samedi 10 septembre 2016

[List I/20b] Kingdom of Mùkish (Alalakh) XVth century BC

The kingdom of Mukichê (or Mukish) is a Syrian kingdom whose capital was the city of Alalakh (or Alalha).

Idrimi leads the forces of Alalakh against the Hatti.
This is an army only DBA.

In BBDBA, his king Idri-mi fought, as historically, in the service of his sovereign Baratarna, king of the Mitanni. In fact, in BBDBA, my army Moukichê is aligned as an allied corps of my Mitanean army.


This kingdom is the one that made me interested for the first time in the East of the Bronze Age. The discovery of the work "The forgotten kingdom" of the archaeologist Léonard Wooley had particularly pleased me and since then I have constituted a solid biography on the period.

Idri-mi, son of Ilim-ilim-ma, king of the Mùkish

The Maryannu
The royal guards
The royal guard of Idri-mi, who is wearing typical Syrian robes, is made up of former brigands and adventurers who had relied on Idri-mi to reconquer Alalakh: the famous Hapirous (hâbirû), whose abuses upset the region at the time.

Hupshus and Khepejs
Sutu slingers
Flock of sheep as army baggage
This kingdom is particularly well known to us thanks to the inscription engraved on the statue of King Idri-mi.

Idrimi was the king of the ancient Syrian kingdom of Alalakh (or Mukish-Moukishê), in the first decades of the fifteenth century BC. BC, vassal of the powerful kingdom of Mitanni who then dominated Syria and Upper Mesopotamia. (...)


Idrimi presents himself as the son of Ilim-ilim-ma, king of Aleppo (or Yamkhad), the most powerful Syrian kingdom before his defeat in 1600 BC. BC against the Hittites, whose power subsequently fell.

Trouble in Aleppo caused his father to fall, and Idrimi had to take refuge with his brothers at the court of Emar, where their mother came from. In order not to remain a servant in this country but to reclaim a throne, Idrimi left with a single servant in the country of the Suteens, nomads of the steppe, then in Canaan further south, before becoming leader of a band of Habiru, In wandering and rapines. He ascends an expedition by sea, which leads him to the land of Mukish, where he seizes the capital, Alalakh, a former dependency of the kingdom of Aleppo.

 

He succeeded in settling there, but the powerful Hurrian king of the Mitanni, Barattarna, was then hostile to him for a reason which was not specified. After negotiations, he eventually recognized him as his vassal. Idrimi then led expeditions against Hittite cities, an opponent of the Mitanni to the north, and built a palace in his capital. A tablet of Alalakh contains the stipulations of the treaty concluded between Idrimi and Pilliya king of Kizzuwatna (north of Alalakh) and also vassal of Mitanni. Barattarna is mentioned in the text. The clauses of the agreement concern mainly the extradition of fugitives from one kingdom to the other.

The city appears for the first time in the amortized period, in the written sources of Mari at the beginning of the eighteenth century, under the name of Alakhtum. This city is part of the kingdom of Yamkhad (Aleppo). King Sumu-epukh sells the terroir of Alakhtum to his son-in-law Zimri-Lim the king of Mari to highlight it, while keeping the suzerainty over the city.

After the fall of Mari in 1761 BC, AD, Alakhtum returns under the authority of Aleppo. It was at this period that his name evolved into Alalakh. King Abbdn of Aleppo gives it to his brother Yarim-Lim, to thank him for not having participated in a revolt against him. The descendants of Yarim-Lim then founded a dynasty in Alalakh, while remaining vassals of Yamkhad. This lasts until the very end of the seventeenth century, when Alalakh was destroyed by the Hittite king Hattushili I.
 
Syrian melody of 3400 years old. Contemporary of the Moukichê:


After a hiatus of about a century (or less), Alalakh again becomes the seat of a local dynasty. A certain Idrimi, son of the king of Aleppo who was driven out by the new master of the region, the king of the Mitanni Barattarna, succeeded in ascending the throne of Alalakh, then returned to the good graces of the king of the Mitanni who agreed to take him Among his vassals. Following Idrimi, a new dynasty was founded. The kingdom controlled by Alalakh is called Mukish.

In the middle of the 14th century, the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I defeated the king of Mitanni Tushratta and took control of Northern Syria. Alalakh therefore passes under his suzerainty. The king settled the border disputes between the Mukish and his vassals Uugarit, Nuhasse and Aleppo. Thereafter, the kingdom remains a faithful vassal of the Hittites. Alalakh collapses after the fall of his suzerain, at the beginning of the XIIth century, under the blows of the Peoples of the sea. The site is not occupied any more, the port of Al Mina taking its place in the region to The age of iron.