The Bible calls him "our spiritual faith." Archaeology knows him as literally impossible to trace. History calls him the father of monotheism and originator of a great battle--spanning centuries--for pride and a little place: the land of Israel.
Abraham was born Abram, son of Terah, at the beginning of the second millennium BC in Ur, the capital of Mesopotamia at the height of its splendor as a highly developed ancient world. According to Jewish tradition, he was the son of an idol maker and smashed all of his fathers idols--except one--in a story that foreshadows his devotion to one God. The Koran tells of a time when Abram confronts his father about his idol worship and is condemned to burn in a furnace by King Nimrod of Babylon, but God protected him. His family left Ur--in modern day Iraq--to travel northwest along the trade route and the Euphrates River to the city of Haran. Abram settled down in Haran--in modern day Israel--with his family. He married Sarai and entered into a lifelong partnership with her. At the time, Haran--as well as all the neighboring cities and countries--was a land devoted to polytheism.
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