8. Knowledge and power, kingship and scholarship

Did the king have all the power and the scholars all the knowledge?

Scholarly kingship: royal literacy

Powerful scholarship: Mar-Issar PGP  and Babylonian politics

Balancing scholarship and power: addressing Esarhaddon

Mar-Issar's case shows that scholarly trustworthiness could lead to substantial political roles in the Assyrian court – and presumably great wealth. But the system of multiple, parallel reporting to the king, together the king's own (limited?) scholarly ability, both acted as limiting factors in scholarly power over the king while encouraging a culture of careful documentation and justificatory explanation for scholarly decisions and interpretations.

Further reading

Content last modified: 05 Apr 2024.

 
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