The pharaoh (probably Amenhotep III), after receiving…

Some of the earliest Egyptian records of Damascus are from the Amarna letters of around 1350 BCE, when Damascus (called Dimasqu) is ruled by king Biryawaza, who was ordered by his Egyptian overlords to take armed action against the sons of Labaya (EA 250), a Habiru, possibly Canaanite, warlord.

The name Biryawaza is Indo-European in origin.

Biryawaza may have been of an Indo-European maryannu caste similar to that which rules Mitanni and the Hittite kingdom.

The Hittite empire suffers serious losses of territory during Tudhaliya's reign, with even the capital itself being burnt down.

But, under the able guidance of Tudhaliya's son, the future Suppiluliuma I, the Hittites begin to make a recovery while Tudhaliya still sits on the throne.

The proper numbering of the Hittite rulers who bore the name Tudhaliya is problematic.

There was a Hattian era figure who bore the name Tudhaliya who may or may not have ruled as king.

Other reconstructions insert a Tudhaliya directly after Muwattalli I, but before the more famous ruler frequently credited with founding the Empire.

The Tudhaliya discussed here will be generally found as either "the second" or "the third".

Tudhaliya III is never explicitly known to have been king at all.

The Hittite texts refer to him as "Tudhaliya the child" (or, as an alternate translation, "Tudhaliya the Young(er)".

He is killed by a group of officers that included his successor, and quite probably brother, Suppiluliuma I.

Ashur-uballit, with Assyrian power firmly established, tarts to make contacts with other great nations.

A time comes when the Kassite king in Babylon is glad to marry the daughter of Ashur-uballit, whose letters to Akhenaten of Egypt form part of the Amarna letters.

His messages to the Egyptians angers his Babylonian neighbor Burnaburiash II, who himself writes to the Pharaoh: “with regard to my Assyrian vassals, it was not I who sent them to you.

Why did they go to your country without proper authority?

If you are loyal to me they will not negotiate any business.

Send them to me empty-handed!” Yet the new Assyrian power cannot be denied, and Burnaburiash even marries the daughter of the Assyrian king.

This marriage will eventually lead to disastrous results.

Hittite king Suppiluliuma marries a sister to the Hayasan king Hukkana, and his daughter Muwatti to Maskhuiluwa of the Arzawan state Mira.

He retakes Arzawan territory as far as Hapalla.

The Assyrians under Ashur-uballit stage a successful revolt against their Mitanni overlords to the west around 1350.

The Hittites simultaneously invade the Mitanni state, already weakened by the Hittite victory of 1380, ending the kingdom.

Tyre is mentioned in Egyptian records of the fourteenth century BCE as being subject to Egypt; the city’s name appears on monuments as early as 1300 BCE.

The site was first occupied by one Hypsuranius, according to the antiquarian authority Sanchuniathon, the purported Phoenician author of three lost works originally in the Phoenician language, surviving only in partial paraphrase and summary of a Greek translation by Philo of Byblos, according to the Christian bishop Eusebius of Caesarea.

Sanchuniathon's work is said to be dedicated to "Abibalus king of Berytus"—possibly the Abibaal who was king of Tyre.

In the Amarna letters of 1350 BCE, Tyre has a body of letters (nine, detailed) from the mayor, Abi-Milku, written to Akhenaten.

The subject is often water, wood, and the Habiru overtaking the countryside of the mainland, and how it affects the island-city.

Shachmu (i.e., Shechem) is the center of a kingdom carved out by Labaya (or Labayu), a Canaanite warlord who recruits mercenaries from among the Habiru.

Labaya is the author of three Amarna letters from about 1350 BCE, and his name appears in eleven of the other three hundred and eighty-two letters, referred to twenty-eight times, with the basic topic of the letter, being Labaya himself, and his relationship with the rebelling, country-dwelling Habiru.

Labaya and his sons exert influence over a wide region in Samaria, and threaten many powerful Canaanite towns, including Jerusalem, Gezer, (called 'Gazru'), and Megiddo.

The Amarna letters give an incomplete look at Labaya's career.

In the first of Labaya's letters thus far discovered (EA 252), he defends himself to the Pharaoh against complaints of other city rulers about him (for example, the complaint that he has hired mercenaries from among the Habiru).

Labaya further admits to having invaded Gezer and insulting its king Milkilu.

He denies any knowledge of his son's alleged collaboration with the Habiru.

Labaya is accused of capturing cities that are under Egyptian protection.

Biridiya, the king of Megiddo and the author of five of the Amarna letters correspondence, accuses him of besieging his city and asks the pharaoh for a garrison of one hundred men.

Other Canaanite rulers, such as Abdi-Heba of Jerusalem, complain of Labaya's depredations (e.g., EA 289).

Abdi-Heba will himself be referred to in later years, however, as "another Labaya" in EA 280.

The sons of Labaya, employing Habiru mercenaries, continue to campaign against other Egyptian vassals in Canaan.

One of Labaya's sons, Mutbaal, rules Pella in the Trans-Jordanian part of Canaan.