But during exhaustive examination of the Tell Mardikh tablets, archaeologists were surprised to find documentation of the “legendary” Iram, which the Elbaites clearly knew as a real place where they engaged in trade for many years. His attack represented a deathblow from which Ebla never recovered, lingering on as a small village until the 7th century A.D., when its ruins were finally abandoned and covered by the sands of time. The city was thereafter reoccupied by a Semitic people, the Amorites, who restored enough former prosperity to make it the target of another conqueror, the Hittite king, Mursili I, in 1600 B.C. Ebla, though, had been known to exist, because it was occasionally cited by dynastic Egyptian and Akkadian bureaucrats.Įbla was itself destroyed in 2240 B.C., when Sarru-kinu, Sargon of Akkad, overthrew Sumerian civilization. Its base was inscribed with the words, “Ibbit-Lim, King of Ebla,” a city that had vanished no less thoroughly than Iram. The city was discovered to be 4,300 years old. In 1968, however, the mists of legend began to coalesce into archaeological reality when Paolo Matthiae and his colleagues from the University of Rome La Sapienza, digging at an unidentified site at Tell Mardikh, in Syria, less than 35 miles southwest of Aleppo, excavated a statue dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. 13: So your Lord poured upon them a scourge of punishment. The Holy Qur’an mentions a certain city by the name of Iram (a city of pillars) which was apparently not known in ancient history and non-existent as far as historians were concerned, 6: Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with ‘Aad – 7: Iram – who had lofty pillars, 8: The likes of whom had never been created in the land? 9: And Thamud, who carved out the rocks in the valley? 10: And Pharaoh, owner of the stakes? – 11: whom oppressed within the lands 12: And increased therein the corruption. The sinful city was supposed to have been swallowed whole by the desert. When the catastrophic whirlwind passed, the formerly splendid urban center had vanished without a trace beneath the sands of the empty quarter. Prized by the ancient Romans as olibanum for temple ceremonies, the substance was reintroduced sometime thereafter by the Franks, from which its modern name, frankincense, derived.įrom early medieval times, it was an integral part of Christian church services in large measure because al-luban had always been associated with the banishment of evil influences.īut its alleged purgative powers were inadequate to rid Iram of its muqarribun, djinni and afreets, even after Hud, a virtuous prophet, had been sent by God to convert the residents from their wicked ways.Īs punishment, Allah afflicted them with a horrible drought, then caused a disastrous sandstorm to engulf the entire city. Iram was also uncommonly rich, thanks in large measure to its trade in al-luban- “the milk”-an aromatic resin taken from the bark of bosellia trees for the production of costly perfumes sought after by wealthy clients, and used in sacred rituals. They worshiped Khadhulu (Lovecraft’s Cthulhu), mentioned as a devilish conception in the fragmentary Al-Khaddif manuscript, which became the short story author’s Al Azif. The city was said to have been a headquarters for the muqarribun, “Ghost Priests” of a profane, pre-Islamic cult. While most readers assume The Nameless City was an entirely original creation of Lovecraft’s fertile imagination, he actually based it on ancient Arab oral accounts.īedouin myth described “Iram of the Pillars” (Iramu dat al-`imad) as a large, deeply prehistoric metropolis built after the great flood by a race of giants, the Ahd-al-Jann, in an uninhabitable area of the Arabian Peninsula known as the Rub-el-Khali, or “Empty Quarter.” The high priest in attendance entrusted him with a thaumaturgic tome, the Al Azif.īut translating its horrific text into Latin as the Necronomicon proved too much for Abdul, and he went raving mad before completing his task. Passing through the dark streets and among the lofty columns of Iram, as the gloomy city was known to its residents, he entered the temple of their patron deity, Cthulhu, a satanic figure. There, he stumbled upon an ancient city unknown to the outside world, a center for sorcery and witchcraft, inhabited by djinni and afreets, the ghouls and demons of Semitic folklore.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |