Mutakkil-Nusku
{{Infobox monarch|
| name = Mutakkil-Nusku
| title = King of Assyria
| predecessor = Ninurta-tukulti-Ashur
| successor = Ashur-resh-ishi I
| father = Ashur-Dan I
| succession = King of the Middle Assyrian Empire
| issue = Ashur-resh-ishi I
}}
Mutakkil-Nusku, inscribed mmu-ta/tak-kil-dPA.KU (meaning "he whom Nusku endows with confidence") was king of Assyria briefly {{Circa}} 1132 BC, during a period of political decline. He reigned sufficiently long to be the recipient of a letter or letters from the Babylonian king, presumed to be Ninurta-nādin-šumi, in which he was lambasted and derided.
Reign
= Usurpation =
He appears on the Khorsabad KinglistKhorsabad Kinglist, iii 35–36. which relates that “Mutakkil-Nusku, his (Ninurta-tukultī-Aššur’s) brother, fought against him. He drove him to Karduniaš (Babylonia).” Contemporary evidence suggests that Ninurta-tukultī-Aššur sought sanctuary in the border town of Sišil, where Mutakkil-Nusku’s forces engaged him in battle, the outcome of which is lost.{{ cite journal | title = Die babylonisch-assyrischen Beziehungen und die innere Lage Assyriens in der Zeit der Auseinandersetzung zwischen Ninurta-tukulti-Aššur und Mutakkil-Nusku nach neuen keilschriftlichen Quellen | author = Jaume Llop, A. R. George | journal= Archiv für Orientforschung | volume = 48–49 | year = 2001 | pages = 1–20 }}
He was a younger son of the long-reigning king, Aššur-dān I (c. 1179 to 1134 BC) and succeeded his brother Ninurta-tukultī-Aššur, whom he ousted in a coup and subsequently went on to fight in a civil war that seems to have pitched the Assyrian heartland against its provinces.
The fragments of one or perhaps two Middle Assyrian letters exist,Tablet fragments BM 55498 and 55499, K 212+4448 (+) Sm 2116+BM 104727. from an unnamed Babylonian king, possibly Ninurta-nādin-šumi, to Mutakkil-Nusku, where he is told that "You should act according to your heart (ki libbika).” The text lambastes him for failing to keep an appointment, or a challenge, in Zaqqa and seems to confirm that Ninurta-tukultī-Aššur had reached exile in Babylonia.{{ cite book | title = Assyrian Royal Inscriptions, Volume 1 | author = A. K. Grayson | publisher = Otto Harrassowitz | year = 1972 | pages = 144–146, 149–152 }}
= Death =
His victory was short-lived as ṭuppišu Mutakkil-Nusku kussâ ukta'il KUR-a e-mid, “(he) held the throne for ṭuppišu (his tablet), then died,” perhaps his inaugural year and part way into his first year only.{{ cite journal | title = The meaning of ṭuppi | author = Heather D. Baker | publisher = Revue d'Assyriologie | volume = 104 | issue = 1 | year = 2010 | pages = 131–162 }} One interpretation suggests this was while his father still nominally ruled.{{ cite book | title = Reallexikon Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie: Meek – Mythologie | chapter = Mutakkil-Nusku | author = J. A. Brinkman | editor = D. O. Edzard | publisher = Walter De Gruyter | year = 1999 | page = 500 }} Apart from a brief economic text concerning 100 sheep of Mutakkil-Nusku, without a royal title, and his appearance in the genealogies of his descendants such as one of his sons, Aššur-rēša-iši I, there are no other extant inscriptions.
Inscriptions
References
{{Reflist}}
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{{Succession box
| title = King of Assyria
| before = Ninurta-tukulti-Ashur
| after = Ashur-resh-ishi I
| years = 1132 BC
}}
{{S-end}}
{{Assyrian kings}}