Shem

Shem is one of the three sons of Noah according to the religious texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The biblical account names Noah's three sons as Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Shem is considered the ancestor of peoples designated as Semitic.

The term 'Semitic', now used to denote a language group including Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian, and Tigrinya-Amharic, derives from the name Shem. This usage is modern, originating in the 18th and 19th centuries when European scholars classified languages. The linguistic meaning of 'Semitic' does not correspond to the genealogical account given in the religious texts.

Biblical narrative

According to the Book of Genesis, Noah and his family survived the great flood aboard an ark. After the flood, his three sons are described as the ancestors of the world's peoples. The well-known "Table of Nations" assigns Shem's descendants to populations of the Middle East and Mesopotamia.

In Islam, Noah is an important prophet mentioned in the Quran, but the names of his sons are not explicitly stated in the Quranic text. The name Shem appears in Islamic exegetical and historical works, such as those of al-Tabari, which draw on earlier narratives.

Genealogy and classification

Modern historians view the Table of Nations as a literary framework for describing the political and cultural relationships among ancient peoples, rather than as a historical genealogy of human ancestry. Linguistics and genetics provide separate evidence for such relationships.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, the 'Semitic'–'Hamitic' division was sometimes applied to racial classification. Modern scholarship has abandoned the use of 'Hamitic' as a linguistic category, while 'Semitic' remains accepted as a linguistic classification.