanding his reference to the same episode: ‘‘To the sons of Esau, the Idumaeans.’’