Ashurbanipal

King of Assyria. 669-627 BC.

    Esarhaddon, king of *Assyria (681-669 BC), pursued the policy of his father *Sennacherib, expanding and subjugating peoples even more vigorously. When *Esarhaddon became ill and died at Harran, his successor Ashurbanipal inherited the Egyptian problem.

    The Egyptian king *Taharka had regained possession of his northern centre, the city of Memphis, but was once again expelled, this time by Ashurbanipal in his first campaign (667 BC). Ashurbanipal also replaced petty princes and governors in Egyptian towns since those whom *Esarhaddon had installed had now fled, and he left them to exert influence on his behalf while he was absent.

    Taharka's successor Tanuatamun, (another king in the Ethiopian line of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty), now re-occupied Memphis, but Ashurbanipal, returning from Nineveh and re-entering Egypt, drove Tanuatamun from Thebes back to Napata, where he eventually died. Ashurbanipal recorded that he conquered Thebes, ransacking the Temple of Amun at Karnak and carrying away to Nineveh a massive amount of booty. According to an account written in cuneiform on the Rassam cylinder, Ashurbanipal enjoyed a complete victory but the Egyptian version, inscribed on the Dream Stela at Gebel Barkal, records that Tanuatamun was successful.

    Assyria's days as a great power were numbered; with a Scythian invasion and the growth of the new empire of the Medes in north-western Iran, Assyria faced constant threats. In 626 BC (a year after Ashurbanipal's death), the *Assyrian power was finally crushed by the Babylonians under their ruler, *Nabopolassar.

BIBL. Winton Thomas, D. (Ed.) Documents from Old Testament times. London: 1958; Von Zeissl, H. Athiopen und Assyrer in Agypten. Gluckstadt: 1944.

Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Rosalie and Antony E. David