Isar-Damu (died 2305 BC),
was the king (
Malikum) of the first
Eblaite kingdom. Isar-Damu fought a
long war with Mari which ended in Eblaite victory; he was probably the last king of the first kingdom.
Reign
Isar-Damu succeeded his father Irkab-Damu as a young child; his mother, Dusigu, seems to have taken advantage of her position as her husbands favorite wife and her probable familial relation to the powerful
vizier
A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...
Ibrium in order to elevate her son to the throne, despite him being one of Irkab-Damu's youngest sons.
The first years of Isar-Damus's reign were dominated by his mother and the vizier; texts from Ebla show that Isar-Damu's name appeared on official documents after that of his mother.
Ibrium was the commander of the army and he conducted multiple campaigns against rebellious vassal-rulers or neighboring kingdoms.
Isar-Damu concluded an alliance with
Nagar and the relations progressed toward a dynastic marriage between princess
Tagrish-Damu, Isar-Damu's daughter, and prince
Ultum-Huhu, Nagar's monarch's son.
In year seven of
Ibrium's term, Nagar was defeated by Mari, causing the blockage of trade routes between Ebla and southern Mesopotamia via upper Mesopotamia.
Ibrium became vizier two years prior to Isar-Damu's reign and kept his office for 20 years, dying in Isar-Damu's 18th regnal year;
three years later, queen mother Dusigu died.
Following Ibrium's death, an Eblaite campaign was sent against
Alalakh
Alalakh (''Tell Atchana''; Hittite: Alalaḫ) is an ancient archaeological site approximately northeast of Antakya (historic Antioch) in what is now Turkey's Hatay Province. It flourished as an urban settlement in the Middle and Late Bronze Age ...
. Isar-Damu concluded an alliance with Nagar and
Kish
Kish may refer to:
Businesses and organisations
* KISH, a radio station in Guam
* Kish Air, an Iranian airline
* Korean International School in Hanoi, Vietnam
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* Kish (surname), including a list of people with the name
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against Mari, and the campaign was headed by the Eblaite vizier
Ibbi-Sipish, Ibrium's son, who led the combined armies to victory in a battle near
Terqa. Afterwards, the alliance attacked the rebellious Eblaite vassal city of
Armi.
Succession
Isar-Damu ruled 35 years,
and his main wife was Tabur-Damu but his crown prince
Ir'ak-Damu was his son by an earlier consort whose name is unknown.
Although Isar-Damu is generally considered Ebla's first kingdom last monarch, his son Ir'ak-Damu, who was married to Za'ase, Ibbi-Sipish's daughter,
might have succeeded him for a short period.
Ancestry
See also
*
Ebla tablets
The Ebla tablets are a collection of as many as 1,800 complete clay tablets, 4,700 fragments, and many thousands of minor chips found in the palace archives of the ancient city of Ebla, Syria. The tablets were discovered by Italian archaeologist ...
*
Cities of the ancient Near East
The earliest cities in history were in the ancient Near East, an area covering roughly that of the modern Middle East: its history began in the 4th millennium BC and ended, depending on the interpretation of the term, either with the conquest by ...
*
Eblaite-Mariote war
References
Citations
{{Kings of Ebla
24th-century BC monarchs
Kings of Ebla
24th-century BC births
3rd-millennium BC deaths