The belief in the Souls of the dead in Mesopotamia

Any religious creed or position, whatever its name or source, old or modern, is not devoid of a special concept of metaphysical creatures called ghosts that can infect, cause evil or give him good, during his life and even after His death, not without any worship in its interpretation of the creation and composition of the existence of this concept, which emerged through the long history of the process of human belief in all its forms and stages, as an idea must be at the core of his belief and faith, and became a necessity can not be dispensed with it For a better understanding of human existence and an attempt to explain and answer many questions and doubts And the idea of ​​believing in the existence of these creatures for the ancient man in the beginning is that there are creatures called “spirits” that have no particular entity or name or form of a specific or known object, have become an integral part From the process of faith itself, on the grounds that good and evil are the opposites that are always incompatible in all religious beliefs, as good as a personal benefit as it was understood first or as a comprehensive second moral concept, was the focus of human quest and the opposite of evil with all meanings that represented fear and panic To man, and on this basis was the division of the human cod M spirits and spectra to the good and malignant, and according to the utility or Mdhartha and therefore it needs to be a priest magician to tame him, malignant and sophistication incantations and may reward him and offering good vocations .

The ancient Sumerians called the spirit of the dead the word “Gedem” and called it “Ekin” (b). This is confirmed by the ancient writings, especially the cuneiform ones, that most ancient peoples were aware of the relationship of the soul to the body, In addition to its historical predecessors, the ancient inhabitants of Iraq had the perception that the soul of the deceased departed after the death of the human being to obtain a new life, and that life was either happy or miserable, What the owner left behind in his first life, or according to what the deceased had received from funeral rites and what had been done However, determining the fate of the dead spirit was also subject to a special trial in the court of the dead souls of the other world (the lower world).

Therefore, the people of Mesopotamia were interested in the care of the Sumerians and the Akkadian under the patronage of the souls of the dead. They often cited them in their monuments and legends. The eleventh verse of the Epic of Kilgames mentioned that some souls of the dead have rest in the world of the dead, having left good works and good offspring, especially males and relatives. Others continued to offer sacrifices to bury the dead.

The people of Mesopotamia have imagined that the lower world has its own system that includes rules and laws that the interior must adhere to. This is illustrated by some of the advice given by the priests, in which we read: “You will descend to the lower world, let me advise you, Let me talk to you, you should not leave your clothes clean, you should not paint yourself with oil, from the pot, they surround you with a smell, you should not throw sticks in the lower world, they hit the bastards in the lower world, you should not carry wood in your hand , Spirits are insulted by you, you must not insinuate the soles in your feet, you should not shout in the world You should not hit your wife even if you are at odds with her, you should not accept your beloved child, you should not hit your child even if you are upset with him) and as a result of individuals’ compliance with these commandments , They are always trying to spare their lives the suffering of that world by various means and the most important is to get closer to the gods of the world below by giving vows and gifts.

By

Dr. Hussein Aliwi