Skip to main content

The religious practices and beliefs of Phoenicia were cognate generally to their neighbours in Canaan, which in turn shared characteristics common throughout the ancient Semitic world.[186][187][188] "Canaanite religion was more of a public institution than of an individual experience." Its rites were primarily for city-state purposes; payment of taxes by citizens was considered in the category of religious sacrifices.[189] Unfortunately, many of the Phoenician sacred writings known to the ancients have been lost.[190][191]

Figure of Ba'al with raised arm, 14th–12th century BC, found at ancient Ugarit (Ras Shamra site), a city at the far north of the Phoenician coast.
Musée du Louvre

Phoenician society was devoted to the state Canaanite religion.[192][193][194] Several of its reported practices have been mentioned by scholars, such as temple prostitution,[195] and child sacrifice.[196] "Tophets", built "to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire", are condemned by Yahweh in the Hebrew bible, particularly in Jeremiah 7:30–32, and in 2nd Kings 23:10 and 17:17). Notwithstanding these and other important differences, cultural religious similarities between the ancient Hebrews and the Phoenicians persisted.[192][197]

Canaanite religious mythology does not appear as elaborate compared with the literature of their Semitic cousins in Mesopotamia. In Canaan the supreme god was called El (𐤀𐤋, "god").[198][199] The son of El was Baal (𐤁𐤏𐤋, "master", "lord"), a powerful dying-and-rising storm god.[200] Other gods were called by royal titles, as in Melqart meaning "king of the city",[201] or Adonis for "lord".[202] (Such epithets may often have been merely local titles for the same deities.) On the other hand, the Phoenicians, notorious for being secretive in business, might use these nondescript words as cover for the secluded name of the god,[203] known only to a select few initiated into the inmost circle, or not even used by them, much as their neighbors and close relatives the ancient Israelites/Judeans sometimes used the honorific Adonai (Heb: "My Lord") in place of the tetragrammaton—a practice which became standard (if not mandatory) in the Second Temple period onward.[204]

The Semitic pantheon was well-populated; which god became primary evidently depended on the exigencies of a particular city-state or tribal locale.[205][206] Due perhaps to the leading role of the city-state of Tyre, its reigning god Melqart was prominent throughout Phoenicia and overseas. Also of great general interest was Astarte (𐤀𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕)—a form of the Babylonian Ishtar—a fertility goddess who also enjoyed regal and matronly aspects. The prominent deity Eshmun of Sidon was a healing god, seemingly cognate with deities such as Adonis (possibly a local variant of the same) and Attis. Associated with the fertility and harvest myth widespread in the region, in this regard Eshmun was linked with Astarte; other like pairings included Ishtar and Tammuz in Babylon, and Isis and Osiris in Egypt.[207]

Religious institutions of great antiquity in Tyre, called marzeh (𐤌𐤓𐤆𐤄, "place of reunion"), did much to foster social bonding and "kin" loyalty.[208] These institutions held banquets for their membership on festival days. Various marzeh societies developed into elite fraternities, becoming very influential in the commercial trade and governance of Tyre. As now understood, each marzeh originated in the congeniality inspired and then nurtured by a series of ritual meals, shared together as trusted "kin", all held in honor of the deified ancestors.[209] Later, at the Punic city-state of Carthage, the "citizen body was divided into groups which met at times for common feasts." Such festival groups may also have composed the voting cohort for selecting members of the city-state's Assembly.[210][211]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

 There were recurrences of the plague in Syria–Palestine about every decade between 688/89 and 744/45. [35] "The Umaiyad [sic] dynasty was literally plagued by this disease ", in the words of Dols. [36] The deaths of the Umayyad caliphs Mu'awiya II ( r . 683–684 ), Marwan I ( r . 684–685 ), Abd al-Malik ( r . 685–705 ), Sulayman ( r . 715–717 ) and the Umayyad governors in Iraq al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba ( r . 661–671 ) and Ziyad ibn Abihi ( r . 685–673 ) may all possibly have been caused by the plague epidemics in Syria and Iraq. [37] [21] The caliphs routinely withdrew from the cities to their desert palaces when the plague emerged during the summer months. [36] Notable among them was Caliph Hisham ( r . 724–743 ), who preferred his palace at Rusafa over Damascus because he viewed the latter to be unhealthy. [38]
Post a Comment
Read more
Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad ( Arabic : المدرسة النظامية ‎), one of the first nezamiyehs , [1] was established in 1065. In July 1091, Nizam al-Mulk appointed the 33-year-old Al-Ghazali as a professor of the school. [2] Offering free education, [3] it has been described as the " largest university of the Medieval world ". [4] Ibn Tumart , founder of the Berber Almohad dynasty , reputedly attended the school and studied under al-Ghazali. [5] Nizam al-Mulk 's son-in-law Mughatil ibn Bakri was also employed by the school. In 1096, when al-Ghazali left the nezamiyeh, it housed 3000 students. [6] In 1116, Muhammad al-Shahrastani taught at the nezamiyeh. [7] In the 1170s, statesman Beha Ud-Din taught at the nezamiyeh, before he moved on to teach in Mosul . 
Post a Comment
Read more
   PRAY LIKE "OLD CAMEL KNEES"! These are troubled, difficult and yes - evil times. These are times where leaders of  society- from the highest to the lowest- call "good evil" and "evil good" (see Isaiah  5 :20).  But you and I are not to be like those whose souls are storing up wrath for the Day of Judgment. We called to  a life of Holiness, Righteousness and right communication with the Father day seals that for us. The half brother of the Lord Jesus Christ - since they had the same earthly mother Mary - is the Apostle James.   He, James, was one of Jesus' five half brothers and sisters who did NOT believe He was the Messiah until after the Resurrection. Jude is the other one. The proof of their salvation are the two New Testament Epistles that they wrote - The Books of James and Jude! The Lord chose James to head up the main church - the one in Jerusalem and James is prominent in the early church right after Peter, Jo...
Post a Comment
Read more