Zakkur

Irhuleni and his son Uratami were Kings of Hamath prior to Zakkur. Irhuleni led a coalition against the Assyrian expansion under Shalmaneser III. Their coalition succeeded in 853 BC in the Battle of Qarqar. Later Irhuleni maintained good relations with Assyria.{{cite book | last = Bryce | first = Trevor | title = The world of the Neo-Hittite kingdoms : a political and military history | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gp8lMpoFAUsC&pg=PA135 | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford New York | year = 2012 | page = 135 | isbn = 978-0199218721 }}

Not so much is known about the background of Zakkur. He is first mentioned in Assyrian sources probably in 785 BC, in the last years of Adad-nirari III.Luis Robert Siddall, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rb0dAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA37 The Reign of Adad-nīrārī III: An Historical and Ideological Analysis of An Assyrian King and His Times.] BRILL, 2013 {{ISBN|9004256148}} p.37 Adad-nirari ordered his commander Shamshi-ilu to mediate the border dispute between Zakkur and Atarshumki I of Arpad.Edward Lipiński, [https://books.google.com/books?id=837DDbYsxAoC&pg=PA218 On the Skirts of Canaan in the Iron Age: Historical and Topographical Researches.] Volume 153 of Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta, Peeters Publishers, 2006 {{ISBN|9042917989}}

File:Aramaic kingdoms and chiefdoms around 10-9th century BC.svg

Zakkur appears to have been a native of 'Ana' (which may refer to the city of Hana/Terqa) on the Euphrates River, that was within the influence of Assyria.Alan R. Millard, The Homeland of Zakkur, Semitica 39 [M. Sznycer Volume] (1990): 47-52.

Zakkur is believed to have founded the Aramean dynasty at the city of Hamath (now known as Hama).Scott B. Noegel, [https://faculty.washington.edu/snoegel/PDFs/articles/Noegel%2047%20-%20ANEHST%202006b.pdf The Zakkur Inscription.] In: Mark W. Chavalas, ed. The Ancient Near East: Historical Sources in Translation. London: Blackwell (2006), 307-311 Some scholars consider him as an usurper, because, previously, Hamath was ruled by the kings with Luwian or neo-Hittite names.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6TwiY96cunQC&pg=PA400|title= Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions: Volume 1, Inscriptions of the Iron Age: Part 1|author= John David Hawkins|date= 10 May 2012|publisher= Walter de Gruyter|isbn= 9783110804201|at= pp. 400-401}}

Luhuti, over which Zakkur came to rule, is known primarily from Assyrian inscriptions. Nevertheless, these inscriptions describe Luhuti as a country with many cities and troops.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gp8lMpoFAUsC&pg=PT132|title= The World of The Neo-Hittite Kingdoms: A Political and Military History|author= Trevor Bryce|date= 15 March 2012|page= 132|publisher= OUP Oxford|isbn= 978-0-19-150502-7}}

The capital of Luhuti was the city of Hazrik (modern Tell Afis; it was known as Hatarikka for the Assyrians),{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AwwNS0diXP4C&pg=PA296|title= The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia|author= Trevor Bryce|date= 10 September 2009|page= 296|publisher= Routledge|isbn= 9781134159079}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=slR7SFScEnwC&pg=PA335|title= The Cambridge Ancient History: Early History of the Middle East. Part 2, Volume 1|author1=I. E. S. Edwards |author2=Cyril John Gadd |author2-link=Cyril John Gadd |author3=Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammondpage |year= 1970|page= 282|publisher= Cambridge University Press|isbn= 9780521077910}} located 45 kilometers south of Aleppo.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_SlOGUmT-5sC&pg=PA282|title= Holman Concise Bible Dictionary|year= 2011|page= 282|publisher= B&H Publishing|isbn= 9780805495485}} This is where the Zakkur Stele was found.

Luhuti was incorporated into Hamath around 796 BC; it formed the northern province of the kingdom.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E1aF0hq1GR8C&pg=PA282|title= The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia|author= Trevor Bryce|date= 10 September 2009|page= 282|publisher= Routledge|isbn= 9781134159086}}

Zakkur was besieged in Tell Afis by a coalition of Aramean kings incited by Ben-Hadad III of Aram-Damascus,{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vXljf8JqmkoC&pg=PA403|title= The Cambridge Ancient History: The prehistory of the Balkans; and the Middle East and the Aegean world, tenth to eighth centuries B.C.. Volume 3. Part 1|author=John Boardman|year= 1924|page= 403|publisher= Cambridge University Press|isbn= 9780521224963}} and led by the king of Bit Agusi.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k0dbRu1TOgUC&pg=PA166|title= The World of The Neo-Hittite Kingdoms: A Political and Military History|author=Trevor Bryce|date= 15 March 2012|page= 166|publisher= OUP Oxford|isbn= 978-0-19-921872-1}} Zakkur survived the siege and commemorated the event by commissioning the Stele of Zakkur.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uDijjc_D5P0C&pg=PA303|title= A History of Ancient Israel and Judah|author=James Maxwell Miller|date= January 1986|page= 303|isbn= 9780664212629}}

• List of Aramean kings
• Aram (biblical region)

{{Reflist}}

• Scott B. Noegel, [https://faculty.washington.edu/snoegel/PDFs/articles/Noegel%2047%20-%20ANEHST%202006b.pdf The Zakkur Inscription.] In: Mark W. Chavalas, ed. The Ancient Near East: Historical Sources in Translation. London: Blackwell (2006), 307–311.
• M. Henri Pognon, [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k67051s.notice Inscriptions semitiques de la Syrie, de la Mesopotamie at de la region de Mossoul], Paris, 1907 (and 1908). The volume contains 116 inscriptions most of them in Syriac.
• James J. Montgomery, A New Aramaic Inscription of Biblical Interest in The Biblical World, Vol. XXXIII, Febr. 1909, p. 79-84.
• Pritchard, The Ancient Near East, ANET 501-502

• [http://www.aramaic-dem.org/English/History/The_Aramaic_Inscription_of_Zakar_King_of_Hamath.htm The Aramaic Inscription of Zakar, King of Hamath] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141213013712/http://www.aramaic-dem.org/English/History/The_Aramaic_Inscription_of_Zakar_King_of_Hamath.htm |date=2014-12-13 }} www.aramaic-dem.org
• [https://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsMiddEast/SyriaHamath.htm The kings of ancient Hamath] historyfiles.co.uk

Category:Syro-Hittite kings

Category:8th-century BC Aramean kings