Yarim-Lim I

Yarim-Lim I
Great King of Yamhad
Tenure	c. 1780 BC – c. 1764 BC. Middle chronology
Predecessor	Sumu-Epuh
Successor	Hammurabi I
Great King of Yamhad
Wife	Gashera
Issue	Hammurabi I Shibtu
Father	Sumu-Epuh
Mother	Sumunna-Abi

Yarim-Lim I, also given as Yarimlim, (reigned c. 1780 BC – c. 1764 BC) was the second king of the ancient Amorite kingdom of Yamhad in modern-day Aleppo, Syria.

Yarim-Lim was the son and successor of the first king Sumu-Epuh and his queen Sumunna-Abi. The kingdom of Yamhad was being threatened by the Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad I who had surrounded Yamhad through his alliance with Charchemish and Urshu to the north, Qatna to the south, and conquering Mari to the east, appointing his son Yasmah-Adad on its throne. Yarim-Lim ascended the throne after his father was killed in 1780 during his campaigns against Shamshi-Adad. He was able to stand up to Shamshi-Adad by surrounding him with deft alliances with Hammurabi of Babylon and Ibal-pi-el II of Eshnunna. His alliance with Hammurabi was credited with saving Babylon from an Assyrian attack by attacking their rear.

In 1777 Yarim-Lim conquered the city of Tuttul, on the confluence of the rivers Balikh and Euphrates. He appointed his ally, Zimri-Lim, the heir to the throne of Mari who was living in exile at his court, as king. When Shamshi-Adad died in 1776, he helped Zimrilim regain his throne in Mari and oust Yasmah-Adad. The alliance between Mari and Yamhad was cemented with the royal marriage between Zimrilim and Yarim-Lim's daughter Shibtu, two days after the marriage ceremony queen Sumunna-Abi died.

Ibal-pi-el II of Eshnuna exploited the death of Shamshi-Adad to pursuit an expansionist policy, advancing on the account of Assyria and causing stress to the alliance. He later allied himself with Elam, the enemy of Hammurabi who was Yarim-Lim's ally.

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