In the path of the alphabet: an historical account of the ancient beginnings and evolution of the modern alphabetJermain, Frances Delavan Page
History
In the path of the alphabet: an historical account of the ancient beginnings and evolution of the modern alphabet
Jermain, Frances Delavan Page
Alphabet
As yet there was no kingdom of Babylonia, and no city of Babylon. This
region was situated in the northern portion of Sumir, south of Accad,
and was at first designated by the Turanian name, “Gar Dunyash,” or “Kar
Dunyash,” the “Garden of the god, Dunyash.”
The site of the future great capital was then called either by its more
ancient Turanian name, “Tin-Tir-ki,” signifying The Tree of Life, or its
later Accado-Sumerian name, “Ka-Dimmirra,” Gate of God. In later times
this name translated into Semitic was Babilu—Babylon—which finally
became the name of the whole of Sumir south to the Persian Gulf, as
Babylonia.
At the date of Sargon, of Accad, Sumir, or southern Mesopotamia, was
chiefly Turanian. The displacement of the Mongol peoples by the Semites
in this region had not at this time obtained. That fusion of races which
so distinctly distinguished the Babylonians of the later era from the
more purely Semitic Assyrians had scarcely begun.
The Babylonians, as a distinct people under this name, do not make their
appearance on the stage of history until over fourteen centuries later
than Sargon, in the time or a little earlier than Hammurabi, or
Khammuragas, about 2300 B. C., at the date accorded to Abraham.
It is probable that Semitic people had settled in this region long
previous to the reign of Sargon, but it was not until the period of
Hammurabi, who at first was simply king of Gar-Dunyash that the Semitic
element dominated in Babylonia.
This powerful prince, who became in time master of all southern
Mesopotamia, was the founder of the city of Babylon, from which the
country and people received the names Babylonia and Babylonians.
Returning to Sargon, we find in the Ninevite remains that in this
earlier time he had founded one of the most famous libraries of ancient
Mesopotamia. This was at his new city of Agane, or Agade. The literature
of this library was entirely based on that of ancient Sumir. It
consisted completely of translations of these older books into what we
may call Assyrian, or were copies of the older books in the old language
of Sumir.
This older language was to these Semitic Assyrians the language of the
learned, the classic tongue of the time, bearing the same relation to
the Assyrian as do Greek and Latin to modern literature. It was then
even more important to the Semitic student as it included all of
learning which in Mesopotamia had as yet obtained literary form.
These ancient texts were copied on clay tablets with translations from
the language of Sumir into Semitic, either between the lines or the text
in the old language in one column and the translation opposite.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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