Lu-Enlila

Lu-Enlila was a Mesopotamian merchant and seafarer from the city of Ur who traded in wool, textiles, sesame oil, and leather goods in exchange for copper. The temple of Nanna, the moon god, employed him to sell woolen textiles in Magan in order to buy copper. He came home not only with the copper but also with beads, ivory, and special “Magan onions”.

His career must have been an exciting, though perhaps somewhat hazardous as the Persian Gulf through which he sailed regularly was blazing hot and humid in summer, and in the fall, sudden gales would blow up out of nowhere, buffeting the boats and no doubt capsizing some.

After Lu-Enlila’s time, the Mesopotamian traders seem to have stopped travelling all the way to Magan for their copper. By the 19th century BC, the sailors who set out on the Persian Gulf in search of copper headed not for Magan but for the closer shores of Dilmun (Bahrain).