Sîn-kāšid (inscribed inAkkadian:𒀭𒂗𒍪𒂵𒅆𒀉:EN.ZU-kà-ši-id; diedc. 1833 BC) was theAmorite king of the ancientMesopotamian city ofUruk during the 18th century BC. No date lists are known nor any year names so his regnal length is uncertain, but it is likely to have been fairly long due to the voluminous building inscriptions extant for which he is best known.^[1] He was contemporary withNur-Adad ofLarsa andEnlil-bani ofIsin. His apparent lack of relationship with any of the preceding rulers of Uruk and his omission of mentioning his father in any of his inscriptions has led to the belief that he was the founder of a dynasty. He participated in a diplomatic marriage with Šallurtum, the daughter ofSumu-la-El, the second king of theFirst Babylonian Dynasty, as her name and epithets appear in theseal impressions of threeclay bullae recovered from the remains of his palace.^[2]

Sîn-kāšid seems to have begun his career as a viceroy of Dūrum, a small town near Uruk, a city initially under the hegemony of the kings of Isin.^[3] It was the beneficiary of his building works as cones commemorate his construction of a temple, theEniḫušil, “house that bears a fearsome splendour,” to one of the tutelary deities,Lugal-Irra, and theEmeslam for the other one, Meslamtae’a.^[4] His letter to the god Meslamtae’a became abelles-lettre of later ages, used in scribal education.^[5]

He successfully wrestled the city-state of Uruk away from the dominion of Larsa, thereby founding a 50-year dynasty. He shared genealogical links withBabylon, as he belonged to the same royal lineage of the Amnānum tribe, an oft repeated claim in his inscriptions with his title of "king of the Amnānum," and married a daughter of the second king of Babylon to cement those links further.^[6]

He constructed an enormous palace, theEkituššaḫula, “House – Abode of Rejoicing” and the numerous bricks, tablets and cones (examples pictured) which were imbedded in its walls have found their way into museum collections all over the world, giving him a prominence much greater than that which might have been suggested by political events of his time;^[7] a possible reconstruction of his palace can be seenhere. Asmall cache of 25 school texts were found in a room in the ruins and include mathematical exercises andlexical lists.^[8] He rebuilt the temple, which was calledEanna, "House of Heaven," and provided acella (Epapaḫ) for the godsAn andInanna in it, and thereafter styled himselfú-a-é-an-na, “provider of Eanna.” He engaged in many other religious construction projects including the building of an “oval” for a temple (E[ša]ḫula), of the goddessNanaya, temples forEnki,Iškur, theEgal-maḫ forNinisina, and a temple (Ekankal), forLugalbanda andNinsun. He installed a daughter, Nīši-īnīšu, asNIN-DINGER priestess of his personal god, Lugalbanda, and built a shining “gipar,” or residence, for theentu-priestess.^[4]

Some of Sîn-kāšid’s religious endowment inscriptions make reference to the low prices of the commodities barley, wool, copper and vegetable oil, symptomatic of divine favor for the reign as manifested in a strong economy. A comparison with surviving contemporary economic texts, however, shows the pricing to be utopian, approximately a third of the market rate, but his propagandizing technique would be later imitated by others,Sîn-iddinam andSîn-iqišam of Larsa,Shamshi-Adad I ofAssyria, and others.^[9]

He was eventually succeeded by his sonSin-iribam, his grandsonsSîn-gāmil and Ilum-gāmil, and a certain Etēia of unknown provenance, before the dynasty was replaced byAn-am, and his son ÌR-ne-ne (Irdanene), kings who had adoptedSumerian names in marked contrast to theAkkadian monikers of his dynasty.^[10]

His daughter wasNinšatapada, "Lady Chosen by [means of] the Heart [Omens]," the high-priestess of Meslamtae’a in the city of Dūrum, who apparently authored a letter-prayer toRim-Sin I (c. 1822-1763 BC), extant in six later copies, in which she pleaded him to end her exile.^[11] She supposedly wrote it in old age, after she had been exiled from Dūrum for 4 or 5 years. Rim-Sin would take the city celebrated in his 20th year-name "Year in which Kisurra was seized and annexed to Larsa and (Rim-Sin), with the help of the strong weapon entrusted to him by Enlil, destroyed Durum (Der)". He was to capture Uruk the following year, driving out An-am’s son and successor, Irdanene.^[5] The distinct possibility remains that this letter was a poetic device created by a laterscribe of Larsa, to provide ideological justification for Rim-Sin’s overthrow of the Sumerian-named kings that had succeeded Sîn-kāšid’s short dynasty, as it uses some of the very same phrases that appear in official date formulae and inscriptions of the Larsa dynasty.^[12]

In a foundation tablet, Sîn-kāšid names himself "... providerfor Eanna, governor of Dürum, king of Amnã-num ...".^[13] Itis known from other inscriptions that several other members of the dynastytook the title "King of the Amnanum (Tribe)" (lugal am-na-nu-um) and weremembers of the same Yaminite tribe of Amnanum as the rulers of Babylon.^[14]

An oath text of Ibel-pi-El, ruler of Eshnunna, provides synchronism for Sîn-Kāšid with several rulers:

"... Should Sabum, king of Babylon, or Iku(n)-pi-Sin, (king of Nerebtum), write me for troops, I shall not give (either of) them troops; my troops shall not battle those of Sin-iddinam, king of Larsa, or of Sin-kašid, king of Uruk; I shall not perfidiously have my troops stand against them. Until Sin-iddinam and Sin-kašid make peace with Sabum and Iku(n)-pi-Sin, I shall never make peace (with them) ..."^[15]

• List of Mesopotamian dynasties
• Chronology of the ancient Near East

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  Cuneiform tablet inscribed with Sîn-kāšid’s building dedication, from the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
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  Dedicatory cone inscribed with the name of Sin-Kashid, 18th century BC, from Uruk, currently housed in the British Museum
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  File:Sin-kashid cone (sikkatu), c. 1850 BC - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago
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  Tablet of Sîn-kāšid, king of Uruk (Neo-Babylonian copy)
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  Votive inscription of Sin-Kasid, king of Uruk. From Uruk, Isin-Larsa period, 1865-1833 BC. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul.
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  Clay nail, mentioning in detail the wealth of Sîn-kāšid, king of Uruk in Babylon. 19th century BC. From Iraq. British Museum.

• Mauer, G., "Ein Tontafelarchiv aus dem Palast des Sîn-kāšid in Uruk", BaM 18, pp. 133–198, 1987
• Sanati-Müller, Sh., "Texte aus dem Sîn-kāšid-Palast. Neunter Teil. Rohrtexte.", BaM 27, pp. 365–399, 1996
• Sanati-Müller, Sh., "Texte aus dem Sîn-kāšid-Palast. Zehnter Teil: Holztexte Elfter Teil:Fragmentarisch erhaltene Texte", BaM 31, pp. 93–16, 2000
• Sanati-Müller, Sh., "Kollationen zu ‘Ein Tontafelarchiv aus dem Palast des Sîn-Kāšid inUruk’ von Gerlinde Mauer", BaM 31, pp. 181–193, 2000

Sîn-kāšid inscriptions at CDLI

• 19th-century BC Sumerian kings
• Kings of Uruk
• 19th-century BC births
• 19th-century BC deaths

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Akkadian-language text