Editing Japheth (section)

==In the Islamic tradition==
{{Main|Noah in Islam}}
{{Further|Biblical and Quranic narratives|Biblical people in Islam}}

Japheth (in [[Arabic language|Arabic]]: ''Yāfith'')<ref name="Brill 1993"/> is not mentioned by name in the [[Quran]] but is referred to indirectly in the narrative of [[Noah#Islam|Noah]] ({{qref|7|64|b=y}}, {{qref|10|73}}, {{qref|11|40}}, {{qref|23|27}}, {{qref|26|119}}).<ref name="Brill 1993">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Heller |first1=B. |last2=Rippin |first2=A. |title=Yāfith |orig-date=1993 |year=2012 |editor1-last=Bearman |editor1-first=P. J. |editor1-link=Peri Bearman |editor2-last=Bianquis |editor2-first=Th. |editor2-link=Thierry Bianquis |editor3-last=Bosworth |editor3-first=C. E. |editor3-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |editor4-last=van Donzel |editor4-first=E. J. |editor4-link=Emeri Johannes van Donzel |editor5-last=Heinrichs |editor5-first=W. P. |editor5-link=Wolfhart Heinrichs |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam#2nd edition, EI2|Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition]] |location=[[Leiden]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_7941 |isbn=978-90-04-16121-4}}</ref> [[Muslim]] [[Tafsir|exegesis of the Quran]], however, names all of Noah's sons, and these include Japheth.<ref>Tabari, Volume I: ''Prophets and Patriarchs'', 222</ref> In identifying Japheth's descendants, Muslim exegesis mostly agrees with the [[Biblical people in Islam|Biblical tradition]].<ref>Tabari, Volume I: ''Prophets and Patriarchs'', 217</ref>

In the Islamic tradition, he is usually regarded as the ancestor of the [[Gog and Magog#Islamic texts|Gog and Magog]] tribes. Islamic tradition also tends to identify the descendants of Japheth as including the [[Turkic peoples|Turks]], [[Khazars]], [[Chinese people|Chinese]], [[Mongols]], and [[Slavs]].<ref name="Brill 1993"/><ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last=Leslie |first=Donald Daniel |year=1984 |title=Japhet in China |journal=[[Journal of the American Oriental Society]] |publisher=[[American Oriental Society]] |volume=104 |issue=3 |pages=403–409 |doi=10.2307/601652 |jstor=601652 |issn=0003-0279}}</ref> According to [[Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur|Abū'l-Ghāzī]] who wrote the 17th-century ethnographic treatise ''[[Shajara-i Tarākima]]'' ("Genealogy of the Turkmen"), the descendants of [[Ham (son of Noah)|Ham]] went to [[Africa]], [[Shem]] to [[Iranian plateau|Iran]], and Japheth went to the banks of the [[Volga|Itil]] and [[Ural River|Yaik]] rivers, and had eight sons named Turk, Khazar, Saqlab, Rus, Ming, Chin, Kemeri, and Tarikh. As Japheth was dying he established Turk, his firstborn son, as his successor.{{Citation needed|reason=Reliable source needed for the whole sentence.|date=February 2024}}

According to the 18th-century [[Hui people|Hui Muslim]] writer [[Liu Zhi (scholar)|Liu Zhi]], after Noah's flood, Japheth inherited [[Geography of China|China]] as the eastern portion of the Earth, while Shem inherited [[Arabia]] as the middle portion, and Ham inherited [[Europe]] as the western portion.<ref name=":0"/> Some Muslim traditions narrated that 36 languages of the world could be traced back to Japheth.<ref name="Brill 1993"/>