rab ṭupšarri

Definition

Rab ṭupšarri (Akkadian, literally "head/chief of the scribes"; Sumerogram LÚ.GAL-A.BA or LÚ.GAL-DUB.SAR) was the office of Chief Scribe of Assyria — the senior scholarly post overseeing the royal library, advisory correspondence with the king, and organisation of the Sargonid scholar-expert apparatus. Hunger documents that several of Issar-šumu-ereš's Reports in SAA 8 are signed simply "From the Chief Scribe," indicating he held this office; Koch-Westenholz adds that Issar-šumu-ereš was simultaneously listed first among the scribes of EAE in the 650 BCE scholar-census ADD 851 + SAA 7 1.

In Tradition

In Assyriological scholarship the rab ṭupšarri is treated as the top-ranking administrative-hierarchical office within the Sargonid scholarly apparatus, distinct from the broader generic ummânu designation and from the technical specialist title ṭupšar Enūma Anu Enlil. Koch-Westenholz suggests the office may have been identical with, or closely linked to, that of ummânu of the king. Hunger and Koch-Westenholz converge on the office's documentary attestation through the Reports signature-convention and the Sargonid scholar-census.

In Practice

For source-criticism, the rab ṭupšarri is the documented Sargonid-court office through which celestial-omen reporting was institutionally supervised. The SAA 8 corpus preserves the signature-convention: Reports 3, 12, 13, 21, 22, 32, and 35 close with the abbreviated form LÚ.GAL-A.BA / "From the Chief Scribe," allowing the historian to attribute unsigned-by-personal-name Reports to the holder of the office at a given date. Koch-Westenholz documents Issar-šumu-ereš in this office under Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, and reconstructs the three-generation scribal-family inheritance pattern (Gabbi-ilani-ereš, rab ṭupšarri under Assurnasirpal II — Nabû-zuqup-kenu — Issar-šumu-ereš), showing the office's transmission through elite scribal lineages. The proverbial poverty of even the Chief Scribe is preserved in CT 53 14:9 f. ("the house of the Chief Scribe is miserable, a donkey wouldn't go in there!"), documenting the gap between scholarly prestige and material reward. Distinct from rabi ṭupšarri (an alternate construct-genitive form that the W5 tupšarru entry already names in passing): the office-title here is the canonical bound-construct rab ṭupšarri.

Historical Origin

Attested in the Neo-Assyrian Sargonid court archives (c. 680-630 BCE) — the SAA 8 Reports (3, 12, 13, 21, 22, 32, 35) and the SAA 10 Letters preserve the office through the Issar-šumu-ereš signature-convention "From the Chief Scribe." The 650 BCE scholar-census ADD 851 + SAA 7 1 lists the Chief Scribe first among the EAE-scribes. Modern critical treatments: Hermann Hunger, *Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings* (SAA 8, Helsinki 1992), p. 4 + Reports passim; Ulla Koch-Westenholz, *Mesopotamian Astrology* (Copenhagen 1995), pp. 56, 62, 64; Simo Parpola, *Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars* (SAA 10, 1993).

Further Reading

• Hermann Hunger, Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings (SAA 8)
• Ulla Koch-Westenholz, Mesopotamian Astrology
• Simo Parpola, Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars (SAA 10)