{"id":2142,"date":"2021-12-03T11:35:33","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T03:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gqq.gfl.temporary.site\/website_b2c438e3\/?p=2142"},"modified":"2021-12-03T11:35:33","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T03:35:33","slug":"the-middle-east-past-and-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dynamic-silver-sheep.82-197-71-20.cpanel.site\/?p=2142","title":{"rendered":"The Middle East Past and Present"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE MIDDLE EAST
\nBy Ari Cabello \ud83c\udf38<\/p>\n

After the Golden Age of Ur, many empires rose and fell in the Fertile Crescent and other parts of the Middle East. The first empire after Sumer was the magnificent Babylonian empire. The ruins were located near Baghdad, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. It was where the Tower of Babel was built \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n

\u201cBabel\u201d means \u201cthe gate of God\u201d (in Akkadian) but in Hebrew, it means \u201cto confuse.\u201d God confused the proud people who tried to overpower Him by building a tower that reaches the heavens. The tower was discontinued and the people scattered across the world (Genesis 11) \ud83e\udd7a\"\"<\/p>\n

The Sumerians ruled Ur but it couldn\u2019t maintain control of Babylonia after the death of their ruler Ur-Nammu. Sumer was invaded by the Elamites \u2014 fierce people from the highlands of Iran. Then the same thing with Mesopotamia which was invaded by the Amorites. King Hammurabi ruled this time \u2014 bringing Mesopotamia under Babylonian rule, establishing the Old Babylonian Empire. But the successors of Hammurabi were not able to hold the empire as one. And the Kassites overpowered Babylonia and Mesopotamia causing chaos and conflict \ud83e\udd7a<\/p>\n

The people of Babylonia maintained the culture of the Sumerians and Akkadians. They preserved the oldest works of their literature, the mythical lore \u201cThe Epic of Gilgamesh.\u201d and \u201cEnuma Elish, Babylonian Genesis.\u201d The latter was created during the rule of Hammurabi to extol Babylon and its god Marduk. The notable mathematical feat they had was the \u201cplace-value-notation\u201d which assigned a value to numbers based on the position. They also excelled in astronomical measurements and they got immersed in science, astrology, and astronomy too \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n

The greatest achievement of the Old Babylonian Empire was in government and law. Hammurabi collated and codified the existing Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian Laws.
\nThey created one of the important marks of civilization which helped people live peacefully \ud83e\udd0e<\/p>\n

The Hittite Empire ruled Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) and Syria from 1700 B.C through 700 B.C. The Hittites are best known for their extensive use of iron. The Hittite Army dominated Northern Syria and moved onto the Euphrates, then ruling Babylon. But the days of their rule were numbered because the Phrygians and Assyrians were already rising from the northwest and the southeast respectively \ud83d\ude33<\/p>\n

The Assyrian Empire which ruled over the year 1100 B.C. was located northwest of Babylonia by the banks of the upper Tigris River. Their first great leader, Tiglath-pileser I, invaded Babylonia and named it the Assyrian Empire until the Assyrians conquered Nineveh, their great capital in 612 B.C. The Assyrian kings who were responsible for the downfall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel during 721 B.C. were Shalmaneser V and Sargon II. The last ruling monarch of the Assyrian Empire was Ashurbanipal who also built the first great library of Nineveh which contained the tablets written in cuneiform \ud83d\udc4d\ud83c\udffb<\/p>\n

The Chaldeans were a Semitic group of people from Arabia who united with Medes and Scythians that overpowered the Assyrian Empire in 600 B.C. and ruled by Nabopolassar. The Neo Babylonian Empire was ruled by his son, King Nebuchadnezzar. The Chaldeans are known for architecture and astronomy \u2014 especially the Hanging Gardens of Babylon \u2014 one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The prophet Daniel, one of the Jews exiled in Babylon later on became a very important official in the Babylonain empire \ud83e\udd0e\"\"<\/p>\n

Cyrus the Great was the ruler of the Persian Empire. He was called by God as \u201cmy shepherd\u201d and \u201cmy anointed\u201d (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1) and was one of the world\u2019s exceptional men. Daniel the prophet rose to greater power under Persian rule. Most probably, he told King Cyrus about Isaiah\u2019s prophecies and God\u2019s power behind his conquests \ud83d\ude0a<\/p>\n

\u201cThus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD, his God be with him, and let him go up.\u201d (2 Chronicles 36:23) \u271d\ufe0f<\/p>\n

Darius I, ruled the empire in 521-486 B.C. Xerxes I, reigned in the year 486-465 B.C. Darius separated his realm into provinces \u201csatrapies\u201d each ruled by one governor. If there would be a problem to stir up against the Judean Jews, Darius would remember Cyrus\u2019s decree. He also added the world\u2019s first postal system service \u2b50\ufe0f<\/p>\n

Xerxes, or Ahasuerus (in the Bible) was the husband of Queen Esther and Nehemiah was the cupbearer of his successor, Artaxerxes I. The Persian Empire lasted for almost 2 centuries most probably because of its good treatment of God\u2019s people, the Jews \ud83d\ude4f<\/p>\n

The Persians mostly practice the pagan religion of Zoroastrianism meaning they believed in one deity named Ahura Mazda. But they had higher regard for the \u201csanctity of law\u201d than previous Assyrian and Babylonian monarchs. With the Persian ruler being \u201cunder the law,\u201d this principle helped develop Western European political theory \ud83d\ude4f\"\"<\/p>\n

Again we learn that \u201cHistory can be understood fully only in the light of the Bible, which is the written revelation of how God has worked in history.\u201d \ud83d\udc4d\ud83c\udffb<\/p>\n

Credits:
\n\u201cWorld History and Cultures in Christian Perspective,\u201d a Beka Book
\nMaisie Carangan, Graphic Artist \ud83c\udf3b<\/p>\n

Read more about different stories of people, product reviews and events here on my blog and follow me on my social media accounts.<\/p>\n

Read my column \u201cDon\u2019t Miss This\u201d at The Rizal Weekly Post<\/p>\n

IG Name: www.instagram.com\/Homeschoolingiscool<\/p>\n

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Blog Site: www.Homeiskool.com<\/p>\n

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Other social media accounts
\nWww.facebook.com\/HomeschoolWorld<\/p>\n

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Www.facebook.com\/Kawaiibeautyandlifestylecom<\/p>\n

Www.facebook.com\/Hometowngoodiesandservices
\nFor collaboration you can email me at Armipazpineda@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE MIDDLE EAST By Ari Cabello \ud83c\udf38 After the Golden Age of Ur, many empires rose and fell in the Fertile Crescent and other parts of the Middle East. The first empire after Sumer was the magnificent Babylonian empire. The ruins were located near Baghdad, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. It was where the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,16,17,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-latest","category-opinion","category-reviews","category-stories"],"pageone_source":{"pageone_source":"","author_name":"Armi Paz Pineda"},"_pageone_source":"","zyndk8_nxtgen_metadata":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dynamic-silver-sheep.82-197-71-20.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dynamic-silver-sheep.82-197-71-20.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dynamic-silver-sheep.82-197-71-20.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dynamic-silver-sheep.82-197-71-20.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dynamic-silver-sheep.82-197-71-20.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dynamic-silver-sheep.82-197-71-20.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dynamic-silver-sheep.82-197-71-20.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dynamic-silver-sheep.82-197-71-20.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dynamic-silver-sheep.82-197-71-20.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dynamic-silver-sheep.82-197-71-20.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}