Persian Babylon

Ashur Al-Akhmani.

The modern Babylonian (or Chaldean) kingdom reached its peak of strength and prosperity during the reign of his son Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 B.C.), who built many buildings in Babylon, such as the Tower of Babylon (Ziggurat of the God Mardukh), 

The Motorcade Street, the Ashtar Gate, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and some palaces and temples. 

However, with the greatness of Babylon and its prosperity, its power began to decline in the era of Nebuchadnezzar II's successors until it fell under the reign of Nabonid, 

Its last king (555-539 B.C.), by Cyrus II, the king of Persians, who kept it from destruction and looting, and the security of its inhabitants for their resistance and for opening the gates of their city for their armies. 

This was because they were hated by their king, who tried to replace the worship of the God of the Moon Sin with the worship of the God Marduk, their principal worshiper. 

Babylon became the center of the ninth state and one of the three capitals of the Persian Khomeini World Empire, which stretched from Asia Minor to the Indus Valley, and was ruled by the Khomeini kings for several months of the year. 

When Darius I took office, Babylon came upon him twice (522 and 521 BC) in an attempt to get rid of foreign rule and regain its freedom, but this attempt failed. 

In 482 BC, she again revolted against Xerxes, who avenged her by demolishing her walls, temples and zigars.

Fall.

In 331 B.C.E., Alexander the Macedonian occupied Babylon. 

The inhabitants of Babylon revived him as their liberator from the Persians and confessed to his rule.

In an attempt to win their favor, Al-Samarraie presented a sacrifice to Mardukh and ordered the reconstruction of the temples which Ahshuirish destroyed, and he planned the rebuilding of Al-Zaqoura and the construction of a port on the Euphrates to connect the city to the Arab Gulf. 

Aware of the importance of historical and cultural Babylon, he wanted to make it the capital of his world empire, but he died before his plans were realized, where he died in 323 BC.

In the later stages, Babylon lost its importance after the founding of Seleucus I in 300 B.C., the city of Seleuk (about 90 kilometers north of Babil on the Tigris River), and it became its capital. 

A section of the people of Babylon moved there and commercial roads were transferred to the new city,

The first century did not come until Babylon became a deserted city.

Political and administrative system.

The Babylonians defined hereditary monarchy, with the son succeeding his father in government, and kings rarely had absolute sovereignty. 

Claiming that the gods had chosen them to rule the country, and had empowered them to act in the affairs of the flock, they did not disown themselves, as did others.

The King had the right to determine the limits of the functions assigned to senior staff in the Minors. And to hire them as officers in the days of war. 

The king did not have such loose titles as the king of the four quarters that were popular in the Kurdish kingdom. 

Instead, they called himself “the great king,” “the powerful king,” and Hammurabi called himself the “father shepherd.” 

The royal palace was the administrative center next to the temple. Minister Soclow was assisting the King, the Governor  rabianum, the Chief, running the provinces and districts in the name of the King. 

Then it was commonly called his own “treasurer.” The various staff of the Department should have been well versed in writing, so they were often referred to as Tubxharu, also with their work areas, the most important of which were: 

Department of Agriculture for Minors and Pastries. They also had to measure land for landlords or tenant farmers, and monitor animal husbandry and hunting. 

There were officials responsible for the organization and maintenance of major water channels, the construction of barriers and dams on rivers, and the collection of various taxes and fees from merchants and professionals was the responsibility of Master Makisu.

Economy.

agriculture,

Farming in the land of Babylon required hard work and careful regulation, with the availability of water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but it produced abundant yields. 

Canals were necessary to get water to the fields. The main channels were the responsibility of the state. 

Farmers are the ones who take care of small secondary channels. It was not uncommon for crops to be seeded in late fall and harvested at the end of the spring. 

And the fruits were harvested with machetes. Apparently the Babylonians were using the Norse to study, and then they would do the ablation process, and then they would store the crop up in a desert near the fields.

The crops were wheat, barley, lentils, chickpeas, flax, sesame, peas, oats, millet and millet. Barley was the top priority in human use. They made bread, flour, and beer. 

The Babylonians extracted oil from the sesame to the poverty of their country with olive trees, and made tissues of flax. Palm dates were one of the most important foodstuffs, and palm trees had different uses in construction and were of poor quality. 

Of the known fruit trees, figs, pomegranates, and apples, citrus was not known in Babylon. The Babylonians often used plants and herbs to heal.

Animal husbandry was also common in the Babylonians. 

The dog was one of the oldest domestic animals because of its many protective and hunting benefits. The Babylonians also took care of domestic cats. 

The Babylonians made use of the donkey and the mule was also mentioned in the Babylonian literature, but the horse was later found in the land of Babylon, and the camel was the same. 

The Babylonians also took care of cattle, sheep, goats, and swine.

We find many drawings of bulls in the scenes, and the bull was a symbol of the god of the moon, and we note that the kings called themselves "ox" as a sign of power. . 

The shepherd of the sheep was also the true model of the shepherds and the title “shepherd” taken by many kings for themselves.

Besides the animals, the Babylonians were concerned with raising birds such as goose and duck, as well as chicken, ostrich and pigeon.

Professions and Crafts.

The Babylonians, along with the Assyrians and the Akkadian by themselves, called the word “ummantu” a handicraft, and the word “omia/omano” a craftsman. Spinning, weaving, sewing and embroidery were among the most important crafts that women specialized in. 

There are some evidence indicating that precious garments were made for kings, chief priests, and others. 

The sewing, textile, wool, and flax material was, The Babylonians, like their successors, knew colored fabrics and their pigments with the help of young men and scarlet. 

The use of looms in the fabric was common. And there were other distinct characters like the carmaker's carcase. 

The ancient Babylonian Mary texts and the Nozi texts are the richest texts in terms of information relating to the carpet making. 

The textile industry seems to have been a work area for many people throughout the ages, and hence an economically important area. 

To be sure, the animal's fur provided the oldest garments for men, some of which were used in making shoes. 

The most common animal that people have benefited from is cows, goats. Skin had little use for writing on it. 

Cane was used in the manufacture of baskets, arrows and spears, in the construction of boats and river boats, 

In the manufacture of simple doors and household furniture, in the construction of huts and covering floors of houses and barns in the countryside, and there were layers of bronchial confinement used in the construction of large buildings such as towers (ziggurat).

There were little timber in the Babylonians, so we find the Babylonians, like the Egyptians, trying to reach the mountains along the eastern Mediterranean to bring good timber from them. 

The Babylonian lexicographical uses numerous wooden tools used by the Babylonians in various works, in the manufacture of household furniture, and the carpenter had a great influence on the construction of houses, temples and palaces, river boats and wooden wagons.

Pottery was common to the Babylonians because of the importance of the milk industry in construction, in the work of clay tablets (number) for writing on them, in the manufacture of pots, toys and other works of art. 

And the stones that needed stones and rocks that were brought from the Asian mountain regions of Zagros, Iran, Asia Minor, Syria, for building and making stone tools, and in sculpture.

As for the metal crafts, the worker was mentioned in the texts by the term Nbacu nappakhu, which means blacksmith, as the ball blowing for metal smelting. 

Copper and bronze were among the most commonly used metals in weapons and tools. There were gold goldsmiths and precious instruments of silver and other metals.

Trade.

It means exchanging goods of all kinds, including human (slaves) and real estate, both locally and externally. 

There are provisions for trade agreements, inventory of goods, and commercial correspondence from which thousands of Babil countries have come.

Most commercial texts were documented, In Babil, which is poor in minerals, grain was used for barter, and sheep were used as a means to estimate the price of goods. 

Minerals, especially copper and silver, were replaced by barter. 

The state had concluded trade agreements with its neighbors, opened, protected, and controlled roads, and conducted donkey-based commercial convoys as a means of transport. 

Tamkaru was the main trader in the Babylonian community: Buyers and sellers, wholesale and retail, financed, invested and alternative to banks. 

The goods that were exported from Babylon are grains of all kinds, dates, manufactured tools and textiles. 

Raw mineral materials were imported from Iran, Syria and Asia Minor, olive oil, wine and timber from Syria. 

The slave trade was also popular among the Babylonians, and most of them were from Iran, in the Hammurabi era.

Social life.

The family throughout the ancient Arab East was built on the power of the father, but the rights of the father were not absolute. 

Polygamy was accepted and permitted only in rare cases, especially if a woman was barren or had a muscular disease. 

The husband must spend on her if she wants to stay with him, otherwise he must pay her daughter in full, and if she has a child, the husband should also pay her half of his property. 

The wife had equal social status with men, and had the right to work, but only with his consent. Boys were favored over females, and the firstborn had special advantages, and the adoption system was wide-ranging among Babylonians.

Babylonian society was three:

1. Free people, urban citizens, farmers and sponsors.

1 Liberals, who are citizens of the cities and farmers and herdsmen.

2. The Moshkino is a mushkinu class, and these represent the middle class. They are closer to the liberal class from a social point of view, and I resemble the status of the loyal in the pre-Islamic era and in the heart of Islam in the Arabs.

3. The slave class, and these are always special to certain individuals or temples. The slave could trade, with the consent of his master, and he had a mark: shaving off half of the head so as not to escape. If he ran away, the employees had to arrest him and return him to his owner. 

Many of the slaves come from prisoners of war and captives. 

The slave could have taken up himself, someone could have adopted him, and their treatment was acceptable, and they were considered members of the household.

Even in the large cities, the old Eastern community in general was not completely stable, and with the family, there was the large family, the tribe that lived in the city and the village, the Bedouins and herders. 

Many have developed themselves as soldiers and officers, managed to rise to the position of governor or king, and to establish ruling families, as did the founders of the first and modern Babylonian dynasties.

Religions.

Like other peoples of the ancient Arab Levant, the Babylonians were pagans, with their own gods, headed by the God of Babylon Marduk, who was the God of God, the Creator, the protector of individuals, and also the God of war, and who, in their opinion, is the Son of the God, the God of wisdom. 

And he hath a son called Nebo, whose enemy is the protector of scribes and of the learned. The goddess Ishtar (the Goddess of Venus) was the goddess of both fertility and war.

Their God of the moon was called Sin, but the God of the sun was called Shamsh, and he was the God of truth and justice. 

And the evidence is that most of their gods were related to planets and stars. Like other peoples of Mesopotamia, 

The Babylonians kept the worship of the Sumerian gods, and found names in their Babylonian or similar languages, as a result of the mixing of the Semites with the Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia. 

Many gods had a major city in which the main temple of God worship was established, but his worship was spread throughout all cities and throughout the country. 

The head of the Babylonian Sumerian god complex, Anne, was his worship center in the city of Orouk (Warka today), and his headquarters was heaven. 

The Sumerian god Enlil was his principal temple in the city of Eridu. And Ishtar is a principal temple in Oruk, too. God Nebo is in the city of Borsiba.

The analogy between the Babylonian gods and the Sumerian gods in general has contributed to the decline in the number of gods, and has led to many gods becoming abstract virtual forms, but at the same time has preserved common traditions with new perceptions. 

One of the most well-established facts in the minds of the Babylonians is that God is free to punish or forgive man. 

Sin was determined by the right attitude toward the gods and by adhering to the basic human ethic.

New Year's Day (Akitu) was the most important Babylonian holiday, which dates back several days, originally in the fall, and then turned into spring. 

Statues of the gods were carried in a solemn procession to a special home for the celebration, usually outside the city wall. 

Prayers and hymns were traditionally recited in honor of the God Marduk, whose tower temple (ziggurat) was in the city of Babylon, the largest of these temples.

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