OLD SEMITIC MONTHS.
1. BABYLONIA.
In the much disputed questions of the ancient Babylonian astronomy
and calendar the non-expert is in a situation of despair: for whoever
cannot himself make use of the sources is referred to the often
directly contradictory statements of the experts. I cannot however
shirk the task of investigating whether in Babylonian calendric
systems traces of the primitive time-reckoning are not also to be
found. Unfortunately I cannot limit myself to matters upon which a
certain unity of opinion prevails, but must also touch upon burning
questions, such as the intercalation. What is here offered is in
the nature of things only an attempt: but I may perhaps be allowed
to express the hope that competent specialists, not led astray by
chronological hypotheses, may afterwards observe how far the few but
obvious characteristics of the primitive time-reckoning recur also in
the Babylonian system.
The multiplicity and variability of the names of the months are
found once more in ancient Sumer. In so comparatively late a period
as the kingdom of Ur (in the middle of the second half of the third
millenium B. C.) each minor state had its own list of months,
which I here reproduce, together with the suggested explanations,
chiefly from the latest work of Landsberger[834]. At this time there
was in use in Nippur a list of months the terms of which later
served as general ideograms for the months. The names are:--1,
_bar-zag-gar(-ra)_ month of habitation or inhabitants of the
sanctuary; 2, _gu(d)-si-sa_, the name is derived by the Babylonians
themselves from an agricultural occupation, the driving of the
irrigating-machine drawn by oxen: the moderns connect this name with
the _gu(d)-si-su_ festival celebrated in this month at Nippur; 3,
_šeg-ga_, shortened from _šeg-u-šub-ba-gar-ra_, ‘month in which the
brick is laid in the mould’; 4, _šu-kul-na_, probably ‘sowing-month’,
although the time does not fit: for displacements see below p. 261;
5, _ne-ne-gar(-ra)_, named from a festival; 6, _kin-^d Inanna_, named
from an Istar festival; 7, _du(l)-azag(-ga)_, from a festival; 8,
_apin-du-a_, ‘month of the opening of the irrigation-pipes’, which
fits very well with the time of year; 9, _kan-kan-na_, probably
‘ploughing-month’, which also agrees very well with the season; 10,
_ab(-ba)-e(-a)_, from a festival; 11, _aš-a(-an)_, ‘month of the
spelt’; 12, _še-kin-kud-(du)_, ‘month of the corn-harvest’. There are
therefore some names of the familiar kind, taken from agricultural
occupations, but more are borrowed from festivals. It is very natural
that the list of months should be regulated by ecclesiastical points
of view, since Nippur was a great and very ancient centre of the
religious cult.
Most interesting are the months from Girsu (Lagash). From the
pre-Sargonic period about 25 names of months have hitherto been
found, of which only 8 or 9 persisted up to the second and third
periods. These 25 names of months are divided by Landsberger into
the following groups:--(1) occasional names of months, under which
he includes those which are consciously named after the object or
employment mentioned in the document itself, or even improvised from
the domestic occupation in question. Four names are given but are not
translated. (2) isolated and foreign names of months: ‘month in which
the shining (or white) star sinks down from the culmination-point’,
a type familiar to us; ‘month in which the third people came from
Uruk’, doubtless an accidental description. Further, two months
named from festivals at Lagash. (3) agricultural by-names: _itu
še-kin-kud-du_, see above; _itu gur-dub-ba-a_, ‘month in which
the granary is covered with grain’; further a name not explained,
perhaps identical with the foregoing. (4) terms belonging to the
religious cult. Of these no fewer than 17 exist, not counting those
already mentioned: they are nearly all named after festivals. Great
pains have been taken to arrange the months in their position in
the calendar, and the superfluous names have been set down merely
as doublets, since they have been judged by the lists of months
current among ourselves. When we compare the terms with those of
the primitive time-reckoning, it becomes clear that the naming of
the months is here in the same fluctuating state as e. g. among the
Melanesians. According to circumstances, an agricultural occupation,
the rising of a star, a festival, etc., is seized upon in order to
describe the month. Certainly the months can be chronologically
arranged, but to draw up a fixed series from these 25 names is
impossible, even if tendencies towards the formation of such a series
already exist. The development tends in this direction in order to
facilitate a general understanding, and in the second period, at the
time of the kingdom of Akkad in the 28th to 26th centuries, a list of
this nature occurs[835]:--1, _itu ezen gan-maš_, perhaps ‘month of
the reckoning’, i. e. of the profits of the agriculture, or ‘_mois
où la campagne resplendit_’; 2, _itu ezen har-ra-ne-sar-sar_, ‘month
in which the oxen work’; 3, _itu ezen dingir ne-šu_, of uncertain
meaning but connected with the cult; 4, _itu šu-kul_, see above; 5,
_itu ezen dim-ku_, month of the feast in which the _dim_ consecrated
to the deity was eaten; 6, _itu ezen ^{dingir} Dumu-zi_, month of
the Tammuz feast; 7, _itu ur_; 8, _itu ezen ^{dingir} Bau_, month of
the feast of the goddess Bau; 9, _itu mu-šu-gab_, meaning uncertain;
10, _itu mes-en-du-še-a-na_ (?); 11, _itu ezen amar-a(-a)-si_,
_amar_ = ‘young brood’, _a_ = ‘water’, _si_ = _malu_ = ‘to be full’,
and therefore probably ‘spawning month’; 12, _itu še-še-kin-a_,
another form for _še-kin-kud_; 13, _itu ezen še-illa_, ‘_mois où
le blé monte_’, according to Radau ‘grain grow(n)’, according to
de Genouillac, whom Kugler follows, ‘_mois où on lève le blé pour
les moutons_’: i. e. after the corn has been trodden out on the
threshing-floor by the oxen, the stalks are taken up for the cattle.
The list has therefore thirteen months. Further, two points are to
be noted. In the first place only eight months (nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8,
11, 12, and 13), or perhaps nine--if _itu ur_ is to be regarded as
an abbreviation of _itu ga-udu-ur-(ra-)ka_--are taken over from the
preceding period. The multiplicity and instability of the names of
months were therefore at an earlier period still greater than the
known names indicate. In the second place the word _ezen_, ‘feast’,
is a secondary addition to the names of the 2nd, 3rd, 13th, and
probably the 4th months, that is to say, the ecclesiastical point
of view has penetrated into the nomenclature of the months to such
an extent that even months with names borrowed from agricultural
occupations are explained anew by festivals. The third period is the
time of Dungi and his successors. The list of months differs only in
that 7, _itu ur_, was re-named as _itu ezen ^{dingir} Dungi_, and
the tenth month of the above list is missing, so that we have 10,
_itu amar-a-asi_; 11, _itu še-kin-kud_; 12, _itu se-illa_; in the
intercalation 11 is doubled, _itu dir še-kin-kud_. The seventh month
takes its name from a festival celebrated in honour of the deified
king Dungi; it is therefore the oldest example of a naming of a
month from deified rulers which originates in the festivals bound up
with the cult; such names are familiar from the Graeco-Roman period
and examples still survive in the words ‘July’ and ‘August’. Still
another version of this list exists in the so-called syllabar of
months, in which six series of names of months are enumerated. This
list is not completely preserved. The most considerable deviation is
that only two months instead of three intervene between the months
_šu-kul-na_ and _ezen ^d Bau_: the order of succession is therefore
broken. Landsberger conjectures that we have to do either with a
later form of the calendar from Lagash, at the time of the kings
of Larsa and Isin--afterwards the Nippur list was used, this being
employed everywhere, at least ideographically--or else with a local
offshoot. In any case the list affords valuable evidence of the
instability of the months.
In modern Drehem there is found a list of months in which each month
is allotted to an official of the cult, so that the result is a
monthly regulation of the cult. The list is assigned to the town of
Ur. 1, _maš-da-ku_, ‘month of the gazelle eating’, from a festival
ceremony; 2, _šeš-da-ku_, and 3, _u-bi-ku_, borrowed from religious
festivals; 4, _ki-sig ^d Nin-a-zu_, month of the mourning festival
of Ninazu; 5, _ezen ^d Nin-a-zu_, month of the (joyful) festival
of Ninazu; 6, _a-ki-ti_, named from a feast; 7, _ezen ^d Dungi_,
see above; 8, _šu-eš-ša_, unexplained, later ousted by _^{itu}
ezen ^d Su- ^d Sin_; 9, _ezen-mah_, ‘month of the high feast’; 10,
_ezen-an-na_, month of the Anu feast; 11, _ezen Me-ki-gal_, doubled
in intercalation; 12, _še-kin-kud_. There are also many variants. The
names, with the exception of that of the old harvest month, are all
taken from feasts: the ecclesiastical nomenclature has therefore been
carried out very fully.
The list of months from Umma:--The months 1, 2, and 6 are borrowed
from the Nippur list. Of undoubted religious origin are:--9, _^d
Ne-gun_; 10, _ezen ^d Dungi_; 12, _^d Dumu-zi_. 11 has the variant
_^{itu d} Pap-u-e_. To none of the four local systems can _^{itu}
azag-šim_ be allotted.
A fifth list is known only from the above-mentioned syllabar, and is
not certainly localised. The names of months refer to festivals and
religious ceremonies, and have not all been completely preserved.
We have seen what a multiplicity prevails among the Sumerian names
of months. At the time of the dynasty of Hammurabi the signs of the
Nippur list are used as ideographic signs of the months. The phonetic
readings are known. The names are the common ones which were also
adopted by the Jews in exile. The explanations are, according to
Muss-Arnolt:--1, _nisanu_, from _nesu_ = ‘to stir, to move on, to
leap’; 2, _airu_, from _aru_, ‘bright’, or _ir_, ‘to send out, to
sprout’, and therefore the month of blossoming and sprouting; 3,
_sivanu_; 4, _duzu_, ‘son of life’; 5, _abu_, ‘hostile’ (on account
of the heat); 6, _ululu_; 7, _tašritu_, ‘origin, beginning’; 8,
_arah-samna_, ‘the eighth month’; 9, _kislivu_; 10, _dhabitu_, ‘the
gloomy month’; 11, _sabadhu_, ‘the destroyer’; 12, _addaru_, ‘the
dark (month)’. The names are therefore borrowed throughout from
natural phenomena. Numerous phonetic writings in legal documents
are alone sufficient to shew that, at least for Sippar, our common
pronunciations of the month-ideograms of this time were not the
only ones in use. Landsberger gives 12 other names, of which
only a few can be explained. _Sibutim_, _sibutu_ is the name for
the 7th day and its festival, as the name of a month therefore,
carrying over the idea to the year, it is the _sibutu_ of the year;
_ki-nu-ni_, ‘oven month’, because the oven must then be heated; _arah
ka-ti-ir-si-tim_, ‘hand of the underworld’, probably something like
‘month of epidemics’. One or two are named from gods. Therefore among
the Semites of Babylonia also a fixed series of months was formed
only gradually, by selection, and indeed under the influence of the
Sumerian calendar from which the ideograms were borrowed.
The Elamite calendar is known partly from the so-called syllabar of
months, and partly from documents[836]: the latter offer 13 names of
which Hrozný tries to explain away the last by identifying it with
another. The names in the two sources sometimes vary considerably,
but are chiefly of Babylonian origin. Several, according to Hrozný’s
interpretations, refer to the seasons: _še-ir(-i)-eburi_, (month
of the) prospering of the harvest; _tam-ti-ru-um_, month of rain;
_tar-bi-tum_ (month of the) growth (of plants). _Pi-te-bâbi_ means
‘opening of the gate’, and probably refers to a religious ceremony.
The ancient Assyrian list of months is partly preserved in the
syllabar of months, and also occurs in the inscriptions of the
early Assyrian kings and in the so-called Cappadocian tablets,
which come from an Assyrian colony of the third millenium at Kara
Eyjuk in Asia Minor. We find:--2, perhaps month of the moon-god; 3,
_ku-zal-li_, shepherd’s month; 4, _al-la-na-a-ti_, also shepherd’s
month; 6, _ša sa-ra-te_, perhaps the name of some employment; 12,
_qar-ra-a-tu_, name of an occupation (?). The other names are
missing or are uncertain. In regard to the interpretation of the
names from occupations a certain caution should be exercised, since
in accordance with all the examples hitherto given a name like
‘shepherd’s month’ ought to refer not to the occupation as such but
to the pasture season. All other explanations are quite problematical.
In the above I have only been able to reproduce the material
collected by Assyriologists and the explanations given by them: but
from this it clearly appears that the development of the series of
months has proceeded in the same fashion here as elsewhere. At the
beginning we find an indefinite number of names of months borrowed
principally from natural phenomena. Among these a selection takes
place, the result of which, however, is different in each city. At
first it seems as though series of 13 months arose. But these series,
as the examples from Lagash shew, were not fixed throughout. New
names penetrate into them, even the position of the month can be
altered. Finally the series becomes quite fixed, and with this seems
to be connected the falling away of the thirteenth month: in the
series of months now fixed at twelve the leapmonth becomes a doubling
of the preceding month. While this development continues, the
calendar takes on more and more an ecclesiastical stamp, since months
named from festivals are constantly ousting those named from natural
phenomena, and finally attain to almost exclusive predominance. This
is easily to be understood in the case of ancient Sumer, since not
only were the priests alone--here as elsewhere--in possession of the
art of writing and the other higher branches of knowledge of the
people, but the temples also had the largest landed property, with
an extensive administration. Occupations and religious ceremonies,
festival seasons and time-reckoning for practical purposes were
more closely connected at that time than at any other. The Semitic
calendars all present the same characteristics as the ancient
Sumerian, a resemblance which is only slightly disguised by the fact
that the signs of the now fixed Sumerian series of months are used as
ideograms of the months. Everyone read the ideograms in accordance
with his custom, so that a variety in the names of months still
existed, as the phonetic writings testify. But the fixed writing
naturally contributed to bring about fixed readings, i. e. a fixed
series of months.
2. THE ISRAELITES.
The Israelites, like all Semitic races, reckoned in lunar months.
I need not discuss the views which ascribe to them a solar year,
or would make the old Canaanitish months divisions of the solar
year. From early times the day of the new moon was celebrated with
general festivities and rest from labour, and the old feasts of the
agricultural year seem to have been postponed till the time of full
moon. Like the Homeric Greeks, the Jews at their immigration had no
names of months. Hence they took over the old Canaanitish names. The
latter appear in the oldest portions of the law, in the regulations
for the feast of the Passover, which is to be celebrated in _chodesh
ha-abib_, the month of ears of corn, and in the history of the
building of Solomon’s temple[837], where three others--_chodesh_ or
_yerash ziv_, _yerash bul_, _yerash ha-etanim_--are mentioned and
compared with the numerical months by which their position is fixed.
Of these _y. bul_ and _y. etanim_ recur among the eleven Phoenician
names of months known from inscriptions. The above-mentioned series
of months, which we possess only in fragments, was therefore at
least in part identical with the Phoenician: hence the term ‘old
Canaanitish’ is justified. The explanations are also clear, having
regard to the position of the months in the year. _Chodesh ha-abib_,
corresponding to the first month, about April, is the month of
the ripening ears. _Yerash ziv_, the second, about May, the month
of brightness (though certainly the etymology is not certain), is
referred to the splendour of the blossoming season, though this falls
earlier. But in May the dry season begins, and so one would think
rather of the splendour of the sun. _Yerash ha-etanim_, corresponding
to the seventh, about September, means month of the flowing, i. e.
of the perennial streams, which now at the end of the dry season are
the only ones that have water. _Yerash bul_, the eighth, cannot be
referred to the gathering of the fruit (_bul_), which has already
taken place, but probably means the rainy month, since the autumn
rains now begin[838]. The descriptions are therefore of the kind
already sufficiently familiar.
But in the writings of the Old Testament the numbering of the
months, beginning at the Feast of the Passover, is the common method
of description, which is only replaced by the Babylonian names
of months after the Captivity. It seems to be fairly generally
recognised that the numbering is later, and according to what has
already been shewn about the numbering of months[839] this is always
a phenomenon of an advanced stage of civilisation. The inclination
of the people towards concrete descriptions of months must also
have prepared the way for the introduction of the Babylonian names.
As to the date of the introduction of the numbered months there is
considerable difference of opinion: at the time of Solomon[840],
about 600 B. C.[841], first demonstrable among the writers of the
Captivity[842]. For our purpose the chief point to note is that the
numbering is more recent than the naming of the months. This question
is again connected with that of the beginning of the year, which will
be dealt with below. For if the series of numbered months begins in
spring, yet there are also indications of an earlier beginning in
autumn[843].
New evidence both for the beginning of the year in autumn and for the
months is found in an inscriptional calendar from Gezer, dating from
about the year 600[844]. It runs:--Two months: bringing in of fruits;
two months: sowing; two months: late sowing; one month: pulling up
of flax; one month: barley harvest; one month: harvest of all other
kinds of corn; two months: vintage; one month: fruit-gathering. This
agrees with the course of the agricultural occupations, reckoning
from about September,--the bringing in of fruit is not the harvest
but the carrying home of the harvest from the fields--but is
naturally systematised so as to cover the months. Whoever drew up
this list knew neither fixed names nor a fixed enumeration of the
months: the question can only be whether this state of affairs must
have been general at the date 600 B. C. The purpose of the list does
not seem to me to have been clearly recognised. It is obvious that
such a list must have been drawn up for practical ends. It helps to
regulate the calendar. From the agricultural work just engaged in the
present month is recognised: and then, with the aid of this calendar,
it becomes possible to calculate how many months will elapse before
some other occupations begin. If this calendar came into general use,
names of months of the usual type would arise from it.
It has been remarked above that the Israelites at their immigration
into Canaan had no names of months. Of course, like all other
primitive peoples, they occasionally reckoned a few months up to
or after this or that event, e. g. pregnancy. This counting was a
shifting one, i. e. it had no reference to the solar year. That
the practice of counting the months was known is proved by the
common word for month, _chodesh_, literally ‘newness’, ‘new moon’,
from _chadash_, ‘new’. The word for moon is _yareach_. Among the
Phoenicians _chodesh_ means only ‘new moon’: ‘month’ is _yerach_.
In the Old Testament this latter word also occurs several times:
in the account of the building of Solomon’s temple[845] (in three
cases characteristically combined with the old Canaanitish names),
in Exodus[846], in Deuteronomy and II Kings (in the expression
_yerach yamim_[847]), and lastly, poetically, in Moses’ departing
blessing[848] and a few times in Job and Zechariah.
When it is remembered that the months are counted not only
continuously but also by the appearance of each new moon[849], it
becomes clear how the word _chodesh_ has come to mean ‘month’, and
this is also a sure evidence for the practice of counting the months,
though not from a definite point of departure. The latter process, i.
e. the numbering of the months, is much later. The earlier books of
the Old Testament provide interesting material for the significance
of the word[850]. _Chodesh_ means ‘new moon’, ‘feast of the new
moon’ in the old narrative of Jonathan and David[851]; in the
combination ‘new moons and sabbaths’[852]; and in the regulations of
the Priestly Code about the burnt offering of the new moon[853].
From the new moon the days of the month can be counted, and this is
done in one case[854]. The number of months is determined by counting
the new moons: thus certain passages can be understood (though not
necessarily so), e. g. in the Yahwist, Gen. XXXVIII, 24, “it came
to pass about three new moons (months) after”, and in Amos IV, 7,
“when there were yet three new moons (months) to the harvest”. Here
‘new moon’ and ‘month’ are essentially identical: in this manner a
change of sense has come about. Another point is whether at the time
in question the word in this connexion had the sense of new moon or
of month: I should be inclined to regard the latter supposition as
correct. In the regulations for the Passover Feast also the sense
is not to be determined definitely[855]. If prominence is given to
the idea of duration of time, the sense ‘month’ clearly appears,
e. g. in the story of Jephthah’s daughter:[856] “Let me alone two
months, that I may depart and go down upon the mountains, and
bewail my virginity.” Thus the word in earlier and later times is
often used in the counting of the months[857]. The sense ‘month’
can be rendered clear by the addition _yamim_[858], which is an
older idiom, for neither with _chodesh_ nor with _shana_, ‘year’,
is _yamim_ originally an empty addition. _Shana_ perhaps means
‘change’, ‘recurrence’, i. e. of the seasons. If the word is used in
a calendarial sense, _yamim_ is a practical explanation. The result
is that _chodesh_ stands for ‘month’, even where the idea of the new
moon is completely excluded, e. g., with numbers of days added, as
early as in the Yahwistic part of the old History of the Kings, II
Sam. XXIV, 8, ‘nine months and twenty days’, or in the history of
Solomon, I Kings V, 14: “And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a
month by courses: a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at
home”. The older senses belong in general to the older writings; it
is however to be presumed that before the beginning of the literary
period the change of sense had already advanced rather far.
In by far the greatest number of cases _chodesh_ stands in
combination with an ordinal numeral, not in Deuteronomy, but in
Jeremiah and the writers of the Exile, in the last Reviser of the
Pentateuch, in the Priestly Code. Hence it follows that these
numbered months are a late innovation, and they will be spoken of
again in connexion with the matter of the beginning of the year[859].
3. THE PRE-MOHAMMEDAN ARABIANS.
The series of months now used by the Arabs is the ancient Meccan
series, which, on account of the importance of Mecca as a centre of
trade, had acquired a more than local extension and was adopted by
Islam. Besides this series others are handed down, partly by Arabian
writers, and partly in the Sabean inscriptions: the latter I pass
over, since there is no translation of them, so that they are of no
use for my purpose[860]. The Meccan series is:--1, _safar I_, now
called _muharram_, ‘the holy’, a re-naming which, according to an
Arabic author, Buchari, first took place under Islam; 2, _safar II_;
3, _rabi I_; 4, _rabi II_; 5, _jumada I_; 6, _jumada II_; 7, _rajab_;
8, _sha’ban_; 9, _ramadan_; 10, _shawwal_; 11, _dhu-l-qa’da_; 12,
_dhu-l-hijja_. These names, in so far as they are explainable, refer
to seasons and festivals. This is best seen from the three pairs of
months which form the first half-year. I quote Wellhausen:[861]--“For
the season Çafar the Lisan 6, 134 gives abundant examples; it gives
a name to plants which grow at that time, animals which are born
then, and rains which fall in it. It falls in the autumn. Gumâda
often occurs in the old poetry and always refers to the worst
winter-cold, the dear time in which the poor must be fed by the
rich. Especially favoured is the description of the evil night in
Gumâda, when the dogs do not bark, the snakes, which are otherwise
out at night-time, remain in their holes, and the traveller eagerly
looks out for a friendly fire. The Rabî’ falls, according to the
calendar, between Çafar and Gumâda, and therefore in late autumn.
But commonly the Rabî’ is the season when, after the autumn and
winter rains, the steppe becomes green and the tribes disperse to
the pastures, where the camels bring forth their young and the rich
milking-season approaches.... The camels are pregnant ‘in the tenth
month’, and bring forth their young in February.” This statement
is supported by the etymology. _Safar_ comes from a root with the
meaning ‘to be empty’. Since two months appear between _safar_ and
the cold season, the two months of _safar_ include the end of the
dry and the beginning of the rainy season, before a more abundant
vegetation has sprung up, and are therefore the worst period of lack
of food. The root from which _jumada_ comes has the sense ‘to grow
stiff’, which suits the time of the sharp cold. _Rabi_ as a season
has a double sense, it is partly used to describe a period in autumn
which is often identified with _charif_, the date-harvest, and partly
to describe the pasture-season in spring. The explanation of this
fact is doubtless that the word refers to the sprouting vegetation,
the pasture-season, partly, indeed, to the vegetation which appears
simultaneously with the autumn rains, but partly to the richer
pasture which springs up with the increasing heat after the winter
rains. Out of these three seasons, according to a familiar precedent,
six months are made. They do not exactly cover the winter half of the
year, but fall somewhat earlier, since the last month, _jumada II_,
belongs to the cold period. As for the other months, the sense of
_ramadan_, ‘the hot’, is certain, and it alludes to the warm season,
in fact to its beginning, since _ramadan_ is the third month after
_jumada II_. The attempted explanations of _sha’ban_ and _shawwal_
are all very uncertain. The other three names refer to festivals.
In _rajab_ a festival was celebrated in all holy places, in which
sacrifices of camels and sheep were offered up. The root means ‘to
fear, to reverence’; the month is therefore called the ‘holy’,
or the ‘deaf and dumb’, since the noise of weapons is stilled.
The names of the last two months refer to the great pilgrimage to
Mecca. _Dhu-l-qa’da_ is ‘the month of sitting’, and the explanation
given for the name--that the month was so called because in it no
expeditions or predatory excursions took place--is doubtless correct.
It is the first month of the holy peace which prevails during the
time of pilgrimage. The second month is named from the feast of
pilgrims itself, _dhu-l-hijja_.