Friend of the King: Revisiting the Household Terminology in EA 288 and Its Socio-Political Implications

EMANUEL PFOH

Ancient Near Eastern Weltanschauungen in Contact and in Contrast: Rethinking Ideology and Propaganda in the Ancient Near East

Zaphon Verlag

Lugar: Münster; Año: 2022; p. 343 - 360

In EA 288, ´Abdi-Ḫeba, ruler of Jerusalem, writes to the Pharaoh and calls himself ´´friend/companion of the king´´. While ancient Near Eastern and Biblical scholarship has correctly addressed the phrase relating it to some sort of royal servant, an effort to widen the scope of connotation of the terminology has actually not been attempted. This paper offers then a perspective from the ethnohistorical and ethnographic records on friendship and companionship, in order to illuminate the socio-political meaning of this appellative, as well as the political ontologies and ideologies at interplay. In effect, the phrase may be understood as pertaining to a patrimonial order in society, expressing household politics, especially patron-client relationships, not only as a practice active in Syria-Palestine during Late Bronze Age times, but also as an indigenous political ontology reflected in the Amarna letters.