Casluhim
{{Short description|Ancient Egyptian people mentioned in the Bible and related literature}}
File:Noahsworld map Version2.png, placing the "Casluhim" in the western Nile Delta.]]
The Casluhim or Casluhites ({{langx|he|כסלחים}}) were an ancient Egyptian people mentioned in the Bible and related literature.
Biblical accounts
According to the Book of Genesis ({{bibleverse||Genesis|10:14|HE}}) and the Books of Chronicles ({{bibleverse|1|Chronicles|1:12|HE}}), the Casluhim were descendants of Mizraim (Egypt) son of Ham, out of whom originated the Philistines.
Archaeology
The Egyptian form of their name is preserved in the inscriptions of the Temple of Kom Ombo as the region name Kasluḥet.{{cite book|author=Archibald Henry Sayce|title=The "Higher Criticism" and the Verdict of the Monuments|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-AsTCT0zOsC|access-date=28 November 2010|year=2009|publisher=General Books LLC|isbn=978-1-150-17885-6|page=91}} In the Aramaic Targums their region is called Pentpolitai understood to be derived from the Greek Pentapolis which locates the area as the north west in what is now the Cyrenaica region of Libya.Navigating the Bible, World ORT, 2000, commentary Pathrusim, Casluhim Another name for their region is Pekosim used in Bereshit Rabbah 37.
Identifications
Josephus mentions the Casluhim in his Jewish Antiquities I, vi, 2 as one of the Egyptian peoples whose cities were destroyed during the Ethiopic War and who thus disappeared from history. Arab historian Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406), citing Abu Bakr bin Yahya al-Suli, wrote that the Berbers of North Africa were descended from Casluhim, the son of Mizraïm (قبط بن مصر).{{cite book|last=Ibn Khaldun|author-link=Ibn Khaldun|title=Histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmanes de l'Afrique septentrionale |translator=Baron de Slane |publisher=P. Geuthner|volume=1 |year=1925|location=Paris|page=176|language=fr|oclc=556514510}}
In Saadia Gaon's Judeo-Arabic translation of the Pentateuch, the Sa'idi people (i.e. the people of Upper Egypt) are listed in the position of the Casluhim in {{bibleverse||Genesis|10:14|HE}},{{cite book |last=Saadia Gaon |title=Rabbi Saadia Gaon's Commentaries on the Pentateuch |publisher=Mossad Harav Kook |year=1984 |editor=Yosef Qafih |editor-link=Yosef Qafih |edition=4 |location=Jerusalem |page=33 (note 37) |language=he |oclc=232667032 |author-link=Saadia Gaon}} while Albiyim is listed in the position of Pathrusim, however the ordering of Casluhim and Pathrusim sometimes vary in translations and the mainstream understanding is that it is the Pathrusim who are the Sahidic people and the Casluhim the people of eastern Libya.
Matthew Poole suggests that Casluhim and Caphtorim were brother tribes who lived in the same territory, presumably in Crete. {{Cite web |date=2023 |title=Genesis 10 Matthew Poole's Commentary |url=https://biblehub.com/commentaries/poole/genesis/10.htm |website=Biblehub}}