Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. de Morgan.
The two campaigns of B.C. 882 and 881 had cost Assur-nazir-pal great efforts, and their results had been inadequate to the energy expended. His two principal adversaries, Nurrammân and Amika, had eluded him, and still preserved their independence at the eastern extremities of their former states. Most of the mountain tribes had acknowledged the king’s supremacy merely provisionally, in order to rid themselves of his presence; they had been vanquished scores of times, but were in no sense subjugated, and the moment pressure was withdrawn, they again took up arms. The districts of Zamua alone, which bordered on the Assyrian plain, and had been occupied by a military force, formed a province, a kind of buffer state between the mountain tribes and the plains of the Zab, protecting the latter from incursions.
Assur-nazir-pal, feeling himself tolerably safe on that side, made no further demands, and withdrew his battalions to the westward part of his northern frontier. He hoped, no doubt, to complete the subjugation of the tribes who still contested the possession of various parts of the Kashiari, and then to push forward his main guard as far as the Euphrates and the Arzania, so as to form around the plain of Amidi a zone of vassals or tutelary subjects like those of Zamua. With this end in view, he crossed the Tigris near its source at the traditional fords, and made his way unmolested in the bend of the Euphrates from the palace of Tilluli, where the accustomed tribute of Kummukh was brought to him, to the fortress of Ishtarâti, and from thence to Kibaki. The town of Matiatê, having closed its gates against him, was at once sacked, and this example so stimulated the loyalty of the Kurkhi chiefs, that they ha*tened to welcome him at the neighbouring military station of Zazabukha. The king’s progress continued thence as before, broken by frequent halts at the most favourable points for levying contributions on the inhabitants.1 Assur-nazir-pal encountered no serious difficulty except on the northern slopes of the Kashiari, but there again fortune smiled on him; all the contested positions were soon ceded to him, including even Madara, whose fourfold circuit of walls did not avail to save it from the conqueror.** After a brief respite at Tushkhân, he set out again one evening with his lightest chariots and the pick of his horsemen, crossed the Tigris on rafts, rode all night, and arrived unexpectedly the next morning before Pitura, the chief town of the Dirrabans.*** It was surrounded by a strong double enceinte, through which he broke after forty-eight hours of continuous assault: 800 of its men perished in the breach, and 700 others were impaled before the gates.
* It is difficult to place any of these localities on the
map: they ought all to be found between the ford of the
Tigris, at Diarbeldr and the Euphrates, probably at the foot
of the Mihrab-dagh and the Kirwântchernen-dagh.
** Madara belonged to a certain Lapturi, son of Tubusi,
mentioned in the campaign of the king’s second year. In
comparing the facts given in the two passages, we see it was
situated on the eastern slope of the Kashiari, not far from
Tushkhan on one side, and Ardupa—that is probably Mardin—?
on the other. The position of Ortaveran, or of one of the
“tells” in its neighbourhood, answers fairly well to these
conditions.
*** According to the details given in the Annals, we must
place the town of Bitura (or Pitura) at about 19 miles from
Kurkh, on the other side of the Tigris, in a north-easterly
direction, and consequently the country of Lirrâ would be
between the Hazu-tchaî and the Batman-tchaî. The Matni, with
its passes leading in to Naîri, must in this case be the
mountain group to the north of Mayafarrikîn, known as the
Dordoseh-dagh or the Darkôsh-dagh.
Arbaki, at the extreme limits of Eirkhi, was the next to succumb, after which the Assyrians, having pillaged Dirra, carried the passes of Matni after a bloody combat, spread themselves over Naîri, burning 250 of its towns and villages, and returned with immense booty to Tushkhân. They had been there merely a few days when the newt arrived that the people of Bît-Zamâni, always impatient of the yoke, had murdered their prince Ammibaal, and had proclaimed a certain Burramman in his place. Assur-nazir-pal marched upon Sinabux and repressed the insurrection, reaping a rich harvest of spoil—chariots fully equipped, 600 draught-horses, 130 pounds of silver and as much of gold, 6600 pounds of lead and the same of copper, 19,800 pounds of iron, stuffs, furniture in gold and ivory, 2000 bulls, 500 sheep, the entire harem of Ammibaal, besides a number of maidens of noble family together with their dresses. Burramman was by the king’s order flayed alive, and Arteanu his brother chosen as his successor. Sinabu* and the surrounding towns formed part of that network of colonies which in times past Shalmaneser I. had organised as a protection from the incursions of the inhabitants of Naîri; Assur-nazir-pal now used it as a rallying-place for the remaining Assyrian families, to whom he distributed lands and confided the guardianship of the neighbouring strongholds.
* Hommel thinks that Sinabu is very probably the same as the
Kinabu mentioned above; but it appears from Assur-nazir-
pal’s own account that this Kinabu was in the province of
Khalzidipkha (Khalzilukha) on the Kashiari, whereas Sinabu
was in Bît-Zamâni.
The results of this measure were not long in making themselves felt: Shupria, Ulliba, and Nirbu, besides other districts, paid their dues to the king, and Shura in Khamanu,* which had for some time held out against the general movement, was at length constrained to submit (880 B.C.).
* Shur is mentioned on the return to Nairi, possibly on the
road leading from Amidi and Tushkhân to Nineveh. Hommel
believes that the country of Khamanu was the Amanos in
Cilicia, and he admits, but unwillingly, that Assur-nazir-
pal made a detour beyond the Euphrates. I should look for
Shura, and consequently for Khamanu, in the Tur-Abdin, and
should identify them with Saur, in spite of the difference
of the two initial articulations.