Irkab-Damu (reigned c. 2340 BC),
was the king (
Malikum) of the first
Eblaite kingdom, whose era saw Ebla's turning into the dominant power in the
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
.
During his reign, the vizier started to acquire an important role in running the affair of the state and the military. Irkab-Damu's reign is also noted for the wide diplomatic relations between Ebla and the surrounding kingdoms.
Reign
Irkab-Damu succeeded king Igrish-Halam, whose reign was characterized by an Eblaite weakness, and tribute paying to the kingdom of
Mari with whom Ebla fought a long war.
Irkab-Damu started his reign by concluding a peace and trading treaty with
Abarsal Abarsal was a city-state of Mesopotamia in the area of the Euphrates. Very litte is known of the history of the town and the site is unidentified at the moment. It could be the city of Aburru mentioned in various texts of the tablets of Mari, which ...
(probably located along the Euphrates river east of Ebla),
one of the first recorded treaties in history. Ebla paid tribute to Mari during Irkab-Damu's first years on the throne.
A letter from king
Enna-Dagan of Mari was discovered at Ebla,
and was used by the Mariote monarch as a tool to assert Mari's authority,
as it contained a historic telling of the victories won by the Enna-Dagans's predecessors over Ebla.
Expansion
Irkab-Damu launched a successful counteroffensive against Mari, and ended the tribute.
He expanded the borders of Ebla to its greatest extent, and controlled an area roughly half the size of modern
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
,
half of which was under the direct control of the king and administered by governors, while the rest consisted of vassal kingdoms paying tribute and supplying military assistance to Ebla.
A
tablet
Tablet may refer to:
Medicine
* Tablet (pharmacy), a mixture of pharmacological substances pressed into a small cake or bar, colloquially called a "pill"
Computing
* Tablet computer, a mobile computer that is primarily operated by touching the s ...
from Ebla mention an Eblaite victory over
Nagar, most probably during Irakb-Damu's reign.
The same tablet mention the concluding of a treaty with Enna-Dagan.
Irkab-Damu appointed
Arrukum as the first
vizier of Ebla, who kept his office for five years,
and had his son
Ruzi-Malik marrying princess
Iti-Mut, the daughter of the king.
Diplomacy was an important part of Irkab-Damu's policy, a clay tablet found in the archives at Ebla, bears a copy of a diplomatic message sent from Ebla to king Zizi of
Hamazi
Hamazi or Khamazi ( Sumerian: , ''ha-ma-zi''ki, or ''Ḫa-ma-zi2''ki) was an ancient kingdom or city-state of some importance that reached its peak c. 2500–2400 BC. Its exact location is unknown, but is thought to have been located in the ...
, along with a large quantity of wood, hailing him as a brother, and requesting him to send mercenaries in exchange. Gifts from
Ancient Egypt were discovered in the royal palace, indicating the far reaching relations of Ebla, which is described by
Karl Moore as the history first world power.
Succession and family
Irkab-Damu was the son of Igrish-Halam and his queen
Kesdut. He ruled for eleven years,
and married
Dusigu in his fifth year on the throne.
Irkab-Damu last two years saw the rise of vizier
Ibrium
Ibrium (2322-2302 BC), also spelt Ebrium, was the vizier of Ebla for king Irkab-Damu and his successor Isar-Damu.
Ibrium is attested to have campaigned against the city of Abarsal during the time of vizier Arrukum. He took office after Arrukum d ...
,
who campaigned against Abarsal during
Arrukum's term,
and became Ebla's strongest official during the reign of Irkab-Damu's son and successor
Isar-Damu
Isar-Damu (reigned c. 2320 BC), was the king ( Malikum) of the first Eblaite kingdom. Isar-Damu fought a long war with Mari which ended in Eblaite victory; he was probably the last king of the first kingdom.
Reign
Isar-Damu succeeded his father ...
.
See also
*
Ebla tablets
The Ebla tablets are a collection of as many as 1,800 complete clay tablets, 4,700 fragments, and many thousands of minor chips found in the palace archives of the ancient city of Ebla, Syria. The tablets were discovered by Italian archaeologist P ...
*
Cities of the ancient Near East
The earliest cities in history were in the ancient Near East, an area covering roughly that of the modern Middle East: its history began in the 4th millennium BC and ended, depending on the interpretation of the term, either with the conquest by ...
*
Eblaite-Mariote war
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
*
* {{cite book , last1 = Podany , first1 = Amanda , title = Brotherhood of Kings: How International Relations Shaped the Ancient Near East , publisher =
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, year = 2010 , isbn = 978-0-199-79875-9
Kings of Ebla
24th-century BC rulers
24th-century BC people