Hurrians, Amorites, And Horitesː The Beginnings Of Akans/Hebrews₋Aramaic

Preamble
Akan tribes are made up of Hurrians, Amorites, and Horites and they form the group we call the Hebrews who now inhabit modern Ghana. The names are used interchangeably by some scholars who see Hurrians as the beginners appearing in the latter two stages of Amorites then the Horites who later settled in Canaan.

The Purpose of the Study
In this presentation, I shall give separate descriptions of these groups of people and later summarize by saying that these people now form the major tribes who we call Hebrews or Akans who live in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. They are the dominant tribes in these regions who possess distinctive characteristics.

Hurrians
Hurrians are referred to elsewhere in history books as Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, and Hurri. These people were the native inhabitants who settled in the Ancient Near East about the time of the Bronze Age. Their language was the Hurrian language. They were seen in settlements in northern Syria, and Mesopotamia in the north and southeastern part of Anatolia.

These people were the pioneers whose history was written in the city of Urkesh, where they built their first kingdom. Mitanni was their most influential kingdom. In the Hittite Empire in Anatolia, there was a large population of Hurrians, and their mythology had a significant influence on the Hittite people. The Hurrians were assimilated with other peoples during the early Iron Age. Later Urartu state covered some of the same area.

Culture and Language of their Society

Archaeological excavations at sites such as Nuzi and Alalakh provide information about their culture and distinctive habits. More information about them is obtained from cuneiform tablets which were primarily from Hattusa, that is, the capital of the Hittites. The Hittite civilization was strongly influenced by the Hurrians. Cuneiform tablets from Nuzi, Alalakh, and other neighboring cities with Hurrian folks show Hurrian cultural features and they were written in the Akkadian language. The cylinder seals of Hurrians were meticulously crafted and usually displayed of motifs of mythology. These arts and artifacts are major things to help comprehend the Hurrian culture and history.

The Akkadian language was by the Hurrian as their language and they also employed Cuneiform writing about the year 2000 BC. Some Cuneiform texts in the Hurrian language have been discovered at Hattusa, Ugarit the longest being the Amarna letters (EA 27) which were written by King Tushratta of Mitanni to Pharaoh Amenhotep III/Ametakpe III. Later, the multi-tablet collection of books in the Hurrian language with a Hittite translation was found at Hattusa as recently as in 1983.

Amorites
The Amorites, an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking Bronze Age people, originated from the Levant. They showed up in Sumer records around 2500 BC, and later they spread and occupied most of the Levant, Mesopotamia, and certain regions of Egypt from the 2100 BC to the late 1700 BC.

Amorites founded many important city-states in existing locations, especially, in Isin, and Larsa, They are known to have grounded cities such as Mari and Ebla, and later Babylon and the Old Babylonian Empire. Again the Fourteenth Dynasty of Egypt in the Nile Delta was grounded by them. Wildly noted rulers bearing Amorite names such as Yakbim, and others were likely part of the later Hyksos.

The designation Amurru in Akkadian language and Sumerian cuneiform texts points to the Amorites and their prominent god, and an Amorite kingdom. The Hebrew Bible discusses the Amorites as inhabitants of biblical Canaan both before and immediately after the conquest of the land under Joshua.

Religion and Language of Amorites
The Amorite language was closely related to the Canaanite, Aramaic, and Sam'alian languages. At the city of Mari, Amorite scribes wrote in an Eshnunna dialect of east Semitic Akkadian language. This was in 1800 BC. The texts appear to possess northwest Semitic forms, words, and constructions. The Amorite language is thought to be a Northwest Semitic language. The sources for the extremely limited extant knowledge of the Amorite language are the proper names and loanwords, not Akkadian in style. Amorite names were used throughout Mesopotamia in the Old Babylonian period; they were employed also in Alalakh and modern-day Bahrain. They are also written in Ancient Egyptian records. Ugaritic is also a Northwest Semitic language and is possibly an Amorite dialect.

Dagan, who is identified with Enlil was the supreme deity/god in many cities in the Upper Euphrates, especially in some cities such as Mari, Tuttul, and Terqa. Texts in the Babylonia language mentioned the Supreme god of the Amorites as Amurru (Ilu Amurru, ^DMAR.TU). This corresponds to their name for the ethnic group. They also identify his helper as the goddess Asheratum.^[29]

Horites
Horites have been employed with references in Egyptian writings to Khar, which is usually translated as Harri; and this refers to a southern region of Canaan. Not long ago some scholars associated them with the Hurrian people. The rabbinical tradition in Genesis Rabbah 42:6 (300-500 CE) indicates that they are known as Horites since they enjoy freedom and independence. The name is cognate with ḥori meaning “free”.

In the Hebrew Bible, Horites appear in the Torah as being members of a Canaanite coalition, who inhabit near Sodom and Gomorrah. These people rebelled against Kedorlamer of Elam, who ruled them for twelve years. However, scholars believe Kedorlamer attacked and subdued them in response, which can be found in the book of Genesis 14:1–12.

The Horites co-existed and inter-married with the family of Esau, grandson of Abraham through Isaac. They were eventually brought under the rule of the descendants of Esau, also then known as Edom.

Idumea, Syria, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia

It is not known for sure the ancestry of Seir the Horite. Seir lived around the time of Terah [Kenah], father of Abraham. He was the descendant of Hor who is supposed to have sojourned in the time of Reu and was a descendant of Hivi, son of Canaan son of Ham.

In the book of Genesis, that is, Genesis 36:20–29, the pre-Edomite Horite rulers, descendants of Seir, are listed. One can read 1 Chronicles 1:38–42. Two of these rulers would appear to have been female, that is, Timna and Oholibamah. Timna is known to be the progenitor of the Amalekites, the archenemy of the Israelites (Genesis 36:12).

The rulers who descended from Esau have been documented in Genesis 36:40–43. As time elapsed, certain of these leaders climbed to the position of 'kings' over the other rulers, and the Horite land became known as Edom rather than the land of Seir. One example of these kings is Jobab, son of Zerah, a son of Esau and his wife Basemath, who was Ishmael's daughter (Genesis 36:35). Another is a 'Temanite', Husham (Genesis 36:34), a descendant of Esau's son, Teman (Genesis 36:10, 11).

After the death of their fathers, none of these kings' sons became kings. There was no familial royal line whereby sons of these post-Horite kings succeeded to the throne. Rather, some other system was in place by which kings were either chosen or won the right to rule (Genesis 36:31–39).

By the time the governance of these peoples had been consolidated under kings instead of mere rulers, Horites were not mentioned. Deuteronomy 2:22 informs that the Edomites destroyed the Horites and settled in their land. Scholar and theologians Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch have conjectured that the Horites are the Rephaim since the verse explicitly compares the Edomite conquest with the Moabite and Ammonite conquests of the Rephaim.

Discussion and Concluding Remarks
Hebrews‛ lives commenced as Hurrians, who lived in the settlements in Northern Syria, and Mesopotamia in the North and Southeastern part of Anatolia. The Amorites, an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking Bronze Age people also originated from the Levant. They had showed up in Sumer records around 2500 BC, and later they expanded and occupied most of the Levant, Mesopotamia, and certain regions of Egypt from the 2100 BC to the late 1700 BC. They have grounded cities such as Mari and Ebla, and later Babylon and the Old Babylonian Empire. Again the Fourteenth Dynasty of Egypt in the Nile Delta was built by the Amorites. The Horites, on the other hand, co-existed and inter-married with the family of Esau, grandson of Abraham through Isaac. They were eventually brought under the rule of the descendants of Esau, also then known as Edom. When scholars talk about these peoples as extinct, they forget the fact that when people could not prevail in war, they moved on to other safe areas and settled there. They do not offer themselves to be uprooted entirely by their conquerors.

All these Hebrew/Akan tribes which include the Ancient Babylonians, Ancient Egyptians, and Ancient Israelites which consisted of the forging together of the descendants of Isaac and his two sons Jacob and Esau were compelled to move to the present abode in Ghana when they could not prevail in wars originated by invaders. These wars made the Hebrews/Akans and other smaller tribes compelled to migrate to present Ghana and other areas toward the southern part of Canaan. Later, other wars took place in BC 63, BC 66, and AD 70. The last one was the last straw that broke the camel's back. It was brutal and historic records showed the deaths of many people such that blood was seen flowing like a river in Canaan. Before these forced migrations, the Hebrews/Akans, who had originated and inhabited modern Iraq were occupying Canaan and its environments.

The earlier great wars of empire expansions which were initiated by the Medo₋Persia Empire, the Grecian Empire and later the ironfisted Roman Empire forced them to flee to safety. Forming temporary kingdoms, they settled successively in Chad and Northern Nigeria, and the conquest of them by a Hausa Queen made them settle in present-day Mali and Niger before the Hebrew₋Aramaic people moved to the present abode. As they moved along, they named their cities after those cities that they had left behind. They repeated this naming characteristic in Ghana, Ivory Coast, and its environments.

Wars and conquests that spanned several thousands of years in between as invaders brought them to their present location. The rationalized black civilizations that existed in Ancient Mesopotamia, Babylon, Assyria, and, later the Roman Empire ended up being on the West Coast of the African region of today.

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Frankfort, H. (1939). Cylinder seals: a Documentary Essay on the Art and Religion of the Ancient Near East. MacMillan and Co., Pl. XXVIII e+i

Jump up to ^{a b} Burke, Aaron A. (2019). "Amorites in the Eastern Nile Delta: The Identity of Asiatics at Avaris during the Early Middle Kingdom". In Bietak, Manfred; Prell, Silvia (eds.). The Enigma of the Hyksos. Harrassowitz. pp. 67–91. ISBN 9783447113328.

Jump up to:^{a b} Bietak, Manfred (2019). "The Spiritual Roots of the Hyksos Elite: An Analysis of Their Sacred Architecture, Part I". In Bietak, Manfred; Prell, Silvia (eds.). The Enigma of the Hyksos. Harrassowitz. pp. 47–67. ISBN 9783447113328.

van Seters, John, "The Terms ‘Amorite’ and ‘Hittite’ in the Old Testament", Vetus Testamentum, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 64–81, 1972

Horites at International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.

James Orr, "Horites", in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, (1915) page 1421.

Lawrence A. Sinclair (2000). "Horites". In David Noel Freedman (ed.). Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. W.B. Eerdmans. p. 607. ISBN 978-0-8028-2400-4.

Freedman, H.; Simon, Maurice (1939). Midrash Rabbah, Translated into English. Vol. 1. p. 348. note 6: Hori is derived from ḥeruth, freedom, and ḥori, free.

"Deuteronomy 2: Keil and Delitzsch OT Commentary". Biblehub.