Royal Gifts in Ugarit - Study of the Inscription KTU 3.1
Omar Hikmat Al-Kholy
Many studies have dealt with the political and economic relations that brought together the Kingdom of Ugarit and the small neighboring Syrian kingdoms, as well as its relations with the two largest empires at that time: the Egyptian and the Hattian (Hittite). [1] In many of the Ugaritic texts that I reviewed, it is clear that the Ugaritic court was keen on its relationship with both kingdoms, so the kings of Ugaritic always sought the favor of the wealthy Egyptian court, without prejudice to their sensitive relations with the neighboring kingdom of Khati, which imposed a kind of dependency on Ugarit for many decades. Starting from the reign of the Ugaritic king Niqmad II. [2]
Al-Raqim (KTU 3.1) sheds light on the type of relationship that Ugarit had with its neighbor Khati. Despite the loss of many lines in its introduction and conclusion, it is distinguished by being a rare royal letter from Niqmad II of Ugarit to the king of Khati, in which he documents and details a number of precious gifts that He sent it in fulfillment of the promises he had made in the “mandate” treaty imposed on him by Khati. The list begins with an enumeration of the gifts of the Sun King Thephiloliuma (known as Sophiloliuma/Shophiloliuma), and consists of a golden cup weighing one mina (i.e. 470g: a mina in Ugarit was equal to 50 Ugaritic heavies, and one Ugaritic weight equals 9.4g), [3] in addition to 500 stones. of rubies and lapis lazuli, in addition to a number of luxurious shirts and clothes. The list also includes other gifts that the Ugaritic king gave to the queen and senior court officials. These gifts were almost identical among all of them and included cups, shirts, and precious stones. However, the Ugaritic king chose to prefer the queen and the crown prince alone with two cups of gold, the same as the king, while he gave the officials gifts. Lesser tiles are cups of silver.
Below, I will discuss this number in some detail, which has rarely been received, especially in Arabic studies, where I present my translation of the text into Arabic first. Then I read the text in its Ugaritic pronunciation and transcribed it in the Ugaritic alphabet . Followed by a linguistic analysis of the most prominent items in the text. Then I will make some general observations that will shed light on my methodology in reading and analyzing this inscription, as well as clarifying the reasons for choosing one meaning over another in translating it, based on the information contained in the inscription itself, and on its comparison with similar Ugaritic and Akkadian texts.
Translation:
… [4]
And Niqmad [king of Ugarit]
[concluded] a peace agreement with the Sun [the great king],
his master. [And the sun]
the great king, his lord, [Walaa]
Niqmad, king of Ugari[t]
<had> seen.
Thefilulium, the great king, king of Khati,
concluded a treaty with Niqmad, king of Ugarit.
And here is the gift that Niqmad brought
to the sun: a box that weighed twelve minas
and twenty mithqals in total. A cup <the weight> of enamel <of> gold,
four shirts, <and> a large robe.
[Kh]Masma'a <a stone of> sapphire
[W]Ma'ma'a <a stone of> lapis lazuli.
[This is] the gift of Niqmad, king
of Ugarit, which the great king, his master, carried to the sun
.A cup <of> gold, a shirt, and <a hundred stones of> rubies
<and> a hundred <stones of> lapis lazuli for the queen.
A cup <of> gold, a shirt, and <a hundred stones of> rubies
<and> a hundred <stones of> lapis lazuli for the Crown Prince.
A silver cup, a shirt, and a hundred rubies
and a hundred lapis lazuli for the oven .
A cup <of> silver, a shirt, and <a hundred stones of> rubies
<and> a hundred <stones of> lapis lazuli for the experience .
A silver cup, a shirt, and a hundred rubies
and a hundred lapis lazuli for the second experience.
A silver cup, a shirt, and a hundred rubies
and a hundred lapis lazuli for the overseer of the king's house.
[…]One hundred rubies for [...]
[…]
My reading of the Ugaritic text
And we quote [Malik Ijarat]
[and…] from the one who saw [the angel of the Lord…]
Baalah Shalam and [Shavash] the king of the Lord of Baalah [
...].
And Thephullum , king of Ra[b, king of Khatt], is silent, so that we may go to the throne of
[ the king of Ijarat ] of
Shatt , Halni Arjaman, d [ yabal n ] qada, to the shavash of Arn , twelve [ten] of ten The weight of a liver [k]s of kharas and four kattana katn [ ـن ر]ب [خ ]Mesh - Mat - Fahm [ Kham- ]
A piece of fine linen, a hundred charcoal,
a hundred qinni, for Melkith.
A piece of fine linen, a hundred charcoal,
a hundred pieces of linen for Uthrin.
A covering of flax, a hundred charcoal,
a hundred charcoal to be kneaded.
[a bag of cotton] - a hundred
charcoals
[A cup of linen, a hundred charcoal]-ham
[a hundred aqnīn for your experience] then
[A cup of linen, a hundred charcoals]
[a hundred charcoal] for the dwelling place of [Te-melch]
[a hundred] charcoal for Lash[…]
[…]
Text in Ugaritic alphabet
Linguistic analysis :
Niqmad : A Ugaritic name whose meaning we do not know precisely. It may mean “the god Adad has Niqmad.” It is pronounced Niqmad/D/D according to its grammatical interpretation. It was carried by a number of Ugaritian kings, the most famous of whom is Niqmad II mentioned in this inscription.
They are : look, see, acknowledge.
Thefelulum : Thefilulium, the name of the Khati king “ Shuvilululuma / Sophilululum ” as it appears in the Ugaritic texts, and I personally believe that it is the true pronunciation of this name. The common pronunciation (in Sheen or Sein) is based on writing the name in Akkadian syllabic cuneiform, in which the letter “th/ṯ” does not exist. In syllabic cuneiform, it is replaced by the letter “sh/š”. The same applies to the name of the famous Ugaritic king Amithtamer (often known as Amishtamru), as it was written in Ugaritic as “tha” (????????????????????????), while in Akkadian texts it was written as “shin.” The phenomenon of replacing the Semitic tha with other letters is common in the sub-Semitic languages, such as the Hebrew language, in which the tha was replaced by the sheen, similar to the Akkadian, as in the word “heavy” which was transformed into “shuql.” Likewise, in the Aramaic language, the “tha” was transformed into a “shin,” as in its two predecessors, or into a “ta,” as in the word “such as,” which became “a parable.” The phenomenon of changing the tha’ to a ta’ is also common in colloquial Arabic, in which the Semitic tha’ is changed to a ta’ or a sīn, then we find words such as “musqaf”, “sabit”, “taqīl”, and “mitl”, all of which have a tha in the original.
Solid : agreement, treaty. We do not know the exact origin of this word. However, the Ugaritic dictionary indicates the possibility that it is a modified form of the root “samad,” which corresponds to “damd” in Arabic. However, I believe that it may be from a lost Ugaritic root, “samam,” which corresponds to “dam.” In Arabic, the meaning thus becomes something like “an accession/annexation treaty” or “a union treaty.”
Shet : put, established, prepared; I chose to translate the verb in this text to “conclude” because it was related to a treaty. It is equivalent in Biblical Hebrew to שית (Shet) with the same meaning.
Halni : a Ugaritic letter of alert, corresponding in Biblical Hebrew to הא (Ha) and הנני (Henini), and in Arabic ha : a letter of alert, as in our saying, Here it is, and here I am.
Argaman : gift, tribute, royalty. It is a word that we find in the Luwian languages “ Arkaman ” and Hurrian “ Arjaman ”, and from it the name of the purple color that distinguished the dyed fabrics that were given as royal gifts was derived.
D : The relative noun in Ugaritic, meaning the one; Its counterpart in Biblical Hebrew is זה (Zeh) with the same meaning. In Arabic, it is equivalent to Dhu/Dha/Dhi .
Yable : carry, take, bring. It is equivalent in Hebrew to יבל (Yebel) with the same meaning, as well as in Aramaic and Syriac, and in Eblaite and Akkadian it is equivalent to “ and Baal ” meaning burden and weight, as well as in Arabic; It is stated in Lisan al-Arab: “The scourge is essentially heaviness.”
Arn : box, coffin. Researchers usually translate this word mentioned here as the name of the city (Arina) in the Kingdom of Khati, but we find the meaning of the box in Ugaritic, as in the phrase “Arn and Mznam” (KTU 4.385), which means “box and scales,” in addition to its occurrence in the Hebrew and Aramaic languages. ארן (Aron) in the same sense, a meaning consistent with the context of the text.
From : Mina in Ugaritic, Manu in Akkadian ( ???????? ), a unit of weight measurement of Sumerian origin, which in Sumer amounted to about 570 grams of silver, while in Ugarit it amounted to 470 grams, i.e. 50 Ugaritic heavies (50 x 9.4 grams) or 40 Khati heavies ( 40 x 11.75g). Therefore, according to the phrase in the text “twelve out of ten weights,” the total weight of the gifts sent by Niqmad of Ugari to Khati is 5828 grams, or about 6 kilograms.
Liver : This word has many meanings in Ugaritic and its sister Semitic languages, including respect, glory, pride, greatness, heaviness, and the liver, an organ in the body. In addition, it carries two special meanings in Ugaritic when it is associated with numbers and numerals. If the word comes at the end of the sentence after enumeration and punctuation, it means “the total” or “in total,” or something like the derivation of “only and nothing else” in economic and arithmetic notation in the Arabic language. However, if the word comes between two numbers, or after complex numbers that include ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands, it corresponds to the plus sign (+) used in mathematics. It was mentioned in this text after listing the weight of the gift box sent by the Ugaritic king, without recording any numbers after it, so I translated it to “in total.”
Cup : cup, cup. It is a word that appears in many Semitic languages, including the Hebrew כוס (kos).
Kharas : gold metal. Its equivalent in Hebrew and Aramaic is חרץ (keen) with the same meaning.
Linen : a robe or shirt. It is equivalent in Hebrew to כתנת (kent) with the same meaning, as it appears in Akkadian and other Semitic languages, including the name of the fabric “linen” in the Arabic language.
Matt/hundred : This word appears in two forms in this text. The first is ???????????? (mat) after the number five, and it corresponds to the plural form “hundreds” in the Arabic language = five hundred; The second is ???????? (one hundred), which corresponds to the singular form “hundred” in Arabic. It should be noted that the parsing of the countable after the singular form “hundred” differs from its parsing after the plural form “mat.” In the first case, the countable after a hundred is in the genitive case, as is the case in Arabic. This is evident from the phrase “mīt yaqnī” in which the count is mentioned ???????????? (Iqnu’) is in the genitive case, and its genitive sign is the broken hamza ???? (Đ), while the counted number after hundreds is in the nominative case. We infer this from the phrase “Khamsh Maat Iqnu’” in which the counted digit is ???????????????? (Iqnu’) in the nominative case, and its nominative sign is the enclosed hamza ???? (ع ).
Charcoal : This word means coal and burning embers, as in Arabic. Because glowing embers tend to be reddish, this word also came to mean ruby (I will explain why I chose this translation in the general notes section), in addition to meaning the reddish-purple color that characterizes ruby, just like burning coal. Some researchers believe that the word may also mean the purple dyes that the kingdoms of the Syrian coast were famous for producing, and it may also mean the fabrics and dresses dyed with them.
Iqnu / Iqni : lapis lazuli stone . Because this stone is known for its blue color, the word also came to mean a bluish-purple color. Similar to “charcoal,” the use of this word has expanded to include blue dyes and fabrics dyed with them.
Thahirin : The name of the position of the Crown Prince in the Khati Kingdom, and it is a word whose exact origin is not known.
Kasif : silver metal, which also means money in general. It is a common word in the Semitic languages, including the Hebrew כסף (kesef).
Tuvanur : The name of a high position in the Khati court, whose function we do not know, or its equivalent in other courts.
Khabartanur : The name of a high position in the Khati court. We do not know its function or its equivalent in other courts, but we know from the text that two people held this position at the same time in the Khati court, something like the presence of advisors. First and second.
Sakin : A word that means a supervisor, manager, or ruler. Its equivalent in Akkadian is “sakin,” and it also occurs in Hebrew and ancient Aramaic.
Notes on the text :
About reading the inscription and reconstructing the missing parts:
This text is similar to a number of Ugaritic and Khatitic texts and correspondence written in Akkadian, which made it easier for researchers to reconstruct many of the missing parts of the text according to their correspondence in the Akkadian number, or based on repeated phrases in the text itself, or in other similar Ugaritic texts.
Regarding the reconstruction based on the text itself, this applies, for example, to the phrase “king of Ijarat” in the first lines that I translated from Al-Raqim. We know that Niqmad was the king of Ugarit, and we know that this title follows his name in the texts wherever it is mentioned, and it is mentioned like this in A number of lines of the same number; Likewise, the phrase “Malik Rab” always appears after the title “Sun,” which the Khati king holds, and it appears several times in the text as well. The phrase “a sack of a hundred coals” is missing entirely in one of the lines, but it is repeated 4 times in the same text within the same context.
As for the reconstruction based on similar Akkadian texts, this applies, for example, to the phrase “Malik Khat,” which means “King of Khati,” which is a phrase that always follows the name of King Thephiloliuma, as well as the word “Khapertenur,” which was mentioned repeatedly in texts written in Akkadian in reference to To a high position in the court of Khati, [5] and the phrase “[Shevash] the king of the Lord of Baal [...] Niqmad, king of Ajar[t] is” which means “His lord, the sun, the great king, has seen the loyalty of Niqmad, king of Ugarit,” is an identical phrase with the phrase of A letter written in Akkadian sent by the Crown Prince of Khati to the King of Ugarit. [6]
About the gifts of “Charcoal” and “Aqnu” in the text:
The researchers who dealt with this number differed in determining the nature of some of the gifts mentioned in the text. Some of them considered the words “charcoal” and “aqnu” to refer to dyed fabrics, while others saw that they meant purple and red dyes. I will explain below why I translated these two words the way I chose, meaning rubies and lapis lazuli:
Before starting to enumerate the gifts, the number clearly states the total weight of these gifts, which is about 6 kilograms, as I previously explained in the linguistic analysis. Researchers Pierre Bourdreau and Denis Bardi saw in their book (A Manual of Ugaritic) that the gifts of “charcoal” and “aqnu” mean “weights of dyed fabrics,” [7] However, by calculating these weights it becomes clear to us that the weight of the fabrics alone will exceed the total weight of the gifts. In its entirety, the inscription mentions 1,100 “charcoal” and the same amount of “aqnu,” meaning 2,200 mithqals according to their translation, meaning more than 20 kilograms if we consider the mithqal to be Ugaritic (= 9.4 grams), or more than 25 kilograms if we consider the mithqal to be Khati. (= 11.75 grams), without counting the gold and silver cups, which is not consistent with the information contained in the inscription regarding the total weight of the gifts. Accordingly, I chose to translate these two words as shown in the Arabic translation above, meaning “ruby and lapis lazuli stones,” since these stones, even though they amount to 2,200 stones, may not have a total weight exceeding two kilograms or a little more.
[1] Although the Arabic sources used the words Hatti and Hittite when referring to the famous Anatolian kingdom, its name is actually “Hatti” and not “Hatti”, and it is also recorded in all the Ugaritic texts in which it appears. As for the name of the Hittites, it is a literal transfer from the Torah. The Hebrew language lost the letter Kha and became pronounced as H. As for the presence of the “tha” in the Hebrew version of the name, it is the result of the linguistic phenomenon (Bajd Kaft) that we find in both Aramaic and Hebrew, in which the pronunciation of these letters changes according to their position in the word, so the letter “Ta’” is pronounced “tha” if it occurs at the end of the word or in other places without exception. To mention it here. For this reason, in this study and the following I will adopt the designations “Khatti”, “Khatian” and “Khatti” rather than “Hati”, “Hittite” and “Hittite”.
[2] E., Watson Wilfred G, and N. Wyatt. Handbook of Ugaritic Studies. Boston: Brill, 1999, pp. 636.
[3] of, Elm Lete Gregory, and Joaquin Sanmartin. A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition . Third Revised Edition. Leiden: Brill, 2015, pp. 101-1 554.
[4] The first and second sections of the inscription are completely distorted, and only scattered words have survived on the far left side of the tablet, which are in succession: “With… the coming of… the Sham[s]… he prostrated… and the king… with… when… and let’s go.”
[5] No. RS 11.732, No. RS 17.227.
[6] Al-Raqim RS 17.340.
[7] Bordreuil , P. , & Pardee , D. (2009). A Manual of Ugaritic . Eisenbrauns, pp. 101-1 255.