Babylonian and Phoenician / ancient civilizations that left a great history
The history of peoples is determined by the civilizations on which they grew up, and the cultures and knowledge passed on by peoples in different successive historical eras because the cultural heritage that was formed in different periods of the lives of those peoples is the historical wealth of any nation.
Here, dear reader, I will show you two of the most important civilizations in the world.
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Babel Civilization
This historical city is located 90 km to the south of Baghdad. It was the capital of the Babylonians during the rule of Hammurabi.
It is a historical Iraqi city whose name is derived from “Bab Eli” which means the door of the gods.
The Babylonians ruled the Mesopotamian regions between 1750 and 1792 BC under the rule of Hammurabi, during whose reign the Iraqi “Babylonian” civilization reached its zenith and flourished, science and knowledge advanced, and trade expanded.
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
One of the Seven Wonders of the World, built by Nebuchadnezzar for Queen Amihia, was built around 600 BC in Babylon.
It is also known as the Samir Amis Gardens, where all kinds of trees and flowers were planted, and statues of different sizes were distributed there.
Hammurabi’s law and laws
The Babylonian King Hammurabi issued a huge number of laws and ordinances, amounting to 252 articles inscribed on the black Diorite stone.
Among the most important of its laws is the famous deterrent punishment based on the principle of reciprocity in punishment, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Despite the severity of Hammurabi’s law, it remained for 15 centuries, retaining its essence.
His era was known as the Golden Age, which history has not witnessed in Babylon, as his kingdom extended up to Khabur to the Balikh Basin and included the Diyala River and the upper Tigris Valley. Who occupied the city after the death of Hammurabi and the weakness of its rulers.
Hitler predicted in 1942 that Berlin would not be a cosmopolitan city, if it did not resemble Pharaonic Egypt or Iraq’s Babylon
Economic system
- Agriculture: Agriculture in Babylonia, with the provision of water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, required work and careful organization in order to produce abundant crops, to meet the living needs of the Babylonians. Birds care and attention.
- Trade: The commercial texts that reached us from Babylonia were mostly documenting the work of the Babylonians on the system of barter in products to obtain their daily needs, as they were able to open and protect roads for the conduct of trade convoys.
Cultural and Literary System
The Babylonian language, which belongs to the group of Semitic languages, was prevalent in the country and was the language of political and economic documents. During the reign of Hammurabi, the Babylonian language was able to mature and reach perfection, as was evident in the famous Hammurabi Code.
The literature in the Babylonian era was a continuation of the Mesopotamian culture, which was dominated by myths and epics, with controversial topics about human creation and the struggle of gods and immortality, and the Epic of Gilgamesh was not an exception, but rather centered on the idea of immortality.
For the Babylonians, literature knew wisdom that prioritizes moral and educational goals, in addition to exhortation and religious stories.
Phoenician civilization
The Phoenicians are a group of Semitic language and part of the Canaanites, who inhabited the coasts of the Levant BC. The Phoenicians were among the most famous people of the ancient world. They were skilled sailors and merchants.
They were mainly from the Canaanite tribes that settled since the third millennium BC on the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean, from north of the Orontes to Sinai, and from Aqaba and the Dead Sea to the Euphrates Island, as some historical studies say.
The arrival of the Phoenicians from the Arabian Peninsula.
The Phoenicians built several cities, amounting to 25 cities, most of which were independent of each other, starting from Tyre through the Syrian Ugarit in Latakia.
Therefore, the Phoenicians did not form, throughout their long history, a single society, but rather each of the cities enjoyed the independence of its own system.
Regime
Before the emergence of cities, the system of government was tribal, where the sheikh of the tribe was the ruler, and with the stability and the growth of agriculture and trade and the establishment of cities, which produced a political system that turned into a monarchy. This civilization knew the republican system of government in the city of Carthage, which it continued.
Economic system
The Phoenicians worked to build a prosperous economy, so they took care of agriculture, exploited the forest wealth, raised livestock, and created industries that matched the raw materials available to them. They also practiced trade and excelled in it.
- Agriculture: The Phoenicians considered agriculture as a basic source of livelihood, so they diversified their crops, relying on rain for irrigation, including wheat and legumes, in addition to olives, palms, and others.
- Industry: A number of the population turned to industry, to provide another source of livelihood. During the Phoenician era, the textile industry, ships, glass, and metals became famous.
- Trade: Trade achieved a good standard of living for the Phoenicians, and created many job opportunities for the poor, who worked for the rich merchants. Spreading crafts and knowledge.
Cultural and Literary System
The Phoenicians were influenced by the writings that preceded their alphabet, which is the hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptians and the cuneiform of the peoples of Mesopotamia, and both were complex for them, so the Phoenicians sought to simplify them.
An alphabet that they transmitted to the Greeks, who spread it in the world, for this reason, it was called “the mother of the alphabets in the world”.
Their literary heritage began in the third millennium BC, and it contains religious systems, family and political laws, in addition to epics, legends, and correspondence.
They also took an interest in astronomy, medicine, chemistry, arithmetic, architecture, and sculpture.
Each of the civilizations in the world maintains its own peculiarity and uniqueness and its inheritance indicative of the historical value of People.
Babylonian and Phoenician / ancient civilizations that left a great history
