Low flood levels and attendant famines throw…

Shamshi-Addad’s next target is Mari, the city that controls the caravan route between Anatolia and Mesopotamia.

The king of Mari, Iakhdunlim, is assassinated by his own servants, possibly on Shamshi-Adad's orders.

Shamshi-Adad seizes the opportunity and occupies Mari.

The heir to the throne, Zimri-Lim, is forced to flee to Aleppo, ancient Yamkhad.

Here he puts his second son, Yasmah-Adad, on the throne, and then returns to Shubat-Enlil.

Assyria loses its independence to a dynasty of Amorite descent from Terqa, a city near Mari, on the Euphrates River, when a member of this dynasty conquers Assyria and reigns from around 1740 BCE as Shamshi-Adad I, his kingdom extending from the Euphrates to the Zagros Mountains.

The capital of this Old Assyrian kingdom, called Shubat-Enlil, is founded some distance from Urkesh at another Hurrian settlement in the Khabur River valley, modern Tell Leilan.

Shamshi-Adad I dies around 1718 BCE; his son, Ishme-Dagan, is defeated by Hammurabi of Babylon, who thus establishes himself as ruler of Assyria.

The conquest of the Khabur River valley region by the Amorite king Shamshi-Adad I, who lived from about 1765 BC to 1700 BCE, had revived the abandoned site of Shekhna, present Tell Leilan.

Shamshi-Adad, seeing the great potential in the rich agricultural production of the region, had made it the capital city of his northern Mesopotamian kingdom and renamed it from Shekhna to Shubat-Enlil, meaning "the residence of the god Enlil" in the Akkadian language.

A royal palace has been built and a temple acropolis to which a straight paved street leads from the city gate.

There is also a planned residential area and the entire city is enclosed by a wall.

Shubat-Enlil, covering about ninety hectares, or more than two hundred and twenty-two acres, may have a population of twenty thousand people at its peak.

Shamshi-Adad’s eventual conquest of the fortress of Ekallatum on the left bank of the Tigris had made it possible for him to control the city-state of Assur, a flourishing city that trades heavily with Anatolia.

His rise to glory had earned him the envy of neighboring kings and tribes, and throughout his reign, he and his sons had faced several threats to their control.

While Ishme-Dagan, whom his father had placed on the throne of Ekallatum, probably was a competent ruler, his brother Yasmah-Adad, charged with the rule of Mari, appears to have been a man of weak character.

Shamshi-Adad had continued to strengthen his kingdom throughout his life, but upon his death it soon began to crumble.

The empire lacks cohesion and is in a vulnerable geographical position.

When the news of Shamshi-Adad's death spread, his old rivals at once set out to topple his sons from the throne.

Yasmah-Adad had been expelled from Mari in 1779 by Zimrilim, the son and heir of the previous ruler, and the rest of the empire would soon be lost to Hammurabi of Babylon.

Shamshi-Adad had continued to strengthen his kingdom throughout his life, but upon his death, it had soon begins to crumble.

The empire lacks cohesion and is in a vulnerable geographical position.

When the news of Shamshi-Adad's death spreads, his old rivals at once set out to topple his sons from the throne.

Yasmah-Adad is soon expelled from Mari by Zimri-Lim, and the rest of the empire is soon lost to Hammurabi of Babylon.

Ishme-Dagan I, the son of the Amorite king Shamshi-Adad I, had been put on throne of Ekallatum by his father after a successful military attack.

He rules the area of the upper Tigris, including the city-state of Assur.

After Shamshi-Adad's death in 1791, he has managed to rule for a few years before being ousted from power by local forces.

His brother, …

…Yasmah-Adad, rules at the same time in the city of Mari, where the correspondence between the father and two sons will be found by archaeologists, providing an interesting and at times humorous look into the dynamics of this family. (Jean-Marie Durand, Documents Epistolaires du Palais de Mari, Collection Littérature Ancienne du Proche-Orient, Éditions du Cerf, Paris (2002).)

The founding of the Hittite Empire is attributed by tradition to either Labarna I or Hattusili I (it is debated whether this is the same person or not), who had conquered the area south and north of Hattusa.

Labarna had not been the first in line to the throne.

PU-Sarruma designated Labarna as his successor after his own sons revolted against him.

Upon PU-Sarruma's death, Labarna and Papahdilmah, one of PU-Sarruma's sons, contended for the throne, with Labarna emerging victorious.

What little is known about him is culled mainly from the Edict of Telipinu, which states that he overwhelmed his enemies and "made them borders of the sea", a statement which may refer to conquests as far as the Mediterranean coast in the south, and the Black Sea in the north.

He installed his sons as governors in several cities including Tuwanuwa, Hupisna, Landa, and Lusna (the identities of these cities are uncertain, but thought to perhaps be Tyana, Heraclea Cybistra, Laranda, and Lystra).

Through his conquests, he was responsible for laying the groundwork for the Hittite empire that was to come.

Labarna was actually a title of the early Hittite rulers, rather than a personal name.

Given the lack of contemporary references, and the fact that Hattusili I also used the title Labarna, some modern scholars have proposed that later Hittite historians mistook references to Labarna as being a separate king before Hattusili I.

According to this theory, Labarna and Hattusili I were really one and the same ruler.

Yasmah-Adad had managed to rule Mari for only a short time before being deposed by Zimrilim, the son and heir of Iakhdunlim, who had been forced to flee to Yamkhad when his father was assassinated by his own servants during a coup.

Zimrilim is able to oust Yasmah-Adad from power with the help of Yarimlim, the king of Yamkhad, in 1779 BCE.

Labarnas’s successor Hattusilis, who rules the Hitttites from about 1650, apparently establishes his capital in the fortress city of Hattusa (Boğazkale), the reoccupied site of the Assyrian merchant colony destroyed in 1720.