Ilu-shuma

Ilu-šūma
Išši’ak Aššur
Reign	fl. c. 1900 BC
Predecessor	Shalim-ahum
Successor	Erishum I
Father	Shalim-ahum

Ilu-shuma or Ilu-šūma, inscribed DINGIR-šum-ma, son of Shalim-ahum was the thirty-second king of Assyria, c. 1900 BC (short chronology.) The length of his reign is uncertain, as the Assyrian King List records him as one of the "six kings whose names were written on bricks, but whose eponyms are not known", referring to the lists of officials after which years were named.

His son, Erishum I, is identified as the king who succeeded him and reigned for 30 years (or 40, depending on the copy of the Assyrian King List), followed by Ilu-shuma's other son, Ikunum. He titled himself "vice-regent of Assur, beloved of the god Ashur and the goddess Ishtar." The Synchronistic King List records, "eighty-two kings of Assyria from Erishum I, son of Ilu-shuma, to Ashurbanipal, son of Esarhaddon", in the concluding colophon.

The Chronicle of Early Kings records his contemporary as Su-abu, who was once identified with the founder of the First Dynasty of Babylon, Sumu-abum, c. 1830 BC. The word "battles" is discernible on the subsequent, fragmentary line of the Chronicle and this has led some historians to believe Ilu-shuma may have engaged in conflict with his southerly neighbor. A brick inscription of Ilu-shuma describes his relations with the south and reads:

"The freedom of the Akkadians and their children I established. I purified their copper. I established their freedom from the border of the marshes and Ur and Nippur, Awal, and Kismar, Der of the god Ishtaran, as far as Assur."

The historian M. Trolle Larsen has suggested that this represented an attempt to lure traders from the south of Assur with tax privileges and exemptions, to monopolize the exchange of copper from the gulf for tin from the east. The cities cited therefore are the three major caravan routes the commodities would have traveled rather than campaign routes for the king.

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