As already noted, we do not have any letters telling us directly about the Assyrian campaigns to Egypt and Kush. Sources attesting to these events are to be found elsewhere, e.g. Esarhaddon's royal inscriptions and the Babylonian chronicles. Nor are trade or other possible connections between the Assyrians and Egyptians mentioned in the present letters.[[49]]
We do have, however, two interesting references related to the consequences of Esarhaddon's Egyptian policies. No. 78 refers to the settling of some Kushite girls in the royal palace, presumably after the conquest of Memphis.[[50]] In one private letter (no. 55), the writer petitions his master to settle a case on behalf of three mistreated people with Aramaic or West Semitic names whose belongings have been sold to Egyptians.
Assyrian-Babylonian relations only rarely crop up in the letters. The majority of Esarhaddon's Babylonian correspondence is either lost or written in Neo-Babylonian and therefore falls outside the scope of this volume. However, some information about the Babylonians is available.
For example, in Samas-sumu-ukin's well-known letter to Esarhaddon already discussed above (no. 21), three Babylonians denounce the allegedly treacherous actions of three scholars, a haruspex named Aplaya and two a trologers named Bel-eṭir and Šamaš-zeru-iqiša. On the surface this is simply evidence of the loyal behaviour of the Babylonians, as the stipulations of Esarhaddon's succession treaty, which certainly also applied to Babylonia, obliged all Assyrian subjects to inform the king of any suspicious actions they heard about or saw.[[51]] However, it cannot be excluded that these three Babylonians were in reality acting out of ultimately anti-Assyrian motives. Perhaps they intended to further their own personal interests at the cost of the denounced individuals, at least one of whom (Aplaya) may have been an Assyrian, or maybe they were simply pleased to be able to inform against Assyrian) scholars?
The contrary case is attested in no. 65, where the king is informed that an Assyrian goldsmith of the queen's household had hired and settled in his house a Babylonian scholar to teach his son extispicy, exorcism and astrology. This letter is discussed in greater detail below.
A broken letter (no. 154) refers to people of Sarrabanu (south of Larak) who are said to hold houses in Babylon, Nippur and Uruk and in the Itu'u land. and are reported to have requested and obtained houses from a royal official. This letter may pertain to deportations that had taken place after raids to Babylonia under Tiglath-pileser Ill, Sargon II or Sennacherib, and it is not certain whether it dates from Esarhaddon's reign or from the time of one of his predecessors.[[52]]
If nos. 137 and 138 by Nabu-ra'im-nisesu's indeed originate in Esarhaddon's reign (see p. XXII, above), then a date earlier than 674 is out of the question.[[53]] It is easier to imagine that a messenger of Nippur had had dealings with the Assyrians and reported on the delegate of Arasi after 675,[[54]] since several anti-Assyrian šandabakkus of Nippur were removed by Esarhaddon between 680 and 675.[[55]] In addition to these two letters, no. 31, a letter by Kudurru, the imprisoned son of the captured and executed Šamaš-ibni of Bit-Dakkuri, may also be connected with the consequences of events in Nippur and its surroundings in and after 675.[[56]]
No. 105 concludes with the intriguing remark, "With regard to Sippar, may the king, my lord, be vigilant, so we can relax" (r.16-18). Otherwise the letter, which was written in Calah, does not have anything to do with Sippar. Whether this throwaway remark can be connected with the Elamite raid in Sippar in 675 remains uncertain.
A Chaldean is reported to have appealed to the king in no. 17, a letter from the crown prince Assurbanipal to Esarhaddon. This letter may well be linked to no. 155, which also mentions the Chaldeans in connection with Kunaya and the crown prince.[[57]] It is unlikely, however, that the latter was authored by Assurbanipal, as some of the signs used in no. 155 do not agree with the orthographical conventions of Assurbanipal.[[58]] The sender was more likely Šamaš-šumu-ukin (cf. no. 21 ).
Nabu-ra' im-nišešu and Salamanu were apparently responsible for the territory around Der and they probably lodged in that city, as Nabû-ra'im-nišešu states in 140 r.14-16: "Let a messenger stay at our disposal in Der."[[59]] However, it should be noted that the letter itself was probably not written in Der but in Dunni-Samas, close to Der and Malaku.[[60]] In another letter (no. 136), Nabû-ra'im-nišešu informs the king that the governor of Der has sent deserters to him.
49 For the presence of Egyptians in Babylonia during the reigns of Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, cf. Frame Babylonia p. 49 (especially n. 104 and the further sources mentioned there). For the economic connections between Assyrians and Egyptians. see M. Elat, "The Economic Relations of the Neo-Assyrian Empire with Egypt". JAOS 98 (1978) 20-34.
50 Inscriptions of Esarhaddon repeatedly refer to Kushite harem women deported to Assyria after the conquest of Memphis (671 B.C.), see Borger Essarh. pp. 99:43. 101:12, 114 §79:14 and §81:7.
51 Cf. Parpola. Iraq 34 (1972) 30f.
52 Assigning the letter to the reign of Tiglath-pileser III is in all probability excluded since the letter was found in Nineveh. Nevertheless, the city Sarrahanu is mostly known from his summary inscriptions. see Tadmor Tigl., Summ. 1:8, 2:13, 7:15f, 9 r.11 and 11:13, and PN A 2/11 p. 901 s. v. Nabû-ušabši 1. The contents of the letter may suggest that Šamaš-šumu-ukin - present in Babylonia as the crown prince of Babylon (c. 670) was the sender of the letter, but we do not have any convincing arguments to support this.
53 Cf. n. 42 above.
54 To the southeast of Assyria. a region in the Zagros between Babylonia and Ellipi. In addition to the two attestations of this volume, the delegate of Arasi is also mentioned in three letters sent 10 Sargon 11: SAA 15 35:8, ABL 774 r. 16-17 (NB). ABL 1275 e 19-r.1 (NR).
55 For the discussion of šandabakkus under Esarhaddon and further sources, see S. W. Cole, SAAS 4 p. 53f.
56 The letter was written at the time of Kudurru's confinement in Nineveh. See Nissinen Prophecy, p. 33ff. Kudurru was not executed in 675, contrary to, e.g., Cole. SAAS 4 p. 53. who probably follows Grayson, uncertain restoration. cf. Grayson Chronicles p. 126: 19. For the connection of Nippur with Bit-Dakkuri, their resistance against the Assyrian rule, and Esarhaddon's Nippur policy. see Cole, SAAS 4 pp. 30ff. 72 n. q8. and 73ff.
57 Reading the fragmentary name in 155:6 as [K]unaya is virtually certain, as e.g. the readings Banaya, Buna'i, Dannaya, Ginnaya, Innaya and Nanaya are incompatible the copy.
58 Note, e.g. LÚ* kál-d[a]-a-a and -ṭi- in no. 17, as against LÚ.kal-dà-a-a and -ṭí in no. 155.
59 Der was extremely important for the Assyrians in order to control the potentially common Elamite- Babylonian interests, see, e.g., J. Brinkman, "The Elamite- Babylonian Frontier in the Neo-Elamite Period, 750-625 B.C.", in Fragmente Historiae Elamicae. Mélanges offerts a M.-J. Stève (Paris 1986), p. 202, and Saa 15 112f.
60 Cf. obv. 10. The town Malaku was significantly connected with the history of Der, for example, in Sargon's reign the Elamites had first laid siege to Malaku and plundered it, after which they were able to attack Der, see SAA 15 p. XXXV and no. 118.
Mikko Luukko & Greta van Buylaere
Mikko Luukko & Greta van Buylaere, 'The South and Southwest', The Political Correspondence of Esarhaddon, SAA 16. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 2002; online contents: SAAo/SAA16 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2022 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa16/relationsbetweenassyriaanditsneighbours/thesouthandsouthwest/]