Yamhad
Jamchad was a state of the Middle East, which according to the Middle Chronology from the late 19th century BC is moderately comprehensible source and at least until the second half of the 17th century BC existed.
Geography, economy, and cult
Its capital was Halab, Aleppo today. Jamchads immediate dominion and his sphere of influence, which are not clearly distinguishable from each other, were mainly in the northern regions of present-day Syria, and in the southeastern parts of the present-day Turkey. Thus, they included except the northern part of the Syrian steppe and large parts of northern fertile crescent, which was certainly one reason for Jamchads prosperity and supremacy over one and a half centuries. Added to this was his position as a link between Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean. About Halab ran the trade routes along which goods such as copper from Cyprus or luxury goods were brought from the Aegean to Mesopotamia. In Jamchad produced grain was exported to the east and west, special Jamchad textiles were in demand abroad.
In addition to the Amorites, which included the Jamchad kings lived here a large number of Hurrians. In the 17th century, the state became God Jamchads, the weather god Hadad, identified with the Hurrian Teššub. The Adoration of the aleppinischen local form of the weather-god ranged from Nuzi up to Ugarit and Asia Minor. He was also the Hurrian sun goddess Hepat set aside, and in the cult of Halab influenced Kizzuwatna the sky goddess Šawuška repressed here, which dominated unchallenged in other Hurrian areas.
Rise and Bloom
It might have been his position as a central place of worship is widely revered Weather God and for his role as a commercial and trading center, helped the Halab after the destruction of the ancient trading city of Ebla by Naram -Sin of Akkad to a greater importance within its region. This meaning is first visible in the sources, as some Syrian principalities which King Jaḫdun -Lim of Mari had made tributary to his campaign of conquest towards the Mediterranean, opposed in the late 19th century under the leadership of Sumu - epuh of Jamchad the supremacy Maris.
Sumu - epuhs successor Jarim -Lim I had to fend off a coalition that Samsi -Adad I of Assyria had forged with Ishi -Adad of Qatna. The time when he succeeded in 1775 along with Zimri- Lim to expel the resident in Mari Assyrian viceroy after the death of Samsi -Adad, is certainly to be regarded as the date appears as established names power in the Syrian region from the Jamchad. Often, in this context, a letter from the officials Iturasdu is quoted to Zimri- Lim, identifies the Jamchad as of the date of about 1770 as the strongest of the then powerful Near Eastern countries Mari, Babylon, Larsa, and Eshnunna Qatna. Jarim -Lim made in the wake not only Mari but also the King of the arms beyond the Tigris help. He and his successors were also allied with I. Hammurabi Hammurabi of Babylon. Under either of these two Jamchad - kings of the State extended his rule to the territory of the Balich from. Abban, the son and successor of Hammurapi Jamchad, but had to put down a rebellion in this region, which ended with the complete destruction of its center, the city Irrite after 1750.
For the reconstruction of the history Jamchads from the mid-18th century to about 1650, we are mainly due to the not very rich springs from Alalakh rely on the northern Orontes, where a side line of the dynasty of Aleppo ruled under whose sovereignty. After all, it is clear from these sources that the dominance Jamchads was never seriously challenged in this period, even if the rise of Hurrian principalities in the East may have delivered one way or another confrontation with him.
The Hethitereinfälle and the subsequent period
The Hittite king Hattusili I undertook in the second half of the 17th century a campaign in the west. He submitted, inter alia, areas of the sphere of interest Jamchads and destroyed the Jamchad under standing Alalakh. As Hattusili three years later a new initiative to west undertook, it was again Jamchad, which stood at the head of a North Syrian coalition that delivered with the Hittite forces at Hasuwa ( Håsum ) a battle. The Syrians lost this battle. In addition to images of the gods of other Syrian cities, which are carried by the Syrians in the battle Hadad and Hepat statues from Halab were captured along with their cult objects of the Hittites. In the Hadad Hatti - cult now been introduced to the power of the deity to assure himself that Jamchad for a long time to - even from the Hittite perspective - had made powerful state. Finally, the Hittites stood Jamchad the title " great kingdom " to. In the edict, in which Hattusili codifying the throne of his adopted son Mursili I., the latter was applied to what former had not yet been made: the subjugation Halabs. This task fulfilled Mursili because even. Around this time appeared the name Jamchad last appeared on the sources.
However, it is far from certain that the existence of the State hereby came to an end, and for various reasons it is quite doubtful whether the city " destroyed " was how Mursili II over 200 years after this event writes in a treaty. The Hittite sources suggest that the city, if at all, only a few decades from the Hittite Empire was dependent. With the destruction Alalachs and the Hittite retreat from the region after the decline of the Empire Althethitischen the source encoder are broken away, had informed about Jamchads history of previous decades. The archives of the kings of Jamchad are as yet undetected somewhere in the bottom of today's Aleppo. The inscription on the now to be seen in the British Museum statue of Idrimi teaches us that Halab at the end of the 16th century next to the south-west to countries Niya and Ama'u also - like 150 years ago - the country Mukisch with its city Alalakh dominated. But also teaches that Mittani latest under his king Parattarna (ca. 1470-1450 ) Halab incorporated it into its sphere of influence.
Around the 11th century BC, is in the inscription ALEPPO 6 a king Taitas occupied, the ruler of the land called " Padasatini " or " Palistin ". Worship was the weather god.