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 ...
name Ila-kabkabu appears twice in 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 ...
:
* Ila-kabkabu () appears within 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 ...
among the “kings whose fathers are known” (alongside both: Ila-kabkabu's father and predecessor, Yazkur-el; Ila-kabkabu's son and successor,
Aminu),
* Ila-kabkabu of Terqa is also mentioned as the father of one other king named within the Assyrian King List:
Šamši-Adad I.
Šamši-Adad I had not inherited the Assyrian throne from his father, but had instead been a conqueror. Ila-kabkabu had been an
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 ...
king not of
Aššur (within
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 ...
), instead; Ila-kabkabu had been king of
Terqa
Terqa is an ancient city discovered at the site of Tell Ashara on the banks of the middle Euphrates in Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Syria, approximately from the modern border with Iraq and north of the ancient site of Mari, Syria. Its name had b ...
(within
Syria
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
) during the same time as that of the King
Iagitlim of
Mari (also within
Syria
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
.) According to the ''Mari Eponyms Chronicle'', Ila-kabkabu had seized Shuprum (possibly c. 1790 BC), then Šamši-Adad I had, “entered his father's house,” (e.g.. Šamši-Adad I had succeeded Ila-kabkabu as the king of Terqa, within the following year.)
Šamši-Adad I had subsequently conquered a wide territory and had emerged as the king of Assyria, where he had founded an Amorite dynasty.
Arising from the two appearances of the name "Ila-kabkabu" within two different places of the Assyrian King List, the “kings whose fathers are known” section has often, although not universally
[For example, Hildegard Levy, writing in the '' Cambridge Ancient History'', rejected this interpretation and instead interpreted the section as the ancestors of Sulili, the kings mentioned immediately afterwards. (See 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.)] been considered a list of Šamši-Adad I's ancestors.
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.”
According to this interpretation, both instances of the name would refer to the same man, Šamši-Adad I's father, whose line would have been interpolated into the list.
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 ...
*
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 ...
*
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
22nd-century BC Assyrian kings
21st-century BC Assyrian kings
Amorite kings
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