Yangi

Yangi
Monarch of Azuhinum
Reign	fl. c. 2375 BCE — c. 2350 BCE
Predecessor	Adamu
Successor	Suhlamu

Yangi was an early monarch of the Early Period of Assyria (Azuhinum). He is listed as the third among the “seventeen kings who lived in tents” within the Mesopotamian Chronicles.^[1][2] Yangi was preceded by Adamu, and succeeded by Suhlamu. Next to nothing is otherwise known about Yangi's reign.

Geopolitical context

Tudiya is succeeded on the Assyrian King List by Adamu and then a further thirteen rulers: Yangi, Suhlamu, Harharu, Mandaru, Imsu, Harsu, Didanu, Hana, Zuabu, Nuabu, Abazu, Belu and Azarah. Nothing concrete is yet known about these names, although it has been noted that a much later Babylonian tablet listing the ancestral lineage of Hammurabi of Babylon, seems to have copied the same names from Tudiya through Nuabu, though in a heavily corrupted form. The earliest Assyrian kings (such as Tudiya), who are recorded as, “kings who lived in tents,” had at first been independent semi-nomadic pastoralist rulers, moreover; Assyria was originally an oligarchy rather than a monarchy. These kings had at some point become fully urbanized and founded the city-state of Assur.^[3]

In initial archaeological reports from Ebla, it appeared that Tudiya's existence was confirmed with the discovery of a tablet where it was stated that he had concluded a treaty for the operation of a kārum in Eblaite territory, with "King" Ibrium of Ebla (who is now known to had instead been the vizier of the King Isar-Damu of Ebla.) This entire reading is now questionable, as several scholars have more recently argued that the treaty in question was not with king Tudiya of Assur at all, but rather with the unnamed king of an uncertain location called, "Abarsal". Assyria seems to had already been firmly involved in trade in Anatolia by this time; the earliest known reference to Anatolian kārums in Hatti was found on later cuneiform tablets describing the early period of the Akkadian Empire. On those tablets, Assyrian traders in Burushanda had implored the help of their ruler, Sargon of Akkad, and this appellation continued to exist throughout Assyria for about one-thousand-seven-hundred years. The name, “Hatti” appears in later accounts of Sargon of Akkad's grandson (Naram-Sin of Akkad) campaigning in Anatolia. Both Assyrian and Akkadian traders had spread the use of writing in the form of the Mesopotamian cuneiform script to both Anatolia and the Levant.

Both the Assyrians and Sumerians had become subject to the Akkadians, centered in central Mesopotamia c. 2400 BC. The Akkadian Empire claimed to encompass the surrounding, “four corners of the world.” Assyrian rulers had become subject to Sargon of Akkad and his successors, and the city-state of Assur had become a regional administrative center of the Empire, implicated by the Nuzi tablets.^[4]

The region of Assyria, north of the seat of the empire in central Mesopotamia, had been known as Azuhinum in Akkadian records.^[5] Towards the end of the reign of Sargon the Akkad, the Assyrian faction had rebelled against him; “the tribes of Assyria of the upper country—in their turn attacked, but they submitted to his arms, and Sargon settled their habitations, and he smote them grievously.”^[6]

See also

• Timeline of the Assyrian Empire
• List of Assyrian kings
• Assyrian continuity
• Assyria

References

1. Glassner, Jean-Jacques (2004). Mesopotamian Chronicles. Society of Biblical Literature. p. 137. ISBN 1589830903.
2. Meissner, Bruno (1990). Reallexikon der Assyriologie. 6. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. p. 103. ISBN 3110100517.
3. Saggs, The Might, 24.
4. Malati J. Shendge (1 January 1997). The language of the Harappans: from Akkadian to Sanskrit. Abhinav Publications. p. 46. ISBN 978-81-7017-325-0. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
5. "Prehistory and Protohistory of the Arabian Peninsula: Bahrain". M. A. Nayeem. 1990. p. 32.
6. Malati J. Shendge (1 January 1997). The language of the Harappans: from Akkadian to Sanskrit. Abhinav Publications. p. 46. ISBN 978-81-7017-325-0. Retrieved 22 April 2011.