15 Facts About Inzak

Inzak was the main god of the pantheon of Dilmun.

Evidence of the worship of Inzak is available from Mesopotamia, where he appears for the first time in an inscription of king Gudea.

Inzak is attested in theophoric names from locations such as Ur, Lagaba and the Sealand.

Inzak was either worshiped there alongside Ea and Inshushinak, or functioned as an epithet of the latter god in this city.

Inzak was one of the two main deities of Dilmun, the other being Meskilak.

Jean-Jacques Glassner notes that while various spellings of Inzak's name attested in Mesopotamian texts might reflect ancient attempts at providing it with an invented etymology, it is unlikely that they reflect the genuine origin of the name.

Inzak is mentioned in cuneiform inscriptions of Yagli-El, found during recent excavations in A'ali in Bahrain in a structure designated as Royal Mound 8 by archeologists.

Inzak is referred to as a deity of Agarum in these texts.

Inzak suggests that if his theory is correct, the Dilmunite royal ideology might have influenced the position of later Sabaean mukarribs, who interceded between the ordinary inhabitants of Saba and the main local god, Almaqah.

Various theophoric names invoking Inzak are attested in sources from sites associated with Dilmunite culture, including feminine Balti-Inzak.

Stephanie Dalley instead argues that since the names are linguistically Akkadian aside from the theonym invoked in them, it is possible Inzak was incorporated into the local pantheon of the Sealand and had a hitherto unidentified cult center somewhere in Mesopotamia, though she points out he appears to be absent from known offering lists.

Inzak, paired with Meskilak and like her referred to as one of the "deities of Dilmun," appears in greeting formulas of the letters exchanged between Ili-liya, apparently a nickname of Enlil-kidinni, the governor of Nippur during the reigns of Kassite kings Burnaburiash II and Kurigalzu II, and a certain Ili-ippasra.

Stephanie Dalley maintains that references to Inzak being treated as a female deity analogous to Ninsianna are known.

Inzak is the last of them to be mentioned, and his appearance is preceded by Enki declaring his flank hurts him.

Theophoric names invoking Inzak are attested in sources from Susa from the Old Babylonian period, but according to Ran Zadok they might belong to people from Dilmun, rather than local inhabitants.