The trading house of Sulaja E.gi-ba-ti.la
February 9, 2025 8:20 AM Subscribe
In 606 BCE, Sulaja E.gi-ba-ti.la (shortened to Egibi, and meaning "O Sîn, the one you gave, may he live!", more about Babylonian names here) ran a wholesale business in Babylon selling barley and dates. The trading empire he and his descendants built survived five generations and would live through events so dramatic that many are still remembered today.
The contracts made by Sulaja's business were written in Akkadian, in cuneiform on clay tablets, a practice over 2000 years old at the time.
Contract law was already 1000 years old, having been established with the Code of Hammurabi.
Kings of Lydia (a neighbouring state in the West of modern Turkey) were just inventing the idea of coinage, which would come to replace the use of silver by weight as a common currency.
Around the same time, according to Herodotus (who writes 200 years later) the Pharaoh Necho II sent Phoenician sailors to make a 15000 mile trip around what was then called Libya.
20 years later in 586 BC, King Nabû-kudurru-uṣur (or Nebuchadnezzar) of Babylon sieged Jerusalem, looted and destroyed the First Temple, captured thousands of Jews and transported them to Babylon.
About 15 years after this, Nebuchadnezzar built the bright blue Ishtar Gate and perhaps also the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Meanwhile the Egibi trading empire was growing prodigiously.
"They accepted deposits, provided loans, paid off client’s debts, and enabled the acquisition of goods for future payment by providing credit. The family was very successful in its trade of agriculture products, which enabled it to acquire large tracts of land, and some of its members became leading officials in Babylon"
Thirty five years after the siege of Jerusalem, Cyrus the Great founded the Persian Empire, and in another ten years he came and conquered Babylon, where he met the exiled Jews. "Cyrus believed Yahweh was one of the good gods, and he claimed that Yahweh visited him one night. In that vision, Yahweh commanded him to re-establish Yahweh worship in Jerusalem and to rebuild the temple."
The Egibi family's trading activities continued, uninterrupted by this political upheaval, for another 60 years, while over 1000 miles away in Athens, in 507 BC Cleisthenes was just introducing an early form of democracy.
The contracts made by Sulaja's business were written in Akkadian, in cuneiform on clay tablets, a practice over 2000 years old at the time.
Contract law was already 1000 years old, having been established with the Code of Hammurabi.
Kings of Lydia (a neighbouring state in the West of modern Turkey) were just inventing the idea of coinage, which would come to replace the use of silver by weight as a common currency.
Around the same time, according to Herodotus (who writes 200 years later) the Pharaoh Necho II sent Phoenician sailors to make a 15000 mile trip around what was then called Libya.
20 years later in 586 BC, King Nabû-kudurru-uṣur (or Nebuchadnezzar) of Babylon sieged Jerusalem, looted and destroyed the First Temple, captured thousands of Jews and transported them to Babylon.
About 15 years after this, Nebuchadnezzar built the bright blue Ishtar Gate and perhaps also the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Meanwhile the Egibi trading empire was growing prodigiously.
"They accepted deposits, provided loans, paid off client’s debts, and enabled the acquisition of goods for future payment by providing credit. The family was very successful in its trade of agriculture products, which enabled it to acquire large tracts of land, and some of its members became leading officials in Babylon"
Thirty five years after the siege of Jerusalem, Cyrus the Great founded the Persian Empire, and in another ten years he came and conquered Babylon, where he met the exiled Jews. "Cyrus believed Yahweh was one of the good gods, and he claimed that Yahweh visited him one night. In that vision, Yahweh commanded him to re-establish Yahweh worship in Jerusalem and to rebuild the temple."
The Egibi family's trading activities continued, uninterrupted by this political upheaval, for another 60 years, while over 1000 miles away in Athens, in 507 BC Cleisthenes was just introducing an early form of democracy.
The copper ingots are back in the time of Hammurabi, sorry!
posted by quacks like a duck at 8:54 AM on February 9 [8 favorites]
posted by quacks like a duck at 8:54 AM on February 9 [8 favorites]
The son and/or grandson of the original Egibi make guest appearances in Gore Vidal's Creation, staffing the office of the Babylonian bank that underwrites and finances the protagonist's trade/research mission, and later on Xerxes' big war. (Somewhat fictionalized, but totally believable).
posted by ovvl at 9:02 AM on February 9 [4 favorites]
posted by ovvl at 9:02 AM on February 9 [4 favorites]
Obscure but fascinating stuff! I'm thinking that a good scribe must have been a fairly highly status worker. Lots of potential for confusion if the document wasn't written with clarity. A young apprentice had to be pretty quick on the uptake.
My little bit of familiarity with the Babylonians came about by surviving a basic math class. My professor made us learn base sixty, and our final included a fairly large section on basic calculations, including fractions. Bonus points if you could write at least one answer in cuneiform chicken scratch number notation. Other than introducing the concept of base numbers, I'm not sure why he picked base sixty, other than the professor's fascination for Babylonian history.
The two thing I remember from class is Babylonian's used their hands for counting in base sixty by adding the three knuckles of the four fingers. (Maybe that professor taught base sixty just to watch a bunch of college students counting on their fingers on their math final!) And sixty seconds to a minute, sixty minutes to an hour are remnants of that counting system.
posted by BlueHorse at 9:34 AM on February 9 [5 favorites]
My little bit of familiarity with the Babylonians came about by surviving a basic math class. My professor made us learn base sixty, and our final included a fairly large section on basic calculations, including fractions. Bonus points if you could write at least one answer in cuneiform chicken scratch number notation. Other than introducing the concept of base numbers, I'm not sure why he picked base sixty, other than the professor's fascination for Babylonian history.
The two thing I remember from class is Babylonian's used their hands for counting in base sixty by adding the three knuckles of the four fingers. (Maybe that professor taught base sixty just to watch a bunch of college students counting on their fingers on their math final!) And sixty seconds to a minute, sixty minutes to an hour are remnants of that counting system.
posted by BlueHorse at 9:34 AM on February 9 [5 favorites]
Came here hoping for Ea Nasir jokes. Was not disappointed. Great thread would read again A+++
posted by seasparrow at 9:40 AM on February 9 [4 favorites]
posted by seasparrow at 9:40 AM on February 9 [4 favorites]
Crazy how more-or-less priceless writing was sitting in abandoned garbage heaps for millennia.
"Hammurabi" was one of the first BASIC games I loaded from the cassette tapes I found with the TRS-80 sitting alone in the math building of HS, not too long after I had enjoyed being exposed to Avalon Hill's Civilization in junior high.
water, sun, food, mud, wood, metal. human economies are weird.
posted by torokunai2 at 9:48 AM on February 9 [2 favorites]
"Hammurabi" was one of the first BASIC games I loaded from the cassette tapes I found with the TRS-80 sitting alone in the math building of HS, not too long after I had enjoyed being exposed to Avalon Hill's Civilization in junior high.
water, sun, food, mud, wood, metal. human economies are weird.
posted by torokunai2 at 9:48 AM on February 9 [2 favorites]
This is a fantastic post-- thanks. Have been covering this time period in a class recently and this is a nice pile of context.
posted by Capybara at 10:26 AM on February 9 [1 favorite]
posted by Capybara at 10:26 AM on February 9 [1 favorite]
I'd meant to add: The Bank of Egibi & Sons, Babylon: Financiers of trade caravans and Emperor's Wars. They may have taken a hit after Xerxes' adventure. Also mentioned in passing in Vidal's book, the Babylonians revolted continually against the Persians after a colourful history which eventually ended with their world in a ruin.
posted by ovvl at 7:50 PM on February 9 [1 favorite]
posted by ovvl at 7:50 PM on February 9 [1 favorite]
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posted by slater at 8:52 AM on February 9 [6 favorites]