The Sultantepe Tablets (Continued). V. The Tale of the Poor Man of Nippur

O. R. Gurney

doi:10.2307/3642407

The Sultantepe Tablets (Continued). V. The Tale of the Poor Man of Nippur

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 June 2015

O. R. Gurney

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

Hitherto these articles have been concerned with texts which were at least partially known to Assyriologists from other sources. The composition now presented is not only new but unique in character, and it gives me great pleasure that the translation of this, in some ways the showpiece of the Sultantepe collection, should appear in a volume which is planned as a tribute of admiration and gratitude to the founder and President of the Institute.

It has been said that “the man of Mesopotamia was a stranger to laughter: never, it seems, did he learn to relax”. The present text belies this statement, for it is nothing less than a humorous tale, recognizable as the prototype (at least in part) of one actually preserved in a manuscript of the Arabian Nights.

Type: Research Article
Information: Anatolian Studies , Volume 6 , December 1956 , pp. 145 - 164

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3642407 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1956

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 145 note 1} Contenau, , Everyday Life in Babylon and Assyria, 302Google Scholar. However, Speiser, in JCS., VIII, 98–105Google Scholar, has recently argued convincingly that the so-called “Dialogue of Pessimism” is satirical in nature; and the badly preserved tablet KAR., 174, is a collection of short witticisms. Both texts have points of contact with the present work (see notes on ll. 40 and 85).

^{page 145 note 2} For the reading of the name see note, p. 158.

^{page 146 note 1} Pritchard, , Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 438Google Scholar; Speiser, in JCS., VIII, 98Google Scholar.

^{page 146 note 2} Some doubt must remain as to the correctness of this account of the incident owing to the obscurity of line 98.

^{page 147 note 1} In late Babylonian and Assyrian times court dignitaries and priests were represented on monuments as shaven, and the verb gullubu “to shave” was used as the technical term for the appointment of priests to their office, just as English “tonsure” may be used figuratively as a term for “admission to holy orders”. Hence it is generally inferred that the custom of shaving the heads of priests must have dated back at least to the Old Babylonian period (Nicoló, San, Archiv Orientální, VI, 196–7Google Scholar; Driver-Miles, , Babylonian Laws, 279, n. 2Google Scholar). The physician (asû) was not counted among the priests, however, but among the craftsmen (Meissner, , BAW., I, 82, 14)Google Scholar.

^{page 147 note 2} Isin was only 25 miles from Nippur (Lloyd, Seton, in Sumer, I (2), 9, n. 1)Google Scholar.

^{page 147 note 3} So correct AS., II, p. 30 (bottom).

^{page 147 note 4} See AS., II, 30Google Scholar, and III, 36.

^{page 148 note 1} My sincere thanks are due to Mr. W. G. Lambert for informing me of his discovery of this fragment among the copies of the late F. W. Geers; and to the Trustees of the British Museum for permission to recopy and publish it.

^{page 148 note 2} The story is not included in most editions of the Arabian Nights, but it is to be found also in the German “Reclam” Edition, volume xxiii, pp. 213 ff. (translation by Max Henning). I am much indebted to Dr. H. H. Figulla for drawing my attention to this parallel.

^{page 150 note 1} C: ^dNin-urta.

^{page 150 note 2} C: šu.

^{page 150 note 3} C: [ká]s-pa.

^{page 150 note 4} C: ši-mat.

^{page 150 note 4a} LI-um-mu-a el-li-UM

^{page 150 note 5} C: [e]-ri-šú.

^{page 150 note 6} C: -ta-šú.

^{page 150 note 7} A: ŠU !

^{page 150 note 8} C: šu-nu-ḫi.

^{page 150 note 9} C: -ia.

^{page 150 note 10} A: IB ! BA !

^{page 150 note 11} C: ša.

^{page 150 note 12} C omits word.

^{page 150 note 13} C: i-šam-ma [enza ?].

^{page 150 note 14} Error for lul-lik?

^{page 150 note 15} Text: BAR LU.

^{page 150 note 16} Text: ┌MU ?┐ NI MU (for ^lúSÚL. DU₈?).

^{page 151 note 1} C: mark.

^{page 151 note 2} C: weary.

^{page 151 note 3} C omits this word.

^{page 152 note 1} Text: MAŠ ! Perhaps a former copyist had corrected ina to ana.

^{page 152 note 2} Or i-nánna?

^{page 152 note 3} B: ]x šu-ta-⌜ra ? ^dlamassu⌝.

^{page 154 note 1} B: lu-ku-šu-du.

^{page 154 note 2} B: ⌜ru ?⌝-uš-e ḫurāṣa.

^{page 154 note 3} B: mi-nu-um-ma.

^{page 154 note 4} Or tal-lak-tú ?

^{page 154 note 5} Text: ki.

^{page 155 note 1} A highly valued kind of sheep.

^{page 156 note 1} Apparently followed by the division sign.

^{page 159 note 1} For the verb paqādu see Leemans, , Ishtar of Lagaba and her Dress, 18Google Scholar.

Article contents

The Sultantepe Tablets (Continued). V. The Tale of the Poor Man of Nippur

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests