Nabûnaʾid

Nabûnaʾid 𐡍𐡁𐡅𐡍𐡀𐡃 𒀝𒈾𒀪𒀉
Born	c. 620 BCE Harran
Died	c. 522 BCE Karmanā, Persian Empire
Nationality	Aramean

Nabûnaʾid (c. 620 BCE – c. 522 BCE), also known as Nabonidus, was the last king of Babylon. He took power in a coup against the child king Lâbâšimarduk in 556 BCE. Unlike the previous kings, he was an Aramean and not a Chaldean.

Early life

Nabûnaʾid's mother was a priestess of the moon god Sîn at a temple in Harran. Her family fled to Babylon when the Medes conquered Harran.

Religious reforms

Nabûnaʾid promoted Sîn as the main god during his reign instead of the traditional Babylonian god Marduk. He continued to worship Marduk and other Babylonian gods as lesser deities. He adopted Aramean religious practices in order to gain the support of the Aramean tribes living across the empire. However, his reforms angered the clergy and led them to support the Persian invaders.

Persian conquest

In 553 BCE, the Medes removed their garrison in Harran in order to fight the Persians. Nabûnaʾid recaptured Harran and restored the temple of Sîn destroyed during the war with the Assyrians. He also conquered Taymāʾ in Central Arabia and took control of its caravan routes to Egypt. He moved his residence to Taymāʾ and gave his son Bēlšaruṣur control of the Babylonian administration. In 546 BCE, Egypt allied with Babylon in order to prepare for the Persian invasion.

The priests of Marduk were disloyal to Nabûnaʾid because of his religious reforms, and the merchants wanted the rule of a great power to stabilize their markets and trade routes. The peoples conquered by the Babylonians, many of whom had been deported to Babylon itself, welcomed the Persians as liberators. In October 539 BCE, Persian forces led by Kūruš II finally conquered Babylonia and deposed Nabûnaʾid.