Country of Aššūr (1363–912 BCE)

Country of Aššūr 𒆳𒀸𒋩𒆠
1363 BCE–912 BCE
Assyria (blue) in 1100 BCE
Capital	Aššūr
Official languages	Akkadian
Dominant mode of production	Slavery
Government	Monarchy
History
• Established	1363 BCE
• Dissolution	912 BCE

The Country of Aššūr, also known as the Middle Assyrian Empire, was an ancient kingdom based in northern Mesopotamia. By the late 13th century BCE, it was the most powerful state in Western Asia.

History

Mitanni rule over Assyria peaked around 1500 BCE. After the Egyptians and Hittites defeated Mitanni in the 14th century BCE, King Aššuruballiṭ I conquered part of the former Mitanni territory and expanded Assyria beyond its traditional territory as a city-state. Adadnārārī I went to war with Babylonia and conquered the rest of Mitanni. He tried to sign a peace treaty with the Hittite king Hattusili III, who refused.

In the late 13th century BCE, Tukultīninurta I conquered Babylon and brought the statue of the supreme Babylonian god Amarutu (Marduk) from the Esagila temple to Assyria. From the mid-11th to mid-10th centuries BCE, Aramaean tribes living west of the Euphrates began attacking Mesopotamia and destabilizing Assyrian rule. In the mid-11th century BCE, the king's son and nobility rebelled and killed the Assyrian king.

Economy

Private sale of land began in the 15th century BCE, although land was still officially considered communal property. Because slaves were expensive to buy, the rich loaned free farmers money at very high interest rates and demanded their land or family members as collateral. If a loan was not paid back in time, the debtor became a slave for life.

Laws

The Middle Assyrian period had the harshest laws in all of ancient Mesopotamia. Men had almost unlimited power over their children and bought their wives as slaves. Widows became the wives of their dead husband's brother. Free married women had to wear veils, but enslaved women who wore veils had their ears cut off.