The Agreement of Celtic, Arab, and Jewish Sources Concerning the Ten Tribes (5 November, 2014, 12 Cheshvan, 5775)
Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Western Sources
3. Arab Lore Taken from  Jewish Contemporaries
4. Rechabites
5. References.
6. Bibliography
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1. Introduction
The Lost Ten Tribes are to be found amongst Western Nations.
Proofs of this are numerous and derived from various disciplines. One source is mythology. We find the legends and traditions of western peoples dove-tailing with those of the Ancient Jews of Judea and with those of the later Arabic Moslems who derived them from contemporary Jewish sources still extant in their time.
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2. Western Sources
One version of Celtic mythology says that Britain was named after Prydain son of Aed 1. [The "b" and "p" sounds could interchange.]
 Aed himself once gave his name to the whole British Isles which say the Welsh Triads (a collection of traditions) was called "Aeddon", or "Eiddyn"2.
Aed is honoured in the name Edinburgh, or "Caer Eiddyn" in Welsh.
In Irish Mythology Aed (Aodh) was one of the People of Dana whom we trace to the Israelite Tribe of Dan.
There was also a tribe in Gaul named "Aedui" who were considered a brother nation by the Romans with whom they generally collaborated.
The name Aed has been interpreted to mean "fire".
Names are often rationalized as if to explain their meaning according to known words they may actually have no connection to.
Nevertheless, the connection of the name Aed with fire may be important.
Isaiah prophesied how the exiles would be taken to the west (24:14) where they are exhorted to glorify God from THE FIRES [Hebrew: "biurim"] in the Isles of the Sea (24:15) meaning in the Isles of Britain.
cf.
Isaiah 24:
14 They lift up their voices, they sing for joy;
  they shout from the west over the majesty of the Lord.
15 Therefore in the east [Hebrew: "ba-urim" i.e. in the fires] give glory to the Lord;
  in the coastlands [Hebrew: "eyim" i.e. islands] of the sea glorify the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
Britain was known internationally for the fires lighting up its hills as seen from the sea. cf.
Quote:
The tradition of erecting hilltop cairns and mounds as orientation marks, and of using beacon fires for long-distance communication was very strong in Celtic (also Roman) Britain. One trace of that is the occurrence of the Brythonic element tan- 'fire' (Welsh tan) in hill names (there are many Tan Hills in England). -- not only in ancient times but all through history down to the invention of the telegraph. For example, a network of beacons set up on hilltops was used in England in 1588 to signal the approach of the Spanish Armada, and once it was spotted off the Scillies the news reached the English commanders in no time at all.
End Quote. Piotr Gasiorowski, linguistic historian.
The Chronicles of Eri" (1822):
These people (the Gaal of Sciot) had the custom of lighting beacon fires on the coasts.
       All the headlands and promontories belonging to the Gaal of Sciot on the northwest coast of Spain were called in the Phoenician language Breoccean, that is, The Land of Flaming Fires, because of the blaze that was kept up and could be seen at a great distance out to sea. The same custom was observed on the coast of Cornwall and Devonshire after the Gaal of Sciot joined with the Phoenicians in their mining operations there, and that land was called Breotan, Breo meaning Flaming Fire.
The Druids in Gaul told a Roman inquirer (Timagene quoted by Ammianus Marcellinus, 15, ch.9) that part of the Gauls were indigenous to their country whereas others had come (in about 500 b.c.e) from distant isles, which said H. D'ARBOIS DE JUBAINVILLE were otherwise known as "The Land of the Dead", or "The Islands of the Happy"3.
D'ARBOIS DE JUBAINVILLE opines that they apparently meant the islands of Britain and maybe also the coastlands of Scandinavia.4
Avienus wrote:Â
 "..Two days long is the voyage thence [i.e.from French Brittany or from Britain] to the once so called Holy Island [i.e.to Ireland], which lies expanded on the sea, the dwelling of the Hibernian race: at hand lies the island of Albion.."
  The Celtic Welsh called Britain, "The Honey Isle of Beli". 5
We see from the above that a figure named Aed was associated with Celts in the West meaning Britain, Ireland, and possibly Gaul.
Britain and Ireland especially could be referred to as Islands of the Blessed or the Happy Islands.
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3. Arab Lore Taken from  Jewish Contemporaries
The Celtic name Aed may be derived from the nomination Ad (brother of Hud) in Arab tradition.
The name Jew is derived from the Hebrew "Yehudi". In Arab lore there is a protagonist named Hud.
Hud is sometimes assimilated with "Abar" meaning Hebrew. Hud or Abar (Heber) was identified as ancestor of the Jews says the Encyclopedia of Islam. Hud in the Koran was sent to the people of his brother, Ad, and to call on them to repent. The people of Ad refused to receive Hud and therefore they were swept away by a violent storm to the west. 6.
The remnant of Ad according other sources were together with the Sons of Moses were in the far west in "Djabarka"Â (i.e. "The Golden Castle"), in the "Islands of the Happy".7
The Sons of Moses were a legendary group usually associated in Jewish Legend with the Lost Ten Tribes.
The uncle of Mohamed known as Abba Abas said that the "Sons of Moses" were in the far east in Gabrassa and in the far west in Gabalk. 8
These terms are considered to be Jewish in origin. Gabrassa relates apparently to Turkestan in east Scythia where the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons and others had sojourned for some time prior to continuing westward in the era 200-400 c.e. with "Scandinavian" offshoots coming later. "GABALK" was an Arabic term for western Europe especially the Frankish realm of France9.
The Ten Tribes of Israeli because of their sins had been expelled by the Assyrians (2-Kings ch.17). Some of whom had been taken overseas immediately to the west. Their exile had come upon them as a punishment from God for sinning (2 Kings ch.17.). Amongst the places they had gone to were the Western "Happy" or "Blessed" Isles meaning those of Britain. The "Islands of the Sea" (Isaiah 11:11) is listed as one of the places of exile. The Assyrians in addition to taking the exiled Israelites to Halah, Habor, the river Gozan, and the cities of the Medes (2-Kings 17:6) and Hara (1-Chronicles 5:26) ALSO exiled a portion of them across the Sea straight to the west. The Assyrians used Phoenician proxies and Phoenicians were re-settled along with the Israelites. That there was such a re-settlement in Spain is proven by archaeological and other evidence10. There are indications that together with Spain parts of Gaul and Britain were also settled with Israelites at that time11. See our explanation to Amos 4:1-3 where the Hebrew original mentions exiles being taken away in large-boats.
We equate Ad with the Lost Ten Tribes and with Aed of Western Celtic tradition outlined above.
There are sources that say the original location of Aed was in "Iram" (i.e. Aram) of the Pillars.
Originally the location of Ad was given as "Iram" (i.e. Aram) of the Pillars. This referred to the area of Syria ("Aram") in general or it meant a more specific location in the same former Israelite area. A.J. Wensinck (1916), and more recently Aayko Eyma and Michael Banyai12 traced "Ad" to Iram [Aram] of the Pillars in North West Arabia . The Oaditae in the Geography of Ptoemly were identified by Banyai with the People of Ad. They were just south of the Mountains of "Arabia Felix" (a term later applied according to de Rougemeont to the British Isles) and just to their north was the Kingdom of the Saccaea (Scythians), the RAHABENI (of Reuben) and the MASANI of Manasseh.
We thus see Ad (i.e. Aed) in the British Isles and equating the Lost Tribes of Israel.Â
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The Rechabites (like the sons of Moses) are associated with the Ten Lost Tribes and assumed to be located in the same areas as they are.
In early Christian-Jewish sources derived from Jewish originals the Rechabites were described as located in the "Islands of the Blessed Ones" (Ireland and Britain) which were in "the Ocean, the Great Sea" meaning the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean13.
This ties in with what we have learned in the present essay concerning AED and the Ten Tribes being in the West and in the Isles of Ireland and Britain!
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References.
1. Squire[2] p.14ff.
2. Coloquohn p.24.
3. D'A p.2.
4. ibid.
5. Squire[2] p.14.
6. Encyclopedia of Islam, "Ad" and "Hud".
7. Wensinck (1918) pp.31-31.
8. Lazar p.14.
9. ibid
10. Davidiy, Yair. "Origin", Jerusalem, Israel, 2002.
11. ibid
12. Aayko Eyma and Michael Banyai are both well-known researchers. Their identifications of the location of Ad, etc, quoted above were made on an e-mail discussion group.
13. Charlesworth, James H. Â
[Quoted by George Brooks [orion-list] ] who gives the sources:
(a) Greek MS C "(The) Narrative of Monk Zosimus Concerning the Fathers, Verily the Brahmans Whom Alexander Found *and Philip and he Conversed with Them,* Those Being Naked as a Serpent. Â Therefore I wish to Show from Which Tribe They were Separated, (and then) Inhabited the Islands of the Blessed Ones" (*ex margine)
(b) Syriac MS B "The History of the Sons of Jonadab, the Son of Rechab, who are in the Midst of the Ocean, the Great Sea, When God Showed Them to Zosimus, the Virtuous Hermit"
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Bibliography
Charlesworth, James H.  THE HISTORY OF THE RECHABITES, Vol. I: The Greek Recension (Scholars Press (c) 1982).Â
Colquhoun, H.B. "Our Descent From Israel", 1931
D'A. D'ARBOIS DE JUBAINVILLE. "Le Cycle Mythologie Irlandais Et La Mythologie Celtique", Paris 1884.
De ROUGEMONT, Frederic. "L'Age de Bronze, ou Les Semites en Occident", Paris, 1866
LAZAR, SHIMEON MENACHEM. "Eseret HaShevetim VePitronan" [The Ten Tribes and their Solution], Drohobycz, 1908.
O'Connor: 'The Chronicles of Eri, being the history of the Gaal Sciot Iber, or the Irish People, translated from the Phoenician dialect of the Scythian language', by Roger O' Connor were published in London in two volumes in 1822.  Â
SQUIRE, CHARLES. "Celtic Myth And Legend. Poetry And Romance", London, 1905.
SQUIRE[2], CHARLES. "The Mythology of Ancient Britain and Ireland", London 1909.
WENSINCK, A.J. "The Ideas Of The Western Semites Concerning The Navel Of The Earth", Amsterdam, Holland, 1916.
WENSINCK, A.J. "The Ocean In The Literature Of The Western Semites", Amsterdam, Holland, 1918.
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See Also:
Aed and the Lost Tribes in Britain
The Lost Ten Tribes in Celtic and Arabic Lore
http://www.britam.org/aed.html
Did the Jews Know Where the Ten Tribes Are?
Jewish Traditions and Locating the Ten Tribes of Israel in the West.
http://www.britam.org/Rechab.html
Ancient Knowledge and Josephus
http://hebrewnations.com/articles/myth/josephus.html