Sîn-kāšid

Sîn-kāšid
King of Uruk
Clay cone which reads “Sîn-kāšid, mighty king, king of Uruk, king of Amnānum, his palace, of kingship he built,” from the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
Reign	ca. 1803–1770 BC
Predecessor	? Ikūn-pî-Ištar
Successor	Sîn-irībam
House	6th Dynasty of Uruk

Sîn-kāšid, inscribed ^dEN.ZU-kà-ši-id, was the king of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Uruk during the first half of the 18th century BC. His precise dating is uncertain, perhaps ca. 1803–1770 BC (short chronology) corresponding to ca.1865–1833 BC (middle chronology), but likely to have been fairly long due to the voluminous building inscriptions extant for which he is best known and contemporary with Nur-Adad of Larsa (1801–1785 BC) and Enlil-bāni of Isin (ca. 1798–1775 BC). His apparent lack of relationship with any of the preceding rulers of Uruk and his omission of mentioning his father in any of his inscriptions has led to the belief that he was the founder of a dynasty. He participated in a diplomatic marriage with Šallurtum, the daughter of Sūmû-la-Il (ca. 1817–1781 BC), the second king of the First Babylonian Dynasty, as her name and epithets appear in the seal impressions of three clay bullae recovered from the remains of his palace.

Sîn-kāšid seems to have begun his career as a viceroy of Dūrum, a small town near Uruk, a city initially under the hegemony of the kings of Isin. It was the beneficiary of his building works as cones commemorate his construction of a temple, the Eniḫušil, “house that bears a fearsome splendour,” to one of the tutelary deities, Lugal-Irra, and the Emeslam for the other one, Meslamtae’a. His letter to the god Meslamtae’a became a belles-lettre of later ages, used in scribal education.

He successfully wrestled the city-state of Uruk away from the dominion of Larsa, thereby founding a 50-year dynasty. He shared genealogical links with Babylon, as he belonged to the same royal lineage of the Amnānum tribe, an oft repeated claim in his inscriptions with his title of "king of the Amnānum," and married a daughter of the second king of Babylon to cement those links further.