How it was

Only a few hundred years ago

The following is an old extract from the writings of a famous Greek

Claudius Ptolemaeus (Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος Klaúdios Ptolemaîos

He lived from AD 90 – 168

He was known in English as Ptolemy (pronounced /ˈtɒləmɪ/)

He was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek

He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer and a poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology

He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the Thebaid.

He died in Alexandria around AD 168
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Ptolemy was the author of several scientific treatises, at least three of which were of continuing importance to later Islamic and European science.
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The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest (in Greek, Ἡ Μεγάλη Σύνταξις,
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"The Great Treatise", originally Μαθηματικὴ Σύνταξις, "Mathematical Treatise").
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The second is the Geography, which is a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world.
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The third is the astrological treatise known sometimes in Greek as the Apotelesmatika (Ἀποτελεσματικά), more commonly in Greek as the Tetrabiblos (Τετράβιβλος "Four books"), and in Latin as the Quadripartitum (or four books) in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day.
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The following is what he wrote about the Afghans
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Imagine this being common knowledge today
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Ptolemy speaking in his ninth table of the Kabolitae (Kabul Tribes) calls them the aristocratic or noble tribes
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The Afghans call themselves children of Is(sa)rael, from Issa, "woman and also earth," Sons of Mother Earth
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But if you call an Afghan a Jew he will kill you
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The names of the supposed twelve tribes and the names of the real tribes, the same in number, of the Afghans, are the same
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Same as what?
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The alleged twelve tribes of Israel
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He goes on to say
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The Afghans being far older, at any rate their Arabic stock, than the Israelites, no one need to be surprised to find such tribal names among them such as Yusafzais or sons of Joseph in Panjkora and Buner; the Zablistanee (Zebulon); Bney-Menashshe (sons of Menashshe) among the Khojar Tartars; Isaguri or Issachar etc etc
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The whole twelve names of the so called twelve tribes of Israel are names of the signs of the zodiac
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At any rate, the names of the oldest Arabic tribes, retransliterated, yield the names of the zodiacal signs and of the mythical sons of Jacob likewise
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Where are the traces of the Jewish twelve tribes?
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Nowhere
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But there is a trace and a good one, that the Jews have tried to deceive people with the help of those names
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And it goes on however our interest can stay on what he is saying here
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That there never were twelve tribes of Israel, only two.
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And that the Israelites took the idea of twelve tribes from the Afghans
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The Afghans who named twelve tribes after the signs of the zodiac
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Lo later we find the Israelis using the same idea, but inventing ten new tribes as they only had two
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Curious when we consider what is going on in Afghanistan today
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I wonder how many Afghans know the history of their tribes and names?
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And how many Israelis know there were never twelve tribes of Israel?