Adad-shuma-usur
Encyclopedia
Adad-šuma-uṣur, dated very tentatively ca. 1216—1187 BC (short chronology), was the thirty second king of the Third or Kassite
dynasty of Babylon
and the country contemporarily known as Karduniaš. His name was wholly Babylonian and not uncommon, as for example the later Assyrian King Esarhaddon
(681 – 669 BC) had a personal exorcist, or ašipu, with the same name who was unlikely to have been related. He is best known for his rude letter to Aššur-nirari III
, the most complete part of which is quoted below, and was enthroned following a revolt in the south of Mesopotamia when the north was still occupied by the forces of Assyria
and may not have been assumed authority throughout the country until around the twenty fifth year of his thirty year reign.
had conquered Babylon around 1225 BC and then ruled it through governors for seven years. There is an economic text from Nippur
dated to his accession year. Then three vassal kings succeeded one another in short reigns totalling around nine years. Around the time the last reign ended, Tukulti-Ninurta died at the hand of assassins in his eponymous city. Thereafter, it seems likely that his successors appointed governors over Babylon until they fled in the face of Adad-šuma-uṣur’s triumph over the Assyrian king Enlil-kudurri-usur
fifteen years or so later.
Adad-šuma-uṣur had been “put on his father’s throne” by a rebellion against Tukulti-Ninurta among the Akkadian officers. The identity of his father is never explicitly stated in the chronicle but it was assumed in antiquity to have been Kaštiliašu IV. A Luristan bronze dagger in the Foroughi Collection is inscribed with his filiation to this king, and this claim may have helped reinforce his legitimacy.
Tukulti-Ninurta wrote a letter to the Hittite
king, thought to be Suppiluliuma II
, four fragments of which were discovered at the site of excavations of Ḫattuša in the 1930’s. It was dated to the limmu
year of Ilī-padâ
, in the latter part of Tukulti-Ninurta’s reign. In it, he recaps the genealogy of the recent Kassite dynasty, mentioning Kurigalzu II
, Kadašman-Enlil II
and Kudur-Enlil
then apparently castigating Šagarakti-Šuriaš
, the “non-son of Kudur-Enlil”, and his sons, one of whom, Kaštiliašu, had provoked the war by his dastardly pre-emptive strike against Assyria. In one place, the sons of Šagarakti-Šuriaš have been killed, almost certainly by none other than Tukulti-Ninurta himself. He then makes reference to a “servant of Suhi
”, where Suhu is a region of northeast Syria, and Singer proposes this individual to be Adad-šuma-uṣur, the implication being he was a foreigner, not of the royal stock and consequently unqualified for office.
A letter from an Elamite king, thought to be Shutruk-Nahhunte, to the Kassite elders demanding the right to the Babylonian throne through blood, describes Adad-šuma-uṣur as “son of Dunna-Sah, from the region by the bank of the Euphrates”, in his criticism of their choice of regent. Unfortunately the Tukulti-Ninurta tablet is fragmentary and the text barely readable so a variety of restorations are possible. The letter ends with a plea for military aid and a moving, “If I am alive, [I will send(?)] a message of/about my life, but if I am dead, the messge of/about my death [will be sent to you(?)]”, “one hundred years, my brother[…” and “you have loved me with all your heart.”
, who “carried criminal designs against Babylon” and whose brief reign was succeeded in turn by his son, Aššur-nirari III
. He was the recipient of an extremely offensive letter from Adad-šuma-uṣur, which he addressed to “the Assyrian kings,” putting Aššur-nirari on an equal footing with his subordinate for added insult, a fragment of which has fortuitously survived:
The Ilī-ḫaddâ mentioned is none other than Ilī-padā, the viceroy of Hanigalbat
, Ashur-nirari’s distant relative (sharing a common ancestor in Eriba-Adad I
) and the official for whose limmu year Tukulti-Ninurta’s letter to the Hittite king had been dated. The letter was carefully copied and preserved in the library at Nineveh. Grayson speculates it was kept to “goad” the Assyrians to vengeance.
The cities of Nippur, Dur
, Isin
and Marad
had been sacked by the marauding Elamites
under their king, Kidin-Hutran III, and two of these, Nippur and Isin were the subjects of construction work by Adad-šuma-uṣur. Bricks from Isin were excavated in 1975/76 with a Sumerian
inscription recording his work on the Egalmaḫ and also earlier from Nippur recording work on the Ekur
. He had been credited with rebuilding the walls of Nippur in the Walker Chronicle.
, another son of Tukulti-Ninurta. Adad-šuma-uṣur “muster]ed [his army] and attacked and defeated him” and then
Following this famous victory, a “son of a nobody, whose name is not mentioned” exploited the chance to enthrone himself in Babylon, so a revolt was propagated and Adad-šuma-uṣur took the city and his place in the Kassite dynastic list. The events were captured for posterity in the Adad-šuma-uṣur Epic, a late Babylonian historical literary work where a rebellion of officers and nobles is caused by the neglect of Marduk and Babylon. The penitent king confesses his sins to the god and restores his temple, Esagila
.
The end of Enlil-kudurri-usur’s reign is dated 1193 or 1183 depending on uncertainty about the duration of his successor’s, Ninurta-apal-Ekur
’s, rule, three or thirteen years. As a son of Ilī-padā, Ninurta-apal-Ekur had taken advantage of Enlil-kudurri-usur’s demise to seize power in Aššur
. He had “(come) up from Karduniaš”, where he may conceivably have been the last Assyrian governor of Babylon, as his brother, Mardukija, was governor of Katmuḫi. The length of his reign does rather crucially determine the likely date range for the beginning of Adad-šuma-uṣur’s thirty year reign, because there is no datable event that takes place at the beginning, such as the passing of a preceding monarch. The interregnum between Babylon’s fall to Tukulti-Ninurta and its conquering by Adad-šuma-uṣur had been at least twenty two years and perhaps even more than thirty years.
He was succeeded by his son, Meli-Šipak, who was curiously reluctant to mention his filiation to Adad-šuma-uṣur in his own inscriptions.
Kassites
The Kassites were an ancient Near Eastern people who gained control of Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire after ca. 1531 BC to ca. 1155 BC...
dynasty of Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
and the country contemporarily known as Karduniaš. His name was wholly Babylonian and not uncommon, as for example the later Assyrian King Esarhaddon
Esarhaddon
Esarhaddon , was a king of Assyria who reigned 681 – 669 BC. He was the youngest son of Sennacherib and the Aramean queen Naqi'a , Sennacherib's second wife....
(681 – 669 BC) had a personal exorcist, or ašipu, with the same name who was unlikely to have been related. He is best known for his rude letter to Aššur-nirari III
Ashur-nirari III
Ashur-nirari III was king of Assyria . He was the grandson of Tukulti-Ninurta I and may have succeeded his uncle Ashur-nadin-apli on the throne. Ashur-nirari's father Ashur-nasir-pal participated in a conspiracy against Tukulti-Ninurta I which led to his murder...
, the most complete part of which is quoted below, and was enthroned following a revolt in the south of Mesopotamia when the north was still occupied by the forces of Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
and may not have been assumed authority throughout the country until around the twenty fifth year of his thirty year reign.
Biography
There is surprisingly little contemporary evidence for this king considering the alleged length of his reign, which was the longest recorded in the Kassite dynasty. The tablet known as King List A shows him following Adad-šuma-iddina and his predecessor-but-one, Enlil-nadin-šumi, but in Chronicle P he makes his appearance in the narrative before them. Brinkman argues that this is for stylistic purposes but the Walker Chronicle suggests a simpler explanation. Adad-šuma-uṣur was elevated to the position of king in the south of the country years before he conquered Babylon and made himself its king. The early part of his reign was concurrent with that of the three kings preceding him on King List A, but he followed them in ascending the throne of the city of Babylon. It is a characteristic trait of this tablet that concurrent kings and dynasties are presented successively as if one followed another. The brevity of his reign over Babylon proper, also explains the minimal contemporary inscriptions found. Only sixteen economic texts attest to his reign.Under Tukulti-Ninurta I’s reign
Tukulti-Ninurta ITukulti-Ninurta I
Tukulti-Ninurta I was a king of Assyria.He succeeded Shalmaneser I, his father, as king and won a major victory against the Hittites at the Battle of Nihriya in the first half of his reign...
had conquered Babylon around 1225 BC and then ruled it through governors for seven years. There is an economic text from Nippur
Nippur
Nippur was one of the most ancient of all the Sumerian cities. It was the special seat of the worship of the Sumerian god Enlil, the "Lord Wind," ruler of the cosmos subject to An alone...
dated to his accession year. Then three vassal kings succeeded one another in short reigns totalling around nine years. Around the time the last reign ended, Tukulti-Ninurta died at the hand of assassins in his eponymous city. Thereafter, it seems likely that his successors appointed governors over Babylon until they fled in the face of Adad-šuma-uṣur’s triumph over the Assyrian king Enlil-kudurri-usur
Enlil-kudurri-usur
Enlil-kudurri-usur was King of Assyria. Depending on the length of reign one gives to his successor, Ninurta-apal-Ekur, this would have been either from 1187 to 1183 BC or from 1197 to 1193 BC. The former dates are more common in recent studies. Enlil-kudurri-usur was the son of Tukulti-Ninurta...
fifteen years or so later.
Adad-šuma-uṣur had been “put on his father’s throne” by a rebellion against Tukulti-Ninurta among the Akkadian officers. The identity of his father is never explicitly stated in the chronicle but it was assumed in antiquity to have been Kaštiliašu IV. A Luristan bronze dagger in the Foroughi Collection is inscribed with his filiation to this king, and this claim may have helped reinforce his legitimacy.
Tukulti-Ninurta wrote a letter to the Hittite
Hittites
The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...
king, thought to be Suppiluliuma II
Suppiluliuma II
Suppiluliuma II, the son of Tudhaliya IV, was the last known king of the New Kingdom of the Hittite Empire, ruling ca. 1207–1178 BC , contemporary with Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria....
, four fragments of which were discovered at the site of excavations of Ḫattuša in the 1930’s. It was dated to the limmu
Limmu
Limmu was an Assyrian eponym. At the beginning of the reign of an Assyrian king, the limmu, an appointed royal official, would preside over the New Year festival at the capital. Each year a new limmu would be chosen. Although picked by lot, there was most likely a limited group, such as the men of...
year of Ilī-padâ
Ilī-padâ
Ilī-padâ or Ili-iḫaddâ, the reading of the name DINGIR.PA.DA being uncertain, was a member of a side-branch of the Assyrian royal family who served as grand vizier, or sukkallu rabi’u, of Assyria, and also as king, or šar, of the dependent state of Ḫanigalbat around 1200 BC. He was a contemporary...
, in the latter part of Tukulti-Ninurta’s reign. In it, he recaps the genealogy of the recent Kassite dynasty, mentioning Kurigalzu II
Kurigalzu II
Kurigalzu II was the twenty second king of the Kassite dynasty that ruled over Babylon. In more than twelve inscriptions, Kurigalzu names Burna-Buriaš II as his father...
, Kadašman-Enlil II
Kadashman-Enlil II
Kadašman-Enlil II was the twenty fifth king of the Kassite dynasty of Babylon.He succeeded Kadašman-Turgu as a child and political power was exercised at first by an influential vizier, Itti-Marduk-balatu, “whom the gods have caused to live far too long and in whose mouth unfavourable words never...
and Kudur-Enlil
Kudur-Enlil
Kudur-Enlil was the twenty sixth king of the Kassite dynasty of Babylon.-Biography:He succeeded Kadašman-Enlil II and was possibly the first Kassite king to have a wholly Babylonian name, or one containing an Elamite derived word, from kudurru, which might be middle Assyrian...
then apparently castigating Šagarakti-Šuriaš
Shagarakti-Shuriash
Šagarakti-Šuriaš, Šuriaš gives me life, was the twenty seventh king of the Third or Kassite dynasty of Babylon and ascended the throne early in the month of Nisan...
, the “non-son of Kudur-Enlil”, and his sons, one of whom, Kaštiliašu, had provoked the war by his dastardly pre-emptive strike against Assyria. In one place, the sons of Šagarakti-Šuriaš have been killed, almost certainly by none other than Tukulti-Ninurta himself. He then makes reference to a “servant of Suhi
Suhu
Suhu were a people living in Mesopotamia in the 6th century BCE, during the time of Nabopolassar. They were associated with the Assyrian empire, but were overrun by Nabopolassar when he conquered the Assyrians.-Sources:...
”, where Suhu is a region of northeast Syria, and Singer proposes this individual to be Adad-šuma-uṣur, the implication being he was a foreigner, not of the royal stock and consequently unqualified for office.
A letter from an Elamite king, thought to be Shutruk-Nahhunte, to the Kassite elders demanding the right to the Babylonian throne through blood, describes Adad-šuma-uṣur as “son of Dunna-Sah, from the region by the bank of the Euphrates”, in his criticism of their choice of regent. Unfortunately the Tukulti-Ninurta tablet is fragmentary and the text barely readable so a variety of restorations are possible. The letter ends with a plea for military aid and a moving, “If I am alive, [I will send(?)] a message of/about my life, but if I am dead, the messge of/about my death [will be sent to you(?)]”, “one hundred years, my brother[…” and “you have loved me with all your heart.”
Letter to Aššur-nirari III
Tukulti-Ninurta’s successor was his son Aššur-nadin-apliAshur-nadin-apli
Ashur-nadin-apli was king of Assyria . The alternate dating is due to uncertainty over the length of reign of a later monarch, Ninurta-apal-Ekur, where conflicting king lists differ by ten years. His name meant “Ashur has given an heir” in the Akkadian language...
, who “carried criminal designs against Babylon” and whose brief reign was succeeded in turn by his son, Aššur-nirari III
Ashur-nirari III
Ashur-nirari III was king of Assyria . He was the grandson of Tukulti-Ninurta I and may have succeeded his uncle Ashur-nadin-apli on the throne. Ashur-nirari's father Ashur-nasir-pal participated in a conspiracy against Tukulti-Ninurta I which led to his murder...
. He was the recipient of an extremely offensive letter from Adad-šuma-uṣur, which he addressed to “the Assyrian kings,” putting Aššur-nirari on an equal footing with his subordinate for added insult, a fragment of which has fortuitously survived:
The Ilī-ḫaddâ mentioned is none other than Ilī-padā, the viceroy of Hanigalbat
Mitanni
Mitanni or Hanigalbat was a loosely organized Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and south-east Anatolia from ca. 1500 BC–1300 BC...
, Ashur-nirari’s distant relative (sharing a common ancestor in Eriba-Adad I
Eriba-Adad I
Eriba-Adad was king of Assyria from 1392 BC to 1366 BC.He was probably a vassal of Mitanni. However, this kingdom got tangled up in a dynastic battle between Tushratta and his brother Artatama II and after this his son Shuttarna II, who called himself king of the Hurri, while seeking support from...
) and the official for whose limmu year Tukulti-Ninurta’s letter to the Hittite king had been dated. The letter was carefully copied and preserved in the library at Nineveh. Grayson speculates it was kept to “goad” the Assyrians to vengeance.
The cities of Nippur, Dur
Der (Sumer)
Der was a Sumerian city-state at the site of modern Tell Aqar near al-Badra in Iraq's Wasit Governorate. It was east of the Tigris River on the border between Sumer and Elam. It's namewas possibly Durum.-History:...
, Isin
Isin
Isin was an ancient city-state of lower Mesopotamia about 20 miles south of Nippur at the site of modern Ishan al-Bahriyat in Iraq's Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate.-History:...
and Marad
Marad
Marad was an ancient Sumerian city. Marad was situated on the west bank of the then western branch of the Upper Euphrates River west of Nippur in modern day Iraq and roughly 50 km southeast of Kish, on the Arahtu River.The city's ziggurat E-igi-kalama was dedicated to Ninurta the god of...
had been sacked by the marauding Elamites
Elam
Elam was an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. Elam was centered in the far west and the southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of Khuzestan and Ilam Province, as well as a small part of southern Iraq...
under their king, Kidin-Hutran III, and two of these, Nippur and Isin were the subjects of construction work by Adad-šuma-uṣur. Bricks from Isin were excavated in 1975/76 with a Sumerian
Sumerian language
Sumerian is the language of ancient Sumer, which was spoken in southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC. During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism...
inscription recording his work on the Egalmaḫ and also earlier from Nippur recording work on the Ekur
Ekur
Ekur is a Sumerian term meaning "mountain house". It is the assembly of the gods in the Garden of the gods, parallel in Greek mythology to Mount Olympus and was the most revered and sacred building of ancient Sumer.-Origin and meaning:...
. He had been credited with rebuilding the walls of Nippur in the Walker Chronicle.
Battle with Enlil-kudurri-uṣur
Ashur-nirari’s rule proved to be fairly transitory and he was succeeded by Enlil-kudurri-usurEnlil-kudurri-usur
Enlil-kudurri-usur was King of Assyria. Depending on the length of reign one gives to his successor, Ninurta-apal-Ekur, this would have been either from 1187 to 1183 BC or from 1197 to 1193 BC. The former dates are more common in recent studies. Enlil-kudurri-usur was the son of Tukulti-Ninurta...
, another son of Tukulti-Ninurta. Adad-šuma-uṣur “muster]ed [his army] and attacked and defeated him” and then
Following this famous victory, a “son of a nobody, whose name is not mentioned” exploited the chance to enthrone himself in Babylon, so a revolt was propagated and Adad-šuma-uṣur took the city and his place in the Kassite dynastic list. The events were captured for posterity in the Adad-šuma-uṣur Epic, a late Babylonian historical literary work where a rebellion of officers and nobles is caused by the neglect of Marduk and Babylon. The penitent king confesses his sins to the god and restores his temple, Esagila
Esagila
The Ésagila, a Sumerian name signifying "É whose top is lofty", was a temple dedicated to Marduk, the protector god of Babylon...
.
The end of Enlil-kudurri-usur’s reign is dated 1193 or 1183 depending on uncertainty about the duration of his successor’s, Ninurta-apal-Ekur
Ninurta-apal-Ekur
Ninurta-apal-Ekur, meaning “Ninurta is the heir of the Ekur,” was a King of Assyria in the early 12th Century BC who usurped the throne and styled himself king of the universe and priest of the gods Enlil and Ninurta...
’s, rule, three or thirteen years. As a son of Ilī-padā, Ninurta-apal-Ekur had taken advantage of Enlil-kudurri-usur’s demise to seize power in Aššur
Assur
Assur , was one of the capitals of ancient Assyria. The remains of the city are situated on the western bank of river Tigris, north of the confluence with the tributary Little Zab river, in modern day Iraq, more precisely in the Al-Shirqat District .Assur is also...
. He had “(come) up from Karduniaš”, where he may conceivably have been the last Assyrian governor of Babylon, as his brother, Mardukija, was governor of Katmuḫi. The length of his reign does rather crucially determine the likely date range for the beginning of Adad-šuma-uṣur’s thirty year reign, because there is no datable event that takes place at the beginning, such as the passing of a preceding monarch. The interregnum between Babylon’s fall to Tukulti-Ninurta and its conquering by Adad-šuma-uṣur had been at least twenty two years and perhaps even more than thirty years.
He was succeeded by his son, Meli-Šipak, who was curiously reluctant to mention his filiation to Adad-šuma-uṣur in his own inscriptions.