and finally, the primary mountain-chain (ὄρη μέλανα) extending from Faray to Râs Mohammed to Judæa, therefore to the N.E. instead of the S.E. From all this it is clear that the place Pharan of Ptolemy is identical with the recognised Pharan in the Wadi Firân, and the φοινικών of Artemidorus and Strabo. And it is less to be doubted that also the Pharan of Eusebius (s. v. Ῥαφιδίμ) and Jerome, which is expressly (s. v. φαράν) called _a city_ (πόλις, _oppidum_), and is placed at the distance of three days’ journey from Aila,--was the city in Wadi Firân, although by a confusion with the Biblical desert of Paran it is added, that the Israelites had returned by this Pharan on their return from Sinai (c. f. Ritter, p. 740). According to the treatise of the monk Ammonius (_Illustr. Chr. Martyr, lecti triumphi ed. Combefis, Paris_, 1660,--whose history, undoubtedly fictitious, refers to A.D. 370, but can in no case be used as a historical authority for that time, but seems to rest on some passages of the romance of Nilus, and to have been written for a like praiseworthy purpose,--the city of Pharan was converted to _Christianity_ in the middle of the fourth century, by the monk Moses, a native of the city. By Nilus, placed at about 390, but concerning whose era and writings much uncertainty exists, a Christian council (βουλή) of the city of Pharan is mentioned (Nili app. quædam, 1539, 4to.) Soon after, from the first half of the fifth century, Le Quien, but certainly from sources of very different value (_Oriens. Christ._, vol. iii., p. 571), cites a series of bishops of Pharan, who can be followed up into the middle of the twelfth century (_vide Reland, Palæst_, vol. ii., p. 220). The monks of the mountains were all subjected to these bishops.