Glossary

Person

Aaron Bernstein (translator of Cassel)

Named translator of the 1888 English edition of Paulus Cassel's Esther commentary.

صيغ للاسم: Aaron Bernstein (translator of Cassel)

Deep Springs College and its valley in California, photographed in 2017. A view of an institution where Tugendhaft taught, rather than his portrait

Person

Aaron Tugendhaft

Scholar of the ancient Near East and the relationship between religion, politics and the arts.

صيغ للاسم: Aaron Tugendhaft

Akkadian letter from Abi-milku, ruler of Tyre, to the Egyptian king, preserved on a clay tablet from the Amarna archive. The Met dates it to about 1347–1330 BCE; object 24.2.12

Person

Abi-milku

Abi-milku was a fourteenth-century BCE ruler of Tyre, known from letters to Egypt’s king

صيغ للاسم: Abi-milku، Abimilki

Agostino Veneziano's engraving Abraham's Sacrifice, 1516–18, The Met 17.50.16-80. Later European artistic reception, not a historical likeness

Person

Abraham

Central figure in Genesis, the Qur'an and Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions; the sacrifice study compares what each text says about him.

صيغ للاسم: Abram، Ibrahim

Cylinder seal and modern impression showing Enki/Ea; Louvre MNB 1905, Akkadian period, 2340–2200 BCE. Later than the Ubaid, not an image identifying early Eridu’s deity

Entity

Abzu

Deep fresh waters in historical Mesopotamian conceptions, associated with Enki/Ea. The name occurs in E-abzu, “House of the Abzu”. It cannot automatically identify an Ubaid platform or a water basin.

صيغ للاسم: Abzu، E-abzu

Achilles fighting Memnon on a vase of about 330–320 BCE; National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden, AMM 1. The scene belongs to broader Trojan War traditions, rather than the Iliad itself

Person

Achilles

Important hero of the Iliad, whose anger and participation shape the poem’s warfare.

صيغ للاسم: Achilles

Adapa fragment A, MLC 1296, Neo-Assyrian, about the seventh century BCE, Morgan Library & Museum. Preserves the opening; not Amarna EA 356 or a portrait of Adapa or Adam. Photograph: Daderot, 2020; CC0 1.0

Entity

Adapa

Wise figure of Eridu associated with Ea; multiple texts recount his ascent to Anu and refusal of offered food.

صيغ للاسم: Adapa

Adapa fragment A, MLC 1296, Neo-Assyrian, about the seventh century BCE, Morgan Library & Museum. Preserves the opening; not Amarna EA 356 or a portrait of Adapa or Adam. Photograph: Daderot, 2020; CC0 1.0

Ancient text

Adapa and the South Wind

Mesopotamian tradition in Sumerian and Akkadian about wisdom, wind and heavenly ascent; its differing witnesses are not one tablet.

صيغ للاسم: Adapa and the South Wind

Adapa fragment A, MLC 1296, Neo-Assyrian, about the seventh century BCE, Morgan Library & Museum. Preserves the opening; not Amarna EA 356 or a portrait of Adapa or Adam. Photograph: Daderot, 2020; CC0 1.0

Artifact

Adapa fragment MLC 1296

Neo-Assyrian clay fragment written in Akkadian, preserving the beginning of Adapa’s story in the Morgan Library & Museum.

صيغ للاسم: Adapa fragment MLC 1296

Attic red-figure oil jar, mid-4th century BCE; a woman receives a planter from Eros in a scene associated with the Adonia. Metropolitan Museum, 22.139.26; Public Domain

Entity

Adonia: the celebration of Adonis

Celebration associated with Adonis; texts and images attest practices varying by place and time, including planters, mourning and farewell.

صيغ للاسم: Adonia

Attic red-figure oil jar, mid-4th century BCE; a woman receives a planter from Eros in a scene associated with the Adonia. Metropolitan Museum, 22.139.26; Public Domain

Entity

Adonis: death and return in differing narratives

Figure associated with Aphrodite, mourning and celebration; divided residence, death and return differ between sources.

صيغ للاسم: Adonis

Front quadrangle of Balliol College, Oxford, 21 January 2004. A view of the college associated with Adrian Kelly; it does not establish his position in that year or locate his office

Person

Adrian Kelly

Professor of Ancient Greek Literature at Oxford and Balliol, researching early poetry and the traditions shaping it.

صيغ للاسم: Adrian Kelly

Death of Aegisthus on a Greek vase of about 320 BCE; Louvre K 320, Wind Group. The artwork depicts the revenge story, rather than the Odyssey’s first assembly itself

Person

Aegisthus

Human figure in Greek narrative whose fate Zeus recalls at the Odyssey’s opening.

صيغ للاسم: Aegisthus

Agamemnon Musters the Greek Troops at Aulis, later European Story of Iphigenia tapestry, The Met 226955; artistic reception, not historical evidence for the figure

Person

Agamemnon

Figure of Greek narrative, commander of the expedition to Troy and Iphigenia's father in Euripides; the play does not independently establish his historicity.

صيغ للاسم: Agamemnon of Mycenae

Modern terminology diagram, not divine portraits or genealogy. Distinguishes Gathic spirits from later Pahlavi opposition; early theology is debated. These names are not equated with Yahweh and Satan

Entity

Ahura Mazda

Wise Lord in Iranian traditions, associated with truth, goodness and creation; not a Persian name for Yahweh.

صيغ للاسم: Ahura Mazda، Ahuramazda، Ohrmazd، Ormazd

Head of a plaster statue from Ain Ghazal, Pre-Pottery Neolithic, Jordan Museum, Amman. Photograph: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, CC BY-SA 4.0. A comparison from another community, not direct evidence of an Ubaid maker’s skill

Site

Ain Ghazal

Neolithic site near Amman, Jordan, known for large Pre-Pottery Neolithic plaster statues. Faces and decorated eyes are recognizable, but the figures’ names and religious function remain unresolved.

صيغ للاسم: Ain Ghazal، ’Ain Ghazal، 'Ain Ghazal

Modern diagram comparing explicit textual features; not a proven transmission route or final composition order

Entity

Akedah (binding of Isaac)

Jewish designation for Isaac’s binding in Genesis 22, developing through retelling and prayer.

صيغ للاسم: Akedah، binding of Isaac

Akhenaten offering a duck, limestone relief with paint, Dynasty 18, The Met 1985.328.2. Aten rays and hands survive; the complete disk is not preserved here. The museum gives a probable Amarna origin. Original preserved; display copy uncropped

Person

Akhenaten

Egyptian eighteenth-dynasty king, formerly Amenhotep IV, who reorganized royal religion around Aten and founded Akhetaten.

صيغ للاسم: Akhenaten، Akhnaton، Amenhotep IV

Letter from Abi-milku, ruler of Tyre, to the Egyptian king, written in Akkadian cuneiform; ca. 1347–1330 BCE. The Met, 24.2.12. An example of the language in international correspondence

Entity

Akkadian

An ancient East Semitic language written in cuneiform in Mesopotamia.

صيغ للاسم: Akkadian

Cylinder seal and its modern impression, owned by Ilum-bani, ca. 2028–2004 BCE; The Met, 1988.380.2. An example of a personal name with a divine element, not a verified depiction of El

Entity

Akkadian ilu

The Akkadian word for “god”; its occurrence does not automatically identify the deity El.

صيغ للاسم: ilu، ilum، ilim

Original conceptual illustration of a mid-cycle moon and tablet calendar; not an artifact photograph or reconstruction of a historical ritual. © IL Archive, CC0

Entity

Akkadian Šapattu

An Akkadian term usually connected with the fifteenth day or a half-month, not an attested name for a weekly general rest day.

صيغ للاسم: shapattu، shabattu

Different interpretive patterns, not a fixed one-method-per-school table

Person

Al-Ghazālī

Eleventh- and twelfth-century Muslim thinker distinguishing treatments of attributes by audience.

صيغ للاسم: Al-Ghazālī، Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī، al-Ghazali

Word functions in Quranic witnesses, not an etymological tree or four gods. Modern explanatory diagram; Allah’s possible derivation is a separate issue. [15][16][17][25]

Entity

Al-Raḥmān

Quranic divine designation co-referring with Allah.

صيغ للاسم: al-Raḥmān، al-Rahman، the Merciful

Title page of volume 2 of an Egyptian printed edition of al-Tabari's Jamiʿ al-bayan, 1323 AH/c. 1905 CE. It is a later edition, not his manuscript or portrait

Person

Al-Tabari

Abbasid-era historian and Qur'anic exegete (c. 839–923 CE). His commentary records competing views on Abraham's son, then favors Isaac.

صيغ للاسم: Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari، al-Ṭabarī

Approximate transliteration of Syriac Alaha (ʾalāhā) in a modern linguistic illustration. It is not a manuscript image or a definition of every user’s beliefs

Entity

Alaha

A Syriac word for God or a deity, part of the related Semitic divine vocabulary.

صيغ للاسم: alaha، Alāhā

Modern diagram of the surviving Alalu–Anu account: service, defeat and flight to the dark earth. Arrows do not establish genealogy; no ancient divine likeness is invented

Entity

Alalu

First heavenly ruler in the surviving Kumarbi song; defeated by Anu, he flees to the dark earth.

صيغ للاسم: Alalu

Person

Alexander Walker

Nineteenth-century English translator of several apocryphal infancy narratives.

صيغ للاسم: Alexander Walker

Alexander’s head with ram’s horn on Lysimachos coin, 297–281 BCE; Met 05.44.430. Posthumous Hellenistic image, not an identified Dhul Qarnayn portrait

Person

Alexander the Great

Macedonian king who lived from 356 to 323 BCE and became a hero of stories in different languages and traditions after his death.

صيغ للاسم: Alexander the Great

‘الله’ and Allāh in a modern typographic illustration. The written name does not depict the deity; this graphic is not evidence dating its pre-Islamic use

Entity

Allah

The Arabic name for God, used before Islam and in several Arabic-speaking religious traditions.

صيغ للاسم: Allah، Allāh

BES19s 77.1, Firʿ Wadi al-Khudari, Mafraq, Jordan. Its reading invokes Allat and then Allah. This photograph shows stone and writing; animal and human drawings are not identified as depictions of these deities. Original preserved without cropping or alteration

Entity

Allat

Name of an ancient Arabian deity, attested in inscriptions and mentioned in the Quran.

صيغ للاسم: Allat، al-Lāt، Allāt

Modern diagram of Philo’s approach, not a rule for every Jewish reader. Migration of Abraham rejects neglecting laws because of symbolic interpretation. [11][12]

Entity

Allegorical exegesis

Reading narrative elements for further meanings; not inherently abolition of literal practice.

صيغ للاسم: allegorical exegesis، allegorical interpretation

Modern timeline of boundary-stela proclamations in years 5, 6 and 8. Not an archaeological city plan or a claim that all changes occurred on one day; inscriptional claims do not verify revelation

Site

Amarna / Akhetaten

Site of Akhenaten’s capital in Middle Egypt; boundary stelae record successive proclamations and reaffirmation.

صيغ للاسم: Amarna، Tell el-Amarna، Akhetaten، Akhet-Aten

Original comparative diagram, not ancient artwork or portraits. Heavenly organization does not establish Michael and Gabriel as renamed Iranian beings

Entity

Amesha Spentas

Benevolent beings and concepts in Iranian tradition, approximately “holy/bounteous immortals.”

صيغ للاسم: Amesha Spentas، Aməša Spənta، bounteous immortals

Smolarz Auditorium at Tel Aviv University, 30 June 2012. Context for the university associated with Amir Gilan; not his department’s building or his portrait

Person

Amir Gilan

Tel Aviv University scholar of Hittite texts and ancient Anatolia, studying religion, ritual, literature and historiography.

صيغ للاسم: Amir Gilan

Photograph of the ruins of Mari, the setting of documents preserving Amorite names. The place explains the context of preservation; the photograph itself is not a text in the Amorite language

Entity

Amorite language

A West Semitic language studied especially through personal names, much of whose evidence comes from the Old Babylonian period (ca. 2000–1600 BCE).

صيغ للاسم: Amorite language

Top of Hammurabi’s stele, showing the Babylonian king before Shamash; eighteenth century BCE; Louvre, SB 8. An example from the world of Amorite-period kingdoms, not a collective portrayal of Amorites or their beliefs

Entity

Amorites

Groups associated with West Semitic speech in the Levant and Mesopotamia, whose dynasties were particularly prominent in the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries BCE (ca. 1900–1700 BCE).

صيغ للاسم: Amorites، Amorite groups

Tutankhamun’s head and remains of Amun’s hand on the crown, limestone, Dynasty 18, The Met 50.6. Fragment of a statue group, not a complete Amun statue; context for renewed royal relations with Amun. Uncropped display copy

Entity

Amun

Egyptian god associated with Thebes, a major target of Atenist erasure whose cult later regained royal support.

صيغ للاسم: Amun، Amon، Amun-Re

Amy-Jill Levine speaking at the German Protestant Kirchentag gathering in Nuremberg on 8 June 2023. Her photograph accompanies the introduction to her research on the New Testament and Jewish–Christian relations

Person

Amy-Jill Levine

New Testament and Jewish studies scholar at Hartford International University, studying Jewish contexts of early Christianity.

صيغ للاسم: Amy-Jill Levine، Amy Jill Levine

Modern diagram of known AN functions: sky, divinity/classifier, and An. Does not turn every early AN into a divine name or depict the god

Entity

An / Anu

Sumerian/Akkadian sky god; multifunctional AN alone cannot identify him in the earliest texts.

صيغ للاسم: Anu، god An

Modern diagram of the palace episode: Anat presses and petitions, Athirat intercedes, El grants permission, and Baal obtains the palace. Narrative summary, not a chronology of every line, a divine constitution or an archaeological reconstruction

Entity

Anat

An active and violent goddess in Ugaritic literature; pressures El over Baal’s palace and addresses him with paternal and wisdom language.

صيغ للاسم: Anat