Chapter I:
Birth of the Friend of God
Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. If you're reading this story then I thank you a lot for your time and for giving this story a chance.
Now, dear reader, whether you're a Muslim, a Christian, or a Jewish, I would like to ask, do you know the prophet, Abraham? Probably yes. If not, then it's okay. This is your chance to learn about him. If you know about him, then let me ask you: what's so special about him? In the three Abrahamic religions, Abraham is a very important figure and has a great place in the heart of the believers. What gave Abraham such a high place in these religions? Was it because he's an ancestor of the prophets? Or is it something else in him that made him not only a great leader but even the father of faith and the friend of God!?
Follow him and his family on their journey from Mesopotamia to Egypt, from the day Abraham was born, till the day Jacob and his great family came to the land of Egypt under the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III.
Note: The religious sources of the events are the Torah, the Bible, the Quran, the Hadiths, and the rabbinic culture.
As for the dates in Ancient Mesopotamia, I'll go on with the ultra-low chronology (which dates King Hammurabi's reign from 1697 B.C. to 1654 B.C.). On the other hand, I'll date the events in Egypt with the High Chronology (which dates Amenhotep I's reign from 1546 B.C. to 1525 B.C.).
Larsa - 1808 B.C.
In the great royal palace of king Abisare, the 6th Amorite ruler stood on the balcony of his room, observing the city that his Sumerian ancestors built, waiting for his sukkal-maÓ (vizier) to come with the news.
Soon, two guards entered and bowed down on their knees before one of them spoke with a tone of respect: "Divine one, Etellum is asking for permission to enter."
"Permission accepted," replied the emperor of Larsa, "Let him in."
Then, a tall white man with black curly hair entered the court wearing a skirt made of a fleece-like fabric known as kaunakes. It was no other than the sukkal-maÓ Etellum, husband of the king's daughter Ayalatum. The tall male kneeled in respect and looked at his lord before saying: "Great king of the empire of Larsa, Abisare. I was in the city of Ur this day, and I asked the inhabitants about the rumor that spread in that region."
"And what did they tell you?" asked the old man.
"It's... It's true your majesty," responded the vizier, "the Aramaean group of nomads, known as the Habiru, are truly the ones that attacked the caravan loaded with gifts, treasures, and precious perfumes sent to you by the kings of the neighboring provinces."
The emperor looked away from his servants and thought for a while before replying: "So my suspicions are confirmed. Those nomads of the desert are proven guilty," he turned then back before giving his orders to the sukkal-maÓ, "If that's the case, then this will be easier than I thought. If I'm not mistaken, the Aramaeans who live in my kingdom are located in the south part of the empire: in the desert, Ur Kasdim, Lagash, and Eridu, right?"
"Yes, divine one. They're not as numerous as they might look. Executing the commands won't be difficult at all."
"Excellent, then. Go on and order the soldiers to do as I said." The man then walked out of King's room only to bump into a middle-aged woman in her late thirties, who was none other than his wife, Ayalatum. She seemed to be panicked and in a hurry. The moment she saw her husband, she asked him with worry: "Etellum! Etellum, tell me, is my father inside?"
"Yes," responded her man, "he is there but- Ayalatum, wait !" The vizier tried to stop his wife from entering, but it was too late. She already went inside the room and looked at her father before asking him with worry and a bit of anger: "Father, is it true!? What the guards have told me, is it true!? Please tell me it's just a joke or a rumor. Please tell me!"
King Abisare, knowing exactly what his daughter meant, only nodded his head in response. The princess started to plead with her father saying: "Dad, please, you can't do that! I know that these people deserve to be punished for what they've done to you. You can enslave them, arrest them, throw them in jail, but kill their newborns!" Yes, that's true. The Amorite emperor was planning to kill all newborns of every single person descendant from the Hapiru, whether they were males or females.
The king of Larsa responded to his daughter: "Ayalatum, my dear daughter, you shall know that these aren't my orders. They're the commands of the gods. The En (priest) told me that, according to the orders of Inanna, I must kill all the newborns of the people who attacked the caravan. He prophesied that in the next half-century from now, a child will be born among them, and when he or she grows up, all the nations will kneel on their knees for him or her, and the statues of the gods will fall. This is why I shall slaughter them from now. That's their punishment. Also, I did not order to kill all the kids. Each man is allowed to have two children no more. And if they gave birth to a third one, his baby shall be sliced in half, whether this kid was from the same mother or a different woman."
"B-But father-"
"The gods have spoken," interrupted the old man, "we have nothing to do. We shall obey them so our empire does not perish. Now go back to your room."
The lady was frustrated and enraged by the actions of her father and the priests. How could they order such a merciless thing like this!? They no way that the gods could ever order such a massacre to be done. The gods are supposed to help people in their lives. Even if they would order something like this, there must a reason. The priests always ordered them to do this and that without giving them any explanations. Are they following the orders of the gods or the priests? She couldn't say anything. She knew that she can't stand in front of them. She really felt pity for these poor babies who'll die in the next fifty years! However, unknown to her, there was a child who was going to survive.
Ur Kasdim - 1758 B.C.
In the ancient Sumerian city of Ur Kasdim, we see a man standing at the door of his house next to his three wives Mahalarh, Bethany, and Damrina. In the arms of Mahalarh was the child Nahor - who was only fifteen months old - and not far from the couple was their firstborn Haran, his wife Ningal, their 3-year-old daughter Iscah, and their servants and slaves.
This 130-year-old man was the prince and En of the city of Ur Kasdim: Azar. Despite having surpassed the age of one hundred, he looked like a modern middle-aged man. He kept staring at the soldiers who were currently investigating every zone of his house until he finally got tired and approached their chief asking him: "Excuse me, for how long will you keep searching my house?"
The soldier didn't look at him, he just responded: "Till we find this baby you're hiding."
"Hiding? Listen, I don't know if you realize this but I am Azar, the prince, and En of this city. I live to serve the gods and their son who sits on the throne. If I had a kid born in this period, I would've brought him to his highness myself so he could kill him with his own hands. I will never betray our lord, King Nur-Adad! "
Untouched by his speech, the soldier turned around and looked at the old priest in the eyes before responding to him: "Oh, really? Then tell me, great priest, aren't you the son of Nahor the Aramaic?"
Azar said nothing. He just looked away.
"Answer me, Azar! Or shall I say, Terah?"
The old man couldn't believe his ears. The soldier already knew who he was. He started to sweat from nerves, not knowing how to handle this. The chief turned to his troop and revealed the truth to them, saying: "What? Haven't you ever heard the story of Nahor, son of Serug? The heretic infidel who rebelled against the gods of Ur? No? Then it's very simple:
Nahor was one of the Aramaic tribes that were living in the city of Ur Kasdim. One day, he claimed to the public that the gods, our gods, the gods that our ancestors worshipped for their entire life, the gods that gave us life and protected our empire, are nothing more than some pieces of stone standing in their places harmlessly. He claimed that the kings and priests of the land are dictators who control people's minds for their own sake, fooling them to become their slaves.
We tried to reason with him, but he refused to change his mind. As a result, he and all his followers were burnt alive as a punishment.
On that fateful day, Nahor and all of his children died." The captain then turned his look to Azar and continued: "Or at least, most of his children died."
"I absolved from those sinners long ago. I have no relation to them anymore."
"Excuse me," stepped one of the slaves, "if I remember correctly, my master Azar was the only survivor thanks to his great faith and respect for the gods of the land and his refusal to follow the beliefs of the heretic Nahor. He will never do such a thing and disobey our deities. Ask any of us and we'll all confirm the same thing."
"Your testimonies do not count," replied the officer, "What if I tell you that according to one of your neighbors' testimony, she heard the cries of a baby coming from here? You have an explanation for that mister 'royal-servant'?"
The Sumerian slave, Urmah, trembled at first. He didn't know what to answer. He didn't put in mind that one of the neighbors overheard them, let alone report them.
Thankfully, Mahalarh stepped in time to save the situation and addressed the captain of the squad: "Sir, with all my respect, don't you think that you could've made a mistake? As you can see, I have a child in my arms who's less than two years old. And our servants have newborns of their own who are a few months old. Don't you think that... whoever reported us to you could have simply mistaken the voice of their crying for a newborn?"
The man in question huffed and stared at his troop. The boys have searched everywhere and found nothing. If they keep searching for nothing, it'll give the other families enough time to hide their kids or escape the land with them! Not to mention that, if we suppose that Azar does hide a third child, he can't hide him forever. Sooner or later, he'll have to show up.
The officer let out a deep sigh and exited the house, giving the soldiers his orders: "Come on, we'll leave. But we'll keep an eye on the place." But before he left, he moved to the old priest and stared at him eye-to-eye and whispered: "I'm watching you, Hebrew."
After making sure that the troop was far away from their home, Urmah gave the signal: "Master, they left."
Then, the slaves, alongside Haran, walked to a large stone statue of Sīn - one of the local deities of the city- and with all their force, they moved it, revealing a wooden door of a closet behind it.
Azar stepped to his idol, prostrated to it praised it: "Great one, please forgive me for using your statue for such a vile job. I-I swear to you, I'm gonna sacrifice ten of my sheep for you. The best of the best!" After finishing his short prayers, the old man stood up and opened the door, revealing the secret he was hiding behind it.
On the inside was a small interwoven-made basket covered with a homemade Flax fabric. Terah moved his right hand slowly to it and pulled the blanket to see the bright, cute, sleepy face of his third child whose second wife Mahalarh gave birth to just a week ago.
The birth of the baby was a miracle itself. Not only the pregnancy didn't appear at all on his mother, but he was born at a late hour of night when all living beings have already fallen asleep. And thank goodness he didn't wake up by all that shouting noise the soldiers have caused in search of him. The father felt as if the gods were protecting him secretly. Maybe they were thanking him for his loyalty to them, or maybe they were preparing the child to be their next priest after he passes away and join his ancestors.
Suddenly, he felt the hand of the baby's mother touching his shoulder, waking him from his fantasies and bringing him back to the land of the living. He noticed how she didn't even try to hide her fear and worry as she told him: "Azar, we should do something. We cannot hide him forever. Sooner or later, they'll definitely come back."
The woman had all reasons to worry about her son's (and maybe the entire household) fate. In fact, they've all been in fear and living nightmares ever since they found out about the mother's pregnancy. At first, they thought about forcing the wife to miscarriage him, but she was all against it. She didn't want him to die even before being born and seeing the face of his parents. He did deserve to live. However, despite how joyful she was when seeing his beautiful face, it didn't drop the fact that her motherly love was shaking in terror of him being found to the point that they didn't even have the time to think of a name for him. During the entire week, they were referring to him by either "the boy", "the child", or "the newborn"...
"You're right," responded the father, "tonight, I'll take both of you to a nearby isolated mountain. You'll stay there for while until the next month when the massacre order is finished. Then, we'll think of what to do."
He then turned back to the baby, who was still sleeping and prayed to Sīn to protect him from whoever will want to harm him.
To be continued...