Ashurbanipal (Akkadian: Aššur-bāni-apli, "Ashur is creator of an heir"; 685 BCE – c. 627 BCE), also spelled Assurbanipal or Ashshurbanipal, is an Assyrian king, the son of Esarhaddon and the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (668 BCE – c. 627 BCE).
He establishes the first systematically organized library in the ancient Middle East, the Library of Ashurbanipal, which survives in part today at Nineveh.
