KSHEMADHAN
/ SAMSU-ILUNA
![](376px-Record_of_the_sale_of_land_in_the_reign_of_Samsu-Iluna.jpg)
Record
of the sale of land in the reign of Samsu-Iluna
Kshemadhan
/ Samsu-iluna (Amorite: Shamshu; c. 1750–1712 BC) was the
seventh king of the founding Amorite dynasty of Babylon, ruling
from 1750 BC to 1712 BC (middle chronology), or from 1686 to 1648
BC (short chronology). He was the son and successor of Hammurabi
by an unknown mother. His reign was marked by the violent uprisings
of areas conquered by his father and the abandonment of several
important cities (primarily in Sumer).
Circumstances
of Samsu-iluna's reign :
When Hammurabi rose to power in the city of Babylon, he controlled
a small region directly around that city, and was surrounded by
vastly more powerful opponents on all sides. By the time he died,
he had conquered Sumer, Eshnunna, Assyria and Mari making himself
master of Mesopotamia. He had also significantly weakened and humiliated
Elam and the Gutians.
While
defeated, however, these states were not destroyed; if Hammurabi
had a plan for welding them to Babylon he did not live long enough
to see it through. Within a few years of his death, Elam and Assyria
had withdrawn from Babylon's orbit and revolutions had started in
all the conquered territories. The task of dealing with these troubles—and
others—fell to Samsu-iluna. Though he campaigned tirelessly
and seems to have won frequently, the king proved unable to stop
the empire's unwinding. Through it all, however, he did manage to
keep the core of his kingdom intact, and this allowed the city of
Babylon to cement its position in history.
Fragmentation
of the Empire :
![](640px-Hammurabi%27s_Babylonia_1.svg.jpg)
Map
showing the Babylonian territory upon Hammurabi's ascension in c.
1792 BC and upon his death in c. 1750 BC
In the 9th year of Samsu-iluna's reign a man calling himself Rim-sin
(known in the literature as Rim-sin II, and thought to perhaps be
a nephew of the Rim-sin who opposed Hammurabi) raised a rebellion
against Babylonian authority in Larsa which spread to include some
26 cities, among them Uruk, Ur, Isin and Kisurra in the south, and
Eshnunna in the north.
Samsu-iluna
seems to have had the upper-hand militarily. Within a year he dealt
the coalition a shattering blow which took the northern cities out
of the fight. In the aftermath the king of Eshnunna, Iluni, was
dragged to Babylon and executed by strangulation. Over the course
of the next 4 years, Samsu-iluna's armies tangled with Rim-sin's
forces up and down the borderlands between Babylon, Sumer and Elam.
Eventually Samsu-iluna attacked Ur, pulled down its walls and put
the city to the sack, he then did the same to Uruk, and Isin as
well. Finally Larsa itself was defeated and Rim-sin II was killed,
thus ending the struggle.
Unfortunately
the floodgates had opened. A few years later, a pretender calling
himself Ilum-ma-ili, and claiming descent from the last king of
Isin, raised another pan-Sumerian revolt. Samsu-iluna marched an
army to Sumer, and the two met in a battle which proved indecisive;
a second battle sometime later went Ilum-ma-ili's way, and in its
aftermath, he founded the First Dynasty of Sea-Land, which would
remain in control of Sumer for the next 300 years. Samsu-iluna seems
to have taken a defensive approach after this; in the 18th year
of his reign, he saw to the rebuilding of 6 fortresses in the vicinity
of Nippur, which might have been intended to keep that city under
Babylonian control. Ultimately, this proved fruitless; by the time
of Samsu-iluna's death, Nippur recognized Ilum-ma-ili as king.
Apparently,
Eshnunna had not reconciled itself to Babylonian control either,
because in Samsu-iluna's 20th year it rebelled again. Samsu-iluna
marched his army through the region and, presumably after some bloodshed,
constructed the fortress of Dur-samsuiluna to keep them in line.
This seems to have done the trick, as later documents see Samsu-iluna
take a more conciliatory stance repairing infrastructure and restoring
waterways.
As
if this weren't enough, both Assyria and Elam used the general chaos
to re-assert their independence. Kuturnahunte I of Elam, seizing
the opportunity left by Samsu-iluna's attack on Uruk, marched into
the (now wall-less) city and plundered it, among the items looted
was a statue of Inanna which wouldn't be returned until the reign
of Ashurbanipal 11 centuries later. In Assyria, a native vice regent
named Puzur-Sin ejected Asinum who had been a vassal king of his
fellow Amorite Hammurabi. A native king Ashur-dugul seized the throne,
and a period of civil war in Assyria ensued. Samsu-Iluna seems to
have been powerless to intervene, and finally a king named Adasi,
restored a stable native dynasty in Assyria, removing any vestages
of Amorite-Babylonian influence.
In
the end, Samsu-iluna was left with a kingdom that was only fractionally
larger than the one his father had started out with 50 years prior
(but which did leave him mastery of the Euphrates up to and including
the ruins of Mari and its dependencies). The status of Eshnunna
is difficult to determine with any accuracy, and while it may have
remained in Babylonian hands the city was exhausted and its political
influence at an end.
Depopulation
of Sumer :
![](528px-Image_from_page_25_of__Ancient_seals_of_the_Near_East__(1940).jpg)
Dakiya,
a high official of Samsu-iluna, and son of Damiq-ilishu, the last
king of the Isin Dynasty
Samsu-iluna's campaigns might not have been solely responsible for
the havoc wreaked upon Uruk and Ur, and his loss of Sumer might
have been as much a calculated retreat as defeat.
Records
in the cities of Ur and Uruk essentially stop after the 10th year
of Samsu-iluna's reign, their priests apparently continued writing,
but from more northerly cities. Larsa's records also end about this
time. Records keep going in Nippur and Isin until Samsu-iluna's
29th year, and then cease there as well. These breaks are also observed
in the archeological record, where evidence points to these cities
being largely or completely abandoned for hundreds of years, until
well into the Kassite period.
Reasons
for this are hard to come by. Certainly the constant warfare cannot
have helped matters, but Samsu-iluna appears to have campaigned
just as hard in the north, and that region was thriving during the
period. The rise of Babylon marks a definite end to Sumerian cultural
dominance of Mesopotamia and a shift to Akkadian for government
and popular writing; perhaps people who claimed cultural ties to
the Sumerian past retrenched around the southerly cities which Iluna-ilu
controlled. Several members of his dynasty took Sumerian names,
and it appears they consciously strove to return to the region's
Sumerian roots. It is also possible that economic or environmental
factors were involved; it is known that both Hammurabi and Rim-sin
I had instituted policies which altered the economies of the region,
perhaps these proved unsustainable in the long-term.
Other
campaigns :
• |
Slaving
raids by Sutean tribes appear to have been a constant problem
for Babylon during this period, and Samsu-iluna spent some
time dealing with them. He promulgated a law barring Babylonian
citizens from purchasing as slaves citizens of the (presumably
oft-raided) cities of Idamaras and Arrapha. |
• |
In
the 9th year of his reign, Samsu-iluna turned back an invasion
by a Kassite army. This is the earliest known mention of the
Kassites, who would go on to rule Babylonia after the collapse
of the Amorite dynasty. |
• |
Around
the 24th year of his reign, Samsu-iluna attacked and destroyed
the city of Apum, killing its king Yakun-ashar. A year later
he seems to have attacked the city of Terqa as well, possibly
adding it to his kingdom. |
• |
In
his 28th year, Samsu-iluna defeated the armies of two otherwise
unknown western kings recorded as Iadikhabum and Muti-kurshana. |
• |
In the 35th year of his reign, Samsu-iluna repelled an Amorite
invasion. |
Domestic
policy :
Though troubled, Samsu-iluna's reign was not entirely focused on
war. He is known to have rebuilt the walls of Kish, Nippur and Sippar
for example, and to have propagated the Marduk cult as had his father.
He also apparently restored the Ebabbar temple of Shamashziggurats
at Sippar, and the ziggurat of Zababa and Ishtar at Kish.
Additionally,
there is speculation that Samsu-iluna instituted the Standard Babylonian
calendar, possibly as a means of tying his empire more closely together.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Samsu-iluna