:Mursili I
{{short description|Hittite king}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Mursili I
| title = King of the Hittites
| spouse= KaliGojko Barjamović, A Historical Geography of Anatolia in the Old Assyrian Colony Period.Yoram Cohen, Amir Gilan and Jared L. Miller, Pax Hethitica: Studies on the Hittites and Their Neighbours in Honour of Itamar Singer.
| relatives = Ḫarapšili (sister)
|parents=Ḫaštayara
|successor =Hantili I
}}
Mursili I (also known as Mursilis; sometimes transcribed as Murshili) was a king of the Hittites {{c.}} 1620-1590 BC, as per the middle chronology, the most accepted chronology in our timesManning, Sturt W., et al. (2016). [https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0157144 "Integrated Tree-Ring-Radiocarbon High-Resolution Timeframe to Resolve Earlier Second Millennium BCE Mesopotamian Chronology"], in PLOS ONE, Published: July 13, 2016. (or alternatively c. 1556–1526 BC, short chronology), and was likely a grandson of his predecessor, Hattusili I. His sister was Ḫarapšili and his wife was queen Kali.Shoshana R. Bin-Nun, The Tawananna in the Hittite kingdom. [https://books.google.com/books?id=X3hiAAAAMAAJ&q=Harapsili Online version].Margalit Finkelberg, Greeks And Pre-Greeks: Aegean Prehistory And Greek Heroic Tradition.
Accession
Mursili came to the throne as a minor. Having reached adulthood, he renewed Hattusili I's warfare in northern Syria.{{cite book|author=Trevor Bryce|title=The Kingdom of the Hittites|page=101|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O2VnjMAwNqUC|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-928132-9}}
Campaigns
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict = Campaigns of Mursili I
| date = {{circa}} 1600 BC – {{circa}} 1595 BC
| place = modern-day Syria & modern-day Iraq
| result = {{ublist|Hittite victory}}
| combatant1 = Hittite Empire
| combatant2 = Yamhad
Babylonia
Smaller Syrian city-states
| commander1 = Mursili I
| commander2 = Ilim-Ilimma I
Samsu-Ditana
| casualties1 = unknown
| casualties2 = unknown
}}
= Conquest of Yamhad (Aleppo) =
He conquered the kingdom of Yamhad and its capital, Aleppo, which had eluded Hattusili. He then led an unprecedented march of 2,000 km south into the heart of Mesopotamia, where in 1595 BC he sacked the city of Babylon. Mursili's motivation for attacking Babylon remains unclear, though William Broad has proposed that the reason was obtaining grain because the clouds from the Thera eruption decreased the Hittites' harvests.Broad, William J. "It Swallowed a Civilization. " New York Times, D1. 21 October 2003.
= Sack of Babylon =
The raid on Babylon could not have been intended to exercise sovereignty over the region; it was simply too far from Anatolia and the Hittites' center of power. It is thought, however, that the raid on Babylon brought an end to the Amorite dynasty of Hammurabi and allowed the Kassites to take power, and so might have arisen from an alliance with the Kassites or an attempt to curry favor with them.Bryce, The Kingdom of the Hittites, 99. It might also be that Mursili undertook the long-distance attack for personal motives, namely as a way to outdo the military exploits of his predecessor, Hattusili I.Bryce, "The Kingdom of the Hittites," 99–100.
Assassination
When Mursili returned to his kingdom, he was assassinated in a conspiracy led by his brother-in-law, Hantili I (who took the throne), and Hantili's son-in-law, Zidanta I.[https://books.google.com/books?id=_Vnqc4Ks4o4C&dq=Mursili+I+assassinated&pg=PT49 The Hittites and their World] His death inaugurated a period of social unrest and decay of central rule, followed by the loss of the conquests made in Syria.
In popular culture
Mursili I is a playable leader (as the Latinized form "Mursilis") of the Hittite state in the 2001 video game Civilization III.
See also
{{Portal|Asia}}
References
{{Reflist}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20131212014413/http://www.hittites.info/history.aspx?text=history%2FEarly+Empire.htm#Mursili1 Reign of Mursili I]
- Trevor Bryce, The Kingdom of the Hittites, Oxford: University Press (1998)
{{S-start}}
{{S-bef | before=Hattusili I}}
{{S-ttl | title=Hittite king | years=ca. 1620–1590 BC}}
{{S-aft | after=Hantili I}}
{{s-end}}
{{Hittite kings}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:16th-century BC murdered monarchs