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^amtll HUninecaitg Slibearg 
 
 Strata. SS'em Intk 
 
 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE 
 
 SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
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 arV17212 
 
 Western Asia, according to the most rece 
 
 3 1924 031 
 oiin.anx 
 
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Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031292927 
 
WESTERN ASIA, 
 
 ACCORDING 
 
 TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. 
 
WESTERN ASIA, 
 
 ACCORDING 
 
 TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. 
 
 RECTORIAL ADDRESS 
 
 ON THE OCCASION OF THE Ji8th ANNIVERSARY OF 
 THE LEYDEN UNIVERSITY, 8th FEBRUARY 1 89 3, 
 
 BY 
 
 C. p. TIELE, 
 
 Prof, of Comparative Theology. 
 
 Translated by Elizabeth J. Taylor. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 LUZAC & Co. 
 
 (Publishers to the India Office) 
 
 46, Great Russell Street, W.C. 
 
WESTERN ASIA, 
 
 ACCORDING TO THE MOST RECENT 
 
 DISCOVERIES. 
 
 Rectorial Address by Professor Tiele on the 
 .occasion of the jiSth Anniversary of the Ley den 
 University, 8th February, i8g2- 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 It is with pleasure that I greet you in this room 
 so bare and cheerless, but endeared to us none the 
 less by many happy memories. 
 
 Our Eighth of February is no longer what it was 
 once, the opening day of the Academical year, yet we 
 hold it in honour. The Rector is not called upon 
 by the law to speak to-day, but he willingly com- 
 plies with the request of his colleagues. 
 
 Although it is a feast day for us, still you will 
 not expect me to deliver a festival speech nor to sing 
 the praises of our School and to expatiate upon 
 its greatness. That is all very well on special 
 occasions and was suitable in the year 1874, when 
 our University celebrated her Tercentenary and the 
 deep lamented Matthias de Vries delivered his brilliant 
 
WESTERN ASIA, ACCORDING 
 
 discourse "De Academia Lugduno — Batava libertatis 
 praesidio," which we older men remember so vividly; 
 it was equally suitable in the great jubilee year of 
 1875, but an annual repetition would become monot- 
 onous. I shall therefore not undertake it. Neither 
 shall I tell you what I feel concerning our Higher 
 Education, nor seek to find whether its present 
 direction leads to the high goal, which should be its 
 object and whether it does what it might and therefore 
 should do. Why build castles in the air? why give 
 utterance to wishes that cannot be fulfilled in the 
 near future and may possibly never be? Why make 
 complaints for which we have neither ear nor heart 
 .in the midst of our reform-bill-fever? 
 
 I prefer taking advantage of the liberty allowed 
 me and choose, as have done my predecessors, a 
 subject from amongst the studies which I pursue 
 and in which I hope .to awaken your interest. Will 
 you go back with me to thirty centuries before the 
 founding of our High School, to the latter years of 
 the 15th and the earlier ones of the 14th centuries 
 before Christ? 
 
 " Western Asia, according to the most recent dis- 
 coveries," that is what I shall endeavour to sketch in 
 outline. 
 
 The discovery, to which I would draw your atten- 
 tion, is one of the most important concerning ancient 
 history, which has been made of late years and no 
 doubt many of you are already acquainted with it. 
 In the beginning of the winter of 1887 some Fellahs 
 
TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. 7 
 
 found amongst the ruins of the residence of the 
 Egyptian king, Amenothes IV, several small tablets 
 of baked clay, of different sorts and colours, all in- 
 scribed with the well-known Babylonian cuneiform 
 characters. Fortunately they have not been too widely 
 -dispersed; more than 300 are carefully preserved in 
 the Berlin, London and Bulaq Museums. Only a 
 few became the property of private scholars, two 
 of whom, one the celebrated Egyptiologist Maspero 
 and the other the learned Russian Golenisheff, placed 
 theirs at the disposal of the Berlin publishers. They 
 are now all published, in so far that they belong to 
 public collections, and are therefore accessible to all 
 those who understand the language, but are unable 
 to go and study the original documents. 
 
 Of course, some scholars who could obtain access 
 to them before the publication, were not long in 
 making known the — rather premature — result of their 
 researches. So, the mystery how could tablets written 
 in the Babylonian cuneiform characters be found in an 
 Egyptian ruin, was soon cleared up and it was evident 
 that we had become possessed of a priceless treasure — 
 nothing less than the diplomatic archives belonging 
 to Amenothe.s IV and his father Amenothes III, and 
 a collection of letters to the Pharaoh from friendly 
 kings of the countries bordering the Euphrates and 
 the Tigris and from the petty kings and governors 
 of Syria, Phoenicia and Canaan, A few only are 
 written in an unknown tongue; the others are all 
 written in the so-called Assyrian language — the 
 
8 WESTERN ASIA, ACCORDING 
 
 language of Babylon and Ashur. The Egyptian 
 king himself uses it in writing, to his royal brother 
 at Babylon. This proves that there must have been 
 at his court men acquainted with the Babylonian lan- 
 guage, and some mythological texts, found amongst 
 the letters, must have been employed for the study 
 thereof. For it was only in a few instances that the 
 embassies of the foreign sovereigns had an inter- 
 preter, — targumarinu — a word which we still recognise 
 in the word dragoman, and which is -mentioned in 
 one of the letters — attached to them. 
 
 We can entertain no doubt as to the tablets being 
 genuine. The peculiarities of the characters and 
 the language as well as the contents of the letters 
 exclude all idea of a forgery. Their preservation 
 is due to the fact that the residence of Amenothes 
 IV was deserted very soon after his death and was 
 later on shunned by all, as having been the dwell- 
 ing place of a heretic. 
 
 I have mentioned the sources from which I have 
 drawn and cannot now erilarge upon all that has 
 been written on these documents. 
 
 As soon as we became acquainted with the contents 
 of the letters, I read a brief report of them, before 
 the Royal Academy at Amsterdam, and I tried to 
 show their vast importance to history. Since that time 
 not a little progress has been made. With full re- 
 cognition of my indebtedness to various learned 
 writers, I now proceed to go my own way. 
 
 The great, the overwhelming fact, which im- 
 
TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. Q 
 
 mediately calls for attention and of which mention 
 is frequently made is this — that the diplomatic cor- 
 respondence between the king of Egypt and his 
 allies and vassals was not carried on in the lan- 
 guage of the rulers, nor yet, with few exceptions, in 
 that of the friendly states and dependent provinces, 
 but in that of Babylon and Ashur, and in a system 
 of writing too, originally intended for totally dif- 
 ferent idioms and which on account of its prolixity 
 and difficulty was hardly suited for diplomatic and 
 official correspondence. What does this indicate? 
 Not that the more used Arameian — Phoenician al- 
 phabet was not yet invented, but that the use of it 
 was less general than later on. 
 
 Yet another question : How is it that the language of 
 Ancient Babylon — for Assyria as a power was only 
 in her infancy and unable to exercise any influence — 
 became the official court language in the whole of 
 Western Asia? and how did this become so deep- 
 rooted that the Egyptians themselves do not appear 
 to have made any effort to replace it by any other? 
 At the time of which we speak, Babylon was of 
 small importance ; her government was confined to 
 the low-lying lands on the Euphrates and the Tigris 
 and was even ruled by a Kassite dynasty. Two 
 things are just possible : either many centuries earlier 
 Babylon must have governed as far as the Mediter- 
 ranean; or as the well-known seat of ancient civili- 
 zation and as the great trading centre she must have 
 exercised a ' moral influence over the less advanced 
 
lO WESTERN ASIA, ACCORDING 
 
 peoples of Anterior Asia, and induced them to 
 master the Babylonian language and writing, as 
 being more advantageous to their own mercantile 
 interests. 
 
 The first supposition, upon which I have always 
 laid much stress, appears to me the more probable 
 of the two ; for generally speaking, an official lan- 
 guage is imposed by the stronger power. Nor had 
 the Babylonians, forgotten their former greatness and 
 power as is proved by the history of the conquests 
 of their oldest kings ; a history, which is now shown 
 to be neither vain-glorious nor legendary. 
 
 In support of the other theory we may say that 
 the Elamites and the Persians chose the Babylonian 
 type for their model, that the old Armenians began 
 by accepting the Assyrian in its entirety and only 
 later on did they modify it — that is the writing, not 
 the language. We might mention French — a universal 
 language, and France did not conquer the world to 
 make it so. 
 
 But we cannot compare the intercourse of European 
 Christians in later times with that of the Semitic 
 states fourteen centuries before Christ. We have 
 a better example in Latin, the language of courts 
 and diplomatists in Europe in the middle ages, because 
 it was the language of the old Roman empire. I 
 thus incline to my first hypothesis. 
 
 Meanwhile, in whatever way we explain the won- 
 derful fact, we shall always have a decided proof 
 both of Babylon's former power over her Western 
 
TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. II 
 
 neighbours, whether physical or moral, and of the 
 superiority of her civilization, the antiquity of which, 
 is known to us from other sources. 
 
 This brings us to the date of our letters ; I use 
 the word date figuratively, for sad to say the dates 
 are missing, so that it is difficult in many instances 
 to place the documents in consecutive order. 
 
 I will begin by drawing an outline of the political 
 situation. Egypt, in former days, Babylon's rival in 
 progress, had during the last two centuries, after a 
 great deal of oppression, raised her head and not 
 content with driving back her conquerors to Asia, 
 had since the time of Thotmes I revenged herself 
 repeatedly by glorious victories. She had added to 
 her kingdom the states of Canaan and Phoenicia and 
 some of the Aramcean states, and ruled, as suzerain, 
 as far as the Euphrates, holding in subjection the 
 smaller powers on the further bank of the river. But 
 it was not a peaceful possession ; there were repeated 
 insurrections to be quelled. 
 
 At the time that Amenothes III ascended the 
 throne of his ancestors, however, order and quiet had 
 been restored and during his long reign he was able to 
 lay aside his arms and travel peacefully through the 
 subjugated countries and go as far as the borders 
 of the Euphrates to shoot elephants. In the days 
 of his prosperity he was on terms of friendship 
 with the neighbouring sovereigns, the powerful king of 
 the Hatti in the North of Syria and with the kings 
 of Mesopotamia on the opposite side of the river. 
 
12 WESTERN ASIA, ACCORDING 
 
 At his death all concur in praising the generosity 
 with which he always distributed large gifts of gold 
 In return for the presents sent to him and he is 
 held up as a pattern to his successor. 
 
 Thus, Tuschratta, king of Mitani wrote to Amenothes 
 IV, " Never did Nimmuriya, your father, break his 
 promises — I have mourned for him deeply and when 
 he died, I wished to die myself ! — May he, whom 
 I loved, live with God ! " 
 
 The kings of these countries call the king of Egypt 
 their brother and each speaks of himself moreover as 
 sharru rabu, " the great king." Still it is very palpable 
 that they recognise the superiority of the latter, and 
 should they forget it. His Majesty, the Son of the Sun, 
 reminds them of it. A noteworthy example of this 
 is found in the correspondence of Amenothes III 
 with a hitherto unknown king of Babylon — a 
 Semite — ^his brother-in-law. Amenothes was married 
 to the sister of the latter and now requested the 
 hand of his daughter in marriage and the Babylonian 
 raised difficulties, saying that for many years he had 
 had no tidings of his sister and would like to know 
 whether she were still alive and well ? It is quite 
 true that his ambassadors saw a lady at the king's 
 palace, supposed to be the Babylonian princess, but 
 nobody had recognised her. Besides which, it appears 
 that Thotmes IV, father of Amenothes, had not ful- 
 filled the promises made at the time of the first 
 marriage ; he wants to have some security — and then 
 he has other grievances : he does not consider that 
 
TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. 13 
 
 his presents to Egypt have been sufficiently appre- 
 ciated. The neighbouring kings, who have asked for 
 his daughters in marriage have behaved so differently ! 
 Amenothes tries to smoothe over these difficulties ; 
 the envoys, who did not recognise the princess, were 
 young men ; let his brother send an old servant, 
 he would know her at once. Of course all the other 
 complaints are imaginary, and those facts which 
 cannot be denied are put down to the want of 
 tact or to dishonesty of the envoys, much in the same 
 way as is done now-a-days. He will make up for 
 his father's short-comings and, if petty Mesopota- 
 mian kings make such handsome presents, then 
 nothing less can be expected from a great king. 
 
 The wily Babylonian has no intention of refusing, 
 and only wants to make advantageous conditions 
 and sets forth a new claim. Very well ! he will give 
 his little daughter (suharti) but in exchange he would 
 like to have a daughter of Amenothes for his wife. 
 
 This is too much for the proud Egyptian! "The 
 daughters of an Egyptian king cannot be given to 
 anybody ! " that is, to anybody out of Egypt. Asiatic 
 princesses might consider it an honour to be taken 
 to the court of Thebes, but Egyptian princesses 
 ranked too high to occupy a secondary place at an 
 Asiatic Court. 
 
 Rish-Kulimma-Sin, this is the name of the king of 
 Babylon, feels that he has gone too far ; but he does 
 not lose hope yet; in a flattering letter to his brotheir 
 in Egypt he says r "If it cannot be a princess, send me' 
 
14 WESTERN ASIA, ACCORDING 
 
 some other Egyptian lady ; nobody here need know 
 that she is not a princess." You see, that if he is 
 considered to be the son-in-law of the king of Egypt 
 by his own people and by the neighbouring states, 
 he will be content and his ambition will be satisfied; 
 and this he insists upon. If Amenothes should refuse, 
 even should he send 3000 talents of gold, they would 
 not be accepted and the daughter of the Babylonian 
 king shall not be given to him. Whether this wish 
 was fulfilled remains doubtful. It is not until five 
 years later that negotiations are renewed and Prin- 
 cess Irtabi goes to Egypt after her father had received 
 30 manehs of gold as her dowry. But in the letter 
 -of thanks for this gift, no further mention is made 
 of an Egyptian lady. He does not seem to have 
 belied his character of first merchant of the old city 
 of Babylon, but he had simply asked somewhat too 
 much. 
 
 The relationship between the house of Mitani and that 
 of Egypt was closer — Thotmes IV and Amenothes III 
 had already intermarried with princesses of that house, 
 the latter with the sister of the then reigning sovereign 
 of Mitani, Tushratta, who hastens to inform his brother- 
 in-law of his ascent to the throne. The young king 
 felt much flattered, when in reply to this announce- 
 ment the old king made another offer of marriage ;, 
 he did not try to hide the pleasure he felt and was 
 very pleased to hear that the Egyptian envoy con- 
 sidered the young princess very pretty and fascinating, 
 and he at once begins to settle the terms of the 
 
TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. 15 
 
 contract. Between parenthesis I will just mention 
 that all the Asiatic kings were of opinion that gold 
 was as plentiful as sand in Egypt. It is worthy of 
 notice that the gifts sent to Egypt always consisted 
 of precious stones, copper, horses and carriages, 
 slaves, women and works of art and in return they 
 usually expected and received stamped measures of 
 gold. Therefore Tushratta asks for much gold to 
 pay for the implements of war and of the chase 
 which his brother-in-law wants and also for the dowry 
 of his daughter. As soon as he feels sure about it, 
 he will send his daughter and both countries will 
 rejoice ; this is what eventually takes place ; in the 
 4th month of the 36th and probably the last year of 
 the old king's reign, the beautiful Mitanian princess 
 reaches Egypt, not indeed to become the bride of the 
 dying father, but lof his son and successor. It is 
 satisfactory to know that, in spite of all the bargaining 
 that had taken place, the young king was solicitous 
 for the welfare of his daughter. H* asks the king 
 to take, under his protection the goddess who is to 
 be her guardian and at the same time he writes a. 
 friendly letter to the queen, the mistress of Egypt, 
 endeavouring to secure a kindly reception for his 
 child. 
 
 In the early years of his reign Amenothes III was 
 on good terms with his Eastern neighbours and he 
 had but little trouble with the Hatti, and was at 
 peace with the dependent states. It is true that in 
 the latter part of his reign a spirit of rebellion was 
 
l6 WESTERN ASIA, ACCORDING 
 
 fermenting amongst the people, but it never came 
 to open warfare. 
 
 The reins of the government had not long been 
 in the hands of Amenothes IV, " Naphuriya" (Neb- 
 hopr-R6) of the letters, when disturbances began. 
 The Mesopotaraian kings had all written to him at the 
 time of his accession to the throne and expressed 
 the hope that the good feeling, which had existed 
 between their fathers and themselves and the father of 
 the new Egyptian king might continue ; they all 
 seemed disposed to renew the old bonds of friendship. 
 Even the king of the Hatti writes in this spirit and 
 sends a gift, but for prudence' sake one of small 
 value. Still, at that time, not even he had any in- 
 tention of making use of the change of government 
 to increase his own power at the expense of the 
 new king; nevertheless the latter did not come up 
 to his expectations. Before long the letters of his 
 Eastern brothers are full of complaints; firstly about 
 his niggardliness. They have all sworn in the temple, 
 and no doubt in the presence of the Egyptian envoys, 
 to observe their allegiance to the king. But they 
 receive nothing, or as good as nothing. Burraburiyas, 
 who had asked for the hand of the Egyptian king's 
 daughter for his son and had sent rich bridal gifts 
 for his future daughter-in-law, — he even gives a list 
 of the niost remarkable and of those which are most 
 worthy — complains that the Egyptian envoys have 
 visited his country three times without bringing any 
 presents, so he presumes that they must have kept 
 
TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. 1 7 
 
 for themselves the gold that was entrusted to their 
 care. 
 
 At last they arrive with two manehs of gold, part 
 of which is of such bad quality that he refuses to 
 accept it ; there can be no supervision in Egypt and 
 the king there does not see that the weighing and 
 stamping are properly executed. " If you cannot 
 send as much as your father, then send half as 
 much ! " thus writes the Assyrian, reminding him at 
 the same time that his father had received twenty 
 talents of gold from Amenothes III. I will spare 
 you further instances. 
 
 But there were other grievances than that of the 
 parsimony of the king. They refer to the disorders 
 and anarchy reigning in the dependencies of Asia. 
 He might perhaps not know that the Assyrian envoys 
 had been captured and robbed by wandering tribes 
 of Mesopotamia; but the Babylonian king was right 
 in complaining that his ambassadors had been plun- 
 dered and shamefully treated by Egyptian vassals ; 
 and he urgently demands for indemnification, punish- 
 ment of the offenders and immediate surrender of his 
 unfortunate subjects. 
 
 No wonder that the tone of the letters now alters. 
 The old forms of civility are still used, with assur- 
 ances of faith to keep the obligations that they have 
 undertaken and the usual formula : " Whatever my 
 brother may wish for, let him say it and it 
 shall be sent to him." But the contents of some 
 of the letters are far from agreeing with these 
 
 2 
 
WESTERN, ASIA ACCORDING 
 
 words, and one is especially remarkable. At last 
 Burraburiyash has declined to receive the Egyp- 
 tian envoys; he will not have them in his presence. 
 And how does he now answer the remarks made 
 about his behaviour by the Egyptian king? With 
 all sorts of subterfuges, in a letter, which savours 
 rather of ridicule. He has been ill all this time, that 
 is why he was unable to receive his brother's envoys 
 at his table — and in reality, it is he, who is the 
 aggrieved one. Could not Amenothes have sent a 
 word of sympathy and have enquired after his brother's 
 health? His anger was now appeased, for he was 
 told that the distance between his country and Egypt 
 was so great, that probably the king had not heard 
 of his illness. This is the way in which the old 
 Babylonian king makes fun of his young brother, 
 for he was very accurately informed of the distance 
 between the two countries. However, to break off all 
 negotiations with Egypt would not have suited him 
 — it would have interfered with Commerce, "that is, 
 with what Babylon and its king then valued most." The 
 young Egyptian monarch would not have minded : " In 
 your country nothing is wanting ; in my country I am 
 deprived of nothing." The treasures of Babylon did not 
 appeal to him ; his heart was set upon very different 
 matters, as we shall see. But the king of Babylon 
 did not wish to drive things too far. The happy 
 connection of old times must be resumed and the 
 only means to at|:ain this end was by sending a few 
 costly presents to Egypt in the hopes of receiving 
 
TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. IQ 
 
 some Egyptian gold. He carries out this plan, but 
 with caution ; the well-known parsimony of the 
 new Pharaoh makes it advisable not to risk too 
 much. Five span of horses and four manehs of 
 lapis-Iazuli — that was all that he actually sent — but 
 they were accompanied by very great promises. 
 He excused himself for not sending more, owing to 
 the heat, as the roads were badly provided with 
 water; but as soon as ever the weather was more 
 favorable, further gifts should follow. We have every 
 reason to suppose that Burraburiyash had to comfort 
 himself with this small loss and that he was not 
 called upon to equip another caravan. 
 
 Thus it is that Egypt began to lose importance 
 in the eyes of her Eastern neighbours; but in the 
 dependent Western territories the king's niggardli- 
 ness and his inefficiency in the government of his 
 kingdom bore fatal fruit ! Confusion, bloodshed, 
 disorder increased daily. I will not speak here of 
 the incessant strifes between petty princes, who like 
 the " knightly robbers " of the middle ages, seized 
 upon every opportunity to invade one another's ter- 
 ritories, although it shows us that Egypt was inca- 
 pable of maintaining peace in the country. There 
 was a greater danger. Some of the governors point 
 to the position taken up by the king of the Hiatti 
 and fear alike for the consequences to Mitani and 
 to Alashya. "As regards the said- king", it is evident 
 that he has taken up arms and has conquered a part 
 of Syria, the city of Tunip. Tunip, not very far from 
 
^O WESTERN ASIA, ACCORDING 
 
 the present town of Aleppo, had been ever since 
 the time of Amenothes IV's great-grandfather, one 
 of the most loyal of the conquered provinces and 
 had even accepted the Egyptian form of worship. 
 But all this was of no avail. Amongst the documents 
 is found a pathetic letter from the inhabitants of 
 the city, wherein they piteously implore for help, 
 adding that they have already done so twenty times. 
 Then they were fearing an invasion on the other 
 hand, from the governor of the land of the Amorites, 
 who later on did actually wrest the country from the 
 king of the Hatti ; but the king sent them no 
 assistance against either enemy; on the contrary, he 
 detained in Egypt the very man whom they wanted 
 to have at their head. 
 
 The king maintained this behaviour towards the 
 governor of the Amorites for some time and this 
 governor is one of the principal persons to whom I 
 wish to draw your attention. Properly speaking I 
 should say that I wish to refer to two important 
 persons : Abd-Ashirti and Aziru — father and son — 
 both regents over the whole country of the Amorites 
 under the Egyptian governor; the former, who had 
 incited the people to rebel during the previous reign, 
 now appears .to have let his son take a more prom- 
 inent part. They agree, however, in policy and 
 both are striving towards the same goal. To all 
 outward appearances, they acknowledgethe authority 
 of the Egyptian king; the letters, written by them 
 to the king or to his ministers are full. of expressions 
 
TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. 21 
 
 of submission and obedience. The numerous com- 
 plaints against both father and son, which are re- 
 peated with sad monotony in various despatches 
 from the other governors, testify to the insincerity of 
 their protestations. 
 
 One city after another, towns under immediate 
 Egyptian protection, others governed by inland 
 princes, or by Egyptian governors, were taken 
 possession of and the chiefs put to death. Districts 
 lying further to the East felt themselves between two 
 fires ; on the one side were the Amorites, on the 
 other the Hittites, who it is true were fighting against 
 each other, but just on that account laid waste the 
 king's country by fire and sword. 
 
 For a long time all complaints were fruitless ; 
 " money arid troops ! " that was the ever-recurring 
 cry ! But Amenothes had no gold, or if he had, he 
 kept it for holier things than for the power and 
 greatness of his kingdom ; and he could not muster 
 troops, or if he did, they were much too weak to 
 crush a powerful enemy. Now the situation becomes 
 desperate. Rib-Adda, the governor of Byblos , stands 
 alone ; his people, his nearest relations incite him 
 to desert his king. If no help comes he will have 
 to take to flight and deliver up the city. 
 
 At last they appear to have taken heed in Egypt. 
 When it became apparent that Dudu, the Egyptian 
 governor was unable to put a stop to the arbitrary 
 conduct of the king of the Amorites, a certain Hani 
 was entrusted with the mission of restoring order 
 
22 WESTERN ASIA, ACCORDING 
 
 on the Northern frontiers of Canaan, a task he is to 
 accomplish probably on his way, as envoy, to Mitani. 
 His credentials are in our possession. They are ad- 
 dressed to Aziru and contain an indictment against 
 him. He is asked to give an account of his conduct 
 towards the governor of Byblos and is commanded 
 to make him restitution. Why has he paid no atten- 
 tion to the complaints which he has received against 
 oppression and banishment, and why has he not ac- 
 quainted the king with these things? why has he not 
 handed over to justice the king's prisoners and Other 
 dangerous persons? Let him make haste and send 
 them to Egypt, as he has already been summoned 
 to do. The letter continues: "You are unfaithful 
 to your king ! " and he is threatened with severe 
 punishment : he himself, his city and all those belong- 
 ing to him shall be burnt by fire and none shall be 
 spared. But if he will obey, then the king is inclined 
 to forgive him and he will have patience for a year 
 longer, but after that it will be too late. During 
 the course of that year both he and his son, or at 
 least his son, must come into the king's presence to 
 justify themselves. And then the letter concludes 
 with rather solemn protestations: "The king is in 
 safety, as is the sun in heaven. From sunrise to 
 sunset he reigns with his soldiers and his arms." 
 
 But Aziru is not alarmed by these big words ; 
 hitherto he had seen but few of the king's brave 
 soldiers and his numerous chariots and he felt but 
 Jittle inclined to walk straight into the lion's den. 
 
TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. 23 
 
 He makes all sorts of excuses : principally that he 
 cannot leave the country now that the king of the 
 Hatti has penetrated as far as the land of Aram 
 and is threatening Tunip. That this was true and 
 that Tunip had really been taken by the king of 
 Hatti and re-taken by Aziru, we know. When 
 therefore Hini was sent there again, he is met by 
 Aziru's brothers — Aziru himself remaining carefully in 
 the background; and although he meets Hani on 
 his return to Egypt and supplies him plentifully for 
 the journey, still he does not accompany him. He 
 need not to fear punishment ; the powerlessness of 
 the Egyptian king was apparent and the reign of 
 Egypt was speedily coming to an end. 
 
 This was quite clear, too,. in Canaan proper, where 
 the political outlook in no way differed froni that in 
 the North. We become acquainted with these facts 
 through some four or five letters, which soon called 
 for attention. And no wonder, for they came from 
 Jerusalem, an aiicient Canaanite city, already known 
 in those days by the name of Urusalim^ ("the city of 
 salvation" or "the city of the God Salim," but the 
 determinative before god is missing). At that time 
 the governor there was a man of exceptionally high 
 rank, a certain Abdi-hibu (Arad-hibu, also Arad- 
 gibu, possibly Abdi-tabu) who had succeeded his 
 father but was appointed by the king. In spite of 
 his being continually maligned and held up as a 
 traitor at court, he never ceases to send assurances 
 of loyalty, although obliged to acknowledge mistakes 
 
24 WESTERN ASfA, ACCORDING 
 
 octasionally made by his own troops or his merce- 
 naries. But he is not able to stem the current of 
 the growing stream, nor can he turn it aside. A 
 great source of alarm is the invasion of a strange 
 tribe, the Habiri ; they were following the usual 
 war path, pushing on from the North lof Jerusalem 
 to the South-West, receiving assistance of food and 
 troops from certain Canaanite cities ; they were 
 within easy distance of Jerusalem and had taken 
 possession of the whole district. The capital was 
 the only free town, "but as a bird in its cage, so arii I 
 shut up in it." Your governors are either dead or 
 unfaithful, he says to the king; your country is 
 lost. Speedy help alone can save us ; but it seems 
 hopeless to expect it. 
 
 Was Jerusalem helped out of her perilous situation ? 
 That question is of less importance to us than this 
 one : Who were these Habiri ? The name signifies : 
 allies, confederates, say some, but the writing makes 
 this explanation impossible. The Hebrews, say others, 
 a suggestion, against which from a linguistic stand- 
 point much cannot be alleged. Other suppositions 
 rest on weaker grounds. Were it~ permissible 
 really to look upon these conquerors as Hebrews, 
 then the letters written from Jerusalem throw a 
 marvellous light upon the Conquest of Canaan. All 
 experts are agreed that it was of slow birth; but 
 that it should have begun so early, under the i8th 
 Egyptian dynasty, nobody had ever imagined. Still, 
 the identification between Habiri and Hebrews is not 
 
TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. i^ 
 
 yet established and in any case it would be imprudent 
 and premature to raise on such uncertain ground a 
 historical foundation of so important a nature. But 
 what is undeniable and what cannot be explained 
 or conjured away by any sort of trickery, is the 
 fact that Aziru speaks twice in one of his letters 
 from Tunip of the soldiers of Juda or the men of 
 Juda, whom he has driven out of the city according 
 to the king's orders. This fact is in itself noteworthy 
 and at the same time a basis for the other hypothesis. 
 
 In analysing what is presented to us in the El- 
 Amarna documents respecting the political aspect of 
 Western Asia under the two last kings — Amenothes 
 III and Amenothes IV — we find that during the 
 reign of the father, Egypt was rich and power- 
 ful, in a position to uphold her rank amongst the 
 powers and make herself obeyed at home; feared, 
 yet esteemed by her enemies; at peace with her 
 neighbours, and respected by her vassals; during 
 the son's reign, we find on the contrary a penurious 
 and wavering administration, powerless to subdue 
 the frequently recurring insurrections or to keep 
 the enemy at bay: in a word, the country is in a 
 state of decay. As regards the cause of this rapid 
 change, we need not remain in uncertainty. It is 
 true, the letters do not throw any new light upon 
 the subject, but they agree perfectly with what we 
 know from many other sources. 
 
 Amenothes IV is no stranger to us; while still a 
 prince he had entered the priesthood of On of 
 
26 WESTERN ASIA, ACCORDING 
 
 Heliopolis and it may have been in those days that 
 he became imbued with his strong hatred and 
 jealousy of the powerful Theban popes, the priests 
 of Amun-R6; he had conceived a fanatical reverence 
 for the Heliopolitan Sun-god, Atin-Re, who revealed 
 himself to men in the disk of the sun. He was 
 no sooner seated on the throne than he made every 
 effort to place the worship of this god next to that 
 of Amun at Thebes and finally proclaimed him the one 
 and sole god over the whole of Egypt. Thebes ceased 
 to be the princely residence, a new city, Hu-t-atin, 
 was built, where the ruins of El-Amarna now lie; 
 the worship of Amun and all other gods was abolished; 
 the priests and all those who remained faithful 
 to the worship of any god but the sun, were perse- 
 cuted; the name of Amun was effaced from all places 
 and even the name of the king, Amunhotep, was 
 changed into Hu-n-atin, "light of the Sun." The 
 history of his un^successful reform — unsuccessful, 
 because it died with him and only served to call 
 forth a powerful re-action and to increase the strength 
 and pride of the priests of Amun — , is of vast im- 
 portance for the study of religious worship. What 
 can be more striking than the contrast between 
 the unlimited number of Egyptian gods, surrounded 
 by trickery, idolatry and sorcery and a religion 
 having for its object a god, not represented by the 
 image of man or beast, but only by a symbol of light 
 and honoured with incense, flowers and hymns? 
 But we cannot enlarge upon that now. I simply 
 
TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. 27 
 
 refer to it to explain how the kingdom founded and 
 added to by the Thutmes and Amenothes came to such 
 an untimely end. It was not because Hunatin 
 wanted to establish a purer religion — had he appeared 
 as its prophet and been able to inspire enthu- 
 siasm fof- it in the hearts of his subjects, it would 
 have led then to great and worthy actions; but he 
 tried to impose upon a people unfit for it a new 
 worship and this he did in his capacity of absolute 
 king and by means of violence. Such an unreasonable 
 fanatic — for we cannot call him a reformer — was 
 in every way unsuited to govern a country divided 
 by jealous factions and now further encumbered 
 by seditious provinces and unwilling vassals. But 
 what did he care for such worldly things? How 
 could he, accustomed as he was to let his thoughts 
 wander into other spheres, take any interest in the 
 concerns of quarrelling princes and fault-finding 
 governors, who were always clamouring for more 
 gold and for more soldiers? How could he inquire 
 into the quality of the gold sent in payment for the 
 goods received from Asia? He is not a merchant 
 like his brother in Babylon. He is perfectly satisfied 
 with the produce of his own country — let the people 
 of Babylon be equally content with the necessaries, 
 which they are in no way obliged to forego in 
 their own country. It is almost surprising that with 
 such a prince on the throne, Egypt should not have 
 fallen into utter decay, if we had no reason to 
 suppose that a kind of grand-vizir, Horemhebi, was 
 
28 WESTERN ASIA, ACCORDING 
 
 carrying on the work of the government in the 
 king's lifetime. This dignitary, who had begun as 
 a worshipper of Atin-Re was, after a short period 
 of disorder, during which time the sons-in-law of 
 Hu-n-atin governed, anointed king by the priests 
 of Amun and from that time forth he became the 
 protector of the country's ancient form of worship. 
 You can see a very fine bas-relief of him in our 
 Museum of Antiquities, where he is represented as 
 receiving in his sovereign's name the homage and 
 the offerings of the Asiatic vassals and allied kings 
 entrusted to their envoys. 
 
 Allow me after this short survey of the political 
 situation, which is presented to us in the El-Amarna 
 letters, just to draw your attention for a few moments 
 to the state of religion in those days in Western 
 Asia. They also supply abundant material for the 
 history of civilization, but I should detain you too 
 long, were I to dwell on that subject. Out of so 
 much matter, deserving our attention, I will only 
 make one or two remarks concerning the character 
 of the different tribes. 
 
 I take the Canaanites to begin with. Perhaps as 
 regards worldly progress they may have stood com- 
 paratively high — though in this respect they were but 
 the imitators of their Eastern neighbours. Still their 
 customs were rough and barbarous. Civil wars, robbery 
 and plunder were the order of the day. Embassies, even 
 those from powerful princes, were detained, the envoys 
 
TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. 2g 
 
 imprisoned and most shamefully mutilated and their 
 property either partly or wholly confiscated. When 
 we read about Shumadda of Accho who ordered that 
 one of the followers of the Babylonian king should 
 have his feet cut off, we are reminded of the account 
 in the Book of Judges, of the Canaanite king Adoni 
 -Bezek who commanded 70 conquered kings to 
 have their thumbs and their great toes cut off and 
 to whom the Israelites applied the "eye for an eye, a 
 tooth. for a tooth" doctrine. This horrible deed does 
 not appear to have been the only one of its kind, 
 but was evidently a national custom of which they 
 boasted and which was unfortunately followed up by 
 the children of Israel. We cannot deny that coupled 
 with this ferocity was a certain amount of shrewd- 
 ness and a love of liberty which must have made 
 the yoke of bondage heavy to bear. 
 
 The Egyptian on the other hand was more polished, 
 inclined to an exaggerated degree of courtliness, 
 proud as a Spaniard and deeply imbued with the 
 divine power of kings ; on various occasions we see 
 the slavish terms in which the governors are made 
 to address the king. Some were a little less emphatic 
 than others. Perhaps it came more natural to the 
 Egyptians than to the uncouth Semitics ; yet there 
 were amongst these some who were not sparing of 
 flattering words. Abimilki of Tyre is quite an adept 
 in this art. Listen how he begins one of his letters : 
 " I throw myself at the feet of the king, my master, 
 seven times seven, I am but dust beneath the feet 
 
30 WESTERN ASIA, ACCORDING 
 
 of my king, my Lord, the Sun, who, in compliance 
 with the wish of the Sun-god, his father, shines forth 
 daily over the world and brightens it by his presence 
 and makes all countries rejoice and live in peace ; 
 whose voice is heard in the heavens as that of the 
 god of thunder and all nations are paralysed with 
 fear when they hear his voice." Not quite so prolix 
 but more delicately flattering is the Egyptian Jabitiri, 
 who had been governor of Gaza and Joppa and who 
 now held a command in the army ; he writes : " I 
 look here, and I look there, and all is dark; I look 
 at my king and master and it is light. A stone 
 whereon I place my foot might move, but I will not 
 move if your feet tread on me." Small wonder that 
 these courtly gentlemen did not find themselves at 
 ease under the rough and clownish Canaanite prin- 
 ces. They longed for their own sunny land. The 
 governor to whom we have just referred is 
 quite willing to give up his grand appointment in 
 order to be near his king and a seryant at his court 
 and he begs the Pharaoh to recall him. It was not 
 in the nature of the Egyptians to establish a lasting 
 government ; they could conquer uncivilized African 
 tribes and were able in self-defence to keep the 
 Semites of Asia in check; but this was only done by 
 very great exertion and was of no long duration. 
 When they renewed their efforts a few centuries 
 later, one lost battle^ sufficed to make them lose 
 heart at once and for ever. The "regere imperio 
 
TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. 3 1 
 
 populos" was not their gift. How very differently 
 the Romans of Asia the Assyrians acted ! 
 
 As regards the religious situation in Western Asia 
 at the time of these letters we learn nothing new ; 
 the only god, whose name sounds unfamiliar, is not 
 really a new one and it is not for the first time that 
 we hear of him. 
 
 It is most remarkable that the term "ilani" is 
 used in the plural for "god," as the Israelites in 
 later times employed Elohim , so that the expression 
 can no longer be considered to imply tl\^t they 
 formerly had several gods. 
 
 As might be expected, further testimony is given 
 here that every town, every tribe, every large pro- 
 vince had its protecting god, who might not be 
 neglected or carried away without exposing the 
 town or country to all sorts of terrible calamities; 
 while none but the inhabitants of the city were called 
 upon to worship him, yet strangers were compelled 
 to yield him respect. Although a subject of Egypt, 
 still one remained true to one's own god. Every 
 now and then some king or governor ventured 
 through courtesy to enquire after Amun, the great god 
 of Thebes, of course not in letters to Amenothes IV, 
 but they were always careful to add: "ilu sabru 
 ahiya," the god creator, or rather "origin" of my 
 brother's life. In return they demanded respect for 
 the Asiatic gods, which were sent to Egypt with 
 Babylonian or Mitanian princesses. 
 
32 WESTERN ASIA, ACCORDING 
 
 "I acknowledge that Ishtar of Nineveh is one of 
 my gods and not one of my brother's," thus writes 
 Tushratta to Amenothes, but he does not wish her 
 to be neglected. 
 
 We must not infer from this deep-rooted idea of 
 antiquity, that the religions of Western Asia especially 
 were originally nothing but a disjointed plurality o£ 
 local worships. This is now the accepted theory in the 
 face of which all others are denied existence; but though 
 it contains an unmistakable and oftentimes mistaken 
 truth, it is one-sided, because it loses sight of other- 
 undeniable facts. No doubt particularism was to be- 
 met with in all ancient religions but it found its 
 corrective in an other theory which is not, as. 
 alleged, the fruit of syncretistic speculation of the 
 time of Hellenism, but which dates very far back and 
 of which these documents give proof. I do not allude- 
 to the fact that they often removed the local gods 
 from one town to another, as they did in the case 
 of Ishtar of Nineveh, the patron goddess of the 
 Mitanian princess, and that they compelled certain 
 towns, such as Tunip and Katna (probably Cana 
 in Galilee) to accept the worship of the sun-god of 
 Egypt. This was done from purely political motives 
 and in the latter instance in order to place, 
 as it were, the king's seal upon the city and have 
 it recognized as his territory. It was precisely with 
 this object in view that the king of the Hatti 
 removed this god from Katna and thus became 
 possessed of the city, and that the governor Akizzi 
 
TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. 33 
 
 besought the king of Egypt to send him a high 
 ransom that he might have the god restored and by 
 this means have his right over Katna acknowledged. 
 I mean something else, the universal worship of 
 the same deity under different titles by all the Semitic 
 tribes, while all were fully conscious that this god 
 was one and the same although spoken of by other 
 names and worshipped in various fashions. Not to 
 speak of the wide-spread worship of Ishtar, we find 
 two striking examples of this fact in our letters. 
 First of all we have Shamash the sun-god, of whom 
 it is positively stated that he was also the king's 
 god, even if he did bear another name in Egypt. 
 But especial mention must be made of the god of 
 thunder. He bore different names, wherever he was 
 worshipped, and that was over the whole of Western 
 Asia, for Canaanites and Aramaeans invoked him, as 
 well as Babylonians and Assyrians. According to 
 his manifestations he was addressed as Hadad, the noisy 
 shouter, Martu, the god of the West and the West- 
 wind, perhaps also as Ramin, the angry roaring 
 thunder-god, and so on. Notwithstanding the fact 
 that he was spoken of as Tessub by the Nomads 
 and the Mitanians and as Buriyas by the Kassites 
 and as something else by the Elamites, we know and 
 the Babylonian lists of gods show that he was the 
 same god. Our letters are not the only proofs of 
 this, but they are additional ones. He may have been 
 localised here and there, that is to say, he may have 
 be^n chosen as patron ^od in certain parts, but 
 
34 WESTERN ASIA, ACCORDING 
 
 originally he did not belong to any particular place. 
 He was the great, universal, national god of all the 
 Western-Semites, the same to whom, under the 
 name of Jahveh the Mosaic reformers, and probably 
 even Moses himself,apply their pure ethical and reli- 
 gious ideas. 
 
 Gentlemen, I must conclude; it is more than time. 
 One word more and I have done. Assyriology, the 
 branch from which I have taken my subject to-day, 
 is but an accessory to the studies which are my chief 
 occupation. Still I have chosen it in order to give 
 you a specimen of what it promises for ancient history 
 and what it has already given to us. It is no 
 longer in its first infancy, but it is yet very youthful. 
 This is a great disadvantage for any science. Some 
 students, whom the old wisdom bores, but fond of 
 new things, expect all sorts of results and the solution 
 of many problems from such a stripling among the 
 sciences. In their great joy over such astounding 
 discoveries, they beat the big drum, they ignore all 
 that has been done before by scientists and think 
 that nothing can equal this latest discovery. This 
 results in putting out of temper the students of those 
 sciences, which have attained maturity, and makes 
 them unkindly disposed towards the new comer. 
 What childish prattle, what unsteady steps, what funny 
 little falls every now and then ! 
 
 To both we wish a little more patience. To our 
 friends we say: Let the little one grow up her own 
 way and do not expect too much of her, just y 
 
TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES. 35 
 
 awhile. To the less friendly inclined we say: do not 
 look upon her as a rival, who will try to oust you 
 from your place, but as a powerful ally for the future 
 in the great common work. When she has outgrown 
 her childish habits and is somewhat more reasonable 
 and careful, she will fill her place with honour beside 
 her elder sisters. 
 
 Will Assyriology ever obtain a place among the 
 branches of our higher education and have a properly 
 appointed representative in our Universities, as she 
 has in the chief foreign ones? I do not anticipate 
 an early fulfilment of this wish. 
 
 But in Leyden we are not accustomed to wait 
 for the law to do us justice. We can at all times 
 find one in our midst who with a few followers 
 is venturesome enough to strike out a new path. 
 And here we have before us a rich and widespread 
 province where treasures are to be had for the asking. 
 Thousands of documents of all sorts, published and 
 unpublished, interesting for the comparison of lan- 
 guages, for ancient history, especially for literature 
 and arts and sciehces, above all for mythology and 
 religion, are waiting to be deciphered or invite to 
 deeper examination. The harvest is far too heavy 
 for the reapers. It would be a slur on our old School 
 if we were to take no active interest in this work. 
 It has always been her pride to maintain the good 
 old traditions in honour and to stand by her well- 
 tried methods; still she is not blind to the claims of 
 these new times. Let us keep to what we have 
 
36 WESTERN ASIA. 
 
 secured, let us maintain carefully the inheritance 
 of our fathers, but let us seek to increase it! Let us 
 not neglect the old paths, but do not let us despise 
 the new ones! Science is never at a standstill, he 
 who does not want to be left ignominiously behind, 
 must listen to her invariable command: "Onwards, 
 always onwards!" 
 
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