Midian (/ˈmɪdiən/; Hebrew: מִדְיָן, romanized: Mīḏyān; Arabic: مَدْيَن, romanized: Madyan; Ancient Greek: Μαδιάμ, romanized: Madiám; Taymanitic: 𐪃𐪕𐪚𐪌, romanized: MDYN) was a son of Abraham and his wife Keturah, as well as the epynomous ancestor of the Midianites. The name also refers to a geographical region in West Asia mentioned in the Tanakh and the Quran. William G. Dever states that biblical Midian was in the "northwest Arabian Peninsula, on the east shore of the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea", an area which contained at least 14 inhabited sites during the Late Bronze and early Iron Ages.
Traditionally, knowledge about Midian and the Midianites' existence was based solely upon Biblical and classical sources, but in 2010 a reference to Midian was identified in a Taymanitic inscription dated to before the 9th century BC.