Page 106 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

centuries as the patriarchal founder of two great races, that he
was to be khalilullah, the Friend of God.
His father, Terah, would have a house down in the karum,
as had most of the wealthier Amorites. But his spiritual home,

and his actual home for much of the year, was in the tents of his
tribe in the western desert. Abram, too, had spent almost every
winter and spring of his short life in the tents, and following the

A MIDDLE-CLASS HOUSE OF UR AT THE TIME OF ABRAHAM (AFTER
ROUX). THE ROOMS OPEN OUT FROM A CENTRAL COURTYARD OPEN
TO THE SKY AND WITH A DRAIN IN THE CENTER.

sheep and goats, and the pack asses, on the long migrations up
the Euphrates valley and across to the Mediterranean. For the
Amorites were not only herdsmen but traders, and in their hands

lay the overland trade from the Lower Sea to the Upper.
Their monopoly of the caravan routes was bringing them
much wealth. Ur was the principal port of entry for all the wealth

of the east. Down in the karum, not far from the caravanserai
where the ass trains were gathered for the desert journeys, lay the