Isin

Isin¹, whose remains are called Ishan al-Bahryiyat, was the center of an eponymous state and, in 1800 B.C.E., was arguably tied for the world's second largest city, and was perhaps the largest city in what is now Iraq.² It was conquered by Babilu (Babylon) until Iluma-Ilu liberated it and made it the capital of his "Second Babylonian Dynasty" (Dynasty of the Sea Land)", which ruled over "the entire country south of Nibbur"³. Its status diminished again under Kassite rule. It still existed in the 12th century BCE⁴ but fell to ruins some time thereafter.

External References

looters running from a helicopter at the ruins of Isin, 2004 CE

Footnotes

1. In Sumerian the city name was written in Cuneiform. This cannot be rendered in most browsers although unicode for it exists.
2. Tables of the World's Largest Cities, "1800 B.C." table, in Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987), which shows it without a population estimate following Thebes, also without a population estimate. His "List of cities that can have been the largest" makes it clear that Thebes was larger than Isin. I am sceptical of Isin's high rank given Isin's decline. By around this time using the short chronology or earlier in another chronology, Isin was left ruling only its immediate environs and Larsa, not listed by Chandler, was pre-eminent in Mesopotamia. Perhaps Isin's status on Chandler's list reflects a somewhat earlier period, or perhaps its political challenges were not deemed reflected in its demographics. Cf. Georges Roux, Ancient Iraq, 3rd ed. (Penguin Books, 1992).
3. Roux, ibid.
4. See Roux, ibid. who says the founders of the Second Dynasty of Isin (Fourth Dynasty of Babylon), an Elamite state, were native to Isin.