Page 259 - Records of Bahrain (2)(ii)_Neat

Topography and archaeology, 1Q78-1879 585

204 THE ISLANDS OF BAHREIN.

Arabia (along the caravan route, for instance, from Gerrha
to Palmyra), offered far greater facilities for inland transport
to the west, than the hot trackless wastes of the centre of tho
peninsula. To these combined causes, then, it was owing
that Milukh and Magan, Ophir and Gerrha, long maintained
their commercial and maritime ascendency, to be succeeded
in later times by Siraf and Keis, by Ormuz and Bassorah.
Having thus explained generally my view of tho early
condition of the Persian Gulf, I now enter upon particulars,
relying mainly on the inscriptions of Assyria and Babylonia
for a due illustration of tho subject. Tho earliest available
source of information is no doubt the Babylonian mythology.
I have a strong suspicion that the worship of II6a or Oannes,
which was introduced from the Persian Gulf, was originally
distinct from, and perhaps antagonistic to, the worship of the
two other Gods of the Triad, Anu and Bel, tho cult of Anu
being perhaps of native growth, while that of Bel was
borrowed from the Eastern mountaineers, the famous
or Sadu rabu, “ the great mountain,” which is always spoken
of as “ the father of Bel,” being the modern Kibir ICoh, or
outer range of Zagros, a namo which has tho same significa­
tion.1 Whether this distinction can or cannot bo maintained

1 For “ t.ho great mountain,” the father of Jlcl or Ilu} second God of the
Babylonian Triad, sco B.M.I. iv. 18, 14 ; iv. 23, 30; iv. 27, 17; iv. 60, 23, and
Smith’s Discoveries, p. 392, Ins. lino 7. This rcnmrkablo feature of the Baby­
lonian mythology is named in ono passage (iv. 27, 17) Ini-k karris or Heaven’s
hill, and is described as “reaching its head to heaven whilo its foundations
touched the absri,” an indication which, if of any geographical value, will alone
suit Kibir-koh, which stretches out its roots to the great lake at Tib. I was
for some lima under the impressiou that tho Sadu rabu or “great mountain” of
Bel was represented by tho largo mound at NilFer, which was especially Bel’s
city; and where tho Ziggurat or Tower was named Jlit-Im-hharris, “tho
Houso of Heaven’s hill; ” but further research has satisfied mo that “ tho great
mountain ” was a real physical feature, though of leu used in a mythical sonso (as
in B.M.I. iv. 00, 23, whore tho namo is bracketed with Nidukki or Bahrein), and
provisionally, therefore, I suggest Kibir-koh ns its modern representative. Of
course the sadu rabu, “father of Bel,” is ouito distinct from tho Sadu-rabn-
nmtali or Kharris-gul-kurkurra, in which almost all Assyrian^ scholars, except
Smith, have insisted up to tho present timo on seeing a sort of Eastern Olympus,
hut which was in reality nothing moro than tho great national temple at jlssur
(or hitch Shergut), with Necropolis attached, tho mat aralli of Botta s Ins. 153,
1- 12, and ^ of B.M.I. vol. i. p. 32, 32. Bel was sometimes
called “tho great mountain” himself, and was enshrined with tho other, Gods
and Goddesses, in tho famous tcmplo of Sadtt-rabu-iiialdli at Assur. Sco Botta s
Bis* 1»1. 131, 1. 19.