Ishme‐Karab

Abstract

Ishme‐karab was a Mesopotamian–Elamite divinity of justice. Probably originating from East Mesopotamia, he rapidly became popular in Susiana, the region around the city of Susa, to the east of Mesopotamia. In the Old Babylonian period, he occurs in oath formulas and in some royal inscriptions. Ishme‐karab enjoyed his greatest popularity in the Middle Elamite period, when various kings constructed/restored a temple for him, e.g., in Chogha Zanbil. As god of justice, Ishme‐karab had judicial tasks in the Susian netherworld, where he and Lagamal accompanied the dead to Inshushinak, who then proclaimed the judgment. He was also popular with some citizens of Susa. This is clearly demonstrated by the large group of personal names which contain this element. In these names, Ishme‐karab is almost exclusively the first element. Most source material on Ishme‐karab comes from Susiana. His appearance in Mesopotamia is very limited. He occurs three times in an Assyrian text (Old to Middle/Late Assyrian period) and just once in a Babylonian text (the god‐list An = Anum). After the Middle Elamite period, Ishme‐karab completely disappears from the corpus of written sources.