. Rawlin-son's proposal to identify it with the
town of Uru has been successively accepted by nearly all
Assyriologists. Sayce remarks that the worship of Sin, which
was common to both towns, established a natural link between
them, and that an inhabitant of Uru would have felt more at
home in Harran than in any other town.

**** The names of Sarah and Abraham, or rather the earlier
form, Abram, have been found, the latter under the form
Abiramu, in the contracts of the first Chaldaean empire.

And they came unto Kharan, and dwelt there, and Terakh died in Kharan.*
It is a question whether Kharan is to be identified with Harran in
Mesopotamia, the city of the god Sin; or, which is more probable, with
the Syrian town of Hauran, in the neighbourhood of Damascus. The tribes
who crossed the Euphrates became subsequently a somewhat important
people. They called themselves, or were known by others, as the 'Ibrim,
or Hebrews, the people from beyond the river;** and this appellation,
which we are accustomed to apply to the children of Israel only,
embraced also, at the time when the term was most extended, the
Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, Ishmaelites, Midianites, and many other
tribes settled on the borders of the desert to the east and south of the
Dead Sea.

* Gen. xi. 27-32. In the opinion of most critics, verses 27,
31 32 form part of the document which was the basis of the
various narratives still traceable in the Bible; it is
thought that the remaining verses bear the marks of a later
redaction, or that they may be additions of a later date.
The most important part of the text, that relating the
migration from Ur-Kashdim to Kharan, belongs, therefore, to
the very oldest part of the national tradition, and may be
regarded as expressing the knowledge which the Hebrews of
the times of the Kings possessed concerning the origin of
their race.

** The most ancient interpretation identified this nameless
river with the Euphrates; an identification still admitted
by most critics; others prefer to recognise it as being the
Jordan. Halevy prefers to identify it with one of the rivers
of Damascus, probably the Abana.

These peoples all traced their descent from Abraham, the son of Terakh,
but the children of Israel claimed the privilege of being the only
legitimate issue of his marriage with Sarah, giving