Queen Adad-Guppi was born in 649 BC in Babylonia, the daughter of King Ashurbanipal II and Ashursharrat l of Assyria.
She was the mother of King Nabonidus (r. 556-539 BC) and at least two daughters with Nabu-balatsu-iqbi.
King Nabonidus, father of Biblical King Belshazzar, ascended to the throne after overthrowing his predecessor Labashi-Marduk. For long periods, he would entrust rule to his son Belshazzar, a capable soldier but a poor politician who lost the support of the priesthood and the military class.
Around 552 BC, King Nabonidus made the city of Tema his residence and spent ten of the sixteen years of his reign there during the Achaemenid period (550-330 BC), the dynasty ruling in Persia from Cyrus I to Darius II.
Queen Adad-Guppi would have been approximately 96 years old at his departure to Tema.
Tema, is named ninth of the twelve sons of Ishmael and an Ishmaelite tribe. Located northeast of the Hijaz district, on the trade route between Tathrib (Medina) and Duma, it was a large oasis with a long history of settlement, located in northwestern Saudi Arabia at the point where the trade route between Medina and Dumah (Sakakah) begins to cross the Nafud desert.
In the seventh century BC, it was ruled then by a local Arab dynasty known as the Kedarites which produced two 8th century BC queens, Šamši and Zabibe.
The Assyrian recorded recall how a collation headed by Šamši, queen of the Arabs was defeated.
The Tema Stele, possibly dated in the 6 century BC, have historical significance as they represent an important part of the history of Tema and of the history of the Arabian Peninsula.
Dumah was the sixth of the twelve sons of Ishmael and presumed founder of the Assyrian Adummatu people from Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions c. 7th and 6th centuries BC.
King Esarhaddon related how, in his attempt to subdue the Arabs, his father, Sennacherib struck against their capital, Adummatu, which he called the stronghold of the Arabs. Sennacherib captured their king, Hazael, who is called, King of the Arabs. Hazael is also referred to in one inscription of Ashurbanipal as King of the Kedarites.
Kedar is named second of Ishmael’s sons and patriarch of the Kedarites. The prophet Mohammed traces his descent from Abraham and Ishmael through Kedar.
Biblical information on their locality and history is extremely scant, but many details about these are known from other sources, in particular from inscriptions of Assyrian kings. The earliest document which refers to the Kedarites is the inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III found in Iran.
In Isaiah 42:11 and 60:7 Kedar is used to indicate the future wide extension of God’s kingdom. In Ezekiel 27:21 trade with the princes of Kedar is listed as one of the marks of the greatness of Tyre. The tents of Kedar are used along with the curtains of Solomon as a figure to depict the dark beauty of Solomon’s beloved one (Song of Solomon 1:5). All these comparisons show how well known distant Kedar must have been to the Israelites in the years between 1000 and 500 BC.
Because she was buried with the honors of a queen, some historians have suggested that she acted as a regent for Nabonidus when he abandoned Babylon in 552 BC. She would have been approximately 96 years old at his departure to Tema.
Nabonidus' father, Nabu-balatsu-iqbi a “wise prince and governor at Harran,” of whom little is known, may also have been either Assyrian or Babylonian. Some historians have speculated that either Queen Adad-guppi or King Nabu-balatsu-iqbi were members of the Sargonid Dynasty of Assyria until its fall in 609 BC.
Her son, King Nabonidus, was the last king of Chaldaean Babylonia.
The Sargonid Dynasty saw the borders of the empire grow to encompass the entire Ancient Near East, the East Mediterranean, Asia Minor, the Caucasus and parts of the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa, and they witnessed the subjugation of rivals such as Babylonia, Elam, Persia, Urartu, Lydia, the Medes, Phrygians, Cimmerians, Israel, Judah, Phoenicia, Chaldea, Canaan, the Cushite Empire, the Arabs, and Egypt, as Assyria's rivals were either completely conquered or made vassals
---
Like this post? Stop by and read “Artemisia I of Caria: Xerxes' Ally in the Naval Battle of Salamis.” Queen Artemisia I is most famous for her role in the naval Battle of Salamis, a naval battle fought in 480 BC between an alliance of Greek city-states under Themistocles, and the Achaemenid Empire under King Xerxes, in which she fought for the Persians.
I'd love to have you as a customer, head to the online store and shop for handcrafted beaded jewelry by beYOUteous.
Leave a comment