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قراءة كتاب A Primer of Assyriology
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
Primer of Assyriology
BY
A. H. SAYCE, LL.D.
PROFESSOR OF ASSYRIOLOGY, OXFORD
AUTHOR OF 'FRESH LIGHT FROM THE ANCIENT MONUMENTS'
'ASSYRIA, ITS PRINCES, PRIESTS, AND PEOPLE,' ETC.
WITH SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
56 PATERNOSTER ROW AND 65 ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD
First Edition, September, 1894.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| CHAPTER I | |
| THE COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE | |
| Geography—Population and Language—The Chaldaeans—The Kassi— Natural Products—Canals—Architecture—Asphalt and Naphtha— Character of the Babylonians and Assyrians | 7 |
| CHAPTER II | |
| THE DISCOVERY AND DECIPHERMENT OF THE INSCRIPTIONS | |
| The Site of Babylon—The Site of Nineveh—Excavations—The Decipherment of the Inscriptions—The Decipherment tested— Sumerian—Vannic—Other Languages—The origin of the Cuneiform Syllabary—Simplification of the Syllabary | 18 |
| CHAPTER III | |
| BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN HISTORY | |
| Different States in Babylonia—The first Empire—The monuments of Tello—Chronology—The United Monarchy—The rise of Assyria— Babylon a sacred city—Tiglath-pileser I—The First Assyrian Empire—The Second Assyrian Empire—The Babylonian Empire—Cyrus and the Fall of Babylon—Belshazzar—Decay of Babylon | 42 |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| RELIGION | |
| The religions of Babylonia and Assyria—Differences between Babylonian and Assyrian religion—Sumerian religion Shamanistic— Two centres of Babylonian religion—Semitic influence—The goddess Istar—Bel-Merodach—Other deities—Sacred books and ritual—The Priests—The Temples—Astro-theology—Sacrifices and offerings—The Sabbath—Monotheistic tendency—The future life—Cosmology | 80 |
| CHAPTER V | |
| BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN LITERATURE | |
| Aids to the reading of the texts—The libraries—Varieties of literature—The texts autotypes—Astronomy—Mathematics—Medicine and law—History and mythology—The Chaldaean epic and the Deluge—Epic of the Creation | 95 |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| SOCIAL LIFE | |
| The Contract-tablets—Married Life—Burial—Slavery—Lowness of Wages—Property—Taxes—Prices—Usury—The Army—Navy—The Bureaucracy | 109 |
| APPENDIX | |
| Assyrian Measures of Length—Measures of Capacity—Measures of Weight and Coinage—The Months of the Year | 118 |
| Babylonian Kings—Assyrian Kings—High Priests of Assur—Kings of Assyria | 120 |
| Synchronisms between Assyrian and Biblical History | 125 |
| The Principal Deities of Babylonia and Assyria | 126 |
A PRIMER OF ASSYRIOLOGY
CHAPTER I
THE COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE
Geography.—The civilizations of Babylonia and Assyria grew up on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. The Tigris was called Idikna and Idikla in the Sumerian or primitive language of Babylonia, from which the Semites formed the name Idiklat, by means of the feminine suffix -t. In later times the name was shortened into Diklat, and finally assimilated by the Persians to the word Tigra, which in their language signified 'an arrow.' It is from Tigra that the classical name Tigris is derived. In Genesis (ii. 14), however, the ancient name Idikla, there written Hiddekel, is still preserved. The Euphrates was called Pura-nun, or 'great water,' in Sumerian, and was frequently known as simply the Pura or 'Water,' just as the Nile is known to-day to the modern Egyptians as simply 'the Sea.' Hence it is often spoken of in the Bible as 'the River,' without the addition of any other name. From Pura came the Semitic Purat, with the Semitic suffix -t; and Purat, the Perath of the Old Testament, was changed by the Persians into Ufratu, with a play upon their own word u 'good.' The Persian Ufratu is the Greek Euphrates.
The alluvial plain of Babylonia was the gift of the two great rivers. In the early days of Babylonian civilization they both flowed into the Persian Gulf. But salt marshes already existed at their mouths, and as time went on the marshes extended further and further to the south. What had once been sea became dry land, the silt brought down by the rivers forming an ever-increasing delta in the north of the Gulf. To-day the two rivers flow into one channel, and the point where they unite is eighty miles distant from the present line of coast. The marshes are called 'the country of Marratu' or 'the salt-sea' in the inscriptions, a name which reappears as Merathaim in Jer. 1. 21.
One of the oldest of Babylonian cities was Eridu, 'the good city,' which was originally built on the shore of the Persian Gulf, though Abu-Shahrein, which now marks its site, is far inland, the sea having retreated from it for a distance of 100 miles. In early times, however, it was the chief Babylonian port, and through its