Ashkenazite Nation
This is a nation associated with the Ararat area; Jeremiah 51:27. In Talmudic sources, it is rendered as Asia (Targum Yonathan; Targum on 1 Chronicles 1:6; Yerushalmi, Megillah 1:9). In ancient times, besides denoting the entire continent, Asia also referred to what is now the western part of Asiatic Turkey, bordering on the Aegean Sea. However, there was also a tribe of Asies living in the area of Sardis (the modern Sart), the capital of Lydia (Herodotus 4:45). Both are the same area.
Josephus, on the other hand, says that the Ashkenazites are the Reginians. Some associate this with Rhegium (the modern Regga), on the tip of the Italian peninsula (cf. Herodotus 1:167). However, there was also a Rhagae or Rages that was a major city in Medea (cf. Tobit 4:1). This was a bit south of the present Teheran, due south of the Caspean sea (cf. Arukh HaShalem, s.v. Asia). The Medes indeed were known to descend from the race of the Achemenids (Herodotus 7:61).
More logical, however, would be to associate the 'Reginia' of Josephus with Regnum Polemonis, to the south-east of the Black Sea, immediately in the Ararat area. The 'Asia' mentioned in Talmudic sources could then be Amasia, a city in that area.
By the tenth century, the term Ashkenaz was used to refer to Germany (Siddur Rav Amram Gaon). This may be because, as we have seen, Gomer, the father of Ashkenaz, was associated with 'Germania.' But according to this, the 'Reginia' mentioned in Josephus may have been the Rennus or Rhine area. There are other sources that relate Ashkenaz to the Ashkuza mentioned in ancient writings, or to the Scythians.
