Zaragoza - Zahar of the Red Hand. Ethnic History and Legend

 Tracing Zaragoza:

Who Were the Iberians Here

Before Rome

Looking at Legend

And Migrations from the Middle East - Languages of "isolates"

The easy part of history is found when people have records, organization.  The difficult part is figuring out what happened with earlier people who preceded the structured ones.

Zaragoza:

Rome.  

Usual tourist sites and history start with Romans, see ://uk.holidaysguide.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-124788-zaragoza_history-i/, with the legions invading Spain, and the town taking the name stemming from Latin Saragossa, and then Caesaraugusta.  See also http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Zaragoza,-Spain/, focusing on the Christian era: the Virgin Mary appearing to St. James the Great in the first century AD.  A work of word-name sources only refers to the Romans, and later the Arabs. See ://www.archive.org/stream/localetymologyde00char/localetymologyde00char_djvu.txt/

Before Rome.  Iberian. 

Keep going. Learn elsewhere that the site of Caesaraugusta is different from the Roman town. There was an Iberian village, with a newer town later nearby built by the Romans, Cesaraugusta, or Caesaraugusta. Not the same as the Iberian.  See ://fact-archive.com/encyclopedia/Zaragoza,_Spain/  Its name was Salduie or Salduba.

Linguistics.  And Iberian script resembles Phoenician.  See ://fact-archive.com/encyclopedia/Iberian_language/  There were Phoenicians all over the Mediterranean, including Phoenicians in Sicily, so this would not be unusual in itself. This language is not the same as other languages with Celtic roots. See ://fact-archive.com/encyclopedia/Celtiberians/  Egyptians attribute language with written characters is said to have originated with the Phoenician, Taautos, from Byblos, Phoenicia, see ://phoenicia.org/alphabet.html/ and the Semitic languages, as well as others, stem from the forms. More on linguistics, including comparative charts, at ://atheism.about.com/od/ancientmythologyreligion/ig/Lebanon-Phoenician-Photos/Phoenician-Alphabet.htm/ 

So were the original Iberians at Zaragoza Hebrew? Perhaps. This site thinks so, Hebrew Hispanic History, but are they authoritative, or moneymaking? see ://www.genealogyforum.com/messages/genbbs.cgi/  /New/37557/ This site agrees, showing "Iberia" coming from "Eber"-ia, the grandfather of Abraham (Hebrews, not Jews at that time) or Heberia, or Hebrewland. See ://jahtruth.net/britspan.htm/ The focus there is in exploring origins of Gibraltar, as "not Spain."

Does location help with possibilities. 

Look up Zaragoza, Aragon.  Find it at ://www.red2000.com/spain/region/index.html/  There are many references to its origins with the usual "Old Iberians, Romans, Goths, and Arabians."  See that list, for example, at ://www.red2000.com/spain/zaragoza/index.html/  A traverse from the Mediterranean at the northeast of Spain, crossing to Galicia, puts Zaragoza at a major point.

Derivation of Iberia. Eberia - Heberia - Hebrew
Remember:  Hebrew did not mean "Jewish" in earliest times.
It was one of many tribes

Something may or may not be missing. Where formal history is lacking, look at legend. This is an ext\p://jahtruth.net/britspan.htm

Legend of Zahar of the Red Hand 

There is legend here that is a far cry from staying satsified that all this area represents is a thriving Roman commercial and military center.  We have an unexplainable tribe and language, an "isolate" as they say, like the Basques, and other groups that seem to spring from parts unknown. 

This connection is suggested for the Iberian isolates:  Palestine, and even Egypt.  By legend, of course. Research old migrations of peoples from the Middle East to Iberia, and from there to Hibernia, even, there in antiquity,

Zahar of the Red Hand starts with a story in Genesis

It is said in legend that the Old Testament Zarah, twin son of Judah, who was himself son of Jacob / Joseph, went through these events, see The Red Hand of Ulster, at ://www.baronetage.org/redhand.htm:

• During Zarah's birth, he stuck out his fist first, causing the midwife to tie an identifying red cord around it to designate the first-born, for purposes of the inheritance; but

• Zarah then pulled it back, cord and all; and his brother Pharez was born, fully born, first, see Genesis 38:28-30; so 

• Zahar, with no inheritance, migrated from the Palestine area to (and here the stories vary) through Egypt first, or directly to Spain, Iberia, where 

• Zahar and the Zaharites of the Red Hand founded the city of Zaragoza.  Then,

• Zahar's descendants were pushed out to northern Spain and Galicia by the Romans and others; and from there went to Ireland, Hibernia.  Or "Hebernia" - for the Hebrew's new land. There,

• The Red Hand of the Zaharites remained the symbol of their settling.  

Of course, Ulster has an alternate legend, of the Red Hand of Ui Niall casting his self-severed hand to the beach to claim the territory ahead of others, but we are interested here in the Zahar idea.

Spain as the stopping off point for ancients from the Middle East:

This is of interest to us because we also found a tale of a Queen Scotia, buried in Ireland from antiquity, and said to be the daughter of a pharaoh, and that explains alleged Egyptian hieroglyphs on her grave.  Is any of this so?  Does it matter?  See Caledonia: Scotia and Scotland before Scotland. Queen Scotia, Ireland. See also ://www.irishidentity.com/extras/places/stories/martello.htm/

Those Old Testament roots are also in a highly partisan account of Irish origins, the story that recurs, at ://www.ensignmessage.com/archives/redhand.html/  Are we looking at descendants of Hebrews, migrating through other places, including Spain, to Ireland. Anything that gives enjoyment is not to be discounted, and we find this idea enjoyable. And as explicable as anything else.