Nahom

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Abstract

Multiple lines of archaeological and geographical evidence connect the Nihm tribal region in Yemen with the placed called Nahom in the Book of Mormon.

“A Place Which Was Called Nahom”

Throughout their journey in Arabia, Lehi and his family typically named the various places they stopped at, with one exception (see 1 Nephi 2:8–10; 16:6, 13; 17:5). Nephi mentioned that his father-in-law, Ishmael, “was buried in the place which was called Nahom” (1 Nephi 16:34). The wording of this passage suggests that Lehi’s family did not personally give the name “Nahom” to this location and that it existed before their arrival. This opens up the possibility of Nahom (or a variant of the name) being mentioned—and therefore verified—in other historical sources and records.

Ishmael's wife and daughter mourning his death. Image via churchofjesuschrist.org.

Lehi’s family arrived at Nahom after taking a long south-southeast journey roughly parallel to the Red Sea, which makes up Arabia’s western coastline (1 Nephi 16:13–14, 33). When they left Nahom, they went “nearly eastward” from that point, eventually arriving in a “bountiful” land on the coast, with an abundance of fruit, honey, wildlife, ore for making tools, and access to timber for shipbuilding.¹ These textual details point to Nahom being located in the southwest corner of Arabia, in the area where the ancient trade routes moving southward end and begin to trend eastward.² The Nihm region, in Yemen, matches closely with these details.

The Location of Nihm

The Nihm region is the homeland of the Nihm tribe, located about 30 miles northeast of Sana’a, generally west of Marib, along the southern border of the Wadi Jawf. The tribal territory covers about 5000 square kilometers (about 1931 square miles).³ Early maps from the 18th–19th centuries include the region (usually spelled Nehem or Nehhm) and indicate that it may have been slightly larger at that time.⁴ Sources from the early Islamic period indicate that the Nihm tribe has been in this same general location since before the rise of Islam, although their exact territorial boundaries have fluctuated over time.⁵ Throughout much of its documented history, the region itself (in addition to the tribe who occupied it) has been known by the Nihm name.⁶

Image created by Jasmin Gimenez Rappleye.

Historically, this location has held a strategic position along the major roads between Sana’a, Ma’rib, and the Jawf.⁷ Likewise, in antiquity, the major trade routes from the north led into the Wadi Jawf and passed through or near the present-day Nihm region toward Ma’rib and the major incense-growing regions to the east.⁸ Importantly, this mirrors the trajectory of Lehi’s travels both to and from Nahom.

The Names Nihm and Nahom

Nephi, who was a Hebrew author, wrote his account in an Egyptian script. Ancient Egyptian and Hebrew, along with most other ancient Near Eastern languages, did not include vowels when written. As such, the name Nahom would have simply been written as NHM on Nephi’s metal plates. Likewise, when written in Hebrew, the tribal-regional name Nihm is simply written as NHM.⁹ When rendering this name in English, various sources spell it as Nahm, Naham, Nehem, Nehm, Nihim, and several other variants.¹⁰ Thus, the Book of Mormon’s Nahom could reasonably be just another variant spelling of this same name.

Photo by Warren Aston. Effects by Book of Mormon Central.

In the languages of ancient South Arabia, nhm refers to a form of stone masonry.¹¹ In Hebrew and other Semitic languages, the roots nhm and nḥm refer to mourning, repentance, hunger, complaining, and consolation.¹² Nephi’s description of the events that took place at Nahom emphasizes these same themes (1 Nephi 16:34–39), suggesting he was engaging in wordplay on the foreign name Nahom due to its similarity with thematically relevant words in his own language.¹³

NHM Names in South Arabian Inscriptions

In recent years, several ancient South Arabian inscriptions have come to light referring to nhmyn, usually translated as “Nihmite.” Latter-day Saint scholars have specifically highlighted three altars bearing an inscription from a man named “Bi’athtar, son of Sawdum, son of Naw’um, the Nihmite.”¹⁴ These altars were initially dated to the 6th–7th century BC, but later analysis pushed them back to the 7th–8th century BC (likely before or during Lehi’s lifetime).¹⁵ In addition, at least four more inscriptions are known to refer to “Nihmites,” dating from the 6th century BC to the 3rd century AD.¹⁶

NHM appears in reference to the tribe in these inscriptions from Yemen: Sabaean text BynM 217 (reproduced courtesy of the CSAI, University of Pisa). Image and caption via Warren P. Aston, “The Origins of the Nihm Tribe of Yemen: A Window into Arabia’s Past,” *Journal of Arabian Studies* 4, no. 1 (2014): 146.

In South Arabian inscriptional studies, scholars generally consider nhmyn a term indicating that a person is from a tribe or region called NHM, and they usually associate it with the Nihm tribe and its territory. For example, one scholar said that Bi’athtar “comes from the Nihm region, west of Mārib.”¹⁷ Another scholar included NHM, which he equated with present-day Nihm, on a map of ancient toponyms referenced in a collection of texts because of a reference to nhmyn in the collection.¹⁸ Such inscriptions provide evidence that the Nihm tribe and region existed at the time Lehi’s family were traveling through the area.

Burial Grounds

Near the Nihm region lies the largest known ancient cemetery in all of Arabia, which was in use from 3000 BC to 1000 AD.¹⁹ Another large burial ground with thousands of ancient burial mounds was found on the eastern edge of a valley within the Nihm region (called Wadi Nihm).²⁰ And several other ancient burial grounds have been found in the general vicinity of Nihm.²¹ Many of these cemeteries lie near the major roads followed by ancient caravans, affording travelers the opportunity to bury their dead.²² Thus, Lehi’s family could have given Ishmael a proper burial in the Nihm region.

Many hundreds of ancient burial tombs line the ridges at ʿAlam, Ruwayk and Jidran in the desert north of Maʾrib. Image and caption via Warren P. Aston, “The Origins of the Nihm Tribe of Yemen: A Window into Arabia’s Past,” *Journal of Arabian Studies* 4, no. 1 (2014): 146.

Eastward to Dhofar

As previously mentioned, the main ancient trade routes turned eastward at the Wadi Jawf, in the vicinity of Nihm.²³ This was the only area where nearly direct eastward travel was possible.²⁴ Eventually, travelling in a generally eastward direction, one arrives in the Dhofar region, a verdant area where two inlets, Khor Kharfot and Khor Rori, have been proposed as plausible candidates for Bountiful.²⁵ This is consistent with the Book of Mormon’s account of traveling “nearly eastward” from Nahom and arriving in Bountiful (1 Nephi 17:5).²⁶

Khor Kharfot, one of the proposed sites for Bountiful in the Dhofar region. Photo by Warren Aston.

Conclusion

Based on multiple lines of evidence, the Nihm region in Yemen correlates well with the place called “Nahom” in the Book of Mormon. Both are located near where a travel route going generally south-southeast parallel to the Red Sea turns eastward. Both are nearly due west of “bountiful” lands. And both names, when written in ancient Semitic scripts, are identical: NHM. No other ancient NHM toponym has been documented in all of Arabia, and archaeology confirms that the NHM name in this region goes back to Lehi’s time.²⁷

Few of the details needed to make this correlation were available and accessible in Joseph Smith’s time. Although some rare and hard-to-find maps included the name Nehem or Nehhm on them, these would not have been readily available to Joseph Smith.²⁸ Moreover, no source known from Joseph Smith’s time included details about the trade routes’ eastward turn in the vicinity of Nihm, the accessibility of burial sites near the Nihm region, the inscriptions documenting the existence of the Nihm in Lehi’s day, or that the Dhofar region to the east complies with all the features presented in Nephi’s description of Bountiful.²⁹

Niebuhr’s 1763 map of Yemen resulting from the 1761–7 Danish expedition, showing the ‘Lordship’ of Nehhm. Source: Hansen, Arabia Felix: The Danish Expedition of 1761–1767, trans. McFarlane (1964), pp. 232–3. Image and caption via Warren P. Aston, “The Origins of the Nihm Tribe of Yemen: A Window into Arabia’s Past,” *Journal of Arabian Studies* 4, no. 1 (2014): 140.

In light of all these converging details, Terryl Givens believed the NHM inscriptions “constitute the first actual archaeological evidence for the historicity of the Book of Mormon.”³⁰ As one researcher summarized:

When all the pieces are brought together—the name, the location, the antiquity attested in several inscriptions, the “bountiful” inlet and the turn eastward—it creates a compelling context for this portion of Nephi’s account in southern Arabia, which in turn can build faith that the Book of Mormon is an authentic historical document.³¹

Book of Mormon Central, “Who Called Ishmael’s Burial Place Nahom? (1 Nephi 16:34),” KnoWhy 19 (January 26, 2016).

Neal Rappleye and Stephen O. Smoot, “Book of Mormon Minimalists and the NHM Inscriptions: A Response to Dan Vogel,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 8 (2014): 157–178.

Warren P. Aston, “A History of NaHoM,” BYU Studies Quarterly 51, no. 2 (2012): 78–98.

S. Kent Brown, “New Light: ‘The Place that was Called Nahom’,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8, no. 1 (1999): 66–68

Alan Goff, “Mourning, Consolation, and Repentance at Nahom,” in Rediscovering the Book of Mormon: Insights you May Have Missed Before, ed. John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1991), 92–99.

1 Nephi 16:33–391 Nephi 17:1–5

1 Nephi 16:33–39

1 Nephi 17:1–5

¹ See Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Bountiful,” March 3, 2021, online at evidencecenral.org.
² For a map of the ancient trade routes, see Warren Aston and Michaela Knoth Aston, In the Footsteps of Lehi: New Evidence for Lehi’s Journey Across Arabia to Bountiful (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1994), 6; Warren P. Aston, Lehi and Sariah in Arabia: The Old World Setting of the Book of Mormon (Bloomington, IN: Xlibris, 2015), 51. A somewhat different map was published in Warren P. Aston, “Across Arabia with Lehi and Sariah: ‘Truth Shall Spring out of the Earth’,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 11.
³ See Christian Robin, “Nihm: Nubdha fī ʾl-jughrāfiyya al-taʾrīkhiyya wafq^an li-muʿṭiyāt al-Hamdānī,” in Al-Hamdani: A Great Yemeni Scholar, Studies on the Occasion of His Millennial Anniversary, ed. Yusuf Mohammad Abdallah (Sana’a, Yemen: Sana’a University, 1986), 84–87, 98 (map).
⁴ See James Gee, “The Nahom Maps,” Journal of Book of Mormon and Restoration Scripture 17, no. 1–2 (2008): 40–57. Of these maps, only the one by Carsten Niebuhr provides any indication of Nihm’s borders. Based on his map, the Nihm region encompassed about 2394 square miles in the late 18th century (p. 42–43). If this is accurate, then their territory was slightly larger at that time than it was in the late 20th century, when Robin estimated their territory as being about 1931 square miles.
⁵ See Aston and Aston, In the Footsteps of Lehi, 14–19; Aston, Lehi and Sariah in Arabia, 76–78; Warren P. Aston, “The Origins of the Nihm Tribe of Yemen: A Window into Arabia’s Past,” Journal of Arabian Studies 4, no. 1 (2014): 139.
⁶ In the writings of al-Hamdānī, in the 10th century AD, the Nihm name is used to refer to both the tribe and the region, thus demonstrating that it was used as a toponym in the early Islamic period. For example, when talking about the location of a silver mine, al-Hamdānī said it was “on the boundary of Nihm,” illustrating the use of Nihm as a place name. See D. M. Dunlop, “Sources of Gold and Silver in Islam According to al-Hamdānī (10th Century AD),” Studia Islamica 8 (1957): 41.
⁷ See Robin, “Nihm,” 87.
⁸ See Aston and Aston, In the Footsteps of Lehi, 22–23; Aston, Lehi and Sariah in Arabia, 96–97; S. Kent Brown, “New Light from Arabia on Lehi’s Trail,” in Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, ed. Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2002), 83–86.
⁹ See Ḥayyim Ḥabshūsh, Ruʾyal al-Yaman (Masʿot Ḥabshūsh), ed. S. D. Goitein (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 1983), 33, which refers to eretz NHM, “the land of Nihm.” Ḥabshūsh was a Yemeni Jew in the late 19th century who acted as a guide for European explorers in Yemen. For an English translation of his works, see Alan Verskin, trans., A Vision of Yemen: The Travels of a European Orientalist and his Native Guide, A Translation of Hayyim Habshush’s Travelogue (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018); see pp. 87–88, 96–105, 114–121, 238n39 for references to Nihm.
¹⁰ See several examples in Aston, Lehi and Sariah in Arabia, 75–76.
¹¹ See A. F. L. Beeston, M. A. Ghul, W. W. Müller, J. Ryckmans, Sabaic Dictionary (English-French-Arabic) (Sanaʿa: University of Sanaʿa, 1982), 94; Joan Copeland Biella, Dictionary of Old South Arabic: Sabaean Dialect (Harvard Semitic Studies, 1982), 296; Stephen D. Ricks, Lexicon of Inscriptional Qatabanian (Rome: Editrice Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1989), 103. See also Alessio Agostini, “Building Materials in South Arabian Inscriptions: Observations on Some Problems Concerning the Study of Architectural Lexicography,” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 40 (2010): 85–98.
¹² See Aston and Aston, In the Footsteps of Lehi, 12–13; Aston, Lehi and Sariah in Arabia, 64–66; Aston, “Origins of the Nihm Tribe,” 144–145.
¹³ See Alan Goff, “Mourning, Consolation, and Repentance at Nahom,” in Rediscovering the Book of Mormon: Insights you May Have Missed Before, ed. John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1991), 92–99; Stephen D. Ricks, “On Lehi’s Trial: Nahom, Ishmael’s Burial Place,” Journal of Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 20, no. 1 (2011): 66–68; Brown, “New Light from Arabia on Lehi’s Trail,” 81–83. Bilingual wordplay like this was known in Hebrew literature, as discussed in Neal Rappleye and Stephen O. Smoot, “Book of Mormon Minimalists and the NHM Inscriptions: A Response to Dan Vogel,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 8 (2014): 174–178.
¹⁴ S. Kent Brown, “New Light: ‘The Place that was Called Nahom’,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8, no. 1 (1999): 66–68; Warren P. Aston, “Newly Found Altars from Nahom,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 10, no. 2 (2001): 56–61. For discussion of these inscriptions in non-Latter-day Saint literature, see Christian Robin and Burkhard Vogt, eds., Yémen: au pays de la reine de Saba’ (Paris: Flammarion, 1997), 144; Wilfried Seipel, ed., Jemen: Kunst und Archäologie im Land der Königin von Saba’ (Wien: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 1998), 325; John Simpson, ed., Queen of Sheba: Treasures from Ancient Yemen (London: The British Museum, 2002), 166–167.
¹⁵ See Warren P. Aston, “A History of NaHoM,” BYU Studies Quarterly 51, no. 2 (2012): 87; Norbert Nebes, “Zur Chronologie Der Inschriften Aus Dem Barʾān Temple,” Archäologische Berichte aus dem Yemen 10 (2005): 115, 119. Bi’athtar’s inscription was found in the foundation of temple 3 (see the sources cited in n.14), which was dated to the 7th–8th centuries BC. See Burkhard Vogt, Werner Herberg, Nicole Röring, “Arsh Bilqis”: The Temple of Almaqah of Bar’an in Marib (Sanaʿa: Deutsche Archaologishe Institut, 2000), 2, 10.
¹⁶ Translations and commentary on these inscriptions can be seen in Mayer Lambert, “Les Inscriptions Yéménites du Musée de Bombay,” Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale 20 (1923): 80–81; Gonzague Ryckmans, “Inscriptions sud-arabes. Septième série,” Le Muséon: Revue D’études Orientales 55 (1942): 125–126; J. M. Solá Solé, “Inschriften von ed-Duraib, el-Asāhil und einigen anderen Fundorten,” in Maria Höfner and J. M. Solá Solé, Inschriften aus dem Gebiet Zwischen Mārib und dem Ğōf, Sammlung Eduard Glaser II (Vienna: Der Öserreichischen Akadaemie der Wissenchaften, 1961), 40; Jacques Ryckmans, Walter W. Müller, and Yusuf M. Abdallah, Textes du Yémen Antique Inscrits Sur Bois (Leuven: Institut Orientaliste, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1994), 46–50, pl. 3A–B.
¹⁷ Simpson, ed., Queen of Sheba, 166. Cf. Seipel, ed., Jemen, 325.
¹⁸ Peter Stein, Die altsüdarabischen Minuskelinschriften auf Holzstäbchen aus der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek in München, 2 vols. (Tübingen and Berlin: Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, 2010), 1:22n.43, 23.
¹⁹ Aston and Aston, In the Footsteps of Lehi, 19–20; Aston, “A History of NaHoM,” 83–84; Aston, Lehi and Sariah in Arabia, 72–73.
²⁰ S. Kent Brown, “Refining the Spotlight on Lehi and Sariah,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 56.
²¹ See Alessandro de Maigret, Arabia Felix: An Exploration of the Archaeological History of Yemen (London: Stacy International, 2009), 329, 338–339.
²² Burkhard Vogt, “Death and Funerary Practices,” in Queen of Sheba: Treasures from Ancient Yemen, ed. St. John Simpson (London: British Museum Press, 2002), 180; Jean-François Breton, Arabia Felix from the Time of the Queen of Sheba: Eighth Century BC to First Century AD, trans. Albert LaFarge (Norte Dame, IN: University of Norte Dame, 1999), 144; Maigret, Arabia Felix, 337–340.
²³ Andrey Korotayev, Ancient Yemen: Some General Trends of Evolution of the Sabaic Language and Sabaean Culture (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1995), 80–81; A. F. L. Beeston, “The Arabian Aromatics Trade in Antiquity,” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, A. F. L. Beeston volume (2005): 56.
²⁴ Aston, “A History of NaHoM,” 84–85.
²⁵ See Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Bountiful,” March 3, 2021, online at evidencecenral.org.
²⁶ See S. Kent Brown, “New Light: Nahom and the ‘Eastward’ Turn,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12, no. 1 (2003): 111–112, 120.
²⁷ Aston and Aston, In the Footsteps of Lehi, 12; Aston, “A History of NaHoM,” 80–81.
²⁸ See Brown, “New Light from Arabia on Lehi’s Trail,” 69–76; S. Kent Brown, “Nice Try, But No Cigar: A Response to Three Patheos Posts on Nahom,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 19 (2016): 150–151.
²⁹ See Jeff Lindsay, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 2 of 2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholar 19 (2016): 247–283 for a detailed discussion of what Joseph most likely could and could not have gleaned from known sources from his day.
³⁰ Terryl L. Givens, By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 120.
³¹ Neal Rappleye, “‘Put Away Childish Things’: Learning to Read the Book of Mormon with Mature Historical Understanding,” 2017 FairMormon Conference, online at farimormon.org.

Geography

Book of Mormon

Evidence #163 | March 9, 2021

Nahom