The+City+of+Nineveh

toc Nineveh was an immensely important city in  Biblical times. It existed as a major religious center and fortified city for  many centuries, and it eventually became the capital of the Assyrian Empire  until its collapse in 612 B.C., when the city was finally conquered by the  Babylonians. Nineveh and Assyria were identified together in the Ancient Near  and Middle-East; the fall of one meant the doom of the other. = Background of Assyria =

Geography
The empire of Assyria was located in what is  known today as the “Middle-East”. At its apex it covered most of Iran, Iraq,  Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel, and even extended into Turkey and Egypt.  Most of its major cities were clustered around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers  and their tributaries. Its name came from the first of its major cities, Ashur,  which was located on the southern half of the Tigris river, between the Greater  and Lesser Zab tributaries.

Ethnic Background
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Assyria was composed of a diverse blend of <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> peoples and ethnicities, especially as the empire expanded over the years. Many <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> ethnic groups integrated into Assyria as it slowly expanded and absorbed <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> smaller city-states and territories. The original native population spoke “Assyrian”, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> a very complicated language with over 600 written syllables, and as the <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> population grew and diversified, the simpler Aramaic language became the <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> primary means of communication. Akkadian (Babylonian) became common as well. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Modern day peoples that claim Assyrian heritage are Arabic, and do not have a unified <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> nation of their own. They distinguish themselves in communities throughout the <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Middle-East and parts of Europe and America and most speak a modern dialect of <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Syrian[1].

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Culture
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Assyrian culture had a tiered social <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> structure, starting with the king and descending through royalty, governors and <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> nobles to free men and finally slaves. Slavery was common, though not to the extent <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> of other cultures such as the Romans. After victories in war, Assyrian noblemen <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> and military officers would take enemy survivors as servants or hostages. War <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> was a common feature of life in Assyria; each king began his reign by quelling <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> the multitude of uprisings that appeared at his succession to the throne, and <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> each was forced to continually reconquer unsubmissive vassals and threats to <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> the unity of the empire. Assyrian kings were notorious for their cruelty, not <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> only in battle but afterwards: they would cut off prisoners’ hands, gouge out <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> their eyes, flay men alive, and build pyramids with the heads of defeated enemy <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> soldiers.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Religious Beliefs
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The Assyrians’ religious beliefs consisted of <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> a hierarchical polytheistic system. The most important deity of the Assyrian <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Empire was Ashur/Assur (sometimes compared to Marduk in Babylon), a popular <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Middle-Eastern warrior god who presided over all other deities. The Assyrian <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> kings dedicated their exploits in war to him, and many of their names contained <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> references to him. A city by the same name was built in the 3rd <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> millennium B.C. that housed a great temple dedicated to its namesake[2]. The <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> most famous goddess was Ishtar, the goddess of fertility and war. Nineveh <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> housed a famous temple dedicated to Ishtar that was also built during the 3rd <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> millennium B.C.[3].

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Brief History of the Assyrian Empire
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The heartland of the Assyrian Empire was based around the city of Ashur and <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> originally consisted of scattered communities or village clusters. It gradually <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> became a unified territory between 1400 and 1200 B.C.[4] From <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> roughly 1200 to 930 B.C. Assyria did not expand except during the reign of <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Tiglath-pileser I (1114-1076 B.C.)[5]. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Beginning with the reign of Ashur-Dan II (934-912 B.C.) the Assyrian Empire slowly <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> became the dominant power in the Middle-East and continued to expand until approximately <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> 630 B.C., when it began declining and ultimately fell apart under pressure from <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> the Medes and the rebel Nabopolassar, Assyrian governor of Babylon[6]. =<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Nineveh: Greatest City of the Assyrian Empire =

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Founding of Nineveh
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">According to Genesis 10:11, the mighty warrior Nimrod founded the city of Nineveh just a <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> few generations after the Flood. In the 3rd millennium B.C. the <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> temple to the goddess Ishtar was erected there. The city thrived after that, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> due to its religious importance and its strategic location on the Tigris River. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> A tributary of the river actually flowed through the city, and King Sennacherib <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> (704-681 B.C.) later built dams to control the river flow. This immediate <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> access to water routes encouraged the flow of trade through Nineveh, and the <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> city flourished until its destruction.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Size
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The city of Nineveh was one of the largest cities in Ancient Mesopotamia. At their <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> largest, the city walls formed a circumference of 8 miles and encircled an area <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> of approximately 1,800 acres[7]. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Greater Nineveh (not limited to the city proper) probably included many <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> satellite towns and communities, with a total perimeter of possibly 50 miles[8]. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Thus as the book of Jonah says, it could take a man days to walk across Nineveh <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> (Jonah 3:3).

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Trade
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Nineveh existed as a major center of trade and commerce for many centuries. The fertile <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> surrounding farmland produced abundant crops and the inhabitants raised livestock <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> as well. The region had few other natural resources so many nations shipped <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> their exports to Nineveh; many foreign merchants lived and conducted business <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> there year-round. The city imported metal, timber, precious stones, and luxuries <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> such as ivory. Supplies arrived and departed via the Tigris River or on <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> caravans that travelled through the mountains. The empire gained tax revenue <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> from all trade that came through Nineveh and the inner city became affluent and <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> full of upper-class citizens.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Religion in Nineveh
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">As was mentioned earlier, Nineveh gained prestige originally as a major religious <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> center of the Assyrian heartland. Each of the largest cities in Assyria functioned <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> as the center of worship for a major deity. In Nineveh, the largest temple was <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> dedicated to Ishtar. Nineveh was also closely associated with the water-goddess <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Nina, who was depicted as a fish from the waist down. This may partially <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> explain why the prophet Jonah was well-received in Nineveh, after being <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> swallowed and spit up by a “large fish”(Jonah 2:10, 3:6-8). The peoples of <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Assyria were no required to abandon their native deities, but most accepted the <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Assyrian gods and were involved in cult worship, especially at the heart of the <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> empire in cities like Nineveh.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The work of Sennacherib
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Many Assyrian kings built palaces in Nineveh, and the temple to Ishtar was remodeled <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> and expanded many times over the centuries. However, many of Nineveh’s major <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> enhancements were constructed by King Sennacherib at the beginning of the 7th <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> century B.C. Sennacherib built a massive wall with fortifications 50 feet thick <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> and 160 feet high[9]. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> He also constructed aqueducts from the mountains, protective moats around the <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> city, public gardens, dams to control the Tigris near the city, and a massive <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> new palace on a pedestal above the city. He also realigned the streets of the <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> city to improve travel and transportation. =<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The Fall of Nineveh =

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">God’s promised judgment against Nineveh and Assyria came at the end of the 7th <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Century B.C. Around 625, Assyria came under attacks by Scythians (nomadic <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> tribes of horsemen from the North). At the same time, Nabopolassar (the <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> governor of the province of Babylon) rebelled against Sin-shar-ishkun, king of <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Assyria. During the next several years Babylon slowly eroded Assyria’s grip on <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Mesopotamia, and when The Medes allied with Babylon against Assyria, the latter <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> finally met its end. In 612, after many other cities in the region had been <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> captured and sacked, and Nineveh had been assailed at least twice before by the <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Medes, the Babylonian-Median army laid siege to Nineveh, the capital city of <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Assyria, itself. After a 3-month siege, the attackers gained entrance to the <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> city and sacked it. Accounts vary on how exactly the wall was breached: some <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> say that since it was the rainy season, the Tigris flooded, burst the dams, and <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> swept away a section of the city wall, creating a fatal hole in its defenses [10]. Other <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> accounts record that the besieging army intentionally used the river to erode <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> the wall. Either way, the river breached Nineveh’s defenses. Seizing the <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> opportunity, the victorious Babylonian-Median army overran and completely burned <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> the city. They also allowed the river to entirely cover it, so that Nineveh <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> would be indelibly erased from the earth. The specific fate of King <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Sin-shar-ishkun is not entirely certain: either he perished in the flames of <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> his palace as the enemy torched the city, or Nabopolassar captured and executed <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> him[11]. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Either way, the King of Assyria met his doom. A makeshift Assyrian government <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> hastily formed in the western city of Harran, but it lacked power and was <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> ultimately crushed by Nabopolassar in 608 B.C. The mighty Assyrian Empire was <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> no more, and Babylon emerged as the new world power. =<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Nineveh in the Old Testament =

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Genesis 10:11-12 records the founding of Nineveh: “The first centers of [Nimrod’s] <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in Shinar. From that land he went <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah and Resen…” The most <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> famous references to Nineveh are in the book of Jonah, who was the prophet sent <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> to preach repentance to the Ninevites. The city is also the major subject of <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> God’s wrath in Nahum, where the prophet interchangeably refers to Assyria and <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Nineveh, showing the prominence and important of the city across the <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Middle-East. Nahum 2 paints a graphic and amazingly specific picture of <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Nineveh’s fall. For example, verse 6 says, “The river gates are thrown open and <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> the palace collapses”, referring to the source of Nineveh’s overthrow- the <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> torrent of water that swept from the failed dams on the Tigris. Nineveh is <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> referenced in a similar context in Zephaniah 2:13-15, where the prophet <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> describes the complete and final destruction that the city experienced. Thus <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Nineveh perished in fire and water, never to be inhabited again. In similar <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> fashion, so ended the reign of the mighty nation Nineveh represented; Babylon <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> replaced Assyria as the focus and the prominent power of the Middle-East.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">[1]For more information, see: Aljeloo, Nicholas. "Who <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> are the Assyrians?" Nineveh On Line. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> July 2, 2000. http://www.nineveh.com/WhoAreTheAssyrians.html <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> [2] Seignobos, Charles. The World of Babylon. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Translated by David Macrae. Paris: Leon Amiel, 1975. 15, 22-23. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> [3] DeVries, LaMoine F. Cities of the Biblical World. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1997. 31-32. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> [4] Altaweel, Mark, Jason Ur, Eleanor Barbanes Wilkinson, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> and T. J. Wilkinson. "Landscape and Settlement in the Assyrian <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Empire." Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> January 1, 2005: 23-56. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> [5] Ibid. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">[6] Seignobos, Charles. The World of Babylon. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Translated by David Macrae. Paris: Leon Amiel, 1975. 64-67. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> [7] Armstrong, James. "Nineveh" The Oxford Companion <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> to Archaeology. Brian M. Fagan, ed., Oxford University Press 1996. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> [8] Seignobos, Charles. The World of Babylon. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Translated by David Macrae. Paris: Leon Amiel, 1975. 39. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> [9] Seignobos, Charles. The World of Babylon. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Translated by David Macrae. Paris: Leon Amiel, 1975. 39. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">[10] C.J. Gadd, M.A. The Fall of Nineveh. London: <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Oxford University Press, 1923. 17-19. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> [11] Oates, Joan. The Fall of Assyria (635-609 B.C.). <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Vol. 3, chap. 25 in The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and other States of <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries B.C. London: <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Cambridge University Press, 1991. 179-180.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">media type="custom" key="7864167" <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">media type="custom" key="7864169"