HAURAN (‘hollow land’). The district S.E. from Mt. Hermon; in particular the fertile basin, about 50 miles square and 2000 feet above sea-level, between the Jaulân and Lejâ . Only in Ezekiel 47:16; Ezekiel 47:18 is the name mentioned, and there as the ideal border of Canaan on the east. The modern Arabs call essentially the same district el-Hauran . The name occurs also in the ancient inscriptions of Assyria. In Græco-Roman times the same general region was known as Auranitis; it was bounded on the N. by Trachonitis, and on the N.W. by Gaulanitis and Batanæa. All these districts belonged to Herod the Great. Upon his death they fell to Philip ( Luke 3:1 ). Troglodytes doubtless once occupied the E. portion; it is now inhabited by Druzes. The entire territory is to-day practically treeless.
George L. Robinson.
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