DUMAH (nnr ; Sept. 'ISoukoxia). The name of the country colonized by the posterity of Dumah, the son of Ishmael (Gen. xxv. 14-16). No indica tion is given either in Genesis or Chronicles (1 Chron. i. 3o) of its position. In Is. xxi. I 1, Dumah is mentioned in such a way as to shew that it was closely connected in its position and in its doom with Seir or Edom. There is no other reference to it in Scripture or in ancient authors.
In the midst of the Arabian desert, about 24o geographical miles due east of Petra, is an ancient town, to which all Arab geographers give the name Dumah or Daumah ; though it is now, from the peculiarity of its site, called el-7auj, `the belly.' A tradition is found in Arab writers, and is preserved orally among the Bedawin, that it was founded by Dumah, the son of Ishmael (Wallin in 70zirnal of Geographical Society, vol. xxiv. 139, sq.) The town stands in a circular valley three miles in diameter, and is surrounded by a ridge of sandstone hills, which rise above it to the height of Soo ft. It contains a population of about 3000,
composed of emigrants from Syria, and settlers from several tribes of Bedawin. Almost the only trace of antiquity appears to be the remains of a castle, built of massive stones. The gardens and orchards which fill the valley are very productive. There can be little doubt that this is the Dumah of the Bible. It is called Dumat el-Jandal to distin guish it from a Dumah in Irak, and another in the plain of Damascus.
2. A town in the mountains of Judah. In the Sept., Syr., and Vul. it is written Ruma ('Pound). Eusebius describes it as a large village in Darom, belonging to the territory of Eleutheropolis, and seventeen miles from that city ; but he does not say in what direction. Van de Velde would identify it with a small village called Daumah about five miles south by west of Hebron ; this, however, would not agree with Eusebius, and requires con firmation.—J. L. P.