Sabirešu

Šabirēšu

Location from Šabirēšu to Kessler (Basorin)

Šabirēšu (also Schabireschu ; ^uru ša-bi-ri-i-sú, ^uru šá-1.KASKAL.GÍD-ri and Ša-PÚ-šu) is an Iron Age city in northern Mesopotamia that has not been reliably located until now. She has been since Tukulti-apil-Ešarra III. , secured since Sargon occupied. Perhaps it was the provincial capital and thus the seat of rab šaqē . Recently, however, this has been more likely to be assumed for major enlil . Forrer locates them in Tur Abdin .

Localization

The localization is not yet secured. However, Kessler's proposal has prevailed in recent years. The following table gives an overview of the most important suggestions.

author	year	location
E. Forrer	1920	Tur Abdin , right bank of the Tigris , near the border with Šubria
L. Waterman	1931	south of the upper Tigris, east of Tušḫan
D. Opitz	1938	north of Nisibis , south of Diyarbakır Su
EF Weidner	1940	northeast of Nisibis, right bank of the Tigris (after Forrer)
HWF Saggs	1959	right bank of the Tigris
K. Kessler	1980	Basorin east of the Tigris (between Guzana and Dūr-Šarrukīn , see OJ 167)
JN Postgate	1995	Tall al-'Uwaynat, between the Tigris crossing at Eski Mosul and Nisibis

proof

Šabirēšu is mentioned in some Neo-Assyrian letters and administrative texts, but does not appear in any royal inscription.

SAA 1 Nr.128 (OJ 167) A letter from Ina-šār-bēlī-allak ( abarakku from Dūr-Šarrukīn ) to Sargon II deals with cattle and people from Guzana , the Ina-šār-bēlī-allak in Šabirēšu (perhaps the border of its administrative area) should receive. Ina-šār-bēlī-allak complains that a large number of people are missing and therefore sends a qurbutu to Guzana to fetch the missing people.

SAA 5 No. 52 (OJ 252) A letter from Aššur-dūr-pānīja (Assyrian official in Šubria ) to Sargon II reports the arrival of ambassadors ( sērāni ) from Šubria in Šabirēšu. The ambassadors carried boards with them listing people who had missed their military and labor service in recent years. Aššur-dūr-pānīja advises Sargon to treat the ambassadors with caution.

SAA 5 No. 62 (OJ 729) A letter from Na'id-ilu to Sargon II deals with the king's future journey to an undisclosed place. The sender asks the king whether he should meet him as far as Šabirēšu. If the king was in the Assyrian heartland at the time the letter was written (according to the place where it was found), then the sender's whereabouts should be north or west of Šabirēšu.

SAA 5 no.73 (CT 53 729) The text shows Šabirēšu in a broken context.

SAA 5 Nr.74 (NL 62 = ND 2367) A letter from the made to Sargon, which was found in Nimrud , deals with the trip of a qurbutu (Nabû'a) to Šabirēšu to read royal decrees there. For this purpose riding donkeys were requested. The sender complains that these donkeys (or wagons and horses) do not return from Šabirēšu and that he therefore has no animals available; he would (should) even come to the king on foot. However, the background to this problem remains unclear.

SAA 11 Nr.1 (K 4384) The text is a list of the Assyrian provinces at the time of Aššur-bani-aplis . The exact purpose of the text is unclear, but the front (I 20) shows the province of rab šāqê . In contrast, the province of Šabirēšu is on the back (II 14 ') between the places Isana (II 13') and Šudu , Tušḫan (II 15 '). This makes it unlikely that Sabirēšu was the capital of the province of rab šāqê . Forrer interprets the text as a list of duties, Benno Landsberger as a writing exercise. The list is only roughly structured geographically, the direct sequence probably does not indicate close geographical proximity.

SAA 11 No. 11 (ADD 842) A list of regions and assigned persons; the exact meaning of the text is unclear. The text shows a Qurdi-Nergal (administrator?) Together with Šabirē (šu); Spelling: ^uru šá-1.KASKAL.GÍD-ri.

SAA 11 Nr.36 (ADD 1036) Šabirēšu gives a list of taxes to certain people and places last. The place, perhaps the temple of the place, receives oil, sesame oil, copper, goats and a leather tanner.

SAA 11 No. 221 (ADD 675) A list of land holdings of certain persons lists a house and a field of the Nabû-šallim in Šabirēšu.

SAA 14 Nr.104 (ADD 160) A legal document from the reign of Aššur-bani-aplis mentions Šabirēšu as the perpetrator's place of origin. It concerns the trial against Aḫu-la-amašši, son of Dilil- Ištar , a farmer from Šabirēšu. This had stolen a cop from the scribe Nabû-šarru-uṣur. The trial was conducted before Nabû-zērkitī-līšer, the deputy governor ( ḫazannu ) of Nineveh , in the eponym of Mušallim-Aššur, governor of Aliḫu . The accused was held until he could replace a cop. The deed and the trial are therefore likely to be found in Nineveh.

Edubba 10 Nr.10 (ND 717) A legal document from Kalhu mentions a mayor ( rab alani ) of Šabirēšu with the name Duru-bani.

From the available texts it can be concluded that Šabirēšu was a city of certain importance, but not the capital of a province. Perhaps it was on the border of two administrative districts, as it is documented as a transfer point for people and as a travel station.

literature

AY Ahmad, JN Postgate: Archives from the domestic wing of the North-West Palace at Kalhu / Nimrud . Nabu Publications, London 2007 ( Edubba Vol. 10) ISBN 978-1-897750-10-0 .
FM Fales, JN Postgate: Imperial Administrative Records, Part II. Provincial and Military Administration . Helsinki University Press, Helsinki 1995 ( State Archives of Assyria (SAA) Vol. 11).
Emil Forrer : The provincial division of the Assyrian Empire . JC Hinrichs, Leipzig 1920.
Karlheinz Kessler : Investigations into the historical topography of northern Mesopotamia . Dr. Ludwig Reichert, Wiesbaden 1980, pp. 122-149.
GB Lanfranchi, S. Parpola: The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part II. Letters from the Northern and Northeastern Provinces . Helsinki University Press, Helsinki 1990 ( State Archives of Assyria (SAA) Vol. 5).
Raija Mattila: Legal Transactions of the Royal Court of Niniveh, Part II. Assurbanipal through Sin-šarru-iškun . Helsinki University Press, Helsinki 2002 ( State Archives of Assyria (SAA) Vol. 14).
S. Parpola: The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I. Letters from Assyria and the West . Helsinki University Press, Helsinki 1987 ( State Archives of Assyria (SAA) Vol. 1).
JN Postgate: Fifty Neoassyrian legal documents . Aris & Phillips, Warminster 1976.
HWF Saggs: The Nimrud Letters, 1952 - PART IX . In: Iraq . Vol. 36, 1974, pp. 199-221.

Individual evidence

↑ With the spelling Ša-PÚ-šu, perhaps already from Tukulti-apil-Ešarra I. See Khaled Nashef : The names of places and waters of the Middle Babylonian and Middle Assyrian times . Dr. Ludwig Reichert, Wiesbaden 1982, p. 240.
↑ This is, however, doubted by Saggs (1974, p. 221) and Kessler (1980, 125).
↑ See K. Radner: Provinz. C. Assyria . In: Dietz-Otto Edzard u. a. (Ed.): Real Lexicon of Assyriology and Near Eastern Archeology (RIA), Vol. 11 . de Gruyter, Berlin 2006, p. 49.
↑ See the SAA volumes listed in the literature.
↑ See Kessler, 1980, p. 122f.

[1] With the spelling Ša-PÚ-šu, perhaps already from Tukulti-apil-Ešarra I. See Khaled Nashef : The names of places and waters of the Middle Babylonian and Middle Assyrian times . Dr. Ludwig Reichert, Wiesbaden 1982, p. 240.

[2] This is, however, doubted by Saggs (1974, p. 221) and Kessler (1980, 125).

[3] See K. Radner: Provinz. C. Assyria . In: Dietz-Otto Edzard u. a. (Ed.): Real Lexicon of Assyriology and Near Eastern Archeology (RIA), Vol. 11 . de Gruyter, Berlin 2006, p. 49.

[4] See the SAA volumes listed in the literature.

[5] See Kessler, 1980, p. 122f.