The archives of Mari and Alalakh indicate that there was extensive Hurrian settlement in northern Syria during the early centuries of the second millennium BC, with Hurrian colonies at Mari, Alalah and Ebla. Subsequently, people with Hurrian names appeared at Aleppo, Carchemish and Ugarit.
Aleppo controlled much of northern Syria, and the Hurrian states within it appear to have accepted its suzerainty. The Hittite king Hattusili-I (r.c.1585-c.1555 BC) entered northern Syria but suffered a temporary setback when he was attacked by the Hurrians. His son Mursili-I (r.c.1555-c.1525 BC) destroyed Aleppo on his way to Babylon in c.1531 BC.
The political upheavals following Mursili’s assassination on his return to Hatti prevented the Hittites from taking advantage of their conquests. With Aleppo and Babylon eliminated, the Kassites moved into Babylonia and the emerging Hurrian confederacy, the kingdom of Mitanni, took control of northern Syria. During this period the pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty took control of several towns in southern Syria. Two small new states emerged in western Syria, centred respectively at Tunip and Kanesh.
Mitanni occupied the land between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, an area the Assyrians called Hanigalbat. The Mitanni capital, Washukanni, lay at the head of the Khabur River. Idrimi, son of the former king of Aleppo, seized Alalakh (near Antakya), which had previously been a dependency of Aleppo. When Parrattarna (r.c.1500 BC) extended the Mitannian kingdom westward to Aleppo, he installed Idrimi as a vassal ruler of his father’s former kingdom.
The Egyptians were seeking to control the Levant and Mitanni was the major power that they came into contact with in the north. Thutmose-I (r.c.1504-c.1492 BC) campaigned further north than any other Egyptian ruler and set up a stele on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. Egyptian influence in Syria, however, shrank under Thutmose II (r.c.1492-c.1479 BC) and Queen Hatshepsut (r.c.1478-c.1458 BC).
Thutmose III (r.c.1479-c.1425 BC) conducted at least seventeen campaigns in Palestine. In his first campaign (c.1457 BC) he defeated a coalition of the north Syrian states and captured Megiddo. In his eighth campaign (c.1447 BC) Thutmose defeated the Mitannian king Parsatatar (r.c.1460-c.1440 BC) and chased the Mitannian army across the Euphrates. Thutmose mounted at least three more campaigns in this area but his conquests had little lasting effect in consolidating Egyptian authority in Syria.
The Mitannian king Saushtatar (r.c.1440-c.1400 BC) invaded Assyria and reduced it to vassalage. He then turned westwards across the Euphrates, gathering up all the northern states on his route to the Mediterranean coast. Kizzuwadna and Ugarit briefly also came under his control. Amenhotep II (r.c.1427-c.1400 BC) continued the military exploits of his father, particularly in Syria, where he crushed an uprising and demanded oaths of loyalty from local rulers. After the campaign of his ninth regnal year, Egypt and Mitanni seem to have reached some sort of peace.
The Hittites had by now recovered much of the Anatolian territory they had lost following Mursili’s assassination. It was clearly only a matter of time before they would attempt to re-establish their presence in Syria. To avoid the potential of being caught between two powerful enemies the Mitannian king Artatama-I (r.c.1400-c.1390 BC) began to negotiate an alliance with Amenhotep II that was finally agreed during the reign of Thutmose IV (r.c.1400-c.1390 BC). The treaty gave Egypt control northwards to Kadesh and Ugarit. All territory beyond this was ceded to Mitanni. Artatama-I and his son Shuttarna II (r.c.1390-c.1375 BC) both made marriage alliances with the Egyptians. Shuttarna II may have extended Mitanni territory to the region of Isuwa in the far north.
Artashumara (r.c.1375-c.1370 BC), son of Shuttarna II, was assassinated and succeeded by a younger brother Tushratta (r.c.1370-c.1340 BC). A rival claimant for the throne Artatama II (r.c.1370 BC), possibly a third son, had considerable support among the Mitannian population. The Hittite king Suppiluliuma-I (r.c.1344-c.1322 BC) promised to support Artatama’s claim once Tushratta had been defeated.
Suppiluliuma’s first Syrian campaign was not victorious. It was possibly from the spoils of his unsuccessful encounter with Mitanni that Tushratta was able to send items to his ally and brother-in-law Amenhotep III (r.c.1390-c.1352 BC). In his spectacularly successful second Syrian campaign, Suppiluliuma sacked Washukanni. Tushratta was assassinated and Shuttarna III (r.c.1340 BC), son of Artatama II, seized the throne with the aid of a resurgent Assyria. Tushratta’s son Shattiwaza (r.c.1340-c.1310 BC) fled to the Hittite court.
Suppiluliuma sought to counter the growth of Assyrian power by installing Shattiwaza as puppet ruler of the rump Mitannian state. Mitanni, however, became increasingly under Assyrian influence, and was reduced to vassalage by the Assyrian king Adad-nirari-I (r.c.1295-c.1264 BC) after Shattuara-I (r.c.1310-c.1290 BC) had launched an unsuccessful attack on Assyrian territory. A rebellion led by Wasashatta (r.c.1290-c.1270 BC) was also crushed by Adad-nirari. After defeating the last Mitannian king Shattuara II (r.c.1270-c.1260 BC), Shalmaneser-I (r.c.1263-c.1234 BC) annexed Mitanni and made it an Assyrian province.
By the beginning of the thirteenth century BC Egypt emerged once again as a major power. The conflict between the Egyptians and the Hittites for the control of Syria and the coastal trade-routes went on for many years until a major but inconclusive battle was fought at Kadesh in c.1274 BC. Both sides realized that while their long-standing conflict was bleeding them dry a formidable threat to both was emerging in Assyria to the east. Hattusili III (r.c.1267-c.1237 BC) took the initiative and a mutual pact with Egypt was quickly agreed.
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