Casluhim

The Casluhim or Casluhites (Hebrew: כסלחים) were an ancient Egyptian people mentioned in the Bible and related literature.

Biblical accounts

According to the Book of Genesis (Genesis 10:14) and the Books of Chronicles (1 Chronicles 1:12), the Casluhim were descendants of Mizraim (Egypt) son of Ham, out of whom originated the Philistines.

Archaeology

In the Aramaic Targums their region is called Pentpolitai understood to be derived from the Greek Pentapolis which locates the area as the north west in what is now the Cyrenaica region of Libya. Another name for their region is Pekosim used in Bereshit Rabbah 37.

Identifications

Josephus mentions the Casluhim in his Jewish Antiquities I, vi, 2 as one of the Egyptian peoples whose cities were destroyed during the Ethiopic War and who thus disappeared from history. Arab historian Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406), citing Abu Bakr bin Yahya al-Suli, wrote that the Berbers of North Africa were descended from Casluhim, the son of Mizraïm (قبط بن مصر).

In Saadia Gaon's Judeo-Arabic translation of the Pentateuch, the Sa'idi people (i.e. the people of Upper Egypt) are listed in the position of the Casluhim in Genesis 10:14, while Albiyim is listed in the position of Pathrusim, however the ordering of Casluhim and Pathrusim sometimes vary in translations and the mainstream understanding is that it is the Pathrusim who are the Sahidic people and the Casluhim the people of eastern Libya.

Matthew Poole suggests that Casluhim and Caphtorim were brother tribes who lived in the same territory, presumably in Crete.

However, others (including Samuel Bochart) have identified Casluhim with the Colchians, noting that ancient sources including Herodotus and Jerome described the Colchians as being of Egyptian origin.