Mesopotamian prayer

Mesopotamian prayer are the prayers of the place and era known as ancient Mesopotamia. There are nine classifications of poem used within Mesopotamia.

A definition of prayers of Mesopotamia is "praise to god followed by request" (this definition is according to T. Oshima).

According to one source (Bromiley) the form of the word, known and used to signify prayers during the Mesopotamian era, is described today as šu-il-lá. With regards to šu-il-lá, the scholars Lambert, van der Toorn and Oshima posit an alternative use for the term, which they submit is instead with reference to the way in which a prayer is to be recited, not a general signifier (rubric) for prayer itself (a notion expressed by Bromiley).

Šu-il-lá is held to refer to an act of praying, by prayer exhibited by either lifting of hands, to lift hands, or to lift the hand.

Prayers are divided into the following classifications: Incantation prayers, Ershaḫungas, Gottesbriefe, Ikribus, Royal, Tamitas and other queries, Hymns, Šigû, and Namburbi.

Tribal specialists in ritual were required to perform incantations to accompany the use of texts known, for example, from Ugarit which are attested to contain ways to aid in the removal of snake-venom. Ugarit is also known to have contained additional health-related incantation texts.

The term Gottesbriefe is literally, petition-prayers, or letter prayers. They were mostly in the form of pleas for relief from illness and for the deliverance of personal longevity.

These prayers were performed for the purposes of divining.

Another source shows ikribū were benedictions.

The rulers' (Kings of Babylonia) prayers were made to a variety of deities, for example Marduk (the god of Babylonia), Nabû, Ŝamaš. The kings had inscribed prayers made onto cylinders made of clay and kept within buildings, in order to fulfill this function. Prayers of this type tended to not be for reason of the seeking of mercy and salvation as is found in Šuila prayers.

By study of the prayers, it seems apparent to scholars, that these types of prayers seem to be reformations of earlier topos made, for example, in a similar vein to prayers such as the Prayer to the Gods of the Night.

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