BASAN, (anc. geog.), a territory beyond Jordan, mentioned in scripture. By Josephus, Eusebius, and Jerom, it is called Butanea. On the entering of the Israelites into the land of Canaan, the whole of the country beyond Jordan, from that of the Moabites, or Arabia, as far as mount Hermon and Lebanon, was divided into two kingdoms, viz. that of Sihon king of the Amorites, and of Og king of Basan or Basan; the former to the south, and the latter to the north. The kingdom of Sihon extended from the river Arnon and the country of Moab, to the river Jabbok; which running in an oblique course from the east, was at the same time the boundary of the Ammonites, as appears from Numb. xxi. 24. and Deuter. ii. 37. and iii. 16. The kingdom of Sihon fell to the lot of the Reubenites and Gadites, and Basan to the half-tribe of Manasseh. To this was annexed a part of the hilly country of Gilead, and the district of Argob; yet so that Basan continued to be the principal and greatest part; but, after the Babylonish captivity, Basan was subdivided;
Basartschick vided; so that only a part was called Batana, or Basan, another Trachonitis, a third Aurunitis, or Iturea, and some part also Gaulonitis; but to settle the limits of each of these parts is a thing now impossible.—Basan was a country famous for its pastures and breed of large cattle.