| Kadašman-Ḫarbe I | |
|---|---|
| King of Babylon | |
| Reign | ca. 1400 BC |
| Predecessor | Karaindaš |
| Successor | Kurigalzu I |
| House | Kassite |
Kadašman-Ḫarbe I, inscribed incuneiform contemporarily asKa-da-áš-ma-an-Ḫar-be and meaning “he believes in Ḫarbe (aKassite god equivalent toEnlil),” was the 16th King of theKassite or 3rd dynasty ofBabylon,[1] and the kingdom contemporarily known asKar-Duniaš, during the late 15th to early 14th century BC. It is now considered possible that he was the contemporary of Tepti Ahar, King ofElam, as preserved in a tablet[i 1] found atHaft Tepe in Iran. This is dated to the “year when the king expelled Kadašman-KUR.GAL,”[nb 1] thought by some historians to represent him[2] although this identification (KUR.GAL = Ḫarbe) has been contested.[3] If this name is correctly assigned to him, it would imply previous occupation of, or suzerainty over, Elam.[4]
His immediate predecessor may have beenKaraindaš, but he was certainly father to the better known King,Kurigalzu I, who succeeded him, as attested by his son in his autobiographical inscription, of which there are two copies, one a hexagonal prism[i 2] and the other a cylinder.[i 3][5][6]
Two baked-clay cones[i 4] reportKadašman-Enlil’s honoring aland deed to Enlil-bānī made by Kurigalzu,son of Kadašman-Ḫarbe.[1]: K.a.3.2. A legal text,[i 5] dating perhaps to the reign ofNazi-Maruttaš, refers to him as the father ofKurigalzu.[7]
The most significant event of his reign appears to have been his aggressive campaign against theSutû, a nomadic people along the middle Euphrates related to theArameans, and is described in theChronicle P,[i 6] in a somewhat garbled passage which superimposes events relating to the accession of Kurigalzu II, four generations later.[8] He claims to have "annihilated their extensive forces", then constructed fortresses in a mountain region called Ḫiḫi, in the Syrian Desert as security outposts, and “he dug wells and settled people on fertile lands, to strengthen the guard”.[9] These events seem to be confirmed in the opening six lines of text from an unpublished kudurru in the Yale Babylonian Collection,[i 7] which describes his efforts to expel the Suteans from Babylonia.[10]
It has been suggested that the Babylonian work “King of all Habitations”, which is commonly referred to as theEpic of the plague-godErra, is a Kassite period-piece which includes the description of a raid onUruk by the Sutû and the subsequent cries for vengeance upon them.[11]
On a tablet[i 8] which was found atNippur, a date “the year [in which] Kadašman-Ḫarbe, the king, dug the canal ofDiniktum”,[nb 2] is attested. Diniktum has tentatively been identified asTell Muhammad.[12] Kadašman-Ḫarbe’s reign has been identified as the point when literary activity resumed at Nippur after three centuries of silence.[13]
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