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SECOND DYNASTY OF ISIN
(1158*-1027*)
* All dates marked with an asterisk in this section are believed to be correct relative to one another, but may be shifted up or down by up to five years.
1158*-1141* Marduk-kabit-aḫḫēšu, Fifty-First King of Babylon. In the aftermath of Babylon's invasion by first the Assyrians and then the Elamites, the long-lived Kassite Dynasty fell and the chief god Marduk left the city, both metaphorically and literally for his statue was taken away by the Elamites. Marduk-kabit-aḫḫēšu from the far southern city of Isin seems to have stepped into the gap. The period was chaotic and records are sparse. As such it is not even known for certain that he controlled the city of Babylon itself.
1) Itti-Marduk-belātu, Fifty-Second King of Babylon (see below)
1140*-1133* Itti-Marduk-belātu, Fifty-Second King of Babylon. A record of his full titulary "King of Kings, Favourite of the Gods, Perfect Prince, Viceroy at Babylon, Elect of Anu & Dagan, Governor for Enlil & Ninlil" confirms that he was in charge of Babylon from the beginning of his reign (or nearly the beginning). Otherwise, he is almost as obscure as his father.
Probably 1) Ninurta-nādin-šumi, Fifty-Third King of Babylon (see below)
2) A son, who had children (or perhaps grandchildren)
a) Adad-apla-iddina, Fifty-Eighth King of Babylon (see below)
b) Kadašman-Buriaš, governor of Dur-Kurigalzu under his brother, who is believed to have been Adad-apla-iddina. The city was captured by Assyria in the 1070s.
1132*-1127* Ninurta-nādin-šumi, Fifty-Third King of Babylon. He led an expedition deep into Assyria, probably a small group of shock troops rather than a large army; they were turned back at Arbela by the Assyrian King Aššur-reš-iši. Nothing substantial came of this, but it nevertheless marks the beginning of a Babylonian resurgence which would be continued by his son and successor. His titulary is appropriately grandiose: "King of the World, King of Babylon, King of Sumer & Akkad" and was adopted by all of his successors in the dynasty.
1) Nebuchadnezzar I, Fifty-Fourth King of Babylon (see below)
3) Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē, Fifty-Sixth King of Babylon (see below)
1126*-1105* Nebuchadnezzar I, Fifty-Fourth King of Babylon. Not to be confused with the Babylonian king in the Biblical book of Daniel, who lived about five hundred years later, his name is more correctly rendered as Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur. His reign was the subject of great epics in later times because of his military ventures. He invaded Elam twice. The first time he was forced to turn back at the last moment by an outbreak of plague. The second time, however, he attacked in the midst of a very hot summer, taking the Elamites completely unawares, they met him in battle on the Eulaios River, not far from the Elamite capital of Susa. The battle was obscured by dust, but a spirited chariot charge broke the Elamite lines and Nebuchadnezzar took their capital. There he found the statues of the Babylonian gods which had been taken away to Elam some thirty years earlier and brought them home. Among these restored gods was Marduk. Marduk, as the special deity of Babylon, had long been important, but to magnify the importance of his achievement in restoring him to his city, Nebuchadnezzar began a campaign to magnify the importance of Marduk. Over the course of the Second Dynasty of Isin, the supreme god of the Akkadian pantheon, Ea retreated into the background and Marduk rose to the chief position. The transfer was explained, in texts like the Enuma Elish, as a formal handover of power from one generation to the next (A process that had already occurred in the distant past when Ea had replaced Anu as the pantheon's supreme god). This idea of generational succession in Heaven would prove highly influential: it is seen in Hittite mythology and also in Greek myth (in which Ouranos is replaced by Kronos, who is replaced by Zeus). In Babylon, as Marduk ascended to supreme power, so did his special ritual - the New Year's Festival, in which the king brought Marduk's crown prince, Nabu, from the city of Borsippa to the Esagila, the temple of Marduk in Babylon and the two gods proceeded through the city. This ritual had always been important, but it now became absolutely central. When it could not be celebrated, the fact was recorded in the chronicles and the consequences were believed to be extremely dire. A final aspect of the rise of Marduk: increasingly Babylonian kings paid homage to and identified themselves with Marduk's crown prince, Nabu, perhaps serving to suggest a role for themselves as the supreme god's viceroys or successors on Earth.
There were battles with the Assyrians at Zanqu and Idu and perhaps with the neighbouring semi-tribal peoples as well, but most of the rest of the reign was occupied with repairing and rebuilding temples throughout Mesopotamia. Among his more grandiose titles was "the Sun of the land", for like the Sun he monitored the world and provided the neccessities of life. Also like the sun, his setting in 1105* was followed by a long, dark night.
1) Enlil-nādin-apli, Fifty-Fifth King of Babylon (see below)
1) Perhaps a daughter appointed as entu priestess at Ur, in charge of the temple to the moon good, Nanna.
1104*-1101* Enlil-nādin-apli, Fifty-Fifth King of Babylon. He may still have been a child when he came to the throne. In 1101*, he led an invasion of Assyria, but had to turn back after his uncle Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē rebelled. When he reached Babylon he was executed and his uncle succeeded him.
1100*-1083* Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē, Fifty-Sixth King of Babylon. Having overthrown his nephew, he continued the programme of building and restoration begun under Nebuchadnezzar, paying especial attention to Ur, the chief city of the south. His reign was troubled by repeated conflict with the powerful Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser I. Three campaigns are recorded. In the first, the city of Ekallate was sacked and its gods taken back to Babylon. In the second campain (which may be identical with the first) the Assyrians were defeated. In the third, probably late in the reign, the Assyrians attacked twice in quick succession and burnt the royal palace in Babylon itself, before rapidly retreating.
Thereafter the Assyrian pressure was off, but a new threat had arisen. A tribal people called the Arameans, afflicted by famine so severe that they had resorted to cannibalism, invaded both Assyria and Babylon, forcing both to fight for their very survival, in the midst of which Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē "disappeared."
1) Marduk-šāpik-zēri, Fifty-Seventh King of Babylon.
2) Abullu-tēta-parāu
1082*-1070* Marduk-šāpik-zēri, Fifty-Seventh King of Babylon. Relations with the Assyrians were initially hostile - he was invaded in the first year of his reign by Tiglath-Pileser I. However, Tiglath-Pileser's successor, Aššur-bel-kala, proved more amicable; they allied and together they seem to have turned away the Aramaean threat, settling the "hundred and five kings of the Aramaeans" in the borderland between the two states. Things were settled enough that the restoration of temples could continue apace, but the attention that Marduk-šāpik-zēri paid to restoring city-walls might signal that the Aramaean situation remained precarious and uncertain.
In the long-term, the concentration of the Aramaeans in the borderlands would prove an inadequate solution, for the various Aramaean tribes grew and prospered here, often trying to expand their territory at the expense of the Assyrians and Babylonians or at the expense of each other. In the latter case, opposing Aramaean tribes might call upon the Assyrians and Babylonians to support them, encouraging conflict between Assyria and Babylon. Both powers needed to intervene frequently in order to maintain order and to prevent any tribe from becoming powerful enough to pose a real threat. In general, the Assyrians were mostly successful in this task, while the Babylonians generally failed to maintain order in their sector. The Babylonian focus on the Aramaean borderland nevertheless left them little forces or resources to maintain order elsewhere in their territory. Eventually, the situation led to Babylon's conquest by the Assyrians and the end of the Middle Babylonian period.
1069*-1048* Adad-apla-iddina, Fifty-Eighth King of Babylon. This king is called a usurper in one king list and accused of being Aramaean in other (hostile) sources, but the Walker chronicle confirms that he was a member of the royal family. He managed to continue the rebuilding programme of his predeccessors, but faced invasion from the Assyrians, after which his brother was taken back to Assyria as a captive. Against a renewed Aramaean invasion Adad-apla-iddina did not do much better: two of the most important cities around Babylon, Sippar and Nippur, were sacked and their gods taken away. In alliance with the Assyrian king Aššur-bel-kala, he eventually turned them away and at the end of his reign he may have aided Šamši-Adad IV in seizing the Assyrian throne. After his death, the course of events becomes very unclear
He married a daughter of Aššur-bel-kala, King of Assyria as part of their alliance.
a daughter, who married Aššur-bel-kala, King of Assyria (see ASSYRIA)
1047* Marduk-aḫḫē-erība, Fifty-Ninth King of Babylon. His relation to his predeccessors is uncertain and his reign lasted a mere six months.
1046*-1035* Marduk-zēr..., Sixtieth King of Babylon. Not even his full name is known.
1034*-1027* Nabû-šumu-libūr, Sixty-First King of Babylon. Nothing is known of him, but his brief reign marks the end of the dynasty.
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