Note 839 — Chapter VI · DECIPHERMENT OF THE THIRD OR BABYLONIAN COLUMN—HINCKS AND RAWLINSON—A.D. 1846-1851

The sign for ‘king’ was written ‘melik,’ after the Hebrew, till it was seen that the Assyrians pronounced it ‘sarru’ (Menant, Manuel, p. 265). In Rawlinson’s analysis he points out that one of the terms for ‘king’ was certainly ‘sarru,’ as in the Window inscription of Darius at Persepolis and also at Khorsabad. ‘This discovery,’ he adds, ‘of course tends to discredit the reading of “melik,” and to suggest the uniform adoption of “sarru”’ (J. R. A. S. xiv. p. iii, note). The discovery was made by Longpérier in 1847, and he gives the Hebrew equivalent (Revue Archéologique, 1848, Longpérier to Löwenstern, Sept. 1847, p. 503). Oppert assigns the credit to De Saulcy (Journal Asiatique, 1857, ix. 142), who mentions it in 1849. Hincks seems to have been the first to suggest ‘melik’ or ‘malek’ (1849). ‘On Khorsabad,’ Trans. R. I. Acad. xxii. 39.