Belshazzar

Belshazzar

Belshazzar (Babylonian cuneiform: Bēl-šar-uṣur, meaning "Bel, protect the king"; Hebrew: בֵּלְשַׁאצַּר‎ Bēlšaʾṣṣar) was the son and crown prince of Nabonidus (r. 556–539 BC), the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Through his mother, he might have been a grandson of Nebuchadnezzar II (r. 605–562 BC), though this is not certain and the claims to kinship with Nebuchadnezzar may have originated from royal propaganda. Belshazzar played a pivotal role in the coup d'état that overthrew the king Labashi-Marduk (r. 556 BC) and brought Nabonidus to power in 556 BC. Since Belshazzar was the main beneficiary of the coup, through confiscating and inheriting Labashi-Marduk's estates and wealth, it is likely that he was the chief orchestrator. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Belshazzar has received more than 1,151,272 page views. His biography is available in 39 different languages on Wikipedia. Belshazzar is the 264th most popular religious figure (down from 254th in 2019), the 22nd most popular biography from Iraq (down from 19th in 2019) and the 7th most popular Iraqi Religious Figure.

Belshazzar is most famous for the story of the writing on the wall, which is told in the Bible's book of Daniel. In this story, a Babylonian king named Belshazzar throws a feast and drinks from the cups of gold and silver that his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem. He then sees a hand writing on the wall, and is so terrified that he falls down dead.