Assurbanipal

The name Assurbanipal is derived from the Akkadian Aššur-bāni-aplu, meaning "Ashur is the creator of the heir." It reflects the Assyrian reverence for their chief deity, Ashur, and the dynastic succession. The term first appears in historical records from the 7th century BCE.

The Sardanapalus of the Greeks, "the greatest of the Assyrian Sovereigns, far more memorable on account of his magnificent patronage of learning than of the greatness of his empire", writes the late G. Smith, and adds: "Assurbanipal added more to the Assyrian royal library than all the kings ivho had gone hefore him". As the distinguished Assyriologist tells us in another place of his "Babylonian and Assyrian Literature" (Chald. Account of Genesis) that "the majority of the texts preserved belong to the earlier period previous to B.C. 1600", and yet asserts that "it is to tablets written in his (Assurbanipal's) reign (b.c. 673) that we owe almost all our knowledge of the Babylonian early history", one is well justified in asking, "How do you know?" Assyrian Holy Scriptures. Orientalists show seven such books: the Books of Mamit, of Worship, of Interpretations, of Going to Hades; two Prayer Books (Kanmagarri and Kaninikri: Talbot) and the Kantolite, the lost Assyrian Psalter. Assyrian Trcr of Lifr. "Ashcrah'' ((j.v.). It is translated in tlie Bible by "grove'' and occurs 30 times. It is called an "idol"; and Maaehali, the grandmother of Asa, King of Jerusalem, is accused of having made for herself such an idol, which was a lingham. For centuries this was a religious rite in Judaea. But the original Asherah was a pillar with seven branches on each side surmounted by a globular flower with three projecting rays, and no phallic stone, as the Jcics made of it, but a metaphysical symbol. "^lereiful One, who dead to life raises!" was the prayer uttered before the Asherah, on the banks of the Euphrates. The "Merciful One", was neither the personal god of the Jews who brought the "grove" from their captivity, nor any extra-cosmic god, but the higher triad in man symbolized by the globular flower with its three rays.

The figure of Assurbanipal, as presented through the lens of his prodigious library, offers a compelling counterpoint to the often-singular focus on military might and territorial expansion that defines so many ancient rulers. His reign, rather than being solely etched in the annals of warfare, is indelibly marked by his role as a bibliophile king, a collector and preserver of the intellectual heritage of Mesopotamia. The tablets unearthed from his library at Nineveh, meticulously cataloged and copied, represent not just royal decrees or historical accounts, but a vast spectrum of human endeavor: epics, medical treatises, astronomical observations, religious hymns, and even mundane administrative records.

Mircea Eliade, in his exploration of the sacred and the profane, might see in Assurbanipal's endeavor a desire to connect with the primordial wisdom, to anchor his present reign in the timeless knowledge of the past. This act of compilation can be understood as an attempt to impose order upon the chaos of existence, to find meaning and continuity in the face of impermanence. It is akin to the alchemist's meticulous cataloging of ingredients, or the mystic's careful transcription of divine revelations, all seeking to distill essence from the ephemeral. The very act of writing, as Walter Ong has extensively documented, transforms human consciousness, moving from the immediacy of oral tradition to the reflective depth of the written word. Assurbanipal, by commissioning the copying and preservation of these texts, was not merely a passive recipient of knowledge; he was an active agent in its perpetuation, ensuring that the voices of his predecessors would not be silenced by the passage of time. His library, therefore, becomes a microcosm of the collective unconscious, a testament to the enduring human drive to understand, to record, and to transmit.

RELATED_TERMS: Library of Alexandria, Oral tradition, Scribes, Akkadian Empire, Mesopotamian religion, Cuneiform, Royal archives, Ancient wisdom literature