Nairi

The country Nairi ( KUR.KUR Na -i -ri KUR.KUR Na - ' i -ru ), borderland, was probably in the eastern Turkish province of Van and probably partly in the neighboring province of Hakkari. It was inhabited in the middle Iron Age by a coalition of kingdoms / tribes, ethnically and culturally not must have been quite uniform. The Nairi states were first mentioned in Assyrian sources in the 13th century BC A clay tablet from Assur shows that horses from Nairi were taken to Assyria in mittelassyrischer time.

Formation

The theory of a Hurrian origin of Nairi and Urartu goes back to Albrecht Götze, who assumed that the kingdom of Urartu from a merger of various Nairi - Rich back. According to Benedict ( 1960), however, there is no evidence for a Hurrian presence in the area of Lake Van. The equation of Nairi with Nahariya is rejected. It is usually assumed that the kings of the Assyrian inscriptions, no hereditary ruler, but tribal chiefs, who together formed close only under Assyrian pressure.

Territory

The territory of Nairi stretched between the Tur Abdin and the southwestern shore of Lake Van, "beyond the impassable mountains ." Assyrian sources mention A.AB.BA ša KUR Na -i -ri, "the sea of the country Nairi ", the Van or Lake Urmia. Uruartri was probably located north and east of Lake Van.

Swell

The Nairi countries are only known from Assyrian sources. The following kings report on campaigns against the Nairi or Uruartri:

History

The Assyrians took several campaigns against the Nairi. Initially, as under Tukulti - Ninurta I, they fought against several local Nairifürsten. After Tukulti - Ninurta I (1244-1208) Kudmuhi had conquered ( between the mountain and Kašiari Alše ), which had at the time of Shalmaneser thrown off the Assyrian yoke of the king of the neighboring Alše continue fled before the Assyrian troops to Nairi and from there into an "unknown land ", ie, after the former Assyrian geographical ideas to the limits of the earth. Tiglath- Pileser I (c. 1114 BC) boasts the inscription on the Tigris II three campaigns against Nairi and reported to have subjected 23 kings of the Nairi. Later, the Nairi seem to have joined together in a confederation. Assyrian sources mention Urartu as one of the Nairifürstentümer. As a result, Urartu will replace the Confederacy as a regional power.

Shalmaneser I. called eight kings, Tukulti -Ninurta I. 23 kings and Tiglathpileser I. 60 kings. Sevin interpreted this as evidence for probably nomadic tribes without a single central government, which found their archaeological precipitation in the necropolis as Karagündüz, Dilkaya and Erni.

Tiglath- pileser I. (I, 236) tells how he went against the countries of Nairi into the field, " located on the shores of Lake Superior and Lake Van had never been subjected to. " Then he counts the rulers to whom he was opposed the 23 rulers of Nairi, who had contracted their chariots:

  • The King of ( KUR ) tum4 -me
  • The King of Tunube
  • The King Tauli
  • The King of Kindari
  • The King of Uzula
  • The King of Unzamuni
  • The King of Andiabe
  • The King of Pilakinni
  • The King of Aturgini
  • The King of Kulibarzini
  • The King of Šinibirni
  • The King of Himua
  • The King of Paiteri
  • The King of Uiram
  • The King of Šururia
  • The King of Albaia
  • The King of Ugina
  • The King of Nazabia
  • The King of Abarsiuni
  • The King of Daiaeni
  • Other

In an inscription in Yoncalı, at the western end of the plain of Bulanık - Malazgirt, he celebrates his victory over the 23 kings of the Nairi countries. The inscription calls him the conqueror of the Nairi countries of Tumme after Daiaeni. Charles Burney assumes that the battle took place so far from the inscription in the Malazgirt level. Whether Yoncalı lay in Tumme or Daiaeni is controversial. Then Tiglathpileser pursued the defeated enemy to the Upper Sea, probably the Lake Van.

He claims to have taken all the kings of Nairi caught. Sieni, King of Daiaeni, " the Ashur did not submit to ," he choked caught and bound by Ashur, but showed mercy to him and let him free again. "The whole vast country Nairi I subjected, its kings I trampled on ." The unusual mildness to Sieni suggests however, that this does not completely correspond to the facts.

Adad - nirari II reported at a founding board from Nineveh (BM 12104 ) of his victories against Urartri. After that he was moved with the help of his men Ashur from the other bank of the lower Zab after Lulume, Habhi, Zamua, and until the beginning of the country Namri and had the wide Qumani subjected to by Mehri, Salua and Urarti. The details are so non-specific that Urarti perhaps rather representing here a metaphor for " far away countries ".

Ashur - nasir - apli II invited to the inauguration of Kalhu as described on the banquet stele, the emissaries of Sidon, Tyre, Muṣaṣir, Kumme, Gurgum, Gilzanu and Melidu one. The kings of Nairi missing on the list, probably they were too insignificant or barbaric to be invited.

Shalmaneser III. also knows Tumme, Daiani and Tunube.

Tukulti-Ninurta I. Adad-nirari II.
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