MEDAN (nn, Maadv, and Mabdg ; Madan), the third son of Abraham by Keturah (Gen. xxv. 2; 1 Chron. i. 32). All the sons of Keturah appear to have become the heads of Arab tribes, and some of them, as Jokshan and Midian, were celebrated in after history. Medan, however, is not again mentioned; for though its regular plural Afedanim (vnp, rendered in A. V.
Midianites') occurs in Gen, xxxvii. 36, yet it is manifestly identical with the Midyanim of verse 28. Some have thought that perhaps the two families were so closely allied, both by descent and abode, that they came to be considered as one, and were called by both names (Kalisch on Gen., ad loc.; cf. Delitzsch and Keil). Forster believes that the descendants of Medan and Midian re mained distinct ; and that the former may be identi fied with an Arab nomad tribe called Medan or Madan. Some settlements of this tribe were dis covered by Gen. Chesney (Euphrates Expedition) on the banks of the river Euphrates ; and there also he found a village called Madan. There is,
besides, a place in the interior of the Hejaz called Maadan, mentioned by D'Anville (Geographic Ancienne) and Burckhardt (Travels in Arabia, 457), which Forster supposes to be named from the same tribe. The latter place adjoins the region of Midian on the east, and may perhaps, if the name can be depended on, be identical with Medan.
D'Anville, however, writes the name Afaaa'an, and interprets it as derived from mines.' If this be so, then the word is radically different from the Hebrew from u) Burckhardt spells it iifeddyen pl. of 'a city;' 1. c.), and gives a different account of the origin of the name. On such uncertain data we cannot ground any trustworthy identification (see, however, Forster, Geog. of Arabia, i. 336).—J. L. P.