Corpus of Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals.
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Among the most important sources for understanding the cultures and systems of thought of ancient Mesopotamia is a large body of magical and medical texts written in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages. An especially significant branch of this literature centres upon witchcraft. Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and incantations attribute ill-health and misfortune to the magic machinations of witches and prescribe ceremonies, devices, and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction of this body of texts; it provides critical editions of the relevant rituals and prescriptions based on the study of the cuneiform tablets and fragments recovered from the libraries of ancient Mesopotamia. This is the first volume in the three-part Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals series . Volumes two and three are expected in 2015 and 2018 respectively. \'Even in its incomplete form, Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals is a major contribution to the study of witchcraft, supernatural belief, folk medicine (both supernatural and non-supernatural), theories of magic, incantations, and ritual. This edition is required reading for any scholar with an interest in these topics.\' David Elton Gay, Indiana University
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004214897 :
1566-7952 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
In the shadow of Bezalel : Aramaic, biblical, and ancient Near Eastern studies in honor of Bezalel Porten /
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Twenty nine scholars from Israel, Europe and the Americas came together to honor and celebrate Prof. Bezalel Porten's (Emeritus, Dept. of History of the Jewish People, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) academic career. Covering a wide variety of topics within Aramaic, Biblical, and ancient Near Eastern Studies, In the Shadow of Bezalel offers new insights and proposals in the areas of Aramaic language, paleography, onomastica and lexicography; ancient Near Eastern legal traditions, Hebrew Bible, and social history of the Persian period.
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1 online resource (l, 429 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004240841 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Life at the bottom of Babylonian societ y servile laborers at Nippur in the 14th and 13th centuries, B.C. /
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Life at the Bottom of Babylonian Society is a study of the population dynamics, family structure, and legal status of publicly-controlled servile workers in Kassite Babylonia. It compares some of the demographic aspects proper to this group with other intensively studied past populations, such as Roman Egypt, Medieval Tuscany, and American slave plantations. It suggests that families, especially those headed by single mothers, acted as a counter measure against population reduction (flight and death) and as a means for the state to control this labor force. The work marks a step forward in the use of quantitative measures in conjunction with cuneiform sources to achieve a better understanding of the social and economic forces that affected ancient Near Eastern populations.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004207042 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Scribal Education in the Sargonic Period /
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Scribal Education in the Sargonic Period is an in-depth analysis of the process of education for scribes during the period of Sargonic hegemony in ancient Mesopotamia (c. 2335-2150 BCE). The book provides a holistic study of the topic, addressing the technology of writing, the school texts used in education, the languages of instruction, and the social and historical context of scribal life and an education in cuneiform writing. The topic of scribal education at such an early period of Mesopotamian history has never been addressed at length before. Nicholas Kraus convincingly argues that scribal education during the Sargonic period was closely tied to the administrative institutions of the Sargonic Empire and prepared a scribe to become an effective administrator. The Harvard Semitic Studies series publishes volumes from the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East. Other series offered by Brill that publish volumes from the Museum include Studies in the Archaeology and History of the Levant and Harvard Semitic Monographs , https://hmane.harvard.edu/publications.
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Based on the author's dissertation (doctoral)--Yale University, 2018. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004443242
9789004443228
The seal of the sanga : on the old Babylonian sangas of Šamaš of Sippar-Jaḫrūrum and Sippar-Amnānum /
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This study assembles and examines all available documentation on the first and second sangas of Šamaš of the Ebabbar temple in Old Babylonian Sippar as well as on those in the Edikuda temple in neighbouring Sippar-Amnānum. Their succession, family links and the length of their careers are discussed and newly completed drawings of their seals are provided, described and analyzed. The author addresses the evolving patterns of sealing and the changes in the seal legends, which yield information on the growing influence of the Marduk circles and thus of the kings of Babylon. The seal stones have been reconstructed from the impressions and conclusions are drawn concerning the choice of seal scenes by the different sangas as well as the use of family seals.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047443889 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
In the path of the moon : Babylonian celestial divination and its legacy /
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Celestial divination, in the form of omens from lunar, planetary, astral, and meteorological phenomena, was central to Mesopotamian cuneiform scholarship and science from the late second millennium BCE into the Hellenistic period. Beyond the boundaries of ancient Mesopotamia, the ideas, texts, and traditions of Babylonian celestial divination are traceable in Hellenistic sciences and philosophies. This collection of essays investigates features of Babylonian celestial divination with special focus on those aspects that influenced later Greco-Roman astronomy, astrology, and theories of signs. A multi-faceted collection of philological, historical, and philosophical investigations, In the Path of the Moon offers Assyriologists, Classicists, and historians of ancient science a wide-ranging series of studies unified around the theme of Babylonian celestial divination's legacy. \'The collected essays in this volume, successive steps in an ordered path, constitute an invaluable contribution to a better understanding of Babylonian divination.\' Lorenzo Verderame, \'Sapienza\' Università di Roma \'The reader interested in the multifaceted presentation of the problems related to the explanation of Babylonian celestial divination and well equipped with the knowledge of Akkadian will certainly be rewarded by the study of Rochberg's latest publication.\' Henryk Drawnel, SDB
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004189614 :
1566-7952 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The new Babylonian diaspora : the rise and fall of the Jewish community in Iraq, 16th-20th centuries C.E. /
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The New Babylonian Diaspora: Rise and Fall of Jewish Community in Iraq, 16th-20th Centuries C.E. provides a historical survey of the Iraqi Jewish community's evolution from the apex of its golden age to its disappearance, emergence, rapid growth and annihilation. Making use of Judeo-Arabic newspapers and archives in London, Paris, Washington D.C. and other sources, Zvi Yehuda proves that from 1740 to 1914, Iraq became a lodestone for tens of thousands of Jewish immigrants from Kurdistan, Persia, the Mediterranean Basin, and Eastern and Central Europe. After these Jews had settled in Baghdad and Mesopotamia, they became "Babylonians" and 'forgot' their lands of origin, contrary to the social habit of Jews in other communities throughout history.
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"Published in partnership with The Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center (BJHC)." :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004354012 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The legal methodology of late Nehardean sages in Sasanian Babyloni a
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This book consists of a systematic analysis of the halakhic/legal methodology of fourth and fifth century Nehardean amoraim in Babylonia (as well as their identity and dating). The book uncovers various distinct characteristics present in the halakhic decision making and source interpretation, and demonstrates how certain amoraim can be characterized as portraying consistent interpretive and legal approaches throughout talmudic literature. Understanding the methodological characteristics that distinguish some amoraim from other amoraim can aid the talmudic interpreter/scholar in clarifying the legal foundations of their rulings, the proofs that they bring within talmudic discourse, as well as their disputes and interpretations. This allows a better understanding of the development of Jewish Law and the legal system in talmudic Babylonia.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004193826 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Education in early 2nd millennium BC Babylonia : the Sumerian epistolary miscellany /
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This book examines a collection of twenty-two literary letters and related compositions - the Sumerian Epistolary Miscellany (SEpM) - studied as part of the Old Babylonian Sumerian scribal curriculum, in an attempt to better understand the education system at this time. The author includes discussion of the nature of the letters as scribal inventions, the pedagogical function of literary letters and compilation tablets, as well as the creation, implementation and consistency of the advanced Sumerian scribal curriculum. The volume also contains critical editions of SEpM as well as ancillary Sumerian letters studied in the Nippur schools, the majority of which were previously unpublished.
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1 online resource (xxv, 365 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004214231 :
0929-0052 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Early Mesopotamian divination literature : its organizational framework and generative and paradigmatic characteristics /
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In Early Mesopotamian Divination Literature: Its Organizational Framework and Generative and Paradigmatic Characteristics , Abraham Winitzer provides a detailed study of the Akkadian Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1600 BC) omen collections stemming from extispicy, the most significant Mesopotamian divination technique for most of that civilization's history. Paying close attention to these texts' organizational structure, Winitzer details the mechanics responsible for their origins and development, and highlights key characteristics of a conceptual framework that helped reconfigure Mesopotamian divination into a literature in line with significant, new forms of literary expression from the same time. This literature, Winitzer concludes, represents an early form of scientific reasoning that began to appreciate the centrality of texts and textual interpretation in this civilization's production, organization, and conception of knowledge.
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1 online resource (xxi, 489 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 460-477) and index. :
9789004347007 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Corpus of Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals /
:
Among the most important sources for understanding the cultures and systems of thought of ancient Mesopotamia is a large body of magical and medical texts written in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages. An especially significant branch of this literature centres upon witchcraft. Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and incantations attribute ill-health and misfortune to the magic machinations of witches and prescribe ceremonies, devices, and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction of this body of texts; it provides critical editions of the relevant rituals and prescriptions based on the study of the cuneiform tablets and fragments recovered from the libraries of ancient Mesopotamia. \'Now that we have the second volume, we the more admire the thoughtful organisation of the entire project, the strict methods followed, and the insightful observations and decisions made.\' Martin Stol, Bibliotheca Orientalis lxxIV n° 3-4, mei-augustus 2017
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1 online resource : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004318557 :
1566-7952 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Sources of evil : studies in Mesopotamian exorcistic lore /
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Sources of Evil: Studies in Mesopotamian Exorcistic Lore is a collection of thirteen essays on the body of knowledge employed by ancient Near Eastern healing experts, most prominently the 'exorcist' and the 'physician', to help patients who were suffering from misfortunes caused by divine anger, transgressions of taboos, demons, witches, or other sources of evil. The volume provides new insights into the two most important catalogues of Mesopotamian therapeutic lore, the Exorcist's Manual and the Aššur Medical Catalogue, and contains discussions of agents of evil and causes of illness, ways of repelling evil and treating patients, the interpretation of natural phenomena in the context of exorcistic lore, and a description of the symbolic cosmos with its divine and demonic inhabitants.
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1 online resource (xiii, 382 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004373341 :
1566-7952 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
À l'ombre des grandes puissances de Mésopotamie. Une histoire du Sūhu à l'époque néo-assyrienne /
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In À l'ombre des grandes puissances de Mésopotamie. Une histoire du Sūhu à l'époque néo-assyrienne , Philippe Clancier studies the Sūhu region of the Euphrates river, on the border of Assyria and Babylonia. He reconstructs its geography by presenting the fauna and flora, and by identifying sites and the layout of traffic routes. After going back to the 2nd millennium BC to explain the origin of its main dynasty, he highlights the partition of Sūhu into two main kingdoms before its reunification in the 8th century BC and its later conquest by Assyria. Thanks to an interdisciplinary approach that combines written sources, archaeological data and travellers' accounts, Philippe Clancier offers for the first time a history of this region in the neo-Assyrian period.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004433281
9789004433274
East and west of Zagros : travel, war and politics in Persia and Iraq 1913-1921 /
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C.J. Edmonds published articles in orientalist journals and co-authored with Taufiq Wahby A Kurdish-English dictionary (Oxford, 1966). He published his memoirs of Iraq, Kurds, Turks, and Arabs : politics, travel and research in North-Eastern Iraq, 1919-1925 (London - New York, 1957), but his Persian memoirs remained unpublished. It tells how, after studying oriental languages in Cambridge, he became Consular Officer in Bushire, participated in British campaigns in Mesopotamia during First World War. As a Political Officer in Luristan Edmonds was in charge of the oil fields' security and was sent to Northern Persia after the war, a direct witness of the Jangal upheaval and the 1921 coup d'Etat.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 335-338) and index. :
9789047426905 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A Jewish philosopher of Baghdad : 'Izz al-Dawla Ibn Kammuna (d. 683/1284) and his writings /
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For a long time, the study of the life and work of the Jewish thinker ʿIzz al-Dawla Ibn Kammūna (d. 683/1284) remained limited to a very small number of texts. Interest in Ibn Kammūna in the Western Christian world dates back to the 17th century, when Barthélemy d'Herbelot (1624-1695) included information on two of Ibn Kammūna's works - his examination of the three faiths ( Tanqīḥ al-abḥāth li-l-milal al-thalāt ), id est Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and his commentary on Avicenna's al-Ishārāt wa l-tanbīhā t - in his Bibliothèque orientale . Subsequent generations of Western scholars were focused on Ibn Kammūna's Tanqīḥ al-abḥāth , whereas his fame in the Eastern lands of Islam was based exclusively on his philosophical writings. These include a commentary on the Kitāb al-Talwīḥāt by the founder of Illumationist philosophy, Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (d. 587/1191) and numerous independent works on philosophy and logic. Since most of the manuscripts of Ibn Kammūna's philosophical writings are located in the public and private libraries of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, they were (and are) out of reach for the majority of Western scholars. The volume gives a detailed account of the available data of Ibn Kammūna's biography, provides an outline of his philosophcial thought and studies in detail the reception of his thought and his writings among later Muslim and Jewish philosophers. An inventory of his entire œuvre provides detailed information on the extant manuscripts. The volume furthermore includes editions of nine of his writings.
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Includes editions of 9 texts by Ibn Kammuna, in Arabic. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [245]-263) and indexes. :
9789047409632 :
0169-8729 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Mesopotamian medicine and magic : studies in honor of Markham J. Geller /
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Mesopotamian Medicine and Magic. Studies in Honour of Markham J. Geller is a thematically focused collection of 34 brand-new essays bringing to light a representative selection of the rich and varied scientific and technical knowledge produced chiefly by the cuneiform cultures. The contributions concentrate mainly on Mesopotamian scholarly descriptions and practices of diagnosing and healing diverse physical ailments and mental distress. The festschrift contains both critical editions of new texts as well as analytical studies dealing with various issues of Mesopotamian medical and magical lore. Currently, this is the largest edited volume devoted to this topic, significantly contributing to the History of Ancient Sciences.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004368088
Caught in a whirlwind : a cultural history of Ottoman Baghdad as reflected in its illustrated manuscripts /
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Caught in a Whirlwind: A Cultural History of Ottoman Baghdad as Reflected in its Illustrated Manuscripts focuses on a period of great artistic vitality in the region of Baghdad, a frontier area that was caught between the rival Ottoman and the Safavid empires. In the period following the peace treaty of 1590, a corpus of more than thirty illustrated manuscripts and several single page paintings were produced. In this book Melis Taner presents a contextual study of the vibrant late sixteenth-century and early seventeenth-century Baghdad art market, opening up further avenues of research on art production in provinces and border regions.
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Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral)--Harvard University, 2016, under the title: Caught in a whirlwind : painting in Baghdad in the late sixteenth-early seventeenth centuries. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004412804
Early Islamic law in Basra in the 2nd/8th century : Aqwāl Qatāda born Diʻāma al-Sadūsī /
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The manuscript of the Aqwāl Qatāda has repeatedly attracted particular interest among modern scholars, as it raises questions concerning the early development of the Ibāḍī Basran community and the emergence of Islamic jurisprudence in Iraq. It is a unique document because it attests to the existence of a scholarly link between Sunnīs and Ibāḍīs during the early development of Islamic law. The fact that the legal responsa and traditions of Qatāda born Diʿāma al-Sadūsī (60/680-117/735) are part of an Ibāḍī collection, in which the traditions of Ibāḍī Imam Jābir born Zayd (d. 93/ 711) have been transmitted through ʿAmr born Harim and ʿAmr born Dīnār, proves that the Ibāḍī lawyers of the first generations considered Qatāda to be a faithful upholder of Jābir's doctrine. Given the lack of material available for Jābir , instructions must have been given to collect whatever was transmitted through Qatāda. Qatāda's legal responsa must have corresponded to those of the first Ibāḍī authorities, which explains why the collator of the Aqwāl Qatāda (probably Abū Ghānim al-Khurāsānī) included them in an Ibāḍī manuscript. The present volume sheds light on the relationship between the Aqwāl Qatāda and Ibāḍī authorities such as al-Rabī, Abū Ubayda, and Jābir.
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1 online resource (516 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004339538 :
0929-2403 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Ottoman land reform in the province of Baghdad /
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In Ottoman Land Reform in the Province of Baghdad , Keiko Kiyotaki traces the Ottoman reforms of tax farming and land tenure and establishes that their effects were the key ingredients of agricultural progress. These modernizing reforms are shown to be effective because they were compatible with local customs and tribal traditions, which the Ottoman governors worked to preserve. Ottoman rule in Iraq has previously been considered oppressive and blamed with failure to develop the country. Since the British mandate government's land and tax policies were little examined, the Ottoman legacy has been left unidentified. This book proves that Ottoman land reforms led to increases in agricultural production and tax revenue, while the hasty reforms enacted by the mandate government ignoring indigenous customs caused new agricultural and land problems.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004384347 :
1380-6076 ;
Histoire des textiles en Babylonie, 626-484 av. J.-C. : Production, circulations et usages /
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Textiles were one of the most celebrated products of Near-Eastern craft in Antiquity. In Histoire des Textiles en Babylonie, 626-484 av. J.-C. , Louise Quillien offers an analysis of textile manufacturing, exchanges and uses in Babylonian society. In a context where archaeological textile remains are rare, cuneiform texts provide rich information on this craft. The book demonstrates that through the study of objects, it is possible to highlight a whole section of the economy, culture, religion and social customs of an ancient society, and proposes to immerse the reader in the daily life of the inhabitants of Mesopotamia.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004463936
9789004463929