ABANA, or AMANA, (the former being the Kethib, or reading of the Hebrew text ; and the latter the Keri, or marginal reading,) the name of one of the rivers cited by Naaman (2 Kings v. 12.) as rivers of Damascus. The latter is probably the true name, signifying perennial ; the change of m into b being very common in the oriental dialects.

Interpreters have been much divided in regard to the streams probably designated by the names Abana and Pharpar. One of these undoubtedly is the present Barrada (the cold), the Chrysorrhoas of the ancients, which rises in Anti-Libanus and flows through Damascus. Just above the city it is divided into several branches, (some travelers say three, and others five,) which pass around the city on the out side, and afford water for the numerous gardens by which the city is surrounded ; while the main stream passes through and waters the city itself. Below the city they again mostly unite, and the river loses itself in a marsh a few miles S. E. from Damascus. The branches here mentioned are evidently artificial ; and if we now suppose that originally there were but livo branches in all, (the others being a work of later times,) these two branches may perhaps have been the Abana and Pharpar. — Another supposition, however, is more probable, viz. that one of the streams is the Barrada ; while the other, (perhaps the Anions, or perennial stream,) may be the little river Fijih, or Fege, which rises near the village of like name in a pleasant valley about 15 or 20 miles N. W. of Damascus. Dr. Richardson describes it as issuing at once from the limestone rock, a deep, rapid stream of about thirty feet wide. It is pure and cold as iced water, and after coursing down a rugged channel for above a hundred yards, falls into the Barrada, which comes from another valley, and is here only half as wide as the Fijih. Its waters, also, like those of the Jordan, have so white, sulphureous hue.