BABYLON, THE FIRST DYNASTY

After discussing the Amorites, it is time to discuss the their greatest civilization   "BABYLON" named after the city of Babel which means the gate of the gods. Since so many events took place, we will concentrate on their political system and scientific marvels.

The first Babylon dynasty ( 1830 BC – 1580 BC)

They had 11 kings in all but we will pick the ones that made a huge difference:

1 – Sumu-Aboom ( 1830 BC- 1817BC) was the first king of Babylon, he did not care much about building, science or art, except for a few temples in Ur. He made use of the terrible amnesty between the rulers of Isen and Larsa and expanded his city to include the famous city of Kish and faced the Assyrian prince Eylo-Shuma when he occupied Dalbat in the North.

2 – Somula-Elu (1816 BC – 1718 BC) was the second king, he occupied all the Akkadian territory including Sippar and Akkad. He also changed the main gods from the ancient Amuro to Merdoch and also gave the godess Ishtar a very high position thus changing the whole Sumerian - Akkadian theology .

3 – HAMURABI (1728 BC – 1686 BC) The sixth king of Babylon and the greatest, he used his wisdom and strength to make Babylon an empire by unifying all of Iraq and occupying both Elam and the Levant. He was surrounded by enemies so he had to make treaties some times and sometimes go to war

As seen on the map Yamut-Bal that extended from the east of the Euphrates all the way to Elam and was backed and an ally of the Elamites and was ruled by Rim – Seen. In the North the Assyrian's, lead by the famous Shamshi-Od, and to the West was Mari ruled by Zamri- Lam an Amorite that preferred to deal with the Levant instead of Babylon.

So he starts his conquest by first invading all Assyria including their capital at the time Ashur. Afterwards, he immediately made a peace treaty with them to cover his back while invading Yamut- Bal which he did and even went west to occupy all of Elam. Finally he drove east and destroyed Mari and burnt Zamri – Lam palace. It was time for him to start building his new empire and set forward the laws that governs the people and state by inscribing it on a hard basalt stone 7.4 ft. high now available in Paris. When you read those laws you cannot help but recognize the greatness of these people and the sophisticated society they had which required such laws. The society was divided into 3 casts : the Awilum whom where the free and the rich, the Mushkinum whom were free but poor and finally the Wardum whom were the slaves whom according to the laws they were paid according to the job he completes, and these are the 12 sections or chapters of Hamurabi law,

1 – the army

2 – slaves rights and duties

3 – buying and selling

4 – amusement

5 – fines and reimbursement

6 – price control

7 – animal wages

8 – family matters

9 – the filed and the house

10- commerce and merchants

11 – stealing

12- witnesses and judiciary system

Now we come to the second part where I have to concentrate on math and geometry which was highly advanced to the point their knowledge was used by the later Greeks and far advanced than the Egyptian's. They had one advantage and that was the Sumerian knowledge that superseded them and they used this knowledge to build the tower of Babel, the famous gate of blue color and plan the cities and roads.
Their numeral system was just like the Sumerian was a Sexagesimal meaning based on the number 60 and not on ten like we do, arguably we used the tenth system which the Sumerians used in the beginning because we have ten fingers, but they used 60 instead because of the many numbers that divide by 60, like 1,2,3,4,6,10,12,15,20 and30,which makes the use of fractions less and easier to use with their astrology measurements. And they had 2 symbols only

the one on the left is 10 and the sticks like are 1 each.

And this is their numeral system

Number 60 is exactly like number one, but of course will be on the left with a gap and the rest of the number, complicated not really once you learn it

 So I will explain with this example

And the result would be

They used the gap to denote the positional value and this was one of their inventions, they were so brilliant in math that they figured the value of π to be 3.125 which is close to what we use now which is equal to 3.14, this allowed them to calculate arches, circles dimensions etc…,

Several tablets were found regarding math and geometry but the most important are the Yale, Colombia universities and Sosa tablets

Yale tablet shows their understanding of the value of root 2 and this example shows a square of side equals 30 x root 2 equals the length of the diagonal

 They also  knew the Pythagoras theorem of right angles more than a thousand years before the Greek mathematician.. We have to admire their work especially if we always remember it was done 3715 years ago according to the Sosa tablet below

THE DARKEST DAY IN ISLAMIC HISTORY

The Islamic world mourns tomorrow 10^th of Muharam 1437AH(AFTER HIJRA OR MIGRATION OF THE PROPHET MOHAMAD FROM MEKKAH TO MADINA ACCORDING TO THE ARABIC LUNAR CALENDAR) the martyrdom of Husain ibn ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib (Arabic: الحسين بن علي بن أبي طالب‎‎;

(born 8 January 626 – died 10 October 680) , also spelled as , Hussain or Hussein, was the son of Ali ibn Abi Ṭalib (fourth Rashidun Caliph of Sunni Islam, and first Imam of Shia Islam) and Fatimah Zahra (daughter of Prophet Muhammad) and the younger brother of Hassan. Husain is an important figure in Islam, as he is a member of the Ahl al-Bayt(the household of Muhammad) and Ahl al-Kisa, as well as being the third Shia Imam.

Husain the grandson of Prophet Mohammad is highly regarded by Shia Muslims because he refused to pledge allegiance to Yazid I, the Umayyad caliph because he considered the rule of the Umayyad's unjust and deviated from the Islam teaching. As a consequence, he left Medina, his home town, and traveled to Mecca. There, the people of Kufa sent letters to him, asking his help and pledging their allegiance to him. So he traveled towards Kufa. At Karbala his caravan was intercepted by Yazid I's army. He was killed and beheaded in the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD by Shimr Ibn Thil-Jawshan, along with most of his family and companions. The annual memorial for him, his family, his children and his companions is called Ashura (tenth day of Muharram) and is a day of mourning for Shiite Muslims. The killings at Karbala fueled the later Shiite movements. Anger at Husain's death was turned into a rallying cry that helped undermine and ultimately overthrow the Umayyad Caliphate.

THE MARTYR HEAD KEPT ON A POLE IN FRONT OF HIS FAMILY CONVOY AND TRAVELLED FOR 460 MILES LIKE THIS FROM KARBALA TO DAMASCUS

It was an unfair battle between 74 of imam Husain followers in front of 4000 soldiers from the other side, yet the battle commenced and all the 74 killed, the martyr blood shock the Islamic world at the time and was the reason for so many revolts that ended the Umayyad rule in Kufa

THE AMORITES

In a continuation to the Mesopotamian civilizations research and before touching on the Babylonians, we have to research the Amorites because they are the seed for the Babylonians and their existence has affected the historical chain of events. I will follow the theory of Prof. Kaza'al Al-Majidi of the origin of the Amorites. So I have to give the reader a brief of Prof. Al-Majidi, born in Iraq 1951, completed his studies in history from Baghdad university, then took his PhD in ancient history religions and civilizations, worked as a history tutor in Libya, Romania and Holland where he resides now, published 50 books in his field of studies one of which was the "Amorite's beliefs" which most of this material was taken from. 

There were many theories about the origins of the Amorites but without archeological support or was out of the sequence in historical events, for example it was thought that their origins were from Arabia, the Red sea, Sinai or the Gulf are all not backed by scientific evidence, but what we know about the Amorites is that in 4000 BC those Semites dwelled along the Western side of the Euphrates River and the Western desert and according to the Prof. AL-Majidi they inhibited the famous archeological site of Ubaid( which ceased to be inhibited by 3500 BC when the Sumerians era started). They had close relations with the Sumerians who called them "Martu" named after the name of the god of the nomads. They were also called "Amuru" by the Akkadians which means the people of the West as they have lived to the West of the Euphrates and the desert. 

           (We have to refer back to this map that is why I circled the important sites)

This image taken from the Ubaid site the birth place of the Amorites  

                                    

In 3500 BC with rise of the Sumerian city states and their power, the Amorites split into 3 migrating groups named after their gods (see map)

1)      A group headed North to Syria and Northern Iraq and later established Aram which means the high lands and their god was Rum or Ram

2)      A group headed West to the Mediterranean and established Canaan which means low land( the Prof. states that were called Shamites when they were in Mesopotamia before migrating which relates to god Shm or Shamim god of the skies or heavens) 

3)      The final group went to the centre of the Euphrates and resided in Mari, and one of their gods was called Mur or Mar

Prof. Al-Majidi research reached the conclusion that all the 3 groups share the same theology starting from sharing the mother god "Yem" which is the high god, also the planets and the lower world gods, in addition they share the same traditions and habits and finally their folklore or mythology is exactly the same which leaves no doubt that they were one entity. Also we cannot ignore the names of their new kingdoms relates to the names of their gods, he also concludes that all the Canaanites whom were called Shamites then the word turned to Semites were the people that migrated to the Levant from Mesopotamia.

MARI

The Amorites first encounter with power was in the desert city of Mari which gained its importance from the trade route between Mesopotamia and the North. They were given self determination by the Sumerian kings, so they had their own kings to rule with partial independence and started using cuneiform writing in the year 2600 BC as shown in the tablets. This was also true when Sargon of Akkad came to power after the fall of Sumer. As the Akkadian empire became weaker in time and the Amorites gaining power, they tried to gain full independence but unfortunately for them the last of the strong Akkadian kings Sha-Kali-Shari managed to defeat them. They had to wait till the year 2004 BC after the Semites of Akkad and the Amorites joined forces to defeat the last kingdom of Kish, and started their first kingdom of Isen.

ISEN

The first true kingdom of the Amorites, was ruled by 15 kings for 225 years, and the first ruler was Ashby-Eira and was named the king of Sumer and Akkad in a show of power and greatness and ruled from 1959 BC till 1927 BC, after the fall of the resurrected  third dynasty of Ur to the Elamites.The kingdom flourished with science, might and even laws since king Libat-Ishtar whom ruled from 1875 till 1865 BC wrote the first law and that was 150 years before the law of Hammurabi, taken from the laws of Ur 3^rd dynasty and Ashnuna. But like every kingdom in ancient history, it fell to the Elamites in the year 1780 BC,  and was revenged later on by the Babylonians whom where Amorites by origin and even invaded Elam to the East .

EBLA

The Amorites established this kingdom in the North and was a centre of later established cities and kingdoms in Syria like Yekmed in Aleppo and Totul in Heit today North Iraq and the kingdom of Ammuru east of Al-ASSY River, it was finally destroyed by the Hittites in the year 1200 BC.

The nomadic people called the Amorites, managed to get civilized thanks to Sumer and Akkad and to establish cities and kingdoms and later empires like we will learn later about the first dynasty of Babylon.  

SARGON OF AKKAD,THE FIRST EMPEROR

Sargon or Shirukhan in the Akkadian language was the first Emperor in history, established and ruled the empire of AKKAD for 56 years from the year 2334 BC till 2278 BC, a very rare personality in the beginning of history, unequal in his determination that led him to greatness and whom the Babylonians in their chronicles wrote about him in the year 550 BC that is 1700 years later, his presence echoed over all the history of Mesopotamia.

Birth and childhood:

He was born in the city of Azupirano which means saffron in the Semite language of Akkad, we have no record of its where about exactly but according to the site gates of Iraq, it is located near Sippar as shown in the map it is next to the Euphrates River.

His mother was a priestess in the temple of the goddess Inanna, and we really do not know his name because Sargon is a position not a name and it means "legitimate king" or true king which basically means that he killed the existing king to become one, and hundreds of years later whenever somebody kills another king and take the throne becomes a Sargon. To continue with his autobiography maybe we should let Sargon speak for himself as written on a clay tablet during his reign

Sargon, the mighty king, king of Agade, am I.
My mother was a changeling, my father I knew not.
The brother(s) 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 not (over) me,
The river bore me up and carried me to Akki, the
    drawer of water.
Akki, the drawer of water lifted me out as he dipped his
    e[w]er.
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,
The black-headed [people] I ruled, I gov[erned];
Mighty [moun]tains with chip-axes of bronze I con-
    quered,

This tablet was found in the city of Nineveh in 1867 by the archeologist sir Henry Rawlinson and translated by J.B.Pitchard in his book the ancient near east

                                      THE BIRTH STORY OF SARGON CLAY TABLET

In brief he was an illegitimate son of a priestess and in similar story to that of prophet Mosses he was cast into the river to reach Akki the gardener of king UR-ZABABA king of KISH.

YOUTH: Sargon after years of working in the garden was promoted to be the king's cup-bearer meaning the one who pours wine to the king, and the king of Kish trusted him and would discuss with him the state's matters, until the king saw a dream with goddess Inanna telling him that he will drawn in a pool of blood, it was time for the king to get rid of Sargon as an interpretation of the dream, by sending him to the king of Uruk (refer to the map above to know the locations of these state cities) king Lugal-Zage-Si whom was also the king of Umma in an effort to unify Sumer, with a message sealed in an envelope(clay envelopes imagine that) asking the king to kill him. The king of Uruk refused to do it as he was preparing to invade Kish, and he did but in a very nasty way destroying the city and killing a lot of people. Sargon after seeing that went back to his birth place Azupiranu which he called it later Akkad and from there he started thinking of a complete plan, so he led an army from his home and Kish and surprised Uruk in a counter attack that surprised the people of Uruk, he came out of the battle victorious and pulled the king of Uruk like a dog (as the tablets say) to Nippur and killed him there in front of the high temple.

Kingship: His rule was unique for the time, because he never claimed to be of a divine origin but on the contrary he claimed to be from the people and was the first king ever to rule multiethnic and multi-religious societies in fairness, in fact he was the first secular ruler that never engaged religion with the state. And because of his philosophy of ruling, he managed to unify the Sumerians and the Semites under one state of Akkad, where he encouraged the continuation of art, music, silence and literature

The statue of Sargon shows the great detail and the level they have reached in art, using lead for the first time.

After the unification he then went south to conquer the entire gulf, in an ingenious plan for the future to secure his commercial shipping route to the East Asia

Then he went North and captured all the states up to the Mediterranean and even crossed the sea to capture Cyprus, and on his way back the people of Elam was plotting to attack his new empire so he led army east and captured Elam and Sosa, and by this his empire was complete and trade started for the first time from the Mediterranean to east Asia.

Death: The name of Sargon's primary wife Tashlultum and those of a number of his children are known to us. His daughter Enheduanna, who flourished was a priestess who composed ritual hymns. Many of her works, including her Exaltation of Inanna, were in use for centuries thereafter. Sargon was succeeded by his son, Rimush whom like his father quieted all the revolts that occurred after hearing about the death of Sargon; after Rimush's death another son, Manishtushu, became king. Two other sons, Shu-Enlil (Ibarum) and Ilaba'is-takal (Abaish-Takal), are known.

The Akkadian empire was disestablished in the year 2154 BC a total of 180 years.

THE SUMERIAN'S MYSTERIES

I want to thank Mr. Clark for giving me this opportunity also Mr. Crow for sharing the idea of writing about history because it's beauty is that it takes you in a journey through time when mankind out of nothing established civilizations that contributed to humanity till today and it repeats its self every once in a while if the circumstances are the same, and to understand where did knowledge derive from and how did it develop. So it is best to start by defining civilization because there were human settlements in China, and Europe evident from their tools and houses but not considered as civilizations which is:    " An advanced state of human society in which high level of culture, science, industry and government has been reached'. And what better place to start with but the Sumerians, the first civilization in the history of mankind and the most intriguing because of its mysteries that could not be solved till today.

Located in south of today's Iraq and made up of 12 different cities each with its own high walls, deity and governing system.(7 major cities shown on the map)

The first settlement was 4000 BC in Eurido and slowly with the migrations of people from the north of Iraq whom had experience in farming and irrigation, and people from the south meaning the Gulf area whom where called the black heads in the Sumerian tablets. Sumer as a civilization reached its peak at the Bronze Age 3200 BC, with astrology, math, music, art and literature, but we cannot cover the whole thing so I will concentrate on 3 elements and show their unexplained advances in those fields.

Writing: the first ever recorded writing was by the Sumerians using symbols on a clay tablets then letting those clay tablets dry to preserve them, and to accomplish that they started making cylindrical seals made from semi precious stone and roll it over the clay to imprint it.

Those seals where about an inch in size, and the unexplained is how they engraved these symbols precisely with the tools available at the time on a hard stone, how did they shape that cylinder and the symbols had to be reversed or negative on the cylinder to imprint positively on the clay and finally let us not forget that this was 5500 years ago. Later the cuneiform writing was used in 3100 BC up until the old Persian civilization in 520 BC.

The most mysterious among all the cylinder seals where these two

                                         FIG. 1

                                         FIG. 2

These 2 seals will take us to the second element in the Sumerian civilization

ASTROLOGY: Although this was the first civilization yet their knowledge in astrology are mind boggling, they kept records of planets locations, the high and low tide, and made the year into 30 or 29 days establishing the Lunar calendar. And if we go back to fig.1 and study the encircled figure, it shows clearly our solar system , now here is an exploded view to the study made by the famous Prof. Sitchin

I increased the font for the planet names to be seen and added the asteroid belt shown as a planet in the Sumerian cylinder seal which by the way called seal VA243

One would ask how we figured that out. Let us look at fig 2 you will see Saturn with its famous ring. Jupiter, the Asteroid belt, Mars then on top Earth and moon. The exact location we know it today. So far so good, but these people flourished 5500 years ago and the 4 last planets to be discovered where

1 - Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781.

2 - Neptune was discovered by John Couch Adams in 1846.

3 - Pluto was discovered by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930

4 - Asteroid belt was discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801

We know for sure they were good in math in fact they reached the knowledge of a quadratic equations , but still that does not tell us how they calculated the planets positions since these planets requires a telescope to see even if they had high rise buildings, which is our subject.

Ziggurat:

Also called temple towers is basically a stepped pyramid and the most famous is the ziggurat of UR built by the king UR-NAMMU in honor for the sun god in the year 2100 BC.

And it was used as a temple, court , observatory and a symbol of power. 

But the oldest was located in Erido and is estimated to be built in 2900 BC and its ruins was found in 2011 and it resembles the UR ziggurat yet much smaller as the archaeologists reconstructed the ziggurat on computers from the size of the ruins shown below

The Egyptians were fascinated by it and built the first pyramid in Sakkara which was an imitation of the Sumerian ziggurat but for a different purpose, it was used as a tomb for Pharaoh Djoser in the year 2630 BC as seen in the fig. below

You notice clearly that it looks like it is made from bricks, but really it is made from carved stone to brick size as Egypt is not short of stones available on both sides of the Nile, but whoever copied the ziggurat could not help but copy the smallest details. Another similarity is the stepped pyramid and it is the only one like this in Egypt, and the later ones in Giza were all made from big size stones with no steps

In conclusion: there are a lot more to talk about this great civilization, especially their knowledge of math, dividing the hour into 60 minutes and the minute into 60 seconds and more of what was given to humanity to use it as a base for further advancement.