* The position of the mountains of Turat is indicated by the
nature of their products: “We know of a silver mine at
Marash and an iron mine not worked, and two fine quarries,
one of pink and the other of black marble.” Turat,
therefore, must be the Marash mountain, the Aghir-Uagh and
its spurs; hence the two sorts of stone mentioned in the
Assyrian text would be, the one the pink, the other the
black marble.
In 837 he seized the stronghold of Uêtash in Melitene, and laid Tabal under a fresh contribution; this constituted a sort of advance post for-Assyria in the sight of those warlike and continually fluctuating races situated between the sources of the Halys and the desert border of Asia Minor.* Secure on this side, he was about to bring matters to a close in Cilicia, when the defection of Ianzu recalled him to the opposite extremity of the empire. He penetrated into Namri by the defiles of Khashmur,** made a hasty march through Sik-hisatakh, Bît-Tamul, Bît-Shakki, and Bît-Shedi, surprised the rebels and drove them into the forests; he then bore down on Parsua*** and plundered twenty-seven petty kings consecutively.
* A fragment of an anonymous list, discovered by Delitzsch,
puts the expedition against the Tabal in 837 B.C. instead of
in 838, and consequently makes the entire series of ensuing
expeditions one year later, up to the revolt of Assur-dain-
pal. This is evidently a mistake of the scribe who compiled
this edition of the Canon, and the chronology of a
contemporary monument, such as the Black Obelisk, ought to
obtain until further light can be thrown on the subject.
** For the site of Khashmur or Khashmar, cf. supra, p. 35,
note 3. The other localities cannot as yet be identified
with any modern site; we may conjecture that they were
scattered about the basin of the upper Dîyalah.
*** Parsua, or with the native termination Parsuash, has
been identified first with Persia and then with Parthia, and
Rost still persists in its identification, if not with the
Parthia of classical geographers, at least with the Parthian
people. Schrader has shown that it ought to be sought
between Namri on the south and the Mannai on the north; in
one of the valleys of the Gordysean mountains, and his
demonstration has been accepted with a few modifications of
detail by most scholars. I believe it to be possible to
determine its position with still further precision. Parsua
on one side lay on the border of Namri, which comprises the
districts to the east of the Dîyalah in the direction of
Zohab, and was contiguous to the Medes on the other side,
and also to the Mannai, who occupied the southern regions of
Lake Urumiah; it also lies close to Bît-Khamban, the
principal of the Cossæan tribes, as it would appear. I can
find only one position on the map which would answer to all
these requirements: this is in the main the basin of the
Gavê-rud and its small affluents, the Ardelân and the
sources of the Kizil-Uzên, and I shall there place Parsua
until further information is forthcoming on the subject.
Skirting Misi, Amadai, Araziash,* and Kharkhar, and most of the districts lying on the middle heights of the table-land of Iran, he at length came up with Ianzu, whom he seized and brought back prisoner to Assyria, together with his family and his idols.
* Amadai is a form of Madai, with a prothetical a, like
Agusi or Azala, by the side of Guzi and Zala. The
inscription of Shalmaneser III. thus gives us the first
mention of the classical Medes. Araziash, placed too far to
the east in Sagartenê by Fr. Lenormant, has been located
further westwards by Schrader, near the upper course of the
Kerkhâ; but the documents of all periods show us that on one
side it adjoined Kharkhar, that is the basin of the Gamas-
âb, on the other side Media, that is the country of Hamadan.
It must, therefore, be placed between the two, in the
northern part of the ancient Cambadenê in the present
Tchamabadân. Kharkhar in this case would be in the southern
part of Cambadene, on the main road which leads from the
gates of the Zagros to Hamadan; an examination of the
general features of the country leads me to believe that the
town of Kharkhar should occupy the site of Kirmânshahân, or
rather of the ancient city which preceded that town.
It was at this juncture, perhaps, that he received from the people of Muzri the gift of an elephant and some large monkeys, representations of which he has left us on one of his bas-reliefs. Elephants were becoming rare, and it was not now possible to kill them by the hundred, as formerly, in Syria: this particular animal, therefore, excited the wonder of the Ninevites, and the possession of it flattered the vanity of the conqueror. This was, however, an interlude of short duration, and the turbulent tribes of the Taurus recalled him to the west as soon as spring set in.
He laid waste Kuî in 836 B.C., destroyed Timur, its capital, and on his return march revenged himself on Aramê of Agusi, whose spirit was still unbroken by his former misfortunes.
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the
Black Obelisk.