GOZAN (V ; Sept. rc4,:iv), a province or dis trict of Assyria. Ptolemy, in his description of Media, mentions a town called Gauzania (Geogr. vi. 2) situated between the Zagros motmtains and the Caspian Sea. Bochart, Rennell, and others, have attempted to identify this town with Gozan (Bochart, opp. i. 194). Rennell further states, that the river Gozan (t Chron. v. 26) is the modern .Kizi/ Ozen, which rises near Sinna in the eastem part of the Zagros chain, and, after a winding course, joins the Sefid-rud, which flows into the Caspian (Geography of Herodotus, p. 521, 2d ed.; see also Ritter, Ere/kande, viii, 615; Sir Ker Porter, Travels, i. 267). This theory, however, places Gozan too far east for the requirements of the Scripture narrative. Dr. Grant supposes that the word Gown signifies 'pasture,' and is the as tne modem Gozan, the name given by the Nestorians to all the Highlands of Assyria which afford pasturage to their flocks. He thinks that the ancient province of Gozan embraced the mountainous region east of the Tigris, through which the Khabfir and the Zab flow (Nestorian Christians, p. 125, sq.) A close examination of the notices in Scripture, and a comparison of them with the Geography of Ptolemy and modern researches, enable us to fix, with a high degree of probability, the true position of Gozan. It appears from 2 Kings xvii. 6 (also xviii. II), that Gozan was in Assyria, which is there distinguished from Media; and that Habor was a river of Gozan.' There can be little doubt that the Habor is identical with the Kliabfir ot Mesopotamia (HAD0R). Gozan must, therefore,
have been in Mesopotamia. The words of 2 Kings xix. 12 appear to confirm this view, for there Gozan and Haran are grouped together, and we know that Haran is in Mesopotamia. (See also Is. XXXVii. 12; Rawlinson's Ancient Monar chies, i. 245, sq.) In Chron. v. 26, Gozan is called a river, and is distinguished from Habor. The explanation seems to be, that in this passage Habor is the name of a district, probably that watered by the lower Ehabdr ; while the upper part of the same river,. flowing through the pro vince of Gozan, is called in) the river of Gozan.' Ptolemy states that Gausanitir was one of the provinces of Mesopotamia adjoining Chalcitis (Geogr. v. 18). The same province Strabo calls Alygdonia (xvi. t), which may probably be, as suggested by Professor Rawlinson, another form of the same name (Ancient Monarchies, i. 245). As we find Halah, Habor, and Haran, grouped together in Mesopotamia; as we find beside them a province called Gausanitis; and as in Scripture Gozan is always mentioned in connection with the above places, we may safely conclude that Gozan. and Gausanitis are identical. Gausanitis lay along the southern declivities of Mons Masius, and extended over the region watered by the upper Klabfir and Jerujer rivers to the ranges of Sinjar and Hamma. The greater part of it is an undu lating plain, having a poor soil and scanty vegeta tion. (Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 324.)— J. L. P.