Abimael
Abim'ael (Heb. Abimael', אֲבַימָאֵל, father of Mael; Sept. Α᾿βιμαέλ, Α᾿βιμιεήλ, Josephus Α᾿βιμάηλος), one of the sons of Joktan in Arabia (Ge 10:28; 1Ch 1:22). B.C. post 2414. SEE ARABIA. He was probably the father or founder of an Arabian tribe called Maal (מָאֵל, of unknown origin), a trace of which Bochart (Phaleg, 2:24) discovers in Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. 9:4), where the name Mali (Μάλι) occurs as that of a spice-bearing region. Perhaps the same is indicated in Eratosthenes (ap. Strabo, 16:1112) and Eustathius (ad Dionys. Periegetes, p. 288, ed. Bernhardy) by the Mincei (Μειναῖoi). So Diodorus Siculus (3, 42); but Ptolemy (6:7) distinguishes the Manitae (Μανῖται) from these, and at the same time refers to a village called Manialia (Μάμαλα κώμη) on the shore of the Red Sea. Hence Schneider proposes to read Mamali (Μαμάλι) in the above passage of Theophrastus; perhaps we should rather read Mani (Μάνι), a natural interchange of liquids; and then we may compare a place mentioned by Abulfeda (Arabia, ed. Gaguier, p. 3, 42), called Mlinay, 3 miles from Mecca (Michaelis, Spicileg. 2:179 sq.).
