Babylon (noise. KÁ.DINGIR.RAKI, Akkad. Bābili or Babilim "gates of the gods"; other Greek. Βαβυλών) is one of the cities of Ancient Mesopotamia, located in the historical region of Akkad. An important political, economic and cultural center of the Ancient World, one of the largest cities in the history of mankind, the "first metropolis", a well-known symbol of Christian eschatology and modern culture. The ruins of Babylon are located on the outskirts of the modern city of Al-Hilla (Babil Governorate, Iraq).

Babylon - Akkad. Bābili(m); noise. KA.DINGIR.RAKI

The first mention is the III millennium BC. e.

Other names - Kadingirra, Tintir, Eridu, Shuanna, etc. (including cult names)

Destroyed - I millennium

The reasons for the destruction are the gradual desolation due to the proximity to the capital cities: Seleucia and Ctesiphon

The name of the settlement is El-Hilla

Composition of the population - Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Amorites, Kassites, Chaldeans, Arabs, Greeks, ancient Assyrians, Jews, Persians and other peoples

Names of inhabitants - Babylonian, Babylonian, Babylonians

Population - about 150,000 people.

Founded no later than the III millennium BC. e.; known in Sumerian sources as Kadingirra. In the early dynastic period, it was an insignificant city, the center of a small region or nome within the system of Sumerian city-states. In the XXIV-XXI centuries. BC e. - a provincial center within the Akkadian kingdom and the Power of the III dynasty of Ur. In the II-I millennium BC. e. - the capital of the Babylonian kingdom, one of the great powers of antiquity and the most important city of the eponymous region (Babylonia). The highest rise in the economic and cultural life of Babylon in the literary tradition is associated with the era of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (VI century BC).

Nebuchadnezzor II (Akkad., Nabu-Kudurry-Uzur, letters. "Nabu, firstborn keep"; Aram.; Dr. נְבוּכַדְנֶצַּר, Nevukhadezzar; Dr. Greek. Ναβουχοδονόσωρ, naboukhodonósôr; نبوخذنصر, nibḫḫaḏniṣṣar; ok. 634-562 BC) - king of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom from September 7, 605 BC. e. to October 7, 562 BC. e. from the X Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) dynasty.

While still a prince, Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopolassar, commanded the Babylonian army at the Battle of Carchemish (end of May 605 BC) and led the invasion of the District (the lands lying beyond the Euphrates River towards the Mediterranean Sea, that is, Syria, Phenicia and Kingdom of Judah). In August 605 B.C. e., being with the army in Syria, Nebuchadnezzar learned about the death of his father. Ordering his commanders to return with the main army, booty and captives to their homeland, he, accompanied by a small retinue, hastened through the desert to Babylon by the shortest route. September 7, on the 23rd day after the death of his father, he took the throne. In the same autumn of 605 BC. e. Nebuchadnezzar returned to the District and continued the interrupted campaign, in February 604 BC. e. returning to Babylon with more booty.

June 604 B.C. e. the Babylonians again moved to the District. The Philistine city of Ascalon opposed them, counting on the help of Egypt. The Ascalonian king Adon, when the enemies invaded his possessions and had already reached Afek (15 km north of Lydda), sent messengers to Pharaoh Necho II asking for help, but the Egyptians did not come, and in December 604 BC. e. Nebuchadnezzar took Ascalon by storm. The city was sacked and destroyed; King Adon, the nobility and the surviving citizens were driven into captivity. May 603 B.C. e. Nebuchadnezzar moved to Judea, but the Jewish king Joachim submitted and promised to pay tribute without waiting for the siege of Jerusalem. In 602 B.C. e. Nebuchadnezzar completed the conquest of the River.

War with Egypt

December 601 B.C. e. Nebuchadnezzar approached the Egyptian border. In a fierce battle, the Egyptians managed to stop the enemy. Nebuchadnezzar had to retreat and return to Babylon. The losses of the Babylonians, especially in the cavalry and chariots, were so great that it took as much as 20 months before Nebuchadnezzar was able to restore the combat effectiveness of his army. But Egypt also won the victory at such a price that after this battle, Necho was forced to abandon the idea of ​​​​combating Babylon for the Asian provinces in the coming years.

Conquest of Judea

In the District, the failures of Nebuchadnezzar caused the rise of the anti-Babylonian movement. Judah stopped paying tribute to Babylon. In December 599 B.C. e. advanced Babylonian detachments reappeared in the District. For a whole year, the Babylonians and their allies devastated the Jewish land. Finally, in the last days of December 598 BC. e. Nebuchadnezzar set out from Babylon with the main forces and a month later, at the end of January 597 BC. e. reached Jerusalem. Joachim did not dare to resist. When he came to Nebuchadnezzar with gifts, he ordered to seize him and kill him. Nebuchadnezzar placed Jehoiakim's son Jehoiachin on the Jewish throne. 3023 noble Babylonian Jews were taken into captivity (deported from Judea to the territory of Babylon, which in their case was repatriation to their homeland).

Jehoiachin began to continue the anti-Babylonian policy, which caused a new invasion of the Babylonian army. In March 597 B.C. e. Nebuchadnezzar again approached Jerusalem. Jeconiah, seeing that resistance was useless, immediately surrendered the city without a fight in March. After that, Jeconiah, along with his entire family, was sent captive to Babylon. 10,000 Babylonian Abrahamic Jews were also evicted there (see the foundation of the united kingdom of Israel and Judah by King Saul and the conquest of Palestine, the 2nd half of the 11th century BC, and the kingdom of King David on the lands of Mesopotamia and Palestine, The Babylonians seized the treasures of the royal palace and part of the treasures and liturgical objects of the Jerusalem temple. In place of Jeconiah, Nebuchadnezzar appointed his uncle Zedekiah, taking an oath from him to be faithful to Babylonia and not to enter into relations with Egypt. Tribute was imposed on Judea.

X Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) dynasty
626 BC e. - 538 BC e. rules 88 years

Founder - Nabopolassar, ruler of the Land of the Sea, (Akkad. Nabu-apla-utzur, lit. "Keep the heir to Nabu") - King of Babylonis November 23, 626 to August 15, 605 BC. e. The founder of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom and the X Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) dynasty.

626 - 605 BC e. : Nabopolassar (Naboo-apla-utzur)
605 - 562 BC e. : Nebuchadnezzar II (Naboo-kudurri-utzur II)
562 - 560 BC e. : Amel-Marduk
560 - 556 BC e. : Nergal-sharr-utzur
556 - 556 BC e. : Labashi-Marduk
556 - 539 BC e. : Nabonid (Naboo-naid)
556 - 539 BC e. : Belshazzar (Bel-shar-utzur) Co-ruler

In 539 BC e. Babylon was occupied by the troops of the Persian king Cyrus II and lost its independence. After the suppression of two uprisings against Persian rule (484, 482 BC), Xerxes I removed the golden statue of Bel-Marduk from Babylon and deprived the city of its autonomous status.
In 539 B.C. e. occupied by the troops of Cyrus II and became part of the Achaemenid state, becoming one of its capitals; in the second half of the 4th c. BC e. - the capital of the state of Alexander the Great, later - as part of the state of the Seleucids, Parthia, Rome; starting from the III century. BC e. gradually fell into decline.

The etymology of the Russian form of the name of the city ("Babylon") is associated with borrowings from Greek spiritual and liturgical literature through the Church Slavonic language. In Church Slavonic, the Reuchlinian reading of ancient Greek proper names is used, according to which, in the toponym Βαβυλών, the letter β is pronounced as [v], and the letter υ as [i]. In the European languages ​​of the predominantly Catholic and Protestant world, the Latinized version of this toponym is taken as the basis, corresponding to the Erasmus reading (Babylṓn).

The ancient Greek name Βαβυλών itself, as well as the Hebrew בָּבֶל (Babel) and the Arabic بابل (Bābil), is an attempt at a foreign translation of the name by which the Babylonians themselves called their city, namely “Bābili(m)” (the Babylonian dialect of the Akkadian language), which literally (bāb-ili(m)) is translated as “gate of god”; Akkadian also had the form bāb-ilāni "gate of the gods". In West Semitic languages, the transition a > o was possible, as a result of which the name bāb-ilāni received the form bāb-ilōni; it is obvious that this variant, with the disappearance of the final vowel, served as the basis for the Greek Βαβυλών.

The Sumerian analogue of the toponym Bābili(m) was the logogram KÁ.DINGIRKI or KÁ.DINGIR.RAKI, where KÁ is the “gate”, DINGIR (in Russian Sumerology it is written DIG̃IR) is “god”, RA is the dative indicator, KI is the determinative of the settlement. In addition, in the Old Babylonian period there was a mixed spelling: Ba-ab-DINGIRKI.

Scholars believe that the name Bābili(m) was the result of a rethinking of the older form babil(a) within the framework of folk etymology. The toponym babil(a) is believed to be of non-Semitic origin and associated with some older, unknown language, probably Proto-Euphratic, but possibly also Sumerian.

In the Tanakh, the name of Babylon is written as בָּבֶל (Babel; in the Tiberian vowel - בָּבֶל Bāvel) and in the Old Testament is interpreted as "mixing" (meaning the mixture of languages ​​according to the myth of the Babylonian pandemonium); this interpretation is related to the similar-sounding Hebrew verb בלבל bilbél "to mix". For a number of reasons, including a late and frankly legendary nature, this interpretation cannot be used to scientifically explain the name of the city and is not taken seriously by Assyriologists.

Early history

There are assumptions about a very ancient, even pre-Sumerian (proto-Euphratic) origin of the toponym "Babylon", but there is no reliable information about the time of the foundation of the city: the high level of groundwater does not allow archaeologists to explore the lower layers of the monument. To date, the oldest finds from Babylon date back to around 2400 BC. e. (III stage of the early dynastic period). Written sources of that time mention a certain city community (the reading of the toponym is unclear) with an independent ensi and a main sanctuary in honor of the Sumerian god Amar-Utu/Amarutu (= Akkadian Marduk). Babylon is believed to have definitely existed in the early dynastic period, but was an insignificant city, the center of a small "nome" within the Sumerian city-state system.

In the XXIV-XXII centuries. BC e. the territorial formations of Ancient Mesopotamia were united under the rule of the Akkade dynasty; The first reliable mention of Babylon (under the Sumerian name Kadingirra) in written sources dates back to the reign of King Sharkalisharri (beginning of the 22nd century BC). From the inscription of Sharkalisharri it follows that Kadingirra was one of the subordinate cities of the Akkadian state and that the king led religious construction there. After a short period of rule by the Gutians, the lands of Ancient Mesopotamia were united under a new Middle Eastern power: the Sumero-Akkadian kingdom of the III dynasty of Ur (XXII-XXI centuries BC). From the economic documents of that time it is known that Babylon/Kadingirra was one of the provincial centers, controlled by a separate (appointed) ensi and paying a tax - “bala” in favor of the capital.

The collapse of the Sumero-Akkadian kingdom at the turn of the III-II millennium BC. e. was accompanied by the resettlement of numerous semi-nomadic communities of the Amorites to the lands of Ancient Mesopotamia. At the beginning of the II millennium BC. e. The Yahrurum tribe of Amorites captured Babylon and made it their capital.

Old Babylonian period (c. 1894 - c. 1595 BC)

The Babylonian kingdom created by the Amorites was originally small and occupied the territory along the Arakhtu and Apkallatu canals (western branches of the Euphrates). The main population of these places - the descendants of the Sumerians and Akkadians - gradually merged into a single nation of the Babylonians and assimilated the Amorite conquerors.

From the first years of its existence, the new state was involved in fierce wars with neighboring tribes and "nomes" of Southern Mesopotamia; for this reason, already the early rulers of the I (Amorite) dynasty attached great importance to the defense of Babylon. The dating formulas of Sumuabum, Sumu-la-El and Apil-Sina mention the construction of fortifications around the city and wars with neighbors. Amorite kings actively erected and rebuilt temples in the capital: it is known about the construction and renovation of sanctuaries in honor of Ninisina, Nanna, Adad, Ishtar and other deities of the Sumero-Akkadian pantheon. Particular attention has always been paid to Esagila - the main and probably the oldest temple of Babylon, dedicated to the patron of the city, the god Marduk (shum. Amar-Ut). Using sophisticated diplomacy, an army, and the city's advantageous position in regional trade, the early Amorite rulers were able to turn Babylon into the capital of the most powerful kingdom in the southern Mesopotamian region of Akkad in a hundred years. The reign of King Hammurabi (1793-1750 BC) turned out to be fateful for the history of the city, who managed to subdue all the main cities of Ancient Mesopotamia in a few decades and create a new great power. Since that time, the city has been experiencing rapid growth, its size over time exceeds the size of the city of Ur, the capital of the Sumero-Akkadian kingdom. Sources testify to the active religious construction in Babylon, the construction of palaces; the city was an important religious center of ancient Mesopotamia, the focus of the economic, political and cultural life of the region. It is assumed that Babylon at that time did not have regular buildings, but even then it occupied both banks of the Arakhtu canal, which divided Babylon into Western and Eastern cities.

By the end of the 17th century BC. e. The Babylonian kingdom entered a period of crisis, which was taken advantage of by its warlike neighbors. About 1595 B.C. e. the troops of the Hittite kingdom defeated Babylonia; the city was sacked and destroyed, the Amorite dynasty was overthrown, and the kingdom was destroyed.

Ur (shum. Urim, Akkad. Uru) - one of the most ancient Sumerian city-states of the ancient southern Mesopotamia, existed from the 4th millennium to the 4th century BC. e. Ur was located in southern Babylonia, in the south of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq, near Nasiriya, in the lower reaches on the western bank of the Euphrates River in the territory that has the modern Arabic name "Tel el-Muqayyar" ("Bitumen Hill"). The city is mentioned in the Old Testament as "Ur of the Chaldees", the birthplace of the prophet Abraham.

The region, or nom Ur (shum. Urim, now Tell el-Muqayyar) was located at the mouth of the Euphrates River. In addition to the city of Ur, this nome also included the cities of Eridu (now Abu Shahrain), Muru and the settlement buried under the hill Tell el-Ubeid (its Sumerian name has not been established). The communal god of Ur was Nanna. In the city of Eridu, the god Enki was revered.

The settlement on the site of Ur was founded in the 5th millennium BC. e., in the 4th millennium BC. e., during the period of Uruk, Ur became a city. The era of the first heyday of Ur is attributed approximately to the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e., this is the so-called Early Dynastic period (3000 - 2400 BC). Ur then dominated the adjacent rural district of about 90 km² and several smaller cities - Eridu, Muru and the site of Ubaid. Controlling the southern part of the Euphrates delta and access to the Persian Gulf, Ur competed with Uruk in the struggle for supremacy in Mesopotamia.

From the 3rd millennium BC. e. Ur was one of the largest centers of the Sumerian civilization. In its heyday Ur was a populous city with magnificent temples, palaces, squares and public buildings, and its inhabitants (both men and women) loved decoration. Temples, a ziggurat, a necropolis from the time of the 1st dynasty, including 16 so-called royal tombs - stone crypts with dromos; human sacrifices (up to 74 people), chariots, weapons, precious utensils, etc. Defensive walls, harbors, ziggurat, temples, palace, mausoleum, inscriptions, cuneiform archive, stone sculpture, cylinder seals, etc. of the period of the 3rd dynasty. Residential quarters of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. e.

During the 3rd stage of the Early Dynastic period, Ur was ruled by the 1st Lugal dynasty. The list of their names in the "Royal List" from Nippur (a list of semi-legendary dynasties of Sumer and Akkad) is replete with omissions and errors. According to the original inscriptions, we know 6 names of this dynasty. The list names only 4 of them and adds another, perhaps erroneously, a certain Balulu. The power and wealth of the first dynasty of Ur are evidenced by the royal tombs found in this city. The wealth of the Ur lugals was based not only on their seizure of temple land (which we can guess from some indirect data), but also on trade.

OK. 2310 BC e. Ur was defeated by the Akkadian king Sargon the Ancient, who included it in his single state and installed his daughter Enheduanna, also known to us as a poetess, as the high priestess-entum of the moon god Nanna in Ur. In the XXIV-XXII centuries. subordinated to neighboring city-states. After some decline and expulsion from the country of the nomadic Kuti by the Uruk ruler Utuhengal, Ur flourished again during the reign of the III dynasty of Ur (2112-1996 BC) in the 21st century BC. e., becoming the capital of the "kingdom of Sumer and Akkad." The founder of this dynasty - Ur-Nammu - built a huge ziggurat glorifying Nanna, the god of the moon, and issued a judicial code (fragments have been preserved). His successor Shulgi strengthened Ur's hegemony by building a centralized bureaucracy.

Ancient Mesopotamia

The invasion of the Amorite tribes and the Elamite troops at the turn of the III-II millennium BC. e. led to the sack and ruin of Ur; the poetic "Lament for the death of Ur" tells about these tragic events. After several years of occupation of the devastated city (2003-1996 BC), the Elamites left Ur, leaving it to the rulers of Issin. The daughter of one of them (Ishme-Dagan), who took the Sumerian name of En-Anatum, became the high priestess of Ur and began the restoration of the temples of the city. Ur was able to revive under the rule of the Amorite dynasty of Larsa.

Ur continued to be an important Sumerian city well into the Babylonian era. However, the participation of Ur in the uprising of the South of Mesopotamia against the son of Hammurabi, Samsuiluna, turned out to be not only the demolition of the city walls, as reported by the Samsuiluna inscription of 1739 BC. e., but also by the ruin of the residential quarters of the city and the cessation of the activity of eduba - the school where Ur scribes studied.

The Babylonian king Nabonidus carried out excavations in Ur and rebuilt the local ziggurat. During the reign of the dynasty of the Land of the Sea, the Kassites, the Assyrians and the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, Ur retained its significance as a trade and craft center, but soil salinization in the Euphrates delta caused the decline of agriculture and the outflow of the population from the city. In the IV century BC. e. the city was finally abandoned by the inhabitants who remained in it, presumably due to the changed climate. The ancient city of Ur is the Ur of the Chaldees mentioned in the Bible, where Abraham and his relatives were from.

Abraham (ancient Hebrew אַבְרָהָם, Avrȃhȃ́m, other Greek Ἀβραάμ, Latin Abraham, Arabic إبراهيم, Ibrāhīm) is a biblical character. Ancestor of many nations (Gen. 17:4). Spiritual ancestor of all believing Abrahamic religions. The first of the three Biblical patriarchs who lived after the Flood. According to the book of Genesis - a Jew, that is, a native of the tribe of Eber, who lived from ancient times in the territory of South Arabia, Yemen, Oman (see below "Iram the Many-Columned" and the tribes of Hell (Ada ibn Uuz ibn Sama ibn Noha)), and the ancestor of everything Jewish people, great-grandson of Shem (Shem), the first son of Noah.

The main temple of the tribes of Noah and Abraham was the Kaaba in Mecca.

Kaaba (Arabic الكعبة المشرفة - Al-Ka "ba al-Musharrafa "Venerable Kaaba") is a Muslim shrine in the form of a cubic building in the courtyard of the Masjid al-Haram (Reserved Mosque) in Mecca. This is one of the main places that gathers, according to Koranic injunctions, pilgrims during the Hajj.Kaaba bears the symbolic name "al-Bayt al-Haram", which means "sacred house" in Arabic.

Since ancient times, the Kaaba has been rebuilt more than once. It is believed that the first building of the Kaaba was erected by heavenly angels. Its next builders were, in succession, the prophets Adam and Ibrahim, about which the words of Allah are mentioned in the Qur'an: “…Remember how the Holy House Ibrahim and Ismail…” (Al-Baqarah, 2:127). The Kaaba was rebuilt for the fourth time by the Quraish (testified by the Prophet Muhammad when he was 35 years old), the fifth time the Kaaba was rebuilt by Ibn al-Zubair.

The Qur'an calls the Kaaba the first building erected by people directly for the worship of God.

Ibn Kathir, a famous commentator on the Qur'an, mentions two interpretations among Muslims about the origin of the Kaaba. First, the shrine was a place of worship for angels before the creation of man. Later, a house of worship was built on this site by Adam and Eve, but it was lost during the flood in the age of Noah and was finally rebuilt by Abraham and Ishmael, as mentioned later in the Qur'an. Ibn Kathir regarded this tradition as weak and preferred instead Ali ibn Abi Talib's narration that while some other temples may have preceded the Kaaba, it was the first "House of God" dedicated exclusively to Him, built by His guidance and consecrated and blessed by Him as it says in Qur'an 22 26-29. A hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari states that the Kaaba was the First Mosque on Earth and the Second Mosque was the Temple in Jerusalem.

When Abraham was building the Kaaba, an angel brought him the Black Stone, which he placed in the eastern corner of the structure, hence the well-known expression about the "cornerstone" or the foundation of the foundations. Another stone was Makam-i-Ibrahim (literally "Abraham's pillar or station"), where Abraham stood on a dais while building a structure. The "Black Stone" and "Maqam-i-Ibrahim" are considered by Muslims to be the only remnant of the original structure created by Abraham, since, naturally, the remaining structure had to be destroyed and rebuilt several times through history for reconstruction and maintenance.

After the construction was completed, God commanded the descendants of Ishmael to make the annual pilgrimage of Hajj and Korban, the sacrifice of livestock. Proximity to the sanctuary was also considered a sanctuary where bloodshed and war were forbidden.

According to Islamic tradition, over the millennia after Ishmael's death, his progeny and the local tribes who settled in the oasis of Zam-Zam gradually turned to polytheism and idolatry. Several idols were placed in the Kaaba, representing the deities of various aspects of nature and different tribes. In the pilgrimage (hajj), several heretical rituals were adopted, including making a naked circumambulation.

The obligation to keep the Kaaba in order traditionally lies with the members of the Bani Shayba family. They also keep the keys to her doors. According to legend, the representative of this family received these powers directly from the Prophet Muhammad. The ceremony of washing the Kaaba is held twice a year (about two weeks before the start of the holy month of Ramadan and two weeks before the Hajj).

According to Muslim legends, the first building or tent over the Black Stone was built by the prophet Adam, and, in fact, the first Kaaba was built by his son Shis (Sif). After the flood during the time of the prophet Nuh (Noah), the building and its place were lost. By the order of Allah, the prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) again erected the building of the Kaaba on this place. According to the texts, Jabrail (Archangel Gabriel) helped him. He brought Ibrahim a stone, standing on which he could rise to any height. To this day, the stone is kept next to the Kaaba inside the small monument of Maqam Ibrahim (Ibrahim's site). Ibrahim's footprints remained on the stone.

According to the Koran, the angel Jabrail (Gabriel) appeared to Ibrahim (Abraham) in a dream and gave him a command from Allah to sacrifice his son. In the Qur'an, the name of the son is not mentioned, however, in the tradition, the eldest son Ismail is almost always called. Contrary to Islamic tradition, in the Bible Gen. 22:1-19, Ibrahim's other son Ishak (Isaac) appears. Ibrahim went to the valley of Mina to the place where Mecca now stands, and began preparations. His son, who knew about this, did not resist, but wept and prayed, as he was obedient to his father and Allah. However, this turned out to be a test from Allah, and when the sacrifice was almost made, Allah made it so that the knife could not cut. The son's sacrifice was replaced by a ram, and Ibrahim was granted a prosperous second birth of his son, Ishak (Isaac).

On the 10th day of the month of Zul-Hijja, in memory of the sacrifice of Ibrahim, the Prophet Muhammad established the holiday 'Eid al-adha (Arab. عيد الأضحى - the feast of sacrifice) - the Islamic holiday of the end of the Hajj, celebrated 70 days after the holiday of Eid al-Fitr (Arabic عيد الفطر - “Feast of breaking the fast”), on the 10th day of the month of Zul Hijjah in memory of the sacrifice of Ibrahim, who is considered a prophet in Islam. The exact date of the celebration according to the Gregorian calendar may vary in different countries.

The followers of the faith of the prophet Ibrahim, who approved strict monotheism, made a pilgrimage to the Kaaba, it symbolizes the heavenly Kaaba, around which angels perform tawaf.

The Kaaba was the main pagan sanctuary of the Hijaz; in the center of the Kaaba was the idol of Hubal - the Nabatean deity of the Quraysh tribe in the form of a man with a golden hand (gold replaced the once broken hand).

The ancient Arabs considered him the lord of heaven, the lord of thunder and rain. There were other idols outside the Kaaba, most of which were shapeless stones, perhaps something similar to the Scythian and Polovtsian idols (women), where both cultures in ancient times had common roots and a common religious tradition, as well as a common geopolitical space. The cult of stones is the most ancient among primitive tribes and also existed among the Phoenicians and Canaanites.

Around the main deity were idols of other Arabian gods. According to legend, before the establishment of Islam in the sanctuary, there were 360 ​​idols, which, also, could represent all the days of the year (performed the function of calculating the calendar?).

Sacrifices were made around them. In the sanctuary and around it in the forbidden territory it was impossible to quarrel, take revenge on anyone, let alone shed blood - the Arab tribes worshiped different gods, but everyone equally honored the Kaaba. It was believed that if someone offends a pagan deity, he will inevitably be punished: he will get sick with leprosy or lose his mind. Jews, Christians, as well as Hanifs lived in Mecca - ascetics and followers of the faith of the prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) - pious people who professed strict monotheism, but did not reckon themselves with any of these religious communities.

Born in Mecca, a new prophet named Muhammad (according to the Koran - a descendant of the prophet Ibrahim) ordered the destruction of all idols and cleared the area around the Kaaba from them. At present, a giant Sacred Mosque has been erected around the Kaaba.

An important city of Ur in Babylon was Borsippa:

Borsippa (noise. Ba-ad-DUR-si-a-ab-ba or Badursiabba (lit. "Horn of the sea"); accad. 1) Barzipa, 2) Tintir IIkum-KI (lit. "Second Babylon", 3) Kinnir, Kinunir (lit. "Place of struggle")) is a city in Ancient Mesopotamia, 20 km southwest of Babylon, mentioned since the II dynasty of Ur.

Borsippa was generally politically dependent on Babylon and was one of the few major cities in Lower Mesopotamia that had never been the seat of any political power. Independence Borsippa lost with the capture of her Hammurabi.

The city was located near a large man-made lake, which was designated as the sea (Tamtu) and lay on the northwestern and western sides of the city. In the south direction there was a small bay of the lake, which was called as a horn. Borsippa was directly on this horn of the sea. This was his original name "Horn of the Sea" under Hammurabi acquired the new name of Borsippa (Barzipa). Also in religious texts, the city bore the epithets "Second Babylon" and "Place of struggle."

At first, Borsippa was the cult center of the god Tutu, who was later supplanted by the cult of the god of wisdom, Nabu, who became the city god of the city. The temple of Nabu - Ezid (“House of Eternity”) was built in the city, as well as the ziggurat - Euriminanki (“House of the Seven Lords of Heaven and Earth”), having a base of 82 × 82 m and, apparently, the same height. Borsippa was considered the city of the night sun, as a couple to Babylon, which was proclaimed the city of the daytime sun. Processions were made in close coordination between the priesthoods of both cities. On New Year's Eve, an idol of the god Nabu, the main god of Borsippa, was brought from Borsippa to Babylon along the Nar-Borsippa canal.

From the texts it is also known that the city was surrounded by walls bearing the name "Property of its surroundings", which are partially visible even today. Within the walls were numerous city gates that were dedicated to the respective gods. There was also a procession road between Borsippa and Babylon. The heyday of the city fell on the reign of the Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. The city existed until the Seleucid and even the Arab periods.

Excavations

The first excavations of the Borsippa ziggurat began in the middle of the 19th century thanks to Henry Ravlinson. Only in 1879/1880. under Hormuzd Rassam and in 1901/1902 under Robert Koldewey systematic excavations began to be carried out in Borsipp, until in 1980 Austrian excavations began, which stand under the organizational line of Helga Trenkwalder. Archaeological research from 1980 to 2000 was carried out by Wilfrid Allinger-Csollich, who concentrated on the exploration of the temple of Ezidi and the ziggurat. In 2001 and 2002, studies were carried out on the territory of the city of Borsippa from the Kaniuth embankment. Work was interrupted during the Iraqi wars, but resumed again and again. Many tablets of legal content and a number of literary and astronomical texts have already been found. They belong mainly to later periods, beginning with the Chaldean dynasty.

The large and impressive ruins of the ziggurat of Naboo, covered by the hill of Birs Nimrud, have long been mistaken for the ruins of the Tower of Babel. This error arose already in the time of the Talmud, not least because of the erroneous instructions of Herodotus. In addition, this tower is much better preserved than the "related" tower in Babylon. It still reaches a height of 50 m today, although it has been used for centuries as a quarry for extracting bricks. The real Tower of Babel was dismantled in antiquity. The fact is that Esagila by the middle of the 4th century. BC e. fell into disrepair and Alexander the Great, who chose Babylon as his capital, decided to restore this shrine. Work began, but the unexpected death of Alexander in 323 BC. e. and the ensuing struggle of the Diadochi interrupted them. But the Babylonians, on their own, continued to remove the ashes of Esagila, from which a huge hill of Homer was formed.

During the third Iraqi war, Borsippa suffered heavy damage.

Ur of the Chaldees

The most famous character in this text is Abram, whom God will later rename as Abraham. He is the ancestor of the Jews as well as the Arabs, and by his name the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam are called Abrahamic. Sarah is his wife, Lot is his nephew, notorious for having a vicious relationship with his daughters after his wife was turned into a pillar of salt during the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Ur and Harran are the most ancient cities of Mesopotamia, Ur was founded by the Sumerians.

An obvious question that arises in an attentive reader is why Terah and his family went to Canaan (that is, where Israel is now), but reached Haran and settled there. Here is a map depicting Abraham's journey. Why did the famous ancestors of the Jews give such a huge detour, couldn’t they, like Ilya Muromets, choose a straight path?

The second question is why Ur is called Chaldean? The Chaldeans at that time did not yet have a noticeable influence on the Babylonian cities. Only in the 9th century did the Chaldeans appear in the Akkadian cuneiform sources, by the middle of the 8th century they would begin to claim the Babylonian throne and, having seized it, in 586 they would destroy the Temple and take the Jews into Babylonian captivity. In the meantime, the Jews had not yet appeared and the Temple had not been built - so where did such a strange name come from in the homeland of Abraham?

The third question is related to the age of the characters. Terah was 70 years old (11:26) when Abraham was born, and Abraham was 75 years old when he left Haran (12:4). It turns out that when Abraham left Haran, Terah, his father, was 145 years old. But it is known that Terah died in Haran at the age of 205 (11:32). Why did Abraham and all his relatives leave the old man alone in Haran and not take him with them to Canaan?

The fourth question is of a textual nature. The Septuagint, an ancient translation of Scripture into Greek, renders Ur of the Chaldees as "χωρας των Χαλδαιως", the land of the Chaldees, which suggests that in the text before the Greek translator, it was not written אור כשדים, but ארץ כשד or כשיד ארץ כשד or כרד ד How did the "land of the Chaldeans" become the city of Ur of the Chaldees (or vice versa)?

And, finally, the last question - why does Abraham have two homelands? According to Genesis 11, Abraham's hometown is Ur of the Chaldees. However, in chapter 24, Abraham sends his servant home, and in chapter 29, Jacob flees there from the revenge of his brother Esau. Abraham's homeland according to these stories is Harran (29:2).

The two homelands of Abraham and the disagreement in the ages of Terah and Abraham lead us to the conclusion that there are two traditions connected in chapters 11-12 of the book of Genesis. In one tradition, Abraham's homeland is Harran, where he lives until the age of 65 and leaves it, having gone to Canaan after the death of his father. According to another tradition, Abraham was born in Ur of the Chaldees, and left it with his father, going to Canaan.

Imagine yourself in the place of the author of 11-12 chapters of Genesis. Both traditions were available to him, the second of which preserved genealogies, and the first consisted mainly of ancient legends. After describing the flood, present in both traditions, he described the genealogies of Noah's children, essentially giving us the names of the ancient peoples and place names of the Near East. The sons of Shem are Elam, Ashur, Lud, Arpakhshad and Aram (Gen. 11:22). Ashur is Assyria, Aram is the Arameans, Elam is the Elamites, Lud is probably Lydia. (We do not know where Arpakhshad is located. Perhaps this is another name for Babylon). Further, the author inserted the story of the Tower of Babel from the first tradition and gave the genealogy from Arpakhshad to Abraham, according to his source with genealogies. Here he is faced with a problem - according to a source with ancient legends, Abraham's homeland is in Aram, where the city of Harran is located, from where Isaac and Jacob got their wives - Rivka and Rachel with Leah, and according to genealogy, Abraham comes from Arpakhshad, and not at all from Aram, brother of Arpakhshad.

This is what made the author at the beginning send Abraham from the country of Arpachshad to the country of Aram, to the city of Harran. This means that in the original text it was not אור כשדימ - Ur of the Chaldees (as in the Hebrew text) and not ארץ כשד - "Chaldean land" (as in the original Septuagint), but ארפכשד - Arpachshad. But the country of Arpakhshad was not known to the participants in the further formation of the biblical text (as well as to us), and they considered this strange word a mistake. The last 3 letters of this word כשד coincided with the name of the people "whom you did not know" - the Chaldeans, so the scribes separated these three letters. And with the remaining word, the participants in the Masoretic textual tradition and the tradition of the Septuagint acted differently. The former removed the letter פ, considering it a mistake and received אר כשד Ur of the Chaldees, while the latter replaced the letter פ with the letter צ, and ארפכשד "Arpakhshad" became "the land of the Chaldeans" - ארצ כשד.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Prophet Abraham was born in the Sumerian city of Ur - in the Holy Scriptures he is called Ur of the Chaldees. When the biblical righteous man was already an adult, married man, his father, Terah, suddenly decides to leave his homeland and sets off on a difficult journey to Canaan, taking his sons, daughters-in-law and grandson with him. On the way, Terah dies, Abraham remains the eldest in the family. The prophet does not try to go back to where he spent his childhood and youth. He hears the call of God to continue the journey, as well as the Creator's vow to produce from him, who at that time had no offspring, a great nation.

The book of Genesis, in which this story is told, passes over in silence the reasons that led Terah to set out on her journey. Why did the Chaldean Ur turn out to be objectionable to the father of Abraham? Until the twentieth century, no one imagined what kind of city it was. However, after a scientific expedition undertaken by the British archaeologist Charles Woolley, it became clear that in the twentieth century BC it was a metropolis that, without exaggeration, could be called the capital of the world.

Expert comment:

Excavations carried out at the site of an ancient settlement, near the modern Iraqi city of Tell el-Muqayyar, showed that the inhabitants of Ur lived mainly in large two-story stone cottages, which had thirteen to fourteen rooms. Palaces and temples were of extraordinary splendor. Weapons, utensils and jewelry made of precious materials were found in abundance on the excavation site. Among the finds of Charles Woolley, which thundered all over the world, is the so-called standard of war and peace - two decorative metal panels inlaid with lapis lazuli and mother-of-pearl depicting battle scenes and the peaceful life of the Sumerians. Ursk harps, the oldest musical instruments known in the history of mankind, were also found here.

After studying a large cuneiform archive acquired during the research, scientists learned that Ur was the capital of an empire that lived according to clearly formulated laws. In the state there was a division of labor and a market for the exchange of its results. Some were engaged in breeding small and large livestock, others processed wool, twisted yarn and wove linen, and still others sewed clothes from linen. Crafts such as carpentry, leather manufacturing, jewelry art were developed, and the construction of small reed boats was widespread, on which goods were transported along the rivers and canals laid throughout the country. Among the cuneiform records, mathematical tables have been preserved, which included calculations from simple addition of sums to formulas for extracting square and cube roots.
However, the splendor of life in the Chaldean city of Ur had a downside…