Genesis 10:29 names him as a son of Yoktan (יקטן) in the family of Shem.
A region abounding in gold, the sailors of Shelomoh (Solomon) went there with the Phoenicians and brought back gold, precious stones and sandal wood (1 Kings 9:28, 2 Chronicles 8:18, Job 28:16, Psalm 45:10, Isaiah 13:12 et al), plus ivory, silver, apes, peacocks. Gesenius has a long discussion of where it really is. Josephus believed it was a name for India, and it does indeed closely resemble the Coptic name for India.
Amongst the many interesting places where "scholars" have placed the mysterious land, early Spanish explorers thought it was Zimbabwe, and Milton in "Paradise Lost" (11:399-401) thought it was Mozambique. Some have suggested Carthage, because the Romans called Carthage Afri, and that this then led to the continent being named Africa. As these become ever more absurd, let us consider the view of Benito Arias Montano (1571), who believed that Peru was a modern pronunciation of Ophir, and the province of Iucatan was his father, Yoktan (and the odd part of it is, he may actually have been half-right, and the return of the expelled Jews to England under Cromwell is not unconnected either! Honestly.). Then there is Abhira, on the Indus river in Pakistan...
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