Wikipedia

Adiabene

Adiabene(Greek:Αδιαβηνή) was an ancientkingdomin northernMesopotamia,corresponding to the northwestern part of ancientAssyria.[3]The size of the kingdom varied over time; initially encompassing an area between the Zab Rivers, it eventually gained control ofNinevehand starting at least with the rule ofMonobazos I(late 1st-centuryBCE),Gordyenebecame an Adiabenian dependency.[4]It reached its zenith underIzates II,who was granted the district ofNisibisby theParthiankingArtabanus II(r. 12–40) as a reward for helping him regain his throne.[5][6]Adiabene's eastern borders stopped at theZagros Mountains,adjacent to the region ofMedia.[7]Arbelaserved as the capital of Adiabene.[8]

Adiabene
c. 164BC–c. 379AD
The Kingdom of Adiabene in c. 37 AD at its greatest extent, during the reign of Izates II
The Kingdom of Adiabene inc. 37 ADat its greatest extent, during the reign ofIzates II
StatusVassal of theParthian Empire(145 BC–224 AD)
Vassal of theSasanian Empire(224–379)
CapitalArbela
Common languagesClassical Syriac
Religion
Ashurism,Judaism,Zoroastrianism,Christianity,Manichaeism
GovernmentMonarchy
King
• around 15 CE
Izates I
• 20s? – c. 36[1]
Monobaz I
• c. 36 – c. 55/59 AD
Izates II[2]
• c. 55/59 AD[1]– late 60s/mid-70s
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Monobaz II
•? – 116
Meharaspes
Historical eraAntiquity
• Established
c. 164BC
• Transformed into a Sasanian province
c. 379AD
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Parthian Empire
Roman Empire
Sasanian Empire
Today part ofIraq
Turkey

The formation of the kingdom is obscure. The first instance of a recorded Adiabenian ruler is in 69 BCE, when an unnamed king of Adiabene participated in thebattle of Tigranocertaas an ally of the Armenian kingTigranes the Great(r. 95–55 BCE).[9]However, coinage implies the establishment of a kingdom in Adiabene around 164 BCE, following the disintegration of GreekSeleucidrule in theNear East.[10][11]Adiabene was conquered by the Parthian kingMithridates I(r. 171–132 BCE) in c. 145–141 BCE, and by at least from the reign ofMithridates II(r. 124–91 BCE) served as an integral part of the Parthian realm.[12]

Adiabenian rulers converted toJudaismfrompaganismin the 1st century CE.[13]QueenHelena of Adiabene(known in Jewish sources asHeleni HaMalka,meaningHelene the Queen) moved toJerusalem,where she built palaces for herself and her sons,Izates bar MonobazandMonobaz IIat the northern part of thecity of David,south of theTemple Mount,and aided the Jews intheir war with Rome.[14]According to theTalmud,both Helena and Monobaz donated large funds for theTemple of Jerusalem.After 115 CE, there are no historic traces of Jewish royalty in Adiabene.

The Parthians were overthrown by theSasanian Empirein 224, who by the time ofShapur I(r. 240–270) had established their rule in Adiabene.[5]Ardashir IIis the last figure to be recorded as king of Adiabene, which implies that the kingdom was after his tenure inc. 379transformed into a province (shahr), governed by a non-royal delegate (marzbanorshahrab) of the Sasanian king.[15]

Etymology

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The name of the state entered English from theAncient GreekἈδιαβηνή,which was derived fromܚܕܝܐܒ,Ḥaḏy’aḇorḤḏay’aḇ,in Syriac. The state was also known asNōdšīragānorNōd-ArdaxšīragāninMiddle Persian,[16][17]Նոր Շիրական,Nor Shirakan,inArmenian,andחַדְיָב,Ḥaḏyāḇ,in Hebrew.

Location

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Adiabene occupied a district in Median Empire between theUpper Zab(Lycus) and theLower Zab(Caprus), thoughAmmianus Marcellinusspeaks ofNineveh,Ecbatana,andGaugamelaas also belonging to it.[18]By the late 1st century CE, its borders extended as far asNisibis.[a]In the Talmudic writings the name occurs asחדייב,חדייף and הדייב.Its chief city wasArbela(Arba-ilu), where Mar Uqba had a school, or the neighboring Hazzah, by which name the laterArabsalso called Arbela.[21]

InKiddushin72a theBiblicalHabor is identified with Adiabene,[22]but inJerusalem Talmud,Megillah i. 71bwithRiphath.[23]In theTargum JonathanonJeremiahli. 27,Ararat,Minni,andAshkenazare paraphrased byKordu,Harmini,andHadayab,i.e.,Corduene,Armenia,and Adiabene; while inEzekielxxvii. 23Harran,Caneh, and Eden are interpreted by theJewish Babylonian Aramaictranslator as "Harwan, Nisibis, and Adiabene."

Population

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Adiabene had a mixed population ofAssyrians,Arabs,Arameans,Greeks,andIranians.[24][25]Adiabene was a major-speakingSyriac languagekingdom. According toPliny,four tribes inhabited the region of Adiabene:Orontes,Alani,AzonesandSilices.[26]The account ofJosephus'Antiquities of the Jewsshows that there was a substantial Jewish population in the kingdom. The difficult mi xing of cultures can be seen in the story of the martyrdom of Mahanuš, a prominent Iranian Zoroastrian who converted to Christianity.[27]In later times Adiabene became anarchbishopric,with the seat of themetropolitanat Arbela.[28]

Based on names of the Adiabenian rulers,Ernst Herzfeldsuggested aSakanorScythianorigin for the royal house of the kingdom;[29][30]however, later progress in Iranian linguistic studies showed that these names were common west middle Iranian names.[31]It has been suggested that the royal house of Adiabene, after fleeing Trajan's invasion, established the laterAmatunidynasty which ruled the area between the lakesUrmiaandVan.[32][33]

Adiabene was a district in Mesopotamia between upper and lower Zab and was a part of theNeo-Assyrian Empireand inhabited by Assyrians even after the fall of Nineveh. It was an integral part ofAsoristan(AchaemenidandSasanianAssyria).[34][35]The region was later made a part of the Roman province of Assyria after the invasion by Trajan in 116.[36]

According toPatricia CroneandMichael Cook,when the heartland of Assyria was back into focus in early Christianity (during the Parthian era and about six centuries after the fall of the Assyrian Empire), "it was with an Assyrian, not a Persian let alone Greek, self-identification: the temple of Ashur was restored, the city was rebuilt, and an Assyrian successor state that returned in the shape of the client kingdom of Adiabene." The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus states that the inhabitants of Adiabene were Assyrians.[37]

History

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Achaemenid Persian Empire

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Under theAchaemenidPersiankings, Adiabene seems for a time to have been a vassal state of thePersian Empire.At times the throne of Adiabene was held by a member of the Achaemenid house;Artaxerxes III(king from 358 to 338 BC), before he came to the throne of Persia, had the title "King of Hadyab".[38]TheTen Thousand,an army ofGreekmercenaries,retreated through Adiabene on their march to theBlack Seaafter theBattle of Cunaxa.

Queen Helena's conversion to Judaism

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According to Jewish tradition, Helena, the Queen of Adiabene converted to Judaism from paganism in the 1st century.[39]QueenHelena of Adiabene(known in Jewish sources asHeleni HaMalka) moved to Jerusalem where she built palaces for herself and her sons, Izates bar Monobaz and Monobaz II at the northern part of the city of David, south of the Temple Mount, and aided Jews in their war with Rome. Queen Helena's sarcophagus was discovered in 1863. A pair of inscriptions on the sarcophagus, "tzaddan malka" and "tzadda malkata," is believed to be a reference to the provisions (tzeda in Hebrew) that Helena supplied to Jerusalem's poor and to the Jewish kingdom in general. According to Josephus, the queen converted to Judaism together with her son Monobaz II, under the influence of two Jews. Another tradition has it that she met a Jewish jewelry merchant in Adiabene by the name of Hananiah (Ananias) or Eliezer, who told her about the people of Israel and persuaded her to join them.[40]All historic traces of Jewish royalty in Adiabene ended around 115 CE, but these stories made huge impact on rabbinic literature and Talmud.[41]Nominally Zoroastrian, the people of Adiabene were tolerant toward Judaism, and permitted the establishment of Jewish communities there, The Jews of Edessa, Nisibis, and Adiabene repaid them by being among the most vigorous opponents of Trajan. In late second century Christianity rapidly spread among Zoroastrians and those formerly professing Judaism. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire under Constantine, the position of Adiabenian Christians was naturally exacerbated, since they were seen as potentially disaffected by the zealously Zoroastrian Sasanians.[42]

Hellenistic period

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The little kingdom may have had a series of native rulers nominally vassal to theMacedonian,Seleucidand laterArmenian(underTigranes the Great) empires.

Parthian Empire

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It later became one of the client kingdoms of the Parthian empire. During the 1st century BCE[dubious–discuss]and the 1st century CE, it gained a certain prominence under a series of kings descended fromMonobaz Iand his sonIzates I.Monobaz I is known to have been allied with kingAbennerigofCharacene,in whose court his sonIzates II bar Monobazlived for a time and whose daughterSymachoIzates married, as well as the rulers of other small kingdoms on the periphery of theParthiansphere of influence.

Roman intermezzo (117–118)

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The chief opponent ofTrajanin Mesopotamia during the year 115 was the last king of independent Adiabene,Meharaspes.He had made common cause withMa'nu(Mannus) ofSingar(Singara). Trajan invaded Adiabene, and made it part of the Roman province ofAssyria;underHadrianin 117.

In the summer of 195Septimius Severuswas again warring in Mesopotamia, and in 196 three divisions of the Roman army fell upon Adiabene. According toDio Cassius,Caracallatook Arbela in the year 216, and searched all the graves there, wishing to ascertain whether theArsacidkings were buried there. Many of the ancient royal tombs were destroyed.

Sasanian rule

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Despite the overthrow of the Parthians by the Sasanians in 224 CE, the feudatory dynasties remained loyal to the Parthians, and resisted Sasanian advance into Adiabene andAtropatene.Due to this, and religious differences, Adiabene was never regarded as an integral part of Iran, even though the Sasanians controlled it for several centuries.

After the Roman Empire gradually madeChristianityits official religion during the fourth century, the inhabitants of Adiabene, who were primarilyAssyrian Christians,sided with Christian Rome rather than theZoroastrianSasanians. The Byzantine Empire sent armies to the region during theByzantine–Sasanian wars,but this did nothing to change the territorial boundaries. Adiabene remained a province of the Sasanians Empire until theMuslim conquest of Persia.[43]

The region was recorded asNod-ArdadkhshiraganorNod-Ardashiraganin Sasanian period.

Bishops

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Between the 5th and the 14th centuriesAdiabenewas a metropolitan province of theAssyrian Church of the East.TheChronicle of Erbil,a purported history of Christianity in Adiabene under the Parthians and Sasanians, lists a number of early bishops of Erbil.[44]The authenticity of theChronicle of Erbilhas been questioned, and scholars remain divided on how much credence to place in its evidence. Some of the bishops in the following list are attested in other sources, but the early bishops are probably legendary.

  1. Pkidha(104–114)
  2. Semsoun (120–123)
  3. Isaac (135–148)
  4. Abraham (148–163)
  5. Noh (163–179)
  6. Habel (183–190)
  7. Abedhmiha (190–225)
  8. Hiran of Adiabene (225–258)
  9. Saloupha (258–273)
  10. Ahadabuhi (273–291)
  11. Sri'a (291–317)
  12. Iohannon (317–346)
  13. Abraham (346–347)
  14. Maran-zkha (347–376)
  15. Soubhaliso (376–407)
  16. Daniel (407–431)
  17. Rhima (431–450)
  18. Abbousta (450–499)
  19. Joseph (499–511)
  20. Huana (511–?)

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^Nisibis was not part of Adiabene before 36, when Artabanus presented the city to Izates as a reward for his loyalty. Strabo[19]implies that Nisibis was not part of Adiabene, while Pliny[20]reports that Nisibis and Alexandria were chief cities of Adiabene. On the remnants of the ten tribes in the Khabur area, see Emil Schiirer,The Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ,II, ii, pp. 223-25; Avraham Ben-Yaakov,Jewish Communities of Kurdistan,[in Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1961), pp. 9-11;Neusner, Jacob (1964). "The Conversion of Adiabene to Judaism: A New Perspective".Journal of Biblical Literature.83(1): 60–66.doi:10.2307/3264908.JSTOR3264908.

References

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  1. ^ab(Frankfurt/Main), Bringmann, Klaus (October 2006)."Monobazus".brillonline.Retrieved11 April2018.{{cite journal}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^Nimmo, Douglas John."Izates II King of Adiabene's Tree".June 8, 2011.geni.Retrieved30 April2014.
  3. ^Kia 2016,p. 54.
  4. ^Marciak 2017,pp. 269–270, 447.
  5. ^abFrye 1984,p. 279.
  6. ^Sellwood 1983,pp. 456–459.
  7. ^Marciak 2017,p. 270.
  8. ^Marciak 2017,p. 269.
  9. ^Marciak 2017,p. 345.
  10. ^Marciak 2017,pp. 347, 422.
  11. ^Marciak & Wójcikowski 2016,pp. 79–101.
  12. ^Marciak 2017,p. 347.
  13. ^Gottheil, Richard."Adiabene".Jewish Encyclopedia.Retrieved8 November2011.
  14. ^Neusner, Jacob (1964). "The Conversion of Adiabene to Judaism: A New Perspective".Journal of Biblical Literature.83(1): 60–66.doi:10.2307/3264908.JSTOR3264908.
  15. ^Marciak 2017,p. 412.
  16. ^ŠKZ
  17. ^Frye 1984,p. 222.
  18. ^"Hist." xviii., vii. 1
  19. ^Geogr. xvi, 1, 1
  20. ^Hist. Nat. vi, 16, 42
  21. ^Yaqut,Geographisches Wörterbuch,ii. 263; Payne-Smith,Thesaurus Syriacus,under "Hadyab"; Hoffmann,Auszüge aus Syrischen Akten,pp. 241, 243.
  22. ^CompareYebamot16bet seq., Yalqut Daniel 1064
  23. ^Genesisx. 3; compare alsoGenesis Rabbaxxxvii.
  24. ^Sweeney, Emmet, 2007, The Ramessides, Medes, and Persians, p. 176
  25. ^Wiesehöfer, Josef (7 March 2016). "Nisibis".Nisibis | Oxford Classical Dictionary.doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.4435.ISBN978-0-19-938113-5.
  26. ^Pliny the Elder, The natural history, book VI, chap. 30
  27. ^Fiey, J. M.(1965).Assyrie chrétienne I.Beirut: Imprimerie catholique.
  28. ^Hoffmann, "Akten," pp. 259et seq.
  29. ^Ernst Herzfeld, 1947, Zoroaster and his world, Volume 1, p. 148, Princeton university press, University of Michigan, 851 pages
  30. ^Ernst Herzfeld, Gerold Walser, 1968, The Persian Empire: Studies in geography and ethnography of the ancient Near East, p. 23, University of Michigan, 392 pages
  31. ^Helmut Humbach, Prods Oktor Skjaervo, 1983, The Sasanian Inscription of Paikuli Pt. 3,1, p. 120, Humbach, Helmut und Prods O. Skjaervo, Reichert, 1983,ISBN3882261560/9783882261561
  32. ^Jacob Neusner, 1969, A History of the Jews in Babylonia, Volume 2, p. 352-353, Brill, 462 pages
  33. ^Jacob Neusner, 1990, Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism in Talmudic Babylonia, Volym 204, p. 103-104, University of Michigan, Scholars Press, 228 pages
  34. ^Whinston, William. Translator. The Works of Josephus. Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers Inc. 1999
  35. ^Gibbon, Edward.The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.David Womersley, ed. Penguin Books, 2000
  36. ^"Adiabene".JewishEncyclopedia.Retrieved2011-09-19.
  37. ^Crone, Patricia; Cook, Michael (21 April 1977).Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World.CUP Archive.ISBN9780521211338.Retrieved11 April2018– via Google Books.
  38. ^Nöldeke,Geschichte der Perser,p. 70.
  39. ^"Helena".jewishvirtuallibrary.org.Retrieved11 April2018.
  40. ^Shapira, Ran (1 October 2010)."A Royal Return".Haaretz.Retrieved11 April2018.
  41. ^The Other Zions: The Lost Histories of Jewish Nations By Eric Maroney P:97
  42. ^electricpulp."ADIABENE – Encyclopaedia Iranica".iranicaonline.org.Retrieved11 April2018.
  43. ^electricpulp."Encyclopædia Iranica - Home".iranica.Archived fromthe originalon 16 April 2019.Retrieved11 April2018.
  44. ^Mingana, A. (1907).The Chronicle of Arbela.Press of the Dominican Fathers at Mosul.Retrieved20 July2023.

Sources

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