Semitic people
![The first depiction of historical ethnology of the world separated into the Biblical sons of Noah: Semitic, Hamitic and Japhetic, 1771, Gatterer's Einleitung in die Synchronistische Universalhistorie[1]](/Images/godic/202502/10/First_depiction_of_historical_ethnology_by_Semitic,_Hamitic_and_Japhetic,_1771,_Gatterer4528.jpg")
![This T and O map, from the first printed version of Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae, identifies the three known continents as populated by descendants of Sem (Shem), Iafeth (Japheth) and Cham (Ham).](/Images/godic/202502/10/T_and_O_map_Guntherus_Ziner_14724528.jpg")
![1879 statute of the Antisemitic League, the organization which first popularized the term](/Images/godic/202502/10/Statuten_der_Antisemiten-Liga4528.jpg")
The term Semitic people or Semitic cultures (from the biblical "Shem", Hebrew:שם) was a term for people or cultures who speak or spoke the Semitic languages. The term, together with the parallel terms Hamitic and Japhetic, is now obsolete.
According to some scholars the concept of Semitic ethnicity does not exist or should be avoided.