The Suteans ( Akkadian : Sutī’ū , possibly from Amorite : Štī’u ) were a nomadic Semitic people who lived throughout the Levant , Canaan and Mesopotamia , specifically in the region of Suhum , during the Old Babylonian period. They were famous in Semitic epic poetry for being fierce nomadic warriors, and like the ʿApiru , traditionally worked as mercenaries. Unlike Amorites , the Suteans were not governed by a king . They may have been part of the Ahlamu . Hypotheses regarding their identity variously identify them as Arameans , proto- Arabs or a unique Semitic people.
148-529: One of the earliest instances of Suteans comes from a report of a Sutean attack on Qatna and Tadmor ( Palmyra ) at the time of Shamshi-Adad I 's reign (c. 1808–1776 BC). They frequently attacked Mari 's domains as a reprisal against what they saw as unjust Mariote hegemony over their territories in Suhum . With the death of Shamshi-Adad, the Sutean leader, Hammi-Talu, seems to have rendered services for Mari during
296-575: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as
444-459: A constituent part of the lands of Nuhašše, and identified a king of Qatna named Adad-Nirari with the Nuhaššite king. Astour was followed by Thomas Richter in 2002, who considered Qatna to be a secondary city in the domain of the Nuhaššite king. The tablets of Qatna mention a šakkanakku (military governor) named Lullu, and Richter considered him an official of Nuhašše. The hypothesis of Richter
592-572: A controversial passage in the Story of Sinuhe dating to the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt (early 20th century BC), is most probably to be identified with Qatna. Qedem in the Egyptian text is written "Qdm", and, in Egyptian, Qatna is written as "Qdn". If Schneider's interpretation is correct, then this is the first known written mention of the city. The text also mentions that
740-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By
888-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
1036-411: A final burial stage can be noticed, which he calls the quaternary burial. Tomb VII, which most probably contained remains taken out of the royal hypogeum, seems to have worked as a storage for the remains of individuals whose Kispu cycle came to an end; very few bowls were found in that tomb. The Kispu was important for demonstrating the legitimacy of the king, thus it needed to be public and visible to
1184-516: A highly skilled craft industry. Many Egyptian imports were found in the city, including the "sphinx of Ita", which represents a daughter of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenemhat II , and a vessel with the name of Senusret I inscribed on it, plus around 50 stone vessels in the royal hypogeum. Another vessel lists the name of Queen Ahmose-Nefertari , wife of 18th dynasty Pharaoh Ahmose I . Two units of weight and payment measurement are prominent in Qatna:
1332-604: A large booty. Later, Yahdun-Lim embarked on an expedition to the Mediterranean Sea that was used for ideological purposes, as it was meant to echo Gilgamesh 's deeds; the journey likely had undeclared political motives as well, when seen in the context of the alliance with Qatna. The Mariote–Qaṭanean alliance, which was probably cemented by dynastic marriage, must have provoked Yamhad, which supported rebellions in Mari to preoccupy Yahdun-Lim with his own problems. Despite
1480-548: A large crowd; Pfälzner suggests that hall A in the royal palace was the place for the public Kispu and that the antechamber of the royal hypogeum was dedicated for private Kispu that included only the king and the spirits of his ancestors. Due to its location in the middle of the trade network of the ancient world, the cultural and social landscape of the city was complex, as the inhabitants had to deal with traders and envoys who brought with them different customs from distant regions. The inventories of gifts presented to deities from
1628-487: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic
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#17327657232331776-519: A meeting of his vassals, and Zimri-Lim traveled to Aleppo where he met messengers from Qatna and Hazor, indicating that Amut-piʾel II started recognizing the supremacy of Yarim-Lim, and that Hazor, Qatna's vassal, was now obeying Yamhad. Yarim-Lim's successor Hammurabi I arranged a peace with Qatna that probably did not require the Qaṭanean king to visit Aleppo personally, but indicated Qatna's acceptance of Yamhad's superiority. This apparent yielding seems
1924-516: A mere formality as Qatna continued its aspirations for power, as became clear in its behavior during the Elamite invasion of Mesopotamia in year ten of Zimri-Lim's reign. An Elamite messenger reached Emar and sent three of his servants to Qatna; Hammurabi I of Yamhad learned of this and sent troops to intercept them on their return. The servants were captured and questioned, revealing that Amut-piʾel II told them to tell their monarch that "The country
2072-690: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak
2220-560: A regular supply of food and drink). Hundreds of pilled vessels provide evidence that the living participated and dined with their ancestors, venerating them. Pfälzner argues for a third burial process which he calls the tertiary burial; the eastern chamber of the hypogeum was used as an ossuary where human remains and animal bones left from the Kispu were mixed and pilled. Pfälzner conclude that bones left in that chamber were deposited there because they had become useless in funerary rituals, thus
2368-410: A result of growing Egyptian and Mitannian influences. Numerous small states appeared in the region and detached from Qatna. It is not known when Qatna lost its independence. It became a Mitannian vassal in the 16th century BC, but the archive of Qatna proves that even in its final period during the 14th century BC, Qatna maintained a certain degree of autonomy. Early Egyptian military intrusions to
2516-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from
2664-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",
2812-470: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for
2960-521: A statue discovered in Palistin's capital, but there is not enough information to allow a general conclusion over the borders of Palistin and its extent into Qatna. The settlement was a small one; it included large buildings that were used both as residences and manufacturing facilities. By the 8th century, the site saw a revival in settlement; the city expanded and many houses, public buildings, and storage areas were built. The newly expanded settlement
3108-541: A treaty that divided the Levant between the two powers. Qatna and the states north of it, such as Nuhašše , fell into the sphere of Mitanni. Despite its reduced status, Qatna still controlled the Lebanon Mountains 80 km (50 mi) away in the 14th century BC. During the reign of Adad-Nirari of Nuhašše in the 14th century BC, Qatna may have become part of his kingdom. In 1977, Astour considered Qatna
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#17327657232333256-507: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means
3404-507: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as
3552-523: A while before Sumu-Epuh retook it. In the south, Išḫi-Addu faced a general rebellion; the alliance with Assyria was cemented by the marriage of Išḫi-Addu's daughter to Yasmah-Adad in c. 1782 BC . The following year, after petitions by Qatna, Shamshi-Adad sent an army to help Išḫi-Addu deal with the rebellion. The Assyrian troops avoided engaging Yamhad and did not participate in its war with Qatna, while Išḫi-Addu took up residence in Qadeš to oversee
3700-476: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted
3848-737: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic
3996-509: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about subjects relating to Ancient Egypt is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Qatna Qatna (modern: Arabic : تل المشرفة , Tell al-Mishrifeh ; also Tell Misrife or Tell Mishrifeh) was an ancient city located in Homs Governorate , Syria . Its remains constitute a tell situated about 18 km (11 mi) northeast of Homs near
4144-590: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak
4292-559: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It
4440-452: Is based on the assumption that Aegean artists were employed in local Syrian workshops. Local workshops modeled amber in Syrian style; many pieces were found in the royal hypogeum including 90 beads and a vessel in the shape of a lion head. Ivory was connected to the royal family and the pieces discovered reflect a high level of craftsmanship that was influenced by Egyptian traditions. Jewelry
4588-478: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in
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4736-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon
4884-472: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and
5032-489: Is debated. Aside from an obscure passage in the 20th-century BC Egyptian Story of Sinuhe , where the name Qatna is not clearly mentioned, the earliest occurrence of the name comes from the Middle Bronze Age archive of Mari, where the city is mentioned as "Qatanum", an Akkadianized format ( Qa - ta - nim ). In Alalakh, the name "Qa-ta-na" was used, an Amorite format that was shortened into Qatna during
5180-684: Is debated; a number of scholars accept it, for example Pfälzner, who suggested that the Nuhaššite king may have resided in Qatna's royal palace. Richter dated the rule of the Nuhaššite king to the period preceding the Hittite king Šuppiluliuma I 's first Syrian war, during which Adad-Nirari of Nuhašše opposed the Hittites, was defeated, and, according to Richter, had his kingdom split between different Hittite puppets including Idanda of Qatna. Gernot Wilhelm saw no ground for Richter's assumption concerning
5328-520: Is delivered to you, come up to me! if you come up, you will not be taken by surprise." The Qaṭanean king also sent two messengers to Elam, but they were probably captured in Babylon. The hegemony of Yamhad affected Qatna's economy; the trade route connecting Mesopotamia and Mari to Qatna through Palmyra lost its importance, while the trade routes from the Mediterranean to Mesopotamia came under
5476-550: Is distinctive and shows signs of contact with different surrounding regions. The artifacts of Qatna show high-quality workmanship. The city's religion was complex and based on many cults in which ancestor worship played an important role. Qatna's location in the middle of the Near East trade networks helped it achieve wealth and prosperity; it traded with regions as far away as the Baltic and Afghanistan . The area surrounding Qatna
5624-552: Is entitled "Waiting for the Pharaoh's words", from Biryawaza of Dimasqu -( Damascus ) to pharaoh : " I am indeed, together with my troops and chariots, together with my brothers, my ʿApiru and my Suteans, at the disposition of the archers , wheresoever the king, my lord, shall order (me to go). " This usage is somewhat atypical of the use of ʿApiru and external mercenary forces in the Amarna documents since this letter quotes them and
5772-574: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference
5920-855: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not
6068-446: Is plausible to assume that the distribution process was the result of symbolic rituals that indicated the changing of the deceased's role by incorporating him or her into the group of royal ancestors. Pottery vessels were deposited next to the secondary burial remains; they were fixed on top of food offerings meant as a food supply for the dead, giving evidence for the performance of Kispu (nourishing and caring for one's ancestor through
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6216-572: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As
6364-590: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that
6512-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into
6660-524: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while
6808-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary
6956-574: The Aegean region; they depict typical Minoan motifs such as palm trees and dolphins. Qatna also had a distinctive local craftsmanship; the wall paintings in the royal palace, though including Aegean motifs, depict elements that are not typical either in Syria or the Aegean region, such as turtles and crabs. This hybrid style of Qatna prompted Pfälzner to suggest a "craftsmanship interaction model", which
7104-461: The Beqaa Valley and the cities in the region of Apum, in the modern Damascus Oasis . The kingdom was sometimes threatened by nomads; a letter sent to Yasmah-Adad informs him that 2000 Suteans conducted a raid against Qatna. Relations with Yamhad worsened during Išḫi-Addu's reign and the conflict evolved into border warfare; Qatna occupied the city of Parga in the region of Hamath for
7252-584: The Ib'al federation, perhaps the center of a king or prince. The early city occupied the acropolis, and none of its remains were found in the lower city. Most of the small settlements surrounding Qatna, 1 ha (2.5 acres) to 2 ha (4.9 acres), appeared during this period; this might have been connected with the emergence of a central institution in the city. In the Middle Bronze, the Kingdom of Qatna
7400-522: The Orontes River cross the region of Qatna, enclosing an area 26 km (16 mi) north–south and 19 km (12 mi) east–west. The city lay along the central wadi (Zorat), surrounded by at least twenty five satellite settlements, most of them along the Mydan (marking the eastern border of the region) and Slik (marking the western border of the region) wadis. The wadis are now dry most of
7548-678: The Persian Gulf , and many served as auxiliaries for Elamite king Humban-nikash . During the Assyrian conquest of Babylonia and Bit-Yakin, the Suteans are mentioned as allies of the Aramaeans in an inscription of Sargon II : The Suteans, his allies who took his side and came to his aid, I slaughtered along with the Maršānū like sheep In 613 BCE, Nabopolassar led an expedition against
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#17327657232337696-568: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
7844-472: The Yaminite tribes revolted against Zimri-Lim, who asked Qatna for help; Amut-piʾel II sent his troops to Dūr-Yahdun-Lim (probably modern Deir ez-Zor ) to support Mari, but when he asked for Mariote military support at a later time, Zimri-Lim hesitated as Yarim-Lim I was expressly against such a dispatch. When Qatna tried to establish an alliance with Eshnunna , Mari, which was at war with Eshnunna, arrested
7992-452: The mina and the shekel . The mina had different values from region to region but it seems that in Qatna the preferred value was 470 g, while the preferred value of the shekel is hard to figure. The existence of agricultural facilities on the acropolis during the EB IV early city indicates that a central authority oversaw the production process; perhaps the city was a center of one of
8140-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic
8288-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In
8436-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to
8584-408: The 15th and 14th centuries BC; Richter argued that a special Akkadian–Hurrian hybrid dialect developed in Qatna. Texts from Qatna exhibit many Hurrian elements, proving that Hurrian was prominent among scribes , but its predominance as a spoken language by the general public cannot be determined. Details about the religious life in Qatna are not available due to the rarity of written evidence from
8732-519: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
8880-558: The 6th century BC. In the 19th century AD, the site was populated by villagers who were evacuated into the newly built village of al-Mishrifeh in 1982. The site has been excavated since the 1920s. Qatna was inhabited by different peoples, most importantly the Amorites , who established the kingdom, followed by the Arameans ; Hurrians became part of the society in the 15th century BC and influenced Qatna's written language. The city's art
9028-834: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
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#17327657232339176-436: The Hittites' subjugation of Qatna are debated. King Idanda was a Hittite vassal; a letter sent by the Hittite general Ḫanutti contains a demand that Idanda fortify the city. Freu believed that Idanda abandoned Mitanni and joined the Hittites as a result of Šuppiluliuma's first Syrian foray. The Mitannian king Tushratta retaliated by invading Qatna, and burning the royal palace; an event dated to around 1340 BC. Wilhelm, on
9324-533: The Iron Age III, following the Assyrian destruction, but the settlement shrank considerably, being reduced to a village comprising the central part of the acropolis. It was abandoned in the mid-6th century BC. In the mid-19th century, a modern village ( al-Mishrifeh ) was built within the ancient site. Houses were built on top of the royal palace floors, damaging them to a certain degree, but also protecting
9472-521: The Late Bronze Age. The name is Semitic ; it derives from the root q-ṭ-n , meaning "thin" or "narrow" in a number of Semitic languages such as Akkadian, Syriac , and Ethiopian . "Ga-da-nu" from the Eblaite archive may also derive from that root. The toponym "Qatna" is strictly related to waterways and lakes; this could be a reference to the artificial narrowing that created a lake from
9620-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around
9768-510: The Mitannian era, which witnessed the expansion of Hurrians ; by the fifteenth century BC, Qatna had a sizable Hurrian element. The Arameans were responsible for the re-occupation of the site in the first millennium BC. The Amorites in Qatna spoke their own language , but kings communicated with their counterparts using Akkadian , which was the language of writing in the city. Qatna's Akkadian became heavily influenced by Hurrian in
9916-679: The Qaṭanean king. Towards the end of Thutmose III's reign, and under the influence of Mitanni, the Syrian states changed their loyalty, causing Thutmose's successor Amenhotep II ( r. 1427–1401/1397 BC– ) to march north in his seventh year on the throne, where he fought troops from Qatna near the city. The threat of the Hittites prompted Mitanni's king to sue for peace: Artatama I approached Amenhotep II for an alliance and long negotiations started. The talks lasted until after Amenhotep's death, when his successor Thutmose IV ( r. 1401/1397–1391/1388 BC– ) finally sealed
10064-690: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from
10212-576: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
10360-440: The Sutean warrior featured in 13th century BC Ugaritic texts , "Yatpan". Wolfgang Heimpel hypothesizes Suteans may have spoken a language close to the later Aramaic or even Arabic . According to Diakonoff Suteans and the biblical name Seth ( Hebrew : שֵׁת , Modern : Šēt , Tiberian : Šēṯ "placed, appointed") derive from the same root. This Ancient Near East –related article
10508-434: The Suteans as necessary and beneficial to Biryawaza's efforts. They are listed in documents from the Middle Assyrian Empire (1395-1075 BC) as being extant in the Amorite city of Emar , in what is now northeast Syria . During the Iron Age (c. 1150-950 BC), some Suteans settled in southern Mesopotamia along with Chaldean, Aramean and Arab tribes. They reportedly occupied the region of Yadburu bordering Elam and
10656-536: The abandonment of many cities; however, Qatna seems to be an exception, as it continued to grow. During the Early Bronze Age IV, Qatna reached a size of 25 ha (62 acres); it included a dense residential quarter and facilities for the storage and processing of grains, especially a large multi-roomed granary similar to the one in Tell Beydar . The city may have been one of the urban centers of
10804-491: The abundance of water during the Bronze Age. The land was abundant in pasture lands; when drought struck Mari, Išḫi-Addu allowed its nomads to graze their flocks in Qatna. The written sources do not offer deep insight on the economy of the kingdom; it counted mainly on agriculture during the Middle Bronze Age but, by the Late Bronze Age, it became based on trade with surrounding regions. Securing raw materials scarce near
10952-407: The chamber was their final resting place. Bones in the eastern chamber were stored with no respect for the unity of an individual, indicating that the persons buried were now part of the collective group of ancestors; this did not mean that the individuals were no longer cared for, as the many bowls in the chamber indicate the continuation of food offerings to those ancestors. According to Pfälzner,
11100-544: The city was an important concern for the rulers; basalt was an important building tool and it was probably acquired from the Salamiyah region or Al-Rastan . Calcite was provided from either the Syrian coast or Egypt, amber came from the Baltic region, while regions in modern Afghanistan provided carnelian and lapis-lazul. The main routes passing Qatna were from Babylon to Byblos through Palmyra, from Ugarit to Emar, and from Anatolia to Egypt. Taxes on caravans crossing
11248-447: The city; in general, many cults seems to have existed and mixed in Qatna, most prominently the royal ancestor cult , the cult of gods and the cult of the dead. Belet-Ekallim (Ninegal) was a prominent deity in Qatna; the inventories of gifts presented to the gods found in hall C of the palace show that she was a prominent element in the royal liturgy, where she was called the "lady of the palace" and "Belet Qatna", making her effectively
11396-574: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
11544-421: The cult of Ishtar was prominent in Qatna. The texts of Mari show that the cult of stones, especially the "sikkanum" (i.e., Betyles —sacred stones), was widespread in western Syria, and its practice in Qatna is plausible. Du Mesnil du Buisson named room F in the royal palace "Haut-Lieu" and considered it a shrine of Ašera . Research done after 1999 ruled out du Mesnil du Buisson's hypothesis and concluded that
11692-487: The dedication of the possible Betyle-sanctuary at Qaṭna". Ancestors were worshiped in Qatna; the royal hypogeum provided a large amount of data concerning the cult of ancestor worshiping and the practices associated with it. Two kinds of burials are distinguished; a primary burial intended to transport the dead into the netherworld, and a secondary burial that was intended to transform the deceased into their ultimate form: an ancestor. The royal hypogeum provides hints at
11840-467: The different rituals taking place during a secondary burial; a noticeable character is that skeletons were not complete, and no skulls are found for the majority of secondary burial remains. There is no evidence that skulls decayed as they would have left behind teeth, of which very few were found, indicating that the skulls were removed to be venerated in another location. Bones in the secondary burial were arranged without respect for anatomical order; it
11988-421: The eastern palace, which has an asymmetrical plan and tripartite reception halls. The lower city palace also shows typical second-millennium Syrian features, being elongated and lacking the huge courtyards that were a traditional Mesopotamian feature; instead, the palace had several small courtyards spread within it. Qatna's royal palace was unique in its monumental architecture; it had a distinctive foundation and
12136-467: The edges of the Syrian steppes turned it into a strategic stop for caravans traveling to the Mediterranean Sea from the east. The countryside surrounding the city provided the key for its success in the Early Bronze Age IV; those lands were capable of supporting both agriculture and pastoralism. Despite the modern scarcity of water, geoarchaeological research on the wadis of the region confirm
12284-587: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
12432-438: The end, the plan was not pursued and the tense relations between Qatna and Yamhad eased toward the last years of Yarim-Lim's reign. In a letter written to Zimri-Lim, Yarim-Lim I agreed to establish peace with Qatna if Amut-piʾel II were to come by himself to Aleppo, thus acknowledging the supremacy of Yamhad; no proof can be shown for a meeting taking place between the two kings. Just before his death in 1765 BC, Yarim-Lim called
12580-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around
12728-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From
12876-415: The final capitulation of the kingdom. Akizzi survived the destruction of his city and continued his communication with the pharaoh for some time; in an Amarna letter (EA 55), the king of Qatna described to Akhenaten the actions of Šuppiluliuma and his plundering of Qatna. Hence, the final sack of Qatna occurred after the royal palace was destroyed in 1340 BC, and before the death of Akhenaten, to whom
13024-552: The first known king of Qatna. Also during the reign of Yahdun-Lim, the kingdom of Yamhad in Aleppo and its king Sumu-Epuh enter the historical record through the texts of Mari. Early in their history, Qatna and Yamhad had hostile relations; Amut-piʾel I, in alliance with Yahdun-Lim and Ḫammu-Nabiḫ (probably king of Tuttul), attacked the Yamhadite city of Tuba , which was a personal possession of Aleppo's royal family, and took
13172-486: The former and Egypt , until it was conquered and sacked by the Hittites in the late 14th century BC. Following its destruction, the city was reduced in size before being abandoned by the 13th century BC. It was resettled in the 10th century BC, becoming a center of the kingdoms of Palistin then Hamath until it was destroyed by the Assyrians in 720 BC, which reduced it to a small village that eventually disappeared in
13320-444: The fourth millennium BC, it was repopulated around 2800 BC and continued to grow. By 2000 BC, it became the capital of a regional kingdom that spread its authority over large swaths of the central and southern Levant . The kingdom enjoyed good relations with Mari , but was engaged in constant warfare against Yamhad . By the 15th century BC, Qatna lost its hegemony and came under the authority of Mitanni . It later changed hands between
13468-510: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and
13616-406: The full control of Aleppo, contributing to Qatna's loss of wealth. Following the destruction of Mari by Hammurabi of Babylon around 1761 BC, information about Qatna becomes scarce; in the late 17th century BC, Yamhad invaded and defeated Qatna during the reign of Yarim-Lim III . The political and commercial importance of Qatna declined quickly during the Late Bronze Age (LB I), around 1600 BC, as
13764-491: The geographic sequence and Alexander Ahrens suggested that the inscription might have meant Qatna. Any oaths of loyalty to Egypt taken by Levantine rulers were forgotten after Thutmose I's death. The Egyptians returned under the leadership of Thutmose III ( r. 1479–1425 BC– ), who reached Qatna during his eighth Asiatic campaign, c. 1446 BC . Thutmose III did not rule directly in Qatna but established vassalage ties and attended an archery contest with
13912-482: The god of Qatna's dynasty, but the "gods of the king" probably included other deities as well. Jean-Marie Durand considers Addu to be the god of the city based on a seal dating to Išḫi-Addu's reign describing Addu as such. Another indication of the deities worshiped in Qatna comes from the archive of Mari; the daughter of Išḫi-Add was devoted to the goddess Ishtar and Zimri-Lim once invited Amut-piʾel II to Mari to take part in rituals for that goddess, indicating that
14060-412: The goddess of the city. However, no trace of a temple or shrine has been found in the building. The inventories also mention the "gods of the king"; it is debated whether this referred to deities or to royal ancestors. Jean Bottéro identified the "gods of the king" with the sun god Šamaš , whom Akizzi called the "god of my father" in his letter to Akhenaten. Gregorio del Olmo Lete considered Šamaš
14208-469: The identification of the Nuhaššite monarch with the Qaṭanean king. This identification rests on the theory that Qatna belonged geographically to the region of Nuhašše, but no solid evidence supports this assumption, and the Shattiwaza treaty between the Hittites and Mitannians clearly mentioned Qatna as a different realm from Nuhašše during the first Syrian war when the Nuhaššite king ruled. If Qatna
14356-597: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward
14504-419: The inhabitants of Suhum who rebelled against Babylon . The Sutean language has not been attested in any written texts, but appears to have been Semitic . This is known through individual names and tribal onomastics, most of which appear to be Akkadian and Amorite, while a small percentage appear to be neither but still belonging to a Semitic language. Such onomastics include the name of a tribe, "Almutu", and
14652-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about
14800-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
14948-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA
15096-440: The letter was addressed, in c. 1334 BC . Trevor Bryce suggested that Akizzi might have accepted Hittite overlordship again. In any case, he was the last known king. The city lost its importance following its sacking and never regained its former status. The destruction of the royal palace constituted a break in Qatna's history; all other palaces were abandoned and the political system collapsed. A pottery workshop
15244-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya
15392-468: The messengers on the pretext that Zimri-Lim feared for their safety; in reality, the king of Mari was probably acting on behalf of Yamhad to prevent Qatna from establishing such an alliance. The archive of Mari reports a plan between Zimri-Lim, the king of Carchemish and the king of Eshnunna (who made peace with Mari), to attack Qatna. Such an alliance could not have been realized without the participation of Yamhad, overlord of both Mari and Carchemish; in
15540-782: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve
15688-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on
15836-417: The other hand, believed that Idanda submitted to the Hittites as a result of the first Syrian war. The events leading to the destruction of the royal palace did not cause the destruction of the whole city. The Shattiwaza treaty, which describes the events of the first Syrian war, mentions that Qatna was invaded and destroyed, and its people were deported during the war. However, Idanda's successor, Akizzi ,
15984-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on
16132-552: The palace of Mari. In the realm of Hamath, Qatna was an administrative center probably in control of the kingdom's southern regions. During the Assyrian period, Qatna lost its administrative role and even its urban character until its abandonment. Known kings of Qatna are: Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )
16280-420: The pieces reveal enough features to trace them to Qatna. The volute -shaped plant is one of the most widespread international motifs; many pieces from the royal hypogeum were decorated with the motif, but Qatna had its own typical volute, where the crown is a single long lobe with dotted pendants branching out of the corners of the upper volute. The wall painting in Qatna's royal palace attests to contact with
16428-419: The princes of Ib'al. Another piece of evidence is "Tomb IV", which contained the remains of 40 people, 300 pottery vessels, weapons and ornaments. The tomb probably belonged to the elite or the ruling family of the city. In the kingdom of Qatna, the crown prince had the city of Nazala as his domain. The palace was mainly a political and administrative institution devoid of religious functions, in contrast to
16576-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within
16724-542: The region occurred under Thutmose I ( r. 1506–1493 BC– ). The name Qedem appears in an inscription found on a fragmented gateway from Karnak dated to the reign of Thutmose mentioning a military campaign in the northern Levant. The inscription suggests that the mentioned cities submitted to the king. The geographic sequence given in the inscription is Qedem ("Qdm"), Tunip ("Twnjp") and "Ḏj 3 wny" (maybe Siyannu ); Qatna (Qdn in Egyptian) would fit better in
16872-590: The reign of Zimri-Lim (c. 1775–1761). Then they inhabited the vicinity of Terqa (modern-day Tell Ashara, Syria ). The Suteans were also utilized as couriers by Hammurabi during the Old Babylonian Empire . Following the Fall of Mari, the region was controlled by the Kingdom of Hana . Around 1350 BCE, the Suteans are mentioned in 8 of 382 Amarna letters . Amarna Letter EA195 mentions the Suteans and
17020-410: The room is a bathroom, but further research showed that the bathroom interpretation must also be wrong. Pfälzner, based on its architecture being suitable for containing sacred stones, suggested that room F was the palace shrine for the cult of Betyles. Pfälzner concludes that "an ultimate proof, however, for the function of Room F at Qaṭna cannot be deduced from this parallel. Nor is there a clue as to
17168-456: The royal family; they were apparently hunted by the royals and the king himself, as there is evidence that their bones were displayed in the palace; thus, elephants were part of the royal ideology and hunting an elephant was a symbol of prestige that glorified the strength of the king. An international style in art did not exist in Qatna; instead, a regional hybrid style prevailed where international motifs appear along with regional ones, yet all
17316-460: The royal palace indicate that Qatna used the sexagesimal numeral system. Textiles dyed with royal purple , a symbol of social status, were found in the royal hypogeum. Judging by the royal statues found in the royal hypogeum antechamber, a king of Qatna wore clothes different from those worn in Mesopotamia; his robes would have reached his ankles and the hem on his shawl would have been in
17464-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there
17612-411: The sequence of events. But now the king of Ḫatti has sent them [i.e., the temples] up in flames. The king of Ḫatti has taken the gods and the fighting men of Qatna Translation of letter EA 55 written by king Akizzi of Qatna describing the destruction of his kingdom. Akizzi contacted Egypt and declared himself a servant to the pharaoh. An anti-Hittite coalition, probably organized by Akizzi,
17760-496: The shape of a thick rope, while his beard was short and his headdress consisted of a broad band. For royal primary burials, several steps were followed: constructing the burial container, anointing the body with oil, heating the body, leading the burial procession, laying the sarcophagus floor with textiles, burying the body with another layer of textiles, and finally depositing a layer of plants and herbs. Elephants , which lived in western Syria, were esteemed in Qatna and connected to
17908-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of
18056-414: The springs located southwest of the city, since Qatna grew on the eastern shore of a now dried-up lake. The city is located in the countryside, 18 km (11 mi) north of Homs. It was founded on a limestone plateau, and its extensive remains suggest fertile surroundings with abundant water, which is not the case in modern times. Three northward flowing tributary wadis (Mydan, Zorat and Slik) of
18204-563: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
18352-429: The suppression of the rebellion, which apparently was supported by Yamhad. After four years in the service of Qatna, Shamshi-Adad ordered his troops to return; this might have been connected to a peace treaty between Assyria and Yarim-Lim I , son of Sumu-Epuh. Išḫi-Addu, who in the past had declared that "even if Shamshi-Adad would conclude peace with Sumu-epuh, I will never make peace with Sumu-epuh, as long as I live!",
18500-412: The tension and battles, a full-scale war with Yamhad was avoided. Qatna was at its apex during the reign of Išḫi-Addu. Mari was conquered by Shamshi-Adad I of Assyria, who appointed his son Yasmah-Adad as its king. Išḫi-Addu was allied with Shamshi-Adad and is attested corresponding with Mari for a period of six years between c. 1783 and 1778 BC . At its height, the kingdom extended from
18648-419: The throne room walls were 9 metres (30 ft) wide, which does not occur elsewhere in the architecture of the ancient Near East. The period following the destruction of the royal palace shows a clear break in culture, evidenced by the poor building materials and architectural techniques. Finds in "Tomb IV" indicate that Qatna was engaged in long distance trade since its early history. The city's location on
18796-474: The title of the ruler was Mekim (or Mekum), a royal title known from Ebla. The theory of Schneider is debated: in Sinuhe's story, the protagonist turned back to Qedem after reaching Byblos ; Joachim Friedrich Quack pointed out that the Egyptian verb " ḥs ̯i " used in the text was known to indicate that a certain expedition had reached its final destination and was now returning to Egypt, indicating that Qedem
18944-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to
19092-423: The trade routes allowed the city's royalty to get rich; an insight into Qatna's wealth can be acquired from the dowry of Išḫi-Addu's daughter, who was endowed with 10 talents of silver (288 kg) and 5 talents of textiles (worth 144 kg of silver). White horses were among Qatna's most famous exports, in addition to high-quality wines, woods from the nearby Lebanon mountain, and goods, such as chariots, from
19240-513: The underlying ruins. In 1982, the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums resettled the inhabitants in a new village next to the ancient tell, thus making the site available for modern archaeological research. The kingdom of Qatna had a predominantly Semitic Amorite population; all the personal names from Qatna in the Mari archive were Amorite. The royal family was also Amorite and it stayed as such during
19388-492: The upper valley of the Orontes to Qadeš in the west, while Palmyra was Qatna's easternmost city. It was bordered by Yamhad in the north, while the south was dominated by Hazor , a Qaṭanean vassal. The many kingdoms of Amurru , which controlled the central Levantine coast between Byblos and Ugarit , bordered Qatna from the west and were counted among Išhi-Addu's vassals. Also under the rule of Qatna were various cities in
19536-407: The village of al-Mishrifeh . The city was an important center through most of the second millennium BC and in the first half of the first millennium BC. It contained one of the largest royal palaces of Bronze Age Syria and an intact royal tomb that has provided a great amount of archaeological evidence on the funerary habits of that period. First inhabited for a short period in the second half of
19684-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study
19832-425: The year, but during the rainy season their discharge is disproportional to the size of their valleys, suggesting that the region was much more humid and water was more abundant in the past. The early city, dating to the Early Bronze Age IV (2200–2100 BC), was built in a circular plan; this circular site became the upper city (acropolis) of Qatna's later phases and was surrounded by a lower rectangular city. The site
19980-545: Was a contemporary of Idanda, the successor of the Qaṭanean Adad-Nirari. Early in his reign, the Hittite king Šuppiluliuma I ( r. c. 1350 –1319 BC– ) aimed at conquering Mitanni's lands west of the Euphrates. Šuppiluliuma waged several campaigns to achieve his goal: the first Syrian foray, the second Syrian foray, the first Syrian war and the second Syrian war. The events and chronology of
20128-438: Was a contrast to the earlier 10th/9th century one; the existence of official buildings and the emergence of many satellite settlements surrounding Qatna suggest that the city was a local center in the kingdom of Hamath. The official buildings were violently destroyed, probably at the hands of the Assyrian king Sargon II ( r. 722–705 BC– ), who annexed the region in 720 BC. The site continued to be inhabited during
20276-426: Was built in the place of the southern palace, while the lower city palace was replaced by two adjacent courtyards surrounded by walls. Archaeological data suggest a much reduced settlement with no regional role. Following the 13th century BC, no archaeological evidence exists to prove the city was occupied; the toponym Qatna stopped appearing and the next occupation level dates to the late 10th century BC, suggesting it
20424-433: Was delivered a heavy blow, but Mari's sources are silent on how the king dealt with the situation, and by the time they resumed mentioning Qatna in c. 1772 BC , Išḫi-Addu was dead and succeeded by his son Amut-piʾel II . The political and military balance in the region changed dramatically during the reign of Amut-piʾel II; Shamshi-Adad I had died by about 1775 BC, and his empire disintegrated, while Yasmah-Adad
20572-412: Was established around 2000 BC. At the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age I, the city expanded and covered an area of 110 ha (270 acres). This growth reduced the number of the small settlements as people were drawn into the expanded metropolis. It is probable that the earliest mention of "Qatna" by this name dates to the same period. According to Thomas Schneider , a city named Qedem , mentioned in
20720-407: Was established. Šuppiluliuma tried diplomatic means to solve the conflict but Akizzi rejected them. Hittite military intervention soon followed and Akizzi asked Egypt for troops, but received none. Šuppiluliuma himself came to Qatna, aided by Aziru of Amurru . The Hittite monarch took with him a statue of the sun deity, which had been given to Qatna by an ancestor of Akhenaten. This move symbolized
20868-404: Was fertile, with abundant water, which made the lands suitable for grazing and supported a large population that contributed to the prosperity of the city. Third millennium texts do not mention the name Qatna; the archive of Ebla mentions the toponym "Gudadanum" (or "Ga-da-nu"), which has been identified with Qatna by some scholars, such as Giovanni Pettinato and Michael Astour , but this
21016-594: Was first occupied during the Late Chalcolithic IV period (3300–3000 BC). This early settlement was concentrated on the central part of the upper town; its function is unknown and it ended in the late fourth millennium BC. After a hiatus of several centuries, the site was reoccupied around 2800 BC during the Early Bronze Age III. The last two centuries of the third millennium BC saw widespread disruption of urban settlements in Syria and
21164-445: Was made to fit local tastes even when the origin of the concept was foreign; an example would be the scarabs , traditional Egyptian objects, that were modified in Qatna by engraving them with local motifs and encasing them with gold, which is atypical for Egyptian specimens. Aside from two golden beads that seem imported from Egypt, no jewelry discovered was of foreign origin. Typical western Syrian architectural traditions are seen in
21312-488: Was part of the Nuhaššite kingdom, its submission to the Hittites would not have been mentioned separately in the treaty. It is a fact that Qatna was ruled by Idanda during the first war and the Hittite documents do not mention a change of rulers in Qatna made by Šuppiluliuma, leaving no reason to suspect that Idanda ascended the throne as a result of the war. Jacques Freu likewise rejected Richter's hypothesis. Citing different arguments, he concluded that Adad-Nirari of Nuhašše
21460-444: Was removed from his throne and replaced with Zimri-Lim . Yarim-Lim I gained the upper hand and turned his kingdom into the supreme power in the Levant; Qatna was forced to respect the borders and interests of Yamhad. In Mari, Zimri-Lim, who was Yarim-Lim's protégé, married Amut-piʾel II's sister and Yasmah-Adad's widow Dam-Ḫuraṣi, and this seemed to satisfy the king of Qatna, as his relations with Mari were never hostile. In 1772 BC,
21608-406: Was ruling in the second half of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten 's reign following the first Syrian war, or shortly before the second Syrian war. This discrepancy can be explained if the treaty did not mention the events in a chronological order; many scholars, such as Wilhelm, believe that the author of the document organized the text according to the principle of association, rather than following
21756-584: Was south of Byblos, while Qatna is to the north of Byblos. The next mention of Qatna after the Story of Sinuhe comes from Mari in the 18th century BC, during the reign of Išḫi-Addu of Qatna. However, a tablet found in Tuttul , dating to the early reign of the Mariote king Yahdun-Lim in the late 19th century BC, mentions a king named Amut-piʾel , who is most probably the father of Išḫi-Addu; this would make him
21904-463: Was uninhabited for three centuries. In the late 10th century and early 9th century BC, the site was reoccupied but its name during that time is unknown; three human head sculptures made of basalt were discovered in the site; they probably date to the mid-9th century BC. At this time, the region was probably under the control of Palistin , with Qatna under the rule of Hamath, which was probably part of Palistin. The basalt heads bear similarities to
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