[1] The "Koszta Affair" involved an interesting question of
international law--i.e. the right of an alien domiciled in any
country to the protection of that country--and has served as a
precedent for the American government in somewhat similar cases that
have arisen. Martin Koszta, a Hungarian revolutionist of 1848, had
emigrated to the United States and had there taken the preliminary
step for naturalization by formally declaring his intention to become
a citizen of the United States. In 1853 he went on personal business
to Smyrna, where he secured a passport from the American consul; the
Austrian consul, however, caused him to be seized and detained on an
Austrian brig-of-war. Soon afterward Captain Duncan N. Ingraham
(1802-1891), in command of a United States sloop-of-war, arrived at
Smyrna, and threatened to attack the Austrian vessel unless Koszta
were released; and as a compromise Koszta was placed in the custody
of the French consul. To Chevalier Hülsemann, then representing
Austria at Washington, who had demanded from the United States the
disavowal of the acts of its agents, the complete surrender of
Koszta, and "satisfaction proportionate to the magnitude of the
outrage," Marcy wrote on the 26th of September 1853, that Koszta
"when seized and imprisoned was invested with the nationality of the
United States" and had a right to the protection of the United States
government, and added: "Whenever by the law of nations an individual
becomes clothed with our national character--he can claim the
protection of this government, and it may respond to that claim
without being obliged to explain its conduct to any foreign power;
for it is its duty to make its nationality respected by other nations
and respectable in every quarter of the globe." Eventually Koszta was
released and returned to the United States. The Hülsemann letter was
published and greatly increased Marcy's popularity.
[2] See Henry L. James, "The Black Warrior Affair" in the _American
Historical Review_, vol. xii. (1907).
MARDIN, the chief town of a sanjak of the Diarbekr vilayet of Asiatic
Turkey. It is a military station on the Diarbekr-Mosul road. It occupies
a remarkable site on the south side of a conical hill of soft limestone,
and the houses rise tier above tier. The streets are narrow and paved
in steps, while often the roadway runs along the roof of the house in
the tier below. The hill is almost surrounded by old walls, while on the
summit are the remains of the famous castle of the Kaleh Shubha (Lat.
_Maride_ or _Marde_,) which from Roman times has played an important
part in history. The Arab geographers considered it impregnable, and
from its steep approaches and well-arranged defences it was able to
offer a protracted resistance to the Mongolian conqueror Hulagu and to
the armies of Timur. It was also for several centuries the residence of
more or less independent princes of the Ortokid Turkoman dynasty. The
climate is healthy and dry, and fruit grows well, but water is sometimes
scanty in the summer. Mardin is the centre of a good corn-growing
district, and is important chiefly as a border town for the Kurds on the
north and the Arab tribes to the south. It is the chief centre of the
Jacobite Christians, who have many villages in the Tor Abdin hills to
the north-east, and whose patriarch lives at Deir Zaferan, a Syrian
monastery of the 9th century not far off in the same direction. The
population is estimated at 27,000, of whom about one-half are Christians
of the Armenian, Chaldean, Jacobite, Protestant and Roman Catholic
communities. Besides many mosques and churches there are three
monasteries (Syrian, Franciscan and Capuchin), and an important American
Mission station, with church, schools and a medical officer.
MARDUK (Bibl. MERODACH[1]), the name of the patron deity of the city of
Babylon, who, when Babylon permanently became the political centre of
the united states of the Euphrates valley under Khammurabi (c. 2250
B.C.), rose to the position of the head of the Babylonian pantheon. His
original character was that of a solar deity, and he personifies more
specifically the sun of the spring-time who conquers the storms of the
winter season. He was thus fitted to become the god who triumphs over
chaos that reigned in the beginning of time. This earlier Marduk,
however, was effaced by the reflex of the political development through
which the Euphrates valley passed and which led to imbuing him with
traits belonging to gods who at an earlier period were recognized as the
heads of the pantheon. There are more particularly two gods--Ea and
Bel--whose powers and attributes pass over to Marduk. In the case of Ea
the transfer proceeds pacifically and without involving the effacement
of the older god. Marduk is viewed as the son of Ea. The father
voluntarily recognizes the superiority of the son and hands over to him
the control of humanity. This association of Marduk and Ea, while
indicating primarily the passing of the supremacy once enjoyed by Eridu
to Babylon as a religious and political centre, may also reflect an
early dependence of Babylon upon Eridu, not necessarily of a political
character but, in view of the spread of culture in the Euphrates valley
from the south to the north, the recognition of Eridu as the older
centre on the part of the younger one. At all events, traces of a cult
of Marduk at Eridu are to be noted in the religious literature, and the
most reasonable explanation for the existence of a god Marduk in Eridu
is to assume that Babylon in this way paid its homage to the old
settlement at the head of the Persian Gulf.
While the relationship between Ea (q.v.) and Marduk is thus marked by
harmony and an amicable abdication on the part of the father in favour
of his son, Marduk's absorption of the power and prerogatives of Bel of
Nippur was at the expense of the latter's prestige. After the days of
Khammurabi, the cult of Marduk eclipses that of Bel (q.v.), and although
during the five centuries of Cassite control in Babylonia (c. 1750-1200
B.C.), Nippur and the cult of the older Bel enjoy a period of
renaissance, when the reaction ensued it marked the definite and
permanent triumph of Marduk over Bel until the end of the Babylonian
empire. The only serious rival to Marduk after 1200 B.C. is Assur (q.v.)
in Assyria. In the south Marduk reigns supreme, and his supremacy is
indicated most significantly by making him the _Bel_, "the lord," _par
excellence_.
The old myths in which Bel of Nippur was celebrated as the hero were
transformed by the priests of Babylon in the interest of the Marduk
cult with the chief rôle assigned to their favourite. The hymns once
sung in the temple of Bel were re-edited and adapted to the cult of
Babylon. In this process the older Bel was deliberately set aside, and
the climax was reached when the conquest of the monster Tiamat,
symbolizing the chaos prevailing in primeval days, was ascribed to
Marduk instead of, as in the older form of the epic, to Bel. With this
stroke Marduk became the creator of the world, including mankind--again
setting aside the far older claims of Bel to this distinction.
Besides absorbing the prerogatives of Ea and Bel, Marduk was also imbued
with the attributes of other of the great gods, such as Adad, Shamash,
Nergal and Ninib, so that, more particularly as we approach the days of
the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the impression is created that Marduk was the
only real deity recognized, and that the other gods were merely the
various forms under which he manifested himself. So far as one can speak
of a monotheistic tendency in Babylonia it connects itself with this
conception that was gradually crystallized in regard to the old solar
deity of Babylon.
The history of the city of Babylon can now be traced back to the days of
Sargon of Agade (before 3000 B.C.) who appears to have given the city
its name. There is every reason to assume, therefore, that the cult of
Marduk existed already at this early period, though it must always be
borne in mind that, until the days of Khammurabi, his jurisdiction was
limited to the city of which he was the patron and that he was viewed
solely as a solar deity.
On monuments and cylinders he is represented as armed with the weapon
with which he despatched the monster Tiamat. At times this monster is
also depicted lying vanquished at his feet, and occasionally the monster
with the lance or the lance alone is reproduced instead of the god
himself.
In the astral-theological system, Marduk is identified with the planet
Jupiter. As the creator of the world, the New Year's festival, known as
Zagmuk and celebrated at the time of the vernal equinox, was sacred to
him. The festival, which lasted for eleven days, symbolized the new
birth of nature--a reproduction therefore of the creation of the world.
The arbiter of all fates, Marduk, was pictured as holding an assembly of
the gods during the New Year's festival for the purpose of deciding the
lot of each individual for the year to come. The epic reciting his
wonderful deed in despatching the monster Tiamat and in establishing law
and order in the world in the place of chaos was recited in his temple
at Babylon known as E-Saggila, "the lofty house," and there are some
reasons for believing that the recital was accompanied by a dramatical
representation of the epic.
The meaning of the name Marduk is unknown. By a species of word-play the
name was interpreted as "the son of the chamber," with reference perhaps
to the sacred chamber of fate in which he sat in judgment on the New
Year's festival. Ideographically he is represented by two signs
signifying "child of the day" (or "of the sun") which is a distinct
allusion to his original solar character. Other ideographic signs
describe him as the "strong and universal ruler." The name of his
consort was Sarpanit, i.e. the shining or brilliant one--again an
allusion to Marduk's solar traits--and this name was playfully twisted
by the Babylonian priests to mean "the seed-producing" (as though
compounded of _zer_, seed, and _banit_, producing), which was regarded
as an appropriate appellation for the female counterpart of the creator
of mankind and of life in general. The punning etymology betrays the
evident desire of the priests to see in Marduk's consort a form or
manifestation of the great mother-goddess Ishtar (q.v.), just as in
Assyria Ishtar frequently appears as the consort of the chief god of
Assyria, known as Assur (q.v.). (M. JA.)