Obodas I

Obodas I (; ) was a Nabataean king who ruled over the kingdom from 96 to 85 BC. Celebrated by his people for having defeated both Hasmonean and Seleucid forces who invaded Nabataea, he was worshipped and possibly deified after death - though this may be based on a faulty understanding of Nabataean religious practices which remain largely obscure to modern scholarship. A Nabataean inscription honouring him in Ein Avdat is considered to be one of the oldest examples of poetic verse in the Arabic language, transcribed in Nabataean script. The town of Avdat (originally Abda(t) in Arabic) was named for him.

Name His name transcribed in Nabataean Aramaic was found in an inscription carved into a rock overlooking the Ein Avdat gorge, just over from the site of the ruins of one of the Nabataean cities he ruled over in Palestine's Negev. Al-Mallah transcribes his name in Arabic as , which means "submission, obedience or worship (of god)".

Life

Obodas I was the successor of Aretas II, and one of his sons, from whom he inherited the war with the Hasmonean kingdom.

Around 93 BC, Obodas engaged the forces of Alexander Jannaeus in Nabataean territory near Gadara (Umm Qais), just east of the Sea of Galilee, near the Golan Heights. Obodas achieved great renown for defeating both the Hasmoneans and the Greeks. a notion advanced by the Byzantine writer Uranios in the sixth century who wrote of Obodas the king whom they worship as a god. Still other scholars contend that it was not Obodas I who was deified, but rather one of the successor kings who shared his name.

Obodas is presumed to have been buried in the Negev, at a place that was renamed in his honour, 'Abdeh, though his tomb remains unlocated. There are several inscriptions mentioning Obodas, most cut into stone, and at least one inscribed onto a bronze object. Mrzh is interpreted as a private religious group with a limited number of members. The inscription may be indication that the entire Deir complex was dedicated to a cult of worship centered around Obodat, a deity, or a deified king.

Bronze disc A bronze disc carrying an inscription mentioning "Obodas the god" (lʿbdt ʾlhʾ) was discovered in Khirbet al-Falahat in Wadi Musa. The disc is speculated to have formed part of an incense oil burner or lamp, though no Nabataean examples of the complete item has yet been discovered. The lettering is inscribed on the outer edge of the object and is assumed to continue on the parts of the other parts of the burner or lamp that remain undiscovered. The English translation reads:"This is the oil burner (or oil lamp?) and the summer vessel (?) which Zwyls the priest and his son 'Abd'obodat dedicated to Obodas the God in the temple of cult reliefs (?) in Gaia for the life of Rabbel the king, king of the Nabataeans who gives life and saves his people and for the life ..." Abd'obadat is a Nabataean personal name that appears in other dedicatory inscriptions and it means "servant of Obodat", and Abd is a common component in Arabic personal names.