Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

, a balag (or balaĝ) refers both to a Sumerian religious

literary genre A literary genre is a category of literature. Genres may be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or length (especially for fiction). They generally move from more abstract, encompassing classes, which are then further sub-divided ...

and also to a closely associated

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

. In

Mesopotamian religion Mesopotamian religion refers to the religious beliefs and practices of the civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, particularly Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia between circa 6000 BC and 400 AD, after which they largely gave way to Syriac Ch ...

, Balag prayers were sung by a Gala priest as ritual acts were performed around the instrument. Sometimes the instrument itself was regarded as a minor deity, and every balag had a

proper name A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', ''Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...

. Despite the importance of the instrument in the rituals, its identity is disputed, but is generally thought to be either a drum or a string instrument such as a

lyre The lyre () is a stringed musical instrument that is classified by Hornbostel–Sachs as a member of the lute-family of instruments. In organology, a lyre is considered a yoke lute, since it is a lute in which the strings are attached to a ...

. The purpose of the ritual involving this prayer and instrument was to soothe the local deity with pleasings sounds, while lamenting what may happen to the city should the god decide to abandon it. Balags were used from the

Old Babylonian Old Babylonian may refer to: *the period of the First Babylonian dynasty (20th to 16th centuries BC) *the historical stage of the Akkadian language of that time See also *Old Assyrian (disambiguation) Old Assyrian refers to a period of the Ancient ...

period to the Seleucid Empire.

Characteristics

As a literary genre, the balag was written in the

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedg ...

script and sung by the Gala priest in a dialect of Sumerian called ''Emesal'' ( eme-sal). Each balag is composed for a particular god. The precursor to the balag was the

City Lament A City Lament is a poetic elegy for a lost or fallen city. This literary genre, from around 2000 BCE onwards, was particularly prevalent in the Mesopotamian region of the Ancient Near East. The Bible's Book of Lamentations concerning Jerusalem aro ...

, a type of prayer that was recited when temples were destroyed and rebuilt. The balag instrument was known to accompany the city lament. Over time, as city laments became associated with scribal schools, the balag was adapted for many different ritual uses. As the city lament became more distant from ritual activity, the balag emerged as a distinct literary genre. Despite its importance in the rituals, the balag instrument's exact nature is debated. Some scholars regard it as a drum, others a stringed instrument such as a lyre. Others have claimed it is both of these at once, and another theory suggests the word balag started out referring to a lyre, but over the period of several millennia, it came to mean a drum. There were earlier suggestions that it was a bell. Every balag had a proper name. For example, the names of two balags commissioned by

Gudea Gudea (Sumerian: , ''Gu3-de2-a'') was a ruler ('' ensi'') of the state of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia, who ruled circa 2080–2060 BC (short chronology) or 2144-2124 BC (middle chronology). He probably did not come from the city, but had marrie ...

Characteristics

See also

References

Citations

Sources

Further reading