Yafith ibn Nuh (Japheth)

Yafith (Japheth) was a son of Prophet Nuh AS who boarded the ark with his father and survived the flood. He is part of the classical Islamic genealogical tradition documented by scholars including Ibn Kathir, al-Tabari, and others drawing on the history of the nations. Like his brothers, he is not named in the Quran but is established in Islamic historical literature as one of the three progenitors of post-flood humanity. Islamic scholarly tradition — drawing in part from the Torah-based genealogies that Muslims accept with appropriate scholarly scrutiny — identifies Yafith as an ancestor of peoples to the north and east of the Arabian peninsula, including the Turks (identified with Yafith's descendant Yafur or Gomer), the Slavic peoples, the Greeks (Yavan), and other northern nations. Ibn Kathir writes that the majority of the people of the east and north come from his line. Some traditions also connect the Gog and Magog (Ya'juj and Ma'juj) to this lineage, though these are peoples whose detailed story is reserved for their own entries. Yafith is presented in Islamic tradition as a believer who honored his father and survived the flood, carrying forward his portion of humanity's post-flood renewal.