The Amalekites were progenitors of separate Arab tribes. The Amalekites had at least a partial seat at Petra and the country about tbe head of the Red Sea till near the year 700 B.C., when they were driven thence probably in a southern direction. Mahometan legend speaks of Amalekite tribes as the earliest inhabitants both of Medina and Mecca, and of the country lying to the south of Syria. Many associate the Amalekites with the lesser Hyksos invasion of Avaris in Egypt. The greater hyksos were supposed to have founded the Greek empire while the Trojan refugees under Aeneas founded Rome.
