Apiashal () was according to the ''
Assyrian King List
The king of Assyria (Akkadian language, Akkadian: , later ) was the ruler of the ancient Mesopotamian kingdom of Assyria, which was founded in the late 21st century BC and fell in the late 7th century BC. For much of its early history, Assyria was ...
'' (AKL) the 17th Assyrian monarch, ruling in Assyria's
early period.
He has been listed within the section of the ''AKL'' as the last of whom, "''altogether seventeen kings, tent dwellers''."
This section shows marked similarities to the ancestors of the ''
First Babylonian dynasty
The Old Babylonian Empire, or First Babylonian Empire, is dated to , and comes after the end of Sumerian power with the destruction of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the subsequent Isin-Larsa period. The Chronology of the Ancient Near East, chrono ...
''.
The ''AKL'' also states that ''Apiashal'' had been preceded by his father ''
Ushpia''. Additionally, the ''AKL'' states that ''Apiashal'' had been succeeded by his son ''
Hale''.
''Apiashal'' is also listed within a section of the ''AKL'' as the first out of the ten, "''kings whose fathers are known''.” This section (which in contrast to the rest of the list) had been written in reverse order—beginning with
Aminu and ending with Apiashal, "''altogether ten kings who are ancestors''"
—has often been interpreted as the list of ancestors of the
Amorite
The Amorites () were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking Bronze Age people from the Levant. Initially appearing in Sumerian records c. 2500 BC, they expanded and ruled most of the Levant, Mesopotamia and parts of Egypt from the 21st century BC ...
''
Šamši-Adad I''
(''
fl.
''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...
'' ''c.'' 1808 BCE – ''c.'' 1776 BCE) who had conquered the city-state of ''
Aššur''.
In keeping with this assumption, scholars have inferred that the original form of the Assyrian King List had been written (among other things) as an, “''attempt to justify that Šamši-Adad I was a legitimate ruler of the city-state Aššur and to obscure his non-Assyrian antecedents by incorporating his ancestors into a native Assyrian genealogy''.”
However, this interpretation has not been accepted universally; the ''
Cambridge Ancient History'' rejected this interpretation and instead interpreted the section as being that of the ancestors of ''
Sulili''.
[Hildegard Levy, "Assyria c. 2600-1816 B.C.", ''Cambridge Ancient History. Volume 1, Part 2: Early History of the Middle East'', 729-770, p. 745-746.)]
See also
*
Timeline of the Assyrian Empire
The timeline of ancient Assyria can be broken down into three main eras: the Old Assyrian period, Middle Assyrian Empire, and Neo-Assyrian Empire. Modern scholars typically also recognize an Early Assyrian period, Early period preceding the Old ...
*
Early Period of Assyria
*
List of Assyrian kings
The king of Assyria (Akkadian language, Akkadian: , later ) was the ruler of the ancient Mesopotamian kingdom of Assyria, which was founded in the late 21st century BC and fell in the late 7th century BC. For much of its early history, Assyria was ...
*
Assyrian people
Assyrians (, ) are an ethnic group Indigenous peoples, indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians Assyrian continuity, share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesop ...
*
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...
References
23rd-century BC Assyrian kings
22nd-century BC Assyrian kings
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