Brief account of the Amorite and Assyrian empires

The Amorite EmpireAbout 2000 BC, they followed in the footsteps of the Akkadians. They came from the south and west, speaking a similar Semitic language. The Akkadians called them the Amurru, which may mean “westerners” or “nomads.” From this name, we call them the Amorites. They came to Canaan and to the small Akkadian town Bab-ilum (“gate of god”), which the Hebrews called Babel.

 

Babel was an undistinguished town on the Euphrates that had been dominated by Kish. The Amorites who settled there were successful in taking over the rulership, and by 1850 BC the Amorites had overtaken Ashur and were using it as a base to trade with Asia Minor. Free from the influence of Ur, Ashur became a very rich and prestigious town. In 1814 BC the first Amorite king emerged, Shamshi-Adad I. He controlled all of northern Mesopotamia, taking over another trading town, Mari, to establish a very rich realm. His dynasty would last a thousand years.

But in Babel there rose another king, Hammurabi. He became ruler in 1792 BC, and it would have been understandable for him to merely rule quietly; he was stuck between the strong Assyria of Shamshi-Adad I in the north and the united south of Rim-Sin. Hammurabi, however, was a military genius and a master of diplomacy. He knew his two rivals were old and tired, and would never unite. Hammurabi just waited for one of them to die. Shamshi-Adad went first, in 1782 BC, and Assyrian power declined almost instantly. Hammurabi turned his attention to Rim-Sin, and in 19 years conquered the entire south of Mesopotamia. He sacked Mari in 1759 BC and finally brought Ashur to heel, allowing its ruler to remain on the throne but turning it into a tribute kingdom. Hammurabi only lived another four years, but during that time he became the second ruler to rule a united empire in Mesopotamia. He retained Babel as his capital, turning it into a beautiful and powerful city better-known by its Greek name: Babylon.

Hammurabi is best-known, of course, for his code of laws. Actually, his laws are more primitive and violent than the laws of Ur-Nammu 200 years earlier, but Hammurabi’s are notable for being the oldest we have nearly in their entirety. They are also heavily business-oriented, showing again that Mesopotamia banded together for reasons of trade.

Anarchy

Meanwhile, a revolution was taking place on the Russian steppes. In 2000 BC, nomads had tamed the wild horse. In 1800 BC, the chariot followed. Raids on civilization had always been a reality, but with horses and chariots they became tremendously effective. A group of nomadic tribes called the Hurrians swept into Mesopotamia and chipped away at it, establishing small principalities that would band together in a kingdom called Mitanni in 1500 BC. The Hurrians became a major power in Mesopotamia even before Hammurabi’s death. In the Bible, the Hurrians are called Horites; in Egypt, they were known as the Hyksos. They conquered the northern half of Egypt and ruled it for 150 years.

Another tribe of charioteers, the Hittites, entered Asia Minor, driving out the Assyrian merchants and taking control of the eastern half of the region. They adopted the ways of civilization, except for Semitic language. They spoke an Indo-European language.

Anarchy spread throughout Mesopotamia after the death of Hammurabi, destabilizing the region. The nomads took full advantage. Babylon’s power waned. Another tribe, the Kassites, followed the same path as the Guti out of the Zagros Mountains. In 1700 BC they took up the chariot and savagely sacked Ur. In 1595 BC, weakened by Hittite raids, Babylon was overrun by the Kassites, who occupied it. There they adopted Mesopotamian culture, including the Sumerian religion.

The nomads used the horse to conquer the Middle East, but they had also introduced the horse to the world. They would eventually have their advantage turned against them. The Egyptians mastered the chariot and drove out the Hyksos in 1585 BC. For the first time, under Pharaoh Thutmose III (the “Napoleon of Egypt”), Egyptian forces entered Asia. Thutmose defeated Canaan and destroyed the Hittite kingdom. After his death, Egyptian power weakened and receded back to Egypt itself; the Hittites reestablished their kingdom in 1375 BC and made it stronger. In 1365 BC Ashur-uballit began to revitalize Assyria; his successors defeated, conquered, and destroyed Mitanni, finally erasing it from the forward motion of history in 1270 BC.

The Assyrian Empire

Sulmanu-asarid I completed the destruction of the Mitanni and saw Assyria become the strongest power in the north. In the Bible, this king is called Shalmaneser I; he was a member of the same dynasty founded by Shamshi-Adad. Shalmaneser established the Assyrian Empire, which reached all the way to the Hittite kingdom, now at the peak of its power. Shalmaneser built a new capital, Calah.

His successor, Tukulti-Ninurta I, took the empire to its peak. He led campaigns into the Zagros Mountains to battle the Kassites and into the Caucasus Mountains to fight the Hurrians, who were establishing the kingdom of Urartu (Ararat). He turned Kassite-occupied Ur and Elam into tribute kingdoms, and the Assyrian Empire soon ruled all of Mesopotamia, a realm even greater than Hammurabi’s. Even the Hittites could not stand against it.

Tukulti-Ninurta I ruled from 1245 BC to 1208 BC before being assassinated by his own son. He had been the subject of epic poems in his lifetime, and might be the king referred to in Genesis as Nimrod. And so the cycle goes; the prosperity of his reign turned almost instantly into decline when he died.

Another tribe was coming down the Russian steppes. History knows little about them, but they might have been the Dorians, who would establish the culture we think of as Greek. They went to the west and circled the Black Sea, driving the people who already lived there into the sea. Those people, whoever they were, took up piracy and were particularly violent and destructive. The raided the coasts of Egypt, where they were referred to as simply the Peoples of the Sea. Egypt survived, but was significantly weakened. The pirates also raided Asia Minor, destroying the Hittite kingdom. Assyria, too, was weakened.

With Assyria’s hold on the Kassite rulers of Babylon loosened, there was a chance for recovery. But they were too weak to organize, and could not resist an Elamite force that sacked the city. The native Babylonians had had enough of the inept Kassite rule, and put a final end to it. A new king, a Baylonian, took control. This was Nabu-kudurri-usur; in the Bible, he is called Nebuchadrezzar I. He defeated the Elamites decisively and saved Babylon in 1124 BC.

But another revolution in warcraft would put a quick end to Babylon’s pretensions.

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