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{{History of Assyrian people}}
] and Adiabene in the first centuries CE. <br>The blue line shows the expedition and then retreat of the ] through Corduene in ].]] ] and Adiabene in the first centuries CE. <br>The blue line shows the expedition and then retreat of the ] through Corduene in ].]]
'''Adiabene''' (from the {{lang-el|Αδιαβηνη}}, ''Adiabene'', itself derived from ] {{lang|syr|ܚܕܝܐܒ}}, ''{{unicode|Ḥaḏy’aḇ}}'' or ''{{unicode|Ḥḏay’aḇ}}'')<ref>other variants include ] ''Nôd-Šîragân'' and ] ''Ardaxširagân''. '']''</ref> was an ancient ] in ] with its capital at ] (modern-day Arbil, ]). Its rulers converted to ] in the ].<ref>http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/kurds.html</ref> '''Adiabene''' (from the {{lang-el|Αδιαβηνη}}, ''Adiabene'', itself derived from ] {{lang|syr|ܚܕܝܐܒ}}, ''{{unicode|Ḥaḏy’aḇ}}'' or ''{{unicode|Ḥḏay’aḇ}}'')<ref>other variants include ] ''Nôd-Šîragân'' and ] ''Ardaxširagân''. '']''</ref> was an ancient ] in ] with its capital at ] (modern-day Arbil, ]). Its rulers converted to ] in the ].<ref>http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/kurds.html</ref>

Revision as of 14:10, 30 July 2007

Map showing kingdoms of Corduene and Adiabene in the first centuries CE.
The blue line shows the expedition and then retreat of the Ten Thousand through Corduene in 401 BC.

Adiabene (from the Template:Lang-el, Adiabene, itself derived from Aramaic ܚܕܝܐܒ, Ḥaḏy’aḇ or Ḥḏay’aḇ) was an ancient kingdom in Mesopotamia with its capital at Arbela (modern-day Arbil, Iraq). Its rulers converted to Judaism in the 1st Century. The Queen of Adiabene at the time of the conversion to Judaism, Queen Helena of Adiabene, moved for a time to Jerusalem. There she built palaces for herself and her sons, Izates bar Monobaz and Monobaz II at the northern part of the city of David, south of the Temple Mount. According to the Talmud, both Heleni and Monbaz donated large funds for the Temple of Jerusalem.

Location

Adiabene occupied a district in Mesopotamia between the Upper Zab River (Lycus) and the Lower Zab (Caprus), though Ammianus speaks of Nineveh, Ecbatana, and Gaugamela as also belonging to it. Although nominally a dependency of the Parthian Empire, for some centuries, beginning with the first century BC, it was semi-independent. In the Talmudic writings the name occurs as חדייב ,חדייף and הדייב, which is parallel to its Syriac form "Hadyab" or "Hedayab." Its chief city was Arbela (Arba-ilu), where Mar Uqba had a school, or the neighboring Hazzah, by which name the Arabs also called Arbela.

In Kiddushin 72a the Biblical Habor is identified with Adiabene (compare Yebamot 16b et seq., Yalqut Daniel 1064), but in Yerushalmi Megillah i. 71b with Riphath. In the Targum to Jeremiah li. 27, Ararat, Mini, and Ashkenaz are paraphrased by Kordu, Harmini, and Hadayab, i.e., Corduene, Armenia, and Adiabene; while in Ezekiel xxvii. 23 Harran, Caneh, and Eden are interpreted by the Aramaic translator as "Harwan, Nisibis, and Adiabene."

History

Under the Achamenid Persian kings Adiabene seems for a time to have been a vassal state of the Persian Empire. At times the throne of Adiabene was held by a member of the Achamenid house; Ardashir III (361-338 BC), before he came to the throne of Persia, had the title "King of Hadyab". The Ten Thousand, an army of Greek mercenaries, retreated through Adiabene on their march to the Black Sea after the Battle of Cunaxa. The little kingdom may have had a series of native rulers nominally vassal to the Macedonian and later Seleucid empires. It later became one of the client kingdoms of the Parthian empire. During the first century BC and the first century AD, it gained a certain prominence under a series of kings descended from Izates I and his son Monobaz I. Monobaz I is known ot have been allied with king Abennerig of Characene, in whose court his son Izates bar Monobaz lived for a time and whose daughter Symacho Izates married, as well as the rulers of other small kingdoms on the periphery of the Parthian sphere of influence.

Izates, the son of Monobaz I and his wife Helena of Adiabene, became a Jew. His conversion to Judaism took place before he ascended the throne and while he lived in Charax Spasinu. At about the same time his mother, Helena, was also converted. The times were troublous ones; for Parthian kings and counter-kings followed each other in quick succession. Artabanus II of Parthia was king of Atropatene. He had succeeded Vonones I, who, having been educated entirely at Rome, was unsympathetic toward the Parthians. Artabanus soon had to flee to Hyrcania to escape from the rival king, Tiridates III. He returned, however, in 36, and, being afraid of a conspiracy, took refuge at the court of Izates, who was powerful enough to induce the Parthians to reinstate Artabanus. For this service certain kingly honors were granted Izates, and the city of Nisibis was added to his dominions. However, around 40, Gotarzes II, an adopted son of Artabanus, was raised to the throne by the nobles, in preference to Vardanes I, his half-brother. In 49 Meherdates Mithridates, a son of Vonones, was sent from Rome by Claudius to take possession of the throne of Parthia. Izates played a double game, though he secretly sided with Gotarzes. A few years later, Vologeses I set out with the intention of invading Adiabene and of punishing Izates; but a force of Dacians and Scythians had just entered Parthia, and Vologeses had to return home.

Izates was followed on the throne by his elder brother, Monobaz II. It is related that in the year 61 he sent a contingent of soldiers to Armenia to assist the Parthian candidate, Tiridates, against Tigranes, who had made an incursion into the territory of Adiabene. The troops of Monobaz, however, were beaten back at Tigranocerta. Monobaz was present when peace was concluded at Rhandea between Parthia and Rome in the year 63. He later sent assistance to the Jews in their rebellion against Rome in the late 60's and early 70's AD.

The "Tomb of the Kings", built outside the walls of Jerusalem by Queen Helena in the mid first century AD. From a lithograph by William Henry Bartlett.

The chief opponent of Trajan in Mesopotamia during the year 115 was the last king of independent Adiabene, Meharaspes. He had made common cause with Ma'nu (Mannus) of Singar (Singara). Trajan invaded Adiabene, and made it part of the Roman province of Assyria; under Hadrian in 117, however, Rome gave up possession of Assyria, Mesopotamia, and Armenia. In the summer of 195 Septimus Severus was again warring in Mesopotamia, and in 196 three divisions of the Roman army fell upon Adiabene. According to Dio Cassius, Caracalla took Arbela in the year 216, and searched all the graves there, wishing to ascertain whether the Arsacid kings were buried there. Many of the ancient royal tombs were destroyed.

In later times Adiabene became an archbishopric, with the seat of the metropolitan at Arbela.. By the third century, the majority of the inhabitants of Adiabene were Christians, and the majority of these were of Iranian and not of semitic or Aramean birth and extraction. After islamization of the area by invading Muslim Arabs, the Hadhabanis are recorded as inhabitants of the area, whom Arab geographers named Kurds. (al-akrad, الأکراد). For subsequent history, see Arbil; Assyrian people; Kurdistan. According to Vladimir Minorsky, Hadhbani Kurds have been named after Adiabene .

As a province of Sassanid Persia

Despite the overthrow of the Parthians by the Sassanids, the feudatory dynasties remained royal to to the Parthians, and resisted Sassanid advance into Adiabene and Atropatene. Due to this, and religious differences, Adiabene was never regarded as an integral part of Iran, even though the Sassanids controlled it for several centuries. After the Roman empire declared Christianity its official religion, the inhabitants of Adiabene, who were Christians, sided with Christian Rome rather than the Zoroastrian Sassanids. The Byzantine empire sent many armies to the region during the Byzantine-Sassanid Wars, but this did nothing to change the territorial boundaries. Adiabene remained a provinces of the Sassanid Empire until the Islamic conquests of Persia. Utba ibn Farqad had taken all the forts of the Kurds in Adiabene when he conquered the region in 641 . The Upper class of Adiabenians were called Magians, (who unlike the ordinary Kurds) only inhabited cities and towns .

Conversion to Judaism

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It is impossible to tell how far the inhabitants of Adiabene had followed the example of their king and become Judaized. Josephus refers to the "Adiabenoi" as Jews. Both Queen Helena and Izates showered presents upon Jerusalem, and the queen took the king's sons there to be educated. The remains of Helena and Izates were sent by Monobaz II to Jerusalem for Jewish burial. There seems to be no doubt that there were a number of Adiabenite Jews in Jerusalem, who probably belonged to the princely household. Josephus knew several, and in Wars of the Jews ii. 19, § 2 mentions a Kenedeus and a Monobaz as aiding bravely in the defense of Jerusalem against the Romans, and "the sons and brethren of Izates the king ... were bound ... and led to Rome, in order to make them hostages for their country's fidelity to the Romans". A certain Jacob Hadyaba is mentioned in Baba Batra 26b; and also Zuga of Hadyab, or Zawa. The Talmud mentions a certain kind of scorpion in Adiabene that might be killed on the Sabbath day because of its venomous character. It also states that the followers of Monobaz were accustomed to fix the mezuzah upon a staff, and to set the staff upright in any inn in which they happened to pass the night.

Traditions

All manner of contradictory and unreliable traditions have gathered around these statements. The Armenian historian Moses of Chorene, who wrote in the fourth or fifth century, transferred the story of Izates' intervention in Parthia to Abgar, one of the kings of Edessa, making Helena the wife of Abgar, Ukkama probably because Abgar VII. was the son of Izates. In later Jewish tradition Monobaz is made out to be a son of Agrippa II. The same is to be found in Zacuto's Yuhasin, According to Zemah Gaon, he was a son of Herod.

Rulers of Adiabene

  1. Izates I (c. 15 AD)
  2. Bazeus Monobazus I (20?–30?)
  3. Heleni (c. 30–58)
  4. Izates II bar Monobazus (c. 34–58)
  5. Vologases (a Parthian rebel opposing Izates II) (c. 50)
  6. Monobazus II bar Monobazus (58 – middle of the 70s)
  7. Meharaspes (?–116)
  8. To the Roman Empire (116–117)
  9. Narsai (c. 170–200)
  10. unknown (200 – c. 310)
  11. Aphraates (c. 310)
  12. To the Sassanid Empire (226–649)

Bishops of Adiabene

  1. Pkidha (104–114)
  2. Semsoun (120–123)
  3. Isaac (135–148)
  4. Abraham (148–163)
  5. Noh (163–179)
  6. Habel (183–190)
  7. Abedhmiha (190–225)
  8. Hiran of Adiabene (225–258)
  9. Saloupha (258–273)
  10. Ahadabuhi (273–291)
  11. Sri'a (291–317)
  12. Iohannon (317–346)
  13. Abraham (346–347)
  14. Maran-zkha (347–376)
  15. Soubhaliso (376–407)
  16. Daniel (407–431)
  17. Rhima (431–450)
  18. Abbousta (450–499)
  19. Joseph (499–511)
  20. Huana (511–?)

Notes

  1. other variants include Parthian Nôd-Šîragân and Middle Persian Ardaxširagân. "Assyria". Livius.org
  2. http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/kurds.html
  3. "Hist." xviii., vii. 1
  4. Yaqut, Geographisches Wörterbuch, ii. 263; Payne-Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus, under "Hadyab"; Hoffmann, Auszüge aus Syrischen Akten, pp. 241, 243.
  5. Genesis x. 3; compare also Genesis Rabba xxxvii.
  6. Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser, p. 70.
  7. Hoffmann, "Akten," pp. 259 et seq.
  8. http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=1553&C=1367
  9. V. Minrosky, Roman and Byzantine Campaigns in Atropatene, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1944, p.244.
  10. Encyclopaedia Iranica , article on Adiabene
  11. Iraq After the Muslim Conquest, page: 266, Michael G. Morony, Published 2005, Gorgias Press LLC, 732 pages, ISBN 1593333153
  12. Iraq After the Muslim Conquest, page: 280, Michael G. Morony, Published 2005, Gorgias Press LLC, 732 pages, ISBN 1593333153
  13. Wars of the Jews preface, § 2
  14. Wars of the Jews vi. 6, § 4.
  15. Heilprin, Seder ha-Dorot, ed. 1882, ii. 115.
  16. b.Shabbat 121b; in Yer. Shab. xiv. 14b, the reading is incorrect.
  17. Cf., e.g., Yer. Megillah iv.; B.Menahot 32b; Tosefta Megillah iv. 30; Yer. Meg. iv. 75c.
  18. Von Gutschmid, "Kleine Schriften," iii. 45.
  19. Duval, "Histoire d'Edesse," p. 51.
  20. Abraham ibn Daud, Sefer ha-Qabbalah in Neubauer, Med. Jew. Chron. i. 51; cf also Seder 'Olam, ib. 170; and Seder 'Olam Zutta, in one recension, ib. 71, which in another recension (ib. 75), however, is said to be impossible.
  21. ed. Filipowski, 93.
  22. Yuhasin, 93, 2.

References

  • idem, Wars of the Jews. ii. 19, § 2; iv. 9, § 11; v. 2, § 2; 3, § 3; 4, § 2; 6, § 1, noting that Josephus probably got his information from Adiabene Jews in Jerusalem (Von Gutschmid, Kleine Schriften, iii. 4).
  • Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis, v. 66, vi. 44 et seq.
  • Ammianus, History, xviii. 7, § 1; xxiii. 6, § 21
  • Strabo, Geography, xvi. 745 et seq.
  • Brüll, Adiabene, in Jahrbuch i. 58 et seq.
  • Grätz, Heinrich, in Monatsschrift, 1877, xxvi. 241 et seq., 289 et seq.
  • Von Gutschmid, Gesch. Irans, pp. 140 et seq.
  • Schürer, Gesch. ii. 562.

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