Yahdunlim (or ''Yakhdunlim, Yahdun-Lim'') was the king of Mari probably in 1820—1796 BC. He was of Amorite origin, and became king after the death of his father Iagitlim. Yahdunlim built Mari up to become one of the major powers of the region. He led a successful campaign to the coast of the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

Reign

Goddess of the vase, Mari,18th century BCE

Yahdun-Lim started his reign by subduing seven of his rebelling tribal leaders, and rebuilding the walls of Mari and Terqa in addition to building a new fort which he named Dur-Yahdun-Lim. Yahdun-Lim's kingdom was threatened by incursions from various

nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...

tribes, such as the Canaanites, but he was able to subjugate them and force them to pay tribute. After having established internal peace, he built a temple to the

god In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

Shamash. He then expanded west and claimed to have reached the

, however he later had to face a rebellion by the ''Banu-Yamina'' nomads who were centered at Tuttul, and the rebels were supported by

Yamhad Yamhad was an ancient Semitic people, Semitic kingdom centered on Aleppo, Ḥalab (Aleppo), Syria. The kingdom emerged at the end of the 19th century BC, and was ruled by the Yamhad dynasty, Yamhadite dynasty kings, who counted on both military ...

's king Sumu-Epuh, whose interests were threatened by the recently established alliance between Yahdun-Lim and Eshnunna. Yahdun-Lim defeated the Yamina but an open war with Yamhad was avoided.

Shamshi-Adad I

Yahdun-Lim then became occupied by his rivalry with Shamshi-Adad I of Shubat-Enlil, the son of the late

Ila-kabkabu The Amorite name Ila-kabkabu appears twice in the Assyrian King List: * Ila-kabkabu ( akk, 𒀭𒆏𒅗𒁉, ILA-KAB-ka-bi) appears within the Assyrian King List among the “kings whose fathers are known” (alongside both: Ila-kabkabu's father a ...

. He received pleas for help from kings threatened by Shamshi-Adad's expansionist plans. But before Yahdunlim could move against Shamshi-Adad, he was assassinated in c. 1798 BC by his possible son Sumu-Yamam, who himself got assassinated two years after ascending the throne. But according to William J. Hamblin, Yahdun-Lim was killed in a battle with Shamshi-Adad ca 1796 BC. Shamshi-Adad then assigned his son

Yasmah-Addu Yasmah-Adad (Yasmah-Addu, Yasmakh-Adad, Ismah-Adad, Iasmakh-Adad) was the younger son of the Amorite king of Upper Mesopotamia, Shamshi-Adad I. He was put on throne of Mari by his father after a successful military attack following the assassina ...

to the lordship of Mari. /
Archived version
/ref> In the chaos that followed, Shamshi-Adad Shamshi-Adad advanced and annexed Mari. The war ended in a defeat for Mari. Zimrilim, Yakhdunlim's son and heir, was forced to flee to Aleppo, where he would remain as an exile until Shamshi-Adad's death. Yahdul-Lim of Carchemish may also be sometimes referred to as Yahdun-Lim.

Notes

Literature

* * * * * * {{cite book, title=The Chronology of Ancient Western Asia and Egypt, first=Petrus, last=Van Der Meer, edition=2, publisher=Brill, series=Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui, volume=2, orig-year=1947, year=1955, oclc=4727997 Amorite kings Kings of Mari 19th-century BC rulers 19th-century BC people

Reign

Shamshi-Adad I

See also

Notes

Literature