Semitic people

Semitic people, or Semites, is an old way to describe a group of people from the Middle East and the Horn of Africa. This group included many ancient and modern peoples such as the Akkadians, Arabs, Arameans, Canaanites, Habesha peoples, Israelites, Jews, Phoenicians, and Samaritans, among others.

The word "Semitic" was created in the 1700s by historians from the Göttingen school of history. They took the name from Shem, one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis. In their thinking, Shem’s descendants were the Semitic people, Ham’s descendants were dark-skinned Africans, and Japheth’s descendants were people like the Medes, Persians, Greeks, and later called Aryans.

Today, this term is mostly used in language studies to talk about "Semitic languages". But sometimes people still use it in everyday talk to mean people who speak Semitic languages.

Ethnicity and race

Further information: Afroasiatic Urheimat, Proto-Semitic language § Urheimat, Hamites, Scientific racism, and Color terminology for race § Antiquity to 1600s

People have been grouped together based on how they look since ancient times. One old Greek book from around 300 BC talks about this idea.

Long ago, some writers used the word "Semite" to describe a group of people. They thought these people came from one of the sons of a biblical figure named Noah. These ideas were later used by scholars in Europe to sort people into different groups. Over time, the word "Semitic" was also linked to certain languages and cultures in the Middle East.

Antisemitism

Main article: Antisemitism

Further information: Color terminology for race § Early Modern physical anthropology

A long time ago, some people began to treat others unfairly just because of who they were. One group that faced this unfair treatment was the Jewish people. Some historians and writers started to spread ideas that were not true and made others believe bad things about Jews.

During the 1800s, a writer named Wilhelm Marr began using words to stir up trouble between Germans and Jews. He wrote a book and started a group that focused only on being mean to Jewish people. Sadly, some leaders used these unfair ideas to gain power and influence others.