AURAN (Heb. Hăurăn). — Northern region of Transjordan, of volcanic origin, bounded by Damascus to the north, the Jordan and the Lake of Genesareth to the west, the tributary Jarmuk to the south, and the Syrian desert to the east. The name is preserved today in the Gebel Hăurăn (“Selmon” of the Bible, Ps. 67 [68], 15). A. corresponds almost entirely to the region more Scripture (v.). In Ex. 47:16, 18, it is mentioned as the north-eastern boundary of the new and symbolic Promised Land.
Devastated several times by the Assyrians, it subsequently passed under Seleucid, Nabataean, and Roman rule. Under the Romans (1st cent. B.C.) it was divided into four parts: Gaulanitis to the west, Batanea in the centre, Trachonitis to the north-east, and Auranitis (enclosing the Gebel Hăurăn) to the south-east. In 23 B.C. Herod obtained Auranitis, Trachonitis, and Batanea from Rome; after his death these territories, together with Gaulanitis, passed to his son Philip the “tetrarch,” and in A.D. 53 Philip’s tetrarchy was given to Herod Agrippa II. In 106 all these various territories formed the Roman province of Arabia, with Bostra as its capital, until the Muslim conquest (7th cent.). Meanwhile Christianity had developed intensely throughout A. During the Hellenistic-Roman period the principal cities, Bostra (v.), Canatha (today Qanawāt), and Soada (today Sueida), were adorned with fine monuments, whose remains still arouse admiration today: paved roads, triumphal arches, baths, nymphaea, theatres, pagan temples, and later Byzantine Christian basilicas and monasteries.