There can be little doubt that Shar-Gani-sharri was succeeded on the throne of Akkad by Narâm-Sin, whom we may regard with considerable confidence as his son as well as his successor. In the later tradition Narâm-Sin is represented as the son of Sargon, and, although in his own inscriptions he never mentions his father's name, we have contemporary proof that his reign and that of Shar-Gani-sharri were very close to one another. The relation of Shar-Gani-sharri's pavement in the temple of Ekur to that of Narâm-Sin and the similar character of their building materials suggest that the structures were laid with no long interval between them, and the fact that Lugal-ushumgal, patesi of Lagash, was the contemporary of both Shar-Gani-sharri and Narâm-Sin[65] supports the presumption that the latter was Shar-Gani-sharri's successor on the throne. Hence such evidence as we possess is in favour of accepting the later tradition of their relationship to one another.
Narâm-Sin's fame as a great conqueror, like that of his father, survived into later times, and the Omen-tablet and the Neo-Babylonian Chronicle relate his siege of the city of Apirak and the defeat of its governor and of Rîsh-Adad its king. Both texts also briefly record his successful expedition against the land of Magan. In the Omen-tablet the name of the king is wanting, but the lately recovered Chronicle has supplied it as Mannu-dannu. On this point the later tradition has been strikingly confirmed by the discovery at Susa of the base of a diorite statue of the king, on which it is recorded that he conquered Magan and slew Mani[...],[66] its prince or "lord." The precise position of the land of Magan is still unsettled, some setting it in the Sinaitic peninsula, others regarding it as a portion of Eastern Arabia. In favour of the latter view it may be noted that from Southern Babylonia it would be easy of access by way of the Persian Gulf, and the transport of heavy blocks of diorite, which Narâm-Sin, and at a rather later period Gudea, brought from Magan, would be more easily effected by water than overland. In that case Narâm-Sin's invasion of Magan was in direct continuation of Shar-Gani-sharri's policy of extending his empire southwards to include the shores of the Persian Gulf.
In the inscription upon this same statue, which Narâm-Sin records was fashioned from diorite brought to Akkad for that purpose from the mountains of Magan, he claims the proud title of "king of the four quarters (of the world)." Shar-Gani-sharri, in addition to his usual titles of "the mighty one, the king of Akkad," describes himself in one of the texts upon his gate-sockets from Nippur as "king of Enlil's realm," but in none of his inscriptions that have been recovered does he employ the title "king of the four quarters." This may be merely a coincidence, and no inference should perhaps be drawn from the absence of the title from his texts. On the other hand, it is possible that its assumption by Narâm-Sin was based on a definite claim to a world-wide empire, the full extent of which his predecessor had not enjoyed. However this may be, we have ample evidence of Narâm-Sin's military activity. In the introductory lines on the statue already referred to he claims to have been the victor in nine separate battles, forced upon him by the attack of hostile forces, in the course of a single year. Conquests recorded in other inscriptions of Narâm-Sin are that of Armanu,[67] and of Satuni, king of Lulubu.[68] The latter region lay to the east of Akkad, in the mountainous region to the north-east of Elam, and its king appears to have formed a confederacy of the neighbouring districts to oppose the advance of Akkadian influence in that direction.
The monument, which Narâm-Sin set up and dedicated in the temple of his god in commemoration of this latter victory, is one of the finest pieces of Babylonian sculpture that has yet been recovered.[69] It is a stele of victory, and the face is sculptured with a representation of the king conquering Satuni and his other enemies in a mountainous country. The king, whose figure is on a larger scale than the others, is nearly at the summit of a high mountain. He wears a helmet adorned with the horns of a bull, and he carries a battle-axe and a bow and arrow. Up the mountain side and along paths through the trees which clothe the lower slopes, the king's allies and warriors climb after him, bearing standards and weapons in their hands. Some of the king's foes are fleeing before him, and they turn in their flight to sue for mercy, while one still grasps a broken spear. Another has been shot by the king and crouches on the ground, seeking to draw the arrow from his throat. Two others lie prone before Narâm-Sin, who has planted his foot upon the breast of one of them. The peak of the mountain rises to the stars.
The fact that the stele was found at Susa has been employed as an argument in favour of regarding Elam as a dependency of Akkad during his reign. But, in addition to Narâm-Sin's own text, the stele bears a later inscription of the Elamite king Shutruk-Nakhkhunte, from which we may infer that it was captured in Northern Babylonia and carried off to Susa as a trophy of war. But it is not unlikely that Narâm-Sin, like Shar-Gani-sharri and the kings of Kish, achieved successes against Elam. Apirak, his conquest of which tradition records, was a country within the Elamite region, and its capture may well have taken place during a successful raid. Mention has been made of two early Elamite patesis, whose names have been recovered upon a tablet from Tello and an archaic text from Susa.[70] The patesi of Susa, whose name may be read as Ilishma, belongs to a period when that city acknowledged the suzerainty of Akkad. But this single name does not prove that Elam, however closely connected with Akkad by commercial ties, formed a regular province of the Akkadian empire. Ilishma may have been appointed to the throne of Susa by the king of Akkad during an invasion of that country, which reached its culmination in the deportation of the native king, as Shar-Gani-sharri deported the kings of Kutû and Amurru, and Manishtusu the king of Anshan. The available evidence suggests that, during the Dynasty of Akkad, Susa and Elam generally enjoyed their independence, subject to occasional periods of interruption.
Within the limits of Sumer and Akkad Narâm-Sin appears to have followed his father's policy of materially benefiting the provincial cities, while keeping their administration under his immediate control. Thus he continued the service of convoys, and at the same time devoted himself to the erection of temples to the gods. His rebuilding of the temples of Enlil at Nippur and of Shamash at Sippar has been already referred to, while his votive onyx vases found at Tello[71] prove that he did not neglect the shrines of Lagash. Another Sumerian city in which he undertook building operations was Ninni-esh, for there he rebuilt the temple dedicated to the goddess Ninni in the same year that he laid the foundation of the temple at Nippur.[72]
Fig. 59.—Stele sculptured with the figure of Narâm-Sin, King of Akkad, which was found at Pir Hussein near Diarbekr. In the Imperial Ottoman Museum.