The Library of the king Ashurbanipal in Nineveh
Ashurbanipal, meaning "Assur is the creator of inheritance", was an Assyrian king. He is known for creating an important collection of cuneiform documents in the royal palace at Nineveh. This collection, known as the Library of Ashurbanipal, is now in the British Museum.
Its Library had over 30,000 clay tablets and fragments with various texts from the 7th century BC. It is the first library in the Near East with a systematic organization of its material. The Library was created for the royal family, and contained the king's personal collection, but was also open to priests and respected scholars.
It was built in what is now northern Iraq, near Mosul. The library exhibits were discovered by Sir Austen Henry Layard, an English explorer and archaeologist.
Ashurbanibal was an educated man and he was proud of it. He was an excellent mathematician and one of the few kings who could read cuneiform in Akkadian and the Sumerian language. In the Bible he is called Asenappar while the Roman historian Justin identified him as Sardanapalus.
He reigned from 668 to 627 BC. During this time, he collected texts from all over Mesopotamia, especially Babylonia. Much of the original material has been damaged and is impossible to repair. The texts were about medicine, astronomy and literature. Over 6,000 plates were related to legislation, foreign correspondence, engagements, aristocratic statements and financial matters.
Ashurbanipal's personal interest in his collection and systematic search and evaluation of all the written tradition of the peoples of Mesopotamia made him justly proud:
"I have acquired the hidden treasures of all scribal knowledge [...]; I have solved the arduous problems of division and multiplication which were not clearly recorded; I have read the artistic writing of the Sumerians and the obscure of the Akkadians, and I have deciphered the inscriptions which they were carved in the stones at a time before the Flood.”
The rest involved divination, omens, spells and hymns to various gods. Most of the texts were written mainly in the Akkadian language, in cuneiform script, while others were written in Assyrian.
Among the epics and myths was the 'Epic of Gilgamesh (an epic poem from the Babylonian region). It is the oldest known literary work. Plaque with part of the Epic of Gilgamesh is in the British Museum
The library burned in 612 BC, when Nineveh was destroyed. However, the plates were saved from the fire and were finally discovered in 1849.
