During this period of confusion it is probable that the internal troubles of Isin reacted upon her political influence in Babylonia. It is also possible that the quick changes in the succession may have, in part, been brought about by events which were happening in other cities of Sumer and Akkad.[28] It has, indeed, been suggested that the Dynasty of Isin and the First Dynasty of Babylon overlapped each other,[29] as is proved to have been the case with the first three dynasties of the Babylonian List of Kings. If that were so, not only the earlier kings of Babylon, but also the kings of Larsa and the less powerful kings of Erech, would all have been reigning contemporaneously with the later kings of Isin. In fact, we should picture the kingdom of Sumer and Akkad as divided into a number of smaller principalities, each vying with the other in a contest for the hegemony, and maintaining a comparatively independent rule within their own borders. Such a condition of affairs would amply account for the confusion in the succession at Isin, and our scanty knowledge of the period could be supplemented from our sources of information concerning the history of the earlier kings of Babylon.
The view is certainly attractive, but for that very reason it is necessary to examine carefully the grounds upon which it is based. For deciding the inter-relations of the first three dynasties of the Babylonian King-List, we have certain definite synchronisms established between members of the different dynasties.[30] But between the kings of Babylon and Isin no such synchronism has been furnished by the texts. The theory that the two dynasties were partly contemporaneous rests upon data which admit of more than one interpretation, while additional reasons adduced in its support have since been discredited.
SPECIMENS OF BABYLONIAN CLAY CONES BEARING VOTIVE INSCRIPTIONS OF GUDEA, PATESI OF SHIRPURLA, OF NUR-ADAD, KING OF LARSA, OF ENANNATUM, AN OFFICIAL IN UR DURING THE REIGN OF GUNGUNU, AND OF UR-ENGUR, KING OF UR.—Brit. Mus., Nos. 30089, 30070, 30062, and 30090; photo, by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
The principal fact upon which those who accept the theory rely is that a capture of the city of Isin is commemorated in the formula for the seventeenth year of Sin-muballit, the fifth king of the First Dynasty of Babylon and the father of Hammurabi.[31] Now a capture of the city of Isin by Rîm-Sin, King of Larsa, is also recorded in formulas upon contract-tablets found at Tell Sifr, and that considerable importance was attached locally to this event is attested by the fact that it formed an epoch for dating tablets in that district.[32] The theory necessitates two assumptions, the first to the effect that the date-formulæ of Rîm-Sin and Sin-muballit refer to the same capture of the city; and, secondly, that this event brought the Dynasty of Isin to an end. Granting these hypotheses, the twenty-third year of Damik-ilishu would have coincided with the seventeenth year of Sin-muballit, and the dynasties of Isin and of Babylon would have overlapped for a period of about ninety-nine years. Thus Sumu-abu, the founder of the first Babylonian dynasty, would have been the contemporary of Bûr-Sin II., king of Isin, in the sixth year of whose reign he would have ascended the throne of Babylon. By the acceptance of the theory, not only would the relations of the two dynasties be definitely fixed, but the chronology for the later periods of Sumerian history would be put on a comparatively settled basis, as far back at least as the age of Ur-Engur and Gudea.
Additional grounds in support of the theory have been deduced from a tablet in the British Museum, which is dated in "the year in which the Amurru drove out Libit-Ishtar."[33] We have already seen, from information supplied by the Nippur dynastic list, that with Libit-Ishtar, the fifth king of the Dynasty of Isin, the family of Ishbi-Ura, its founder, came to an end, and that with Ur-Ninib a new family was established on the throne. By identifying Libit-Ishtar, the king, with the personage mentioned in the date-formula, it would follow that he lost his throne in consequence of an invasion of the Amurru, or Western Semites, who drove him from the city. But presumably they were at once dislodged by Ur-Ninib, who retook the city and established his own family upon the throne. According to this view, the supposed invasion was but an advance wave of the racial movement that was eventually to overwhelm the whole of Babylonia. Some thirty-three years later, in the reign of Bûr-Sin, Ur-Ninib's son, the Western Semites are represented as again invading the country, and, although this time they do not penetrate to Isin, they succeed in establishing a dynasty of their own at Babylon.
But there are difficulties in the way of accepting this further development of the original theory. In the first place, it will have been noticed that no title follows the name of Libit-Ishtar in the date-formula already cited, and there is no particular reason why this not uncommon name should be identified with the king of Isin. It has further been pointed out that another tablet in the British Museum,[34] of about the same period, contains a reference to a Libit-Ishtar who was certainly not the king of Isin, but appears to have occupied the important post of governor of a provincial city, probably Sippar.[35] The writer of this tablet recounts how he had been imprisoned and had appealed to Libit-Ishtar to try his case and set him free; but he was met with a refusal, and he afterwards made a similar appeal to Amananu, to whom he ascribes the title of governor. In this passage Libit-Ishtar has no title, but since appeals in legal cases could be referred to him, he may very probably have held the same office as Amananu, that of governor of the city. In certain contract-tablets of Apil-Sin's reign a Libit-Ishtar is also mentioned in the place of honour at the head of the lists of witnesses, and he too should probably be identified with the same official. We may therefore conclude that the Libit-Ishtar in the date-formula served as the local governor of Sippar in the time of Apil-Sin, until he was driven out by the Amurru. Whether the Amurru are here to be regarded as the inhabitants of a neighbouring town,[36] or as a fresh wave of Western Semites, does not affect the point at issue. Since the Libit-Ishtar who was driven out was not the king of Isin, the arguments deduced from the tablet for the overlapping of the dynasties of Isin and of Babylon no longer apply.