48 dagmar kühn
territory (hadad, Baʿalšamayin, el, Šamaš). the oldest inscription from
the Samʾal king Kulamuwa enumerates the tutelary gods of his ancestors
(Kai 24: 15–16) and presents rakkabʾel as the tutelary god of his dynasty.71
Later, King panamuwa i enumerates hadad, el, rakkabʾel, Šamaš, and
rešep, who laid the scepter of kingship in his hands (Kai 214: 2–3).
hadad is the god most often mentioned in the Samʾal inscriptions.72 King
hazael of damascus was also appointed to his position by hadad (Kai
310: 4). the usurper73 king Zakkur of hamath and Luʿaš was supposedly
appointed as king not by the family god iluwer but by the principal deity
Baʿalšamayin, who stood by the king in his political and military affairs
(Kai 202: 3).74 this reference to the local and national gods of the con-
quered territories mirrors the growing political self-confidence of the ara-
maean kings. the reference to special tutelary gods remained restricted
to the family and the dynasty, in the semi-nomadic tradition. the refer-
ence to the principal gods of the land or territory covered the whole state
and the different ethnicities within their region. it legitimized the king
before the entire population and ensured their loyalty.75 the indigenous
population seemed to have exerted considerable influence. the refer-
ence to the weather-god and the sun-god as gods of kingship in Samʾal,
for example, shows the influence of the indigenous Luwian population,76
whose loyalty King Kulamuwa felt it was prudent to win.
at the same time, the tutelary god of the family remained important for
the dynasty. in Samʾal, rakkabʾel was the god of the dynasty probably from
the time of King hayyan, whose family or clan god he might have been.
he was also called the “Lord of the house” (bʿl byt: Kai 24: 16; 214: 22).77
71 every dynasty seems to have had its own tutelary god: Baʿal Ṣemed (dynasty of
Gabbar), Baʿal hammon (dynasty of Banah), rakkabʾel (from hayyan to Bar-rakkab).
72 he is mentioned 16 times, followed by rakkabʾel (11 times), cf. tropper 1993:
20–24.
73 For the origin of Zakkur from ʿanah, see millard 1990.
74 For the spread of the veneration of Baʿalšamayin into central Syria, see niehr 2003:
89–96.
75 Similar reasons may be assumed concerning the veneration of the gods rešep and
arq-rešep. they could have been the gods of parts of the population whose loyalty the
king strove to inspire. the god arq-rešep, in particular, may have been introduced from
tribes who stemmed from north arabia; cf. Lipiński 2000a: 619 and id. 2009a: 225–227.
76 For the mškbm, who probably represented the indigenous Luwian population, see
section 3.1, above.
77 tropper 1993: 20f.