Dream Of Mausoleum: Millennium Of Passage
Contents.Historicity In the early and middle 20th century, leading archaeologists such as and biblical scholars such as believed that the patriarchs and matriarchs were either real individuals or believable composites of people who lived in the ', the 2nd millennium BCE. But, in the 1970s, new arguments concerning Israel's past and the biblical texts challenged these views; these arguments can be found in 's (1974), and ' (1975). Thompson, a literary scholar, based his argument on archaeology and ancient texts. His thesis centered on the lack of compelling evidence that the patriarchs lived in the 2nd millennium BCE, and noted how certain biblical texts reflected first millennium conditions and concerns.
Van Seters examined the patriarchal stories and argued that their names, social milieu, and messages strongly suggested that they were creations.: 18–19 By the beginning of the 21st century, archaeologists had given up hope of recovering any context that would make the patriarchs and matriarchs credible historical figures.: 98 and fn.2 In the Hebrew Bible. Abram’s Counsel to Sarai (watercolor circa 1896–1902 by )In the Biblical narrative, Sarah is the wife of Abraham. In two places in the narrative he says Sarah is his sister (Genesis 12:10 through 13:1, in the encounter with Pharaoh, and Genesis 20, in the encounter with Abimelech).
Aug 28, 2018 - This year, as the Millennium approaches, the Burning Man Project. Execution: Attendees could pass through themed installations from The Cradle to The Mausoleum. Highlights: For the subconscious, there were the dream worlds of. It is the function of rites of passage to reduce their harmful effects. Later, God came to Abimelech in a dream and declared that taking her would result in death because she was a married woman. Abimelech, who had not laid hands on her, inquired if he would also slay a righteous nation, especially since Abraham had claimed that he and Sarah were siblings.
In the second, he says that Sarah is the daughter of his father, but not his mother.She was originally called 'Sarai', a of 'Sarah'. In the narrative of the in Genesis 17, during which promises Abram that he and Sarai will have a son, Abram is renamed as Abraham and Sarai is renamed as Sarah.
There are that explain their old and new names.: 22 Departure from Ur , with Abram (as he was then called), Sarai and, departed for, but stopped in a place named, where Terah remained until he died at the age of 205. The L ORD had told Abram to leave his country and his father's house for a land that he would show him, promising to make of him a great nation, him, make his name great, bless those who blessed him, and curse 'him' that curses him. Following God's command, Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and the wealth and persons that they had acquired, and traveled to in. Abram was 75 at this time. Pharaoh's harem.
Sarai Is Taken to Pharaoh's Palace by.There was a severe famine in the land of Canaan, so Abram and Lot and their households travelled south to. On the journey to Egypt, Abram instructed Sarai to identify herself only as his sister, fearing that the Egyptians would kill him in order to take his wife, saying, 'I know what a beautiful woman you are.
When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'this is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.' When brought before, Sarai said that Abram was her brother, and the king thereupon took her into his palace and bestowed upon the latter many presents and marks of distinction. It is possible that Sarai acquired her Egyptian handmaid Hagar during this stay. However, God afflicted Pharaoh's household with great plagues.
Pharaoh then realized that Sarai was Abram's wife and demanded that they leave Egypt immediately. Hagar and Ishmael. Sarah, as depicted on byAfter being visited by the three men, Abraham and Sarah settled between and in the land of the. While he was living in, Abraham again claimed that Sarah was his sister. King subsequently had her brought to him.
Later, God came to Abimelech in a dream and declared that taking her would result in death because she was a married woman. Abimelech, who had not laid hands on her, inquired if he would also slay a righteous nation, especially since Abraham had claimed that he and Sarah were siblings. In response, God told Abimelech that he did indeed have a blameless heart and that was why he continued to exist. However, if he did not return Sarah to Abraham, God would surely destroy Abimelech and his entire household. Abimelech was informed that Abraham was a prophet who would pray for him.Early next morning, Abimelech informed his servants of his dream and approached Abraham inquiring as to why he had brought such great guilt upon his kingdom. Abraham replied that he thought there was no fear of God in that place, and that they might kill him for his wife.
Then Abraham defended what he had said as not being a lie at all: 'And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.' Abimelech returned Sarah to Abraham, and gave him gifts of sheep, oxen, and servants; and invited him to settle wherever he pleased in Abimelech's lands.
Further, Abimelech gave Abraham a thousand pieces of silver to serve as Sarah's vindication before all. Abraham then prayed for Abimelech and his household, since God had stricken the women with infertility because of the taking of Sarah. Death Sarah dies at the age of 127, and Abraham buys a piece of land with a cave near for a very large fee from the in which to bury her, which is the first land owned by the Israelites in Canaan according to the biblical narrative.
The place became known as the.: 26 Later Hebrew Bible references Sarah is mentioned alongside Abraham in:Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you. Family tree 7 sons1st daughter2nd daughter1.2.3.4.9.10.(daughter)7.8.5.6.11.12.In rabbinic literature The Talmud identifies Sarai with, daughter of Abraham's deceased brother, so that in this Sarah turns out to be the niece of Abraham and the sister of. While in Genesis 20:12 Abraham claims that Sarah 'is indeed my sister, my father's daughter' rather than his niece, asserts that the term 'daughter' can also be used regarding a granddaughter, and thus 'sister' can be used regarding a niece.The fifth-century rabbinic midrash dedicates a large amount of attention to Sarah in particular. Not only are a relatively large number of dedicated to the matriarch, but she is repeatedly depicted as a model of personal and religious excellence.
This is marked break from the biblical and literature in which she plays a far more ancillary role.Pharaoh's harem When brought before Pharaoh, Sarah said that Abram was her brother, and the king thereupon bestowed upon the latter many presents and marks of distinction. As a token of his love for Sarai the king deeded his entire property to her, and gave her the land of as her hereditary possession: for this reason the Israelites subsequently lived in that land. Sarai prayed to God to deliver her from the king, and He thereupon sent an angel, who struck Pharaoh whenever he attempted to touch her. Pharaoh was so astonished at these blows that he spoke kindly to Sarai, who confessed that she was Abraham's wife. The king then ceased to annoy her. According to another version, Pharaoh persisted in annoying her after she had told him that she was a married woman; thereupon the angel struck him so violently that he became ill, and was thereby prevented from continuing to trouble her. According to one tradition it was when Pharaoh saw these miracles wrought in Sarai's behalf that he gave her his daughter Hagar as slave, saying: 'It is better that my daughter should be a slave in the house of such a woman than mistress in another house.'
Abimelech acted likewise. Sarah is the sister of Abram by another mother and wife of Abram as described in the Hebrew Bible (the Book of Genesis). In Genesis 17:15, God changes her name to Sarah (princess) ('a woman of high rank') as part of the covenant with El Shaddai after Hagar bears Abram his first born son Ishmael.Relations with Hagar. Sarah and, imagined here in a Bible from 1897.Sarai treated Hagar well, and induced women who came to visit her to visit Hagar also. Hagar, when pregnant by Abraham, began to act superciliously toward Sarai, provoking the latter to treat her harshly, to impose heavy work upon her, and even to strike her. Some believe Sarai was originally destined to reach the age of 175 years, but forty-eight years of this span of life were taken away from her because she complained of Abraham, blaming him as though he was the cause that Hagar no longer respected her.
Sarah was sterile; but a miracle was granted to her after her name was changed from 'Sarai' to 'Sarah'. According to one myth, when her fertility had been restored and she had given birth to, the people would not believe in the miracle, saying that the patriarch and his wife had adopted a foundling and pretended that it was their own son. Abraham thereupon invited all the notabilities to a banquet on the day when Isaac was to be weaned. Sarah invited the women, also, who brought their infants with them; and on this occasion she gave milk from her breasts to all the strange children, thus convincing the guests of the miracle.
Death Legends connect Sarah's death with the attempted sacrifice of Isaac, however, there are two versions of the story. According to one, Samael came to her and said: 'Your old husband seized the boy and sacrificed him. The boy wailed and wept; but he could not escape from his father.' Sarah began to cry bitterly, and ultimately died of her grief. According to the other legend, Satan came to Sarah disguised as an old man, and told her that Isaac had been sacrificed.
Believing it to be true, she cried bitterly, but soon comforted herself with the thought that the sacrifice had been offered at the command of God. She started from Beer-sheba to Hebron, asking everyone she met if he knew in which direction Abraham had gone. Then Satan came again in human shape and told her that it was not true that Isaac had been sacrificed, but that he was living and would soon return with his father. Sarah, on hearing this, died of joy at Hebron. Abraham and Isaac returned to their home at Beer-sheba, and, not finding Sarah there, went to Hebron, where they discovered her dead.
According to the, during Sarah's lifetime her house was always hospitably open, the dough was miraculously increased, a light burned from Friday evening to Saturday evening, and a pillar of cloud rested upon the entrance to her tent. New Testament references The praises Sarah for obeying her husband. She is praised for her faith in the Hebrews 'hall of faith' passage alongside a number of other Old Testament figures. Other New Testament references to Sarah are in Romans and Galatians. In, she and Hagar are used as an allegory of the old and new covenants:'For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.
These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.
Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.' Mausoleum of Sarah, Abraham's wife in the Mosque of AbrahamSarah (: سارة Sāra), the wife of the and and the mother of the, is an honoured woman in the faith.
In Islam, she is the cousin of Abraham rather than sister due to Haran being her father who was a cousin to Terah. She lived with Abraham throughout her life and, although she was barren, promised her the birth of a prophetic son,.Abraham, however, prayed constantly to God for a child. Sarah, being barren, subsequently gave him her, , to wed as his second wife. Hagar bore , who too would become a prophet of God like his father. God messengers announced to Abraham that barren Sarah would give birth to Abraham's second son, Isaac, who would also be a prophet of the Lord. Although the Qur'an does not mention Sarah by name, it mentions the annunciation of the birth of Isaac.
The Qur'an mentions that Sarah laughed when the angels gave her the glad tidings of Isaac. There came Our messengers to Abraham with glad tidings. They said, 'Peace!' He answered, 'Peace!' And hastened to entertain them with a roasted calf.But when he saw their hands went not towards the (meal), he felt some mistrust of them, and conceived a fear of them. They said: 'Fear not: We have been sent against the people of.And his wife was standing (there), and she laughed: But we gave her glad tidings of Isaac, and after him, of Jacob.She said: 'Alas for me! Shall I bear a child, seeing I am an old woman, and my husband here is an old man?
That would indeed be a wonderful thing!' Main article:There are three stories in Genesis where a patriarch identifies his wife as his sister; scholars debate the relationship among these, with some saying that the account of the encounter of Abraham and Sarah with Pharaoh in Genesis 12-13 is the oldest, while the stories of Abraham and Sarah encounter King Abimelech in Genesis 20, and of Isaac and Rebekah's encounter with a different King Abimelech in Genesis 26, are interpretations of that one, generated to explain it or deal with other matters of concern. It is not clear which of the stories is actually older, or what the intent of the editors of the Bible may have been.According to (1965), basing his argument on 's interpretation of the archaeology of, a wife could legally be awarded the title 'sister', and that this was the most sacred form of marriage, and hence Abraham and Isaac referred to their wives as 'sisters' for this reason. Most archaeologists however dispute that view, instead arguing the opposite - that sisters in the region were often awarded the title 'wife' in order to give them much greater status in society. Savina Teubal's book Sarah the Priestess posits that while Sarah was indeed both Abram's wife and sister, there was no incest taboo because she was a half-sister by a different mother.
Contemporary works and analysis Sarah has been featured in several novels, and she is the central character and in by in, Sarai: A Novel by Jill Eileen Smith, and Sarah: A Novel by, and Song of Sarai by Zannah Martin. In the novel by, the protagonist, called 'Angel' throughout the duration of the story, is barren. At the end of the book, she reveals that her birth name is 'Sarah' to her husband, who takes the revelation as a promise from God that they will one day be able to have children.In the 1994 movie, Sarah is portrayed by.Sarah is also a subject discussed in nonfiction books. In Twelve Extraordinary Women by Pastor, her life and story is analyzed along with that of, the, the,.
Sarah appears in Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible: Flawed Women Loved by a Flawless God by Liz Curtis Higgs alongside several other biblical women. Wells, John C. Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow, England: Longman. Entry 'Sarah'. Moore, Megan Bishop; Kelle, Brad E.
Eerdmans. Pardee, Dennis (1977). 'Review of The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives: The Quest for the Historical Abraham'.
Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 36 (3): 222–224. (2002). Eerdmans Publishing.
^ Alexander, T. 'Are the Wife/Sister Incidents of Genesis Literary Compositional Variants?'
Vetus Testamentum. 42 (2): 145–153. ^ Clifford, Richard J; Murphy, Roland E. 'Chapter 2: Genesis'. In Brown, Raymond E.; Fitzmyer, Joseph A.; Murphy, Roland E.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Genesis 12:11-13, NIV. Blenkinsopp, Joseph (2009). 'Abraham as Paradigm in the Priestly History in Genesis'. Journal of Biblical Literature. 128 (2): 225–241.: Sarah was the half–sister of Abraham.: Uz, Buz, Kemuel, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, and Jidlaph. Genesis 11:29.
69b. Schwartz, Rami. ^ (Book of Jasher), section 'Lek Leka'.
36. 41:2. Genesis Rabbah 45:2. Genesis Rabbah 45:9. ^ 16b. Genesis Rabbah 45:7.
Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night
Genesis Rabbah 47:3. 87a; compare Genesis Rabbah 53:13. Genesis Rabbah 58:5.
32., section 'Vayera'. Genesis Rabbah 60:15., cited in Herbermann, Charles, ed.
New York: Robert Appleton Company., cited in Herbermann, Charles, ed. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Galatians 4:22-26, 28, 31, NIV. Arastu, Shaykh Rizwan (2014). Imam Mahdi Association of Marjaeya (I.M.A.M.).
P. 227. (1983). 'The House of God'. Emanuel Feldman.
Changing patterns in Biblical criticism. Tradition 1965; 7(4) and 1966; 8(5). Savina Teubal (1984).
Sarah The Priestess: The First Matriarch Of Genesis. Twelve Extraordinary Women: How God Shaped Women of the Bible, and What He Wants to Do with You (2008). Higgs, Liz, Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible: Flawed Women Loved by a Flawless God. 9125External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to. Adam's immediate relatives. Family of Noah. Mother Shamkhah bint Anush or Betenos.
Luqman's son. People of Aaron and Moses. Believer of Fir'aun Family (Hizbil/Hizqil ibn Sabura). Imra’at Fir‘awn ( or ).
People of Abraham. Mother Abiona or Amtelai the daughter of Karnebo. People of Jesus. Disciples (including ). People of Joseph. Brothers (including (Benjamin) and ).
Egyptians. ‘Azīz (, Qatafir or Qittin). Malik (King Ar-Rayyān ibn Al-Walīd)).
Wife of ‘Azīz. People of Solomon.Implied ornot specified.
(2029-1982 BCE) is considered the greatest king of the III Period in (2047-1750 BCE). His father was, who founded the Third Dynasty of Ur and helped to defeat the occupying forces of the Gutians, and his mother was a daughter of King Utu-Hegel of (her name is not known) who first led the uprising against the Gutian occupation. Shulgi inherited a stable kingdom after his father was killed in with the Gutians and proceeded to build upon his father’s legacy to raise to great cultural heights. A literate man, he reformed the scribal schools and increased literacy throughout the region. He allocated funds for the continued maintenance of the, improved the existing roads and built new ones, and even instituted the first roadside inns so that travelers could stop, rest, eat, and drink as they traveled. He declared himself a god during his lifetime and seems to have been worshipped by the people following his.
His reign is well documented as he had many scribes making inscriptions of his accomplishments but this documentation has been challenged on the grounds of inaccuracy. While it does seem clear that Shulgi reigned well, the majority of the documents relating to the details of his rule were those he ordered to be set down.
Later chroniclers would accuse him of impiety and falsification of records, but the archaeological evidence seems to support his version of his reign fairly well. In a single day, Shulgi ran 200 miles (321.8 km) through a great storm in order to officiate at religious festivals in Ur.
Early Reign & Shulgi’s RunUr-Nammu’s rule had stabilized the region and enabled it to prosper following the expulsion of the Gutians and, thanks to the poem “The Death of Ur-Nammu and His Descent to the Underworld”, he had become an almost mythic hero shortly after his death. His successor might be expected to have struggled to distinguish himself from the former’s rule, but this does not seem to be the case with Shulgi. In order to ensure the stability of his kingdom, he created a standing army which he formed into specialized units for specific military purposes (an infantryman was no longer just a `foot soldier’ but specialized in a certain tactic, formation, and purpose on the field). He then drove this army against the remaining Gutians in the region to avenge his father’s death and secure the borders. To raise money for his army, he initiated the unprecedented policy of taxing the temples and complexes which, though it may have made him unpopular with the priests, could have bolstered his popularity among the general populace who did not have to suffer an increase in taxation. The historian Bertman writes, “Ur-Nammu’s imperialistic dreams were fulfilled by his son Shulgi” in the expansion of the Kingdom of Ur from southern Mesopotamia near up the Tigris River valley to in the north (57). This area corresponds roughly to modern-day Kuwait in the south to northern Iraq.
The kingdom was maintained efficiently through the unified central administration instituted by Ur-Nammu, which Shulgi improved upon, and was protected and enlarged by the standing army which, since it needed no mobilization, could respond quickly to any disturbance on the borders. With his state secure, Shulgi could devote himself to encouraging art and culture, as his father had done.He introduced a national calendar and standardized time-keeping so that the whole of his kingdom recognized the same day and time, replacing the old method of different regions reckoning dates and times in their own way. He also instituted agricultural reforms and standardized weights and measures to ensure fair in the market place. Prior to Shulgi’s reforms, prices varied – sometimes widely – between trade goods in Ur and the same goods in Nippur. All documents were written in Sumerian (instead of the traditional state language, Akkadian), perhaps in an effort to differentiate Shulgi’s reign from those of the past. Even so, he seems to have purposefully presented himself to his subjects as a new of, the last great ruler of the Akkadian.
Ur-Nammu had also understood the value of linking his reign to that of the legendary Akkadian kings, but Shulgi went further in proclaiming himself a god, as Naram-Sin had also done, and signing his name to documents with the divine determinative.While his accomplishments were many, he still seems to have felt that he was merely carrying on the policies and building projects instituted by his father. The historian Kriwaczek writes, “Construction work on Ur-Nammu’s ziggurats continued well into his son’s reign, which left Shulgi with the problem of how to establish his own superhuman persona in his people’s awareness. He chose to run” (156). In a single day, Shulgi ran from Nippur to Ur, a distance of 100 miles (160.9 kilometres), in order to officiate at the religious festivals in both cities, and then ran back from Ur to Nippur; completing a run of 200 miles (321.8 kilometres) in one day. His motivation in making the run is made clear in one of his inscriptions. Put a girdle about my loinsSwung my arms like a dove feverishly fleeing a snake,Spread wide the knees like an Anzu bird with eyes lifted toward the mountain (Kramer, 286).The run certainly accomplished its objective, since Shulgi was associated with the event, and with great stamina, in later chronicles. His courage and determination were also praised because his run took place in the midst of a great storm.
His inscription continues: “On that day the storm howled, the tempest swirled/The North Wind and the South Wind roared violently/Lighting devoured in heaven alongside the seven winds/The deafening storm made the earth tremble” (Kramer, 287). So famous, in fact, did Shulgi become for his run that he became a popular figure featured in erotic poetry throughout Mesopotamia not long afterwards and was noted for his virility and stamina as the lover the goddess. Regarding the famous run, Kriwaczek writes:Could he really have done it? An earlier generation of Assyriologists thought the achievement impossible, dismissing it as fiction. More recent consideration, however, suggests otherwise. An article in the Journal of Sport History quotes two relevant records: `During the first forty-eight hours of the 1985 Sydney to Melbourne footrace, ultra-marthoner Yannis Kouros completed 287 miles.
Castlevania Clones
This impressive distance was accomplished without pausing for sleep.’ In the 1970’s a British athlete running on a track completed 100 miles in a time of eleven hours and thirty-one minutes. There is no reason to believe that the were any less athletically able. Theirs was, after all, a far more physical world than is ours: speed, strength, and stamina would have been much more important to them that they are to us (157).Shulgi’s run spread his fame across the land, as he had hoped it would, and distinguished his reign dramatically from his father’s. While Ur-Nammu had presented himself to his people as a father-figure guiding his people, Shulgi claimed the status of a god. He made his run in the seventh year of his reign and, from then on, was able to do as he pleased. It was customary in Mesopotamia to name years after great feats accomplished by the king, usually military victories, and the year of Shulgi’s run was thereafter known as 'The Year When the King Made the Round Trip Between Ur and Nippur in One Day'. The story of his run was inscribed shortly after the event, and scribes were sent throughout the kingdom to recite it in temples and present him to the people as an even greater king than his father had been.
Later Reign & ControversyHis public relations campaign was a great success. The Mesopotamian Chronicles describe Shulgi as `divine’ and `the fast runner’ and tell how he generously provided food for the cities, specifically the sacred of Eridu. He was brother to the sun god and husband of the goddess Inanna, according to hymns and songs. When he decided to expand his kingdom to the north, the army followed him on campaign without question, and took the region of Anshan (modern-day western Iran). Both his continued policies of taxation of the temples and temple complexes and the standardization of weights, measure, time, and day throughout his kingdom had robbed the various cities of their regional identities and, to a lesser degree, their economic independence (the financial factor seems fairly negligible since many cities continued to prosper economically after the fall of Ur), and yet there is no evidence of domestic strife or reference to revolt in the records of his reign. This peaceful and prosperous version of Shulgi’s administration, however, has been challenged because first, as already noted, the history comes from state-issued documents and, more importantly, later writers claimed that Shulgi had purposefully falsified those documents to present himself as the greatest of the kings of Mesopotamia.
Dream Of Mausoleum: Millennium Of Passage Youtube
The same chronicles which present the king as divine also state that “Shulgi, the son of Ur-Nammu, provided abundant food for Eridu, which is on the sea shore. But he had criminal tendencies and the property of Esaglia and he took away as booty caused to consume his body and killed him” (CM, Tablet A, 20:28-30). Another passage from the Chronicles claims that during Shulgi’s reign he “composed untruthful stele, insolent writings, concerning the rites of purification for the gods, and left them to posterity” (CM 27). Both of these would have been very serious offenses to the Mesopotamian sensibility, of any time in the region, which held the accurate recording of the past a matter of enormous significance. The claim that Shulgi took the property of the Esaglia (the temple) at Babylon is serious enough, since the temple goods belonged not to the particular city but to the god of that city, but then to lie about it in written form and present these lies as genuine history would have been intolerable.The Mesopotamian Chronicles (also known as the Babylonian Chronicles) are a history of the activities of the kings of Mesopotamia compiled by scribes at some point in the 1st millennium BCE from older sources. While scholars have long believed they were composed at Babylon, there is reason to believe they were assembled at different sites by different scribes under the direction of the Assyrian Empire, probably of Nineveh.
It is entirely possible, even quite likely, that these later scribes, from a certain point of view and wishing to advance their own agenda, edited or omitted certain details from the past in composing the chronicles, but it is unlikely that they would have completely fabricated incidents and passed them off as history. The reference to Shulgi’s sack of the Esaglia of Babylon implies that Babylon rose in revolt during Shulgi’s reign – an event left unrecorded in his administration’s documents – and, if this did happen, it is probable that other regions of his kingdom also held Shulgi in less esteem than the official state records claim they did. Babylon was a city as famous in Mesopotamian history for rebelling against outside rule as it is in the for depravity. If any city under Shulgi’s rule was going to rebel, it would have been Babylon and although the sacking of any temple was considered a serious crime, the sacking of the Esaglia of Babylon seems to have been regarded as the worst. Later kings, such as the Assyrians Tukulti I and, were assassinated for their impiety in defiling the temple of Babylon and this may have been Shulgi’s fate as well. The Great & the Death of ShulgiToward the end of his reign, Sumer was becoming increasingly troubled by incursions from the nomadic tribe known as the Amorites.
Shulgi had a wall constructed 155 miles long (250 kilometres) along the eastern border of his kingdom to keep the Amorites out but, as it was not anchored at either end, the invading nomads could simply walk around it. The Elamites were also at the border but, during Shulgi’s reign at least, were kept at bay by the army of Ur fortifying the wall.
After reigning for 46 years, Shulgi died and was succeeded by his son Amar-Sin (1981-1973 BCE) who defeated the Elamites and strengthened the wall. He was succeeded by his younger brother Shu-Sin (1972-1964 BCE) who devoted further efforts to the wall, put down revolts by communities that had established themselves in the kingdom, and tried to emulate the reign of his father and maintain the dynasty. He was succeeded by his son Ibbi-Sin (1963-1940 BCE) who steadily lost the territories of the kingdom built by Ur-Nammu and Shulgi. Kriwaczek writes, “In spite of all efforts to strengthen it, the wall was not enough to keep the western barbarians at bay. They continued their raids, adding to the travails of the failing empire” (161). Ibbi-Sin was the last king of the Third Dynasty of Ur and, by the end of his reign, the vast kingdom was reduced to only the city of Ur which later fell to the Elamites. Shulgi’s death is as controversial a topic as the records which describe his reign.
Scholars continue to repeat sentences such as “Shulgi may have died violently from an assassin’s blow, along with his consorts Geme-Ninlila and Shulgi-Shimti” (Bertman, 105) or “Shulgi may have died a violent death in a revolt” (Leick, 160) but it is uncertain whether this claim is valid. The primary suspects alluded to by modern-day scholars are always Shulgi’s sons but, in order for them to have assassinated their father and then assumed rule after him, they would have needed some kind of support from the officials of the court, their family, or by reading the discontent of the people and hoping for popular support for a coup. The scholar Piotr Michalowski has confirmed that Shulgi-Shimti was still living after Shulgi’s funeral and that, “A text dated a month after the monarch’s demise mentions a delivery of cattle from Geme-Ninlila’s herd, but this does not tell us if she was alive or dead” (290). Shulgi-Shimti was Shulgi’s wife, and it is documented that she wielded considerable influence at court. Geme-Ninlila was Shulgi’s concubine but also held a position of honor at court and was a successful businesswoman in her own right.There is no evidence that the tide of popular opinion had turned against Shulgi or that there was any plot launched by the members of the court. Shulgi’s supposed assassination is suggested by the Mesopotamian Chronicles which links his alleged sack of the Esaglia of Babylon with his death. As previously stated, later kings during the Assyrian period of Mesopotamian history are known to have been murdered by their sons for this very crime against the gods, and perhaps later Assyrian and Babylonian writers interpreted Shulgi’s story in light of what they knew of their own history.
It is also possible that the missing section of that passage stated something which would support a very different understanding of Shulgi’s death. Shulgi may have been assassinated for his crimes against the gods or may have died a natural death, but the repeated assertion that his queen and consort were assassinated with him cannot be supported, and the claim that he was killed by his sons is equally untenable.While the state records which documented his reign have been challenged, the archaeological evidence from the period supports their claims that Shulgi’s reign was indeed prosperous and that the accomplishments he claimed for himself did happen, even if not exactly as described. Under his reign the roads were improved, the kingdom expanded, the was strong, the inns were built, the calendar and time were standardized, as were weights and measures, and literacy and the arts flourished. Whether he was guilty of fabricating aspects of his life and reign is still debated, but there can be little doubt that he was a man of enormous administrative and military talent, imagination, determination, and personal charisma.
One may question whether he deserves the title he still holds as the greatest king of the Ur II Period but, when one measures his accomplishments against his deficiencies, the former outweigh the latter, and there were certainly no kings of the period who followed him who were in any way his equal.Editorial ReviewThis Article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication.