Found this book(The Historical Geography of Arabia) which locates Ophir in Oman
https//books.google.com.au/books?id=k2IsGkCgLgwC&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&dq=ophir+oman&source=bl&ots=Ta_QItApMk&sig=j95pm2unM_A48m8I1kLnQ3JnzS4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOtLONs57NAhWEUZQKHfd8AnYQ6AEIQzAH#v=onepage&q=ophir%20oman&f=false
Ophir. ? The connection indicated, in the
passage just cited, between Sheba and Ophir,
naturally suggests the inference, at the outset,
that they were neighbouring countries an in
ference materially strengthened by the con
sideration, that the name of Ophir stands next,
also, to that of Sheba, in the Mosaic catalogue
of the sons of Joktan. And since, accord
ing to all ancient authorities, the kingdom of
the Joktanite Sabeans appears to have extended
across the south of the Arabian peninsula, from
the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb to the mountains
of Oman, Ophir, which the naval expedition of
Solomon argues to have lain beyond, or east
ward, of Sheba, and in the vicinity of the sea,
antecedently of proof might be sought, with
every verisimilitude, in the direction of the coast
of Oman a quarter of Arabia, we have elsewhere
seen, inhabited largely by other Joktanite tribes.
The contradictory opinions of the learned, who
alternately transport the Ophir of the Old Testa
ment to Africa, or to India, to the coast of Sofala,
or the island of Ceylon , rest wholly on the plea
in which they altogether originated, that the
name and dwelling-place of Ophir are no where
to be found, among the settlements of his brethren
in Arabia.Consequently, if we recover, in an
appropriate part of the peninsula, not only the
name and seat of this patriarch, but his name and
seat in unquestionable connection with an old
and famous Arabian mart of gold, specious learned
theories must at once give way, before conclusive
historical facts. With this view, the attention
of the reader is invited to the following plain,
though hitherto unnoticed facts ; the result of
the writer's researches upon a question of sacred
geography so interesting in itself, and which has
so long divided the learned world.
The intrinsic value of these facts, together with
their force as an argument, may be best brought
out by a simple statement of the process of
investigation. Satisfied, by the whole analogy of
the case, that Ophir had settled among his
brethren in Southern Arabia, and sanctioned, by
the Scripture narrative of the Queen of Sheba, in
the opinion that his settlements lay somewhere
to the east of that famous kingdom, it caused me
no surprise to find the scepticism of preceding
writers, as to the existence of the name in
Arabia*, confuted on my first reference to
authorities in every body's hands, the maps of
Sale and d'Anville ; where, as indeed in all our
modern maps, " Ofor or Ofir" appears, as the
name of a city and district in the mountains of
Oman, seated on their eastern side, near the
sources of the Oman river, and within about a
degree, or a degree and a quarter, of the coast.
On reference to Ptolemy, it further came to light,
that the mountain district in question was, in his
time, inhabited by the Kottabani, or Beni Kahtan
or Joktanf ; a tribe expressly contradistin-guished,
by this geographer, from their neigh
bours of the same stock, the Jerachaei, or Beni
Jerah, and the Darrae, or Beni Hadoram, . . . the
former adjoining the Kottabani on the north, the
latter extending southward of them to his Corodamum
promontorium, or Ras al Had ; and whom
the existing name of their town and district
seems very plainly to designate as the descendants
of the Joktanite Ophir. But the probable con
clusion formed on these grounds, was most un
expectedly advanced towards certainty by the
subsequent discovery, that the adjoining coast of
Oman, lying due east under Ofir, was still cele
brated, in the time of the elder Pliny, for its
traffic in native gold.
When laying down the ancient geography of
Oman, after the minutely accurate delineations
of this great naturalist, my attention was arrested
by the mention of a gold coast, . . . littus Hammceum
ubi auri metalla. On reference to my
MS. map, it appeared, that its previous adjust
ments of Pliny's localities very exactly concurred
with the obvious agreement of the two names,
to identify his littus Hammceum with the town
and coast of Maham, lying between the Oman and
Thamar rivers, opposite to the isles of Sohar, and
due east of Ofir. This identification was noted
down, accordingly, in the classical map; whichwas
actually in the hands of the engraver, before
a passage of Niebuhr fell under my observation,
containing demonstrative proof, arising from the
physical character of this iron-bound coast, that
the littus Hammaeum of Pliny can be no other
than the strand or shore of Maham ; the entire
coast of Om&n, from Cape Mussendom to Cape
Ras al Had, being mountainous to the water's
edge, with the exception of one day's journey,
between the towns of Sib and Sohar, at the
mouths of the two rivers discharging themselves
near these towns * ; in other words, with the ex
ception of the strand, in the centre of which is
seated the town of Maham, and which is thus
physically, as well as etymologically, proved to
be the littus Hammaeum ubi auri metalla .
Before we take leave of the settlements of
Ophir, it may be well, on a question so long at
issue, briefly to resume the chief points of the
proof through which we have just passed. 1. The
recovery of the name of Ophir, as that of a town
and district of Southern Arabia, in the midst of
other Joktanite settlements, is a strong pre
sumption in favour of the inference, that the dis
trict so named had been peopled by that patriarch.
2. This natural inference is corroborated by the
testimony of Ptolemy, who places the Kottabani,
or Beni Joktan, in the mountains of Ophir.
3. The position of this mountain district, beyond
the kingdom of Sabea, in the direction of the
eastern coast, tallies most accurately, with the
scriptural accounts of the expedition planned by
Solomon, and with the manner in which the
sacred recorders of that expedition connect Ophir
with Sheba. 4. A mountain district, communi
cating, as the modern Ofir does, by a river with
the sea, presents the character of country most
favourable to the production of gold. 5.
Theactual existence of gold, in this neighbourhood,
as a staple article of traffic, so late as the com
mencement of the Christian era, is proved beyond
controversy by the unexceptionable testimony of
Pliny.From these collective premises may unpresumptuously
be drawn the conclusions, 1. that
the Ofor of Sale and d'Anville, a town and dis
trict in the mountains of Oman west of the coast
of Maham, is the Ophir of the Old Testament
2. that the littus Hammaeum ubi auri metalla, or
Gold Coast mentioned by Pliny, was the true
term of the famous voyage, in the reign of So
lomon, from Ezion-geber, or Akaba, at the head
of the gulf of Elah 3. and, lastly, that this
Ophir or Ofor, the country of the Kottabani of
Ptolemy, one of the many tribes known generically
in Arabia by the denomination of Beni Kahtan
or Kahtanys, was the primitive and proper seat
of the family of Ophir, the son of Joktan, which,
like so many other districts denominated from
the brethren of this patriarch, still preserves, at
the presentday, the name and memory of their
father.
