In the north Eshnunna broke away from Ur in the second year of Ibbi-Sin. The early rulers of Eshnunna enlarged their kingdom and occupied the valley of lower Diyala. Then came a period of repeated setbacks until Ipiq-Adad II (r.c.1798-c.1754 BC) began a period of expansion marked by the occupation of Rapiqum (not yet found, but near Ramadi).
Yaggid-Lim (r.c.1756-c.1746 BC), king of Mari, and Ila-kabkabu (r.c.1790-c.1772 BC), king of Ekallatum (north of Assur) and the father of Shamshi-Adad-I (r.c.1749-c.1716 BC), drew up a treaty with each other. The son of Yaggid-Lim, Yahdun-Lim (r.c.1746-c.1730 BC), tried to expand Mari’s political control westwards and this led to a close alliance with the Yamhad kingdom, centred on Aleppo.
Shamshi-Adad governed in Ekallatum for about ten years and then fled to Babylon when Naram-Sin (r.c.1754-c.1751 BC), king of Eshnunna, seized Ekallatum and gained control of the middle regions as far west as Mari and as far north as Assur, capital of the small city-state of Assur.
When Naram-Sin died, Shamshi-Adad recaptured Ekallatum and five years later liberated Assur. After capturing Mari, Nineveh and areas as far south as Rapiqum, he went on to unite the whole of northern Mesopotamia into a single state with its capital at Shubat-Enlil. He put his eldest son Ishme-Dagan-I (r.c.1716-c.1677 BC) in Ekallatum with the task of keeping the inhabitants of the mountains in check and to guard against Eshnunna. In Mari he placed his younger son Yasmah-Adad (r.c.1726-c.1712 BC) to prevent incursions of nomads from the Syrian steppe.
When Shamshi-Adad died (it is not known whether in battle or of natural causes) Zimri-Lim (r.c.1712-c.1697 BC) claiming to be the son of Yahdun-Lim chased Yasmah-Adad out of Mari, Ishme-Dagan lost control of all of his father’s kingdom except Ekallatum and Assur, and northern Syria became a patchwork of small independent states.
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