Kurda

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Map of Mesopotamia in 1770 BCE

Kurda was an ancient city-state and kingdom located in Northern Mesopotamia. [1] Kurda emerged during the Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia) and is attested in the administrative texts of this era as a city state and geographical territory in Upper Mesopotamia corresponding to modern northern Iraq. [2] [3] [4] The city-state of Kurda is again attested by the Akkadian king Naram Sin in 23rd century BCE in his military campaigns in the land of Subarians. [5] [6] Various Archives of Mari around 18th century BCE mention Kurda as an independent Kingdom, sometimes in alliance with Babylon and sometimes allied with Mari. [7] [8] Kurda is also mentioned in the Tell Fekheriye tablets of the Assyrian kings Šalmaneser I (1263–1234 BC) and Tukulti-Ninurta I (1233–1198 BC), as one of the conquered territories in the Mitannian Empire. [9]

Contents

Location

At its height the kingdom might have stretched from the Upper Khabur basin in what is today north-eastern Syria, to the steppes of Sinjar mountain, modern north-western Iraq. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] The capital city's location is debated; it was either located to south of Sinjar mountain, or along the Khabur river. [11]

Population and history

The city was the Amorite Numha tribe's center, [17] [18] it controlled a small area and included the nearby city of Kasapa. [19] The east Semitic deity Nergal was Kurda's chief god. [20] [21]

In the 18th century BC, Kurda was involved in a military dispute with the neighboring kingdom of Andarig, which ended in peace. [22] However, Kurda was later subdued by Andarig and its master, the king of Elam. [23] The kingdom tried switching its loyalty to Babylon but was stopped by the Elamites who were defeated by a Babylonian-Mariote alliance in 1764 BC, [23] giving Kurda the chance to form an alliance with the kingdom of Apum to face Andarig. [24] Kurda annexed the city of Ashihum, [25] then became a vassal of Babylon, [26] and ended its relation with Mari in response to the latter role in supporting Andarig. [27]

Rulers

See also

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References

Citations

  1. ↑ Liverani, Mario (2013). The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy. Routledge. p. 610. ISBN   978-1-134-75091-7.
  2. ↑ Bramanti, Armando (2020). The Pottesman Collection in the British Museum: Early Dynastic and Sargonic Administrative Texts, in "The Third Millennium", V.50. published by Brill.
  3. ↑ "CDLI-Archival View". cdli.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  4. ↑ "Tex no. P221673, published by Sollberger & Edmond, 1972, in CDLI-Found Texts". cdli.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2021-02-04. Written forms: iri kur-da. Normalized forms: Kurda
  5. ↑ Potts, D. T.; Radner, Karen; Moeller, Nadine (2020). The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East: Volume I: from the Beginnings to Old Kingdom Egypt and the Dynasty of Akkad. Oxford University Press. pp. 729–31. ISBN   978-0-19-068785-4.
  6. ↑ Hennerbichler, Ferdinand (2010). Die Herkunft der Kurden: interdisziplinäre Studie (in German). Peter Lang. p. 105. ISBN   978-3-631-59327-1.
  7. ↑ Heimpel, Wolfgang (2003). Letters to the King of Mari: A New Translation, with Historical Introduction, Notes, and Commentary. Eisenbrauns. ISBN   978-1-57506-080-4.
  8. ↑ Munn-Rankin, J. M. (1956). "Diplomacy in Western Asia in the Early Second Millennium B.C." IRAQ. 18 (1): 68–110. doi:10.2307/4199599. ISSN   0021-0889. JSTOR   4199599. S2CID   163095769.
  9. ↑ Bonatz, Dominik (2014-04-01). The Archaeology of Political Spaces: The Upper Mesopotamian Piedmont in the Second Millennium BCE. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 73–5. ISBN   978-3-11-026640-5.
  10. ↑ The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy, Mario Liverani, Routledge, Dec 4, 2013, 648 pages, see page 226
  11. 1 2 Ferdinand Hennerbichler (2010). Die Herkunft der Kurden: interdisziplinäre Studie. Peter Lang. p. 106. ISBN   9783631593271.
  12. ↑ M. B. Rowton, Urban Autonomy in a Nomadic Environment. In: Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 32, No. ½ (Jan.-Apr., 1973), pp. 201-215
  13. ↑ Postgate, John Nicholas, The Archives of Urad-Serua and His Family: A Middle Assyrian Household in Government Service. Publicazioni del Progetto "Analisi electronic del cuneiforme" Corpus Medio-Assiro. Roma (Roberto Denicola) 1988, Zittierte Archiv-Nummer: 56
  14. ↑ Charpin, Dominique,. La "toponymie en miroir" dans le Proche-Orient amorrite. Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale. Volume 97 2003/1, pp. 3–34.
  15. ↑ Jean Robert Kupper (Liége) Les nomads en Mésopotamie au temps des roi de Mari. Société d’Èdition ’Les Belles Letters’, Paris 1957.
  16. ↑ Ferner in: Birot,, Maurice, Kupper, Jean-Robert, Rouault,olivier. Répertoire analytique (2e volume). Tomes I-XIV, XVIII. Première partie. Noms propers (ARM 16/1), Paris 1979: Kurda.
  17. ↑ Trevor Bryce (2009). The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the fall of the Persian Empire. Routledge. p. 516. ISBN   9781134159079.
  18. ↑ Daniel Fleming (2012). The Legacy of Israel in Judah's Bible: History, Politics, and the Reinscribing of Tradition. Cambridge University Press. p. 219. ISBN   9781107024311.
  19. ↑ Trevor Bryce (2009). The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the fall of the Persian Empire. Routledge. p. 373. ISBN   9781134159079.
  20. ↑ Martha A. Morrison, David I. Owen (1981). In honor of Ernest R. Lacheman on his seventy-fifth birthday, April 29, 1981, Volume 2. Eisenbrauns. p. 86. ISBN   9780931464089.
  21. ↑ Izak Cornelius (1994). The Iconography of the Canaanite Gods Reshef and Baʻal: Late Bronze and Iron Age I Periods (C 1500-1000 BCE). University Press. p. 91. ISBN   9783525537756.
  22. ↑ Trevor Bryce (2009). The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the fall of the Persian Empire. Routledge. p. 398. ISBN   9781134159079.
  23. 1 2 Dominique Charpin (2012). Hammurabi of Babylon. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 49. ISBN   9781848857520.
  24. ↑ Trevor Bryce (2009). The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the fall of the Persian Empire. p. 45. ISBN   9780415394857.
  25. ↑ Trevor Bryce (2009). The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the fall of the Persian Empire. p. 76. ISBN   9780415394857.
  26. ↑ Gordon Douglas Young (1992). Mari in retrospect: fifty years of Mari and Mari studies. p. 13. ISBN   9780931464287.
  27. ↑ Wolfgang Heimpel (2003). Letters to the King of Mari: A New Translation, with Historical Introduction, Notes, and Commentary. p. 161. ISBN   9781575060804.
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