Assur

Assur¹, also spelled Ašur² and Ashur, in Arabic اشور (Ašûr) was, in 2250 B.C.E., located in the Akkadian Lugalate and was tied for fifth largest city in the world and tied for third largest in what is now Iraq.³ In 2000 BCE (short chronology) it was tied for sixth largest city in the world and tied for third largest in what is now Iraq.⁴ At that time it was part of the Ur Lugalate⁵ but later became capital of an eponymous state. Even after the capital was moved it was an important religious center. It is sometimes said to be the capital of Shamsi-Addad's lugalate, but that ruler moved around.⁶ Soon after it was absorbed by Babilu (Babylon). Under Adasi Assur gained independence from the Babilu⁷ and remained so until the Kassite takeover in the late 16th century BCE (short chronology). In the late 14th century (short chronology), Assur regained independence and conquered much of what is now northern Iraq from Mitanni. The later Assyrian written form of Assur's name emphasized its religious significance, using the symbols for Ansarki, thus associating it with the creation god, Ansar. The city was destroyed in the late seventh century BCE, revived later but was again destroyed in the third century CE. Once again it was re-occupied, initially as part of the Arsakou Basileos-Basileonate (Arsacid Empire or Parthia)⁸. It was destroyed again in the mid-third century⁹ but either something persisted or it was subsequently re-occoupied since settlement was known as late as the 14th century¹⁰. The ruins are a World Heritage Site (called Qal'at Sherqat) and are on the right (west) bank of the al-Furat (Euphrates) River.

External References

Ziggurat of Assur

Footnotes

1. In Akkadian and Assyrian, the city name was written in Cuneiform. This cannot be rendered in most browsers although unicode for it exists.
2. This is a conventional transliteration from Aramaic. Assuming the Middle Persian (Middle Iranian, Inscriptional Pahlavi) form transliterated the Aramaic, then it is also the transliteration of the Middle Persian form. Looking at the Arabic script, this should also be the transliteration of the Arabic, although the š is conventionally doubled.
3. Tables of the World's Largest Cities, "2250 B.C." table, in Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987).
4. Tables of the World's Largest Cities, "2000 B.C." table, in Tertius Chandler, ibid..
5. Georges Roux states that there is no evidence that Assur was independent before the second millenium. He mentions the ruler, Puzur-Ashur I, and implies he is the beginning of a line of kings that are independent as of around 2000 BCE (Middle Chronology). That would be after the fall of Ur to Elam in 2004 BCE (Middle Chronology), or after 1940 BCE (Short Chronology). He discounts the first 17 members of the Assyrian King List in the context of discussing early independence. Georges Roux, Ancient Iraq, 3rd ed., Penguin Books, 1992.
6. Roux, ibid., says that "he seems to have moved from place to place; towards the end of his reign, he took up residence in Shehna, ..., now...Tell Leilan."
7. Roux, ibid.. This occured during the Babylonian lugal, Samsu-Iluna, r. 1792 to 1712 BCE (short chronology).
8. Roux, ibid., pg. 419.
9. Roux, ibid., pg. 421.
10. See http://www.assur.de/Themen/Stadtgeschichte_Engl/body_stadtgeschichte_engl.html, accessed 5/8/2010. In my historical map for 361 I presumed it had either persisted or had by then been re-occupied. The map gives its name in Middle Persian script, but it is possible that it was of too little importance in the fourth century for it to be represented in writing by its rulers. In that case, if it was written at all, it would most likely have been in an local Aramaic script. Side note: the Middle Persian waw and and resh were the same, and its shin looks like two of the waw-resh glyphs.