Togarmah
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Togarmah (Armenian: Thorgom, Թորգոմ; Georgian: Thargamos, თარგამოს) third son of Gomer, and grandson of Japheth, brother of Ashkenaz and Riphat (Gen. X.3).
In Ezekiel 38:6 the northernmost house of Togarmah will follow Gog. Through Assyrian folk etymology it became Til-Garimu, now the site of Gürün, Turkey (pronounced Gürin by Armenian, without vowel harmony).
In Ezekiel 27:14, the descendants of Togarmah are described as trading horses and mules in Tyre and elsewhere in the Levant. Here Togarmah may refer to Armenians or Cimmerians; so Strabo (xi 13§9) makes Armenia famous for breeding horses.
Flavius Josephus, Jerome, and Isidore of Seville were of the opinion that Togarmah was the father of the Phrygians; Hippolytus of Rome, Eusebius, and Theodoret, that he peopled Armenia.
The Phrygians spoke an Indo-European language, and are thought by some to be among the ancestors of Armenians.
Armenians represent Haik to be their founder and son of Torgoma (Moses Khoren i.4, 9-11). Fausset's Bible Dictionary claimed the name is from toka, Sanskrit for "tribe", and Armah "Armenia".
The French Benedictine monk and scholar Calmet (1672-1757) places Togarmah in Scythia and Turcomania[1].
[edit] Togarmah's descendants
According to traditional Armenian and Georgian accounts, both these peoples, along with several other Caucasian peoples, are the descendants of Torgom. According to Moses Khorenatsi, he was "son of Tiras, son of Gomer". Furthermore, the local names for Armenia (Hayq) and Georgia (Kartli/Sakartvelo) are allegedly from sons of Thorgamas:
- Haik (Հայք) - the legendary patriarch and founder of the Armenian nation.
- Kartlos (ქართლოს) - the legendary patriarch and founder of the Geordian nation.
- Bardos
- Movakos (Movkans)
- Lekos(Lek) - eponim of Leks
- Heros (Herans)
- Kavkasos (Kovkases)
- Egros (Egers).
According to other records, Togarmah is regarded as the ancestor of the Oghur languages peoples. For example, in King Joseph's Reply, the Khazar monarch writes:
- "You ask us also in your epistle: "Of what people, of what family, and of what tribe are you?" Know that we are descended from Japhet, through his son Togarmah. I have found in the genealogical books of my ancestors that Togarmah had ten sons. These are their names: the eldest was Ujur, the second Tauris, the third Avar, the fourth Uauz, the fifth Bizal, the sixth Tarna, the seventh Khazar, the eighth Janur, the ninth Bulgar, the tenth Sawir." (These are the mythical founders of tribes that once lived in the neighborhood of the Black and Caspian Seas).
Joseph Ben-Gurion's Yosippon: "Tugarma's ten clans are these:
In the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, these are reproduced as: Cuzar, Pasinaq, Alan, Bulgar, Kanbinah, Turq, Buz, Zakhukh, Ugar, Tulmes.
Another mediaeval rabbinic work, the Book of Jasher, further corrupts these same names into: Buzar, Parzunac, Balgar, Elicanum, Ragbib, Tarki, Bid, Zebuc, Ongal, Tilmaz.
In Arabic records, Togorma's tribes are these:
The Arabic account also adds an 11th clan: Anszuh.
Yet another tradition of the sons of Togarmah appears in Pseudo-Philo, where their names are said to be "Abiud, Saphath, Asapli, and Zepthir". The Chronicles of Jerahmeel, in addition to giving the above names from Yosippon, elsewhere lists Togarmah's sons similarly as "Abihud, Shafat, and Yaftir".
[edit] References
- ^ The Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. (1835) B. B. Edwards and J. Newton Brown. Brattleboro, Vermont, Fessenden & Co., p. 1125.
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