Mut-bisir or Mutu-bisir (fl. 19th century BC) was a senior military official to the Amorite king
Shamshi-Adad I.
His name appears repeatedly in the
Mari letters
Mari (Cuneiform: , ''ma-riki'', modern Tell Hariri; ar, تل حريري) was an ancient Semitic city-state in modern-day Syria. Its remains form a tell 11 kilometers north-west of Abu Kamal on the Euphrates River western bank, some 120&nb ...
, and means "man of Bishri", referring to the desert region around the
Jebel Bishri.
[Cinzia Pappi (2006).]
The Jebel Bishri in the Physical and Cultural Landscape of the Ancient Near East
. ''Kaskal'', Volume 3. p. 248. In these letters, Anson Rainey describes him as "frequently mentioned in connection with troops located near the Euphrates."
In one such letter, from Mut-bisir to Shamshi-Adad, he was the first recorded individual to refer to Canaanites by name (in Akkadian, ''Kinaḥnum'').
In this letter, Mut-bisir describes his own soldiers and opposing Canaanite forces as tensely watching one another.
[Anson F. Rainey (1979). "Toponymic Problems (cont.)", ''Tel Aviv'', 6:3-4, 158-162, DOI: 10.1179/033443579788441172. p. 158.]
His residence in Mari seems to have eventually been given to Shibti, the daughter of Shamshi-Adad, and this household became a major supplier of foods to the royal palace.
References
Amorite people
19th-century BC people
{{AncientNearEast-bio-stub