by
Damien F. Mackey
When an early King of Assyria subdued the land
of Musru [Egypt]
The names Aziru and Assuruballit, whilst being phonetically much alike (Aziru
– Assuru), do not have the same meaning at all. Aziru, as explained in Part Two: https://www.academia.edu/19601864/Is_El_Amarna_s_Aziru_Biblically_Identifiable_Part_Two_Aziru_of_Papyrus_Harris is compatible
with Hazael: “The name Asa-el (‘El has made’) does occur in 2 Chronicles 17:8
…. The name Asa combined with the theophoric element El is attested at this
time …. Asa, like the king of Damascus Hazael (Aramaean Haza-ilu) …”.
The name Assuruballit (Ashuruballit), on the other hand, pertains to the
Assyrian god, Ashur.
About the incursion of King Assuruballit into
Egypt, I wrote in my university thesis:
A Revised History of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah
and its Background
(Volume One, p. 226):
Syria
(Assyria) Comes to Egypt ….
According to
the relevant Egyptian documents, at least as I shall be interpreting them, the revolution
against the Amarna régime came from outside Egypt (“from without”). It was led
by Ay and Horemheb. The northern ‘Syrians’ had come
to Egypt in full force. There are several historical documents that I think may
recall this momentous event, wherein Ay (Hazael)
is referred to by various of his many names:
(i) One is the
‘Great Papyrus Harris’ which tells of an ‘Aziru’ (var. Irsu, Arsa), thought to
have been a Syrian, or perhaps a Hurrian. …. I have already followed Velikovsky
in identifying Hazael with EA’s Aziru; though
Velikovsky, owing to the quirks of his revision, could not himself make the
somewhat obvious (to my mind) connection between EA’s Aziru
and Aziru of the Great
Papyrus Harris. ….
(ii) Another
is the reference by Adad-nirari of Assyria to his ancestor Ashuruballit’s
[Assuruballit’s] having subdued Egypt. I have already argued, too, that Ashuruballit
was the ‘Assyrian’ face of our composite king, Hazael/Aziru.
These two
cases (i) & (ii) are, according to my revision, references to the same
‘Syrian’ (Assyrian) subduer of Egypt, Ay/Hazael,
who held power there as Chancellor and king maker, and finally, for a brief
period, as pharaoh.
Continuing now on p. 228, I wrote:
LeFlem,
borrowing a phrase from Gardiner, has asked this question with reference to Aziru:
…. “Who was this so-called ‘Syrian condottiere’?”
LeFlem’s question by now I think emphatically answers itself: he was EA’s Aziru!
This was the foreign takeover of Egypt, an action of the Sinai
commission, to depose the irresponsible Akhnaton and his régime and to
re-establish ma'at (order, status
quo). Though Aziru’s involvement was
not necessarily so highly regarded by later Ramessides. Velikovsky has
discussed the change of situation and its aftermath as follows, again with
reference to ‘the Oedipus cycle’: ….
Whereas
Akhnaton when on the throne assumed the appellation ‘Who liveth in truth’, Ay,
upon becoming king, applied to himself the cognomen, ‘Who is doing right’. Such
titles were rather unusual among the kings of Egypt. Yet one can understand
Ay’s selecting this motto. Like Creon of the Oedipus cycle, Ay professed to be
doing his duty to the crown and the nation by deposing Akhnaton, installing
Akhnaton’s sons, and then siding with the younger son in the brothers’ conflict.
In Assyrian
history, this appears to have been the situation of which Adad-nirari I (c. 1305-1274
BC, conventional dates) had cause to boast, namely that his great-grandfather, Ashuruballit,
had subdued Egypt. Harrak gives the relevant text as follows:
Adad-narari
[Adad-nirari] I had summarized in an inscription the achievements of his royal
predecessors. He said the following about Ashur-uballit:
(31)
mušekniš mât Musri museppih ellât (32) mât Šubârê rapalti murappiš misrî u kudurrî
Subduer of the
land Musru, disperser of the hordes of the extensive land of the Shubaru,
extender of borders and boundaries.
My revision
necessitates of course that Ashuruballit’s great-grandson, Adad-nirari I, be the
same as Adad-nirari III, great-grandson of Ashuruballit - due to the latter’s
marrying his daughter, Muballitat-Šerua, to Burnaburiash’s
(i.e. Shalmaneser III’s) son, Karaindaš; Shalmaneser
III being the grandfather of this same Adad-nirari [III].
