Kazalla
Encyclopedia
Kazalla or Kazallu is the name given in Akkadian
sources to a city in the ancient Near East
.
Under its king Kashtubila, Kazalla warred against Sargon of Akkad
in the 24th or 23rd century BC. Sargon laid the city of Kazalla to waste so effectively that "the birds could not find a place to perch away from the ground."
According to a tablet from the reign of Gudea
of Lagash
, Kazalla was located somewhere to the west of Mesopotamia
, in the land of Martu. Scholars today believe it was only about 15 km from the city of Babylon
, and just west of the Euphrates. Kazallu briefly became a city-state in its own right, conquering a number of its immediate neighbors, including Babylon. It was from Kazallu that Babylon first won its independence c. 1900 BC, soon growing to eclipse its fame and establish a regional empire.
Akkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
sources to a city in the ancient Near East
Near East
The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
.
Under its king Kashtubila, Kazalla warred against Sargon of Akkad
Sargon of Akkad
Sargon of Akkad, also known as Sargon the Great "the Great King" , was an Akkadian emperor famous for his conquest of the Sumerian city-states in the 23rd and 22nd centuries BC. The founder of the Dynasty of Akkad, Sargon reigned in the last quarter of the third millennium BC...
in the 24th or 23rd century BC. Sargon laid the city of Kazalla to waste so effectively that "the birds could not find a place to perch away from the ground."
According to a tablet from the reign of Gudea
Gudea
Gudea was a ruler of the state of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia who ruled ca. 2144 - 2124 BC. He probably did not come from the city, but had married Ninalla, daughter of the ruler Urbaba of Lagash, thus gaining entrance to the royal house of Lagash...
of Lagash
Lagash
Lagash is located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk, about east of the modern town of Ash Shatrah. Lagash was one of the oldest cities of the Ancient Near East...
, Kazalla was located somewhere to the west of Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
, in the land of Martu. Scholars today believe it was only about 15 km from the city 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 just west of the Euphrates. Kazallu briefly became a city-state in its own right, conquering a number of its immediate neighbors, including Babylon. It was from Kazallu that Babylon first won its independence c. 1900 BC, soon growing to eclipse its fame and establish a regional empire.