The early post-Christian Jewish populations of Palestine and Arabia appear to have had the notion that the Lost Ten Tribes or at least part of them were in the Blessed Isles of the West which in Classical Terminology meant the Isles of Britain and Ireland! This concept reflects an earlier tradition. The Jewish populations who had originated this belief were destined to  be scattered, destroyed, or forcibly converted to Islam by the Muslim Arabs. What ideas they had about most things have to be reconstructed from Muslim sources showing Jewish influence  or from much later Jewish ones.

THE JEWS OF ARABIA AND OF ETHIOPIA AND THEIR TEN TRIBES CONNECTION
Prior to the birth of Mohammed (ca.571 c.e.) some of the tribes of Arabia practiced Judaism or; a primitive form of it. In addition the pagan majority of Arabs had in many cases been exposed to Jewish influences and to early Christian concepts. The Jewish-Arab tribes in some cases were probably native Arabians who had converted to Judaism though some of them first appeared in the 600s b.c.e.1 shortly after the Lost Ten Tribes had been exiled and so too may have been descended from exiled Israelites. Another possible source of Israelite blood heritage were; a branch of Nephtalites. They had first been recorded close to Mannae southwest of the Caspian Sea. This area was one of the major regions to which Northern Israelites had been transported by the Assyrians. The Apocryphal Book of Tobias mentions Israelite exiles from the Tribe of Nephtali in Ecbatana and Rages of Media both of which adjoined the Cadussii area2.

 The Nephtalites were called Cadussi by the Greeks, Romans, and Persians but Pliny reported that they termed themselves "Gaeli"*g3.   The Cadussi-Gaeli were related to the Sacae Scythians according to Xenophon.  They later moved northwards into Scythia east of the Ural mountains where they were known as Nephtalites or Nephtalite Huns though some sources still referred to them as "Kadassaye" i.e. Cadussi. Legends, their Tribal names,
and additional factors link them to  Nephtali, Dan, Judah, and  other Israelite Tribes4.
  After a series of wars and migrations the Cadussi-Nephtalites (also known as "White Huns" and sundry other names)  split up into several groups. The majority went westward and entered Scandinavia to form what later became the Danes and Norwegians.  Another portion remained in Scythia to eventually merge with the Khazars who converted to Judaism. Some of the Naphtalites may have gone  eastward (where they became interspersed amongst the Rajput Indian castes) as well as to Afghanistan;-  or else these last mentioned Indian and Afghan groups derived from peoples who had once been
subject to them, and so mistakenly are sometimes identified with them- and this last explanation now seems the most probable.. Still another small band of Nephtalites went to the South Arabian kingdom of Kinda5.
 A group of Nephtalites had been employed by the Persians to mind their frontiers in the 420s c.e. In the course of time some of these Nephtalite frontier guards left the Persian domain and took service with the Kinda who had territory between Iraq and Oman. The Kinda rulers intermarried with and were an offshoot of the Himyarite Royalty of Yemen. The Kinda kingdom was eventually destroyed due to attacks of an adjacent Syrian regime and its major portion (which had been centered on the south) was absorbed by
Himyarite Yemen6. It may be assumed that Nephtalites gravitated to Yemen and were taken into Himyarite employ.  The Himyarite Dynasty had existed for several centuries. In later Persian-moslem tradition the Himyarites  were linked-dynastically with the
Israelites and with the Scythians both of whom were represented by the figure of Zohak7. This is significant since our studies show the Scythians to have, in significant proportions, been Israelite-by-descent. In the past several of the Himyarite monarchs converted to Judaism though apparently their descendants had tended to revert to paganism. The
Himyarite, Josef Dhu-Numas, the son of a Jewish captive woman from Adiabene
became king of Yemen and attempted to Judaise his entire realm. He was defeated (in 517 c.e.) by an invasion of Christian African Ethiopians from across the waters who (it is believed) took a group of captive Jews and/or Judaised-Yemenites and Nephtalites from Kinda back to Africa with them in 525 c.e. The Ethiopians were especially interested in Jewish smiths and these were taken from Yemen and from Khaibar in Arabia to Ethiopia8. The Jews of Ethiopia ("Falashas") were to become the Ethiopian specialists in metallurgy. Peoples identifiable as Israelite were often metallurgical experts. The Naphtalites (like other Israelite  Tribes) had also been known as metallurgists as were the Tribe of Dana (i.e. Dan) who according to legend settled in Ireland. Naphtali and Dan were full-blooded brothers, sons of Jacob and Bilhah the handmaiden of Rachel (Genesis 30;6-8), and as such
are often spoken of together. Both Naphtali and Dan were present amongst the Nephtalite Huns of whom those in the  Kinda service were an offshoot.
 The Ethiopians had anciently been influenced by Judaism. They have a tradition supported by Talmudic statements that the Queen of Sheba after visiting king Solomon (1-Kings 10;1-10) introduced Hebraic practices into their country. The original kingdom of Sheba apparently had domain both in Yemen (-southern Arabia) and in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia there are many different peoples and the dominant groups of Tigres and Amhara may have
come from southern Arabia9.  They are relatively fair-skinned and "Semitic"-looking.  The  "Falashas"*h  reportedly resemble the Tigre and Amhara though many  of them, it is said, have the physiognomy and colouring of the neighbouring darker "Agau" Bogos people of Eritrea10.
 The Jewish Ethiopians (Falashas) once had their own independent kingdom and were quite numerous and powerful. They converted many of the surrounding peoples to their form of Judaism. They also over the years acquired slaves who were later freed and thus (according to Jewish law) automatically became Jewish. The Ethiopian Jews were ultimately reduced to the status of a persecuted minority. They were enabled to migrate to the
State of Israel largely due to intervention by the U.S.A. They form a fairly closed community with (like every other group) its own strong and weak points. The present impression is that they may well prove to be a positive element amongst the Jewish people.
 There is a tendency to trace the original central core of the Ethiopian Jews back to those Jews who were taken into captivity when the Ethiopians conquered Yemen*i. Some (non-Ethiopian) Jewish accounts traced them to the tribe of Dan.
 The Kinda-Nephtalites had included people from Dan. Maybe members of the Kinda were amongst the "Jewish" captives deported to Ethiopia from Yemen at the time of the Ethiopian conquest? This would account for the "Danite" notion.

ISLAM, MOHAMMED, EPHRAIM, AND PROPHECY

  After having discussed the Kinda and Ethiopian Jews our central theme at the moment needs to proceed with the information that in Arabia and Syria-Palestine once existed important and ancient Jewish communities which the Arabs were destined to, in effect, destroy.

 The Cadussi, Arabia, and Ethiopia.

 A psychopathic vision-seeing Arab named Mohamed (550-632 c.e.) decided that  he had received a prophetic revelation superseding all others and proceeded to persuade his fellow countrymen to believe in him. Wars were fought against non-believers and the Arabian Jews were treacherously exterminated at Mohammed's direction and the presence of Jews in the Arabian Peninsula ultimately forbidden for all time, up to the present!
  Regarding the future, some type of ill-fated bond between Ephraim and the followers of Islam appears to be spoken of in the Biblical Book of Hosea.  It is obvious that the same Biblical Prophecies may legitimately often be understood in several entirely different ways - as they were perhaps intended to be. The relevant verses discussed here do not necessarily contain any prophetical reference  to Islam but nevertheless the possibility should be taken into account.
   The verses should be seen in their context*j. The overall message is that the Prophet Hosea condemns Ephraim, uses a word which may be understood to be a form of the name "Mohammed", speaks of the region of Egypt and the east, and predicts a disaster which somehow involves a mad prophet identified traditionally as "Mohammed": The quotations are from Hosea chapter nine:

 " Do not be happy Israel, do not rejoice like (other) peoples, for you
have sinned (and gone) away from your God...(Hosea 9;1)

 "They will not dwell in the land of the LORD, Ephraim shall return to
Mitsrayim (Egypt) and eat unclean(-food) in Assyria (9;3).

 "For behold they are gone due to looting  Egypt (Mitsrayim), Moph
(Memphis) gathers them, Machmad [i.e. Mahomad?*6k] buries them, their
silver ensnared, the thorn in their tents (tabernacles) inherits them
(9;6).
  "The days of visitation have arrived, the days of payment have come,
Israel shall know, the prophet is evil, mad*l [Hebrew: "Meshuga"] a man of
spirit because of your transgression and of great hatred (9;7):

 "Ephraim looked out  with the god of the prophet, a hidden snare on all his paths, hatred in the house of his god (9;8):.
 As mentioned above, "The mad prophet" was considered  by some (e.g. Maimonides, 1135-1204, in his "Letter To Teman") to be a reference to Mohamed and the name of Mohammed (in Hebrew and Arabic: "Machmad") does appear in the passage. The desert sun, sparse diet, and seclusion (as well as the possible use of hashish and various weeds smoken by some of the Arabs) are liable to play tricks on highly-strung spiritually inclined individuals. Historically, the Arabian Jews whom Mohammed massacred may have been an offshoot from the Lost Ten Tribes, i.e. "Ephraim". Regarding the future the message of Hosea  may be  a warning that the forces of Islam are a danger and association with them threatens disaster upon Ephraim which mainly means Great Britain though a portion of Ephraim is also to be found amongst the Jews  and in North America, South Africa, and Australia.
The said verses  may well contain a hint that Ephraim will attempt some type of rapport with "the god of the prophet" and this will not turn out well.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Maimonides ("Rambam", 1135-1204). Born in Spain.
One of the greatest Jewish legal authorities and religious philosophers.. Served as personal physician to Saladin King of Egypt, and according to legend was offered a post by Richard-i of England.

 
THE SONS OF MOSES

  The faith of Islam in its early stages borrowed from Jewish and Christian sources. An important agent for the introduction of foreign elements was Abba-Abbas who was an uncle of Mohamed. Aba Abas had been instructed by a Jewish apostate.  He added quite a lot to Moslem lore and much of what he added had been lifted straight out of Jewish Rabbinical texts and related popular sources. Abba Abas said that the "Sons of Moses" were in the far east in Gabrassa and in the far west in Gabalk11. These terms are considered to be Jewish in origin. Gabrassa relates apparently to Turkestan in east Scythia where the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons and others had sojourned for some time prior to continuing westward in the era 200-400 c.e. with "Scandinavian" offshoots coming later. "GABALK" was an Arabic term for western Europe especially the Frankish realm of France. A similar
term in the Talmud, "Gabla", "Gablan", meant the areas of the Golan and Bashan in the northern sections of Israel according to conventional concepts12. "Gebal" and "Gebala" are related appellations and were the names of cities on the Phoenecian coast. In southern Gaul northwest of Narbonne were a people named Gaballi. The Golan and part of Bashan were called "Gaulanitis" by the Greeks and Romans whereas "Gaul" was the name
given to the area of France and Belgium in ancient times. Gaul had been populated by the Galli and Galatae (also known as "Galadi") past residents of GILEAD east of the Jordan. Gilead (Galaad) was the name of a son of Machir son of Manesseh but the area known as Gilead and Bashan had been settled by the Tribes of Reuben and Gad as well as the half-tribe of Manesseh headed by Machir (Joshua 22;9).
 The prophet Moses who led the Children of Israel out of Egypt and through whom the Mosaic Code was received belonged to the clan of Kohat (Qohat) within the Tribe of Levi. The task of Levi was primarily that of priesthood, instruction, policing, and border-settlement consolidation13.  Levi was not given a tribal territory of his own but rather apportioned towns and cities scattered throughout the land of Israel. The different
Levite clans were however each concentrated in areas of specific Israelite Tribes. The clan of Kohat, to which Moses belonged, received its settlements in areas otherwise belonging to the Israelite Tribes of Ephraim, Dan, and half-Menasseh (Joshua 21;5). Later, when the northern Ten Tribes under Jeroboam son of Nebat split off from the southern ones ruled
by Rehoboam son of Solomon, many of the Levis fled southwards.

   "Now the priests [Hebrew: "Cohanim"] and the Levites throughout the
whole of Israel resorted to Rehoboam from all their territories;  for the
Levites had left all their common land and their patrimony and had gone to
Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his successors rejected their
services as priests of the LORD, and he appointed his own priests for the
hill-shrines, for the demons, and for the calves he had made.." (2
Chronicles 11;13-15).

    It follows from the above excerpt that a good portion of the Tribe of Levi must eventually have been found amongst the "Jewish" southern tribes and some accounts (such as one of several ascribed to Eldad Hadani) concerning the SONS OF MOSES do mention them alongside the Jewish exiles in Babylonia. Other legends connect the SONS OF MOSES with the Lost Ten Tribes of northern Israel exiled by the Assyrians. -Eldad haDani (ca.800 c.e.) transmitted a tradition that the Sons of Moses were somewhere around the
region of Turkestan and adjoined the Lost Ten Tribes. Even until recently people of the Jewish faith (or of a Judaising tradition) in this area would call themselves "Mousssai"14 meaning "followers of Moses" rather  than use the terms Yehudi (Jew) or Israelite. The ancestors of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and some of the Scandinavians had once been in Turkestan or  nearby.
 The Arabs stated that An'am the Himyarite made an expedition to the far west and erected a brazen statue at the end of the Mediterranean15. The Himyarite (i.e. of Yemen) links with Israel were mentioned above. Yitzchak Ben-Zvi said that at least 15 different Himyarite kings became Jewish. In Arab Geneaologies the Himyarites together with the Scyths are linked to Zohak16 who was accredited with creating the Hebrew Bible17 and may be
understood as representing Israel and his name as being a form of Saka or Isaac18.
 Other traditions of apparent JEWISH ORIGIN  derived through Arab intermediaries relate a similar tale. These other versions state that the CHILDREN OF MOSES were in the far west in "Djabarka"  (i.e. "The Golden Castle"), in the "Islands of the Happy", dwelling in a town wherein the remnants of AD19 were also to be found20.
  The Druids in Gaul told a Roman inquirer (Timagene quoted by Ammianus
Marcellinus, 15, ch.9) that part of the Gauls were indigenous to their country whereas others had come (in about 500 b.c.e) from distant isles, which said H. D'ARBOIS DE JUBAINVILLE were otherwise known as "The Land of the Dead", or "The Islands of the Happy21", and apparently meant the islands of Britain and maybe also the coastlands of Scandinavia. They had been driven out due to a rising of the sea that flooded their own areas.
"The Islands of the Happy" in the far west in which dwelt both the sons of Moses and the sons of Ad were the British Isles, and later the term in Classical Writings would be applied especially to Ireland! The Roman Avienus wrote a poem "Ora Maritima" said in part to incorporate an earlier Phoenecian or Carthaginian account of the west Atlantic area;

Avienus wrote:

 "..Two days long is the voyage thence [i.e.from French Brittany or from
Britain] to the once so called Holy Island [i.e.to Ireland], which lies
expanded  on the sea, the dwelling of the Hibernian race: at hand lies the
island of Albion.."

   Other Classical sources refer to Ireland and sometimes to Ireland and Britain together as the Isles (or Isle) of the Happy or Isles of the Blessed, thus conforming to the Arab-transmitted description. The Celtic Welsh called Britain, "The Honey Isle of Beli"22.
    The remnant of Ad together with the Sons of Moses were said to be in these western Isles of the Happy. AD in Arab folklore  and written tradition belonged to the family of Abraham. Also belonging to the family of AD   (say these same sources) were the Himyarite kings and the Eponymous "ZOHAK"23 representative of the Scythians and whose very name is a form of "Isaac". A brother of AD and sometimes identified with him was HUD. There are several traditions concerning the geneaology of Hud and he is sometimes assimilated with  "Abar" (the Biblical "Heber" strictly speaking forefather
of the Hebrews but in practice representing the Biblical Israelites) or regarded as son of the latter. "HUD" is derived from a word-root meaning to "Judaise", or denoting the Jews. "Hud" was identified as ancestor of the Jews  says the Encyclopedia of Islam. Hud in the Koran was sent to the people of Ad who refused to receive him and therefore were swept away by a violent storm24. Ad (brother of Hud) was  therefore an Israelite people who
because of their sins had been blown away to the west25. The story of Ad and Hud is an Arabicised account concerning the Israelite Lost Ten Tribes who because of their sins had been expelled by the Assyrians (2-Kings ch.17) and some of whom had been taken overseas immediately to the west*m.  Their exile had come upon them as a punishment from God for sinning (2-Kings ch.17.). They had gone to the western "Happy" or "Blessed" Isles meaning to those of Britain and "Islands of the Sea" (Isaiah 11;11) is listed as one of the places of exile.
       There may be some significance in the fact that in the centuries prior to the muslim transformation of Arabia, Ireland and Wales had had close contacts with the eastern Mediterranean and with Arabia. Irish folklore and music show Arabic influence. Ireland of that time, culturally, by some authorities is considered as effectually "Semitic".
Ireland was then a European centre of learning  and quite developed. The early Irish and Scottish christians practised aspects of the Biblical-Mosaic Code and considered themselves and were considered by others as a type of "Jew" -or at least of Hebrew descent..Even in Roman times Britain (perhaps due to its mineral wealth) for some reason had been referred to as "The Treasure of Arabia26"! -Classical Geographers (such as
Strabo, etc.) did not really distinguish well between the lands of Israel, Phillistia, Syria, and Arabia. Ptolemy calls the former Israelite lands of Reuben, Gad, and half-Menasseh "Arabia Deserta". At all events, perhaps this nickname, "Treasure of Arabia", applied to Britain  was some type of euphemism for Israel or at least reflected the Middle East origins of the British Celts. It does seem   that some form of familial relationship between the Jews and the Celtic British was intuitively felt.
   One version of Celtic mythology says that Britain was named after Prydain son of Aed the Great27. There was a people in Gaul named "Aedui" who were considered a brother nation by the Romans with whom they generally collaborated. The Celtic god  Aedui once gave his name  to the whole British Isles which say the Welsh Triads (a collection of traditions) was called "Aeddon", or "Eiddyn"28. Aedui is honoured in the name Edinburgh, or "Caer Eiddyn" in Welsh; "Caer" meaning "walled city" based on the  Hebrew
"KIR" (wall);  a "KIRIAH" in Biblical Hebrew  meant a walled city. "CAER" and "KIRIAH" use the same Hebrew word-root, "KIR". The name AED which was given once to Britain and from which "Edin-burgh" is derived is cognate with AD which was synonymous in Arabian literature with northern Israel.
  The name itself may be derived from the Hebrew "ad" meaning both jewel and witness.

 "Ye are my witnesses [Hebrew:"adi"]...(Isaiah 43;10).

 "..the sure mercies of David.

 "Behold, I have given him for a witness [Hebrew: "ad"] to the people, a
leader and commander to the people" (Isaiah 55;3-4).

  "AD" as well as meaning "witness" can also mean "jewel" and as such the word is synonymous  with "segular". The Israelites were called an "Am Segulah" (Deuteronomy 7;6) translated as "a special people". Ptolemy placed the  "Sigulones" in southern Jutland (Denmark) between the Sabalingoi and the Saxones.
  It will be shown how the Jewish Biblical commentator RASHI (on  The Book of Obadiah) believed that the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel migrated into Zarephath which he identified with the land of France while Don Isaac Abarbanel equated "Zarephath" with both France and England together. It is implied  that Nachmanides (in "The Book of Redemption") considered the term "Zarephath" to encompass all of the Northwest European region29.
   The upshot of the above is that taken as a whole Jewish-derived (though partly Arab transmitted) tradition strongly implies that at least part of the Lost Ten Tribes were considered to be in the west especially in France, Ireland, and Britain.
 An additional Arabian link (also involving the Cadussi) concerning the present-day location of The Lost Tribes is that connected with the Children of Kedar.