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401 work "Shebile '01am,"

i.

25a, Hillah is incorrectly

with Babylon. Pethahiah also saw ancient Babylon (ed. London, pp. 42—44) he, however, often seems to confuse Babylon with Bagdad, as do many Jewish authors. Of older date is its confusion with Borsippa, an error of ancient times ( Yoma 10a) the latter place did indeed possess a temple of Nebo ('Ab. Zarah US). An aged pine-tree was shown in

identified



whether or not they found another race already in posIt is probably safe to say that the great majority of modern Assyriologists enPeople and tertain the view that before the advent Language, of the Semites Babylonia was peopled

session.

by a race known as Sumerians, to whom



the vicinity (Sanh. 92S), which served to locate events in the time of Daniel (see Bapoport, " 'Erek Millin," 241S). Jews looked for the Tower of Babel in Babylon (compare Sanh. 109«): "Of the tower [of Babel], one-third was burnt, one-third was buried underground, and one-third remains standing " (see "Proc. Soc. Bibl. Archseol.," 1893, xv. 230). Pethahiah also saw the Tower (I.e. p. 48). Christians lived in Babylon in early times; the passage I Peter v. 13 refers to this (compare Josephus, "Ant." xv. 2,

A

Christian church, said to have been des§ 2). troyed by Jews under Sapor II. or Bahram, was restored in 399 (Assemani, "Bibl. Orientalis," iii. 2,

61).

Bibliography: Neubauer, Geographie du Talmud, p. 344; BOttger, Lexicon zu Jbsephtis Flavius, p. 48; Ritter, Erdkunde, xi. 865; I. Halevy, Dnrot ha^Bishonim, iii. 1021116; ii. 544, 545, who tries to show that in Talmud Bahel is identical with Bagdad. .

S.

G.

—

Kk.

BABYLONIA. General Data A country in western Asia of varying limits at different periods. The natural boundaries were the Persian gulf on the south, the Tigris on the east, and the Arabian desert on the west. On the north the boundary changed with political changes but it may be roughly placed at a line drawn along the beginning of the alluvial



soil.

Bain may fall at any time between November and February; but the The rainiest months are November and December. rest of the year is dry and extremely hot, though rain is not unknown, in Climate the form of brief showers. Ancient and Products, writers ascribe extraordinary fertility and, due allowance being to the soil

The

Babylon Babylonia

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

401

climate

is

subtropical.



for exaggeration, there remains indubitable evidence of great productivity. The disuse of former elaborate arrangements for irrigation, and the lack of attention have, in modern times, turned much of the country into an arid waste interspersed with The principal products of the malarial marshes. country were wheat, dates, barley, millet, sesame,

made

vetches, oranges, apples, pears,

and grapes.

The

domestic animals in use were horses, camels, oxen, Of wild animals there were sheep, dogs, and goats. enough to furnish much sport for kings and princes. In the chase the lion held first place, if one is to judge by the native accounts; but the wild boar, the wild ox, the jackal, the gazelle, and the hare were likewise found. Birds were numerous; and fish, chiefly carp, were taken in the sluggish rivers.

The people that made the great civilization and history of Babylonia, as it is now known, were Semites, of the same general stock as the Hebrews and Arabs. The time at which they entered the country is matter of dispute, as is also the question II.— 26

due the origin of the method of writing, as also that of part of the religion and the general culture of the Babylonians. To this view, however, there is opposed a strong body of opinion, of which Joseph Halevy, the eminent French Orientalist, is the chief exponent. The language spoken by the Babylois

nians is usually called Assyrian. It belongs to the northern group of the Semitic family, and is more closely affiliated with Hebrew, Phenician, and the several Aramaic languages than with Arabic, Himyaritic, and Ethiopic. The method of writing is cumbrous but it served its purpose from the earliest inscriptions antedating 4500 B.C. down to the period of Alexander the Great. It is called cuneiform, since the earlier picture-writing gradually developed into a character the chief constituent of which is a wedge

(Latin, cuneufi).

The beginnings of history in Babylonia are lost in antiquity. More than 4,000 years before the common era the country was called Kengi that is, " land of canals and reeds " and in it were a number of cities, each with a sort of city king. One of Its the earliest of these kings bore the History, name En-shag-kush-anna, the political center of whose kingdom was proba-

—

—

bly Erech, while Nippur was

its

most important

re-

ligious center. The names of many other kings that ruled in one city or another have been handed down but no clear light upon the movements of men in the

forming of kingdoms is obtained until the reign of Sargon I., about 3800 B.C., and of his son Naram-Sin. These kings were certainly Semites, whatever may be said of earlier monarchs. They made conquests over a large part of the country. Later astrological tablets ascribe to the former some successful campaigns into the far west to Phenieiaand El am. For a long period after the reigns of Sargon and Naram-Sin the supreme power in Babylonia passed from city to city; first one and then another held the supremacy. The first Kings TJr-gur and one that held the chief place after Dungi. this great conqueror was gone was the T city of L r, in which kings Ur-gur and Dungi held sway about 3200 B.C. Each of them was called not only "king of Ur," but also "king of Sumer and Akkad," under which title they claimed dominion over both northern and southern Babylonia.

After the power had slipped

away from

Ur, the

became supreme for a time, only to be succeeded again by Ur, and this in turn by Larsa. During all this long period the city of Babylon exerted no profound influence upon the general life But about 2450 B.C., according to of the country. city of Isin

the native chronologists, the first dynasty began to reign, with Sumuabi as the first king. The sixth king of this dynasty, Hammurabi (about 2342-2288 b.c.

see

Amraphel), united

all

Babylonia under one

scepter and made Babylon its capital. From that proud position the city was never deposed for even when the Assyrians ruled the land from Nineveh,