TELEM 0:6D; TOtep, ; Telenz), one of the cities which are described as the uttermost of the tribe of Judah toward the coast of Edom southward' (Josh. xv. 24). It is not again mentioned except we regard it as identical with Telaim—a theory which seems highly probable (Reland, p. io29). Telem is mentioned by Eusebius and Jerome as a city of Judah, but they appear to have been ignorant of its site (Onomast. s. v. Talent); nor have the researches of recent travellers and geographers been successful in discovering it. The opinion of Mr. Wilton, that a trace of the ancient Telem is found in the Arab tribe Dhulla'm I which gives its name to a district lying south-east of Beersheba, is not altogether improbable, espe cially as the Arabic and Hebrew words are cognate (see The Negeb, p. 87 ; and cf. Robinson, E. R. p. io2).—J. L. P.
TEMA (t.In,r) the Arabic LA; a desert ;' it is written Nnri in Job vi. 19 ; Oat,actv ; Thema, and in Is. Auster), a name given to a son of Ish mael (Gen. xxv. ; Chron. 3o), to the tribe or nation which sprang from him (Job vi. 19), and to the country they inhabited (Is. xxi. I4)• The Temanites were among the most influential of the tribes of Arabia. Job speaks df the troops of Tema' and the companies of Sheba,' as well known in his remote age. When the prophet Isaiah recorded the burden upon Arabia,' the travelling, companions of Dedanim, and the in habitants of the land of Tema' were mentioned as representatives of the whole country (xxi. 14). Jeremiah also speaks of Tema as one of the noted principalities of Arabia (xxv. 23).
The name and the tribe appear to have been known to classic writers. Ptolemy mentions the city of Themnte (0414491) among those of Arabia Deserta, and apparently in the centre of the country (Geogr. v. 19). Pliny states that to the Na batxi the ancients joined the Thinzanei' (Hist. Nat. vi. 32). It may be questioned, however, whether he refers to the Biblical Tenzan or Tema.
There can be little doubt that the Themme of Ptolemy is identical with the modern Telma, an Arab town of some five hundred inhabitants, situ ated on the western border of the province of Nejd. Wallin, who visited it in 1848, thus de scribes it Teima stands on a mass of crystalline limestone, very slightly raised above the surround ing level. Patches of sand, which have encroached upon the rock, are the only spots which can be cultivated. The inhabitants, however, have con
siderable date plantations, which yield a great va riety of the fruit, of which one kind is esteemed the best flavoured in all Arabia. Grain is also cultivated, especially oats of a remarkably good quality, but the produce is never sufficient for the wants of the inhabitants. The greater portion of the gardens 'are watered from a copious well in the middle of the village. The hydraulic con trivance by which water is raised for distribution through channels among the plantations is the same as is used through Mesopotamia as well as in Nejd—viz. a bucket of camel-skin hung to the end of a long lever, moving upon an upright pole fixed in the ground' (journal R. G. S. xx.
P. 332).
Arab writers state of Teima that it is a town in the Syrian desert, and that the castle of Ablak, the son of Adiya, stood here.' Wallin says no re mains of the castle now exist, nor does even the name live in the memory of the present inhabi tants. A small ruined building, constructed of hewn stone, and half buried in sand and rubbish, appeared to me to be too inconsiderable to admit of its being identified with the celebrated old castle' Vb- P. 333) It seems probable that the ancient Arab tribe of Beni Teim, of whom Abulfeda speaks (Hist. Anteislam. ed. Fleischer, p. 198), were connected with this place and were the more recent repre• sentatives of the children of Tema. Forster would further identify the tribe of Tema with the Beni Teminz, who had their chief stations on the shores of the Persian Gulf ; but his proof does not seem satisfactory (see, however, Geogr. of Arabia, i. pp, 289, seq.) It is interesting to find memorials of the nation founded by this son of Ishmael, not merely, referred to by classic and Arab geographers, but existing to the present day, in the very region where we natur ally look for them (see D'Anville, Geogr. An cienne, p. 25o ; Abulfeda, Deseript. Arab. pp. 6, seq.) Like other Arab tribes the children of Tema had probably a nucleus at the town of Teima, while their pasture-grounds extended west ward to the borders of Edom, and eastward to the Euphrates, just as those of the Beni Shummar do at the present time.—J. L. P.