Naqiʾa or Naqia ( Akkadian: , also known as Zakūtu (), was a wife of the Assyrian king

Sennacherib Sennacherib ( or , meaning "Sin (mythology), Sîn has replaced the brothers") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705BC until his assassination in 681BC. The second king of the Sargonid dynasty, Sennacherib is one of the most famous A ...

(705–681 BC) and the mother of his son and successor

Esarhaddon Esarhaddon, also spelled Essarhaddon, Assarhaddon and Ashurhaddon (, also , meaning " Ashur has given me a brother"; Biblical Hebrew: ''ʾĒsar-Ḥaddōn'') was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 681 to 669 BC. The third king of the S ...

(681–669). Naqiʾa is the best documented woman in the history of the

Neo-Assyrian Empire The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew to dominate the ancient Near East and parts of South Caucasus, Nort ...

and she reached an unprecedented level of prominence and public visibility; she was perhaps the most influential woman in Assyrian history. She is one of the few ancient Assyrian women to be depicted in artwork, to commission her own building projects, and to be granted laudatory epithets in letters by courtiers. She is also the only known ancient Assyrian figure other than kings to write and issue a treaty. Naqiʾa must have been married to Sennacherib before he became king (705) since she gave birth to his son Esarhaddon 713. Whether she ever held the position of

queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

is debated; Assyrian kings had multiple wives but the evidence suggests that only one of them could be the queen at any one given time. Sennacherib is known to have had another queen, Tašmētu-šarrat. Naqiʾa might have become queen late in Sennacherib's reign. She is referred to as the "queen of Sennacherib" in documents from the reign of her son. In 684, Sennacherib, perhaps influenced by Naqiʾa, designated Esarhaddon as his crown prince despite having older sons. During the reign of her son, Naqiʾa reached her most prominent position, bearing the title (). Under Esarhaddon, Naqiʾa secured ownership of several estates throughout the empire and grew enormously wealthy, perhaps wealthier than Esarhaddon's own queen

Ešarra-ḫammat Ešarra-ḫammat (, meaning "Ešarra is mistress") was a queen of the Neo-Assyrian Empire as the primary consort of Esarhaddon (681–669 BC). Ešarra-ḫammat had been married to Esarhaddon for over a decade by the time he became king, having ma ...

. Naqiʾa might have governed her own set of territories surrounding the Babylonian city of Lahira. The last known attestation of Naqiʾa is from 669, in the months after Esarhaddon's death. After her son's death, Naqiʾa wrote a treaty which forced the royal family, aristocracy and all of Assyria to swear loyalty to her grandson

Ashurbanipal Ashurbanipal (, meaning " Ashur is the creator of the heir")—or Osnappar ()—was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 669 BC to his death in 631. He is generally remembered as the last great king of Assyria. Ashurbanipal inherited the th ...

(669–631). After this, Naqiʾa appears to have retired from public life.

Name and origin

Though nothing certain can be said of her origins, Naqiʾa having two names could point to her originating outside of Assyria proper, possibly in

Babylonia Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...

or in the

Levant The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...

. The name is originally of

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

, or at the very least

West Semitic The West Semitic languages are a proposed major sub-grouping of Semitic languages. The term was first coined in 1883 by Fritz Hommel.Akkadian. The name , used only sometimes, was probably adopted when she became associated with the Assyrian royal family; both names have the same meaning, interpreted as "purity", "pure" or "the pure one". Naqiʾa is known to have had a sister, Abirami ( or ), attested as purchasing land in the city of Baruri in 674 BC.

Biography

Reign of Sennacherib

Given the age at which she gave birth to

, Naqiʾa cannot have been born later than 728. Naqiʾa was one of the consorts of the Assyrian king

(705–681), with the marriage taking place by the late 8th century due to the birth of their son in 713. This was before Sennacherib's accession to the throne, when he was still

crown prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title, crown princess, is held by a woman who is heir apparent or is married to the heir apparent. ''Crown prince ...

under his father

Sargon II Sargon II (, meaning "the faithful king" or "the legitimate king") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 722 BC to his death in battle in 705. Probably the son of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727), Sargon is generally believed to have be ...

. Except for Esarhaddon, it is unknown which of Sennacherib's many children were also the children of Naqiʾa. It is probable that Naqiʾa was also the mother of Sennacherib's only daughter known by name, Šadditu, since Šadditu retained a prominent position under Esarhaddon. Naqiʾa was not the mother of Sennacherib's elder sons, such as

Arda-Mulissu Arda-Mulissu or Arda-Mulissi (, ), also known as Urdu-Mullissi, Urad-Mullissu and Arad-Ninlil and known in Hebrew writings as Adrammelech ( ''ʾAḏrammeleḵ''), was an ancient Assyrian prince of the Sargonid dynasty, the son of Sennacherib, ki ...

. It is possible that Naqiʾa gained influence already in Sennacherib's reign; in 684 she may have been responsible for the king dismissing Arda-Mulissu as heir and instead proclaiming their son Esarhaddon as crown prince. Despite growing reports that Esarhaddon suffered from various illnesses, Sennacherib at no point changed the succession after Esarhaddon's appointment as crown prince, also perhaps due to Naqiʾa's influence. She is recorded as employing

divination Divination () is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a should proceed by reading signs, ...

and

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...

to bolster Sennacherib's opinion of Esarhaddon. Throughout her life, Naqiʾa seems to have maintained a close relationship with prophets active in the city of Arbela. Though often identified as a queen of Sennacherib, it is not clear whether Naqiʾa held that position in Sennacherib's lifetime. The chief issue is that Naqiʾa is known to have been associated with Sennacherib before he became king and with Esarhaddon throughout his subsequent reign (681–669), but Sennacherib is known to also have been married to another woman, Tašmētu-šarrat, who is securely attested with the title of queen. The general assumption among researchers is that while kings could have multiple wives, only one of them was at any given time recognized as the queen since administrative documents always use the title without qualification (implying that there was no ambiguity). Naqiʾa is referred to as Sennacherib's queen () in multiple documents, but all of them, perhaps with a single exception, were written in Esarhaddon's reign, meaning that she might have been bestowed the title retroactively by her son. The single possible exception is a single bead with a fragmentary inscription that calls her " of Sennacherib" and then breaks off; it is possible that it was written in Sennacherib's reign. Another possibility is that Naqiʾa achieved the status of queen only late in Sennacherib's reign. Tašmētu-šarrat is not mentioned in any documents from Esarhaddon's reign. Perhaps the promotion of Naqiʾa's son as crown prince means that she was queen around 684 and that Tašmētu-šarrat (otherwise attested only securely in 694) was dead at that point in time. After Esarhaddon became crown prince, Sennacherib granted some tax-exempt lands to Naqiʾa. In the document describing the grant, she is however titled only as the "mother of the crown prince".

Reign of Esarhaddon

Naqiʾa's authority grew in the reign of her son; early on she built a palace for him in

Nineveh Nineveh ( ; , ''URUNI.NU.A, Ninua''; , ''Nīnəwē''; , ''Nīnawā''; , ''Nīnwē''), was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul (itself built out of the Assyrian town of Mepsila) in northern ...

, the Assyrian capital, and made an inscription commemorating the construction. Constructing palaces was an unusual activity for a queen to engage in, usually done only by kings. The inscription documenting the project is bombastic and clearly takes inspiration from those of the kings. In most sources from Esarhaddon's time, Naqiʾa is referred simply to as the

queen mother A queen mother is a former queen, often a queen dowager, who is the mother of the monarch, reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since the early 1560s. It arises in hereditary monarchy, hereditary monarchies in Europe and is also ...

(''ummi šari'', ). Naqiʾa retained this title in the reign of Esarhaddon's son (and her grandson)

(669–631), despite then no longer being the mother of the reigning king. In terms of surviving sources she was by far the most prominent queen mother in Assyrian history; most known occurrences of the title are from her lifetime. As queen mother, the basic structure of Naqiʾa's household was similar to that of the queen and other officials. In addition to Nineveh, Naqiʾa probably had residencies in other cities, including some in Babylonia. Naqiʾa appears to have had significant estates in the Babylonian city of Lahira (''Laḫiru''), which she perhaps governed herself; a 678 document describes the city as part of "the queen mother's domain". All queens also appear to have had large holdings in the western city of

Harran Harran is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Its area is 904 km2, and its population is 96,072 (2022). It is approximately southeast of Urfa and from the Syrian border crossing at Akçakale. ...

. Some mentions exist of a statue of Naqiʾa being built in the city of Gadisê, near Harran. Naqiʾa was likely very wealthy, perhaps even wealthier than Esarhaddon's queen

. Naqiʾa is recorded to have made numerous donations to temples, to have provided the royal palace with horses from her estates and to have employed a large and extensive staff. It is clear that she held an exceptional position; in letters addressed to her numerous flattering epithets, such as "able like Adapa", are used. A legal document from Esarhaddon's reign claims that "the verdict of the mother of the king, my lord, is as final as that of the gods". Such statements are highly unusual given that they usually only applied to kings. Numerous letters from courtiers refer to the health of Naqiʾa. Her security appears to have been a matter of great concern as one document containing a query to the sun-god

Shamash Shamash (Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''šamaš''), also known as Utu (Sumerian language, Sumerian: dutu "Sun") was the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian Solar deity, sun god. He was believed to see everything that happened in t ...

asks whether a person who might be appointed to her guard would guard Naqiʾa "like his own self. Though letters to Naqiʾa were mostly about religious affairs, some concern politics. It is possible that she partook in Esarhaddon's rebuilding project of

Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...

, destroyed by his father. Perhaps Naqiʾa's prominence resulted from Esarhaddon's own tumultuous accession, when he had to fight a civil war against his brother

. In 2014, Philippe Clancier speculated that Naqiʾa might have commanded armies during this civil war, though no Assyrian text describes her doing so. The only Assyrian queen, and woman overall, confidently known to have partaken in military campaigns is the earlier

Shammuramat Shammuramat ( Akkadian: ''Sammu-rāmat'' or ''Sammu-ramāt''), also known as Sammuramat or Shamiram and Semiramis, was a powerful queen of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Beginning her career as the primary consort of the king Shamshi-Adad V (824–81 ...

. If Naqiʾa did lead armies against Arda-Mulissu, omitting this from the records would not be surprising since all battlefield victories were normally ascribed to the Assyrian king personally whether or not the king was at the battle. The civil war is thought to have been the catalyst of Esarhaddon's later paranoia and distrust of his servants, vassals and family members. Although highly distrustful of his male relatives, Esarhaddon seems to not have been paranoid in regards to his female relatives. During his reign his queen Ešarra-ḫammat, his mother Naqiʾa and his daughter

Šērūʾa-ēṭirat Šērūʾa-ēṭirat ( or , meaning "Šerua is the one who saves"), called Saritrah (Demotic (Egyptian), Demotic: , ) in later Aramaic texts), was an ancient Assyrian princess of the Sargonid dynasty, the eldest daughter of Esarhaddon and the o ...

all wielded considerably more influence and political power than women during most earlier parts of Assyrian history, though they never occupied any formal political positions. An explanation for the reverence accorded to Naqiʾa by officials of the empire is that the people might have partly credited the empire's successes in Esarhaddon's reign to her. Though capable and energetic, Esarhaddon was chronically ill for the duration of his reign and Naqiʾa might have been believed to have had some sort of magical influence, connected to the association between the Assyrian queen and the goddess

Ishtar Inanna is the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, love, and fertility. She is also associated with political power, divine law, sensuality, and procreation. Originally worshipped in Sumer, she was known by the Akk ...

, that kept the empire victorious.

Later life

The last evidence of Naqiʾa is from around the time of Ashurbanipal's accession, at the end of 669, when she forced the royal family, aristocracy and all of Assyria to swear loyalty to her grandson. The royal treaty forced on the people by Naqiʾa, dubbed the Zakutu Treaty by modern historians, is a remarkable document as the only text of its kind written by someone other than the king. Why Naqiʾa, and not Ashurbanipal, was the one to implement the treaty is not known. Some aspects of the treaty, for instance its brevity, indicate that it was created relatively hastily after Esarhaddon's death in 669. The Zakutu Treaty reads: After Ashurbanipal became king without incident, Naqiʾa appears to have retired from public life since there is no further evidence of her acting publicly again. Sebastian Fink believes Naqiʾa died shortly after Ashurbanipal's accession. According to Gregory D. Cook, Naqiʾa was probably dead by the time of Ashurbanipal's

Sack of Thebes The sack of Thebes took place in 663 BC in the city of Thebes, Egypt, Thebes at the hands of the Neo-Assyrian Empire under king Ashurbanipal, then at war with the Kushite Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt under Tantamani, during the Assyrian conques ...

in 663. Jack Finegan on the other hand believed that Naqiʾa was alive by the time of the civil war between Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shum-ukin in 652–648 and that she during this conflict again tried to support Ashurbanipal's right to rule. Naqiʾa's career resulted in her achieving, for a woman of her time, an unprecedented level of prominence and public visibility. She is the best documented, and perhaps most influential, woman of the

Neo-Assyrian The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew to dominate the ancient Near East and parts of South Caucasus, Nort ...

period. Naqiʾa stands apart from nearly all other Assyrian queens, who are often rarely mentioned by name in surviving texts. She is the only royal woman, other than Ashurbanipal's queen

Libbāli-šarrat Libbāli-šarrat (Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''Libbāli-šarrat'', meaning "the inner city Ishtar?is queen") was a queen of the Neo-Assyrian Empire as the primary consort of Ashurbanipal (669–631 BC). Libbāli-šarrat married Ashurbanipal ...

, known to have been depicted in royal artwork. In a relief depicting Naqiʾa and Esarhaddon, she is depicted seemingly nearly as his equal and as doing the same religious gesture as the king. She is also depicted wearing a "mural crown", a royal crown with features of a castle wall, also included in the artwork of Libbāli-šarrat.

Legacy

Nitocris of Assyria building a bridge over the Euphrates

In later Greco-Roman literary tradition, two great queens of Assyria were remembered:

Semiramis Semiramis (; ''Šammīrām'', ''Šamiram'', , ''Samīrāmīs'') was the legendary Lydian- Babylonian wife of Onnes and of Ninus, who succeeded the latter on the throne of Assyria, according to Movses Khorenatsi. Legends narrated by Diodorus ...

(based on the earlier queen Shammuramat) and

Nitocris Nitocris () possibly was the last queen of the Sixth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. Her name is found in writings long considered as relatively accurate resources: a major chronological documentation of the reigns of the kings of ancient Egypt that wa ...

. It is possible that the figure of Nitocris, said to have lived five generations after Semiramis and to have conducted building projects in Babylon, was based on Naqiʾa. The legend of building work in Babylon could relate to her lands in Babylonia, the possibility that she partook in Esarhaddon's projects in the city, or perhaps to the palace she built for her son in Nineveh early in his reign. The palace at Nineveh could also have served as inspiration since the ancient Greeks sometimes erroneously equated Nineveh and Babylon. It is possible that some portions of the Semiramis legend were based on Naqiʾa, rather than Shammuramat. In particular, one of the legendary tales of Semiramis describes the queen as founding Babylon. While there are no obvious connections between the historical Shammuramat and Babylon, it is, as mentioned, possible to draw connections to Naqiʾa and building works in the city or the surrounding region. Characterizations of Naqiʾa vary among modern historians. Some, such as Sarah C. Melville have viewed her as an unselfish mother, who worked to help her son during his reign, whereas others, such as Zafrira Ben-Barak, have viewed her as a politically ambitious woman who exploited every opportunity she could to advance her personal position.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Naqiʾa Sargonid dynasty 7th-century BC women Ancient Assyrians Ancient Mesopotamian women Year of birth uncertain 7th-century BC people Assyrian queens