Report on the Third Chapter

By hajiba aberran
Translation and cross-cultural communication master program

This report is going to discuss the Fifth chapter of the book entitled: “‫في الثقافة الشعبية العربية‬
‫ ”؛ بنى السرد الحكائي في األدب الشعبي‬by Atif Attiah and the chapter mentioned is named “‫ة‬44‫الثقاف‬
‫“ " الشعبية بين المادي و الالمادي‬the epic in the popular Arabic literature " is the suggested
translation for the title of the chapter. The most important idea that has been discussed by Atif
Attiah is the concept of myth and epic, and for him, the epic is important and originated from
the Arab world not the west back to old stages: for Atif, the epic takes place in any time and
place and it represents the though of the mankind during multiple phases of history. All in all
the chapter is divided into four subtitles where the author discusses intangible culture in
detail:

It’s not ‘Western’ (if you are thinking of Europe and the Americas), but ‘Arabic’ is
probably not the best word to use since the epic was written in the Old Babylonian form of
Akkadian during the era of the Amorite kingdoms in Mesopotamia around a thousand years
before the word “arab’ is even attested and over two thousand years before the development
of Classical Arabic. However, if you are simply asking whether the Gilgamesh epic originated
in the middle east then the answer is “yes”.

Gilgamesh was the Sumerian king of the large city-state of Uruk in southern Mesopotamia
(modern Iraq) around 2700 BCE. The first extant legends about this character come from
Sumerian poems composed at the end of the third millennium BCE. We can’t be absolutely
certain that he was a historical character as we don’t have any hard archaeological evidence so
far. However, it has been confirmed that one of the rival kings mentioned in the poems was a
real person. This increases the likelihood that the same applies to Gilgamesh, despite the fact
that the stories about him are largely myth and legend.

We have fragments of cuneiform clay tablets dating to around 1800 BCE that testify to the
existence of an early version of the Gilgamesh epic in the Old Babylonian period. The most
complete version of the epic was found by archaeologists in the ruins of Sennacherib’s library
at Ninevah - the capital of the Assyrian Empire that Sennacherib ruled from 705 to 681 BCE -
although the text is still only around two-thirds complete. This version reflects a major
redaction of the epic that probably occurred in the last few centuries of the second millennium
BCE, based on fragments from this period and the fact that other major pieces of
Mesopotamian literature are known to have been similarly edited around this time. The scribe
whose name is associated with this Standard Version of the epic was called Sîn-lēqi-unninni
(“Sin accepts my prayer” - Sin was the moon god of ancient Mesopotamia).

Atif spoke in a section about “Ishtar”, (Akkadian), Sumerian Inanna, in Mesopotamian

religion, goddess of war and sexual love. Ishtar is the Akkadian counterpart of the West
Semitic goddess Astarte. Inanna, an important goddess in the Sumerian pantheon, came to be
identified with Ishtar, but it is uncertain whether Inanna is also of Semitic origin or whether,
as is more likely, her similarity to Ishtar caused the two to be identified. In the figure of
Inanna, several traditions seem to have been combined: she is sometimes the daughter of the
sky god An, sometimes his wife; in other myths, she is the daughter of Nanna, god of the
moon, or of the wind god, Enlil. In her earliest manifestations, she was associated with the
storehouse and thus personified as the goddess of dates, wool, meat, and grain; the storehouse
gates were her emblem. She was also the goddess of rain and thunderstorms—leading to her
association with An, the sky god—and was often pictured with the lion, whose roar resembled
thunder. The power attributed to her in war may have arisen from her connection with storms.
Inanna was also a fertility figure, and, as the goddess of the storehouse and the bride of the
god Dumuzi-Amaushumgalana, who represented the growth and fecundity of the date palm,
she was characterized as young, beautiful, and impulsive—never as helpmate or mother. She
is sometimes referred to as the Lady of the Date Clusters.