(7) The clay librarian
(The Immortal Mesopotamian-7)
After many years in Eshnunna, it was the time to trace my righteous leader, with other believers devoted to worship the sole God of the world.
We traveled back to Sippar, then we (with my wife Anatu and two friends ( Adiur and Adini) headed northwest to the land known as Eber Nari (across the river) or the land of the Levant.
The caravan moved along the Euphrates River until we reached the city of Mari which was an old city-state founded after Sumer’s cities. We were not surprised to see the Sumerian architectural style, clothing fashion, and sculptures for Sumerian deities that expressed strong ties despite the dialect was different. No wonder Mari was the most westerly outpost of Sumerian culture.
At the time of the Amorites Lim dynasty, the Mari population was dominant in the Fertile Crescent. When we arrived, it was reigned by King Yaggid-Lim. He ruled the state, helped by the scribes who played the role of administrators. The queen ruled in her husband’s name while he was away.
The temple prophets were giving council to the King and participated in the religious festivals only. It had a minor role in the farmers and nomads’ everyday life, unlike the Mesopotamian temples.
The royal archive is said to contain thousands of clay documents in Amorite, Akkadian, and Sumerian languages. They were letters that included administrative and legal texts. I have also seen a Babylonian scribal style.
Whereas Marioties had decorative hairstyles and dresses, Some women wore relaxed styling hats of interweaved cloche with brims that resemble Mushroom Crown. They enjoyed relative equality to men.
*****
We stayed for a short time then continued our journey to Abla, the intimate enemy of Mari city, despite the vast distance between them. Towards the end of 2700 BC, a hundred years’ war with Mari started, exchanging powers and control. In a time, Irkab-Damu King of Ebla concluded a peace and trading treaty with Abarsal King of Mari in one of the earliest clay-recorded treaties.
The harsh rode to Ebla was long, and Anatu became very ill. Sadly, she died a few days after we arrived in the city. I mourned her whereas Adiur and Adini wives helped in her proper burial, marked the grave with a stone bearing her name. Anatu went to a dark and shadowy realm within the earth’s bowel and couldn’t see the light again. I surrendered to fate after sorrowful days.
We rented a house for three months built from limestone outcrop. Probably that was why the city named Ebla, which means “white rock.”
The Kingdom and its vassal cities in the middle Euphrates were agrarian with their own or Amorite language and an imposing role for women.
As a scribe, I noticed that this profession was gratifying because Ebla used clay tablets extensively for trade matters, royal letters, and political relations. That was because it previously dominated other city-states of northern and eastern Syria.
Ibrium, the city’s chief librarian, told us that Ebla of the Ammuru is part of Syria, which may be derived from Assyria, that came from Ashur and designated the Assyrian’s chief deity. That was interesting because I thought it was derived from Siryon, which separated the regions of northern Eber Nari and southern Phoenicia.
He said that Ebla’s unique is its organized archive of about 20,000 cuneiform tablets dated to 2350 BC written in both Sumerian and Eblaite. These clay documents covered the political organization and social customs of the Levant.
Ibrium showed us the arrangement of large and small tablets stored on shelves. For easier retrieval, they were shelved according to the subject, including transcriptions of texts into foreign languages. To me, that was great antiquity of archival and library practices. It was an actual library rather than a collection of archives intended solely for the Kings and their officials.
*****
Ibrium told us the city was destroyed two times in wars until the Amorites tribes settled in, forming the third Kingdom (in 2000 BC). They maintained their prosperity through a trading network with Sumer, Egypt, and other Kingdoms. However, at that time, it was ruled by King Immeya, a vassal of another dominating Amorite Kingdom () centered in Aleppo.
We attended the public celebration for the marriage of an Eblaite princess to a son of King Ammitaqum of Alalakh city, who belonged to a branch of the royal Yamhadite dynasty. Royal intermarriage was a practice of strengthening alliances.
I accepted Ibrium’s offer to work for some time in the library, and so as my two friends. I liked reading many of the history clays. We were comfortable for Ebla’s language was closely related to the Mesopotamian Akkadians, probably because it was conquered into the Akkadian Empire by King Sargon around 2330 BC.
Although the Eblaites worshipped many useless idols, we could find few converted to monotheism and submitted to the sole God after being convinced by the righteous man when he was there. They told us that he headed south to Dimaski.
As we continued the quest to follow the man we considered a messenger of God, we fared well Ibrium, the atheist clay curator who promised not to worship idols.
We traveled south to the Amorite tribes’ land until we arrived at Dimaski ( Damas or ), the flourishing craft town known for its swords and lace. A boundless oasis surrounded the 3,000 years old city. Its rectangular houses were made of stone, gyps, and burnt lime.
The tribes were abandoning their nomadic lifestyle and forming federated tribal states.
Dimaski lay along the King’s Highway, a trade route of vital importance in connecting Africa with Mesopotamia. It benefited other kingdoms along the road, including and .
During wintering in Damas, we met some of the righteous man’s followers. They said he headed south towards the Arabu tribes in the Edomite lands. To follow him, there were caravans traveling to the Ammonites land then through the mountainous Moab Kingdom alongside Salt’s eastern sea (Dead Sea). At the end of the rains, we pursued the obedient course of hope and belief.
Submitted: October 15, 2020
© Copyright 2020 Ali Al-Zaak. All rights reserved.
Originally published at https://www.booksie.com.
