Kubaba — The First Female Ruler in History
Kubaba was the first female ruler who ruled over a vast and prosperous kingdom in antiquity.
As you know, women are regarded as an inferior being throughout history and Aristotle has even said: “that a female is an incomplete male or ‘as it were, a deformity’.” However, that’s not the case anymore, and even before Aristotle, there were women who proved to be more worthy than men in many regards.
We have seen queens ruling in antiquity, and they were of course powerful queens. We know some of them for their wisdom, such as the queen of Sheba. Some others have proved their mettle in war and had exceptional warrior skills for fighting that even they outdid men. One such example in the history of wars is Ahhotep II, who was buried along with her dagger and axe to honour her military prowess.
But, very few of us, know who was the first queen in history? Maybe that is still unknown, as human civilization is vast and has different origins. Some pre-historic events and people have perished from the world without a name. But every day, archaeologists are making advances to dig out more mysteries which may lead to more information about history.
However, in the recorded history, that is known worldwide, Kubaba was the first female ruler who ruled the ancient Southern Iraqi Sumerian Dynasty for a hundred years.
Queen Kubaba; the first female ruler in human civilization
According to the Sumerian King List, Kubaba is the only female ruler who has ruled for 100 years in the early days of the third dynasty of Kish during 2500–2330 BC, an ancient city-state of Sumer, Mesopotamia.
Kubaba or Kug-Bau, as she is called in Sumerian language, was the lone female ruler according to the Sumerian King list and she ruled after the Great Flood, following the defeat of Sharrumiter of Mari. Some historian links her with the Fourth dynasty of the Kish dynasty.
Her long rule of 100 years, according to assumptions of historians, might have seen difficulties. But she remained a powerful queen throughout her rule in ancient Iraqi civilization.
The Sumerian civilization and its power politics followed a series of a shift in the kingship from one city to another. Based on Sumerian civilization, if one city became powerful and defeated the king’s city, the winners get the kingship.
Sumerian civilization has cities with names such as Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larsa, Sippar, Shuruppak, Uruk, Kish, Ur, Nippur, Lagash, Girsu, Umma, Adab, Mari, Akshak 1, Akkad 1, and Isin.
These cities struggled against each other, and whoever would emerge from the powerful would claim the kingship of all the cities. Although, every city had a king of its own under the supreme king of all cities.
How She rose to the Rulership?
It’s pretty amazing to see a woman ruling in that ancient time and that too for a whole 100 years, with power, wisdom and glory. People loved her and later on, she came to be known as a goddess of power and beauty. People from around the dynasties admired her and cherished her.
But in reality, she was not a queen by birth. Very little is known about her origin and how she became the queen and so powerful a ruler. But, according to ancient records, she was an alewife.
She held that position of a queen as her birthright, as is known often in history. But she was a barkeeper and served ale or some sort of ancient beer/drink in her tavern.
Now the question arises that a tavern runner could become a king. But according to Julia Assante “tavern keeping was a common and respectable female occupation until later periods in Mesopotamia.”
In ancient Sumer civilization till later Mesopotamian periods, female held the position of tavern-keeper and this was considered a respectable profession for female.
However, there is another proposition that whether she was the owner of the bar or she worked there as a server. This is still unknown. As they often consider the barmaids in history a little better from prostitutes, even today some people consider them near to prostitutes.
Another historian, Jerald Starr, is of the opinion that she was the tavern keeper, but her parents might have owned a bar. According to him, she was not a commoner, and she hailed from a high status early on. It is the propaganda of her enemies to have equated her with a tavern-keeper to tarnish her reputation and legacy.
According to Starr, in ancient Mesopotamia, women could not exert political prowess and had remained in the background. Maybe a king has married Kubaba and after that, she became the queen, but history doesn’t support this claim.
There is one source that quotes an event that may have made the place for Kubaba to become the Queen. Weidner Chronicle, which is an ancient religious Babylonian text and refers to the event like this:
In the reign of Puzur-Nirah, king of Akšak ... Kubaba gave bread to the fisherman and gave water, she made him offer the fish to Esagila. Marduk the king, the prince of Apsu, favored her and said: “Let it be so!” He entrusted to Kubaba the tavernkeeper, sovereignty over the whole world. (Lines 43–45, Weidner Chronicle)
As the text suggests, and according to Clark, Kubaba performed a kind deed and become the Lugal of Kush, as was the custom to reward the pious deeds in Sumer civilization. It seems that the King–Puzur-Nirah, king of Akshak, awarded the kingship because of her pious and generous nature.
There is another theory that suggests that Kubaba was a usurper and she has crossed the boundaries by stepping into the role of men. A woman was not excepted to take responsibility that was generally assigned to men.
No matter how she became the Queen, but it is clear that she made Kish a powerful kingdom. She was benign to her subjects and they, in turn, revered her. As Starr says,
“She is portrayed as a kindly woman in all of the stories about her... Ku-Baba never lost the ‘common touch’. Queen Ku-Baba was always ‘the people’s queen’.”
Her memories after her demise
Kubaba left an unforgettable legacy, and she was remembered throughout later ages for virtues. Over the years, shrines were built in her honour throughout Mesopotamia and she was worshipped as a goddess in Hurrian.
She was also hailed as a goddess of protection in the city of Carchemish on the upper Euphrates. She also came to be known as “mother Cybele” in the later kingdoms of Anatolia.
After her death, which is unknown how she died and where is her tomb, her son Puzur-Suen succeeded as a king of Kish kingdom. After her son, her grandson Ur-Zababa became the king of Kish dynasty.
She and her successors are known for their virtues and their prosperous rule over the Sumerian kingdom.
