Hanigalbat

Hanilgalbat was a Mitanni-kingdom in Northern Syria. Hanilgalbat is the Assyrian name of an area known to the Hitites and Egyptians also as Hurri or Mitanni.

extent

Hanilgalbar was located in Northern Syria, from Kirkuk and the river Tigris in the east to Aleppo and Nuhashne. The centre lay in the Khabur-valley. The capitals were Taidu and Washshukanni, called Ushshukana in the Assyrian sources.

history

No hurritic sources on the history of Hanilgalbat have been found so far. The account has to be mainly based on Assyrian official documents, some private correspondence, and Hitite and Egyptian sources, mainly the Amarna archives. This is bound to give a biased view.

Saushtatar, king of Hanilgalbat sacked Assur sometime in the 15th century and took the takes silver and golden doors of the Royal palace to Washshukanni. Afterwards, Assyria payed tribute to Hanilgalbat up to the time of Assur-uballit. The rise of the Hitites and dynastic conflicts weakened Hanilgalbat and brought it into conflict with Assyria, to which it eventually succumbed.

The kings of Hanilgalbat maintained good relations with Egypt. Gilu-Hepa, daughter of king Shuttarna was married to Amenophis III, Tatu-Hepa, daughter of king Tushratta to Amenophis IV.

At the beginning of the rule of Shuppililiuma, Kizzuwatna under the ruler Shunashshura, between the Taurus and Amanus mountains had been under Hitite control. It seceded from Hatti, but was taken over by Shuppililiuma again. In what has been called his 1st Syrian campaign, Shuppililiuma then invaded the western part of the Euphrates valley and conquered the Amurru and Nuhashshe in Hanilgalbat. Hitite annals report that King Tushratta plundered beyond the Euphrates. It is unclear whether this was an attempt to counter the Hitite advance on Kizzuwatna and Nuhashshe or simply a pretext for Shuppililiuma second Syrain campaign directed against Hanilgalbat. Before the Hitite troops reached Washshukanni, Tushratta was killed by his son. His other son Shattiwazza had to flee. He may have gone to Babylon first, but eventually ended up at the court of the Hitite king Shuppililiuma who married him to his daughter. A treaty between Shuppililiuma of Hatti and Shattiwazza of Mitanni has been preserved and is one of the main sources on this period.

After the Hitite king Shuppililiuma had taken Carchemish and the land west of the Euphrates, Hanilgalbat was restricted to the Khabur and Balikh valleys and became more and more dependant of Hatti. Assyria began to infringe on Hanilgalbat as well. Its vassal state of Arrapha in the east was conquered and destroyed by Assur-uballit.

Adad-niraris (c. 1305-1274) royal inscriptions relate how King Shattuara of Hanilgalbat rebelled and commited hostile acts against Assyria. Adad-nirari claims to have captured him and brought him to Assur, where he took an oath as a vassal. Afterwards, Shattuara was allowed to return to Hanilgalbat, and he paid regular tribute. This must have happened during the reign of Murshili II, there is no exact date. But his son Wasashatta rebelled. He tried to get Hitite help. As there were internal struggles there, probably connected with the usurpation of Hattusili III, who had driven Urhi-Teshup, son of Mutawalli by his second wife, into exile, the Hitites took Wasashatta's money but did not help, as Adad-nirari's inscriptions gleefully note. The Assyrians conquered the Royal city of Taidu, and took Amasakku (location unknown), Kahat (Tell Barri on the Jaghjagh), Shuru (maybe Savur at the northern rim of Tur-'Abdin), Nabula (Girnavaz near Nusaybin), Hurra (near Mardin?), Shuduhu (in the Khabur-area?), Washshushikannu (Tell Fecheriye, Tell Hamukar?) as well. They conquered Irridu (between Carchemish and Harran, maybe Ordi or Tell Bender)and sowed a salt-plant over it. The wife, sons and daughters Wasashatta were taken to Assur, together with lots of loot. As Wasashatta himself is not mentioned, he must have escaped capture. There are letters of Wasashatta in the Hitite archives. Some scholars think that he became ruler of a reduced Hanilgalbat that was called Shubria. While Adad-nirari took the core of Hanilgalbat between the Balikh and the Khabur, he does not seem to have crossed the Euphrates, Carchemish remained part of Hatti. After the victory over Hanilgalbat, Adad-nirari claimed the title of Great-King (Sharru rabû) in letters to the Hitite rulers, who did not take him serious as an equal nevertheless.

During the early years of the reign of Shalmanesar I., King Shattuara II of Hanilgalbat, a son or nephew of Wasahatta rebeld against the Assyrian yoke with the help of the Hitites and the nomadic Ahlamu. His army was well prepared, they had occupied all the mountain passes and waterholes, so the Assyrian army suffered from thirst during their advance.

Nevertheless, Shalmanesar I. won a crushing victory. He claims to have slain 14.400 men, the rest were blinded and carried away. His inscriptions mention the conquest of nine fortified temples, 180 hurrite cities were "turned into rubble mounds", Shalmanesar "…slaughtered like sheep the armies of the Hittites and the Ahlamu his allies…". The cities from Taidu to Irridu were captured, as well as all of mount Kashiar to Eluhat and the fortresses of Sudu, Harranu to Carchemish on the Euphrates. Another inscription mentions the construction of a temple to Adad in Kahat, a city of Hanilgalbat, that must have been conquered as well. A part of the population was deported and served as cheap labour. Administrative documents mention barley allotted to "uprooted men", deportees from Hanilgalbat. For example, the governor of the city Nahur, Meli-Sah received barley to be distributed to deported persons from Shuduhu "as seed, food for their oxen and for themselves". Hanilgalbat was now ruled by a king (Sharru), probably an Assyrian official. Assyrian administrative centres were built. Assyrians maintained not only military and political control, but seem to have dominated the trade as well, no Hurrian names appear in the records of Shalmanesar's time.

Under Tukulti-Ninurta (c. 1243-1207) there were again numerous deportations from Hanilgalbat to Assur, probably in connection with the construction of a new palace. As Hanilgalbat was invaded by a Hittite king, this may point to a new rebellion or at least native support of the Hitites. The Assyrian towns may have been sacked at this time.

In the time of Ashur-narari III, the Mushku and other tribes invade Hanilgalbat, it was lost to Assyrian rule. The Hurrians still held Katmuhu and Paphu.

At the turn of the Millenium, Hanilgalbat is fully aramaized. It is mentioned in inscriptions of Adad-Narari II, Ashurbanipal II and Shalamesar III.

In Neo Assyrian-times, the word Hanilgalbat is still used as a geographical term, probably as a conscious archaism.

kings

• Saushtatar
• Shuttarna II (son of Artatama I)
• Artashshumara (brother of Tushratta)
• Tushratta,
• Shattiwazza, son of Tushratta

--unknown dynastic connection

• Shattuara
• Wasashatta, his son, deposed by Adad-nirari
• Shattuara II, son or nephew of Wasahatta – defeated by Shalmaneser I.

towns

• Amasakku (location unknown)
• Hurra (near Mardin?)
• Irridu (between Carchemish and Harran, maybe Ordi or Tell Bender)
• Kahat (Tell Barri on the Jaghjagh)
• Nabula (Girnavaz near Nusaybin)
• Shuduhu (in the Khabur-area?),
• Shuru (maybe Savur at the northern rim of Tur-'Abdin)
• Taidu, Royal city
• Washshukanni (Tell Fecheriye, Tell Hamukar?)

excavations

• Tell Fecheriye

sources

• Amir Harrak, Assyria and Hanilgalbat. A Historical reconstruction of the bilateral relations from the middle of the 14th to the end of the 12 centuries BC. Studien zur Orientalistik (Hildesheim, Olms 1987).
• Weidner, Assyrien und Hanilgalbat . Ugaritica 6, 1969.