Who's Who in the Ancient Near East

Gwendolyn Leick

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• eBook ISBN: 9781134787951
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

What do we know of the real Nebuchadnezzar? Was there an historical precedent for the mythical Gilgamesh? Who were the Hittites? When did Isaiah preach? How did Jezebel get her reputation?
These and many more questions are answered in this fascinating survey of the people who inhabited the Near East between the twenty-fifth and the second centuries BC. From Palestine to Iran and from Alexander the Great to Zechariah, Who's Who in the Ancient Near East presents a unique and comprehensive reference guide for all those with an interest in the ancient history of the area. A comprehensive glossary, chronological charts, maps and bibliographical information complement the biographical entries.

A

A-anepada

Early Dynastic king of the First Dynasty of Ur (c. 2500), son of MESANEPADA. His name appears on votive offerings. He probably built the temple at ’Ubaid.

Sollberger and Kupper 1971: IB5a–c; Gadd 1971, in CAH I/2: 245

Aba-Enlil-dana (Aramean Ahiqar)

High official under SENNACHERIB and ESARHADDON (7th century). Under his Aramean name, Ahiqar, he became famous as the author of a series of wisdom texts written in Aramaic.

Grayson 1991, in CAH III/2: 132

Abalgamash

King of Warakhshi (the region adjoining Elam to the north) (c. 24th century). Together with HISHEPRATEP, king of Elam, he began a revolt against the Akkadian king RIMUSH, who wrote about this campaign. The battle took place between Awan and Susa. Rimush won and took over 4,000 prisoners, plus a great amount of gold and copper, which he dedicated to the god Enlil in Nippur.

Gadd 1971, in CAH III/2: 436–7; Hinz 1972: 73

Abba’el

King of Halab (Aleppo), son of HAMMURAPI I of Yamhad, contemporary with SAMSU-ILUNA of Babylon (18th century). His brother, YARIMLIM I, became ruler of Alalakh. Abba’el managed to regain lost territories for the kingdom of Yamhad.

Klengel 1992: 60–2

Abdi-Ashirta

Amorite leader, well known from the correspondence found at Amarna (14th century). He was the main adversary of RIB-ADDI.

Youngblood 1980; Moran 1992: passim

Abdi-Heba

Ruler of Jerusalem in the Amarna period. He was installed by AMENOPHIS IV, who maintained an Egyptian occupation force in the city at that time (14th century). Some of the letters he wrote to the Egyptian sovereign are preserved in the Amarna correspondence.

Moran 1992: 321, 325–7, 331

Abdi-milkutti (= Abdi-milki)

King of Sidon who rebelled against the Assyrian king SENNACHERIB in 677. When Esarhaddon captured the city, Abdi-milki escaped by boat but was later caught ‘like a fish’ and beheaded.

Grayson 1991, in CAH III/2: 125; Culican, ibid: 469–70

Abiba’al

King of Tyre, possible founder of a new dynasty that was to make Tyre into a major sea-faring and politically important city in the 10th century.

Klengel 1992: 203; Katzenstein 1973: 74ff.

Abi-esuh

King of Babylon in the Old Babylonian period, son and successor of SAMSU-ILUNA (1711–1684). The year names record that he had several successful confrontations with Kassite troops. However, he also lost some territories, especially in the Middle Euphrates area.

Saggs 1995: 114; Frayne 1990: 404–10; Horsnell 1999: 241–273

Abih-il see Ebih-il

Abijah

King of Judah, son and successor of REHOBOAM (913–911). According to II Chr. 13 he conducted a successful campaign against the northern kingdom, Israel, then still ruled by JEROBOAM I, in which he occupied the cult centre of Bethel.

Mitchell 1982, in CAH III/1: 461–2

Abi-milki

Ruler of Tyre during the reign of AMENOPHIS IV (14th century). His letters to the pharaoh were among those discovered in the Amarna archives. He supplied the pharaoh with intelligence in return for Egypt’s support in his own struggles.

Moran 1992: 146–55

Abi-rattash

Early (fourth or fifth) ruler of the Kassite Dynasty in Babylon. According to later sources he was an ancestor of AGUM III KAKRIME. The length of his reign is unknown.

Brinkman 1976: 85–6

Abisare

King of Larsa, successor of GUNGUNUM (1905–1895). According to his year names, he won a victory over Isin in his tenth year and engaged in large-scale canal building projects.

Edzard 1957: 108–9

Abishemu

Ruler of Gubla (classical Byblos) at the time of pharaoh Amenemhet III (late 19th century).

Klengel 1992: 43

Abi-simti

Royal lady at the court of Ur during the Third Dynasty, probably the wife and queen (Sumerian nin) of AMAR-SIN and SHU-SIN’s mother.

Steinkeller 1981, Agostino 1998

Achaemenes (= Persian Hakhamanish)

Persian king, reputed founder of the house of the Achaemenids, succeeded by his son TEISPES. If he is a historical figure, he may have been the king who fought with the Elamites under HUMBAN-NIMENA against the Assyrians in 691.

Hinz 1972: 150

Adad-apla-iddina

Eighth king of the Second Dynasty of Isin, successor of MARDUK-SHAPIKZERI (1069–1048). He was apparently not of royal descent. According to the New Babylonian Chronicle he was a usurper, while the Assyrian Synchronistic History states that he was appointed by the Assyrian king ASHUR-BEL-KALA as ruler over Babylon and married his daughter. Whether he was of Aramean descent or a Babylonian is uncertain, since the genealogy given in his inscriptions is contradictory. At any rate he continued to use Babylonian royal titles.

The Babylonian Chronicles mention the revolt of the Arameans against him, as well as incursions by the Suteans. It is also likely that Assyrian campaigns against Babylonian territories happened during his reign. His royal inscriptions report the rebuilding of the city walls of Babylon and Kish, and of temples throughout the land.

Frame 1995: 50–63; Brinkman 1968: 135–44; Grayson 1975: 203–4

Adad-idri see Ben-Hadad II

Adad-it’i see Hadad-yis’i

Adad-nirari I

Assyrian king, son and successor of ARIK-DEN-ILI (1307–1275). He initiated the practice, later widely adopted by Assyrian kings, of leaving detailed reports of his military operations. In general, there is a large amount of inscribed material from his reign, not just building and votive inscriptions, but chronicles, edicts, and letters to other sovereigns.

His most decisive victory was over Mitanni. He advanced to the capital Washshukanni and took its ruler SHATTUARA I prisoner. Having deported him to Assyria, Adad-nirari allowed him to return. The revolt that followed Shattuara’s death forced the Assyrian king to march against Mitanni again. He destroyed numerous cities and deported parts of the population. He moved the Babylonian frontier further towards the Diyala region and generally expanded his territory. His rule seems to have been accepted, as reports of a successful march into the Jezireh emphasise, for he was able to gather large amounts of tribute without any challenge.

In his long reign he undertook numerous and ambitious building projects. He had canals dug, strengthened or built city walls and quays, and restored various temples, mainly at the capital Assur and at Nineveh.

Munn-Rankin 1975, in CAH II/2: 274–61; Grayson 1972: 57–79; Grayson 1975: 204–5; Grayson 1991: 142–62; Kuhrt 1995: 353–4

Adad-nirari II

Assyrian king, son and successor of ASHUR-DAN II (911–891).

He fought his battles in much the same areas as his father, extending and consolidating his successes. He undertook several journeys to collect tribute and to display the might of Assyria as a major power which punished those who withheld their obligations of paying tribute. He probably also undertook the reorganisation of the army to make it able to respond more promptly to any challenge.

The Synchronistic History reports clashes with the Babylonians, and ascribes victory to the Assyrian king over SHAMASH-MUDAMMIQ. In 891 a new peace agreement was drawn up between NABU-SHUMA-UKIN I, king of Babylon, and Adad-nirari, sealed by the exchange of daughters in dynastic marriages. This led to a realignment of the border and friendly relations between the two countries that were to last some eighty years.

Grayson 1976: 81–97; 1982, in CAH III/1: 249–51; Kuhrt 1995: 481–3

Adad-nirari III

Assyrian king, son and successor of SHAMSHI-ADAD V (810–783). Sources for his reign are not abundant. Campaigns in the early part of his reign were conducted by his generals, especially NERGAL-ILIA, and the prominence of senior officials in the royal inscriptions is a typical feature of this period. The royal annals mention only two military expeditions by Adadnirari himself. The first, in 805, was directed against Syria, where he collected tribute from the king of Damascus and other local rulers. The second took him to Babylonia, where he attacked Der.

Adad-nirari is described as having made an effort to restore peace and order in Babylonia by bringing back deportees and abducted statues of gods. Although he maintained the borders of the empire as they had been under SHALMANESER III, towards the end of his reign Assyria began a period of decline.

His building projects centred on Calah and other important cities. He repaired Fort Shalmaneser and completed the palace began by his father at Nineveh.

Grayson 1975: 119, 205–6; Grayson 1991: 200–38; Grayson 1982, in III/1: 271–6; Schramm 1972

Adad-shum-iddina

Thirty-first ruler of the Kassite Dynasty in Babylon, successor of KADASHMAN-HARBE II (c. 1222–1217). During his reign Babylon was largely under the authority of Assyria under king TUKULTI-NINURTA I.

Brinkman 1976: 87–8

Adad-shumu-usur

1 Thirty-second king of the Kassite Dynasty in Babylonia, son of KASHTILIASH IV (1216–1187). He ascended the throne as the result of a revolution that had unseated his predecessor, ADAD-SHUM-IDDINA. He was a contemporary of ASHURNIRARI I. A letter he sent to the Assyrian king is preserved on a later copy. He also features in a late Babylonian literary epic.

Brinkman 1976: 89–94; Grayson 1975

2 Assyrian scribe; personal exorcist (ašipu) under ESARHADDON and ASHURBANIPAL. He was the author of many letters and reports on medicine, magic and astrology. He was the father of another well-known Assyrian scholar, URAD-GULA.

Parpola 1970: 88–125; 1983: 101–58

Adad-sululi

Assyrian merchant who conducted his business affairs in the Cappadocian trade colony known as Karum Kanesh (present Kültepe), where his archives were excavated in the 19th century. He acted as agent for the wealthy businessman PUZUR-ASHUR.

Drecksen 1996: 93–166

Adasi

Assyrian king, heading the list of rulers in the Synchronistic History, in a new line of kings after the decline of the dynasty founded by SHAMSHIADAD I which links the better-known Middle Assyrian kings to the past. According to the Assyrian King List he was one of the first six kings who were ‘sons of nobodies’, i.e., not part of a dynastic line. Like most of his immediate successors he remains little more than a name.

Grayson 1972: 31

Adda-Guppi’ (or Hadad-happe)

Babylonian lady, priestess of the moon god Sin, the mother of king NABONIDUS. After her death he put up a stele in Harran, where she had officiated. This says that she was born in the 20th year of ASHURBANIPAL (649) and that she had influence at the court of Babylon, particularly under the kings NABOPOLASSAR, NEBUCHADNEZZAR II and NERIGLISSAR. She lived to a ripe old age of at least 102 and died ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Maps
• Preface
• Introduction
• WHO’S WHO IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST
• Glossary
• Outline of the main historical periods
• Bibliography
• Index of personal names
• Index of toponyms and rulers
• Index of dynasties, peoples and tribes
• Subject index