Page 72 - Edessa, 'The Blessed City'-01, by J. B. Segal (Oxford, 1970). Chapters 1-3

RELIGION 59

the 'house', perhaps temple, of the bughdariyyun. It is reasonable to suppose
that at pagan Edessa also in the reign of Wa'el there was a priestly dignitary
called budar. As at Sumatar, a sacred stool was handed down from budar to
budar\f the chain of transmission were broken, the pillar which stood on it
would fall. A stool of office seems to be alluded to in contemporary Ely-
maean inscriptions;' and we know that in the seventh century the chief of the
pagans of Harran occupied a stool of office, and was elected annually.
Among the ceremonies on the appointment of a budar at Sumatar was
evidently a ritual meal. Here too, confirmation may be found in the descrip-
tion of the mysteries at pagan Harran. There novices partook of special food of
which some, at least, was consecrated. Ritual feeding seems to be mentioned
also in the Elymaean inscriptions which refer to a ceremonial stool.2 It is not
unreasonable to infer that at pagan Edessa also ceremonial meals were part
of the induction ceremony of a budar.
Let us return to Marilaha, the deity recorded at Sumatar Harabesi. At
Kirk Magara outside Edessa a Syriac inscription, undated but probably of
the second or third century, reads:
I G'W, daughter of Barshuma, made for myself this burial place. I ask of you who
come after [and] who may enter here, move not my bones from the sarcophagus. He
that shall move my bones—may he have no latter-end, and may he be accursed to
Marilaha.3
Who was this Marilaha ? In Nabataean, and we have noted that the rulers of
Edessa were largely Nabataean, mara is one of the epithets used of the
divinity Be'elshamin, 'lord of the heavens'. This deity is attested over a great
area of the Near East, notably among Aramaeans, and from a very early
period. At Palmyra Be'elshamin holds an important place in the pantheon
in the first centuries of the Christian era, but he is not, like Bel, a national
god; he seems to have had wider associations. He is called variously 'great
god', 'lord (mara) of all', 'lord of the universe (mara de'alma)'. There are
strong grounds for supposing that it was Be'elshamin who is worshipped as
the 'anonymous god', that is the object of numerous dedications at Palmyra
between A.D. in and 268 and is styled impersonally 'he whose name is
blessed for evermore (le'alma)'. Both deities are called 'good and merciful',
both form a triad with Malakbel and 'Aglibol, and both are identified as
my article in Iraq, loc. cit. The passage records * At Tang-i Sarvak; see Shaked, op. cit.
the dedication of 'a garden and altar of Mari- 287 ff. Two texts read:'. .. Bel-dosha, who is
laha of Qarqabesh' and adds, 'made by ZN' the rabbani, with Aserya( ?) and Antiochus, who
BDR (or, 'this BDR') who attends ((my) to are at the Gate. Bar Basi, taking the stool';
those who see [visions] in dreams'. There may, another:'... Orodes, taking the stool..., feeds,
on the other hand, be confusion in the Sa'adiya bowing upon him, worships',
text between BDR HNY and the BDR NHY 2 Above n. i.
(that is, of the deity Nahai) of the Serrin 3 At the side is a brief text, also in Syriac,
inscription, p. 23 n. 4, cf. n. 5 above. For perhaps in memory of G'W's father; it reads:
Marilaha at Hatra, see p. 60 below. 'Remembered be Barshuma bar Wa'el'. PL 296.

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