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AMORITES

(Heb. ʾĕmōrî)

An ethno-lingustic term used to render Sum. mar-tu and Akk. amurrû. The designation is imprecise, as the word Amorite was used differently in different times and places. Although attested earlier, the word made its first significant appearance during the time of the Akkad kings (2334-2154 b.c.e.), who described Jebel Bishri, in Syria, as the Amorite mountain. This does not mean that this is their homeland or only place of residence; a century later Gudea would describe two such “Amorite mountains,” Jebel Bishri and Jebel Hamrin, NE of Sumer. In the earlier Ebla texts from 3rd-millennium Syria there is no trace of Amorites or of the language. A place by the name mar-tu is mentioned, but that is all, and therefore one must conclude that the Amorites entered the region sometime after 2400. During the time of the Ur III dynasty (2112-2004) in Mesopotamia Amorites appear for the first time in numbers. People in a wide variety of trades and occupations were identified as “Amorites” in administrative texts, but not all of them bore Amorite names. Conversely, others with Amorite names are not described as belonging to any ethnic group. The majority of these people are already integrated into Mesopotamian society. Other sources, including later copies of royal letters of the Ur III kings, describe a different situation: hostile Amorites on the northeastern borders of the empire, who continually threatened the stability of the state. More precisely, they were identified as belonging to the Tidnum clan, and a line of fortifications had to be built against them that spanned the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and ran into the Diyala region. During the reign of the last Ur III kings these Amorites, who staged their raids from the valleys in the eastern mountains, overran much of the northern part of Sumer and were a strong factor in the eventual fall of the empire. The successor states that emerged from the turmoil were governed by Amorite chiefs, who did not hide their origins and often used such titles as “Amorite chieftain” or “king of the Amnanum tribe” as part of their titulature. By the 19th century the dynasties ruling Mesopotamian cities such as Isin, Larsa, Uruk, and Babylon were of Amorite descent.

The situation was somewhat different in Syria and northern Mesopotamia. Only a handful of personal names are known from Ur III sources; most of them are linguistically closer to the old Eblaite language than to Amorite. By the time of Zimri-lim, king of Mari (18th century), all the cities and villages from the Mediterranean coast to the Zagros Mountains, down to the Persian Gulf, were in the hands of Amorite dynasties, bordered by Hurrians to the north and other language groups in Iran. No one is specifically designated by the generic term Amorite, although more specific tribal designations are well attested. In addition to the settled population, we now have textual evidence of an Amorite nomadic population, viewed in ancient sources differently from the settled folk, and designated with a special Amorite term, hanâ. There is abundant evidence of the tribal organization of the Amorites, which encompassed both the settled and transhumant population groups. The tribal structure was fluid, and one cannot transfer information from one period and place to another. In Syria during the 18th century the various clans were subsumed under two larger groups, the Yamina (Benê-Yamina) and the Simʾal (Benê-Simʾal), the “sons of the Left (North)” and “of the Right (South).” The former were found primarily in the ³abur region, while the latter were settled and grazed in the area around Mari.

Amorite, classified as West Semitic, was one of at least three Semitic linguistic stocks that were used during the 2nd millennium, together with varieties of Akkadian and a different set of dialects, possibly related to Akkadian, that were the descendants of 3rd-millennium Eblaite. Unlike the other two, it was never written, and Amorite speakers chose to write exclusively in Akkadian. The language is therefore known from personal names, loanwords in contemporary Akkadian, as well as survivals in later Babylonian literary language. The history of the Amorites and of the Amorite language is difficult to trace after the 16th century. The words mar-tu and amurrû continued to be used in a variety of ways in texts, and a kingdom of Amurru existed in western Syria, but it is unclear what connection, if any, this has with the Amorites of earlier times.

Bibliography. G. Buccellati, “Amorites,” OEANE, 1:107-11; R. M. Whiting, “Amorite Tribes and Nations of Second-Millennium Western Asia,” CANE, 2:1231-42.

Piotr Michalowski

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

AMORITES

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)