The civilization of Babylonia and Assyria

Its remains, language, history, religion, commerce, law, art, and literature

by Morris Jastrow | 1915 | 168,585 words

This work attempts to present a study of the unprecedented civilizations that flourished in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley many thousands of years ago. Spreading northward into present-day Turkey and Iran, the land known by the Greeks as Mesopotamia flourished until just before the Christian era....

The Sumerian domination of the Euphrates Valley thus comes to an end. An entirely new situation had been created by this astonishing aggressiveness of Elamitic chieftains. Instead of Sumerians and Akkadians, we have Amorites and Elamites preparing for a final test of arms.

Chronological lists at our disposal reveal a series of eleven rulers with their seat in Babylon and whose reigns can now be approximately fixed as extending from c. 2225 to 1926 B.C. The first of these rulers is Sumuabu, the form of whose name is Semitic, but of a quite different formation from the Akkadian names. The same is the case with the names of other rulers of this dynasty like Sumulailu, Sabu, Hammurapi ; in fact all but two — Apil-Sin and Sin-muballit [1] — are distinctly foreign.

Those bearing these names, therefore, represent part of an immigration into the Euphrates Valley, and there is more than sufficient evidence to show that the new settlers came from the northwest the large and not sharply defined district known as Amurru, the land of the Amorites. In fact the rulers in question speak of themselves and of their subjects as Amorites. [2] The Semitic character of these Amorites is as pronounced as that of the earlier Semitic settlers in the Euphrates Valley, if not indeed more so since they had not been obliged to submit to an assimilating process with Sumerians and other non-Semites.

Once in the country, however, they adopt the language, cult and customs of the Akkadians, and only in their names and in retaining the habit of the Semitic Bedouins of shaving the upper lip do they reveal externally a trace of their foreign origin. We do not know the special circumstances under which these Amorites entered Babylonia. Migrations into the Euphrates Valley on a larger or smaller scale were probably going on at all .times, particularly from the northwest, whence Bedouin tribes could easily pass along the course of the Euphrates into the south.

The Akkadians themselves probably did not welcome these constant accessions from the north and northwest, and conflicts ensued which must sometimes have ended disastrously for the invaders, though they generally led to a coalition. That appears to have been the case with the Amorites, who, entering the country at a time when the Akkadians were forced to submit once more to Sumerian supremacy, were probably aided by their fellow Semites in the endeavor to re-establish the power of the Semites in the northern part of the Valley, which from the time of the dynasty of Agade becomes definitely known as Akkad, in contrast to Sumer as the designation of the south. The Amorites established themselves in the city of Babylon, which, situated somewhat to the south of Agade, had already in the days of the Akkad dynasty begun to acquire some importance.

These Amorite rulers succeeded in uniting the Semitic population of the north under their banners. Sumuabu controls the old Semitic centre, Kish; his dominion reaches to Dilbat to the south of Babylon, but he makes no effort to encroach on Sumer. Indeed, he appears to have had some trouble in controlling all of Akkad, for we learn of an expedition against Kasallu to the north of Kish which refused to submit to Sumuabu 's dominion and which is therefore destroyed by him. The patesi of Ashur the old capital of Assyria Ilushuma, also makes an attack on Sumuabu, which is significant as foreshadowing the rivalry between the two Semitic kingdoms of Mesopotamia, that of Babylonia in the south and of Assyria in the north.

After a rule of eleven years, Sumuabu is succeeded by Sumulailu, whose long reign of thirtysix years (c. 2211-2176 B.C.) was largely devoted to strengthening the newly established kingdom and to overcoming rivals who appeared on various sides. It was not until near the close of his reign that Sumulailu succeeded in overcoming his foes and rivals, and in establishing himself as ruler of the entire north. He is the real founder of the dynasty of Babylon whose name is celebrated as such by his successors. His successors, to be sure, still had difficulties to contend with. Rebellions broke out here and there, but were suppressed aparently with increasingly less effort, so that the strength of the kingdom was well maintained.

The time was approaching for the supreme test of this strength in passages of arms with the Elamitie rulers who, as we have seen, had obtained the mastery of Sumer. The kings of Babylon were unable to prevent the aggressiveness of Kudurmabug and his two sons, Aradsin and Rim-Sin, whom he had placed on the throne of Larsa. It may be, indeed, that they abetted Elam in its endeavors to crush the Sumerians. The seventeenth year of Sin-muballit's reign, corresponding to about 2126 B.C., is entered in business documents as the one in which Isin was captured.

This, we know, was the work of Rim-Sin and not of Sin-muballit, but if the event is recognized in Babylon as a basis for the official dating of documents, it is tempting to suppose that Sin-muballit was in some measure involved in the overthrow of the Isin dynasty. [3] He certainly appears to have taken advantage of disturbed conditions in the south by making an attack on Ur, which was recorded as having been successful. [4] But if a coalition between Sin-muballit and Rim-Sin existed, it must soon have become apparent that it could not last. When two aggressive kingdoms are brought face to face, it is only a question of time before hostilities between the two will break out. There was no room for both Amorites and Elamites. The one or the other had to yield.

Within two years after the end of the Isin dynasty, Sin-muballit dies and is succeeded (c. 2123 B.C.) by his son, Hammurapi, who so amply merits the title of "Great". He at once inaugurates an aggressive policy which brings city after city into his control. In 2117 he succeeds in wresting Uruk and Isin from the Elamites and follows up his advantage by moving against the Elamitic border state Emutbal in the following year.

A number of years passed, however, before the great conqueror succeeded in capturing Ur and Larsa and in bringing the booty to Babylon. Emutbal became a province of the Amorite kingdom in 2090 B.C., and in another year all Sumer acknowledged Hammurapi's supremacy. During the last nine years of his reign he displayed the same energy in promoting works of peace, enlarging the canal system, and furnishing Uruk and other cities with an abundant water supply.

He restores the temples in Larsa, Eridu, Lagash, Khallab, Cuthah, and Adab, which had suffered during the prolonged period of the wars ; he is equally concerned for the old centres of the north, such as Opis and Kish. Naturally his chief concern is for his capital, Babylon, and next to this for the neighboring Borsippa and for Sippar, which remains in specially close touch with Babylon. The chief cities of Assyria, Ashur and Nineveh, included in his empire, are also the objects of his care. His aim is evidently to establish a permanent union between the Semitic and the non-Semitic elements of the population of Sumer and Akkad.

The old Sumerian centres, Eridu, Nippur, Ur, Uruk and Larsa, retain their position in the religious organization, though henceforth deprived of political importance. Both languages, Sumerian and Akkadian, are recognized as official. Documents are not infrequently set up in both languages, though in the cult the Sumerian continues for some time to occupy the first place. Hammurapi crowns his career by a codification and formal promulgation of the laws which were to serve as the basis of legal decisions and according to which justice was to be dealt out.

Already at the beginning of his reign he emphasizes his aim to establish justice in his dominions, so that, in a measure, his famous code discovered at Susa in 1901, whither it had been carried as a trophy of war by the Elamites in the twelfth century [5] is one of his earliest works, but since it was not promulgated until the close of his career, after he had finished his long series of wars and had succeeded in uniting all of Babylonia, as we may from now on designate the country brought under a single rule, it represents, as it were, his last testament the monument of his career, which was of a more enduring character than any of his other achievements in war or in peace. [6]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Signifying "Son of the god Sin" and "Sin gives life" genuine Akkadian names.

[2]:

See Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, I, 2, p. 615, note.

[3]:

Sin-muballit did not go so far as to actually claim that he put an end to the Isin dynasty, and it is noticeable that in business documents for the seventeenth year, there is an alternative dating of a totally different character. See Schorr, Alt-babylonische Rechtsurkunden, p. 588.

[4]:

See the date for the eighteenth year (Schorr, I.e.).

[5]:

See above, p. 113, note 88.

[6]:

See an analysis of the code in Chapter VI.

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