The King of Battle, or šar tamḫāri, is an ancient

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...

n epic tale of

Sargon of Akkad Sargon of Akkad (; akk, ''Šarrugi''), also known as Sargon the Great, was the first ruler of the Akkadian Empire, known for his conquests of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th to 23rd centuries BC.The date of the reign of Sargon is highl ...

and his campaign against the city of Purušḫanda in the Anatolian highlands and its king, Nur-DaggalWhere the Hittite version, ^l''Nu-úr-da-aḫ-ḫi'', mistakes the GAN in ^lZALAG-^d''da-gan'' for ḪÉ. or Nur-Dagan, in aid of his merchants. It is extant in five manuscripts, twoEA 359 Cairo 48396, SR 12223 in the

Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display a ...

, Cairo.EA 375 BM 134866 in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, London from

Amarna Amarna (; ar, العمارنة, al-ʿamārnah) is an extensive Egyptian archaeological site containing the remains of what was the capital city of the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Ph ...

in Egypt and six fragmentsTablet fragments KBo 3.9 (Bo 2400); KBo 3.10 (Bo 7333); KBo 12:1 (110/t); KBo 13.46 (624/u); KBo 22.6 (Bo 68/28) published in CTH 10; and KUB 48.98 (Bo 3715). of one from the Hittite capital Ḫattuša from the middle Babylonian period and one each from AššurVAT 10290 KAV 138 in the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin. and

Nineveh Nineveh (; akk, ; Biblical Hebrew: '; ar, نَيْنَوَىٰ '; syr, ܢܝܼܢܘܹܐ, Nīnwē) was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern ba ...

,K.13228 in the British Museum Kouyunjik collection. probably from the Neo-Assyrian period. Of the twenty-three tales composed of the Kings of Akkad, this was one of only three, along with the Birth Legend of Sargon and the Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin, to continue to circulate in the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods, some 1,500 years after the events they describe. It is thought to have been committed to writing during the first half of the second millennium, perhaps following a lengthy oral tradition, although the circumstances of its composition are hotly debated.

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Responding to the grievances of his merchants, Sargon declares his intention to his reluctant warriors to forge a campaign into Anatolia to conquer its principal town Purušḫanda, whose tyrannical ruler has been oppressing the expatriate Akkadian tradesmen. The soldiers’ apprehension was due to their anticipation of the tribulations afforded by the great distance and uncertainty of the venture. He rallies them with promises of victory based on his consultation with the goddess Ištar in her temple during which he falls into a deep sleep to receive her prophecy. The army faces many hardships while crossing the

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

and in their onward journey. They struggle through mountain passes strewn with impenetrable thickets and great boulders of lapis lazuli. NA₄. ZA.GÌN. The god

Enlil Enlil, , "Lord f theWind" later known as Elil, is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Ba ...

warns Nur-Dagan of the approaching Sargonic horde but reassures him that he will be safe. He addresses his warriors, telling them that the remoteness of Purušḫanda has protected it from all other foes in the past and predicting a similar outcome on this occasion, a prediction that is subsequently overturned by Sargon’s sudden and complete subjugation of the city. As Sargon is crowned king of Purušḫanda before the city gate, Nur-Dagan makes a humiliating submission of defeat and declares that Sargon has no equal. A lengthy time later, some variants: 3 years, Sargon prepares to depart Purušḫanda and return to Akkad. His soldiers protest that they should not leave empty-handed and consequently fell three trees standing at the gate-house. The various manuscripts of the epic show differing narrative details, although their fragmentary state may exaggerate the apparent differences.

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