Page 268 - Records of Bahrain (2)(ii)_Neat

594 Records oj Bahrain

TIIK ISLANDS OF BAHREIN. 213

to this effect I proceed briefly to recapitulate.1 In all the
geographical lists, as well as in the classification of ships
and products, the names of Nidukki, Milukh, and Mag an aro
associated with a uniformity which it would be impossible to
explain if the one place were in tho Persian Gulf, and the
others in tho Mediterranean. There is indeed no conceivable
reason why in theso lists—some of them very ancient—which
rclato exclusively to Babylonia, Assyria, and their depen­
dencies, remote Egyptian names should be introduced.2 Tho

brought round to tho Persian Gulf by tho original immigrants from tho lied Sea,
and might thus ho justified in searching for an etymology in the dialects of tho
Valley of the Nile. Lenormailt at one timo suggested a direct Semitic derivation
for Milukh by comparing it with tho Hebrew n^D ‘salt,’ and curiously enough
tho town of Gorrha was actually built, of blocks of rock-salt, so that tho name, if
thus derived, would ho most appropriate to tho locality; hut such an explanation
would tako no account of tho contrast between Mayan and Milukh, and I cannot
therefore accent it. Still less can I approvo of Lonormant’H later reading of
Kcslukh (Biblical Casluchim) instead of Milukh (Jouru. Bib. Arch. vol. vi.
p. 402). I would prefer to dorivo Milukh from a root resembling though
probably Egyptian rather than Assyrian. With regard to Ophir and Apirak,
which I have ventured to regard as synonyms of Milukh, thcro is much un-
' certainty. Khupur is no doubt given in JJ.M.I. vol. ii. p. 50, 1. 51, ns an
Accadian term for “Highland”; hut 1 find it difficult to admit, with Saycc, that
this is a mere modified form of Khapir, or Aipir, or Apar (Ezra iv. 9), which
was the vernacular name of the Susians or Elamites; for tho full name of tho
country inhabited by these tribes was Khallapirli, Naksh-i-Rustam Ins. 1. 17
(which appears almost unaltered in the Xa\ram)Tis of Ptolemy adjoining Ktao-fa),
and the other forms of KhalpirCi, Khapirli, Khapir, and Apar, wero mere
degradations of the original title, a still further corruption having survived in
Lapel, which was the namo applied to the city of Ahwaz as late ns the Arab
conquest (Procop. Edit. Diudorf, vol. ii. p. 501). I think it safer then not to
attempt to connect Ophir and Apirak etymologically with the Susian Apir,
hut to ho content with showing that, whatever may have been the meaning of the
names, the two places—that is, 1st,, tho port visited by the fleets of Solomon,
nud which, in Genesis x. 29, is bracketed with Havileh at tho mouth of tho
Euphrates; and 2nd, tho country taken by Naram-Siu (together with Magan)
after the conquest of Nidukki—must have been on tho Arabian coast opposite to
Bahrein, and most possibly at or near the spot afterwards occupied by Gorrha.
And I may conclude my remarks on tho subject by suggesting that the namo of
Jlupir, which is given to the king of Nidukki or 'Tilmun in the Annals of tho
second Sargon, may possibly reproduce the original titlo of tho great emporium
of commorco in tho immediate neighbourhood, which was usually expressed in
Hobrow by
1 For notices of Nidukki see B.M.I. vol. ii. p. 4G, lines 5, 48; vol. ii. p. 51, 1.
17; vol. ii. p. 53, 1. 11 ; vol. iii. p. GO, 1. 18 ; vol. iii. p. 4,1. 70, restored from
duplicate; yoI. iv. p. GO, passim; vol. iv. p. 2;3,1.18. In an unpublished fragmont
containing an interesting geographical list, two names aro found as correspondents
to Nidukki, Tilmun and Aznu, ^} immediately followed by
Mayan and Milukh. Aznu is otherwise unknown, hut may represent tho lesser
island of Bahrein.
2 Sco especially B.M.I. vol. iv. p. 38, lines 13, 14. In tho very curious list of
countries and Ihoir descriptive titles, B.M.I. vol. ii. p. 51, it is Yory probublo that