Second part of our translation of the comparative study, hitherto unpublished in Italian, on the ancient religions of Jerusalem and Mecca. Edited by Andrea Casella.
di Hildegard Lewy
«Archiv Orientalàlnì», Prague, vol. 18, folder 3 (Nov. 1, 1950) pp. 330-365.
Translation by Andrea Casella. Continued from PART I
Šalim's relationship with the Temple on Mount Morîịâ
Applying the information thus assembled on the cult of the planet Saturn to the pre-Israelite cult of Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon, we begin by calling attention to two significant outward features of the sanctuary of Mount Morîịâ. In The Kings, VI, 20, it is reported that the Sancta Sanctorum it measured 20 cubits both in length, width and height. It therefore had the same characteristic cube shape which, judging by its very name "Cube", the Ka'ba of Mecca must have had from the beginning [1]. Further detail is revealed by the passage of Canticle of Canticles I, 5, where a country girl exclaims: “I am black, but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem; like the camps of Kedar, like the tents of Solomon." In the step of Cosmography by ad-Dimišqî quoted above, p. 339, black curtains are listed as one of the typical features of the temples of Saturn. Is it perhaps not just a coincidence that the Ka'aba, today as in the first centuries of Islam, is covered by a black cloth [2].
Returning now to the doctrine of the original religion of Jerusalem, we observe first that Šulmânu, the patron god of the city, was revered, just like the Assyro-Babylonian Ninurta, together with his divine paredra; in fact, when the cuneiform lists of gods mention a goddess Šulmânîtum who is defined as “Ištar of Jerusalem”, there is no doubt, as J. Lewy first pointed out [3], which refer to the bride of Šulmânu. In the absence of data about the nature of this goddess [4] it is perhaps pertinent to mention that immediately below the western limit of the temple area, there is a well, now known as Ḥammâm aš-šifâ, "The Bath of Healing", whose water, like that of Zemzem in Mecca, is bitter and almost undrinkable, but which according to Muslims has the power to heal from diseases [5]. If we admit, as proposed above [6], that the thaumaturgical effect of Zemzem water represents the healing power of the goddess Gula, the "great healer" and wife of the planet Saturn, the same effect attributed to the Jerusalem well should indicate that, in the cult of Jerusalem, the healing goddess had the same prerogatives it had in Mecca and in the most ancient places that were sacred to the planet Saturn.
Much more important from the point of view of the present discourse are certain traditions which link wells and watercourses precisely with the area of the temple. In the Jerusalem Talmud we read the following story [7]: when David was digging channels for the temple, he penetrated to a depth of 115 cubits, but did not reach the abyssal waters (tehom). He finally came across a stone, which he wanted to remove, but the stone warned him not to, for it was there to cover the chasm. When, in defiance of that warning, David lifted up the stone, the tehom it rose to the surface and threatened to flood the earth. So it was decided to engrave the Lord's Name on the stone and throw it into the overflowing waters. Immediately the flood stopped, but the waters subsided so much that the land was threatened by drought.
The beginning of this legend vividly recalls a passage from the Annals of Aššûr-nâṣir-apli [Assurnasirpal ed], where, describing the preparations for the construction of the temple of Ninurta in Kalḫu, the Assyrian king makes himself say: "I dug up to the water level, up to a depth of 120 brick layers [8] I arrived. The temple of Ninurta, my Lord, I have established in the center" [9]. The reason why David and Aššûr-nâṣir-apli had dug up to the level of the waters of the abyss is somewhat clarified by the fact that inside the Ka'ba of Mecca there is a well on the mouth of which was placed, in the ancient pre-Islamic statue of the god Hubal [10]. That still in the Islamic period this well, today dried up, was communicating with the underground water derives from an annotation by al-Bîrûnî [11] according to which, at the time of 'Arafa's pilgrimage, it was always full of water, so that pilgrims could quench their thirst [12]. It is significant that in Mecca and, apparently, also in the temple of Ninurta in Kalḫu, the well communicating with the underground waters was inside the sanctuary and not, as was usual in other ancient oriental temples, in the respective courtyard [13]. Thus this peculiarity suggests that a special relationship was believed to exist between the deity of the sanctuary and the deep waters, which the Jews called tehom. The nature of this relationship is clarified by the aforementioned circumstance whereby the statue of Hubal was positioned at the mouth of the well; for this indicates that the god was believed to prevent the rising of the underworld and the flood on earth with his body.
There is now evidence that this same belief was once rooted in Jerusalem. In the Talmudic legend just quoted, it was a stone, generally designated in Jewish literature as Eben Šeṯîịâ, which held the tehom within its borders [14]. Now, according to other passages found in post-biblical sources, the Temple of Solomon was built in such a way that the Eben Šeṯîịâ was in the center of the Sancta Sanctorum [15], and upon it stood the Ark of the Covenant, Yahweh's throne on earth. So it is clear that, just as in the Ka'aba Hubal stood at the mouth of the well which connected the sanctuary with the abysmal waters, in the same way Yahweh was enthroned in the Temple of Jerusalem at the opening from which it was believed that the waters of the tehom they would flood the earth [16]. However, before the task of keeping the devastating deep waters under control was attributed to Yahweh, another god seems to have had this prerogative in Jerusalem: the god represented by the Eben Šeṯîịâ.
That divine honors were actually rendered to this stone by the Jews is particularly clear from the famous news contained in theItinerarium Hierosolymitanum of the Pilgrim of Bordeaux about the “lapis pertusus, ad quem veniunt Judaei singulis annis et ointment eum et complainant se cum moanitu…” [17]. Further proof in this sense is given by the fact that, as well as the sacred stones of the pagan Arabs [18], on Eben Šeṯîịâ sacrificial blood was sprinkled [19] and incense was burnt upon it [20]. It is equally significant, in spite of the importance which, judging by post-biblical traditions, the stone seems to have had in the ritual of the Temple of Solomon, that no mention is made of it in the biblical passages dedicated to the building of the sanctuary. It is evident that the biblical authors considered the Eben Šeṯîịâ such a gross remnant of paganism as to refuse to report it [21].
It is now a well-known fact that among the Semites, and particularly among the ancient inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula, stones often received divine honors. [22]. The real character of this cult of stones is easily explained if we remember that it was practiced by the same populations among which the adoration of the stars originated [23], and in particular of the seven planets. The connection between the cult of the stars and the veneration of stones is clarified by a passage from the work of Sanchoniatone-Philo of Byblos, where it is said that meteorites, being considered "stars fallen from the sky", had a prominent role in the religion of the Phoenicians . It is important to note that the meteorite referred to by the Phoenician author was found and worshiped at "Tire, the sacred isle" [24]. The name of this sacred meteorite from Tire can be taken from the treaty concluded between Aššûr-aḫ-idinna and Ba'al, king of Tire [25]. As usual in documents of this kind, the treaty ends with a list of gods that each of the contracting parties invokes to punish the defaulter to the agreed terms. Now the first of the gods witnessed by the king of Tire is called dBa-a-ti-ilâni.meš, a name in which Langdon [26] recognizes West Semitic Betel [27] well known from the Bible and from the theophores of the Semitic West [28]. That this god of Tyre Betel whether actually the sacred meteorite mentioned by Sanchoniatone-Philo of Byblos derives from a further reference present in the work of this author, where Βαιτύλια are generally understood as "inspired stones" (λίϑοι ἐνψῦχοι) [29].
To understand the full implications of this definition, let us call attention to what ancient star worshipers believed about the nature of their gods. Since, as will be shown elsewhere, these ideas remained essentially unchanged from the period attested by cuneiform sources up to the Middle Ages, we summarize, for convenience, the information from aš-Šahrastânî (Haarbrücker, op. cit., II, pp. 66 ff. ) and ad-Dimišqî (op. cit., p. 47): It was believed that the planetary gods were of a spiritual nature (رﻮﺤﺍﻧﻭﻥ) [ruhanun ed] but that they had their own particular abodes (هيكل) [haiâkil ed] or their particular bodies (ﺑﻌﻦ) [abdan ed]. These haiâkil o abdan of the planetary deities are the seven wandering stars visible in the sky, and the rûḥO spirit, of each of them is to his own Haikal as the human soul is to the human body. Since the Arabic term Haikal, “temple”, “sanctuary”, carries with it the same idea as the Hebrew bêṯ êl or Akkadian bit ili, we understand that the meteorites venerated by the ancient Semites were conceived as divine beings of the same nature as the planets: they too consisted of a visible abode, a bit o Haikal, inspired and inhabited by a rûḥ, or soul.
These deductions are of particular interest to the subject of this discussion because the most famous of the sacred stones of the Arabs, the Ḥağar al-aswad of the Ka'aba in Mecca, is actually a meteorite [30]. Since, on the other hand, this Black Stone was worshiped in a shrine dedicated to the cult of the "Black Planet" Saturn [31], we can assume that a black meteorite or a black stone resembling a meteorite were considered a fragment of the "Black Planet", that is, a part of the body of a great god which, therefore, was worthy of being venerated like the planet itself [32]. Thus it is evident that the well which connected the temple with the underworld could have been sealed either with the statue of the god or with the black meteorite; in any case it was the body of the god that was believed to resist the inundation of the earth by the waters of the subsoil. Again, the question could be raised as to why in some cases a black stone and in others an image of the god fulfilled this function. The answer to this question can be obtained from the aforementioned medieval treatises which set out the opinions of the worshipers of the stars regarding their divinities: in their belief, man can address prayers and supplications only to a being that is visible to him.
Since each planet has more or less long periods of occultation, the faithful had found it necessary to create images and statues of their gods to which they could address their prayers at any time [33]. However, if in the guise of a black meteorite a piece of the body of the astral deity was visible to the faithful at all times, placing an anthropomorphic idol in a temple was obviously unnecessary. It would appear, therefore, that when Hubal's image was placed over the well within the Ka'aba, the "Black Stone" was temporarily hidden from the eyes of the faithful. Tradition actually confirms this deduction. It is known that in Muhammad's younger years the Ka'aba underwent restoration [34]. Judging by the methods followed in the reconstruction of the temple of Saturn in Kalḫu [35], one should expect that this reconstruction too had been preceded by the search for the connecting well between the sanctuary and the abyssal waters. Indeed, our sources are aware of this research; it is reported that 'Abd al-Muṭṭalib, Muhammad's grandfather in whose house the future prophet grew up, had a dream in which the long-forgotten location of the well of Zemzem was revealed to him [36]. The story goes on to tell that 'Abd al-Muṭṭalib, digging at the place he had seen in a dream, finally found the well and within it the sacred Black Stone [37], which was later placed by Muhammad in its current location.
The similarity of this story to the Talmudic legend of David's finding of the Eben Šeṯîịâ during the excavation of the well, in preparation for the construction of the temple, is too impressive to be a mere coincidence. Since, moreover, our sources report that the Black Stone "closed the opening of the well of Zemzen so well" [38], it is clear that there must have been a time when the Ḥağar al-aswad sealed the well of Zemzem in the same way as it Eben Šeṯîịâ closed the well placed under the Sancta Sanctorum in the Temple of Solomon.
Finally, however, perhaps as a result of one of the natural catastrophes so frequent in Mecca, the site of the well, and with it the black stone, were lost [39]. It then became necessary to build a statue that would take the place of the stone as the visible symbol of the god. In turn, by the time the stone was recovered by 'Abd al-Muṭṭalib, the statue had now served its purpose and could be removed. There was therefore no break with the ancient religion of Mecca when Muhammad got rid of the statue after he himself had placed the Ḥağar al-aswad in a place where it was within the reach of the eyes and lips of the faithful.
To return now to the Eben Šeṯîịâ of the Temple in Jerusalem, our sources leave no doubt that, rightly or wrongly, it was considered to be of cosmic origin. In fact, we repeatedly find references like this: “God cast a stone into the tehom, and upon it the world was founded" [40]. We therefore have no reason to doubt that the Eben Šeṯîịâ had the same function in Jerusalem as it did there Ḥaĝar al-aswad in Mecca.
On the basis of these conclusions, therefore, we are now able to provide at least an outline of that part of Ninurta's Epic which is missing from the existing cuneiform version, namely that which deals with the way in which Ninurta turned the battle against the flood [41]: he is supposed to have won the victory by throwing a piece of his own body into the furious waters, which were thus forced to retreat.
As stated above (p. 336), Ninurta's victory forced the flood waters to retreat so deeply that the opposite scourge of drought threatened mankind. It will be noted that this detail from the Nippur epic has an exact parallel with the Talmudic legend above (above, p. 344), where it is reported that when David threw into the rising flood the stone engraved with the Holy Name, the waters subsided so rapidly that the land fell into drought. It is in further harmony with the traditions of other cities sacred to Saturn when post-biblical Jewish sources report that Jerusalem was the first city to be created and that it was built around the Sancta Sanctorum, in the center of which was placed lo Eben Šeṯîịâ [42]. That in Jerusalem, as also in Nippur, Byblos [43] and Mecca [44] the patron god of the city was also considered its founder can be deduced with particular clarity from the name of Jerusalem which, as mentioned above, means "Creation of Šalim".
Since our previous discussion has shown that the legends surrounding the Temple of Solomon and its divine founder are fundamentally identical to those narrated in other centers of the cult of Saturn, the question arises whether any trace of the sacrifice of the Saturn can be found in the Jerusalem tradition. son who, missing in the Nippur material, seems to have been part of the cults of Byblos and Mecca. With respect to this we certainly recall the well-known story of Gen. XXII which tells of how Abraham was called to offer his favorite son, Isaac, as a sacrifice to God. If it is possible to demonstrate that the place where this sacrifice was to be made was Mount Morîịâ, the sacred site in Šalim where Eben Šeṯîịâ barred the passage to the waters of the flood, it would then be clear that it was Šalim to whom the sacrifice was devoted. To be certain, post-biblical Jewish writers assumed that Solomon's Temple was built on the site where Isaac was about to be killed [45]; however, some modern scholars have objected that in Gen. XXII, 2 the sacrifice scene takes place in אֶרֶץ הַמּׄרׅיׇּה while the temple mount is called הַר־הַמּׄורׅיׇּה. In evaluating this apparent divergence it should be remembered that in ancient Syria and Palestine a region often bore the same name as the mountain which constitutes its most evident topographical feature.
A relevant example of this nomenclature is provided by the Bible. In The Kings, XVI, 24 it is reported that 'Omri conquered Mount Šomrôn and built a city on its slopes which he also called Šomrôn [46]. That this name also applied to the surrounding area follows from passages such as II King, XVII, 26 and XXIII, 19, which speak of “the cities ('ârê) of Šomrôn”, thus implying that the name Šomrôn was used in reference not only to the mountain and the city that bore this name [47], but also to the surrounding villages. Since cuneiform sources and medieval Arab authors attest to the custom of designating a city, the surrounding territory and the main mountain of the region with a single and unique name, it is clear that, at least as regards Syria and Palestine, this nomenclature was used through the ages. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that ארץ המריה was the designation of the city-state whose most striking geographical feature was הר־המריה; in other words, ארץ המריה appears to be the kingdom to which the aforementioned letter VAT 1646 refers as mâtÚ-ru-sa-lim-ki, “the land of Jerusalem”.
The conclusion that the “country of Morîịâ” was the region surrounding Mount Morîịâ is confirmed by the name Morîịâ itself. As long recognized by Old Testament scholars [48], this name derives from the root ירה which, as mentioned above, constitutes the first element of the name of Jerusalem. However, the interpretation of Morîịâ as מוׄרׅית + יׇהּ proposed by Grill in his aforementioned article is incompatible with the tradition that continually connects Jerusalem with Šalim and not with Yahweh. A more sensible explanation of the name is arrived at by remembering that Hebrew words ending in a long I vowel can form two kinds of feminine; the first with the addition of the suffix –t and the second with the addition of the suffix –at and entering the “Gleitlaut” Yes between the î long and the a short, thus obtaining a suffix -îịat which, after the reduction of the final –t, appears in Hebrew as יׇּה. As an example of the simultaneous occurrence of these two feminine forms we cite מוׄאׇבׅית and מואֲבׅיׇּה, “the Moabite woman” [49]. Therefore it can well be concluded that there was not only one word môrîṯ [50], “foundation”, but also a form died with the same meaning. In other words, Morîịâ would be, roughly, a synonym of Šeṯîịâ, and then he would allude to the aforementioned tradition which defines the temple mount and the city of Jerusalem as the first place to have been founded by the creator of the world.
If therefore the scene of the story referred to by Gen. XXII took place on the top of Mount Morîịâ, that is, as we have seen, in a site sacred to Šalim, the planet Saturn, it is clear that there, no less than in other centers of his cult, it was believed that the Black Planet asked for sacrifices of children to his faithful [51].
Since our previous discussion pointed out that Solomon's Temple was built on a site where, in the form of the Eben Šeṯîịâ, a part of Saturn's astral body was present and visible, and where human sacrifices were offered to that god, and that, moreover, the sanctuary exhibited outward features typical of Saturn's temples, we are now able to answer the question posed at the beginning of this chapter: it was in honor of Šalim, the planet Saturn, that David and Solomon built the temple on Mount Morîịâ, and it was, moreover, the cult of this god that these two princes tried to spread among their subjects. If so, it is increasingly clear that the six-pointed star symbol, commonly named after both David and Solomon, was the emblem of their favorite deity, the planet Saturn. [52].
NOTE:
[1] Today the Ka'aba measures 12 x 10 x 15 meters, which means that it is no longer a cube in the strictly strereometric sense; see Snouck Hurgronje, Mecca, Haag, 1888, p. 2.
[2] See Keane, op. cit., pp. 26 and 158.
[3] See Revue de l'Histoire des Religions CX, 1934, p. 63, note 86, where there are also references to the pertinent lists of gods.
[4] It would be rash to identify Šulmânîtu with the “Queen of Heaven” mentioned in Jer. XLIV, 17 ff. as one of the native deities worshiped in Palestine. With regard to the latter, it is said that she was revered "in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem", whence it is logical to assume that, in contradiction with the divine wife of Šalim, she was not a particular goddess of the cult of Jerusalem .
[5] See I. Benzinger in Baedeker's Palastina und Syrien, Leipzig 1900, pp. 56 ff.; E. Pierotti, Jerusalem explored, London 1864, p. 63, 74, and passim; see C. Schick, Die Stiftshütte, der Tempel in Jerusalem und der Tempelplatz der Jetztzeit, Berlin 1896, p. 326 ff.
[6] See above, note 54, sub (1).
[7] Sanhedrin X, 29a; for further references see Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, vol. VI, Philadelphia 1928, p. 258, note 70; see by the same author the paraphrase of the legend ibidem, vol. IV, Philadelphia 1913, p. 96.
[8] According to Unger (Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, vol. XIV, Berlin 1929, P- 533b), the bricks used by the 12th century Assyrians were about 13 -XNUMX cm thick.
[9] See col. II, l. 132 of the Annals of Aššûr-naṣir-apli (EAW Budge and LW King, Annals of the Kings of Assyria, vol. I, London 1902, p. 345). For similar passages in other inscriptions of the same ruler see ibid., pp. 209 ff., 11. 16-17, and cf. p. 176, ll. 8-13; p. 186, ll. 15-18; and p. 220, ll. 17-18.
[10] See Wellhausen, op. cit., p. 75; see the step of the Annals of Ṭabarî quoted above, footnote 50, first paragraph.
[11] Kitâb al-âṯâr al-bâqiya, p. 334.
[12] In al-Bîrûnî's view, this was true both in the time of paganism and in the Islamic period. However, since, after the Islamic calendar reform, pilgrimage changed from season to season throughout the year, his statement actually seems to apply only to the pre-Islamic era when it always took place in early spring, i.e., in a period where even in Mecca water is more abundant than in the rest of the year.
[13] As was, eg, the case of Esagil, the famous temple of Marduk in Babylon; see Aššûr-aḥ-idinna's account of the rebuilding of this shrine (Meissner-Rost, Die Bauinschriften Asarhaddons, Beitrage zur Assyriologie III, 1898, p. 248, ll. 21-25) where it is said that when he built the terrace around the temple, the king dug down to the water level of the subsoil.
[14] See, eg, the Targum Pseudo-Yonathan on Ex. XXVIII, 30: “… lo Eben Šeṯîịâ, with which the Lord of Eternity, in the beginning, sealed the mouth of the great tehôm.”.
[15] See Ginzberg, op. cit., vol. I, p. 12, and vol. V, p. 14, note 39. If so Eben Šeṯîịâ, which sealed the well through which the tehom, was in the middle of the Sancta Sanctorum, it is clear that the waters of the tehom they were located immediately below this central part of the Temple. That this was the actual thinking of the Jews comes from a passage in the Babylonian Talmud (Yoma, chapter VIII, fol. 77b – 78a) which speaks of a stream flowing from the Sancta Sanctorum.
[16] See the Treaty of Mishnah, Yoma, chapter V, 2, and cf. Tosifta, III, 6.
[17] See Kittel, Studien zur hebräischen Archäologie und Religionsgeschichte, Leipzig 1908, p. 34, note 3.
[18] See Wellhausen, op. cit., p. 101.
[19] See chapter V, 3 of the above tractate of the Mishna Yoma, where it is described how, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest sprinkled the sacred stone with the blood of a bull which he himself had presented to the Lord as an offering for sins.
[20] See the aforementioned passage of Tosifta III, 6.
[21] On the development that the pre-Israelite cult institutions of Jerusalem followed until they were gradually absorbed by the religion of Yahweh see below, pp. 354 ff.
[22] Wellhausen, without venturing into explanations about this cult, emphasized (op. cit., pp. 101 ff.) that among the pagan Arabs the stone "is more than an altar, it represents the divinity, be it male or female" .
[23] As explained on p. 65 ff. of the article cited above, footnote 8, the religion of the stars arose among the nomads of the Arabian Desert who eventually spread it throughout the Fertile Crescent.
[24] See Clemen, op. cit., p. 29, sub 31.
[25] The text was published by Langdon, Rev. D'Ass. XXVI, 1929, p. 190 ff.; for the most recent transliteration, translation and discussion see Weidner, Archive für Orientforschung VIII, 1932-3, p. 29 ff., where the first editions, transliterations and translations are also listed.
[26] Loc. cit., p. 193, sub 6.
[27] Than in the Akkadian transliteration dBa-a-ti-ilâni.meš the plural ilâni.meš should, with Langdon, loc. cit., be interpreted as a pluralis maiestatis to relate to the Hebrew Elohim comes from the fact that in many cases, such as Bit-ili-nûri (for references see Langdon, loc. cit.) o Bit-ili-adir (see below, note 83), the plural ilâni is replaced by the singular III. The use of a pluralis maiestatis referring to a great god is found elsewhere in Akkadian sources. The title اﻟﻪ ٳﻵﻠﻬﺔ, “god of the gods”, which, according to our medieval sources (see, eg, ad-Dimišqî, op. cit., p. 47) was conferred by the worshipers of the stars on their supreme god, appears in the cylinder foundation of Nabû-na'id from the ziqqurat of Ur in the form ilâni.meš ša ilâni.meš(see col. I, l. 29 and col. II, l. 5 of text n. 5 transliterated and translated by Langdon on pp. 250 ff. of his aforementioned Neubabylonische Königsinschriften). We also recall that, as highlighted by Weissbach (Archive für Orientforschung VII, 1931-2, p. 38, and Zeitschr. f. Ass. XLIV, 1938, pp. 165 ff.), the Babylonian version of the Inscription b of Naqš-i-Rustam of Darius, like many other inscriptions of the same ruler, express the concept of "a great god" in the expression "a great god is Ahura Mazda" with ilâni.meš rabû. The use of the plural is in fact well in line with the doctrine of planetary religion according to which the supreme god was, to use the words of the medieval authors ﻭاﺣﻌ ﻭﻛﺸﺮ (so ad-Dimišqî, op. cit., p. 44). What is meant by this definition was explained by the writer on p. 62 of the article cited above, note 8; there it was shown that when the Babylonians addressed their supreme god, Marduk (ie, the planet Jupiter) by the names of Sîn, Šamaš, and all the famous stars of the night sky, or when Nabû-na'id invoked the his supreme god, the moon-god Sîn, as the lord of the temple of Marduk, the Esagil, and of the temple of Nabû, the Ezida, they conceived of the lesser deities as manifestations of the supreme god. Manifesting themselves in all phenomena of the night sky, these planetary gods who were regarded by their followers as supreme universal gods (viz., Sîn, Marduk and, as will be shown later, pp. 354 ff., Ninurta) were, in fact, "one and many". In the light of this evidence, the interpretation of the spelling ilânimesh proposed by Hilprecht (apud Clay, Business Documents of Murashû Sons of Nippur, The Babylonian Expedition of the Univ. Of Pennsylvania, vol. X, Philadelphia 1904, pp.IX ff.) and, more recently, by Eissfeldt (Archive for Religionswissenschaft XXVIII, 1930, p. 19, note 1) can be exceeded.
[28] See the names listed by Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century BC, Oxford 1923, p. 279b; see the significant name mBît-ili-a-di-i[r],“Bêt-êl is black”, which occurs in an Akkadian text from Nêrab (no. 16, rev., l. 1 of the Babylonian tablets from Neirab, published by Dhorme, Rev. of Ass. XXV, 1928, p. 53 ff.).
[29] See Clemen, op. cit., p. 27, sub 23.
[30] This is the opinion of modern scholars; see FA Lucas, Meteorites, Meteors and Shooting Stars2, New York 1931, p. 7.
[31] See above, p. 339 with note 48.
[32] It is probable, on the other hand, that a red or reddish meteorite could have been considered a fragment of the "Red Planet" Mars, and so on. As mentioned above, Fr. 339, ancient star-worshippers assigned a color to each of the seven planets and considered these colors a trait indicative of the nature of the respective astral deity.
[33] From a historical point of view, the explanation of the use of idols as symbols of the always visible gods by believers is much more solid than that proposed by most Muslim authors (see above, note 37) according to which the idols were the statues of humans deified after death. Because, as mentioned above, note 78, the cult of the stars originated among the nomads of the Arabian desert who, traveling by night, oriented themselves with the help of the stars. As long as they led this way of life, they naturally needed no earthly representation of their gods; since the nomads' activities actually begin after sunset, some at least of the celestial bodies of the night sky were visible and approachable whenever the worshiper wished to invoke them. However, as soon as the tribesmen settled down, they began to sleep at night and work during the day, when their deities were invisible. Thus they may have felt the urge to set up images as symbols of their gods so that they could approach them whenever they needed divine comfort and divine inspiration.
[34] See, eg, Mas'ûdî, Les prairies d'or, vol. IV, pp. 125 ff.; according to the same author (ibidem, IV, 154), Muhammad was 36 years old when the reconstruction was completed.
[35] See above, pp. 344 ff.
[36] See Huart, Geschichte der Araber, vol. I, Leipzig 1914, pp. 82 et seq.
[37] On this detail see the biography of the prophet written by Khwândamîr quoted by d'Herbelot, op. cit., II, p. 176, sv Hagiar Alassovad; see also vol. I, p. 432, sv Caaba.
[38] Thus d'Herbelot, loc. cit.; as regards the context, see the note below.
[39] Khwândamîr apud d'Herbelot, loc. cit., relates the tradition as follows: “The Giorhamids [ie, the legendary clan which is said to have inhabited Mecca before the Quraiš] who had custody of this Temple, were forced to cede possession of it to the Banu Beker,… who had become master the city by force of arms. Amrou Ben Hareth, leader of the Jordanians, fearing that the temple would be desecrated, broke off the black stone from where it was placed and threw it into the well of Zemzem, the mouth of which closed so tightly that it was not found by any of their enemies. While clarifying that, when recovered by 'Abd al-Muṭṭalib, the Black Stone was found over the opening of the well of Zemzem, it is probable that this legend served as an explanation for its position, which was evidently no longer understood by the Meccans of the VI century of our era. Judging by the analogy with the Temple of Solomon, we must instead conclude that the well of Zemzem with the Black Stone on its top were once the center of the cube-shaped sanctuary. This conclusion is well in line with the fact that the well of Zemzem when it was unearthed by 'Abd al-Muṭṭalib contained votive offerings such as the two famous golden gazelles and the precious weapons mentioned by the sources we have available; we know, in fact, that in the historical period certain gifts to the divinity were placed in the well inside the sanctuary (cf. Wellhausen, op. cit., p. 103). If so, it can be assumed that the ancient shrine was destroyed by one of the catastrophic floods (reported by the Arabs as Sail) which frequently struck the valley of Mecca. These violent torrents of water not only destroy and carry away everything in their way, but also leave behind a layer of mud which may have hidden the sacred well with the Black Stone upon it [on the nature of these floods see Snouck Hurgronje, Mecca, Haag 1888, pp. 18 ff., and cf. Keane's description quoted above, p. 342, note 54, sub (3)]. Perhaps the memory of one such flood emerges from the Islamic tradition according to which the Ka'ba disappeared during the Flood. According to some authors (see d'Herbelot, op. cit., I, p. 432, sv Caaba) it was destroyed by the deluge; according to others (cf Chronicles of Abu Jafar Mohammed Tabari, translated by Louis Dubeux, vol. I, Paris 1836, p. 180) she ascended to Paradise. Cf. Mas'ûdî, Les prairies d'or, III, p. 296, which describes the site of the temple after its destruction as an expanse of sand.
[40] For references see Ginzberg, op. cit., V, p. 14, note 39.
[41] Judging by the fragmentary tablet AO.4135 (published in facsimile, transliteration and translation by Thureau-Dangin, Rev. D'Ass. XI, 1914, p. 82 ff.; see Geller, op. cit., pp. 314 ff.), the only part of the epic dealing with the actual battle, the first engagement does not appear to have been favorable to Ninurta.
[42] For references see Ginzberg, op. cit., vol. V, p. 14, note 39.
[43] See above, p. 338.
[44] See above, p. 343, with footnote 55.
[45] See Ginzberg, op. cit., vol I, p. 285; for references see ibid., vol. V, p. 253, note 249.
[46] The “cities of Šomrôn” are also mentioned in Ezra IV, 10 (so according to Torrey, Ezra Studies, Chicago 1910, p. 186, note s, and Bauer and Leander, Grammatik des Biblisch-Aramäischen, Halle 1927, p. 313, sub g).
[47] From the cuneiform literature we cite in particular the city-state of Iblâ to which Sargon of Akkad addresses himself in the following well-known passage: “Sargon prostrated himself to Tuttul before Dagon; following his prayer Dagon gave him the upper land: Mâri, Jarmûti, Iblâ, up to the cedar forest and the silver mountains” (the relevant passage occurs in the inscription published by Poebel, Historical and Grammatical Texts, Philadelphia 1914, no. 34, col. 5 and 6). As repeatedly stated by modern authors (see, eg, Landsberger, Über den Wert künftiger Ausgrabungen in der Türkei, Belleten 10, 1939, p. 223, sub 25), this city-state of Iblâ was located in the vicinity of the city of Ursu to which Gudea, in his so-called Statue B (col. V, ll. 53 ff.) refers as "the city of Ursu in the mountain of lblâ” (the controversial issue of the exact site of Ursu and Iblâ was recently discussed by J.-R. Kupper, Rev. d'Ass. XLIII, 1949, pp. 79 ff.). Several pertinent examples are provided by ad-Dimisqî: Mâridîn, according to him (op. cit., p. 191), was not only the name of the well-known city in the district of Diyâr-Bekr, but also the denomination of the surrounding country, as also the mountain on whose slopes the city was built. The city of Şafad, according to the same author (op. cit., p. 210), was located in the "country of Garmaq", a district which clearly took its name from the Gabal Garmaq which overlooks Şafad (cf. I. Benzinger, op . cit., p. 286). Likewise, in the region of Şafad, ad-Dimisqî mentions (op. cit., p. 211) the mountain of Baqî'at with the homonymous city and district.
[48] See, eg, Julius Grill, Zeitschr. für die alttementliche Wissenschaft, IV, 1884, p. 145.
[49] Bauer and Leander, Historische Grammatik der Hebraischen Sprache, Halle 1922, p. 502, cite as a further example taḫtît e taḫtîiâ, "lover".
[50] On the female forms col maqtil of the tertiae י see Brockelmann, ground plan I, p. 381, para. 200, sub f.
[51] When combined with the principle outlined above, pp. 332-334, according to which whoever wanted to take possession of a certain country had to pay homage to his tutelary god, this evidence explains the meaning of the episode reported in Gen. XXII: Abraham, an immigrant from Ḥarrân, wanted to take possession for himself and to his descendants of a country whose divine patron and ruler was the planet Saturn. So he had to prove his devotion to this god by performing the ritual that suited him, consisting in the sacrifice of his own son.
[52] These conclusions at the same time explain the popular Arab legends about the “seal of Solomon”. As is well known, the Arabs believe that the six-pointed star gave Solomon dominion not only over all the earth, but also over all spirits, good and bad. There is, for example, history, preserved in the One thousand and one nights, which speaks of a spirit who rebelled against King Solomon, his lord, and was imprisoned by the king in a bottle. The container, which was eventually found by a fisherman in his net, was sealed with a lead stopper bearing the "seal of our lord Solomon." It is easy to see that, just as Ninurta-Šulmânu himself confined the hostile spirits of the deluge in a well which was sealed up with a stone, so Solomon, through the emblem of Ninurta's six-pointed star, was able to lock up a rebellious spirit inside a bottle. The idea behind this parallel is obvious: by entrusting Solomon with the ring bearing his emblem, the god was believed to have delegated at least part of his power to the king he had chosen to rule over the inhabitants of the earth in his name. It is not impossible that it was this parallelism between the great god, Šulmânu or Šalmân, and the homonymous king, which prompted the Arabs to transform the biblical name Shelomo(n) in what appears to be a diminutive meaning “little Šalmân”, it being implied that the “great Šalmân” was the god who had chosen King Solomon as ruler of the world. (For an attempted explanation of the Arabic form of the name Solomon on a purely linguistic basis see Brockelmann, ground plan I, p. 256).
