These letters, though by no means all of them containing important contributions to the history of political intrigue, are often of interest from the light they throw on manners and customs. A few further extracts are therefore given here.
“To the king my lord, my gods, my sun; Yabitiri is thy servant, the dust of thy feet, &c. And a faithful servant of the king am I. I look hither, and I look thither, but it is not light; then I look to the king my lord, then there is light. A brick may be removed from its firm bed, but I move not away from the king's feet. Let my lord the king ask Yanhamu, his rabisu. While I was still young he brought me to Egypt, and I served my lord the king and stood at the gate of the palace (as page). And to-day, let my lord the king ask his rabisu, I guard the gates of Gaza and of Joppa. I am also attached to the Pidati of my lord the king; whither they go thither do I go with them, as even now. On my neck rests the yoke of my lord the king, and I bear it.”
The following tablet from the neighbourhood of the Jordan promises good results as the reward of future research for geographical details:
“To Yanhamu, my lord: Mut-Addi is thy servant at thy feet. I told thee before, and it is so indeed; Ayab hath fled in secret, as did also previously the king of Bihishi before the commissioners of the king his lord. Is Ayab now in Bihishi? [He is there] truly as the lord king liveth, truly as he liveth. For [pg 052] two months he has been there. Behold, Benenima is present, Tadua is present, Yashua is present; ask them whether he hath fled from Shadi-Marduk, from Astarti. When all the cities in the land of Gari were in rebellion, Adma (Udumu), Aduri, Araru, Mishtu, Migdal, Ain-anab and Sarki were taken, then later Hawani and Yabesh. Behold, moreover, as soon as thou hadst written a letter to me I wrote to him (Ayab) that thou hadst returned from thy journey (to Palestine?). And behold he came to Bihishi and heard the command.”
The names Ayab and Yashua recall Job and Joshua to our minds.
The great alacrity shown in this letter was, as we already know, most acceptable to Yanhamu. Another Syrian chief, whose name has been obliterated, complained bitterly that Yanhamu had refused him a passage through his territories, although he showed the royal summons to Court. This, indeed, may have been an indirect favour to his correspondent. Very amusing is a group of three synoptic letters, written by one scribe for Biri ... (the name is imperfect) of Hashab, Ildaya ... of Hazi, and another. These vassals had evidently taken the field together. They recite their tale like a chorus of schoolboys repeating a lesson.
“Behold, we were besieging the cities of the king my lord in the land of Amki (i.e., cities that had fallen away and had ceased to pay tribute). Then [pg 053] came Itakama, the Prince of Kinza (Kadesh), at the head of Hittites. Let my lord the king write to Itakama, and cause him to turn aside and give us troops that we may win the cities of my lord the king, and thenceforth dwell in them.”
Itakama was specially unpopular with his neighbours. Apparently he was one of the more powerful allies of Aziru, and as such his special task was to press as hard as possible on the foes of the Amorites in southern Cœle-Syria. Perhaps, however, Aziru and Itakama did not come together till each for a time had fought his battles alone. The Hittites in Itakama's force were, of course, prominently mentioned to alarm Pharaoh. They may have been Hittite spearmen enrolled by the prince of Kadesh, much as the Habiri and Sutu had been enlisted by his chief rival Namyauza. It is even possible that the soldiers of Kadesh had always been armed in Hittite fashion; perhaps the town was already inhabited by people of Hittite stock. Later the Hittites actually seized Kadesh, and it is questionable whether it was for the first time. Itakama himself, however, scouts any thought of defection; nay, he writes:
“To the king my lord, &c. I am thy servant, but Namyauza hath slandered me to thee, oh my master. And while he was doing that he occupied all the inheritance of my fathers in the land of Kadesh, and my villages hath he set on fire. Do not [pg 054] the officers of my lord the king and his subjects know my faithfulness? I serve thee with all my brethren, and where there is rebellion against my lord the king, thither I march with my warriors, my chariots, and all my brethren. Behold, now Namyauza hath delivered up to the Habiri all the king's cities in the land of Kadesh and in Ube. But I will march forth, and if thy gods and thy sun go before me I will restore these places from the Habiri to the king that I may show myself subject to him. I will drive out these Habiri, and my lord the king shall rejoice in his servant Itakama. I will serve the king my lord, and all my brethren, and all lands shall serve him. But Namyauza will I destroy, for I am for ever a servant of the king my lord.”
The land of Ube here named corresponds to the Hobah of the Bible, mentioned in Genesis xiv. 15, as the place to which Abram pursued the conquerors of Sodom, who had carried Lot away. According to the margin of the Revised Version, Hobah lay “north of Damascus.” In a letter from Akizzi of Katna (see p. 44), we read, however, “Oh, my lord the king, as Damascus in the land of Ube stretches out her hand to thy feet, so Katna stretches out her hand to thy feet.” The statements may be reconciled by the hypothesis that in the Old Testament the position of the town after which the district is named is more exactly indicated. Other lands named in the tablets are more difficult to identify. To mitigate a famine in Gebal, Rib-Addi intended to send for grain from [pg 055] Zalukhi in Ugarit, but his enemies detained his ships and frustrated his intentions. Zalukhi does not seem to be mentioned again, and Rib-Addi in a later letter compares Ugarit with the region round Tyre as regards its administrative relation to Egypt. Abi-milki, the Tyrian prefect, once informs the king, “Fire hath devoured the city of Ugarit; one half of it hath it destroyed and not the other.” Finally, a certain Yapakhi-Addi, after an unsuccessful attempt to get provisions into Rib-Addi's city Simyra, reproachfully informs Yanhamu that Aziru has extended his dominions from Gebal to Ugarit. Ugarit must thus have been the most northerly of the Egyptian possessions in Asia, and therefore not far from the site of the modern Alexandretta. This outlying position made the little state a somewhat insecure jewel in the crown of Egypt. King Kadashman-Bel seems to have been of this opinion when (see p. [27]) he included in his little list of ladies impossible for a royal harem “a maiden from Ugarit.” Evidently he meant to enumerate superciliously petty foreign “princesses” only.