Hanunu (

Philistine Philistines (; Septuagint, LXX: ; ) were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the Philist ...

: 𐤇𐤍𐤍 *''Ḥanūn''; Akkadian: 𒄩𒀀𒉡𒌑𒉡 ''ḫa-a-nu-ú-nu''),Hanunu (KING OF GAZA)
,

Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus The Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus, or Oracc, is an ongoing project designed to make the corpus of cuneiform compositions from the ancient Near East available online and accessible to users. The project, created by Steve Tinney of the Univ ...

sometimes called Hanno, was the Philistine king of

Gaza Gaza may refer to: Places Palestine * Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea ** Gaza City, a city in the Gaza Strip ** Gaza Governorate, a governorate in the Gaza Strip Mandatory Palestine * Gaza Sub ...

during the 8th century BC. During Hanunu's reign, much of the

Levant The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...

, including

Philistia Philistia was a confederation of five main cities or pentapolis in the Southwest Levant, made up of principally Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath, and for a time, Jaffa (part of present-day Tel Aviv-Yafo). Scholars believe the Philist ...

, was controlled by the

Neo-Assyrian Empire The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew to dominate the ancient Near East and parts of South Caucasus, Nort ...

Assyrian conquest of the Levant

According to the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Rezin Rezin of Aram (, ; ; *''Raḍyan''; ) was an Aramean King ruling from Damascus during the 8th century BC. During his reign, he was a tributary of King Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria. Lester L. Grabbe, ''Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How ...

, king of

Aram-Damascus Aram-Damascus ( ) was an Arameans, Aramean polity that existed from the late-12th century BCE until 732 BCE, and was centred around the city of Damascus in the Southern Levant. Alongside various tribal lands, it was bounded in its later years b ...

- a significant

buffer state A buffer state is a country geographically lying between two rival or potentially hostile great powers. Its existence can sometimes be thought to prevent conflict between them. A buffer state is sometimes a mutually agreed upon area lying between t ...

separating the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

from the Neo-Assyrian Empire, began forming powerful alliances with its neighboring nations, including the Kingdom of Israel. Fearing the threat posed by an Israel with Syrian military backing, the king of Judah,

Ahaz Ahaz (; ''Akhaz''; ) an abbreviation of Jehoahaz II (of Judah), "Yahweh has held" (; ''Ya'úḫazi'' 'ia-ú-ḫa-zi'' Hayim Tadmor and Shigeo Yamada, ''The Royal Inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 BC) and Shalmaneser V (726-722 BC), ...

, paid homage to the Neo-Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III, and appealed to him to invade the Levant. In the ensuing war,

was annexed, many cities in Israel were captured, reducing the kingdom to a rump state, and Judah became a tributary to Assyria.James B. Pritchard, ed., ''Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament'' (3rd ed.; Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969) 283.

Hanunu's return to Gaza

During the conquest, Philistia attempted to withstand the Assyrian invasion, to little success. In 734 BC, as Tiglath-Pileser III marched through the Philistine pentapolis, Hanunu realized Gaza would not hold against the Assyrian armies, and he fled to Egypt. With Gaza's capture and sacking, the Assyrians had completely conquered Philistia, and Hanunu eventually returned to Gaza, where Tiglath-Pileser III reinstated him as king. Why Hanunu returned is unclear, Tiglath-Pileser's annals record he returned because he was "overwhelmed" by the "terrifying splendor" of the Assyrian patron deity

Aššur Aššur (; AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; ''Āšūr''; ''Aθur'', ''Āšūr''; ', ), also known as Ashur and Qal'at Sherqat, was the capital of the Old Assyrian city-state (2025–1364 BC), the Mid ...

, in reality it might have been that he had expected aid from the Egyptians due to Gaza's position in their trade network, and returned once it became clear that no help was coming.Karen Radner & Silvie Zamazalová,
Gaza, Ashdod and the other Philistine kingdoms
, Assyrian empire builders, University College London, 2012

Rebellion against Assyria

Under Assyrian rule, Gaza became a lucrative trading station, and brought Assyria's borders against Egypt's. Tiglath-Pileser's successor,

Shalmaneser V Shalmaneser V (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "Salmānu is foremost"; Biblical Hebrew: ) was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 727 BC to his deposition and death in 722 BC. Though Shalmaneser V's brief reign is poorly known from conte ...

, continued to spread the Empire's borders through the Middle East, eventually destroying Israel in 720 BC. During this time, Shalmaneser V was suddenly deposed by

Sargon II Sargon II (, meaning "the faithful king" or "the legitimate king") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 722 BC to his death in battle in 705. Probably the son of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727), Sargon is generally believed to have be ...

, sending the empire into chaos. Numerous Assyrian dependencies saw opportunity in the resultant political instability and rebelled against Assyrian rule. Philistia was no exception, and Hanunu joined the other kings of Philistia in rebelling against Sargon. Despite facing concurrent rebellions in other parts of the empire, Sargon II was able to decisively crush each revolt against Assyria. By 711 BC,

Gath Gath can refer to: * Gath (surname) * Gath (city), the biblical city and home of Goliath. Main site is Gath of the Philistines, but there are also other locations Gath Gittaim and Gath Carmel *Gath-hepher, a border town in ancient Israel * ''Gath'' ...

had been destroyed,

Ashdod Ashdod (, ; , , or ; Philistine language, Philistine: , romanized: *''ʾašdūd'') is the List of Israeli cities, sixth-largest city in Israel. Located in the country's Southern District (Israel), Southern District, it lies on the Mediterranean ...

had been conquered, and Hanunu and his armies were routed at

Rafah Rafah ( ) is a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Rafah Governorate. It is located south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. Due to the Gaza war, about 1.4 million people from Gaza C ...

. Following Gaza's capture, Hanunu was put in bondage and brought to

Assur Aššur (; AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; ''Āšūr''; ''Aθur'', ''Āšūr''; ', ), also known as Ashur and Qal'at Sherqat, was the capital of the Old Assyrian city-state (2025–1364 BC), the Midd ...

, his fate is unknown.

References

{{reflist Philistine kings 8th-century BC monarchs Gaza City 8th-century BC rebels