Shagarakti-Shuriash

Šagarakti-Šuriaš
King of Babylon
The Nabonidus Cylinder which names Šagarakti-Šuriaš as builder of the Eulmaš temple.
Reign	1245–1233 BC
Predecessor	Kudur-Enlil
Successor	Kaštiliašu IV
House	Kassite

Šagarakti-Šuriaš, written phonetically ša-ga-ra-ak-ti-šur-ia-aš or ^dša-garak-ti-šu-ri-ia-aš in cuneiform or in a variety of other forms, Šuriaš (a Kassite sun god corresponding to Babylonian Šamaš, and possibly to Vedic Surya) gives me life, (1245–1233 BC short chronology) was the twenty seventh king of the Third or Kassite dynasty of Babylon. The earliest extant economic text is dated to the 5th day of Nisan in his accession year, corresponding to his predecessor’s year 9, suggesting the succession occurred very early in the year as this month was the first in the Babylonian calendar. He ruled for thirteen years and was succeeded by his son, Kaštiliašu IV.

The Babylonian King List A names Kudur-Enlil as his father but there are no confirmatory contemporary inscriptions and the reigns are too short around this period to allow for the genealogy alleged by this king list. He featured in a letter written in later times between the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I and the Hittite king, possibly Suppiluliuma II. Unfortunately the text is not well preserved, but the phrase “non-son of Kudur-Enlil” is apparently used to describe him, in a passage discussing the genealogy of the Kassite monarchy.

More than three hundred economic texts have been found in several caches from Ur, Dur-Kurigalzu and overwhelmingly Nippur dated to Šagarakti-Šuriaš’ reign. In addition, there are 127 tablets recently published probably recovered from Dūr-Enlilē. They are characterized by the extraordinary variety of spellings used to name this king, who bears a defiantly Kassite title in contrast with his predecessor. Brinkman identifies eighty four permutations, but disputes the suggestion by others that Ātanaḫ-Šamaš was a Babylonianized equivalent adopted to overcome the linguistic problems of the natives. The texts record events such as the hire of slaves, payments in butter to temple servants and even an agreement to assume a debt for which a priest had been imprisoned. Amīl-Marduk was the Šandabakku or governor of Nippur during his reign, a position he had filled since the earlier reign of Kudur-Enlil.