(anc. geog.), a village between Egypt and Arabia Petraea; or, according to Ptolemy, at a promontory situated between the Sinus Heroopolites and Eilatites of the Red Sea; where Ishmael is said to have dwelt. In Hebrew it is Paran, and in most interpreters Pharan, Septuagint and Vulgate, Pharanite, the people (Ptolemy.) Paran or Pharum, the name of the wilderness in its neighbourhood, adjoining to Kadesh.