- Shamshi-Adad I
Shamshi-Adad I (fl. late 18th century BC (
short chronology )) rose to prominence when he carved out a large kingdom in northernMesopotamia , the OldAssyria n Kingdom, although the Assyria was soon defeated byHammurabi ofBabylon and remained in the shadow of theBabylonian Empire throughout the "old Assyrian" period.Rise to power
His father
Ila-kabkabu ruled a kingdom on the borders of Mari and was anAmorite . Upon his father's death, the kingdom was inherited by another brother, leaving Shamshi-Adad to build his own from scratch.He first conquered
Shekhna and renamed the cityShubat-Enlil . The modern name of the site isTell Leilan . He then seized the fortressEkallatum on the left bank of theTigris . This was accomplished only on the second try: a first attempt failed, after which Shamshi-Adad fled to Babylon. Eventually he returned, and was successful. This conquest made it possible for him to control the city-state ofAssur , which was a flourishing city that traded heavily withAnatolia . He put his first son,Ishme-Dagan on the throne of Ekallatum and continued his expansion.Campaign against Mari
The next target was the city Mari which controlled the caravan route between Anatolia and Mesopotamia. The king of Mari,
Iakhdunlim , was assassinated by his own servants, possibly on Shamshi-Adad's orders. Shamshi-Adad seized the opportunity and occupied Mari. The heir to the throne,Zimri-Lim , was forced to flee toAleppo , ancientYamkhad . Here he put his second son,Yasmah-Adad on the throne, and then returned to Shubat-Enlil.Reign
With the annexation of Mari, Shamshi-Adad was in control of a large empire, controlling the whole of Upper Mesopotamia. On inscriptions Shamshi-Adad boasts of erecting triumphal stelae on the coast of the
Mediterranean , but these probably represent short expeditions rather than any attempts at conquest. Shamshi-Adad also proclaimed himself as "king of all", the title used bySargon of Akkad .Naturally, Shamshi-Adad's rise to glory earned him the envy of neigbhouring kings and tribes, and throughout his reign, he and his sons faced several threats to their control. While Ishme-Dagan probably was a competent ruler, his brother Yasmah-Adad appears to have been a man of weak character; something the disappointed father was not above mentioning: "Are you a child, not a man, have you no beard on your chin", he writes, and in another letter "While here your brother is victorious, down there you lie about among the women."
Shamshi-Adad was a great organizer and he kept a firm controls on all matters of state, from high policy down to the appointing of officials and the dispatching of provisions. His campaigns were meticulously planned, and his army knew all the classic methods of
siege craft, such as encircling ramparts andbattering ram s. Spies and propaganda were often used to win over rival cities.Shamshi-Adad continued to strengthen his kingdom throughout his life, but upon his death it soon began to crumble. The empire lacked cohesion and was in a vulnerable geographical position. When the news of Shamshi-Adad's death spread, his old rivals at once set out to topple his sons from the throne. Yasmah-Adad was soon expelled from Mari by
Zimri-Lim , and the rest of the empire was soon lost toHammurabi of Babylon.See also
*
Assyria
*Babylonia and Assyria
*Kings of Assyria
*Chronology of Babylonia and Assyria References
*OBO (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis) 160/4
*Larsen
*Veenhof
*Michel
*"Documents Epistolaires du Palais de Mari"
*E.Roux "Ancient Iraq" (Penguin, Harmondsworth)
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