The Stubborn Hero
of the Mesopotamian Epic: Gilgamesh or Jiḥsh al-Jiḥmash?*
©2013 by Saad D. Abulhab
Eventhough the Epic of Gilgamesh was
probably adapted from the Sumerian era before 2100 BCE, we have not discovered
a Sumerian version of it yet. All of the versions we have at hand belong to
2100-50 BCE. To understand the language of the
Akkadians, one must master Classical Arabic and be familiar with the Iraqi
dialects, particularly. Building a new speculative language solely based on
inscriptions is like building a “sand castle”. Professor ʿAlī
al-Jibūrī, head of the Archeology department of the
University of Mosul and a well-known scholar of the Akkadian Language has
recently published a comprehensive Akkadian dictionary (The Akkadian-Arabic
Dictionary, Hayʾat Abū Dhabī lli-Thaqāfah wa-al-Turāth,
2009), which is based fully on the prominent Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD)
of the University of Chicago. He pointed out correctly in his introduction that
Akkadian is the closest historical language to Arabic. He also put an asterisk
next to every word still being used in today’s day-to-day Arabic language,
counting more than 1700 of such words! That is much more than the 200-300 words
presented by some modern day Syriac scholars to prove that the old Syriac
language was the actual language of the Akkadians, while ignoring Arabic
entirely. What Professor al-Jibūrī did not point out thought
—possibly he did not know— is that most of the rest of the words in CAD and his
dictionary are also from Arabic and can easily be verified when consulting the
historical etymological Arabic references, which did not only record the Arabic
word usages of their time, but those abandoned thousands of years before their
time! Among these references are:
لسان
العرب لابن
منظور
مقاييس
اللغة
للقزويني
الصحاح
في اللغة
للجوهري
القاموس
المحيط
للفيروزآبادي
العباب
الزاخر
للصغاني
As for Sumerian, this language is still a highly
speculative anthropological exercise, and will be “under construction” for a
long time to come. The claim of some that Sumerian was “an isolate language” is
highly debatable. Anyway, even if Sumerian was really a separate language, the
fact is, we were only to decipher its sounds and words because we know Akkadian
Arabic. In a way it is a “product” of modern Akkadian studies. In my opinion,
it makes no sense to separate the two or to look primarily in Sumerian for
Akkadian words’ roots.
In my book regarding the pre Islamic
inscriptional evidence of Classical Arabic, before reading a sample text from
the Epic of Gilgamesh, I investigated the meaning of the word/name Gilgamesh, a
highly debatable topic. According to the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh was a
large, powerful man. Some even thought he was half god half human. Enkindo, who
came from the wild, was almost identical to him but smaller in size. Now,
anyone with a fair knowledge of Iraq, the Iraqis, and the strong Iraqi dialects,
would not imagine for a moment his name can be as soft as “Gilgamesh”. The name
Gilgamesh sounds more like a European French name than an Iraqi name! It
certainly does not fit the description of the epic’s hero.
Before proceeding to my analysis, I
must point out based on the notes of professor al-Jibūrī and
my personal experience that the Akkadians had replaced in writing the sounds of
the Arabic letters أ
ع غ ح هـ ض ظ ث ذ, which were not available in the
Sumerian Cuneiform symbols, by the symbols of the vowels Romanized today as ā â ē ī
ū, particularly ē, or by other close-sounding consonant
symbols.
We do know that the earlier
Babylonian tablets (~2000 BCE) used only Giš for the name Gilgamesh while the
later Assyrian tablets (~1000 BCE) used Giš-gím-maš. This would certainly indicate
that Giš was his actual name, while gím-maš is sort of a nick name, an
adjective. After realizing based on the not above note that the Akkadians have
used the sounds “ī”, “ē” or “í” for the Arabic letter Ḥāʾ
one can conclude that the word Giš
is from Arabic root word jiḥsh جِحْشْ, in the
meaning of “the defender” or “the mighty fighter”, or “the mighty”, a very
common male name in Ancient Arabia. Old Arabic references listed many examples
for its usage (see below). Even today, Iraqis call a strong mighty person jaḥashجحش
:
جحش
(لسان
العرب)
الجَحْشُ:
ولدُ الحمار
الوحشيّ
وجَحَشَ
عن القوم:
تَنَحّى،
وجاحَشَ
عن نفسه
وغيرها
جِحاشاً:
دَافَعَ.
كُنْتُ
أُجاحِشُ أَي
أُحامِي
وأُدافعُ.
والجِحاش
أَيضاً:
القتال. ابن
الأَعرابي:
الجَحْشُ
الجهاد، قال:
وتُحَوّلُ
الشينُ سِيناً:
وأَنشد:
يَوْماً
تَرانا في
عِرَاكِ
الجَحْشِ،
نَنْبُو
بأَجْلال
الأُمُورِ
الرُّبْشِ
أَي
الدَّواهِي
العِظام.
وقد
سمَّوا
جَحْشاً
ومُجاحِشاً
وجُحَيشاً.
وبنو
جِحاش: بطنٌ،
منهم الشمّاخ
بن ضِرار. الجوهري:
جِحاشٌ أَبو
حَيٍّ من
غَطَفان، وهو
جحاش بن
ثَعْلَبة بن
ذُبْيان بن
بَغِيض بن
رَيْث بن
غَطَفان. قال:
وهُم قوم
الشماخ بن
ضِرار؛ قال
الشاعر: وجاءت
جِحاشٌ
قَضُّها
بقَضِيضِها،
وجَمعُ
عُوالٍ، ما
أَدَقَّ
وأَلأَما
جحش
(الصّحّاح
في اللغة)
وجاحَشَهُ:
أي دافعه.
والجَحيشُ:
المتنحِّي عن
القوم.
جحش
(مقاييس
اللغة)
وكلمةٌ
أخرى:
جاحَشْتُ عنه
إذا دافَعْتَ
عنه.
قال
الأعشَى:وأمّا
الجَحْوَشُ،
وهو الصبيُّ
قبل أن يشتدّ،
فهذا من باب
الجَحْش،
وإنّما زيد في
بنائه لئلا
يسمَّى
بالجَحْش،
الجَحْشُ
(القاموس
المحيط)
وهو
جُحَيْشُ
وحْدِه،
كزُبيرٍ:
مُسْتَبِدٌّ
بِرَأْيِهِ،
لا يُشاوِرُ
الناسَ، ولا
يُخالِطُهُمْ.
وجَاحَشَهُ:
دافَعَهُ.
وزينبُ
أُمُّ
المؤمنينَ
وأخَواها
عبدُ اللهِ
وعبدٌ بنو
جَحْشِ بنِ
رِئِابٍ،
جحمش
(لسان
العرب)
الجَحْمَش:
الصُّلب
الشديد.
As for the word gím-maš, added in the newer Assyrian tablets, this word is most definitely an adjective, not
part of his name. The Assyrian tablets were far more elaborative and repetitive
in comparison to the early Babylonian ones. The word Giš-gím-maš must be from Arabic words jaḥmash
جحمش, Jamash
جمش, or jamas جمس, all of which have the exact meaning:
“stubborn”, “rough”, “rigid”, “very old”. Northern Arabs, including the
Nabataeans, had routinely used the symbol for the letter Shīn for the
letter Sīn. Notice the use of “í” rather than “i” after the
letter “g” in gím-maš. As
indicated above, many Akkadian words used the equivalent sounds of “ī”,
“ē” or “í” for the Arabic letter Ḥāʾ because the Cuneiform writing system
had no symbol for it. We have numerous word examples attesting that.
جحمش
(لسان
العرب)
الجَحْمَش:
الصُّلب
الشديد.
وامرأَة
جَحْمَش
وجُحْموش:
عَجُوز كبيرة.
جمش
(لسان
العرب)
الجَمْش:
الصَّوتُ.
يقال
لِلَّذي لا
يَقْبَل
نُصْحاً ولا
رُشْداً،
جمس
(لسان
العرب)
وجَمَس
وجَمَدَ
بمعنى واحد. ودَمٌ
جَمِيسٌ:
يابس.
وصخرة
جامسة: يابسة
لازمة
لمكانها
مقشعرّة.
والجُمْسَةُ
القطعة
اليابسة من
التمر.
والجُمْسَةُ
الرُّطَبَة
التي
رَطُبَتْ
كلها وفيها
يُبْسٌ. الأَصمعي:
يقال
للرُّطَبة
والبُسْرَة
إِذا دخلها
كلها
الإِرْطابُ
وهي صُلْبَة
لم تنهضم بَعْدُ
فهي جُمْسَة،
وجمعها
جُمْسٌ.
قال ابن
الأَثير: قاله
الخطابي، قال:
وقال الزمخشري
الجَمْسُ،
بالفتح،
الجامد،
والجامُوسُ:
نوع من البَقر،
دَخيلٌ،
وجمعه
جَوامِيسُ،
فارسي معرّب،
وهو بالعجمية
كَوامِيشُ.
Despite its misleading similarity in sound, the word gím-maš is not
the same as Jamūs جاموس, from the Persian word kamūsh
for bull. Gilgamesh could have been depicted as a bull with human head, but he
was a human; neither parts of his name meant bull. Equating his strength and
stubbornness to that of a bull is only a metaphor.
Therefore,
I believe the combined name Giš-gímmaš means “the stubborn fighter”,
“the steadfast fighter”, or “the stubborn defender” or the “mighty fighter”,
and was pronounced initially as a compound name Jiḥshi-jiḥmish
جِحْشِجِّحْمَش similar to modern Arabic Jiḥsh
al-Jiḥmash جِحْشْ
الجِحْمَش. Although the Arabs used the article al
أل, for “the”, long centuries before Islam, inscriptional evidence
from Yemen and the rest of the Peninsula show they only wrote it when is fully
pronounced. Many times they just used hamzah or the letter Lām
alone in Musnad and Nabataean. This is not surprising since the writing systems
for the Arabic language only matured after Islam, when it was finally capable
of representing spoken Arabic accurately in texts, following the introduction
of soft vowels and grammar rules. Here is how Accordingly, the name was
originally:
Giš: Jish: جحشْ
gím-maš: Jihmash جِحْمَش or jimash جِمَش
Giš-gímmaš: Jiḥši-jiḥmash:
جِحْشِجِّحْمَش or Jiḥši-jimash جِحْشِجِّمَش
Jišši-jiḥmash:
جِشِّجِّحْمَش or Jišši-jimash جِشِّجِّمَش
According to al-Jibūrī,
though, in the later Babylonian (i.e. Assyrian) time period, the
letter Shīn was assimilated into the
letter Lām in many Akkadian
words when one stops on it (i.e. pronounce it with sukūn
vowel). Here is his observation:
Shīn
with stop + Arabic teeth letter -> Lām +
Arabic teeth letter
ištakana -> iššakana
-> iltakana
išdu -> ildu
išṭur -> ilṭur
išši -> ilši
Note that according to Lisan al-ʿArab,
the Arabic letter Jīm, Shīn, and Ḍād
are in one sound category, coming from the front of the mouth:والجيم
والشين
والضاد ثلاثة
في حيز واحد،
وهي من الحروف
الشجرية ،
والشجر مفرج
الفم،. This would make the rule above applicable to it.
Applying
the excellent observation by al-Jibūrī with little help from the Classical
Arabic etymological references, one can easily explain how Jiḥsh-ijiḥmash was
eventually pronounced jilijiḥmash جلّجِحْمَش. Or, how Jiḥsh-ijimash
was eventually pronounced jilijimash جلّجِمَش. It is also possible, jilijiḥmash
itself was eventually pronounced Jilijimash جلجِمَش after further assimilation of the letter Ḥāʾ of Jiḥmash جِحْمَش. Accordingly,
in the later Babylonian (i.e. Assyrian) time period, the combined name with
nickname was transformed along one of two ways, depending on whether the second
word was originally Jihmash جِحْمَش or jimash جِمَش. It is also likely, both of the
letters Ḥāʾ and Shīn of the word Jiḥsh
were assimilated. The two derivation scenarios shown below are based
on the inscriptional facts of the Akkadian Arabic
language and the impartial historical Arabic etymological references, not on
linguistic speculations:
Jiḥshi-jimash -> Jishshi-jimash -> Jilli-jimash -> Jil-jimash
Jiḥshi-jiḥmash -> Jishshi-jiḥmash
-> Jilli-jiḥmash -> Jil-jiḥmash
جحشِ
جِّمَش ->
جِشِّ جِمَش ->
جِشِّجِمَش ->
جِلّجِمَش ->
جِلجِمَش
جحشِ
جِّحْمَش ->
جِشِّ
جِحْمَش ->
جِشِّجِحْمَش
->
جِلّجِحْمَش
-> جِلجِحْمَش
To validate my above readings, I would like to point
out two facts supporting my explanation of the name Gilgamesh. According to prominent
Iraqi scholar of Akkadian and Sumerian, Ṭāhā Bāqir,
some Akkadian texts indicated his name meant ‘the
front fighter’ (Malḥamat Jiljamish: Ūdīsat al-ʿIrāq al-Khālidah,
pg. 19). I think the Akkadian texts quoted by Bāqir are accurate, since Lisān
al-ʿArab had clearly listed the word Jiḥsh in the meaning of “the defender”, or in
other words “the fighter”.
The second fact I would like to point out here is that
some Akkadian tablets listed Gilgamesh’s name as dGish-bil-ga-mesh or dGish-bíl-gi-mesh, both of which can
literally be transliterated as “Jiḥshi-bil-Jiḥmish”,
or “Jiḥsh abi
al-Jiḥmish” جحش
ابي الجِّحْمَش, meaning “Jiḥsh,
the father of stubbornness”, which is a very common Arab and particularly Iraqi
use of nicknames. It certainly indicates the word gím-maš was not part of his name.
To conclude, the evidence that the Arabic language was
the language of the Akkadians is overwhelmingly
clear. Classical Arabic tools are the key tools to use to understand Akkadian literature. Ignoring them would only lead to lost
scholarly opportunities and inaccuracies. As I will demonstrate again and
again, historical Arabic etymological references are the most valuable tools to
map the Akkadian language, because they included
tremendous information preserving the linguistic experience of Arabia for
thousands of years.
* The study included in this
article was first published in 2013 in a book by the author titled:
Inscriptional Evidence of pre
Islamic Classical Arabic: Selected Readings in the Nabataean, Musnad, and Akkadian Inscriptions (ISBN 9780984984336)