Abdi-Heba (Abdi-Kheba, Abdi-Hepat, or Abdi-Hebat) was a local chieftain of

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

during the

Amarna period The Amarna Period was an era of Egyptian history during the later half of the Eighteenth Dynasty when the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen was shifted to Akhetaten ('Horizon of the Aten') in what is now Amarna. It was marked by the ...

(mid-1330s BC). Abdi-Heba's name can be translated as "servant of Hebat", a

Hurrian The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Norther ...

goddess A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes ...

. Whether Abdi-Heba was himself of Hurrian descent is unknown, as is the relationship between the general populace of pre-

Israelite The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stel ...

Jerusalem (called Jebusites in the Bible) and the Hurrians. Egyptian documents have him deny he was a mayor (''ḫazānu'') and assert he is a soldier (''we'w''), the implication being he was the son of a local chief sent to Egypt to receive military training there. Also unknown is whether he was part of a dynasty that governed Jerusalem or whether he was put on the throne by the

Egyptians Egyptians ( arz, المَصرِيُون, translit=al-Maṣriyyūn, ; arz, المَصرِيِين, translit=al-Maṣriyyīn, ; cop, ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, remenkhēmi) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian ...

. Abdi-Heba himself notes that he holds his position not through his parental lineage but by the grace of

Pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until th ...

, but this might be flattery rather than an accurate representation of the situation. At this time the area he administered from his garrison may have had a population of fifteen hundred people and Jerusalem would have been a 'small highlands stronghold' in the fourteenth century BC with no fortifications or large buildings.

Correspondence with Egypt

During Abdi-Heba's reign the region was under attack from marauding bands of

Habiru Habiru (sometimes written as Hapiru, and more accurately as ʿApiru, meaning "dusty, dirty"; Sumerian: 𒊓𒄤, ''sagaz''; Akkadian: 𒄩𒁉𒊒, ''ḫabiru'' or ''ʿaperu'') is a term used in 2nd-millennium BCE texts throughout the Fertile C ...

. Abdi-Heba made frequent pleas to the Pharaoh of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

(probably Amenhotep III), for an army or, at least, an officer to command. Abdi-Heba also made other requests for military aid in fighting off his enemies, both

Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...

ite

warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

s and bands of Apiru: As a result, conspiracy charges are made against Abdi-Heba, who defended himself strenuously in his correspondence with Pharaoh.EA 179. In later years Abdi-Heba appears to have reconciled with the Apiru, or at least certain bands of them, and hired

mercenaries A mercenary, sometimes Pseudonym, also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a memb ...

from among their ranks. Indeed, though he earlier complained about the depredations of Labaya, Shuwardata, king of the Canaanite town of Keilah as well as other places in the

Judea Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous so ...

n highlands, refers to him as a "new Labaya": Abdi-Heba's ultimate fate is unknown.

List of Abdi-Heba's 6 letters to Pharaoh

Abdi-Heba was the author of letters EA 285–290.Moran, op. cit., pp.325–334 :# EA 285—title: ''"The soldier-ruler of

"'' :# EA 286—title: ''"A

throne A throne is the seat of state of a potentate or dignitary, especially the seat occupied by a sovereign on state occasions; or the seat occupied by a pope or bishop on ceremonial occasions. "Throne" in an abstract sense can also refer to the mon ...

granted, not inherited"'' :# EA 287—title: ''"A very serious crime"'' :# EA 288—title: ''"Benign neglect"'' :# EA 289—title: ''"A reckoning demanded"'' :# EA 290—title: ''"Three against one"''

Notes

References

Resources

Sources

Translations adapted from * Moran, William (ed. and trans.) ''The Amarna Letters.'' Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1992.

Other works

*Baikie, James. ''The Amarna Age: A Study of the Crisis of the Ancient World.'' University Press of the Pacific, 2004. *Cohen, Raymond and Raymond Westbrook (eds.). ''Amarna Diplomacy: The Beginnings of International Relations.'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. {{DEFAULTSORT:Abdi-Heba Amarna letters writers Ancient history of Jerusalem Canaanite people 14th-century BC rulers Jebusites 14th-century BC Near Eastern people