Note 42 — Chapter VII

This is not the only occasion on which we hear of the despatch of physicians from one foreign country to another at this period. Naturally they were supplied by Egypt and Babylon, as the two great centres of science and learning. Thus Khattusil refers to a physician (asû) and an exorcist (ashipu), who had formerly been sent from Babylon to the Hittite king Mutallu but had not returned. Kadashman-Enlil had evidently written to enquire about them, and Khattusil replies that the exorcist is dead, but that the physician will be sent back; cf. Winckler, op. cit., p. 26. Medicine at this time was, of course, merely a branch of magic, and the asû a practising magician; see above, p. 194.