Ashurbanipal

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Ashurbanipal, Assurbanipal or Sardanapal, (reigned 669 - 627 BCE), the son of Esarhaddon and Naqi'a-Zakutu, was the last great king of ancient Assyria. He is famous as one of the few kings in antiquity who could himself read and write. Assyrian sculpture reached its apogee under his rule (Northern palace and south-western palace at Nineveh, battle of Ulai). The Greeks knew him as Sardanapalos; Latin and other medieval texts refer to him as Sardanapalus. In the Bible he is called As(e)nappar or Osnapper (Ezra 4:10). Image:Ashurbanipal.jpg During his rule, Assyrian splendour was not only visible in its military power, but also its culture and art. Ashurbanipal created "the first systematically collected library" at Nineveh, where he gathered all cuneiform literature available by that time. A library was distinct from an archive: earlier repositories of documents had accumulated passively, in the course of administrative routine.

Tablets from the library of Nineveh preserve the most complete sources for both the Sumerian and Akkadian versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Other sets of tablets offer what is essentially a Sumerian-Akkadian dictionary. There are arcane astronomical/astrological texts. By far, the largest group of tablets (almost all of which are in the British Museum, London) are 'omen' texts that taught the scribes how to recognize the significance of portents.

Assurbanipal became crown prince in 672, when Esarhaddon's eldest son Sin-iddina-apla died. Assurbanipal was very unpopular with the court and the priesthood. Contracts were made with leading Assyrians, members of the royal family, and foreign rulers to assure their loyalty to the crown prince. But it was only the energy of his mother Naqi'a-Zakutu that assured his ascent to the throne when Esarhaddon suddenly died during his Egyptian campaign in 669.

The early part of Ashurbanipal's reign, like that of most Assyrian kings, was marked by incessant warfare. He made war on his brother Shamash-shum-ukin, who had been installed as king in Babylon, and who had rebelled against him. The Babylonian king was the leader of a large coalition of peoples from southern Mesopotamia (but including also Egypt). Eventually, Ashurbanipal reconquered Babylon, and the coalition disbanded. Ashurbanipal also crushed a rebellion in Egypt, and conquered Elam, destroying its capital city, Susa. He also conquered a great part of the Arab territories.

After defeating the Babylonian coalition, in his 22nd year, he appointed Kandalanu as puppet-king of Babylon. However, some evidence would suggest that Ashurbanipal and Kandalanu are the same person, and that he simply decided to use a fictitious name for the kingship over Babylon.

During the final decade of his rule, Assyria was quite peaceful, but the country apparently faced a serious decline. Documentation from the last years of reign of Ashurbanipal is very scarce, and even the date of his death is not known with certainty. The latest attestations for Ashurbanipal come only to his year 38 (631 BC), but later sources have him reigning for 42 years (to 627 BC). It has been suggested that the last years of Assurbanipal witnessed a struggle between the aged king and two of his rebellious sons.

The death of Ashurbanipal opened the way to catastrophic strife between his sons for the throne of Assyria. The contenders included Ashur-etil-ilani, Sin-shar-ishkun and Sin-shumu-lishir, who were probably his sons, and the eventual new king of Babylon, Nabopolassar.

Oppenheim's dates (as given here) are drawn from references in the inscription from Harran of the mother of Nabonidus.

Ashurbanipal is one of the most popular Assyrian kings, as his name is often used for boys within the Assyrian communities.

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