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Babylon

Babylon

Babylon is the Greek variant of Akkadian Babilu, an ancient city in Mesopotamia (Location: , modern Al Hillah, Iraq). It was the "holy city" of Babylonia from early times, and the seat of the Neo-Babylonian empire from 612 BC. In the Hebrew Bible, the name appears as בבל (Babel), interpreted by popular etymology to mean "confusion". Akkadian bāb-ilû means "Gate of God", translating Sumerian Kadingirra.

History

The earliest mention of Babylon is in a dated tablet of the reign of Sargon of Akkad (24th century BC short chr.), who made it the capital of his empire. Over the years its power and population waned. From around the 20th century BC, it was occupied by Amorites (nomadic Semitic tribes), flooding southern Mesopotamia from the the west, until it became the capital of Hammurabi's empire (ca. 18th century BC). From that time onward, it continued to be the capital of Babylonia, though during the 440 years of domination by the Kassites (1595-1155 BC), the city was renamed "Karanduniash". The city itself was built upon the Euphrates, and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods. Babylon grew in extent and grandeur over time, but gradually became subject to the rule of Assyria.

Assyrian period

Assyria During the reign of Sennacherib of Assyria, Babylonia was in a constant state of revolt, led by Mushezib-Marduk, and suppressed only by the complete destruction of the city of Babylon. In 689 BC, its walls, temples and palaces were razed to the ground, and the rubbish thrown into the Arakhtu, the canal bordering the earlier Babylon on the south. This act shocked the religious conscience of Mesopotamia; the subsequent murder of Sennacherib was held to be in expiation of it, and his successor Esarhaddon hastened to rebuild the old city, to receive there his crown, and make it his residence during part of the year. On his death, Babylonia was left to his elder son Shamash-shum-ukin, who eventually headed a revolt against his brother Assurbanipal. Once again, Babylon was besieged by the Assyrians and starved into surrender. Assurbanipal purified the city and celebrated a "service of reconciliation", but did not venture to "take the hands" of Bel. In the subsequent overthrow of the Assyrian empire, the Babylonians saw another example of divine vengeance. On the fall of Nineveh (612 BC), Babylon threw off the Assyrian yoke, and became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian empire. Egypt had had a very large cultural influence prior to this, until the Babylonians defeated the Egyptians at the Battle of Carchemish and thus removed them as a major world empire. With the recovery of Babylonian independence under Nabopolassar a new era of architectural activity ensued, and his son Nebuchadrezzar II made Babylon into one of the wonders of the ancient world.

Beautification of Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar II

Nebuchadrezzar II It was under the rule of king Nebuchadnezzar II (605 BC-562 BC) that Babylon became one of the most splendid cities of the ancient world. Nebuchadnezzar ordered the complete reconstruction of the imperial grounds, including rebuilding the Etemenanki ziggurat and the construction of the Ishtar Gate -- the most spectacular of eight gates that ringed the perimeter of Babylon. The Ishtar Gate survives today in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. Nebuchadnezzar is also credited with the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world), said to have been built for his homesick wife Amyitis. Whether the gardens did exist is a matter of dispute. Although excavations by German archaeologist Robert Koldewey are thought to reveal its foundations, many historians disagree about the location, and some believe it may have been confused with gardens in Nineveh.

Babylon under the Persians

After passing through various vicissitudes, the city was occupied in 538 BC by Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, who issued a decree permitting the Jews to return to their own land (Ezra 1). Under Cyrus and his heir Darius I, Babylon became a center of learning and scientific advancement. Babylonian scholars completed maps of constellations, and created the foundations of modern astronomy and mathematics. However, during the reign of Darius III, Babylon began to stagnate and degenerate.

Hellenic period

In 331 BC, Darius III was defeated by the forces of the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great at the battle of Gaugamela, and in October, Babylon saw its own invasion and occupation. A native account of this invasion notes a ruling by Alexander not to enter the homes of its inhabitants. Under Alexander, Babylon again flourished as a center of learning and commerce. But following Alexander’s mysterious death in 323 BC in the palace of Nebuchadrezzar, his empire was divided amongst his generals, and decades of fighting soon began, with Babylon once again caught in the middle. The constant turmoil virtually emptied the city of Babylon. A tablet dated 275 BC states that the inhabitants of Babylon were transported to Seleucia, where a palace was built, as well as a temple given the ancient name of E-Saggila. With this deportation, the history of Babylon comes practically to an end, though more than a century later, it was found that sacrifices were still performed in its old sanctuary. By 141 BC, when the Parthian Empire took over the region, Babylon was in complete desolation and obscurity.

Archaeology of Babylon

Historical knowledge of Babylon's topography is derived from classical writers, the inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar, and several excavations, including those of the Deutsche Orientgesellschaft begun in 1899. The layout is that of the Babylon of Nebuchadrezzar; the older Babylon destroyed by Sennacherib having left few, if any, traces behind. 1899 1899 Most of the existing remains lie on the east bank of the Euphrates, the principal ones being three vast mounds: the Babil to the north, the Qasr or "Palace" (also known as the Mujelliba) in the centre, and the Ishgn "Amran ibn" All, with the outlying spur of the Jumjuma, to the south. East of these come the Ishgn el-Aswad or "Black Mound" and three lines of rampart, one of which encloses the Babil mound on the N. and E. sides, while a third forms a triangle with the S.E. angle of the other two. West of the Euphrates are other ramparts, and the remains of the ancient Borsippa. We learn from Herodotus and Ctesias that the city was built on both sides of the river in the form of a square, and was enclosed within a double row of lofty walls, or a triple row according to Ctesias. Ctesias describes the outermost wall as 360 stades (42 miles/68 km) in circumference, while according to Herodotus it measured 480 stades (56 miles/90 km), which would include an area of about 520 km² (approx. 200 square miles). The estimate of Ctesias is essentially the same as that of Q. Curtius (v. I. 26) -- 368 stades -- and Cleitarchus (ap. Diod. Sic. ii. 7) -- 365 stades; Strabo (xvi. 1. 5) makes it 385 stades. But even the estimate of Ctesias, assuming the stade to be its usual length, would imply an area of about 260 km² (100 square miles). According to Herodotus, the width of the walls was 24 m (80 ft). Saddam Hussein installed a huge portrait of himself and Nebuchadrezzar at the entrance to the ruins. He also had part of the ruins rebuilt, to the dismay of archaeologists, with his name inscribed on many of the bricks, in imitation of Nebuchadrezzar. One frequent inscription reads: "This was built by Saddam Hussein, son of Nebuchadnezzar, to glorify Iraq". This recalls the ziggurat at Ur, where each individual brick was stamped with "Ur-Nammu, king of Ur, who built the temple of Nanna". These bricks became sought after as collectors' items after the downfall of Saddam, and the ruins are no longer being restored to their original state.

External links

- [http://ancientneareast.tripod.com/Babylon_Babil.html The History of the Ancient Near East]
- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1391042,00.html Babylon wrecked by war, The Guardian, January 15, 2005]
- [http://www.gardenvisit.com/garden_history/sacred_gardens/babylon_gardens.htm Babylonian gardens]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4461755.stm History lost in dust of war-torn Iraq], BBC, April 25, 2005, mentions damage to Babylon.

References

- Category:Hebrew Bible/Tanakh places Category:Babylonia Category:Destroyed cities Category:Archaeological sites in Iraq ja:バビロン

Mesopotamia

, ca. 24th century BC]] Mesopotamia (Greek: Μεσοποταμία, translated from Old Persian Miyanrudan "between rivers"; Aramaic name being Beth-Nahrain "House of Two Rivers") is a region of Southwest Asia. Strictly speaking, it is the alluvial plain lying between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, composing parts of Iraq, Turkey and Syria. More commonly, the term includes these river plains in totality as well as the surrounding lowland territories bounded by the Syrian Desert to the west, the Arabian Desert to the south, the Persian Gulf to the southeast, the Zagros Mountains to the east and the Caucasus mountains to the north. Mesopotamia is famous for the site of some of the oldest civilizations in the world. Writings from Mesopotamia (Uruk, modern Warka) are among the earliest known in the world, giving Mesopotamia a reputation of being the "Cradle of Civilization". The age of Sumerian writing is about on a par with Egyptian hieroglyphs, and some yet older inscriptions are known, probably ranking as proto-writing (Old European script, Naqada [http://www.touregypt.net/ebph5.htm].

City states and Imperial glory

Mesopotamia was settled, and conquered, by numerous ancient civilizations:
- Mesopotamia was home to some of the oldest major ancient civilizations, including the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians.
- In 5000 BC, the Sumerians arrived in Mesopotamia. The Semites arrived in 2900 BC and by 2000 BC they had mixed peacefully with the Sumerians and had assumed political dominance.
- The Mitanni were an eastern Indo-European people (belonging to the linguistic "satem" group) who settled in northern Mesopotamia circa 1600 BC South-East of Turkey and by circa 1450 BC established a medium-size empire east, north and west, and temporarily made tributary vassals out of kings in the west, even as far as Kafti (minoic Crete) and making them a major threat for the Pharaoh.
- By 1300 BC they had been reduced to their homeland and the status of vassal of the Hatti (the Hittites), a western Indo-European people (belonging to the linguistic "kentum" group) who dominated most of Asia Minor from their capital of Hattutshash (modern Turkey) and threatened Egypt even more.
- Meanwhile the Kassites established a strong realm, Sangar, in southern Mesopotamia, with Babel as its capital, not touched by Mitanni or Hittites. But the Elamites threatened or invaded them.
- Chaldaean New Babylonia circa 600 BC.

Later history

Elamites
- The region ceased to be a major power house since its inclusion in the Persian Empire of the Achaemenids, apparently as two satrapies, Babylonia in the south and Athura (from Assyria) in the north.
- After the conquest of all Persia by the Hellenizing Macedonian king Alexander the Great, the satrapies were part of the major diadochy, the Seleucid Empire, almost until its elimination by Greater Armenia in 83 BC.
- Most of Mesopotamia then became part of the Parthian Empire of the Arsakides. However part, in the northwest, became Roman. Under the Tetrarchy, this was divided into two provinces, called Osrhoene (around Edessa; roughly the modern-day border between Turkey and Syria) and Mesopotamia (a bit more northeast).
- During the time of the Persian Empire of Sassanids, their much larger share of Mesopotamia was called Dil-i Iranshahr meaning "Iran's Heart" and the metropol Ctesiphon (facing ancient Seleukia across the Tigris), the capital of Persia, was situated in Mesopotamia.
- Since the early caliphs annexed all Persia and advanced even further, Mesopotamia was reunited, but governed as two provinces: northern Mesopotamia (with Mosul) and southern Iraq (with Baghdad, the later caliphal capital). Add education

List of links

Baghdad These civilizations arose from earlier settlements and cultures which were among the first to make use of agriculture.
- Neolithic settlements e.g., Jarmo, Tell Abu Hureyra
- Hassuna period
- Halaf period (or Halafian)
- Samarra period (or Samarran), e.g., Choga Mami
- Ubaid period, e.g., Eridu
- Uruk period, named after the city Uruk.
- Sumerian Early Dynastic period Early cities in this region include:
- lower Mesopotamia / Sumer
- Uruk
- Isin
- Lagash
- Akkad
- Agade
- Babylon
- Kish
- Nippur
- upper Mesopotamia / Assyria
- Assur
- Nineveh
- Mari
- Aleppo

Iraq

The Republic of Iraq (Arabic العراق; Kurdish Êraq) is a Middle Eastern country in southwestern Asia at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and also including southern Kurdistan. It shares borders with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the west, Syria to the north-west, Turkey to the north, and Iran (Persia) to the east. Iraq has a very narrow section of coastline at Umm Qasr on the Persian Gulf. The Republic of Iraq sits on land that is historically known as Mesopotamia, which means 'land between the rivers' in Greek. This land was home to some of the world's first and most distinguished civilizations. These included Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian and many other cultures, whose influence extended into neighbouring regions, certainly from around 5000 BCE. These civilizations produced some of the first writing, science, mathematics, law and philosophy known to man, making it the center of what is commonly called the "Cradle of Civilization". Ancient Mesopotamian civilization dominated other civilizations of its time. The modern state contains a mixture of various Arab, Muslim and Kurdish cultures, deeply influenced by Persian and Ottoman rule and societies. It also hosts three of the most important religious sites in Shia Islam - the Sacred Mosque of Imam Ali in Najaf and the mosques of Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas in Karbala. Najaf and Karbala are cities in southern Iraq. A transitional government of Iraq was elected in January 2005, following the March 2003 occupation of Iraq, led by American and British military forces, which drove Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath Party from power. American offensives on such cities as Fallujah and Tal Afar, the continued lack of such basic services as electricity and clean water, and deep political division in the country, have continued to contribute to disenchantment and disorder in the country. Supporters of the Iraqi insurgency blame the occupying forces for the disorder, but others blame the insurgency itself. In the meantime, the country is still struggling to form stable democratic institutions. On October 15, 2005, the people of Iraq approved a new Constitution of Iraq in a referendum. Though it received a 79% "yes" vote, it was opposed by a large majority of Sunni Arab Iraqis, and is considered to have "barely" passed (as a few more votes against it would have caused its defeat, due to three provinces rejecting it by more than 2/3).

Modern History

Main article: History of Iraq Modern Iraq became a British mandate (the British League of Nations Trust Territory of Iraq) at the end of World War I and was granted independence from British control in 1932. It was formed out of three former Ottoman Willayats (regions): Mosul, Baghdad and Basra. The British-installed Hashemite monarchy lasted until 1958, when it was overthrown through a coup d'etat by the Iraqi army, known as the 14 July Revolution. It brought Brigadier General Abdul Karim Qassim's leftist government to power (which withdrew from the Baghdad Pact and established friendly relations with the Soviet Union), from 1958 till 1963, when he was overthrown by Colonel Abdul Salam Arif. Salam Arif died in 1966 and his brother, Abdul Rahman Arif, assumed the presidency. In 1968, Rahman Arif was overthrown by the right wing Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. The Ba'ath's key figure became Saddam Hussein who acceded to the presidency and control of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), Iraq's supreme executive decision making body, in July 1979, killing off many of his opponents in the process. Saddam's absolute and particularly bloody rule lasted throughout the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988), which ended in stalemate; the al-Anfal campaign of the late 1980s, which led to the alleged gassing of thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq; Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 resulting in the Gulf War; and the United Nations-imposed economic sanctions. The United States and Britain declared no-fly zones over Kurdish northern and Shiite southern Iraq.

Modern Politics

Main article: Politics of Iraq Iraq was under Ba'ath Party rule from 1968 to 2003, in 1979 Saddam Hussein took leadership and became president until 2003, when he was unseated by a US-led invasion. The unicameral Iraqi parliament, the National Assembly or Majlis al-Watani, had 250 seats and its members were elected for 4-year terms. No non-Ba'ath candidates were allowed to run. In November 2003, the US-managed Coalition Provisional Authority announced plans to turn over sovereignty to an Iraqi Interim Government by mid-2004. The actual transfer of sovereignty occurred on 28 June 2004. The interim president was Sheikh Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, and the interim prime minister Iyad Allawi. On January 30, 2005, a majority of the Iraqi people voted in an election conducted by their transitional government which elected a 275-member Transitional National Assembly. The election was seen by many as a victory for democracy in the Middle East, but that opinion is not shared by all. Seymour Hersh has reported that their was a effort by the United States Government to shift funds and other resources to Iyad Allawi and that there may have been similar under the table dealings by other parties. Although he did not get the most seats in the Iraqi Congress, Allawi's delegation jumped from a projected 3 to 4% of the vote to 14% of the vote giving him power in the writing of the Constitution. The Iraqi Assembly would:
- Serve as Iraq's national legislature. It has named a Presidency Council, consisting of a President and two Vice Presidents. (By unanimous agreement, the Presidency Council will appoint a Prime Minister and, on his recommendation, cabinet ministers.)
- Draft Iraq's new constitution. This constitution was presented to the Iraqi people for their approval in a national referendum in October 2005. Under the new constitution, Iraq would elect a permanent government in December 2005. Under the Iraqi transitional constitution, signed March 2004, the country's executive branch is now led by a three-person presidential council. The election system for the council effectively ensures that all three of Iraq's major ethnic groups are represented. The constitution also includes basic freedoms like freedom of religion, speech, and assembly, and is perceived by some to be more progressive than the U.S. Constitution.[http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/18267/] Controversially, however, it states that all laws that were in effect on the transfer date cannot be repealed. Furthermore, since the coalition forces are currently working to maintain order and create a stable society under the United Nations, coalition troops can remain in control of the country indefinitely despite the transfer of sovereignty. Since Iraqi forces are currently considered not fully trained and equipped to police and secure their country, it is expected that coalition troops will remain until Iraqi forces no longer require their support. However, these rules will be set aside once the Transitional National Assembly is seated. On 5 April 2005, the Iraqi National Assembly appointed Jalal Talabani, a prominent Kurdish leader, President. It also appointed Adel Abdul Mehdi, a Shiite Arab, and Ghazi al-Yawar, the former Interim President and a Sunni Arab, as Vice Presidents. Ibrahim al-Jaafari a Shiite, whose United Iraq Alliance Party won the largest share of the vote, has been appointed the new Prime Minister of Iraq. Most power is vested in him. The new government was faced with two major tasks. The first is to attempt to rein in a violent insurgency, which has blighted the country in recent months, killing many Iraqi civilians and officials as well as a number of U.S. troops. (As of mid-2005, approximately 135,000 American troops remain in Iraq.) The second major task was to re-engage in the writing of a new Iraqi constitution, as outlined above, to replace the Iraqi transitional constitution of 2004. In the meantime, the Iraqi government is considered by many international governments to be a legitimate government. According to the US administration, the judiciary in Iraq operates under the primacy of rule of law, so war criminals from the totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein will get a fair and open trial, in which their rights will be subjected to due process and be protected by the scrutiny of a free press, the requirements of modern court proceedings. On October 15, 2005, more than 63% of eligible Iraqis came out across the country to vote on whether to accept or reject the new constitution. On October 25, the vote was certified and the constitution passed with a 78% majority. [http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1248677] The new constitution had overwhelming backing among the Shia and Kurdish communities, as well as among a sizeable minority of the Sunni Arabs of Western Iraq. Three provinces rejected it (Salah ad Din with 82% against, Ninawah with 55% against, and Al Anbar with 97% against), but the final vote against the constitution was not 67%, which would have defeated the constitution. Although fraud is widely believed in the Ninawah results, the results are unlikely to be overturned. Under the terms of the constitution, the country will conduct fresh nationwide parliamentary elections on December 15 to elect a new, permanent government.

Governorates

Main article: Governorates of Iraq Governorates of Iraq Iraq is divided into 18 governorates or provinces (Arabic: muhafadhat, singular - muhafadhah, Kurdish: پاریزگه Pârizgah). Particularly in Iraqi government documents the term governorate is preferred: #Baghdad Arab, Kurdish #Salah ad Din Arab, Kurdish #Diyala Kurdish, #Wasit Arab #Maysan Arab #Al Basrah Arab #Dhi Qar Arab #Al Muthanna Arab #Al Qadisyah Arab #Babil Arab #Al Karbala Arab #An Najaf Arab #Al Anbar Arab #Ninawa Kurdish #Dahuk Kurdish #Arbil Kurdish ( also called Hewlêr in Kurdish) #At Ta'mim Kurdish #As Sulaymaniyah Kurdish The constitutionally recognized Kurdish Autonomous Region includes parts of a number of northern governorates, and is largely self-governing in internal affairs.

Geography

Kurdish Autonomous Region Main article: Geography of Iraq Large parts of Iraq consist of desert, but the area between the two major rivers Euphrates and Tigris is fertile, with the rivers carrying about 60 million cubic meters of silt annually to the delta. The north of the country is largely mountainous, with the highest point being Haji Ibrahim at 3,600 m (11,811 ft). Iraq has a small coastline with the Persian Gulf. Close to the coast and along the Shatt al-Arab (known as arvandrūd: اروندرود among Iranians) there used to be marshlands, but many of these were drained in the 1990s. The local climate is mostly a desert clime with mild to cool winters and dry, hot, cloudless summers. The northern mountainous regions experience cold winters with occasional heavy snows, sometimes causing extensive flooding. The capital Baghdad is situated in the centre of the country, on the banks of the Tigris. Other major cities include Basra in the south and Mosul in the north. Iraq is considered to be the cradle of human civilization.

Economy

Mosul Mosul] Mosul Mosul Mosul Main article: Economy of Iraq Iraq's economy is dominated by the oil sector, which has traditionally provided about 95% of foreign exchange earnings. In the 1980s financial problems caused by massive expenditures in the eight-year war with Iran and damage to oil export facilities by Iran led the government to implement austerity measures, borrow heavily, and later reschedule foreign debt payments; Iraq suffered economic losses from the war of at least US$100 billion. After hostilities ended in 1988, oil exports gradually increased with the construction of new pipelines and restoration of damaged facilities. A combination of low oil prices, onerous repayment of the war debts (at around US$3 billion a year) and the costs of reconstruction resulted in a serious financial crisis which was the main short term motivation for the invasion of Kuwait. Iraq's seizure of Kuwait in August 1990, subsequent international economic sanctions, and damage from military action by an international coalition beginning in January 1991 drastically reduced economic activity. Although government policies supporting large military and internal security forces and allocating resources to key supporters of the Ba`ath Party government have hurt the economy, implementation of the United Nations' oil-for-food program, started in December 1996, was to have improved conditions for the average Iraqi citizen. For the first six phases of the program (each phase lasting six months), Iraq was allowed to export limited amounts of oil in exchange for food, medicine, and some infrastructure spare parts. Subsequent investigation of the program has revealed significant corruption, with highly-placed U.N. officials being bribed, Ba'ath Party officials receiving lucrative kickbacks, and much of the money from oil sales being redirected into weapons research and acquisition by the Iraqi military. In December 1999, the UN Security Council authorised Iraq to export under the program as much oil as required to meet humanitarian needs. Iraq changed its oil reserve currency from US dollar to euro in 2000. Oil exports were more than three-quarters of the pre-war level. However, 28% of Iraq's export revenues under the program were deducted to meet UN Compensation Fund and UN administrative expenses. The drop in GDP in 2001 was largely the result of the global economic slowdown and lower oil prices. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the economy to a great extent shut down; attempts are underway to revive it from the damages of war and rampant crime. During his year as the chief executive of Iraq, Ambassador Paul Bremer issued a series of orders designed to restructure Iraq's broadly socialist economy in line with neo-liberal thinking. Order 39 laid out the framework for the privatization of everything in Iraq aside from the "primary extraction and initial processing" of the oil reserves themselves, and permitted 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi assets. Other orders established a flat tax of 15% and permitted foreign corporations to repatriate 100% of profits earned in Iraq. Opposition from senior Iraqi officials, together with the poor security situation meant that Bremer's privatization plan was not implemented during his tenure, though his orders remain in place. Privatization of the oil industry, in addition to around 200 other state-owned businesses, is currently scheduled to begin sometime in late 2005. [http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=15131] The second attempt to liberalize Iraq's economy is linked to the Iran-Iraq war debt. The creditors who financed the Iran-Iraq war had presented post-Saddam Iraq with a bill of nearly US$130 billion of debt and past-due-interest, which had not been serviced during the 13 years of sanctions. The Jubilee Iraq campaign argued that these debts were odious (or illegitimate) given that they came from loans to a dictator fighting a war which caused the Iraqi people a great deal of harm, and should therefore be written off unconditionally. The creditors, however, offered only a partial reduction and rescheduling of their claims in return for an Iraqi commitment to implement an International Monetary Fund economic program. This deal, with the Paris Club cartel of creditors including the U.S. and Britain, was signed on 20 November 2004. The following day the interim Iraqi National Assembly issued a strongly worded resolution rejecting the Paris Club's terms and declaring that the debt was odious.

Demographics

2004 Main article: Demographics of Iraq Seventy-five to eighty percent of Iraq's population (mainly Iraqi but some Hejazi) speaks Arabic; the other major ethnic groups are the Kurds (15–20%), Assyrians (4%), and Turkomans (3%), who mostly live in the north and north-east of the country. The Assyrians, Kurds, and Turkomans differ from Arabs in many ways, including culture, history, clothing, and language. Other distinct groups are Persians, Lurs, and Armenians (possible descendants of the ancient Mesopotamian culture). About 2,500 Jews and 20,000–50,000 Marsh Arabs live in Iraq. Arabic and Kurdish are official languages; English is the most commonly spoken Western language. Assyrian is also used by the country's Assyrian population. There are more Arab Iraqi Muslim members of the Shiite sect than there are Arab Iraqi Muslims of the Sunni sect; but there is a large Sunni population as well, made up of mostly Arabs and Kurds. (Shiite 60% of total population made up of mostly Arabs). Iraq's sizable Christian population numbers some 750,000, most of them of the Chaldean rite. Bahá'ís, Mandaeans, Shabaks, and Yezidis also exist. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims. Demographic information from the 2004 edition of the CIA's The World Factbook:
- Ethnic groups: Arab, 75–80%; Kurdish, 15–20%; Assyrian or other, 5%
- Religions: Muslim, 93–95% (Shi'ite, 60%; Sunni 40%); Christian, Yezidi, or other, 5–7%

Culture

Main article: Culture of Iraq
- Music of Iraq

Miscellaneous topics

- Economy: Iraq Stock Exchange, Iraqi Dinar, Economy of Iraq
- Events: 2005 in Iraq, 2004 in Iraq, 2003 Invasion of Iraq, Post-invasion Iraq, 2003-2005, Iraqi insurgency
- Geography: List of places in Iraq, Communications of Iraq, Transportation in Iraq, Arab Tribes in Iraq
- Politics: Politics of Iraq, New Iraqi Army, Foreign relations of Iraq, Human rights violations in Iraq, Iraqi insurgency, M. Ismail Marcinkowski, Religion and Politics in Iraq. Shiite Clerics between Quietism and Resistance, with a foreword by Professor Hamid Algar of the University of California at Berkeley. Singapore: Pustaka Nasional, 2004 (ISBN 9971775131)
- History: List of Kings of Iraq, List of Presidents of Iraq, List of Prime Ministers of Iraq, British Mandate of Iraq, History of the Jews in Iraq
- Others: Postage stamps and postal history of Iraq, Gay rights in Iraq

External links

-
- [http://www.activistmagazine.com/index.php?option=content&task=category§ionid=3&id=152&Itemid=56 ACTivist Magazine] Iraq Article Archive
- [http://www.mourningthevote.com/iraq.htm Mourningthevote.com] Information on US troops in Iraq
- [http://www.iraqigovernment.org/ Iraqi Interim Government] official government site
- [http://www.krg.org/ Kurdistan Regional Government]
- [http://www.al-bab.com/arab/countries/iraq.htm al-Bab - Iraq]
- [http://www.h-net.org/~museum/iraq.html / H-Museum Iraq site]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/country_profiles/791014.stm BBC News Country Profile - Iraq]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/iz.html CIA World Factbook - Iraq]
- [http://www.state.gov/p/nea/ci/c3212.htm US State Department - Iraq] includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports
- [http://dmoz.org/Regional/Middle_East/Iraq/ Open Directory Project - Iraq] directory category
- [http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/Iraq/ Yahoo! - Iraq] directory category
- [http://story.news.yahoo.com/fc?cid=34&tmpl=fc&in=World&cat=Iraq Yahoo! News Full Coverage - Iraq] news headline links
- [http://www.newsxs.com/en/preset/101 Iraq - News and Rss-feed by NewsXS]
- [http://www.newsxs.com/en/preset/396 News on the Iraq Constitution]
- [http://www.newsxs.com/en/preset/424 News on Saddam's Trial]
- [http://www.edinarfinancial.net/news Iraq News]
- [http://www.lawksalih.com Lawk Salih] News on Iraq, Iraqi Music, Kurdish News
- [http://schema-root.org/region/mideast/iraq/ Schema-root.org: Iraq] 300 Iraq related topics, each with its own current news feed
- [http://www.juancole.com/ Informed Comment] Commentary on war in Iraq from Middle East scholar Juan Cole
- [http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/index.php Dahr Jamail Iraq Dispatches] News From Inside Iraq
- [http://www.indepthinfo.com/iraq/index.shtml Indepth Analysis of the Gulf War]
- International Freedom of Expression eXchange monitors [http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/222 attacks on journalists in Iraq]
- [http://fax.libs.uga.edu/DS49x2xM465D/ A DWELLER IN MESOPOTAMIA], being the adventures of an official artist in the garden of Eden, by Donald Maxwell, 1921. (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & [http://fax.libs.uga.edu/DS49x2xM465D/1f/dweller_in_mesopotamia.pdf layered PDF] format)
- [http://fax.libs.uga.edu/DS49x2xW684B/ BY DESERT WAYS TO BAGHDAD], by Louisa Jebb (Mrs. Roland Wilkins) With illustrations and a map, 1908 (1909 ed). (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & [http://fax.libs.uga.edu/DS49x2xW684B/1f/desert_ways_to_baghdad.pdf layered PDF] format)
- [http://home.developmentgateway.org/iraq Iraq: Relief and Recovery] Development Gateway's knowledge sharing community on Iraq's development needs and efforts.
- Sourcewatch on [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Reconstruction_of_Iraq_contractors reconstruction of Iraq contractors].
- [http://www.iraqwiki.com Iraq Wiki]
- [http://www.iraqanalysis.org/ Iraq Analysis] Information Source Listings and analysis on post-invasion Iraq
- [http://www.jubileeiraq.org Jubilee Iraq] Campaign to eliminate Iraq's pre-war debt and reparations
- [http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/engMDE140082001?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIESIRAQ Amnesty International Report on Iraq]
- [http://www.brucegourley.com/iraqtheocracy/ Iraq Theocracy Watch]
- [http://www.cpa-iraq.org/ Coalition Provisional Authority] Now-defunct occupation authority; site is archived
- [http://baghdad.usembassy.gov/ US Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq]
- [http://www.ameinfo.com/iraq/ AME Info - Country Guide: Iraq]
- [http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/mesopotamia/ Pictures of Iraq (Mespotamia) during World War One, showing the peoples, Red Cross River Ambulances and British Army/Indian taken by Captain Weaver]

Video

- Category:Arab League Category:Southwest Asian countries Category:Middle Eastern countries Category:Near Eastern countries Category:Persian Gulf states Category:100 most endangered sites zh-min-nan:Iraq ko:이라크 ms:Iraq ja:イラク simple:Iraq th:ประเทศอิรัก

Babylonia

Babylonia, named for the city of Babylon, was an ancient state in Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq), combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad. Its capital was Babylon. The earliest mention of Babylon can be found in a tablet of the reign of Sargon of Akkad, dating back to the 23rd century BC.

History

During the first centuries of the "Old Babylonian" period (that followed the Sumerian revival under Ur-III), kings and people in high position often had Amorite names, and supreme power rested at Isin. A constant intercourse was maintained between Babylonia and the West — with Babylonian officials and troops passing to Syria and Canaan, while "Amorite" colonists were established in Babylonia for the purposes of trade. One of these Amorites, Abi-ramu or Abram by name, is the father of a witness to a deed dated in the reign of Hammurabi's grandfather. The city of Babylon was given hegemony over Mesopotamia by their sixth ruler, Hammurabi (1780–1750 BC; dates highly uncertain). He was a very efficient ruler, giving the region stability after turbulent times, and transforming it into the central power of Mesopotamia. A great literary revival followed the recovery of Babylonian independence. One of the most important works of this "First Dynasty of Babylon", as it was called by the native historians, was the compilation of a code of laws. This was made by order of Hammurabi after the expulsion of the Elamites and the settlement of his kingdom. A copy of the Code of Hammurabi was found by J. de Morgan at Susa, where it had been taken as plunder, and is now in the Louvre. Ammiditana, the great-grandson of Hammurabi, still titled himself "king of the land of the Amorites", and his father and son bore the Canaanite names of Abieshuh and Ammisaduqa. The armies of Babylonia were well-disciplined, and they conquered the city-states of Isin, Elam, and Uruk, and the strong Kingdom of Mari. The rule of Babylon was even obeyed as far as the shores of the Mediterranean. But Mesopotamia had no clear boundaries, making it vulnerable to attack. Trade and culture thrived for 150 years, until the fall of Babylon in 1595 BC. The last king of the dynasty was Samsu-Ditana, son of Ammisaduqa. He was overthrown following the sack of Babylon in 1595 BC by the Hittite king Mursili I, and Babylonia was turned over to the Kassites (Kossaeans) from the mountains of Iran, with whom Samsu-Iluna had already come into conflict in his 6th year. The Kassite dynasty was founded by Kandis or Gandash of Mari. The Kassites renamed Babylon "Kar-Duniash", and their rule lasted for 576 years. With this foreign dominion — that offers a striking analogy to the contemporary rule of the Hyksos in Egypt — Babylonia lost its empire over western Asia. Syria and Canaan became independent, and the high-priests of Asshur made themselves kings of Assyria. Most divine attributes ascribed to the Semitic kings of Babylonia disappeared at this time; the title of "god" was never given to a Kassite sovereign. However, Babylon continued to be the capital of the kingdom and the 'holy' city of western Asia, where the priests were all-powerful, and the only place where the right to inheritance of the old Babylonian empire could be conferred.

Neo-Babylonian Empire

Through the centuries of Assyrian domination, Babylonia enjoyed a prominent status, or revolting at the slightest indication that it did not. However, the Assyrians always managed to restore Babylonian loyalty, whether through granting of increased privileges, or militarily. That finally changed in 627 BC with the death of the last strong Assyrian ruler, Ashurbanipal, and Babylonia rebelled under Nabopolassar the Chaldean the following year. With help from the Medes, Niniveh was sacked in 612, and the seat of empire was again transferred to Babylonia. Nabopolassar was followed by his son Nebuchadnezzar II, whose reign of 43 years made Babylon once more the mistress of the civilized world. Only a small fragment of his annals has been discovered, relating to his invasion of Egypt in 567 BC, and referring to "Phut of the Ionians". Of the reign of the last Babylonian king, Nabonidus (Nabu-na'id), and the conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus, there is a fair amount of information available. This is chiefly derived from a chronological tablet containing the annals of Nabonidus, supplemented by another inscription of Nabonidus where he recounts his restoration of the temple of the Moon-god at Harran; as well as by a proclamation of Cyrus issued shortly after his formal recognition as king of Babylonia. It was in the sixth year of Nabonidus (549 BC) that Cyrus, the Achaemenid Persian "king of Anshan" in Elam, revolted against his suzerain Astyages, "king of the Manda" or Medes, at Ecbatana. Astyages' army betrayed him to his enemy, and Cyrus established himself at Ecbatana, thus putting an end to the empire of the Medes. Three years later Cyrus had become king of all Persia, and was engaged in a campaign in the north of Mesopotamia. Meanwhile, Nabonidus had established a camp in the desert, near the southern frontier of his kingdom, leaving his son Belshazzar (Belsharutsur) in command of the army. In 538 BC Cyrus invaded Babylonia. A battle was fought at Opis in the month of June, where the Babylonians were defeated; and immediately afterwards Sippara surrendered to the invader. Nabonidus fled to Babylon, where he was pursued by Gobryas, the governor of Kurdistan, and on the 16th of Tammuz, two days after the capture of Sippara, "the soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon without fighting." Nabonidus was dragged from his hiding-place, and Kurdish guards were placed at the gates of the great temple of Bel, where the services continued without interruption. Cyrus did not arrive until the 3rd of Marchesvan (October), Gobryas having acted for him in his absence. Gobryas was now made governor of the province of Babylon, and a few days afterwards the son of Nabonidus died. A public mourning followed, lasting six days, and Cambyses accompanied the corpse to the tomb. Cyrus now claimed to be the legitimate successor of the ancient Babylonian kings and the avenger of Bel-Marduk, who was assumed to be wrathful at the impiety of Nabonidus in removing the images of the local gods from their ancestral shrines, to his capital Babylon. Nabonidus, in fact, had excited a strong feeling against himself by attempting to centralize the religion of Babylonia in the temple of Merodach (Marduk) at Babylon, and while he had thus alienated the local priesthoods, the military party despised him on account of his antiquarian tastes. He seems to have left the defence of his kingdom to others, occupying himself with the more congenial work of excavating the foundation records of the temples and determining the dates of their builders. The invasion of Babylonia by Cyrus was doubtless facilitated by the existence of a disaffected party in the state, as well as by the presence of foreign exiles like the Jews, who had been planted in the midst of the country. One of the first acts of Cyrus accordingly was to allow these exiles to return to their own homes, carrying with them the images of their gods and their sacred vessels. The permission to do so was embodied in a proclamation, whereby the conqueror endeavoured to justify his claim to the Babylonian throne. The feeling was still strong that none had a right to rule over western Asia until he had been consecrated to the office by Bel and his priests; and accordingly, Cyrus henceforth assumed the imperial title of "king of Babylon." A year before Cyrus' death, in 529 BC, he elevated his son Cambyses II in the government, making him king of Babylon, while he reserved for himself the fuller title of "king of the (other) provinces" of the empire. It was only when Darius Hystaspis ("the Magian") acquired the Persian throne and ruled it as a representative of the Zoroastrian religion, that the old tradition was broken and the claim of Babylon to confer legitimacy on the rulers of western Asia ceased to be acknowledged. Darius, in fact, entered Babylon as a conqueror. After the murder of Darius, it briefly recovered its independence under Nidinta-Bel, who took the name of Nebuchadnezzar III, and reigned from October 521 BC to August 520 BC, when the Persians took it by storm. A few years later, probably 514 BC, Babylon again revolted under Arakha; on this occasion, after its capture by the Persians, the walls were partly destroyed. E-Saggila, the great temple of Bel, however, still continued to be kept in repair and to be a center of Babylonian patriotism, until at last the foundation of Seleucia diverted the population to the new capital of Babylonia and the ruins of the old city became a quarry for the builders of the new seat of government.

Science and mathematics

Among the sciences, astronomy and astrology occupied a conspicuous place in Babylonian society. Astronomy was of old standing in Babylonia, and the standard work on the subject, written from an astrological point of view, later translated into Greek by Berossus, was believed to date from the age of Sargon of Akkad. The zodiac was a Babylonian invention of great antiquity; and eclipses of the sun and moon could be foretold. Observatories were attached to the temples, and reports were regularly sent by astronomers to the king. The stars had been numbered and named at an early date, and we possess tables of lunar longitudes and observations of the phases of Venus. Great attention was naturally paid to the calendar, and we find a week of seven days and another of five days in use. In Seleucid and Parthian times, the astronomical reports were of a thoroughly scientific character; how much earlier their advanced knowledge and methods were developed is uncertain. The development of astronomy implies considerable progress in mathematics; it is not surprising that the Babylonians should have invented an extremely simple method of ciphering, or have discovered the convenience of the duodecimal system. The ner of 600 and the sar of 3600 were formed from the unit of 60, corresponding with a degree of the equator. Tablets of squares and cubes, calculated from 1 to 60, have been found at Senkera, and a people acquainted with the sun-dial, the clepsydra, the lever and the pulley, must have had no mean knowledge of mechanics. A crystal lens, turned on the lathe, was discovered by Austen Henry Layard at Nimrud along with glass vases bearing the name of Sargon; this could explain the excessive minuteness of some of the writing on the Assyrian tablets, and a lens may also have been used in the observation of the heavens. The Babylonian system of mathematics was sexagesimal, or a base 60 numeral system (see: Babylonian numerals). From this we derive the modern day usage of 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 360 (60 x 6) degrees in a circle. The Babylonians were able to make great advances in mathematics for two reasons. First, the number 60 has many divisors (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30), making calculations easier. Additionally, unlike the Egyptians and Romans, the Babylonians had a true place-value system, where digits written in the left column represented larger values (much as in our base ten system: 734 = 7×100 + 3×10 + 4×1). Among the Babylonians mathematical accomplishments were the determination of the square root of two correctly to seven places ([http://it.stlawu.edu/%7Edmelvill/mesomath/tablets/YBC7289.html YBC 7289 clay tablet]). They also demonstrated knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem well before Pythagoras, as evidenced by [http://www.tmeg.com/bab_mat/bab_mat.htm this tablet] translated by Dennis Ramsey and dating to c. 1900 BC: 4 is the length and 5 is the diagonal. What is the breadth? Its size is not known. 4 times 4 is 16. 5 times 5 is 25. You take 16 from 25 and there remains 9. What times what shall I take in order to get 9? 3 times 3 is 9. 3 is the breadth.

Literature

:Main article: Babylonian literature

Location

The city of Babylon, the main city of Babylonia, was found on the Euphrates River, about 110 kilometres south of modern Baghdad, just north of what is now the Iraqi town of al-Hillah.

External links

- [http://ancientneareast.tripod.com/Old_Kingdom_of_Babylonia.html The History of the Ancient Near East]
- [http://www.math.tamu.edu/~don.allen/history/babylon/babylon.html Babylonian Mathematics]
- [http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Babylonian_numerals.html Babylonian Numerals]
- [http://www.halloran.com/babylon1.htm Babylonian Astronomy/Astrology]
- [http://www.phys.uu.nl/~vgent/babylon/babybibl.htm Bibliography of Babylonian Astronomy/Astrology]
- [http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/rbaa.htm The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria by Theophilus G. Pinches (Many deities' names are now read differently, but this detailed 1906 Work is a classic)]
- [http://fax.libs.uga.edu/BM530xK531l/ Legends of Babylon and Egypt in Relation to Hebrew Tradition], by Leonard W. King, 1918 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & [http://fax.libs.uga.edu/BM530xK531l/1f/legends_of_babylon_and_egypt.pdf layered PDF] format)
- [http://fax.libs.uga.edu/BL1620xB7/ The Babylonian Legends of the Creation] and the Fight between Bel and the Dragon, as told by Assyrian Tablets from Nineveh, 1921 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & [http://fax.libs.uga.edu/BL1620xB7/1f/babylonian_legends_of_creation.pdf layered PDF] format) Category:Former monarchies Category:Civilizations Category:Ancient Iranian provinces ja:バビロニア

612 BC

Centuries: 8th century BC - 7th century BC - 6th century BC Decades: 660s BC 650s BC 640s BC 630s BC 620s BC - 610s BC - 600s BC 590s BC 580s BC 570s BC 560s BC ----

Events and trends

- 619 BC - Alyattes becomes king of Lydia
- 619 BC - Death of Zhou xiang wang, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China.
- 618 BC - Zhou qing wang becomes King of the Zhou Dynasty of China.
- 616 BC - Lucius Tarquinius Priscus becomes king of Rome
- 614 BC - Sack of Asshur by the Medes and Babylonians.
- 613 BC - Death of Zhou qing wang, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China.
- 612 BC - Zhou kuang wang becomes King of the Zhou Dynasty of China.
- 612 BC - An alliance of Medes, Babylonians and Susianians besiege and conquer Nineveh. King Sin-shar-ishkun of Assyria is killed in the sack.
- 612 BC - Ashur-uballit II attempts to keep the Assyrian empire alive by establishing himself as king at Harran.
- 610 BC - Necho II succeeds Psammetichus I as king of Egypt

Significant people

- 610 BC - Death of Psammetichus I, king of Egypt Category:610s BC

Hebrew Bible

] :This article discusses usage of the term "Hebrew Bible". For the article on the Hebrew Bible itself, see Tanakh. Hebrew Bible refers to the common portions of the Jewish and Christian canons. Its use is favored by most academic Biblical scholars as a neutral term that is preferred to both Tanakh (the term used by Judaism) and Old Testament (the term historically used by Christianity) when discussing the text in academic writing. (For instance, see section 4.3 of The SBL Handbook of Style from the Society of Biblical Literature.) Hebrew here may refer to either the Hebrew language or to the Jews (the Hebrew people)—who historically used the Hebrew language as a spoken language, and have continuously used the language in prayer and study—or both. Because it refers to the common portions of the Jewish and Christian biblical canons, it does not encompass the deuterocanonical books, largely from the Koine Greek Septuagint translation, included in the Old Testament by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches; thus it can be argued that the term Hebrew Bible only corresponds fully to the Old Testament in use by the Protestant denominations that follow Jerome's Veritas Hebraica doctrine.
Further reading

- Anderson, Bernhard. Understanding the Old Testament. (ISBN 0139483993)
See also

- Books of the Bible for the differences between these two versions of the text, or the much more detailed Biblical canon.
- Greek Scriptures
- Masoretic Text
- Old Testament for the history of the Hebrew Bible and its interpretation within the Christian tradition.
- Tanakh for the history of the Hebrew Bible and its interpretation within the Jewish tradition.
- Category:Bible

Babel

References

- Babel was the native name of the city called Babylon by the Greeks, the modern Hilla. It means "gate of the god" (not "gods"), corresponding to the Akkadian Bab-ili. According to Genesis 11:1-9, mankind, after the deluge, travelled from the mountain of the East, where the ark had rested, and settled in 'a plain in the land of Shinar' (or Sennar). Here, they attempted to build a city and a tower whose top might reach unto Heaven - the Tower of Babel - but God miraculously confounded the languages of those who were working at its building so that they could not understand each other, and the project failed. The variety of languages and the dispersion of mankind were regarded as a curse, and in Gen. 11:9, an etymology is found for the name of Babel in the Hebrew verb balal, "to confuse or confound," regarded as a contraction of
- Balbel. In Genesis 10, Babel is said to have formed part of the kingdom of Nimrod. It is not mentioned in the Genesis account that God directly destroyed the efforts of the builders; presumably, the building fell into disrepair. However, several other ancient versions (eg. Book of Jubilees) do state the tradition that God overturned the tower with a great wind. According to Cornelius Alexander (frag. 10) and Abydenus (frags. 5 and 6), the tower was overthrown by the winds; according to Yaqut (i, 448 f.) and the Lisan el-'Arab (xiii. 72), mankind were swept together by winds into the plain afterwards called "Babil", and were scattered again in the same way (see further D. B. Macdonald in the Jewish Encyclopaedia). The original tower of the story has not been identified in Babylonia. It may possibly have been suggested by one of the temple towers (or ziggurats of Babylon. W. A. Bennet (Genesis, p. 169; cf. Hommel in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible) suggests E-Saggila, the great temple of Merodach (Marduk). A more recent theory is based on firm evidence that the original city named "Babel" was not Babylon, but rather the far older Eridu south of Ur, where there is a very large and abandoned ziggurat. See Eridu for details. A tradition similar to that of the tower of Babel is found in Central America. It holds that Xelhua, one of the seven giants rescued from the deluge, built the great pyramid of Cholula in order to storm Heaven. The gods, however, destroyed it with fire and confounded the language of the builders. Traces of a somewhat similar story have also been reported among the Mongolian Tharus in northern India (Report of the Census of Bengal, 1872, p. 160), and, according to Dr Livingstone, among the Africans of Lake Ngami. The Estonian myth of " the Cooking of Languages " (Kohl, Reisen in die 'Ostseeprovinzen, ii. 251-255) may also be compared, as well as the Australian legend of the origin of the diversity of speech (Gerstacker, Reisen, vol. iv. pp. 381 seq.). There is also a connection with Pentecost in Acts, inasmuch as there the Holy Spirit reverses the Babel process, and enables people to speak languages they do not know. The Babel legend has appeared regularly in western literature and art since the middle ages - for a chronology see [http://www.towerofbabel.info The Virtual Babel Encyclopedia]

External link

- [http://www.nwcreation.net/wiki/index.php?title=Tower_of_Babel CreationWiki - Tower of Babel] Category:Torah places

Popular etymology

Folk etymology (or popular etymology) is a linguistic term for a category of false etymology which has grown up in popular lore, as opposed to one which arose in scholarly usage. Folk etymology is particularly important because it can result in the modification of a word or phrase by analogy with the erroneous etymology which is popularly believed to be true. In this case, 'folk etymology' is the trigger which causes the process of linguistic analogy by which a word or phrase changes because of a popularly-held etymology, or misunderstanding of the history of a word or phrase. Here the term 'folk etymology' is also used (originally as a shorthand) to refer to the change itself.

Instances of word change by folk etymology

In linguistic change caused by folk etymology, the form of a word changes so that it better matches its popular rationalisation. For example, the Old English sam-blind ("semi-blind" or "half-blind") became sand-blind (as if "blinded by the sand") when people were no longer able to make sense of the element sam ("half"), and the Old English bryd-guma ("bride-man") became bridegroom after the loss of the Old English word guma ("man", compare French homme) rendered the compound semantically obscure. The silent s in island is also a result of folk etymology. The word, which derives from an Old English compound of ig ("water", surprisingly, cognate to Latin aqua) with land, was erroneously believed to be related to isle, which has a similar meaning but derives from Latin insula ("island"). More recent examples are the French (e)crevisse (likely from Germanic krebiz) which became the English cray-fish, and asparagus, which in England became sparrow-grass. Similarly, cater-corner became kitty-corner or catty-corner when the original meaning of cater ("four") had become obsolete. Other changes due to folk etymology include: :buttonhole from buttonhold (originally a loop of string that held a button down) :hangnail from agnail :penthouse from pentice :sweetheart from sweetard (the same suffix as in dullard and dotard) :shamefaced from shamefast :chaise lounge from chaise longue When a back-formation rests on a misunderstanding of the morphology of the original word, it may be regarded as a kind of folk etymology. In heraldry, a rebus coat-of-arms may reinforce a folk etymology for a placename. For further examples, see the following articles that discuss folk etymologies for their subjects:
- Belfry (architecture)
- Brass monkey
- Brent goose
- Caesarean section
- Ducking stool
- Gringo
- Jerusalem artichoke
- Poll tax
- Rake-hell
- Serviceberry
- Welsh rarebit

Reference

- Adrian Room, Dictionary of True Etymologies, 1986, Routledge & Kegan Paul ISBN 0-710-20340-3

External link

- Richard Lederer, [http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0203/lederer022003.asp Spook Etymology on the Internet]
- [http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/fallacy.html Popular fallacies in the attribution of phrase origins] Category:Urban legends Category:Etymology ja:民間語源

Akkadian language

Akkadian (lišānum akkadītum) was a Semitic language (part of the greater Afro-Asiatic language family) spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, particularly by the Assyrians and Babylonians. It used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated, non-Semitic language. The name of the language is derived from the city of Akkad, a major center of Mesopotamian civiliazation.

Dialects

Akkadian is divided into dialects based on geography and historical period:
- Old Akkadian - 2500 – 1950 BCE
- Old Babylonian/Old Assyrian - 1950 – 1530 BCE
- Middle Babylonian/Middle Assyrian - 1530 – 1000 BCE
- Neo-Babylonian/Neo-Assyrian - 1000 – 600 BCE
- Late Babylonian - 600 BCE – 100 CE

Cuneiform

Akkadian scribes wrote the language using cuneiform script, an earlier writing system devised by the Sumerians using wedge-shaped signs pressed in wet clay that in Akkadian could represent either (a) Sumerian logograms (i.e. picture-based characters as in Chinese), (b) Sumerian syllables, (c) Akkadian syllables, and (d) phonetic complements. Cuneiform was in many ways unsuited to Akkadian: among its flaws was its inability to represent important phonemes in Semitic, including a glottal stop, pharyngeals, and emphatic consonants. In addition, cuneiform was a syllabary writing system - i.e. a consonant plus vowel comprised one writing unit - frequently inappropriate for a Semitic language made up of triconsonantal roots (i.e. three consonants minus any vowels). Older Sumerian cuneiform also distinguished between the vowels i and e; this distinction, though not originally present in Akkadian, was adopted by scribes to compensate for the disappearance (or non-writing) of the original Semitic pharyngeals.

Akkadian grammar

Akkadian is an inflected language, and as a Semitic language its grammatical features are highly similar to those found in Classical Arabic. It possesses two genders (masculine and feminine), distinguished even in second person pronouns (you-masc., you-fem.) and verb conjugations; three cases for nouns and adjectives (nominative, accusative, and genitive); three numbers (singular, dual, and plural); and unique verb conjugations for each first, second, and third person pronoun. Akkadian nouns are declined according to gender, number and case. There are three genders; masculine, feminine and common. Only a very few nouns belong to the common gender. There are also three cases (nominative, accusative and genitive) and three numbers (singular, dual and plural). Adjectives are declined exactly like nouns. Akkadian verbs have 13 separate root stems, of which only the following eight are commonly used:
- Qal: the root stem, used for transitive and intransitive verbs
- Paal: signifies intensity; the middle consonant is doubled
- Shafal: causative, formed by prefix [š]
- Nifal: passive, formed by prefix [n]
- Ifteal: reflexive, derived from Qal
- Iftaal: both active and passive, derived from Paal
- Ishtafal: reflexive of the causative, derived from Shafal
- Ittafal: passive signification, derived from Nifal The remaining root stems are all derived from the first eight and are very similar in meaning. Akkadian verbs usually display the tri-consonantal root, though some roots with two- or four-consonant roots also exist. These are called radicals. There are three tenses, present, preterite and permansive. Present tense indicates incomplete action and preterite tense indicates complete action, while permansive tense expresses a state or condition and usually takes a particle. Akkadian, unlike Arabic, has mainly regular plurals (i.e. no broken plurals), although some masculine words take feminine plurals. In that respect, it is similar to Hebrew.

Word order

Akkadian sentence order was subject + object + verb (SOV), which sets it apart from most other Semitic languages such as Arabic and Hebrew, which typically have a verb + subject + object (VSO) word order. (South Semitic languages in Ethiopia are another matter altogether.) It has been hypothesized that this word order was a result of influence from the Sumerian language, which was also SOV. There is evidence that native speakers of both languages were in intimate language contact, forming a single society for at least 500 years, so it is entirely likely that a sprachbund could have formed. Further evidence of an original VSO or SVO ordering can be found in the fact that direct and indirect object pronouns are suffixed to the verb. Word order seems to have shifted to SVO/VSO late in the 1st millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD, possibly under the influence of Aramaic.

Akkadian literature

Among the works written in Akkadian cuneiform are the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Atrahasis Epic.

References

Mercer, Samuel A B (1961). Introductory Assyrian Grammar. New York: F Ungar. ISBN 0-486-42815-X.

External links

- [http://www.language-museum.com/a/akkadian-cuneiform.php Akkadian Language Sample]
- [http://www.sron.nl/~jheise/akkadian/ A detailed introduction to Akkadian] Category:Ancient languages Category:Afro-Asiatic languages Category:Semitic languages Category:Assyria ja:アッカド語

Sargon of Akkad

in 2003]] Sargon of Akkad, or Sargon the Great (Akkadian Sharru-kin, "the true king", reigned 2334 BC - 2279 BC, short chronology), founder of the Dynasty of Akkad. He is only the third king in recorded history to have created an empire, after the Sumerians Lugal-anne-mundu and Lugal-zage-si. Sargon's vast empire is known to have extended from Elam to the Mediterranean sea, including Mesopotamia and possibly parts of Anatolia. He ruled from a new capital, Akkad, situated on the left bank of the Euphrates, between Sippar and Kish.

Origins and rise to power

Sargon made such an impression on Mesopotamia that his figure became associated with many legends. The Sumerian literature known as "the Sargon legend" is believed to be a text describing Sargon's life. However, most of the text is missing. The surviving fragments name Sargon's father as La'ibum. After a lacuna, the text skips to Ur-Zababa, king of Kish, awake after a dream. For unknown reasons, Ur-Zababa then appoints Sargon as his cupbearer. Soon after this, king Ur-Zababa requested Sargon to his chambers to discuss a dream he felt Sargon had. Sargon's dream involved the favor of the goddess Inanna and the drowning of Ur-Zababa by the goddess. Deeply frightened, Ur-Zababa tries to get Sargon murdered by the hands of Belic-tikal, the chief smith, but Inanna prevents it, demanding that Sargon stop at the gates because of his being "polluted with blood." When Sargon returned to Ur-Zababa, the king became frightened again, and decided to send Sargon to king Lugal-zage-si of Uruk with a message on a clay tablet about murdering Sargon. (The legend appears to be lost at this point; presumably it describes how Sargon becomes king). From the Sumerian king list: "In Agade [Akkad], Sargon, whose father was a gardener, the cupbearer of Ur-Zababa, became king, the king of Agade, who built Agade; he ruled for 56 years." Confusingly, Ur-Zababa and Lugal-zage-si are both listed as kings, but several generations apart - perhaps Ur-Zababa is supposed to have lived on in the palace of Kish long after losing the kingship of Sumer. The Assyrian king list calls him "Sargon the Assyrian", son of Ikunum, and reckons him as one of their Empire's founders. A Neo-Assyrian text (7th century BC) describes his birth and his early childhood: :My mother was a changeling, my father I knew not. The brothers of my father loved the hills. My city is Azupiranu, which is situated on the banks of the Euphrates. My changeling mother conceived me, in secret she bore me. She set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she sealed my lid. She cast me into the river which rose over me. The river bore me up and carried me to Akki, the drawer of water. Akki, the drawer of water, took me as his son and reared me. Akki, the drawer of water, appointed me as his gardener. While I was a gardener, Ishtar granted me her love, and for four and […] years I exercised kingship. (King 1907: 87-96)

Rule over the Near East

While it is unknown exactly how Sargon came to power, he soon attacked Uruk, where reigned Lugal-zage-si of Umma. Lugal-zage-si, with fifty ensis under his command, was defeated, captured and brought to Kish "in a carcan" and exposed at Enlil’s gate. Sargon then attacked and crushed Ur, Lagash and Umma. He made a symbolic gesture, washing his hands in the "lower sea" (Persian Gulf), to show that he had conquered Sumer in its entirety. The governors chosen by Sargon to administer the main city-states of Sumer were Akkadians, not Sumerians. Semitic Akkadian became the lingua franca, the official language of inscriptions in all Mesopotamia, and of great influence far beyond. The former religious institutions of Sumer, already well-known and emulated by the Semites, were respected; his daughter Enheduanna, the author of several Akkadian hymns, was made priestess of Nanna the moon-god of Ur. He also called himself "anointed priest of Anu" and "great ensi of Enlil".

Wars in the east

Sargon defeated the four leaders of Elam, led by the king of Awan. Their cities were sacked; the governors, viceroys and kings of Susa, Barhashe, and neighboring districts became vassals of Akkad, and the Akkadian language made official. In fact, it began, consciously or not, the Semitization of Sumer that finally brought about the end of the Sumerian people, at least as an identifiable political and ethnic entity.

Wars in the west

Sargon captured Mari, Yarmuti and Ebla as far as the Cedar Forest (Amanus) and the silver mountain (Taurus). Commerce routes were secured, and supplies of wood and precious metals could safely be floated and freely down the Euphrates to Akkad. The text known as "Epic of the King of the Battle" depicts Sargon advancing deep into the heart of Asia Minor to protect merchants from the exactions of the King of Burushanda (Purshahanda). It is also mentioned that Sargon crossed the Sea of the West (Mediterranean Sea) and ended up in Cyprus. Ancient writers saw Sargon as the king who had said: :Now, any king who wants to call himself my equal, wherever I went, let him go. (Nougayrol: 169)

Late period

A late Babylonian chronicle says: :In his old age, all lands revolted against him, and they besieged Akkad. But Sargon went forth to battle and defeated them; he knocked them over and destroyed their vast army. Later, Subartu in their might attacked, but they submitted to his arms, and Sargon settled their habitations, and he smote them grievously. (King 1907: 3) Sargon was succeeded by his sons, Rimush and Manishtushu. Manishtushu

External links

- The Sargon legend: translation - http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr214.htm - Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Fluckiger-Hawker, E, Robson, E., and Zólyomi, G., The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/), Oxford 1998- .

References

- A. Deimel, Die Inschriften von Fara, Leipzig, 1922-24;
- R. Jestin, Tablettes Sumériennes de Shuruppak, Paris, 1937;
- R.D. Biggs, Inscriptions from Tell Abu Salabikh, Chicago, 1974;
- M. Alotte De La Fuye, Documents présargoniques, Paris, 1908-20;
- E. SOLLBERGER, Corpus des Inscriptions 'Royales' Présargoniques de Lagash, Paris, 1956,
- H. FRANKFORT, 'Town planning in ancient Mesopotamia', Town Planning Review, 21 (1950), p 104;
- I. M. DIAKONOFF, 'On the area and population of the Sumerian city-State', VDI (1950), 2, pp. 77-93;
- A. PARROT, Mari, Capitale Fabuleuse, Paris, 1974;
- A. PARROT, Le temple d'Ishtar, Paris, 1956;
- A. PARROT, Les temples d'Ishtarat et de Ninni-zaza, Paris, 1967;
- G. ROUX, Ancient Iraq, London, 1980;
- S. NOAH KRAMER, The Sumerians: Their History, Culture and Character, Chicago, 1963.
- L. W. King, Chronicles Concerning Early Babylonian Kings, II, London, 1907, pp.87-96;
- L. W. King, Chronicles Concerning Early Babylonian Kings, II, London, 1907, pp.3 ff.
- J. Nougayrol, RA, XLV (1951), pp. 169 ff. Category:2334 BC births Category:2279 BC deaths Category:Sumer Category:Assyrian kings

Short Chronology

The Chronology of the Ancient Near East deals with the notoriously difficult task of assigning dates to various events, rulers and dynasties of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. The chronology of this region is based on five sets of primary materials. They are, from the most recent to the earliest: # The Canon of Kings from Ptolemy. # An unbroken series of Neo-Assyrian king's names. # Babylonian King Lists A and B, the Synchronistic Chronicle, the Assyrian King List, and a number of shorter lists of year names. # The First Dynasty of Babylon, though ambiguities and disagreements have led to three different schemes for dates between the 10th and 21st centuries. The most common ("low chronology") sets the eighth year of Ammisaduqa at 1531 BC. # The Sumerian King List. Three different dating schemes for dates between the 10th and 21st centuries are in use in literature:
- The low or short chronology, most commonly used today, sets the eighth year of Ammisaduqa at the year 1531 BC as the end of the first dynasty (with a reign of king Hammurabi 1728 BC–1686 BC).
- The middle chronology, which was the most commonly used chronology until recently, is 64 years (one period between identical conjunctions of Venus, Sun and Moon) earlier than the short chronology (Hammurabi 1792 BC–1750 BC).
- The long chronology is 120 years earlier than the short chronology (Hammurabi 1848 BC–1806 BC).

Primary sources

The chronology of this region is based on five sets of primary materials. They are, from the most recent to the earliest: 1. The Canon of Ptolemy. This is a list of the kings of Babylon and the Persian Empire, from Nabonassar down to Alexander the Great, which Claudius Ptolemy added to one of his books because of the astronomical observations connected with this information. 2. An unbroken series of Neo-Assyrian king names ranging from Ashur-uballit II (died in 609) up to Adad-nirari II (ascended in 911). These years, all named for the official known as a limmu, and some bearing an important event for the previous year, are fixed with the precision of a year due to the mention of the solar eclipse of June 16, 763 BC. These two sets overlap for over a hundred years, and help to supplement each other. 3. For the centuries between the previous two groups and the ones following, we depend upon a group of interrelated, yet incomplete, documents: Babylonian King Lists A and B, the Synchronistic Chronicle, the Assyrian King List, and a number of shorter lists of year names recovered from Babylon and Assyria. 4. The First Dynasty of Babylon. Not only have all of the year names for Hammurabi and his descendants survived more or less intact, but a record of astronomical observations made during the eighth regnal year of Ammisaduqa, offer another opportunity to reliably fix these floating dates. Unfortunately, due to ambiguities in the text, as well as disagreements over the interpretation of these observations, there are three possibles dates for these observations, which have led to the three chronologies mentioned above. 5. The Sumerian King List. The beginning of the third dynasty of Ur (Ur-Nammu; 2047 BC short ch.) is the earliest date that may be directly calculated from dates of Assyrian or Babylonian sources. Preceding this date is the Gutian period, variously estimated to have lasted between 45 and 120 years. The preceding Akkadian period is again well-documented, leading to a year of ca. 2235 BC for the ascension of Sargon of Akkad. Yet earlier dates are subjected to increasing uncertainty.

Synchronisms between Assur and Babylon

The chronology of Babylon and Assur can be aligned by the list of wars and treaties between the two cities from the time of king Ashurbanipal. Hittite chronology is dependent on Assyria and Egypt. For times earlier than 1500 BC, various systems based on the V