Kutha

 ( History Of Babylon Governorate ) 

The first archaeologist to examine the site, in 1845, Henry Rawlinson, noted a brick of king Nebuchadrezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire mentioning the city of Kutha (Ku-tu), though it is not known with certainty that it was in situ. He returned to visit the site a number of times.Rawlinson, H. C., "On the Inscriptions of Assyria and Babylonia", The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 12, pp. 401–XXI, 1850 The site was also visited by George Smith in 1873 and by Edgar James Banks.[1] Edgar James Banks, Cutha, The Biclical World, sol. 22, no. 1, pp. 61–64, 1903 Tell Ibrahim was excavated by Hormuzd Rassam in 1881, for four weeks. Little was discovered, mainly some Hebrew and Aramaic inscribed bowls and a few tablets.[2] Ford, James Nathan, "Another Look at Mandaic Incantation Bowl BM 91715", Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society 29.1, 2002 He found a neglected "mausoleum of Abraham" on the small mound and had it cleaned by his workers. Recording a few more bricks of Nebuchadrezzar II, he indicated the possibility that they were not originally from the site.[3] Hormuzd Rassam, Asshur and the Land of Nimrod: Being an Account of the Discoveries Made in the Ancient Ruins of Nineveh, Asshur, Sepharvaim, Calah, etc..., Curts & Jennings, 1897J. E. Reade, Rassam's Excavations at Borsippa and Kutha 1879-82, Iraq, vol. 48, pp. 105–116, 1986

While no cuneiform texts have been found at the site aside from the few excavated by Rassam and held in the British Museum (BM 42261, BM 42494, BM 42264, BM 42275, BM 42379, and BM 42295), noting that some of those may actually have come from the unlocated Tell Egraineh which Rassam also excavated in 1881, some have appeared for sale over the years, almost all from the Achaemenid period with three being from the Old Akkadian period and one from the Old Babylonian period."SCD 253 Artifact Entry" /ref>Jursa, Michael, "Spätachämenidische Texte aus Kutha", Revue d'assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale, vol. 97, no. 1, pp. 43-140, 2003

During his reign a large palace was built at Tummal. Building materials came from as far away as Babylon, Kutha, and Adab.Steinkeller, Piotr, "Corvée Labor in Ur III Times", From the 21st Century B.C. to the 21st Century A.D.: Proceedings of the International Conference on Neo-Sumerian Studies Held in Madrid, 22–24 July 2010, edited by Steven J. Garfinkle and Manuel Molina, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 347-424, 2013

In a related, much damaged, text, BM 45684, Adad-shuma-usur states "at night-time I arrived, the wall of Cuthah ... I spoke greeting, to Emeslam".Grayson, Albert Kirk, "A Babylonian Historical Epic Fragment", Babylonian Historical-Literary Texts, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 93-98, 1975

The records of Neo-Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal state that in 651 BC Šamaš-šuma-ukin captured Cuthah. Šamaš-šuma-ukin was the son of the Neo-Assyrian king Esarhaddon and the elder brother of Esarhaddon's successor Ashurbanipal.Grayson, A. K., "The Chronology of the Reign of Ashurbanipal", vol. 70, no. 2, pp. 227-245, 1980

An inscription of Neo-Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC), found in a columnar form and as a prism at Babylon, mentions Kutha.

Several governors are known from the time the city was under the control of Achaemenid Empire ruler Cyrus the Great during 539–530 BC. They are Nergal-tabni-usur, Nergal-sar-usur, and Nabu-kesir.Dandamayev, M. A., "Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid State Administration in Mesopotamia", Judah and the Judeans in the Persian Period, edited by Oded Lipschits and Manfred Oeming, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 373-398, 2006

According to the Diadochi Chronicle in the seventh year 7th year of seleucid ruler Alexander IV of Macedon, 311/310 BC, general Antigonus I Monophthalmus battled general Seleucus I Nicator after the latter revolted along with the temple administrator of Kutha.

According to the Tanakh, Cuthah was one of the five and cities from which Sargon II, King of Assyria, brought settlers to take the places of the exiled Israelites (). II Kings relates that these settlers were attacked by , and interpreting this to mean that their worship was not acceptable to the deity of the land, they asked Sargon to send an Israelite priest, exiled in Assyria, to teach them, which he did. The result was a mixture of religions and peoples, the latter being known as "Cuthites" in Hebrew language and as "" to the Ancient Greeks.Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews ix. 14, § 3

Josephus places Cuthah, which for him is the name of a river and of a district,Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, ix. 14, § 1, 3 in Persia, and NeubauerAdolf Neubauer, La Géographie du Talmud, p. 379, 1968 says that it is the name of a country near Corduene.

Ibn Sa'd in his Kitab Tabaqat Al-Kubra writes that the maternal grandfather of Abraham, Karbana, was the one who discovered the river Kutha.

In The Last Pagans of Iraq: Ibn Waḥshiyya and His Nabatean Agriculture, Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila says:

"One might also mention the rather surprising story, traced back to 'Ali, the first Imam of the Shiites, where he is made to identify himself as “one of the Nabateans from Kutha” (see Yaqut al-Hamawi, Mu'jamIV: 488, s.v. Kutha). It goes without saying that the story is apocryphal, but it shows that among the Shiites there were people ready to identify themselves with the Nabateans. Thus it comes as no surprise that especially in the so-called ghulàt movements (extremist Shiites) a lot of material surfaces that is derivable from Mesopotamian sources (cf. Hämeen-Anttila 2001), and the early Shiite strongholds were to a great extent in the area inhabited by Nabateans.

"Yaqut also notes, "the identification of Kutha as the original home Shiah Muslims believe to be the Abrahamic roots of Islam. Yet the identification of Kutha, and by extension also Abraham, with the Nabateans is remarkable."