Bit Agusi or Bit Agushi (also written Bet Agus) was an ancient Aramaean Syro-Hittite state, established by Gusi of Yakhan at the beginning of the 9th century BC. It had included the cities of Arpad, Nampigi (Nampigu) and later on Aleppo [1] Arpad was the capital of the state-kingdom. [2] Bit Agusi stretched from the A'zaz area in the north to Hamath in the south. [3]
According to Dan'el Kahn, there were seven stages of Bit Agusi history in Northern Syria in the ninth and eighth centuries BC. [4]
The identity of Bar-Gayah, King of KTK is not entirely clear. Land of "KTK" may have been the large confederation known at the time as "All Aram". [5]
Nevertheless, according to Gerard Gertoux, Bar-Ga’yah, the King of KTK, was an Assyrian ruler who was not the official king but only a powerful royal co-regent based, after 856 BC, at Til Barsip, which became then the military capital of the Assyrian kingdom of Bit Adini. As Mati’-El (Mati-ilu) was a vassal of Bar-Gayah, the latter was more powerful than the king of Arpad. [6]
Arpad later became a major vassal city of the Kingdom of Urartu. In 743 BC, during the Urartu-Assyria War, the Neo-Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III laid siege to Arpad following the defeat of the Urartian army of Sarduri II at Samsat. But the city of Arpad did not surrender easily. It took Tiglath-Pileser three years of siege to conquer Arpad, whereupon he massacred its inhabitants and destroyed the city. [7] Afterward Arpad served a provincial capital. [8] The remains of Arpad's walls are still preserved in Tell Rifaat to the height of 8 meters. [9] A coalition of princes which had been allied to the city was also defeated, including the kings of Kummuh, Quwê, Carchemish and Gurgum. Bit Agusi was never repopulated.
Tiglath-Pileser III, was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 745 BC to his death in 727. One of the most prominent and historically significant Assyrian kings, Tiglath-Pileser ended a period of Assyrian stagnation, introduced numerous political and military reforms and more than doubled the lands under Assyrian control. Because of the massive expansion and centralization of Assyrian territory and establishment of a standing army, some researchers consider Tiglath-Pileser's reign to mark the true transition of Assyria into an empire. The reforms and methods of control introduced under Tiglath-Pileser laid the groundwork for policies enacted not only by later Assyrian kings but also by later empires for millennia after his death.
The Arameans, or Aramaeans, were an ancient Semitic-speaking people in the Near East, first recorded in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. The Aramean homeland, sometimes known as the land of Aram, encompassed central regions of modern Syria.
Hama is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located 213 km (132 mi) north of Damascus and 46 kilometres (29 mi) north of Homs. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 854,000, Hama is the fourth-largest city in Syria after Damascus, Aleppo and Homs.
Aram was a historical region mentioned in early cuneiforms and in the Bible. The area of Aram did not develop into a bigger empire, it consisted of a number of small states in present-day Syria and northern Israel. Some of these states are mentioned in the Old Testament, Damascus being the most outstanding one, which came to encompass most of Syria. Furthermore, Aram-Damascus is commonly referred to as simply Aram in the Old Testament.
Arpad was an ancient Aramaean Syro-Hittite city located in north-western Syria, north of Aleppo. It became the capital of the Aramaean state of Bit Agusi established by Gusi of Yakhan in the 9th century BC. Bit Agusi stretched from the A'zaz area in the north to Hamath in the south.
Ashur-nirari V was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 755 BC to his death in 745 BC. Ashur-nirari was a son of Adad-nirari III and succeeded his brother Ashur-dan III as king. He ruled during a period of Assyrian decline from which few sources survive. As such his reign, other than broad political developments, is poorly known.
The Kingdom of Aram-Damascus was an Aramean polity that existed from the late-12th century BCE until 732 BCE, and was centred around the city of Damascus in the Southern Levant. Alongside various tribal lands, it was bounded in its later years by the polities of Assyria to the north, Ammon to the south, and Israel to the west.
The states called Syro-Hittite, Neo-Hittite, or Luwian-Aramean, were Luwian and Aramean regional polities of the Iron Age, situated in southeastern parts of modern Turkey and northwestern parts of modern Syria, known in ancient times as lands of Hatti and Aram. They arose following the collapse of the Hittite New Kingdom in the 12th century BCE, and lasted until they were subdued by the Assyrian Empire in the 8th century BCE. They are grouped together by scholars, on the basis of several cultural criteria, that are recognized as similar and mutually shared between both societies, northern (Luwian) and southern (Aramean). Cultural exchange between those societies is seen as a specific regional phenomenon, particularly in light of significant linguistic distinctions between the two main regional languages, with Luwian belonging to the Anatolian group of Indo-European languages, and Aramaic belonging to the Northwest Semitic group of Semitic languages. Several questions related to the regional grouping of Luwian and Aramaean states are viewed differently among scholars, including some views that are critical towards such grouping in general.
During the Middle Assyrian Empire and the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Phoenicia, what is today known as Lebanon and coastal Syria, came under Assyrian rule on several occasions.
The Neo-Assyrian Empire arose in the 10th century BC. Ashurnasirpal II is credited for utilizing sound strategy in his wars of conquest. While aiming to secure defensible frontiers, he would launch raids further inland against his opponents as a means of securing economic benefit, as he did when campaigning in the Levant. The result meant that the economic prosperity of the region would fuel the Assyrian war machine.
The Sfire or Sefire steles are three 8th-century BCE basalt stelae containing Aramaic inscriptions discovered near Al-Safirah ("Sfire") near Aleppo, Syria. The Sefire treaty inscriptions are the three inscriptions on the steles; they are known as KAI 222-224. A fourth stele, possibly from Sfire, is known as KAI 227.
Shamshi-ilu (Šamši-ilu) was an influential court dignitary and commander in chief (turtanu) of the Assyrian army who rose in high prominence.
Kummuh was an Iron Age Neo-Hittite kingdom located on the west bank of the Upper Euphrates within the eastern loop of the river between Melid and Carchemish. Assyrian sources refer to both the land and its capital city by the same name. The city is identified with the classical-period Samosata, which has now been flooded under the waters of a newly built dam. Urartian sources refer to it as Kummaha. The name is also attested in at least one local royal inscription dating to the 8th century BCE. Other places that are mentioned in historical sources as lying within Kummuh are lands of Kištan and Halpi, and cities of Wita, Halpa, Parala, Sukiti and Sarita(?). Kummuh bordered the kingdoms of Melid to the north, Gurgum to the west and Carchemish to the south, while to the east it faced Assyria and later Urartu.
The Pazarcık Stele is an Assyrian monument which functioned as a boundary stone erected by the Assyrian king Adad-nirari III in 805 BC to demarcate the border between the kingdoms of Kummuh and Gurgum. The reverse and obverse of the stele have been inscribed in the Akkadian language in different times.
Tell Rifaat is a city in northern Aleppo Governorate, northwestern Syria. Located roughly 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of Aleppo, the town is the administrative center of Nahiya Tell Rifaat. Nearby localities include Azaz to the north, Mare' to the east, Kafr Naya to the south, Deir Jmal and Oqayba to the southwest and Ibbin Samaan to the west. In the 2004 census, Tell Rifaat had a population of 20,514.
Tell Aran is a Kurdish-majority town in northern Syria, administratively part of the al-Safira District of the Aleppo Governorate, located southeast of Aleppo close to Sabkhat al-Jabbul. Nearby localities include Tell Hasil, al-Nayrab and Tell Shughayb to the northwest and al-Safira to the southeast. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Tell Aran had a population of 17,767 in the 2004 census. The town is famous for its grapes, vineyards and gardens. The number of residents of Talaar has exceeded 60,000, especially after the large numbers of people displaced from the city of Aleppo to it due to the bloody war in Syria. The affairs of the town of Talaran are managed through its municipality, which is elected by members of the Baath Party. Muhammad Shadi Murad is currently heading the municipality of Talaran, succeeding Mr. Haitham Hamam.
Luhuti, Lukhuti or Lu'ash, was an Iron Age Syro-Hittite Aramean region during the early 1st millennium BC located in northern Syria, in an area that used to be called Nuhašše.
Zakkur was the ancient king of Hamath and Luhuti in Syria. He ruled around 785 BC. Most of the information about him comes from his basalt stele, known as the Stele of Zakkur.
Atarshumki I was the King of Bit Agusi in ancient Syria; he was the son of Arames. The capital of Bit Agusi was Arpad.
Gurgum was a Neo-Hittite state in Anatolia, known from the 10th to the 7th century BC. Its name is given as Gurgum in Assyrian sources, while its native name seems to have been Kurkuma for the reason that the capital of Gurgum—Marqas in Assyrian sources —was named "the Kurkumaean city" in local Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions.
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