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REFERENCES TO UR KAśDIM IN JEWISH TEXTS Ur Kaśdim is mentioned four times in the '' 9:7, a single passage mentioning Ur Kaśdim is a paraphrase of ''Genesis.'' Although not explicitly stated in the Tanakh it is generally understood to be the place where Abraham was born. ( Genesis 11:27-31 names it as the birthplace of Abraham's brother Haran, and the point of departure of Abraham's family.) The '' Book Of Jubilees '' states that Ur Kaśdim was founded in 1687 '' Anno Mundi '' (year of the world) by 'Ur son of Keśed, presumably the offspring of Arphaxad , adding that in this same year, wars began on Earth. :"And 'Ur, the son of Keśed, built the city of 'Ara of the Chaldees, and called its name after his own name and the name of his father. (ie, ''Ur Kaśdim = Ur of the Keśeds'')" (''Jubilees'' 11:3) It also represents Abraham's immediate ancestors as dwelling in Ur Kaśdim beginning with his great-grandfather, Serug. IDENTIFICATION OF UR KAśDIM Jewish sources say very little about the location of Ur Kaśdim. In (Ramban). (See Ramban on ''Lech Lecha'' .) This understanding of the term ''moladet'' as "birthplace" is not universally agreed; most translations, from the Septuagint to modern English versions, typically render it as "kindred" or "family". In this case, the verses in question provide no information on the birthplace. The (modern Warka ) or Biblical Erech with Ur Kaśdim. However no tradition exists equating Ur Kaśdim with Urichus and the latter is understood by modern scholars as a reference to Uruk which is indeed identified with Erech. The traditional site of Abraham's birth according to Islamic tradition is a cave in the vicinity of the ancient Seleucid city of Edessa . Today the cave lies near the centre of the modern city of Sanli Urfa and is the site of a mosque called the Mosque of Abraham. The Turkish name ''Urfa'' for the city is derived form earlier Syriac ܐܘܪܗܝ, Orhāy and Greek Ορρα, Orrha. The tradition connecting Ur Kaśdim with the site is not exclusively Islamic, the 18th century anthropologist Richard Pococke noted in his ''Description of the East'', that it was the universal opinion of the Jews that Urfa was Ur Kaśdim. Scholars are skeptical of the identification of Ur Kaśdim with Urfa. Although the origin of the Greek and Syriac names of the city are uncertain, they appear to be based on a native form, ''Osroe'', the name of a legendary founder, the Armenian form of the Persian name Khosrau ( Chosroes ). Similarity with "Ur" would thus be accidental. mentions ''Hur'' lying five stations from Nisibis on the way to Persia, apparently the same location, and she does identify it with Ur Kaśdim. However, the castle in question was only founded during the time of the Second Persian Empire . which in turn quotes a passage in ''Concerning the Jews of Assyria'' by the second century BCE historian Eupolemus which claimed that Abraham was born in the Babylonian city Camarina which it notes was also called "Uria". (Such indirect quotations of Eupolemus via Polyhistor are referred to as '' Pseudo-Eupolemus ''.) This site is identified with the Sumerian city of Ur located at Tell el-Mukayyar which in ancient texts was named ''Uriwa'' or ''Urima'' and later ''Uru''. Ur was the sacred city of the moon god and the name "Camarina" is thought to be related to the Arabic word for moon ''qamar''. The identification with Ur Kaśdim accords with the view that Abraham's ancestors may have been moon-worshippers, an idea based on the possibility that the name of Abraham's father Terah is related to the Hebrew root for moon (''y-r-h''). Jewish tradition relates however that Terah worshipped many gods and the argument along this line remains weak. Ur lay on the boundary of the region called ''Kaldu'' (Chaldea, corresponding to Hebrew ''Kaśdim'') in the first millennium BCE and the site remains the most popular identification of Ur Kaśdim amongst scholars. REFERENCES AND EXTERNAL LINKS
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