Aššur-nārāri I, inscribed m aš-šur-ERIM.GABA, "Aššur is my help," was an Old king who ruled for 26 years during the mid-second millennium BC, 1547 to 1522 BC. He was the 60th king to be listed on the Assyrian Kinglist and expanded the titles adopted by Assyrian rulers to include muddiš, "restorer of," and bāni, "builder of," to the traditional epithets ensi, "governor," and iššiak, "vice-regent," of Aššur.
Succession and contemporaries
He was the son of
Ishme-Dagan II, and succeeded his brother
Shamshi-Adad III to the throne, ruling for twenty six years, an identification that all three
Assyrian Kinglists (
Khorsabad,
[ Khorsabad Kinglist, tablet IM 60017 (excavation nos.: DS 828, DS 32-54) ii 36.] SDAS[ SDAS Kinglist, tablet IM 60484, ii 28.] and
Nassouhi[ Nassouhi Kinglist, Istanbul A. 116 (Assur 8836), ii 32.]) agree on.
The
Synchronistic Kinglist[ Synchronistic Kinglist, Ass 14616c, KAV 216, i 21.] gives his Babylonian contemporary as Kaštil..., possibly identified as
Kashtiliash III, the son and (eventual) successor of
Burnaburiash I, the
Kassites kings of
Babylon during the period when the dynasty was beginning to exert control over southern
Mesopotamia.
Reign and Construction projects
Evidence of his construction activities survives, with four short inscriptions commemorating work building the temple of Bel-ibrīia on bricks recovered from an old
ravine, restoring the Abaru forecourt and rebuilding the Sîn-
Shamash (Moon-god/Sun-god) temple,
called the é.ḫúl.ḫúl.dir.dir.ra, “House of Surpassing Joys,” which would be later restored by Tukulti-Ninurta I and
Ashurnasirpal II.
He ruled in a peaceful and uneventful period of Assyrian history following the overthrow of the
Babylonians and
Amorites by
Puzur-Sin c. 1732 BC and the rise of the
Mitanni in the 1450s BC. He was succeeded by his son
Puzur-Ashur III.
Inscriptions
