Jethro is a man the Israeli patriarch Moses met in the desert after he from being emotionally upset after seeing his fellow Israelites being oppressed by Egyptians in the Egyptian delta called Goshen killed an Egyptians. Moses then fled east from Egypt to the Sinai or northern Arabia. This was where the Midianites lived. Jethro also lived with his family in this desert east of Egypt. Moses when fleeing Egypt met Jethro as recorded in the book of Exodus and even married Jethro's daughter Zipporah. Moses' encountered and interacted with Jethro and his family in Exodus chapters 3, 4 and 18. The genealogy of the Midianites is found in God's word - the Holy Bible in Genesis 25:1-4 as follows:
Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim. And the sons of Midian; Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. Genesis 25:1-4
There are some indications in current or previous place names in north western Saudi Arabia that that area was formerly and could still be for some of the residents there the main part of their territory. One indication is that much of that area from the Gulf of Aqaba on the Arabian side down to about where the major Saudi city of Medina is is called Madyan such as in the Rand McNally New Century World Atlas in the map featuring Saudi Arabia. Somewhat further back in history, up to the time of the founder of Islam, Mohammed, Medina was called Yathrib. I have wondered for a long time if the name Yathrib was related to Jethro, especially since Jethro is spelled with a beginning y in romanized Hebrew. One book that mentioned this possible association of the name Yathrib for the former name of Medina in Saudi, Arabia and the biblical Old Testament figure Jethro the Midianite in the time of Moses is a book by Richard Burton called Five Books of Exploration and Travel. (Up to the time of Mohammed, at least for several centuries, Yathrib, now Medina, had a substantial and thriving Jewish or possible Arab converts to Judaism living there. I also found that Yathrib was called Iatribu by the Babylonians such as mentioned on page 386 of the book Ancient Iraq by Georges Roux published by Penguin Books and Latrippa or Iatrippa by the ancient Greeks such as Ptolomy such as mentioned by on the note on page 145 of the book The History of Al-Tabari, the Sassanids, and the Lakhmdids and Yemen and Yathrib called Athribis by Jews who moved there according to a book A Social and Religious History of the Jews High Middle Age 500-1200 AD Columbia University Press and that is probably called Darum in Hebrew including sometimes in the Old Testament. Darum means south or south wind that would include from the area of Yathrib or Medina as far as the direction the wind or people etc. come from from Yathrib or Medina to Israel from page 3 under the section Hijaz and Darum in the book Jews in Islamic Countries in the Middle Ages by Mose Gil. There was a caravan route since ancient times from Sheba in southern Arabia through Mecca and Medina (Yathrib or Darum) to Damascus, Syria on one branch or into Israel on another branch. A biblical reference to the land south of Israel that could include the areas of northern Arabia down to Yathrib (Medina) is in Ecclesiastes 1 as follows:
The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. Ecclesiastes 1:6
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