Tubal

See also Tabal.

Tubal, according to Book of Genesis chap. 10 (the Table of Nations), was the name of a son of Japheth, son of Noah.
The Book of Genesis (chap. 10) gives us the descendants of Noah's three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. We are told that the sons of Japheth were Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

Many authors, following the Romanized Jewish author Josephus (1st century AD), related the name to Iber. Concerning the question of the ethnic affinity of the population of Tubal, Josephus wrote: "Tobal gave rise to the Thobeles, who are now called Iberes". This version was repeated by Patriarch Eustathius of Antioch, Bishop Theodoret, and others. However, the Welsh historian Nennius stated another tradition that Tubal was ancestor to the Iberians, 'Italians' [i.e., Italic tribes] and 'Spanish' [who were also called Iberians].

Basque intellectuals like Poza (16th century) have named Tubal as the ancestor of Basques, and by extension, the Iberians. The French Basque author Augustin Chaho (19th century) published The Legend of Aitor, asserting that the common patriarch of the Basques was Aitor, a descendant of Tubal.

The Caucasian Iberians were relatives of modern Georgians. Some modern Georgians also claim descent from Tubal and Meshech. One of the greatest Georgian historians of the 20th century, Ivane Javakhishvili, considered Tabal, Tubal, Jabal and Jubal to be ancient Georgian tribal designations.

The Tabali (Tibarenoi in Greek) were Luwian tribes of Asia Minor of the 3rd-1st millennias BC. They and other related tribes, the Chalybes (Khalib/Khaldi) and the Mossynoeci (Mossynoikoi in Greek), are sometimes considered the founders of metallurgy.

Literature

* Ivane Javakhishvili. "Historical-Ethnological problems of Georgia, the Caucasus and the Near East" (a monograph), Tbilisi, 1950, pp. 130-135 (in Georgian)
* Giorgi Melikishvili. "About the history of ancient Georgia" (a monograph), Tbilisi, 1959, pp. 9, 13, 14, 18, 72-78, 108-110, 121, 175, 226, 227, 253 (in Russian)
* Simon Janashia. "Works", vol. III, Tbilisi, 1959, pp. 2-74 (in Georgian)
* Guram Kvirkvelia. "Foreign scientists about the metallurgy of the ancient Georgian tribes" (a monograph), Tbilisi, 1976, pp. 3-90 (in Georgian, Russian summary).
* Nana Khazaradze. "The Ethnopolitical entities of Eastern Asia Minor in the first half of the 1st millennium BC" (a monograph), Tbilisi, 1978, pp. 3-139 (in Georgian, Russian and English)