Marubbu

MARUBBU

 

Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, ends his list of places belonging to the Sidonian kingdom in 676 BC with the name si-du-un-ni. This location is already well known = Sidon/Saïda. So, this location needs no further elaboration.

Besides the sixteen localities enumerated in the list, Esarhaddon’s inscriptions mention two additional Sidonian towns allotted by the king of Assyria to Baal I, namely Ma-’-ru-ub-bu and s.a-rip-tu. Marubbu means in Phoenician M’rb = West. Maybe the place could have the full name of: “from here it goes to the west”, just like Lilybaion (Marsala on Sicily) which means: “from here it goes to Libya”. Another explanation gives the Neo-Punic word M‘RB (“bymarob” in Poenulus 930/940), which means custody or care. This correspondences with the Hebrew “ ‘-r-b “= take custody of someone.

 

Lipinski (Itineraria Phoenicia):

Marubbu cannot be identified either with ‘Adlun, named in the Bordeaux Itinerary, or with Ornithopolis of the Greeks. See: E.Forrrer, (Die Provinzeinteilung des Assyrisches Reiches, Leipzig 1920, p.65-66. TPOA). Ornithopolis should be located at Tell al-Buraq, while Adlun, 6 km south of Sarepta and 18 km north of Tyrus, does not provide any concrete evidence of its being Mar‘ub. Besides, 1.5 km south of its extensive necropolis, there is the Wale Nabe Se‘ir. Since Se‘ir is a Palestinian toponym, there are chances that the Nabi‘ in question preserves an old indigenous place name of the site of ‘Adlun, still named ‘Adnun (<Ad Nonum) by Yaqut (1179-1229 AD)*, while the Crusaders were already calling it Adelon. There has been done some excavations in Aadloun, but they have only Palaeolithical and Neolithical results.

* See: G.Le Strange. Palestine under the Moslems, London, 1890, p.109.

 

On the other side, Ma‘rub is still mentioned in the treaty concluded in 1285 AD between Malik al-Mans.ur, sultan of Egypt, and Margaret, princess of Tyre**. This other explanation locates the site in question and is named also Ma‘rub 14 km northeast of Tyre as the crow flies and 3 km south of the Nahr al-Qasimiye. This could be Maaroub. Now, this Maaroub lies beneath the Litani (Nahr al-Qasimiye). Therefore it is not likely that it belonged to the former kingdom of Sidon! Only excavations can provide further evidence.

** Maqrizi, histoire des sultans mamelouks de l’Egypte, Paris 1887 Vol II.

 

Conclusion: there is no solid proof where Marubbu should be located.