The Oxford History of the Biblical World by Michael D. Coogan

the collections of tablets found within the city. Some twenty-five thousand tablets, dating between the twenty-fourth and eighteenth centuries, have come to light at Mari, most of them dating from its final decades during the late nineteenth and early eighteenth centuries, the period roughly contemporary with Shamshi-Adad I of Upper Mesopotamia and Hammurapi of Babylon. About two thousand of the tablets are letters, while most of the rest are economic, administrative, and juridical documents. Besides the tablets, a number of official royal inscriptions also provide much important information.
    All of the documents are valuable in reconstructing the political, social, and economic history of the region, but the letters in particular give extraordinary insight into life at Mari and throughout Syro-Mesopotamia during one of the most interesting periods of its history. The letters come from a host of different people, including kings and administrators, Mari diplomats in other states, family members, priests, and prophets. Most were sent to the kings of Mari, who thus kept themselves abreast of what was going on in their kingdom and, at times, in the kingdoms round about. The letters provide inside information, not royal propaganda. Thus they give us a view, unmatched from any other archive, into the workings of an ancient royal city, as well as into individuals living through extraordinary times.
    The tablets are particularly informative about the major political powers in Syria and Mesopotamia during this period. Farthest south was Larsa, an important city that during the reign of Rim-Sin (1822–1763) held sway over a significant part of southern Mesopotamia. About 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the northwest of Larsa lay Babylon, which first began to emerge as an important city in the late nineteenth century and rapidly reached its first period of political dominance during the 1760s, the latter years of Hammurapi’s reign. Eshnunna (Tell Asmar), a city east of the Tigris, along the Diyala River, had made itself master of Assyria and the region west of the Tigris about the time the Mari archive begins, but later lost the area to Shamshi-Adad I. After Shamshi-Adad’s death, Eshnunna’s fortunes revived briefly, soon to be dashed with the rise of Hammurapi.
    Along the middle Euphrates was Mari itself, whose fortunes waxed and waned during the period of the archives. It first appears as an independent state of considerablestrength under the rule of Yahdun-Lim. But not long after his death, the city passed into the empire of Shamshi-Adad I. Mari later regained its independence and prestige under Zimri-Lim, only to be overthrown forever by Babylon.
    On the upper part of the Habur River was the city of Shekhna, in the land of Apum. Shamshi-Adad I chose the town as the primary capital of his empire, renaming it Shubat-Enlil. Recent discoveries at the site of Tell Leilan have shown decisively that it should be identified as ancient Shekhna/Shubat-Enlil. Modern historians often call Shamshi-Adad the first great king of Assyria, but this is misleading. He appears to have belonged to an Amorite tribe whose homeland lay in northern Syria, which may have been why he moved his capital to the Habur Plain. Assyria was the first part of his empire, however; he had an enormous impact on the Assyrians’ imperial ideology and long survived in their memories as one of their greatest kings.
    Farther west was Yamhad, a powerful state whose capital occupied the site of modern Aleppo. Yamhad blocked both Shamshi-Adad I and Hammurapi of Babylon from expanding into western Syria. During much of the Middle Bronze Age it was the leading state of northern Syria. To the south of Yamhad, in central Syria, was the major city-state of Qatna, closely linked with Mari by the trade route that connected them across the desert via Tadmor/Palmyra. Moving south into northern Canaan, a traveler would have reached the city of Hazor, which seems to be mentioned