Books by Martina Schmidl
PhD-thesis, handed in at the University of Vienna in December 2019, successfully defended in June... more PhD-thesis, handed in at the University of Vienna in December 2019, successfully defended in June 2020.
Abstract: This thesis focuses on administrative letters from the late 6th and early 5th centuries BCE from two temple archives, the Eanna in Uruk and the Ebabbar in Sippar. The period under review extends from ca. 550 BCE, the final years of the reign of the last Neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus, until 484 BCE, when revolts against the Persian king Xerxes brought these archives to an end. The main aim is to analyse the mentalities and identities expressed in them, focusing on relationships of various officials inside the temples, between temple officials and royal officials, and between officials from different temples.
The introduction provides the methodological and historical context for the study. The following chapter discusses formal features of the letters. Chapter 3 treats the letter dossiers of high and middle-ranking officials of both temples, analysing letter distribution, content, and rhetoric. The last subsection treats the concept of service (maṣṣartu). Findings are compared with material from the beginning of the Neo-Babylonian period. Chapter 4 starts with a comparative analysis of the relationship between the temple and the king in the Neo-Babylonian and in the Achaemenid period, followed by a treatment of royal officials in the corpus as well as one member of the city administration of Uruk. Chapter 5 analyses the interaction between the Eanna of Uruk and the Ebabbar of Larsa, a smaller, dependent sanctuary, and the interaction of both the Eanna and the Ebabbar of Sippar with the Esangila of Babylon and the city of Babylon more generally. Chapter 6 gives an overview of the major topics covered in the letters. The last chapter presents text editions from Uruk (191 letters) and Sippar (40 letters), including transliterations, translations, and commentary, as well as a contextualisation of the letters.
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Spätbabylonische Briefe Band 1 (SbB 1). AOAT 414/1 (2014)
In this volume – the first of a series that will publish a full (re-)edition of the Late Babyloni... more In this volume – the first of a series that will publish a full (re-)edition of the Late Babylonian letter corpus – 243 letters from private archives are edited. Eighty of these letters have not been published before, and an additional 58 have never been edited and are not included in Ebeling’s now quite dated edition of the corpus. Almost all of the tablets have been collated, and the editions are preceded by an analysis of the letters’ formal structure and content. Accompanying commentary contextualizes the letters and establishes their archival background. The book includes a glossary and numerous indices.
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Papers by Martina Schmidl
Schiegg, M., Huber, J. (2023). Intra-Writer Variation in Historical Sociolinguistics. Oxford, United Kingdom: Peter Lang Verlag. DOI: 10.3726/b19157, 2023
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WZKM 112, 2022
The Babylonian Fürstenspiegel, also known as the Advice to a Prince, has attracted scholarly inte... more The Babylonian Fürstenspiegel, also known as the Advice to a Prince, has attracted scholarly interest because it provides guidelines for royal behaviour and describes the consequences if these guidelines are not followed. While the content of this text has been amply discussed, the literary quality of the Fürstenspiegel has received decidedly less attention. In this paper, I examine some structural devices in the Babylonian Fürstenspiegel and analyse their potential for enriching our understanding of the text. I first discuss the literary nature of this text and its relationship with divinatory texts, particularly the terrestrial omen series Šumma ālu. I then analyse some structural devices employed in the text through two case studies. In the first case study, I argue that structural devices are used to make the text cohere as a literary whole, with implications for its wider meaning. In the second case study, I argue that the text's micro-structure, especially in relation to the text's overall structure, can be used to add emphasis, providing another layer of meaning to this text.
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Altorientalische Forschungen 48/2, 2021
This article examines two orthographic features in the Acrostic Hymn of Nebuchadnezzar II. It aim... more This article examines two orthographic features in the Acrostic Hymn of Nebuchadnezzar II. It aims to show that the text makes use of the possibilities of the cuneiform writing system to create various levels of meaning. The first example clarifies structure and content with regard to a difficult passage in the fourth and last stanza of the text, in which a possible change of actors is indicated by an orthographic feature. The second example shows how orthography is used in the first stanza of the text to augment its message. These examples demonstrate how structural elements and micro-features such as orthography were used creatively to enhance the message of the hymn.
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AfO, 2021
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Journal of the American Oriental Society
The Sacrificial Economy: Assessors, Contractors, and Thieves in the Management of Sacrificial She... more The Sacrificial Economy: Assessors, Contractors, and Thieves in the Management of Sacrificial Sheep at the Eanna Temple of Uruk (ca. 625–520 B.C.). By Michael Kozuh. Explorations in Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations, vol. 2. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2014. Pp. xii + 324, CD-ROM. $69.50.
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B. Jacobs et al. (eds), Die Verwaltung im Achämenidenreich / Administration in the Achaemenid Empire (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz), 2017
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NABU, 2020
Abstract: This note suggests an addition to the early administrative letter corpus of the Eanna t... more Abstract: This note suggests an addition to the early administrative letter corpus of the Eanna temple, by identifying the sender of YOS 3, 26 as the temple administrator of the temple of Amurru, implying a date around the begining of Nebuchadnezzar II’s reign. The argument rests on an analysis of patters of interaction between different officials, the chronological distribution of a particular rhetorical element as well as on the contents of the letter. It includes a re-edition of the letter.
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Open Linguistics, Topical Issue on Historical Sociolinguistic Philology, ed. by Chiara Barbati and Christian Gastgeber, 2017
This paper deals with language usage in private and institutional letters from the Neo-Babylonian... more This paper deals with language usage in private and institutional letters from the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods. It analyses the usage of terms of address, greeting formulae and direct and indirect phrasing, drawing on notions of politeness developed by Brown and Levinson. Of particular interest are questions of usage within a temple hierarchy and its implications for professional relationships. For private letters, the case for the appellation of ‘lord’ for women as previously claimed by the author is further substantiated.
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The takeover of the Neo-Babylonian Empire by Persian rulers is widely regarded as a smooth and st... more The takeover of the Neo-Babylonian Empire by Persian rulers is widely regarded as a smooth and stable process. This view can be enriched by evidence from official letters from the – albeit peripheral – Eanna- and Ebabbar-archives. Such a microhistoric approach enables us to take a closer look at the role and importance of the king and his administration in the two empires. Not only can the evidence for the two periods be compared; the evidence for the various Persian rulers and their different levels of interaction with the temple will also be considered.
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Reiss, W. (ed.), 2016, Aufstieg und Fall der ägyptischen Muslimbruderschaft 2011-2013. Anwendungsorientierte Religionswissenschaft 8. Marburg: Tectum, 45-316., 2016
This paper deals with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (al-ʾiḫwān al-muslimūn) in its violent inte... more This paper deals with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (al-ʾiḫwān al-muslimūn) in its violent interaction with outside agents. In this context, violence by, but also against the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is un-der scrutiny. While the focus of the investigation lies on a detailed treatment of the events leading up to and following the Arab Spring in Egypt in 2011 until the spring of 2014, historical developments since the founding of the organisation in 1928 are also summarised – though less extensively – to provide ample context for attitudes on and the im-plementation of violence. Historically speaking, violence has mostly been connected to political activities of the organisation, which is why this study focuses on this aspect of the brotherhood. Its attitude to-wards violence is not only investigated in practical, historical terms, but also in the treatment of violence by important thinkers of the movement – as well as discrepancies between the two. In this context, opinions of leaders of the brotherhood on violence are given, with em-phasis placed on the attitudes of Hasan al-Bannāʾ and Saiyid Quṭb.
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Müller-Funk, L., Procházka, St., Selz, G. and A, Telic, Kulturelle Schnittstelle Mesopotamien, anatolien, Kurdistan. Geschichte. Sprachen. Gegenwart. Vienna: Selbstverlag des Instituts für Orientalistik der Universität Wien, p. 155-175., Oct 22, 2014
This paper deals with the concept of identity and its applicability in the context of the Neo-Ass... more This paper deals with the concept of identity and its applicability in the context of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Some modern-day Christians from this region (today mostly living abroad) are tracing their origin back to the ancient Assyrians themselves. These arguments will be under scrutiny as well as their basis in and support from the field of Ancient Near Eastern Studies.
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Appendix to P.M. Fischer and R. Feldbacher, “Swedish Jordan Expedition: Preliminary Report on the... more Appendix to P.M. Fischer and R. Feldbacher, “Swedish Jordan Expedition: Preliminary Report on the Eleventh Season of Excavation at Tall Abū al-Kharaz, 2008”, in: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 53. Amman, 145-147.
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Altorientalische Forschungen, 2021
This article examines two orthographic features in the Acrostic Hymn of Nebuchadnezzar II. It aim... more This article examines two orthographic features in the Acrostic Hymn of Nebuchadnezzar II. It aims to show that the text makes use of the possibilities of the cuneiform writing system to create various levels of meaning. The first example clarifies structure and content with regard to a difficult passage in the fourth and last stanza of the text, in which a possible change of actors is indicated by an orthographic feature. The second example shows how orthography is used in the first stanza of the text to augment its message. These examples demonstrate how structural elements and micro-features such as orthography were used creatively to enhance the message of the hymn.
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While Classical sources, especially Herodotus, have proved to be of little value for reconstructi... more While Classical sources, especially Herodotus, have proved to be of little value for reconstructing the Persian government’s multiple ways of extracting material resources and manpower from the province of Babylonia, cuneiform texts contain ample pertinent information. Basing itself on recent research (summarised in Jursa 2010a and 2011), this contribution presents a brief survey of the status quaestionis and then places its focus on anecdotal information and quantitative data that can be brought to bear on the issue of the impact of the taxation1 system on the overall socio-economic situation in Babylonia. Discussion will be limited to the best-documented period, from the Persian conquest to 484 BC, the year of the Babylonian rebellions against Xerxes. © Michael Jursa, Martina Schmidl 2014 michael.jursa@univie.ac.at martina.schmidl@univie.ac.at 1 Note that in this paper, the word “taxation,” especially when referring to phenomena encontered in Babylonian tablets dating to the sixth...
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While Classical sources, especially Herodotus, have proved to be of little value for reconstructi... more While Classical sources, especially Herodotus, have proved to be of little value for reconstructing the Persian government’s multiple ways of extracting material resources and manpower from the province of Babylonia, cuneiform texts contain ample pertinent information. Basing itself on recent research (summarised in Jursa 2010a and 2011), this contribution presents a brief survey of the status quaestionis and then places its focus on anecdotal information and quantitative data that can be brought to bear on the issue of the impact of the taxation1 system on the overall socio-economic situation in Babylonia. Discussion will be limited to the best-documented period, from the Persian conquest to 484 BC, the year of the Babylonian rebellions against Xerxes. © Michael Jursa, Martina Schmidl 2014 michael.jursa@univie.ac.at martina.schmidl@univie.ac.at 1 Note that in this paper, the word “taxation,” especially when referring to phenomena encontered in Babylonian tablets dating to the sixth...
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Talks by Martina Schmidl
Session „Historical Pragmatics“ at the 11th Historical Sociolinguistics Network Conference, Murcia, 1st-3rd June, 2022
In this presentation, I talk about administrative letters from ancient Babylonia, an area roughly... more In this presentation, I talk about administrative letters from ancient Babylonia, an area roughly congruent with modern Iraq. The letters are written in cuneiform on clay tablets. They stem from the so-called “long sixth century” (Jursa 2010: 5), 626-484 BCE, a period which includes the rise and fall of the Neo-Babylonian empire and the early years of Persian rule after their conquest of Babylonia in 539 BCE. Despite these political changes, the period is marked by a high degree of economic and social coherence and continuity, also with regard to available sources.
I will compare data gleaned from a macro perspective on Late Babylonian letters from two temples with data based on a micro perspective on the material in question. In a previous study, Jursa and Hackl (2015) distinguished different rhetorical strategies in Late Babylonian letters. They compared the usage of these strategies in Late Babylonian temple letters from the long sixth century BCE with their occurrences and frequencies in a comparable letter corpus from the Old Babylonian period (17th century BCE). In their study, they noticed, i.a., a marked difference in the usage of strategies referencing personal relationships as a means of persuasion. Late Babylonian letters use this strategy in far fewer instances than their Old Babylonian counterparts, a fact which Jursa and Hackl interpreted as an indication of an increase in “rational” elements in Babylonian temple bureaucracies, rational being used in a Weberian sense (Weber 1980 [1922]). This macro approach to the material can be further refined by adding a micro perspective, focusing on the temple communities at different points in time. We have data on these strategies from the beginning of the Neo-Babylonian empire, 626 BCE and onwards (Levavi 2018). I will compare this to material from the beginning of the Persian empire, from 539 to 484 BCE. This allows one to trace changes in language usage over the course of the long sixth century BCE, observing a different distribution of rhetorical strategies in these two phases. In addition, this analysis provides further data on the administrative ethos and identity of some of these temple officials in different political circumstances.
Bibliography
Jursa, M., 2010, with contributions by J. Hackl, B. Janković, K. Kleber, E.E. Payne, C. Waerzeggers and M. Weszeli, Aspects of the Economic History of Babylonia in the First Millennium BC. Economic Geography, Economic Mentalities, Agriculture, the Use of Money and the Problem of Economic Growth. Veröffentlichungen zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte Babyloniens im 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr. 4. AOAT 377. Münster.
Jursa, M. and Hackl, J., 2015, “Rhetorics, Politeness, Persuasion and Argumentation in Late Babylonian Epistolography,” in: Procházka, S., Reinfandt, L., Tost, S. (eds), Official Epistolography and the Language(s) of Power: Proceedings of the First International Conference of the Research Network Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom: University of Vienna, 10-12 November 2010. Papyrologica Vindobonensia 8. Vienna, 101-115.
Levavi, Y., 2018, Administrative Epistolography in the Formative Phase of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Spätbabylonische Briefe 2. dubsar 3. Münster.
Weber, M., 1980 [1922], Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriß der verstehenden Soziologie. Fünfte, revidierte Auflage, besorgt von Johannes Winckelmann. Studienausgabe. Tübingen. 5th, revised edition.
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Lecture Series "With Kind Regards: Convention, Standards and Breaking the Rules in Letter-Writing" of the ERC-project „Embedding Conquest: Naturalising Muslim Rule in the Early Islamic Empire (600-1000)“, Leiden University, June 21st,, 2022
This talk stars with an overview of the Late Babylonian letter corpus and basic letter convention... more This talk stars with an overview of the Late Babylonian letter corpus and basic letter conventions, followed by case studies on different (groups of) senders in private and institutional letters: private letters by a slave, private letters to and by women and institutional letters by officials from the temple of Larsa to the temple of Uruk.
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ASOR Boston, 16-19 Nov 2022, 2022
The recently started project “Governance in Babylon – Negotiating the Rule of Three Empires” (Gov... more The recently started project “Governance in Babylon – Negotiating the Rule of Three Empires” (GoviB) under principal investigator Kristin Kleber, funded by the European Research Council, is currently working on editing, for the first time, texts from the private archives in Babylon which were excavated from 1899 to 1917. Among the newly edited texts is the archive and library of Marduk-šumu-uṣur from the Šigûa family, N10 (Pedersén 2005: 198), a small archive which contains texts from both the Neo-Assyrian and the Neo-Babylonian period. The father of Marduk-šumu-uṣur was Silim-Bēl, who acted as šākin ṭēmi and bēl pīḫāti of Babylon. One of the texts of this archive is already famous for its topic, high treason against Nebuchadnezzar II (now BM 120021, published in Weidner 1954-65 and collated in Jursa 2001). In this talk, I will analyse newly edited texts from this archive from the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin, and combine this information with lost texts known only from excavation photographs to provide new insights into the early Neo-Babylonian period from the capital city of Babylonia.
Bibliography
Jursa, M., 2001, "Kollationen," NABU 2001/102.
Pedersén, O., 2005, Archive und Bibliotheken in Babylon. Die Tontafeln der Grabung Robert Koldeways 1899-1917. ADOG 25.
Weidner, E., 1954-1956, "Hochverrat gegen Nebukadnezzar II. Ein Großwürdenträger vor dem Königsgericht," AfO 17, 1-9.
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Books by Martina Schmidl
Abstract: This thesis focuses on administrative letters from the late 6th and early 5th centuries BCE from two temple archives, the Eanna in Uruk and the Ebabbar in Sippar. The period under review extends from ca. 550 BCE, the final years of the reign of the last Neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus, until 484 BCE, when revolts against the Persian king Xerxes brought these archives to an end. The main aim is to analyse the mentalities and identities expressed in them, focusing on relationships of various officials inside the temples, between temple officials and royal officials, and between officials from different temples.
The introduction provides the methodological and historical context for the study. The following chapter discusses formal features of the letters. Chapter 3 treats the letter dossiers of high and middle-ranking officials of both temples, analysing letter distribution, content, and rhetoric. The last subsection treats the concept of service (maṣṣartu). Findings are compared with material from the beginning of the Neo-Babylonian period. Chapter 4 starts with a comparative analysis of the relationship between the temple and the king in the Neo-Babylonian and in the Achaemenid period, followed by a treatment of royal officials in the corpus as well as one member of the city administration of Uruk. Chapter 5 analyses the interaction between the Eanna of Uruk and the Ebabbar of Larsa, a smaller, dependent sanctuary, and the interaction of both the Eanna and the Ebabbar of Sippar with the Esangila of Babylon and the city of Babylon more generally. Chapter 6 gives an overview of the major topics covered in the letters. The last chapter presents text editions from Uruk (191 letters) and Sippar (40 letters), including transliterations, translations, and commentary, as well as a contextualisation of the letters.
Papers by Martina Schmidl
Talks by Martina Schmidl
I will compare data gleaned from a macro perspective on Late Babylonian letters from two temples with data based on a micro perspective on the material in question. In a previous study, Jursa and Hackl (2015) distinguished different rhetorical strategies in Late Babylonian letters. They compared the usage of these strategies in Late Babylonian temple letters from the long sixth century BCE with their occurrences and frequencies in a comparable letter corpus from the Old Babylonian period (17th century BCE). In their study, they noticed, i.a., a marked difference in the usage of strategies referencing personal relationships as a means of persuasion. Late Babylonian letters use this strategy in far fewer instances than their Old Babylonian counterparts, a fact which Jursa and Hackl interpreted as an indication of an increase in “rational” elements in Babylonian temple bureaucracies, rational being used in a Weberian sense (Weber 1980 [1922]). This macro approach to the material can be further refined by adding a micro perspective, focusing on the temple communities at different points in time. We have data on these strategies from the beginning of the Neo-Babylonian empire, 626 BCE and onwards (Levavi 2018). I will compare this to material from the beginning of the Persian empire, from 539 to 484 BCE. This allows one to trace changes in language usage over the course of the long sixth century BCE, observing a different distribution of rhetorical strategies in these two phases. In addition, this analysis provides further data on the administrative ethos and identity of some of these temple officials in different political circumstances.
Bibliography
Jursa, M., 2010, with contributions by J. Hackl, B. Janković, K. Kleber, E.E. Payne, C. Waerzeggers and M. Weszeli, Aspects of the Economic History of Babylonia in the First Millennium BC. Economic Geography, Economic Mentalities, Agriculture, the Use of Money and the Problem of Economic Growth. Veröffentlichungen zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte Babyloniens im 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr. 4. AOAT 377. Münster.
Jursa, M. and Hackl, J., 2015, “Rhetorics, Politeness, Persuasion and Argumentation in Late Babylonian Epistolography,” in: Procházka, S., Reinfandt, L., Tost, S. (eds), Official Epistolography and the Language(s) of Power: Proceedings of the First International Conference of the Research Network Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom: University of Vienna, 10-12 November 2010. Papyrologica Vindobonensia 8. Vienna, 101-115.
Levavi, Y., 2018, Administrative Epistolography in the Formative Phase of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Spätbabylonische Briefe 2. dubsar 3. Münster.
Weber, M., 1980 [1922], Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriß der verstehenden Soziologie. Fünfte, revidierte Auflage, besorgt von Johannes Winckelmann. Studienausgabe. Tübingen. 5th, revised edition.
Bibliography
Jursa, M., 2001, "Kollationen," NABU 2001/102.
Pedersén, O., 2005, Archive und Bibliotheken in Babylon. Die Tontafeln der Grabung Robert Koldeways 1899-1917. ADOG 25.
Weidner, E., 1954-1956, "Hochverrat gegen Nebukadnezzar II. Ein Großwürdenträger vor dem Königsgericht," AfO 17, 1-9.
Abstract: This thesis focuses on administrative letters from the late 6th and early 5th centuries BCE from two temple archives, the Eanna in Uruk and the Ebabbar in Sippar. The period under review extends from ca. 550 BCE, the final years of the reign of the last Neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus, until 484 BCE, when revolts against the Persian king Xerxes brought these archives to an end. The main aim is to analyse the mentalities and identities expressed in them, focusing on relationships of various officials inside the temples, between temple officials and royal officials, and between officials from different temples.
The introduction provides the methodological and historical context for the study. The following chapter discusses formal features of the letters. Chapter 3 treats the letter dossiers of high and middle-ranking officials of both temples, analysing letter distribution, content, and rhetoric. The last subsection treats the concept of service (maṣṣartu). Findings are compared with material from the beginning of the Neo-Babylonian period. Chapter 4 starts with a comparative analysis of the relationship between the temple and the king in the Neo-Babylonian and in the Achaemenid period, followed by a treatment of royal officials in the corpus as well as one member of the city administration of Uruk. Chapter 5 analyses the interaction between the Eanna of Uruk and the Ebabbar of Larsa, a smaller, dependent sanctuary, and the interaction of both the Eanna and the Ebabbar of Sippar with the Esangila of Babylon and the city of Babylon more generally. Chapter 6 gives an overview of the major topics covered in the letters. The last chapter presents text editions from Uruk (191 letters) and Sippar (40 letters), including transliterations, translations, and commentary, as well as a contextualisation of the letters.
I will compare data gleaned from a macro perspective on Late Babylonian letters from two temples with data based on a micro perspective on the material in question. In a previous study, Jursa and Hackl (2015) distinguished different rhetorical strategies in Late Babylonian letters. They compared the usage of these strategies in Late Babylonian temple letters from the long sixth century BCE with their occurrences and frequencies in a comparable letter corpus from the Old Babylonian period (17th century BCE). In their study, they noticed, i.a., a marked difference in the usage of strategies referencing personal relationships as a means of persuasion. Late Babylonian letters use this strategy in far fewer instances than their Old Babylonian counterparts, a fact which Jursa and Hackl interpreted as an indication of an increase in “rational” elements in Babylonian temple bureaucracies, rational being used in a Weberian sense (Weber 1980 [1922]). This macro approach to the material can be further refined by adding a micro perspective, focusing on the temple communities at different points in time. We have data on these strategies from the beginning of the Neo-Babylonian empire, 626 BCE and onwards (Levavi 2018). I will compare this to material from the beginning of the Persian empire, from 539 to 484 BCE. This allows one to trace changes in language usage over the course of the long sixth century BCE, observing a different distribution of rhetorical strategies in these two phases. In addition, this analysis provides further data on the administrative ethos and identity of some of these temple officials in different political circumstances.
Bibliography
Jursa, M., 2010, with contributions by J. Hackl, B. Janković, K. Kleber, E.E. Payne, C. Waerzeggers and M. Weszeli, Aspects of the Economic History of Babylonia in the First Millennium BC. Economic Geography, Economic Mentalities, Agriculture, the Use of Money and the Problem of Economic Growth. Veröffentlichungen zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte Babyloniens im 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr. 4. AOAT 377. Münster.
Jursa, M. and Hackl, J., 2015, “Rhetorics, Politeness, Persuasion and Argumentation in Late Babylonian Epistolography,” in: Procházka, S., Reinfandt, L., Tost, S. (eds), Official Epistolography and the Language(s) of Power: Proceedings of the First International Conference of the Research Network Imperium & Officium: Comparative Studies in Ancient Bureaucracy and Officialdom: University of Vienna, 10-12 November 2010. Papyrologica Vindobonensia 8. Vienna, 101-115.
Levavi, Y., 2018, Administrative Epistolography in the Formative Phase of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Spätbabylonische Briefe 2. dubsar 3. Münster.
Weber, M., 1980 [1922], Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriß der verstehenden Soziologie. Fünfte, revidierte Auflage, besorgt von Johannes Winckelmann. Studienausgabe. Tübingen. 5th, revised edition.
Bibliography
Jursa, M., 2001, "Kollationen," NABU 2001/102.
Pedersén, O., 2005, Archive und Bibliotheken in Babylon. Die Tontafeln der Grabung Robert Koldeways 1899-1917. ADOG 25.
Weidner, E., 1954-1956, "Hochverrat gegen Nebukadnezzar II. Ein Großwürdenträger vor dem Königsgericht," AfO 17, 1-9.
Abstract:
My talk focuses on intra-writer variation in Late Babylonian temple letters from Mesopotamia. The letters stem from the main temple of the city of Uruk in Southern Mesopotamia. They date to around 530 BCE. Specifically, I draw up a case study on two letters by a writer who belonged to the highest echelons of this temple to other high-ranking colleagues in a time of need, YOS 3, 171 and TCL 9, 129.2 The letters
concern the involvement of the temple in a royal building project. The sender of the letter, while being a full
member of the temple administration, had a royal background. He sent his letters to two temple officials
with local backgrounds.3 They stemmed from prominent Urukean families.4 The tension between royal and
local influence is one way of reading these letters, but a focus on intra-writer variation provides us with
deeper insights. One letter addresses an official of roughly equal status, similar to a “bishop”,5
the other
addresses a lower-ranking temple scribe. These two letters are near-duplicates, but they differ at crucial
points. Focusing on these discrepancies makes it possible to trace stylistic variation with regard to the
intended addressees, the communicational situations where this was pertinent, and the rhetorical means
chosen in these situations.
Abbreviations
YOS 3 Clay, A., 1919, Neo-Babylonian Letters from Erech. Yale Oriental Series. Babylonian Texts 3.
TCL 9 Contenau, G., 1926, Contrats et lettres d’Assyrie et de Babylonie. Textes cunéiformes du Louvre 9.
References
Ebeling, Erich 1930–1934. Neubabylonische Briefe aus Uruk. Berlin.
Jursa, Michael 2007. The Transition of Babylonia from the Neo-Babylonian Empire to Achaemenid Rule. In
Harriet Crawford (ed.), Regime Change in the Ancient Near East and Egypt: From Sargon of Agade to
Saddam Hussein. Proceedings of the British Academy 136. 73–94. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jursa, Michael 2015. Families, Officialdom, and Families of Royal Officials in Chaldean and Achaemenid
Babylonia. In Alfonso Archi (ed.), Tradition and Innovation in the Ancient Near East. Proceedings of
the 57th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Rome, 4–8 July 2011. 597–606. Winona Lake, IN:
Eisenbrauns.
Kleber, Kristin 2008. Tempel und Palast. Die Beziehungen zwischen dem König und dem Eanna-Tempel im
spätbabylonischen Uruk. Veröffentlichungen zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte Babyloniens im 1. Jahrtausend v.
Chr. Band 3. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 358. Münster: Ugarit.
1 For editions, see Schmidl forthcoming, Tolini (2011: 274–277), Ebeling (1930–1930: 14–16).
2 For editions of these texts, see Schmidl forthcoming, Tolini (2011: 221–223), Ebeling (1930–1934: 280–283).
3 Kleber (2008) treats the relationship between temple and crown during the period in question.
4 On prominent local families and members of the city administration or the royal administration, see, e.g., Jursa
2015.
5 While this term is admittedly anachronistic, it conveys the notion of the duties of the office of “šatammu”, as this
office combined administrative and cultic responsibilities. For the usage of this term, see, e.g., Jursa (2007: 76+5).
Talk given at the 3rd Neo-Babylonian Network Conference, Paris, 1-2 June 2015.
Gewalt und Religionen, nämlich jenen zu Gewalt an Religionen, nicht nur durch sie. Dies wird
am Beispiel der ägyptischen Muslimbruderschaft exemplifiziert. Dabei wird ein historischer
Abriss über die Geschichte der Bruderschaft von 1928 bis März 2014 geboten, unter besonderer
Berücksichtigung von Gewalt an Mitgliedern und Sympathisanten und Sympathisantinnen der
Muslimbruderschaft. Zudem wird Gewalt, die von der Organisation ausging, untersucht sowie
die jeweilige interne ideologische Haltung – offiziell und inoffiziell – im Laufe der Zeit
analysiert. Während die Muslimbruderschaft oftmals als Wiege radikaler islamistischer
Organisationen bezeichnet wird, ist sie selbst keine Verfechterin von Gewalt und postuliert
bereits seit über 30 Jahren Gewaltfreiheit.
Die Muslimbruderschaft wurde 1928 gegründet und bereits 20 Jahre später erstmals aufgelöst.
Nach einer kurzen erneuten Zulassung blieb die Organisation bis zum „Arabischen Frühling“
im Jahr 2011 verboten. Die Bruderschaft war keine der instigierenden Parteien des Aufstandes,
zählte jedoch rasch zu seinem organisatorischen Kern und war zentraler Nutznießer der
demokratischen Freiheiten, für die die Revolution kämpfte. Nach einem überwältigenden
Wahlsieg ließ die Popularität der Muslimbruderschaft beziehungsweise ihrer Partei, der
Freiheits- und Gerechtigkeitspartei, schon bald nach. Die Lebensumstände des Volkes wurden
nicht schnell genug verbessert, was einen Abfall der Beliebtheit der Organisation bereits bei
den Präsidentschaftswahlen 2012 bewirkte; zudem wurde ihre Regierungsarbeit durch
Überreste des gestürzten Regimes, das Militär und die Justiz behindert. Umgekehrt zeigte die
Bruderschaft mangelnde Kompromissbereitschaft für ein postrevolutionäres Umfeld und griff
mit autoritären Maßnahmen durch, nachdem sie die Präsidentschaftswahlen für sich
entschieden hatte. Dies war der Auftakt zu ihrem Fall – der präsidiale Erlass von November
2012 brachte die Menschenmassen wieder auf die Straße. Selbst nach der Aufhebung des
Dekrets kam das Land nicht zur Ruhe – auch die rasch durchgepeitschte und bereits im Vorfeld
sehr problematische Verfassung änderte nichts daran. Nach blutigen Unruhen, die nicht nur von
staatlicher Seite niedergeschlagen wurden, sondern in denen auch Muslimbrüder selbst Gewalt
ausübten, führten erneute Massenproteste zur Absetzung von Präsident Mursī. Die kurze Phase
der Legalität kam danach rasch zu einem Ende. Die Proteste gegen die Absetzung des
Präsidenten wurden übertrieben gewaltsam aufgelöst, woraufhin die zuvor von der
Muslimbruderschaft und anderen islamistischen Gruppen geschürte konfessionelle Spaltung in
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Gewalt umschlug, bei der insbesondere Kopten und Koptinnen Ziele der Angriffe waren. Zu
keinem Zeitpunkt änderte die Bruderschaft ihre offizielle Linie, obgleich ein Großteil der
Mitglieder sich offensichtlich nicht daran hielt. Nach der Klassifikation als Terrororganisation
im Dezember 2013 und unfairen Massenprotesten im Frühjahr 2014 sowie der Annahme einer
neuen Verfassung waren mehr Mitglieder der Bewegung inhaftiert als je zuvor und mehr
Muslimbrüder zum Tode verurteilt als in ihrer gesamten Geschichte. Das rigorose Vorgehen
gegen Sympathisanten und Sympathisantinnen führte zu vielen mehrjährigen Haftstrafen, die
teilweise in Berufung deutlich verschärft wurden.
Die detaillierte Schau der zentralen gewalttätigen Ereignisse der Muslimbruderschaft durch ihre
Geschichte hinweg ermöglichen es, die Geschehnisse von der Revolution bis in das Frühjahr
2014 besser zu verstehen und die Herausforderung an die Organisation, die diese neue Welle
der Unterdrückung mit sich bringt, besser zu verstehen. Der immer wieder aufflackernde
Generationenkonflikt, der sich besonders während der Revolution 2011 zeigte, ist auch nach
der Absetzung von Präsident Mursī der größte Grund zur Besorgnis – während die Organisation
selbst ihrer gewählten Gewaltlosigkeit verbunden bleibt, sind zunehmend Maßnahmen von
ihrer eigenen Seite nötig, um dies auch in der Überzeugung der Mitglieder weiterhin zu
verankern.