Bereishit יא (Genesis 11)
27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begot Avram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begot Lot. 28 And Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. 29 And Avram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Avram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milka, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milka, and the father of Yiska. 30 And Sarai was barren; she had no child. 31 And Terah took Avram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Avram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur-kasdim, to go into the land of Kena’an; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. 32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.
Although not specifically mentioned in the Tanakh, Ur Chasdim is identified as Abraham’s placed of birth.
Terach took his son Avram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai (Avram’s wife). With them, he left Ur-kasdim, heading toward the land of Kena’an. They came as far as Haran and settled there. (Bereishit 11:31)1
Various people have attempted to identify the location of Ur Chasdim throughout the centuries including Maimonides (Rambam) and Josephus. Maimonides spoke of Abraham being reared in Kutha which could then be associated as “Ur Chasdim” – the birthplace of Abraham.
Abraham was brought up in Kutha; when he differed from the people and declared that there is a Maker besides the sun, they raised certain objections, and mentioned in their arguments the evident and manifest action of the sun in the Universe. (Guide for the Perplexed 3:29)2
Kutha was an ancient Sumerian city on the eastern branch of the Upper Euphrates River about 25 miles northeast of Babylon.3
According to Josephus, Ur was located in the Chaldean territory and Haran was distant from Ur and not located in Chaldea.
Now Abram had two brethren, Nahor and Haran: of these Haran left a son, Lot; as also Sarai and Milcha his daughters; and died among the Chaldeans, in a city of the Chaldeans, called Ur; and his monument is shown to this day. These married their nieces. Nabor married Milcha, and Abram married Sarai. Now Terah hating Chaldea, on account of his mourning for Ilaran, they all removed to Haran of Mesopotamia, where Terah died, and was buried, when he had lived to be two hundred and five years old… (Antiquities of the Jews 1:6:5)4
Josephus locates the area of Chaldea near Babylon.
And Nicolaus of Damascus, in the fourth book of his History, says thus: “Abram reigned at Damascus, being a foreigner, who came with an army out of the land above Babylon, called the land of the Chaldeans… (Antiquities of the Jews 1:7:2)4
Josephus distinguishes the land of the Chaldeans (descendants of Arphaxad) from Syria (descendants of Aram) where Haran is located.
Shem, the third son of Noah, had five sons, who inhabited the land that began at Euphrates, and reached to the Indian Ocean. For Elam left behind him the Elamites, the ancestors of the Persians. Ashur lived at the city Nineve; and named his subjects Assyrians, who became the most fortunate nation, beyond others. Arphaxad named the Arphaxadites, who are now called Chaldeans. Aram had the Aramites, which the Greeks called Syrians… (Antiquities of the Jews 1:6:4)4
According to Josephus, Ur Chasdim is located in Southern Mesopotamia and not in Syria or Turkey as some others have stated.
Nachmanides (Ramban) declares that Ur Chasdim is in fact Abraham’s birthplace. Not only does he declare this to be his birthplace but Nachamnides places Ur Chasdim in the area of Aram-naharim in Mesopotamia based upon Bereishit 24:10.
[The] verse stating, “And I took your father Abraham from beyond the river and led him throughout all the land of Canaan [Yehoshua 24:3], should have stated, ‘And I took your father from Ur of the Chaldees and led him throughout all the land of Canaan,’ for it was from there that he was taken, and it was there that he was given [the command to get out of his country and from his birthplace – Bereishit 12:1]. (Commentary on the Torah – Lech Lecha)5
According to the Talmud, Ur is associated with the city Erech.
…Between the two there is [a distance] of one hundred parasangs and its circumference one thousand parasangs . And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar. ‘Babel’ in its usual sense; ‘Erech’ ‘ i.e. Urikath; ‘Accad’, i.e. Baskar;15 ‘Calneh’, i.e. Nupar — Ninpi. Out of that land went Ashur. (Babylonian Talmud – Yoma 10a)6
Uruk was the ancient name for Erech, a city in Chaldea (Kasdim, a region on the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf which was originally the southern part of Babylonia). This was near the city of Ur, the birthplace of Avraham, on the lower Euphrates River which was then on the Persian Gulf (before it receded).7
The apocryphal Book of Jubilees also implies that it is in Ur Chasdim that Abraham was born by linking the city “Ur” back to Abraham’s ancestor Serug (Sêrôḫ).
And in the thirty-fifth jubilee, in the third week, in the first year thereof, Reu took to himself a wife, and her name was ’Ôrâ, the daughter of ’Ûr, the son of Kêsêd, and she bare him a son, and he called his name Sêrôḫ, in the seventh year of this week in this jubilee. 2. And the sons of Noah began to war on each other, to take captive and to slay each other, and to shed the blood of men on the earth, and to eat blood, and to build strong cities, and walls, and towers, and individuals (began) to exalt themselves above the nation, and to found the beginnings of kingdoms, and to go to war people against people, and nation against nation, and city against city, and all (began) to do evil, and to acquire arms, and to teach their sons war, and they began to capture cities, and to sell male and female slaves. 3. And ’Ûr, the son of Kêsêd, built the city of ’Arâ of the Chaldees, and called its name after his own name and the name of his father. (Book of Jubilees 11:1-3)8
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1Aryeh Kaplan. The Living Torah. (New York: Moznaim Publishing Corporation, 1981).
2M. Friedlander (translator). The Guide for the Perplexed. (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1904). [http://sacred-texts.com/jud/gfp/index.htm]
3Wikipedia. Kutha. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kutha]
4William Whiston (translator). The Works of Flavius Josephus. (1737).
5Charles Chavel. Ramban: Commentary on the Torah (Genesis). (New York: Shilo Publishing House, Inc., 1971).
6I. Epstein Soncino Babylonian Talmud. (London: Soncino Press, 1949). [http://halakhah.com/pdf/moed/Yoma.pdf]
7Dafyomi Advancement Forum. Background on the Daily Daf – Yoma 10. [http://dafyomi.shemayisrael.co.il/yoma/backgrnd/yo-in-010.htm]
8R.H. Charles (translator). The Book of Jubilees. (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1917).