The surviving accounts are unanimous on one thing and one thing only. The destruction of Heliopolis by the Tarkanids in 2639 BCE (1172 auc) was savage, and it was total. Heliopolis was razed to the ground, its monuments and wonders destroyed, its people raped and slaughtered, its libraries burned, its books, along with a million bodies, tossed into the Zagra River. Writing 132 years later (2507 BCE) Saraya of Apilai (d. 2489 BCE) claimed that the Zagra ran so thick with ink and blood, so saturated with bodies and books– millions of codices and papyri scrolls of ancient wisdom, the vast majority of which are now lost to us– that one could literally walk across its surface. It seemed that the Divine Reality (in Zagran terms) was still unsatisfied, and in 2460 BCE, on the Cerulean island of Tirax, Mount Kresos erupted. Then, to borrow from Genesis 24, ‘God rained Sulphur and Fire… on all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.’ Thus ended history’s chapter on the Heliopolites and the Zagra Valley.
In 1963, in an excavation on Mount Anbūr in Upper Kufa, at the site we believe might be the ruins of the Gaean Temple of No Station, Hermann Liebewicz’s team discovered sixteen clay jars containing 139 papyri codices– simultaneously the oldest and most intact collection of Kufic writings to date. Prior to this landscape-altering find, the only surviving pieces of Zagran writing available to us were papyri fragments of Coptic and Greek translations of the original Old Kufic texts. This discovery of intact codices, written in the Old Kufic native to the Zagra regions, carbon dated between 3rd-4th millenia BCE, is easily the most extraordinary archaeological find of the past two and a half centuries, and a new chapter of human history, of a people so culturally and intellectually rich and refined, has now been re-opened. The Old Kufic is simply exquisite. At a stroke, the entire discipline of Kufic Studies was transformed. It was as if the academy had gained an ocean when all there was prior to this auspicious boon was a trickle.
The diverse range of literature—diverse in form, genre, category, and function—reflects the diverse preoccupations of Zagran literary and philosophical figures. Their fascination with the creative literary form in particular is unique among other pre-classical civilizations, with unparalleled production of major and minor works of prose and poetry. The general character of the writing could be considered sacred in nature, though lacking the fiery dogma characteristic of similar genres of writing de jour. Profane multi-genre works make up a small portion of found Kufic writings, and typically take the form of isolated fables, legends, and pastoral poetry.
What is enormously helpful is the fact that the 139 papyri codices seem to be from a single library belonging to a specific Gaean sect, led by a cult figure and his followers. The fact that the philosophical and ascetic gnostic views espoused in all the writings adhere to a singular Gaean school of metaphysics: that of the Prophet Yāsīn (d. ~ 2297 BCE) and his disciples – thus helps to provide a surprising sense of intellectual coherence to the material. The three anonymous exceptions presented in this publication I have combined into one creation myth. Not only are the creation codices anonymous but they are, with respect to tone, timbre, style and register, complete outliers when compared to all extant Kufic works during or prior to the classical period. The theory that Yāsīn and his disciples authored these anonymous works is contentious, but, crucially, the philosophical and metaphysical views of the creation trilogy are remarkably consistent with Yāsīn’s school of thought: scholars and readers are free to draw their own conclusions.
With this newly found library of papyri codices, there is an opportunity to shed light on a nearly lost civilization of rich cultural heritage and extraordinary intellectual traditions across disciplines in both the sacred and secular sciences. It is vital to remember that Zagran history is our history; Zagran heritage our heritage. Human history is a collective history, a transcription, when all is said and done, of our love/hate relationships with Creation and her Creator.
Richard Dubreuil
Horus Hawkley Professor Emeritus of Kufic Studies
Department of Philosophy & Religion
Emmerich University