Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/385

Rh is a great scarcity owing to the want of wood in the neighbourhood, is imported from Sewrek and Room-Kala on the Euphrates.

Urfah, I believe, is generally acknowledged to occupy the site of Ur of the Chaldees, the reputed birth-place of Abraham. It is styled "Urhoi" in all the ancient Syrian MSS., and the remains of a church dedicated to "Mar Yacoob Urhoyo," (S. James of Ur,) are still to be seen on a hill to the south-west of the town. By the Arabs it was called Raha, or Er-Raha, which owes its etymology to the same root, and by which name it is still known to the Bedooeen. This fact, together with the existence of Harran twenty-five miles to the south, and the plains of Serooj to the north-west, names evidently derived from the patriarchs, the former the brother, and the latter the great grandfather, of Abraham, (see Gen. xi. 22, 27,) go to prove that the whole of this district was comprehended within the limits of ancient Chaldea. It is somewhat singular, moreover, that the Mohammedans have placed the residence of Job in this vicinity, which they evidently do from their tradition attached to the Bir Ayyoob. Job, as we know, dwelt among a people called Sabeans and Chaldeans, (Job i. 15, 17) who destroyed part of his household, and plundered him of his flocks and herds. In connection with this subject it is interesting to find that there are no less than 4,000 Yezeedee families scattered among the 360 Coordish villages of the Serooj, and, as we have already had occasion to state, no less than twice that number in the district between Urfah and Sewrek. The continuance of this sect here, and the connection of some of their doctrines and rites with Sabianism and Magism is another corroborative proof that the whole of this region originally formed a part of the Chaldea of the Bible. It was not my lot to fall in with any of the Yezeedees about Urfah, but I am assured that those near Mosul, the head-quarters of the sect, and the seat of their Sheikh, know little of them; and I am inclined to believe that a careful investigation might result in bringing to light some important differences between the separate communities both as regards language and religion. I deem it not improbable that those of this district have retained in greater purity the doctrines of ancient Sabianism, since according to Gibbon there was a temple