As Sumerian literature was being collected and appreciated, little kingdoms like Isin and Larsa competed in the south, while Assur rivaled Eshnunna in the north. The Semitic-speaking rulers from the west freed people from their obligations to the city-states and their temples by relieving them of those taxes and forced labor. Encouraging private property, a society of large farms and enterprising merchants reduced the temples to competing landowners and taxpayers to the state. Sumerian religion declined along with the power of Enlil's city of Nippur. After a dynasty emerged in Babylon in 1950 BC under the Amorite Samu'abum, the new god Marduk replaced Enlil in the creation story.

Iddin-Dagan, named after the wheat-god Dagan of Mari where his grandfather Ishbi-Irra had begun his conquests, occupied Sippar and ruled over the entire southern Euphrates region. This Semite ruler used the Sumerian language in official inscriptions and gathered Sumerian literature into a library at Nippur.

Lipit-Ishtar, whose moderate law code regulated inheritance, real estate business, hiring contracts, and privately owned slaves, described himself as "the humble shepherd of Nippur, the stalwart farmer of Ur." Here is an example of one of his laws showing how responsibility was based on awareness:

If a man without authorization bound (another) man
to a matter to which he (the latter) had no knowledge,
that man is not affirmed;
he (the first man) shall bear the penalty
in regard to the matter to which he has bound him.13

Lipit-Ishtar ruled Isin from 1990 BC until 1980 when Isin was attacked by the king of Larsa, Gungunum, who also conquered Ur, Lagash, Susa, and perhaps Uruk. He was followed by usurpers so afraid of divine wrath that Irra-imitti crowned his gardener but died himself from swallowing boiling broth. The gardener Enlil-bani went on to rule over a greatly reduced kingdom of Isin for 24 years until 1893 BC. Three years later the king of Larsa was killed in a war with Babylon and was replaced by an Elamite official, Kudur-Mabuk, who gave his two sons Semitic names. One of these, Rim-Sin, defeated a Babylonian coalition and finally took over Larsa's old rival city of Isin in 1850 BC.

In the north Eshnunna was under the god Tishpak, probably a form of the Hurrian god Teshup. This city had become independent back in 2083 at the beginning of the Sumerian decline under Ibbi-Sin. Two centuries before Hammurabi, the law codes of Eshnunna were formulated by its king Bilalama. These laws fixed the prices of barley, sesame oil, and wool, and for hiring a wagon or a boat. If a boatman was negligent, he must pay for what he caused to be sunk. A man must get permission of a woman's parents to marry, and the sentence for raping her without it was death, as it was for a wife who committed adultery. Depriving another man's slave-girl of her virginity was punished by a fine. Business transactions must be established legally, or the person was considered a thief. Injuring another person's body parts were compensated for by fines in silver instead of by retaliatory maiming. Compared to later laws, capital punishment seems to have been rare, and all capital cases were brought before the king. People were responsible for vicious dogs and oxen known to be dangerous; but even if an ox gored a man or a dog caused his death, the penalty was still only a fine. However, if the authorities made the builder aware that a wall was threatening to fall and he did not strengthen it but it fell and killed someone, then it was a capital case under the king's jurisdiction. Once again increased awareness brought added responsibility.

In the nineteenth century BC Eshnunna was expanded by Ipiq-Adad II as far north as Assur on the Tigris, but soon Assur joined with Nineveh to form an Assyrian kingdom, which along with Mari, Babylon, and Larsa, surrounded Eshnunna. The kingdom of Mari was extended as far west as the Mediterranean Sea. The son of a ruler near Mari named Shamsi-Adad began as an outlaw and was exiled in Babylon; but when his brother succeeded, he gathered a force to take Ekallatum from Eshnunna and attacked Assur, replaced his brother, and led his army to the west as far as Lebanon.

When the ruler of Mari was murdered, Shamsi-Adad installed his son Iasmah-Adad there and another son Ishme-Dagan as viceroy of Ekallutum. The latter was a bold warrior like his father, proud of his military victories, who tried to get his docile brother Iasmah-Adad to obey him instead of their father. Shamsi-Adad criticized his son Iasmah-Adad for being a child, laying around with women, and exhorted him to be a man with his army and make a name for himself like his brother.

However, while the father was kept busy campaigning in the north and the bold Ishme-Dagan was fighting tribes and petty rulers in the Zagros mountains, Iasmah-Adad gave away land and plows during famine, gave boats to sheepherders to cross the Euphrates, and kept on such good terms with neighbors through trade that the king of Carchemish sent his "brother" food, wine, ornaments, fine clothing, gave him control of his copper mines, and offered him whatever he wanted. Iasmah-Adad married the daughter of Qatanum's ruler, who allowed him pasture. With his sons' help Shamsi-Adad ruled the first Assyrian empire from 1869 to 1837 BC, overlapping with the reign of Babylon's Hammurabi. Iasmah returned a caravan delayed in Mari to Babylon, and someone warned him about Hammurabi; but another advised him not to worry.



To be continued


************************************************** *
ALLAH PE AMAN

__________________
Farangi teyra chehra do rangi,,,A'ankhein roshan dil zangi.