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The Abu Amurrim

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

M. B. Rowton
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Extract

The title abu Amurrim means literally “father of Amurrum”. It is attested for five rulers of the Old Babylonian period: Kudur-Mabuk, Warad-Sin, Rim-Sin, Hammurabi and Ammiditana.

There are also two published texts in which it is not certain whether the bearer of the title was a king or, like Kudur-Mabuk, a ruler of equivalent status. UET 5 62 is quoted in full below; for the moment it will be sufficient to note Kupper's plausible suggestion that in that text the person referred to as king is Warad-Sin, whereas the abu Amurrim is Kudur-Mabuk.

Kupper has also suggested that in PBS 8/1 79 the abu Amurrim is Ipiq-Ištar, the king of Malgûm. The text records a MU.TÚM delivery of two head of cattle by a certain Ipiq-Ištar, AD.DA MAR.TU. Here there is nothing in the context to suggest the latter had royal status; the only reason for making the suggestion was that elsewhere the bearers of that title were either certainly of royal status or, as in UET 5 62, probably of royal status.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , Spring 1969 , pp. 68 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1969

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References

1 Kupper, J.-R., Les nomades en Mesopotamie au temps des rots de Mari (1957), 174–178Google Scholar; Edzard, D. O., Die zweite Zwischenzeit Babyloniens (1957), 35, n. 144Google Scholar; Hallo, W. W., Early Mesopotamian royal titles (1957), 109f.Google Scholar; CAD I/1, 72, para. 4Google Scholar.

2 Op. cit., 175f.

3 Op. cit., 174f.

4 Both these texts were purchased from a Baghdad dealer in a small lot of tablets nearly all of which belong to the archive of a certain Samaš-magir, discussed by the present writer in a forthcoming article in JCS 21. An additional reason for assigning A7536 to this archive is that it mentions Diniktum, Mekeltum and probably also Ešnunna, all of which figure in other texts belonging to the archive. As for A7542 sender and greeting formula are the same as in another letter of the archive. The personal name, Sin-rabi, is a common one but the greeting formula mentioning Šamaš and Enki is much less common. Consequently both letters can be assigned to the Samaš-magir archive in terms of probability. The archive dates from the time of Rim-Sin, Daduša and Šamši-Adad I, i.e. roughly the time of the accession of Hammurabi.

5 Gadd, C. J., Symbolae Koscbaker (1959), 102ff.Google Scholar; Kraus, F. R., Ein Edikt des Konigs Ammi-ṣaduqa von Babylon (1958)Google Scholar.

6 On the earlier Amorite penetration see Bucellati, G., The Amorites of the Ur III period (1966)Google Scholar, and the literature quoted there. It is doubtful whether the Western Semites in Babylonia were at any point as numerous as the Akkadians had been during the Sumerian period. But they may well have played a much more conspicuous role than the Akkadians did prior to the Sargonic period.

7 Kraus, op. cit., 26ff.

8 Note however that on this explanation the purpose in the Edict would have been to make it clear that the Amorite, like the Akkadian, was individually responsible. Hence by the time of Ammiṣaduqa tribal organization may well have been disintegrating.

9 Op. cit., 40f.; see also p. 81. Another tribal people known from Mari is attested in Babylonia, the Amnan-Iahrur; c. Baghdader Mitteilungen 2 (1963), 56ffGoogle Scholar. But the territory of the tribe mentioned p. 57 ii 27 need not have been in Babylonia.

10 Cf. CAD I/172Google Scholar.

11 For the approximate date of these two letters see n. 4 above.

12 The temple of this goddess was located within the temple complex of Ninmar; cf. Edzard op. cit., 177 n. 970. Note also the personal name Ninlile-lamma-bani, , UET 5 709: 3Google Scholar.

13 Literally ’they have not as yet scorned you.”

14 Part of this text has already been quoted in JCS 21 in connection with a different problem.

15 The reading DI is not quite certain. One has to assume an unusually broad form of the sign, with the object of obliterating the sign underneath.

16 Faint traces preserved at the bottom of the line suggest IG over another sign. For the use of qabû in O.B. letters in the sense of to promise a specific object see for instance BIN 7 23: 5Google Scholar; 55: 5; 220: 15.

17 Literally “on your side”; for this idiom see already JCS 21.