The religions of ancient Egypt and BabyloniaSayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
Religion
The religions of ancient Egypt and Babylonia
Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
Assyro-Babylonian religion; Egypt -- Religion
The union of Sumerian and Semite created the Babylonian with whom we have
to deal, just as the union of Kelt and Teuton has created the Englishman
of to-day. Other races, it is true, settled in his country in subsequent
ages, but their influence was comparatively slight and transitory. At one
time non-Semitic Elamites from the east overran both Babylonia and the
district of Susa, which up to that time had been a Babylonian province,
and founded a dynasty at Babylon which lasted for nearly six hundred
years. But, like the Hyksos dynasties in Egypt, it made but little
permanent impression upon the people; in character and religion they
remained what they were before. Nor did the irruption of Bedâwin tribes
and other more pure-blooded representatives of the Semitic race have a
greater effect. They were rather influenced by the Babylonians than the
Babylonians by them. Their own culture was inferior, and Babylonia was
their teacher in the arts and comforts of life. The wild Bedâwin, who
tended the flocks of their Babylonian masters, the Amorite merchants from
Canaan, who formed trading settlements in the Babylonian cities, even the
South Arabian princes who headed the national revolt against Elamite
supremacy and made Babylon the capital of their kingdom, were all alike
absorbed into the Babylonian race. They became the children of Babylonian
civilisation, and, along with the culture, they adopted the language of
the Babylonian people. The mixed race which had produced the civilisation
of Babylonia, was destined to retain its individuality unimpaired down to
the day when Europe took the place of Asia in the history of the civilised
world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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