mukallimtu

Definition

Mukallimtu — literally "revealer" — is the Mesopotamian commentary genre. A mukallimtu quotes the "if"-clauses of the canonical omen-series, above all Enūma Anu Enlil, alongside their predicted outcomes, and adds factual explanations, alternative readings, equivalences, and teaching notes. It is the bridge between the primary omen-corpus and the working interpretation done at the royal court. It is also the only kind of Enūma Anu Enlil commentary that was given a named, serialised form: Šumma Sîn ina tāmartīšu.

In Tradition

In Assyriological scholarship, the mukallimtu is treated as the main interpretive aid for the canonical omen series. Koch-Westenholz quotes the texts' own self-description — "mukallimtu EAE šūt pî ša pî ummāni ša libbi . . ." ("commentary on EAE according to the words of the scholars from . . ."), followed by the opening line of the commented tablet. Hunger and Pingree, following Weidner, classify it as one of three types of Enūma Anu Enlil commentary, set apart by being factual rather than purely philological.

In Practice

For source-critical work, the mukallimtu is the genre you turn to once you have identified which "if"-clause matches a given celestial observation. The commentary supplies the predicted outcome, explains obscure terms — for instance, "not at its appointed time," pinned down by particular dates — notes when an impossible observation should be read as standing in for a real one, and identifies named stars with specific planets so a tablet can apply beyond its literal wording. Hunger and Pingree note that this last move, equating named stars with planets, "makes the fixed textual corpus maximally applicable to observed phenomena." The mukallimtu is distinct from the aḫû — the omens from outside traditions, lying beyond the canonical series — and from the Enūma Anu Enlil canonical series itself. It is the scholarly apparatus that connects the fixed text to live observation.

Historical Origin

The mukallimtu is attested across the Neo-Assyrian and Late Babylonian periods (c. 700 BCE onward) in cuneiform commentary tablets from the royal libraries of Nineveh, Babylon, and Uruk. The named serialised commentary Šumma Sîn ina tāmartīšu is the only Enūma Anu Enlil commentary to have received a canonical title. Modern critical treatments include Koch-Westenholz, Mesopotamian Astrology (1995); Hunger and Pingree, Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia (1999); and Rochberg, The Heavenly Writing (2004).

Further Reading

• Ulla Koch-Westenholz, Mesopotamian Astrology
• Hermann Hunger & David Pingree, Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia
• Francesca Rochberg, The Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy, and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture