From UR to Babylon(A.Zaak) (I was surprised to know that the classy woman in the crowd next to me was King Hammurabi's sister, offering date cakes for the masses of Babylon).
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I lost my framed cuneiform inscriptions that I used to keep as a record of my first life. When I drowned, the clay probably softened and melted after dissolving in the seawater. I needed to use the clay journal again because sometimes my memories become blurring: unsure of my homeland, people, or language.
As I cannot precisely remember events that I passed through, these cuneiform engravings became like mobile antiquities I carry in my travels. To avoid further exposure to water, I kept away from all kinds of voyages.
After God commanded the idol-breaker to migrate, I never felt I needed to withdraw whenever there was a threat or back into a corner when I followed him. Following him pushed me to set myself up and gave me an opportunity for active prayer against my rusty decades.
The man wasn't the first monotheistic, but he was the most honourable with the cleansing mission of worship at the time. He followed a course, and I, among a few others, followed him.
He would travel long distances accompanied by his nephew to spread worshipping the sole God.
They departed UR heading north on one of the traveller's boats made from bundled reeds, hardly propelled by oars and poles because the currents of the Euphrates (and Tigris) Rivers flow from north to south. However, the easy access to rivers made travelling on boats practical and comfortable.
I, with two companions, stayed away from the Euphrates cruising and chose to travel with a caravan of wagons. The Sumerians had light carts with two or four solid spoke-wooden wheels, sometimes covered with skins and pulled by asses. Others used the oldest pot wheel, oxen-pulled carts since 3500 BC. Both types weren't comfortable because of the lack of roads, being trapped in the mud, and rugged, bumpy ground, which made them unappealing for travellers.
I walked half of the way from UR to Uruk. Walking was a standard travel mode in Mesopotamia, and I preferred it over river travel because of my first deadly drowning. I may have developed what they later called Thalassophobia, persistent fear of the water waves and fear of distance from land.
After some days of riding and walking, Uruk's white Temple was visible from a far distance, over the defensive walls built by King Gilgamesh a long time earlier. It was on a ziggurat base that towered above the flat plain of Uruk.
We entered the city and eventually reunited with the righteous idol-breaker and the river travellers. We were still in the southern region of Sumer.
*****
I liked Uruk, the oldest city in the world, founded by King Enmerkar around 4500 BC. It started as settlements for farming sheep and goats and growing wheat, barley, and peas.
Within the city, the most significant monument was the Anu white Temple on the Ziggurat, accessed from the ground via steps. It had a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories built of limestone and bitumen on a rammed earth stage and plastered with lime mortar.
The Ziggurat's purpose was to get the Temple closer to the heavens since Mesopotamians generally believed that these pyramids' temples connected heaven and earth.
It was the first time I saw architectural work in stone and high rocky structures.
Ura-imitti, the statesman and great builder, invited us to his decorated palace, which used clay cones with painted tops pressed into the mud plaster facing the building. He told us that he invented a technical science called clay cone mosaic.
Ura-imitti said he had no obligations or respect for Uruk deities because they are breakable sculptures. He made us happy when he accepted Monotheism and convinced his men to worship God, the sole creator of the world. To me, that was an achievement.
*****
Uruk was the city for science and legends. It was where Gilgamesh sought immortality because of his pain for his friend Enkidu and his grief for himself. He declared that because he feared his death, he would travel to find Utnapishtim, who survived a great flood and was granted everlasting life, allowing him to live in Dilmun in the garden of the Sun.
Being a scribe person, it impressed me that Uruk city was the origin of writing. The oldest written language is Sumerian, and the Uruk people were the first to write on clay tablets with reeds. They created cuneiform writing using a reed stylus to make wedge-shaped indentations in clay tablets. Amazingly, I learned the clay skill in an afternoon when I was young.
I bought my first Uruk-style Cylinder Seal from the marketplace, even though I didn't have personal property to designate apart from the cuneiform chronicle inscription I wanted to stamp, as many people used to do.
While in the market, I heard a soft resonance and pursued the sound of lyre music. There was a man playing memory on the ten strings-bull-shaped instruments. That sorrowfully reminded me of Nana, my first mortal wife, when she gave me the wedding present that was quite the same, except it was with twelve strings. I bought one and stamped her name on it.

Whereas the righteous idol-breaker prepared to continue his journey to Babylon, the inhabitants of Uruk were unaware of the slow, gradual shift in the Euphrates River, which led to the later decline of their glorious city.
My two companions and I followed the righteous man using land travel like last time. We reached our destination, the city of the world at the time of its great King Hammurabi, who reigned in 1792 BC (and ruled for 52 splendid years). He was the one who made it the capital of his Kingdom of Babylonia and conquered Elam and the city-states of Larsa, Eshnunna, and Mari.
In the inspiring city, impressed by the buildings, temples, city walls, and the digging canals, I encountered an unusual incident. There was a gathering watching the King's soldiers breaking the leg of a man. They struck it once with a stone hammer. We heard the crack of the bone amid his cry. Some of the crowd applauded the act, and others showed disapproval. I understood afterwards that the soldiers' punished the man according to Hammurabi's Code.
The code was a legal principle of retribution, a form of retaliatory justice; "An eye for an eye," or if a man broke the bone of one of his equals, the King's soldiers would break his bone in return.
I went to see the Hammurabi code of laws carved onto massive, finger-shaped black stone steles. The first written law included 282 rules, established standards for commercial interactions, and set fines and punishments to meet justice requirements. The whole set was written on twelve stones and displayed publicly for all to see.
*****
While the righteous idol-breaker was calling upon people to worship God, the Babylonians were polytheists; they believed that many deities ruled different parts of the universe.
They thought that the chief patron of Babylon was Marduk. They built Ziggurats and temples for sculptures depicted as a human and his symbol dragon. In addition to Marduk, they worshipped Ea, the deity of wisdom and magic, the sky deity Anu, and Enlil, the idol of earth, storms, agriculture, and the controller of fates.
The righteous man attempted to guide people towards the right path. He never lost confidence in the truth and repeatedly tried to help, even though habits blinded them.
"I come to you with true religion. I have been sent with guidance from our God who alone is worthy of worship, who is the creator of the heavens and the earth, and who regulates our life, unlike the idols which are just stones and wood." he addressed them near Marduk temple.
In another address in the marketplace, he said, "If you are grateful, God will add more favours to you, but if you show ingratitude, truly his punishment will be painful. Let's not take our blessings for granted. Let's thank God and humbly submit to him so that these blessings do not turn into a means of punishing."
" Grateful for what"? Someone asked.
"Have we thanked God for the food we enjoy, the safety of our homes, and our sound senses? God let you enjoy a blessing for as long as he wills. But when he is no longer thanked for it, he may turn it into a punishment".
"Nothing can harm us. Enlil assimilated with Marduk in Babylon,"; another audient commented.
"An idol cannot digest another. You chose to take Marduk as an idol even though it is a piece of rock," the virtuous man said. "Look at how your idol Nisaba's worship declined because you abandoned it," he added.
"We still have Nabu teaching us, for he is the deity of writing," another person from the crowd said.
"Let your idol erase my writing skill if it can," the righteous man said.
"With the blessing of Marduk, our great King Hammurabi made the powerful Ashur one of our vassal states," a high-value woman said.
"It is because of the mighty army of the King, not the blessing of a stony carving," the righteous man replied to her.
*****
I was surprised to know that the classy woman among the crowd was King Hammurabi's sister, offering date cakes for the masses. She was one of the high priestesses who belonged to the Marduk temple. She was sitting on a chair next to me, leasing her orchard to someone.
She asked me, "what is your name?"
El-Ali, I replied. She asked me to witness the contract. I did while she was still paying attention to the righteous man's speech.
I already knew priests and priestesses were equal to the King in power and honour. They were mediators between their deities and the people.
"Marduk protects us; look how he destroyed Tiamat when she sponsored chaos, vengeance, and destruction after being a caring deity, "she said.
"These are mere names bearing no significance which you have coined, you and your forefathers, for which God has revealed no authority for their worship," the righteous man said.
"That is what you think, but I have a deity to feed, cloth, and serve," the classy priestess said and left us.
Besides caring for the idols and spiritual prayer, these priests and priestesses had other duties; treating sick people with herbs, composing music, singing, writing hymns, and other services.
*****
I stayed with the minority who followed the righteous man, whereas the rest of the audients dropped out. He concluded that these idol-worshippers go after nothing but mere conjectures and the fancies of their minds. They will not respond to the proper guidance to worship God unless shaken with real Tiamat chaos.
There was no more time to wait and try to read people's purposes. When the righteous man met with the majority's ignorance, he decided to continue his emigration leaving few monotheist Babylonians.

**(Image from:dinromerohistory.wordpress.com)

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