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Pagan Syriac Monuments in the Vilayet of Urfa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

J. B. Segal
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Extract

In May–June 1952 I was able, through the guidance and with the generous assistance of Mr. Seton Lloyd, Director of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, to visit the monuments of Sumatar Harabesi on two occasions, the first for three days, the second for six days. The shortness of my stay there, the restricted circumstances under which I was operating and, above all, the lack of the equipment required to carry out a precise and satisfactory survey—all combined to allow no more than a comparatively superficial examination of the site. I have, nevertheless, ventured to present my preliminary findings here, until the opportunity may occur for at least a partial clearance of the site and a more detailed survey.

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Type
Research Article
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Anatolian Studies , Volume 3 , December 1953 , pp. 97 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1953

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References

1 Sachau did not travel through the Tektek mountains; see his Reise in Syrien und Mesopotamien, 224. Guyer traversed “this little-explored and mysterious range”, but saw little of interest and did not visit Sumatar; cf. his My Journey down the Tigris, 84 ff.

2 Pognon calls the place Soghmatar.

3 Inscriptions sémitiques de la Syrie, de la Mesopotamie et de la région de Mossoul, 1907, 23 ff.

4 The early Kufic inscription in the cave of No. VIII (above, p. 100) is, however, an exception.

5 Rather than “entrusted to”; Syr. pqd.

6 Or “brother”.

7 ZKY is a possible reading.

8 This word is uncertain.

9 Or “who nourishes him”.

10 So Pognon, loc. cit.

11 One or two letters are illegible; the last two letters are R› or D›.

12 Reading ‹bd, rather than dpr as Pognon; dkr is unlikely.

13 Here written without y, MQMW.

14 See, for example, Bellinger, , “Chronology of Edessa,” in Yale Classical Studies, V (1935), 142Google Scholar, on-the Edessan document found at Dura Europos.

15 The inscription at Serrīn (in North Syria, near the left bank of the Euphrates), dated 385 of the Seleucid era; see Moritz, in von Oppenheim, Inschriften aus Syrien … (1913). 158 ff. and Pognon, op. cit., 15 ff.

16 BSOAS., vol. XVI.

17 British Museum Add. 12150, dated 411.

18 But see Rostovtzeff, Dura-Europos and its Art (1938), 23.

19 Chronicle, V, § 5 (ed. Chabot, I, 120).

20 Payne Smith, Thesaurus, s.v.

21 Hist, nat., V, 86. Cf. the description of Dura ἐν Εύρωπῇ τῇ πρὸς Άραβίᾳ (Excavs. at Dura Europos, 1932–33, 429 and 248).

22 Tacitus, , Annals, XII, 12Google Scholar; Plutarch, Crassus, 21.

23 Plutarch, Lucullus, 21.

24 See, for example, Isaac of Antioch's lament for Bēth ῌūr (below, p. 109); Wright, , The Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite, LXXIXGoogle Scholar.

25 Op. cit., p. 34, where the question is fully discussed.

26 Payne Smith, Thesaurus, s.v.

27 Rostovtzeff and Welles, Excavations at Dura-Europos, 1929–1930, 201 ff. Little can be deduced from the use of Arabarchos in Egypt and by Cicero. But cf. G. A. Cooke, Text-book of North Semitic Inscriptions, 260.

28 Cf. the use of the term “'Arab” by Joshua the Stylite, which Wright translates “Arab territory”; Wright, op. cit., XXXVIII.

29 Chronicle of Edessa, LXVIII.

30 Bar-Šmeš in Phillips, Doctrine of Addai, 39, and Sachau, , “Edessenische Inschriften,” ZDMG., XXXVI (1882), 162 f.Google Scholar; ‹bhedh-Šmeš, below p. 117; Amašmeš, below, p. 116; probably also ŠMŠGRM in Phillips, op. cit., 1 ff., and Sachau, op. cit., 158.

31 Julian, , Oratio, IV, 150Google Scholar.

32 Revue archéologique, 3me Serie, XII (1888), 95Google Scholar.

33 Hill, Catalogue of Greek coins of Arabia, Mesopotamia and Persia, 94.

34 Martin, , “Discours de Jacques de Sarroug sur la chute des idoles,” ZDMG., XXIX, 110 f.Google Scholar; cf. the name ‹bhedh-Nabū, Phillips, op. cit., 32.

35 After Phillips, op. cit., 23. Bath-Nīkal is possibly to be identified with Ningal, consort of Sin, the Moon-deity; see Sidney Smith, Babylonian Historical Texts, 63, 67.

36 For the former view, see, for example, Parrot, , “Fouilles de Baalbek,” Syria, X, 122Google Scholar; for the latter, Payne Smith, Thesaurus, s.v. nšr.

37 See the contemporary, if biased, remarks in Ephraimi Syri Carmina Nisibena, ed. Bickell (1886), XXXI–XXXIV, and A. Mez, Geschichte der Stadt Harran in Mesopotamien bis zum Einfall der Araber, 59 f.

38 Bell. Pers., II, 13.

39 Baladhūri, Kitāb futūh al-buldān, 174 f.; cf. Mez, op. cit., 64.

40 Martin, op. cit., 107. That the dog-star was worshipped may be shown by the name Bar-Kalbā, Phillips, op. cit., 17, and above, p. 103.

41 S. Isaaci Antiocheni opera omnia, ed. Bickell, I, 206 ff.; cf. Duval, , REJ., XIV, 49Google Scholar. On the worship of Venus by the “Arabs” in the 1st century, see Cumont, , “Le culte de Venus chez les Arabes au Ier siècle,” Syria, VIII, 368Google Scholar.

42 Reading nahlā, with Martin.

43 Heracles, it may be noted, was the name of a constellation in the Northern Hemisphere with a famous star cluster.

44 Martin, loc. cit.

45 St. Petersburg, 1856.

46 The principal works are Sachau, Chronology of Ancient Nations … the Athār ul-Bākiya of Al-Bīrūnī, 1879, and Goeje, Dozy-de, “Nouveaux documénts pour l'étude de la religion des Harraniens,” in Actes du VIme Congrès international des Orientalistes … tenu en 1883 à Leide, 2me partie, Section I, 281Google Scholar.

47 Chwolson, op. cit., II, 152; de Goeje, op. cit., 294. Gf. the compromise view of ‹Abd al-Masīh ibn Ishāq al-Kindi (prob. c. 950) quoted by Al-Bīrūnī (in Sachau, op. cit., 187): the Sabians “are notorious for their sacrificing human beings but at present they are not allowed to do it in public”.

48 See Lane, Lexicon, s.v. şb', şbw.

49 This derivation is supported by Chwolson, op. cit., I, 110 ff., and Dozy, op. cit., 290. Cf. Syriac maşbūthā, baptism, and Mandaean maşbūthā, pron. maşwetta; Drower, Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran, 102. But Syriac şbha, “moisten, dip, dye”, is transitive and is not the equivalent of Arabic ightasala (whence the Mughtasilah); and the development of Syr. şābi〈 > şabī〉 into Ar. şābi, postulated by this theory, is difficult.

50 Among Moslem writers on the Sabians whose works are extant are Ibn al-Nadīm, Mas'ūdi, Al-Bīrūni, Ibn Sinā, Šahristāni, Isfahāni, Dimašqi and Maqrīzi. Our main Jewish source is Maimonides; our main Christian sources are Dionysius of Tell-Mahre (on the “Manichaeans” of Harran) and Bar Hebraeus.

51 Gen. 11: 31 f.; 12: 4 f.; 27: 43; 28: 10 ff.

52 Letter of Abū Ishāq Ibrahīm ibn Hilāl, secretary of the Caliph Al-Tā›i‹; Catalogue of Arabic MSS. at Leyden, I.

53 Qoran 2: 59; 5: 73; 22: 17.

54 Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist, IX, I (ed. Flügel, I, 320 f.), on the authority of the Christian Abū Yūsuf Īša‹ (?) al-Qaṭī‹i, who flourished in the latter half of the 9th century (Chwolson, op. cit., II, p. vii).

55 Moslem theologians and historians distinguished two groups of “Sabians” in the empire, those of the marshy country near Wasit and those of Harran. Chwolson and most European scholars after him identify the former as the “pseudo-Christian” Mandaeans or a related sect and as the Sabians of the Qoran; while the latter they regard as pagans who assumed the name “Sabian” for their own purposes.

56 De Goeje, op. cit., 295 f., correcting Ibn al-Nadīm quoted by Chwolson, op. cit., II, 21, who gives the name of this book as Kitāb al-hātfi. This word, however, is undoubtedly Syriac; it should probably be hanphē (pl.), rather than ḥanafi or ḥunqfā, as de Goeje.

57 Ibn al-Nadīm, ib. (Flügel, op. cit., 318). Al-Birūni (Sachau, op. cit., 329; cf. 188) states that the Harranians turned in prayer towards the South Pole, but the “Sabians”— he probably means the Mandaeans—towards the North Pole; cf. Chwolson, op. cit., II, 59 ff.

58 For the religion of the “Sabians” see Chwolson, op. cit., I, ch. II.

59 Above, p. 102; cf. Labūbnā, Labū (for Nabū) hath built, Phillips, Doctrine of Addai, 18.

60 Mas‹ūdi, Murūj al-Dhahab, ch. 67 (ed. Barbier de Meynard, IV, 62). The “Sabians” also had, according to Mas‹ūdi (loc. cit.) and others, temples to certain abstract principles, the Prime Cause, Authority, Reason, Necessity, the Soul. But this may have been the product of a later age; according to Mas‹ūdi, all these were round. They are not mentioned by Ibn al-Nadīm or in the anonymous treatise edited by Dozy-de Goeje.

61 See, for example, Wood and Dawkins, Ruins of Palmyra, 49–50, and Plates LIII–LVII, and Ahmed Djemal, Alte Denkmäler aus Syrien, 67–8; Pognon, op. cit., Plates I–II; Cumont, Etudes syriennes, ch. VI; Brunnow, and Domaszewski, , Provincia, Arabia, III, 3 f.Google Scholar; Butler, , Ancient Architecture in Syria, A. 277 f.Google Scholar, B. 91–3, 299 f.; Butler, Architecture and other Arts, 112 f., 159 ff., 243 ff.

62 So, for example, a circular tower on a square foundation, Butler, , Ancient Architecture …, A. 277 f.Google Scholar; square buildings, Cumont, loc. cit.; quadrilatera l buildings, Pognon, loc. cit.

63 Nuḫbat al-Dahr fi ‹Ajā›ib al-Barr wal-Baḥr, I, 10 (Mehren, Cosmographie, 40 ff.).

64 Op. cit., II, 367.

65 Op. cit., 303.

66 Ibn al-Nadīm, loc. cit. (Flügel, op. cit., 319, 324).

67 Ibn al-Nadīm (Flügel, op. cit., 323, 324, 325); cf. Chwolson, op. cit., I, 513 f., II, 541.

68 Hill, Catalogue of Greek coins of Arabia, Mesopotamia and Persia, 82, no. 4.

69 Above, p. 103. It was, of course, well-known in antiquity; see, for example, Baur, Excavations at Dura-Europos, 1929–1930, 114 ff., Plates XVIII–XIX, and Seton Lloyd, “Seeking the Temple of Sin, Moon-god of Harran …,” Illustrated London News, 21st February 1953, Fig. 13.

70 Hill, op. cit., 91 f., nos. 2, 3.

71 Hill's reading, ›LH Elūl, is unlikely.

72 Hill, op. cit., 103, no. 79.

73 Sachau, , “Edessenische Inschriften,” ZDMG., XXXVI (1882), 164Google Scholar; Pognon, op. cit., 80.

74 Ibn al-Nadīm, loc. cit. (Flügel, op. cit., 325).

75 This monument has not been recorded previously.

76 They simply record the names: Isrīl Īsḥaq bar QWM, Isrīl Sergīs bar QWM.

77 Sachau, op. cit., 160; Pognon, op. cit., 82, n. 3.

78 Sachau, op. cit., 145; Pognon, op. cit., 105 f.; cf. Burkitt, Euphemia and the Goth, 39 f.

79 Sachau, op. cit., 153; Chabot, JA., 10th Series, VII, March 1906, 287; J. R. Harris, Cult of the Heavenly Twins, 106 ff.; Burkitt, “Throne of Nimrod,” in Proceedings of the Society for Biblical Archaeology, 1906, 149; Pognon, op. cit., 204; cf. also Duval, , “Histoire d'Edesse,” JA., 8th Series, XVIII (1891), 98Google Scholar, about the site of the citadel.

80 Mendel, G., Catalogue des sculptures grecques … Constantinople, 1914, III, 515Google Scholar; Chabot, Academic des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Comptes rendus, 1906, 122; Burkitt, op. cit.; Moritz, op. cit., 171 ff. The reading Ba(r)tilāhā is preferable to Amathilāhā as Chabot, loc. cit.

81 See Seton Lloyd, op. cit., Fig. 2 and Supplement, IV.

82 Only the initial › is certain; the next letter may be z and the last letter y. The name is probably too long to be Izāni, the name of a Bishop of Edessa in about 179.

83 On Palmyra, Seyrig, “Armes et Costumes Iraniens de Palmyre,” Syria, XVIII (1937), 4 ff.Google Scholar; on Dura, Rostovtzeff, Dura-Europos and its Art, Fig. 10, and Plates XVI11.I and XXIII. For Parthian influence in Edessa, see Cureton, Ancient Syr. Doc., 41, 97, 106.

84 Ibn al-Nadīm, loc. cit. (Flügel, op. cit., 321), who tells us also that this was the dress of the “companions of the rulers” (aṣḥabu ›Isultani; this may also be rendered “those in charge of the administration”), and that for this reason the Harranians who returned to their “Sabian” religion after the death of Ma'mūn did not resume this costume. The qaba› is described by Lane (Lexicon, Supplement, s.v. qbw) as “a kind of tunic, resembling the qaftān, generally reaching to the middle of the shank, dividing down the front and made to overlap over the chest”. See further Dozy, Dictionnaire des noms des vêtements chez les Arabes, s.v.; on this costume in Egypt at a later period, see L. A. Mayer, Mamluk Costume, 1952, 21 ff. Abhgar of Edessa appears in dress similar to that of Moqīmū on coins of the reign of Gordianus III; Hill, op. cit., 113 f.

85 Names formed with Bar and Bath compounded with the title of a divinity seem to have survived into the Christian era (so, for example, Bar Samyā, Barba‹šmīn), but few, if any, nameṣ formed with ‹bhedh and Amath.

86 Duval, op. cit.

87 The title malktha of the column inscription denotes queen, wife of a king, not princess, daughter of a king; for in the latter event her father Ma‹nū would have been given the title king.

88 Phillips, op. cit., 9.