Madai

Madai, Hebrew Name 1|מדי IPA2| ma'da.i Greek: Μηδος IPA2| mɛː'dos according to the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, was a son of Japheth and one of the 16 grandsons of Noah. Biblical scholars have identified Madai with various nations, from the Mitanni of early records, to the Medes of much later records. The Medes, reckoned to be his offspring by Josephus and most subsequent writers, were also known as "Madai", including in both Assyrian and Hebrew sources. The Kurds still maintain traditions of descent from Madai, as well as the Medes.

According to the "Book of Jubilees" (10:35-36), Madai had married a daughter of Shem, and preferred to live among Shem's descendants, rather than dwell in Japheth's allotted inheritance beyond the Black Sea; so he begged his brothers-in-law, Elam, Asshur and Arphaxad, until he finally received from them the land that was named after him, Media.

Both the Mitanni and the Medes are thought by scholars to have been Indo-Aryan peoples. In the oldest writings of the Zoroastrian religion of the Medes [ [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0226069303&id=ZPlmnX7AgMEC&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&ots=h9MaU8-X0h&dq=medes+zoroastrian&sig=dYYIouBWvJ4IaiPQOMFfUa0k1dM Mary Boyce, "Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism" 1990 p. 7] ] , the earliest homeland of the Aryan race had been a legendary place called "Airyanem Vaejah" — traditionally (eg., in the "Bundahishn" 29:12) associated with Arran and the valley of the Araxes river, which rises next to Mount Ararat.

Another line in "Jubilees" (8:5) states that a daughter of Madai named Milcah married Cainan, who is an ancestor of Abraham also mentioned in older versions of Genesis.

Madai is also the name of the deified ancestor of the Kachin, according to the indigenous Kachin religion. The Kachin are a people of Myanmar and neighboring areas speaking a Sino-Tibetan language.