Ayyab was a ruler of Aštartu (present day Tell Ashtara) south of

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

. According to the Amarna letters, cities/

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world throughout history, including cities such as Rome, ...

s and their kings in the region — just like countries to the north, such as Hatti of the Hittites, fell prey to a wave of attacks by ʿApiru raiders. The Amarna correspondence

corpus Corpus (plural ''corpora'') is Latin for "body". It may refer to: Linguistics * Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts * Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files * Corpus linguistics, a branch of ...

covers a period from 1350– 1335 BC. Another ruler of Aštartu cited in the Amarna letters is

Biridašwa Biridašwa (Sanskrit: "Prītāśva," "whose horse is dear" (Mayrhofer II 182)) was a mayor of ''Aštartu'', (Tell-Ashtara), south of Damascus, (named Dimasqu/Dimašqu), during the time of the Amarna letters Text corpus, correspondence, about 1350 ...

. The letters do not clearly indicate their title, leading some scholars to describe them as kings of

(Dimašqu) while others believe they were high Egyptian officials, possibly mayors.Wayne Thomas Pitard
''Ancient Damascus: A Historical Study of the Syrian City-State from Earliest Times Until Its Fall to the Assyrians in 732 B.C.E.''
Eisenbrauns, 1987. p. 67.

Ayyab's letter EA 364

Ayyab is the author of only one letter to the

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...

, letter EA 364-( EA for 'el

Amarna Amarna (; ) is an extensive ancient Egyptian archaeological site containing the ruins of Akhetaten, the capital city during the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, and a ...

').

Title: ''Justified war''

:To the king, my lord: Message of ''Ayyab'', your servant. I fall at the feet of my lord 7 times and 7 times. I am the servant of the king, my lord, the dirt at his feet. I have heard what the king, my lord, wrote to me through Atahmaya. Truly, I have guarded ''very carefully'', (i.e. ''Ma- GAL, Ma- GAL''), he ''citie'' of the king, my lord. Moreover, note that it is the ruler of Hasura who has taken 3 cities from me. From the time I heard and verified this, there has been waging of war against him. Truly, may the king, my lord, take cognizance, and may the king, my lord, give thought to his servant. —EA 364, lines 1-28 (complete) Ayyab's name is referred to in only one letter of the Amarna letters

, one of two letters by

Labaya Labaya (Labayu or Lib'ayu) was the ruler of Shechem and warlord in the central hill country of southern Canaan during the Amarna Period (c. 1350 BC). He lived contemporaneously with Pharaoh Akhenaten. Labaya is mentioned in several of the Amarna L ...

's son:

Mutbaal Mutbaal ( Akk. "man of Baal") was a Canaanite king of the Amarna Period. He is identified in the Amarna letters as a son of Labaya, the ruler of the hill country north of Jerusalem, including the territory in the vicinity of the city of Shachmu ...

of the city, ''Pihilu'', modern

Pella, Jordan Pella (, ) was an ancient city in what is now northwest Jordan, and contains ruins from the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Canaanite, Hellenistic and Islamic periods. It is located near a rich water source within the eastern foot ...

. The letter is EA 256, title: ''"Oaths and denials"'', (the oaths and denials by Mutbaal). See: "Tenuous identifications with Biblical figures": Labaya-(Mutbaal letter 256).

References

* Moran, William L. ''The Amarna Letters.'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1992. (softcover, ) Canaanite people Amarna letters writers 14th-century BC mayors {{AncientEgypt-stub

Ayyab's letter EA 364

Title: ''Justified war''

See also

References