Marduk-nadin-ahhe

Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē
King of Babylon
Amrân ibn ‘Ali kudurru in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
Reign	ca. 1099–1082 BC
Predecessor	Enlil-nādin-apli
Successor	Marduk-šāpik-zēri
House	2nd Dynasty of Isin

Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē, inscribed ^mdAMAR.UTU-na-din-MU, ca. 1099–1082 BC, was the sixth king of the 2nd Dynasty of Isin and the 4th Dynasty of Babylon. He is best known for his restoration of the Eganunmaḫ in Ur and the famines and droughts that accompanied his reign.

He was related to all three of his immediate predecessors: his father was Ninurta-nādin-šumi, the third king, his brother was Nabu-kudurri-uṣur, the fourth king, and his nephew was Enlil-nādin-apli the fifth king, against whom he revolted and deposed. A reconstructed passage in the Walker Chronicle describes how while Enlil-nādin-apli was away campaigning in Assyria, supposedly marching to conquer the city of Assur itself, Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē and the nobles rebelled. On his return “to his land and his city. They [kill]ed him with the s[word].”

His relationship with his Assyrian counterpart, Tukultī-apil-Ešarra, was antagonistic and he launched a raid early in his reign into Assyria, capturing the cultic idols of Adad and Šala from Ekallāte, a town only around thirty miles from Assur. For his part, Tukultī-apil-Ešarra led several retaliatory raids into the heartland of Babylonia, recalled with typical bombastic rhetoric:

I marched to the land of Karduniaš. I conquered the cities Dūr-Kurigalzu, Sippar of Šamaš, Sippar of Anunitu, Babylon and Upi, the great shrine of Karduniaš, including their fortresses. I massacred them in great number. I plundered countless amounts of their booty. I conquered the palaces of Babylon belonging to Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē, the king of Karduniaš, and I burned them with fire. Twice I drew up a battle line of chariots against Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē, the king of Karduniaš, and I defeated him.

The Synchronistic History recalls the battles were in the first instance “by the Lower Zab, opposite Ahizûhina, and in the second year he defeated Marduk-nadin-ahhe at Gurmarritu, which is upstream from Akkad.” Although “Ugarsallu (immediately south of the Lesser Zab) he plundered as far as Lubda (located in the area of Arrapha). He ruled every part of Suhu (in the middle Euphrates Valley) as far as Rapiqu (southern border of Assyria),” these places are on the periphery of Babylonia and the idols were not recovered until centuries later: