Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

Ashurbanipal 091

~655 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·Q003790

Written in modern English

The earliest surviving lines are partially reconstructed: Ashurbanipal tells how he crushed the people of Tyre and forced them to submit. Their king Baʾalu then brought his own daughter and his brothers' daughters before Ashurbanipal to serve as housekeepers, and sent his son — a man who had never before crossed the sea — to pay personal homage. Ashurbanipal accepted the women along with a large marriage gift, showed Baʾalu mercy, and returned the son to him. The text then turns to Yakīn-Lû, king of Arwad, but the column breaks off before the sentence is finished.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — scholar edition

RINAP 5
High confidence
(i 1') [I constricted (and)] cut sho[rt their lives. I made] them (the people of Tyre) [b]ow down [to my yoke]. (i 3') He (Baʾalu) brought before me [(his) daughter], his [own offspring], and the daughters of his brothers [to serve as housekeepers. (i 5´) He sent at the same time his son, who] had n[ever] crossed the sea, to do obeisance to me. [I received from him his daughter and the daughters of his brothers, tog]ether with a large marriage gift. [I had mercy on him and (then)] I gave (his) son, his offspring, back to him. (i 9') [(As for) Yakīn-Lû, the king of the city Arw]ad, who resides…

Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 5 — scholar edition (ORACC).

Transliteration

[nap-šat-su-nu ú-si-iq ú]-kar-⸢ri⸣ / [a-na GIŠ.ŠUDUN-ia ú-šak]-⸢ni⸣-is-su-nu-ti / [DUMU.MUNUS ṣi-it lìb-bi]-⸢šú⸣ ù DUMU.MUNUS.MEŠ ŠEŠ.MEŠ-šú / [a-na e-peš MUNUS].⸢AGRIG⸣-ti ú-bi-la ⸢a⸣-di maḫ-ri-⸢ia⸣ / [DUMU-šú ša ma-ti]-⸢ma⸣ ti-amtu la e-bi-ra / [iš-te-niš ú-še-bi-la] ⸢a⸣-na e-peš ARAD-ti-ia / [DUMU.MUNUS-su ù DUMU.MUNUS.MEŠ ŠEŠ.MEŠ-šú] ⸢it⸣-ti ter-ḫa-ti ma-aʾ-a-si / [am-ḫur-šú re-e-mu…

Scholarly note

Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q003790.

Attribution

Image: Created by Jamie Novotny and Joshua Jeffers, 2015-22. Lemmatized by Joshua Jeffers, 2018-22, for the NEH-funded RINAP Project at the University of Pennsylvania. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/rinap/Q003790/..
Translation excerpted from Novotny, J. & Jeffers, J. 2018–. The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal (668–631 BC), Aššur-etel-ilāni (630–627 BC) and Sîn-šarra-iškun (626–612 BC), Kings of Assyria. RINAP 5. University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap5/Q003790/.

Related tablets

Related sources