I. Name

The divine name Malik, once probably the absolute state of Mal(i)kum, must originally have been an epithet meaning ‘prince, king’ or ‘advisor, counsellor’, signifying an aspect of another god, perhaps Dagan, the chief god of Ebla and of the old North-Semites. Consequently, we find it in cuneiform script with and without determinative, the latter especially when it is a theophoric element of a personal name. Since Old Babylonian times, Malik and Ma…