Phut or Put (Hebrew: פּוּט Pūṭ; Septuagint Greek Φουδ Phoud) is the third son of Ham (one of the sons of Noah), in the biblical Table of Nations (Genesis 10:6; cf. 1 Chronicles 1:8). The name Put (or Phut) is used in the Bible for Ancient Libya, but a few scholars proposed the Land of Punt known from Ancient Egyptian annals.[1]
Epiphanius writes: "Thus Mistrem was allotted Egypt, Cush, Aethiopia, Put, Axum, Ragman and Sabteka and [Dedan, also called Judad], the region bordering on Garama."
Josephus writes: "Phut also was the founder of Libya, and called the inhabitants Phutites (Phoutes), from himself: there is also a river in the country of Moors which bears that name; whence it is that we may see the greatest part of the Grecian historiographers mention that river and the adjoining country by the appellation of Phut (Phoute): but the name it has now has been by change given it from one of the sons of Mezraim, who was called Lybyos."[2] Pliny the Elder[3] and Ptolemy[4] both place the river Phuth on the west side of Mauretania. Ptolemy also mentions a city Putea in Libya (iv.3.39).
A Libyan connection has likewise been inferred from Nahum 3:9, where it is said that "Put and Lubim" were the helpers of Egypt. Other biblical verses consistently refer to the descendants of Put as warriors. In Jeremiah 46:9, they are again described as being supporters of Egypt. Ezekiel mentions them three times: in 27:10, as supporters of Tyre (Phoenicia), in 30:5 again as supporting Egypt, and in 38:5, as supporters of Gog. The Hebrew Bible substitutes Put in Ezekiel where the Septuagint Greek (LXX) refers to Libues. However, the Hebrew reads Pul in Isaiah 66:19, in place of Put in the LXX.
The Libyan tribe of pỉdw shows up in Egyptian records by the 22nd dynasty, while a Ptolemaic text from Edfu refers to the t3 n nꜣ pỉt.w "the land of the Pitu". The word was later written in Demotic as Pỉt, and as Phaiat in Coptic, a name for Libya Aegypti, northwestern Egypt.
A fragment of Nebuchadnezzar II's annals mentions his campaign in 567 in Egypt, and defeating the soldiers of Pu-ṭu-ia-a-man, i.e. Greek Libya (Cyrene). A multilingual stele from al-Kabrīt, dating to the reign of Darius I refers to the Put as the province of Putāya (Old Persian) and Puṭa (Neo-Babylonian), where the equivalent text written in Egyptian has tꜣ ṯmḥw "Libya".
Historians such as Delafosse believe that the Nomadic Fulani tribe of Southern North Africa, West Africa and Sahel may be descendants of Phut due to the lingual derivations (Peul, Pullo, Fula, Fouta) as well as historical evidence of Fulani nomads in ancient Libya.