Just Browsing

Northern Arabia and its inhabitants in Mesopotamian sources

The term “Arab” (Arbāyû in Akkadian) first appears in Mesopotamian sources in the ninth century BCE, courtesy of Shalmaneser III (Paul-Alain Beaulieu, Arameans, Chaldeans and Arabs in Late Babylonian Sources, p. 47). It should be noted it was seemingly used to refer to many different groups - some only encountered as foreign enemies, some resettled by Mesopotamian rulers in one corner of the empire or another, and some who presumably migrated to Mesopotamia on own accord (ibidem, p. 52). A major early reference to Arabian deities occurs in an inscription of Esarhaddon (Shana Zaia, State-Sponsored Sacrilege: “Godnapping” and Omission in Neo-Assyrian Inscriptions, p. 34):

Most of the deities mentioned are known from other sources, with the exception of Abirillu (Reettakaisa S. Salo, Fremde Götter - eigene Götter: Zu den neuassyrischen Götterbeschreibungen, p. 232). There are also three attested instances in which Esarhaddon “deported” statues of Arabian deities himself, but no individual names are listed in any of those cases. It’s known at least once Atar-samayin was involved, since his return is mentioned by Ashurbanipal. It seems that individual names were only used to refer to return of statues, not their “deportation”; possibly showing awareness of them was understood as a display of both piety and compassion. It doesn’t seem the omission of theonyms simply reflected unawareness of them, even if the deities didn’t belong to the Assyrian pantheon (ibidem, pp. 35-36). In the Neo-Babylonian Mesopotamian rulers started a series of campaigns against various groups which can be presumed to be Arabian in the Transjordan, as well as military incursions into the north of Arabia proper (Arameans…, p. 47). This culminated in Nabonidus’ campaign and his resulting temporary residence in Tayma (ibidem, p. 48). This city is actually first mentioned in Mesopotamian sources in the eighth century BCE, but not really in a context which has anything to do with religion (The Religious…, p. 121). Similarly, Nabonidus’ conquest of it - and other Arabian cities - probably reflected a need to control trade routes, not any religious concerns (Juan M. Tebes, Southern Levant and Northern Arabia in the Iron Age, p. 275).

Nabonidus’ inscriptions from Tayma mention Marduk, Zarpanit, Nabu, Tashmetu and Nanaya, but none of them appear in the city in any other context (Peter Alpass, The Religious Life of Nabataea, p. 124). A fragmentary stela dated to his reign found in the same city shows symbols of Sin, Shamash and Ishtar, as do many other artifacts from his reign (Southern…, p. 279). Nabonidus apparently employed a number of locals, as attested in inscriptions written in the local Taymanitic script (ibidem, pp. 279-280). I personally wouldn’t rule out that they might’ve adopted the deities of their boss, but no evidence for that exists, as far as I’m aware.

An example of a dedication to Salm from Tayma (wikimedia commons). The only local deities known are Salm, Asima and Sangila, who seem to have Aramaic names, and likely were introduced in the Neo-Assyrian period through contacts with Arameans residing in Syria (ibidem, pp. 280-281). Despite the aforementioned phenomena, there’s no evidence for large-scale migration of any remotely Arabian peoples into Mesopotamia even as late as in Nabonidus’ times. However, by the early Achaemenid period there was a “town of the Arabs” (ālu ša Arbāyê) in the proximity of Nippur. Other similar settlements are attested through the fifth century BCE too. Similar evidence exists for occasional founding of Phoenician (Ṣurru, near Babylon) and Judean (Āl-Yahūdu, also near Babylon) settlements. However, once again, it seems the presence of these groups had a limited scope and didn’t meaningfully impact Mesopotamia at large (Arameans…, p. 48-49). 

The only later cuneiform evidence for the presence of people from Arabia in Mesopotamia are late astronomical diaries, which mention military incursions into the area around Borsippa (which was plundered) and Babylon between 125 and 119 BCE. Further less successful ones took place in 112 BCE and then 106 BCE. Paul-Alain Beaulieu argues that those events might be an early stage of a process which eventually lead to the founding of Al-Hira and the rise of the Lakhmid kingdom in lower Mesopotamia under the Sasanians (ibidem, p. 49-50). However, the only possible religious impact was that similar raids might’ve contributed to the decline of at least some of the remaining Mesopotamian temples, which were unlikely to be rebuilt under Persian or Greek rule. In contrast with earlier dynasties, they generally had no ideological reason for doing so; their authority didn’t require pious devotion to Mesopotamian deities (Lucinda Dirven, Religious Continuity and Change in Parthian Mesopotamia: A Note on the Survival of Babylonian Traditions, p. 13-14).

Arabian influences in Palmyra, Hatra and their surroundings

A degree of influence from Arabia in the sphere of religion is generally accepted to be present in cities like Hatra, Edessa, Palmyra and Dura-Europos in Syria in the late first millennium BCE and first centuries CE, even though the core of their culture was Syro-Mesopotamian (Lucinda Dirven, Horned Deities of Hatra. Meaning and Origin of a Hybrid Phenomenon, pp. 243-244).

The study of Palmyrene religion is troublesome due to lack of any ritual or theological sources or myths (Ted Kaizer, The Religious Life of Palmyra: A Study of the Social Patterns of Worship in the Roman Period, p. 165). It probably makes the most sense to describe the situation as both Mesopotamian and (north) Arabian deities being introduced into a pantheon that was fundamentally Palmyrene, rather than as a direct interaction between Mesopotamian and Arabian tradition. It needs to also be stressed that on top of that, there were deities introduced from other areas - most notably Phoenician Baalshamin (ibidem, pp. 56-58). 

It’s probably most relevant to your question that a deity named Shamash shared a temple with Allat, whose Arabian credentials are without doubt. Javier Teixidor argued that he was an Arabian deity (The Pantheon of Palmyra, p. 64). However, Ted Kaizer in a more recent reassessment of the same material points out that the Palmyrene Shamash is clearly masculine - while the evidence from Arabia points to the identically named solar deity being feminine over there (The Religious…, p. 57). It has been proposed that Shamash and Allat formed a triad of sorts with a further deity, Rahim, but this is far from certain. All that’s clear is that in a single specific case they jointly received “ six columns of a portico with ith its entablature and roofing”; Shamash and Rahim might also both be included among “gods who stay with [Allat]” (ibidem, p. 107). Rahim’s name means “the merciful one” (ibidem, pp. 84-85), and he might be an epithet which developed into a distinct deity (The Pantheon…, p. 63). I will note that Kaizer’s vague attempt at linking Allat with Mesopotamian Allatum (The Religious…, p. 57 fn. 102) seems to be mistaken - the latter’s name is an Akkadianized spelling of Hurrian Allani, and occurs either as an independent underworld goddess or a byname of Ereshkigal. As far as I’m aware Allat had nothing to do with the underworld, Ereshkigal, let alone the Hurrians (who didn’t even exist as a culture anymore at this point).

In Hatra, both Mesopotamian and Arabian deities occur in theophoric names (Enrico Marcato, Personal Names in the Aramaic Inscriptions of Hatra, p. 12). The latter reflect north Arabian tradition, with Nabataean and especially Safaitic names used for comparison (ibidem, pp. 14-15). There are cases where an evidently linguistically Ancient North Arabian element is coupled with a Mesopotamian theonym (for example Nabu, Nanaya or Shamash), for what it’s worth, presumably reflecting a close association between semi-nomadic groups in the orbit of the city and the urban populace (ibidem, pp. 165-167). The Bani Taym-Nay group built a shrine of Nanaya in the city, too (ibidem, pp. 133-134). It doesn’t seem Hatra provides any examples of the opposite phenomenon, though - Allat appears only in the expected sort of names, for instance (ibidem, p. 167). In addition to her, Hubal, Uzza and Ma’an are attested (ibidem, p. 165). This being said, it has been suggested that some association existed between Allat and Nergal in Hatra. In a few cases, in Hellenized art a Heracles-like figure or a bearded god with a dagger and snake is shown in the company of an Athena-like goddess; Nergal’s association with Heracles in Hatra is well documented, and Athena was the interpretatio graeca of Allat. It could be that this was simply a result of reception of Greek artistic motifs - Athena helping a hero, to be specific - but it has also been proposed that Allat was Nergal’s spouse or mother in the local tradition of Hatra, or that some other hitherto unknown connection existed (Lucina Dirven, A Goddess with Dogs from Hatra, p. 152). The Hatrene theonym Iššarbēl is sometimes argued to be derived from Arabic ‘ašar, “joy”, though it’s more commonly held to be a contracted late form of Ishtar of Arbela instead (Lutz Greisiger, Šarbēl: Göttin, Priester, Märtyrer – einige Probleme der spätantiken Religionsgeschichte Nordmesopotamiens, pp. 132-134).

South Arabia