Ashurbanipal
From ABC-CLIO's World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras website
http://ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/
Known as the last of the great kings of ancient Assyria, Ashurbanipal was renowned
for his patronage of the great library of Nineveh. Appreciative of preserving the writings
of his culture, as well as those of his neighbors, he sent subjects of his kingdom
throughout the region in search of authentic works and created the first catalogued
library in the Near East.
Known to the Greeks as Sardanapalus and in the Hebrew Bible as Asnappeer,
Ashurbanipal was born during the seventh century BCE to the Assyrian king
Esarhaddon. His father's kingdom was extensive; it reached from Egypt in the west to
the Persian Gulf in the east. In May 672 BCE, Esarhaddon appointed Ashurbanipal as
the crown prince of Assyria, and it was in that position that he learned the statecraft
that would serve him well throughout his reign.
Ashurbanipal boldly believed that he needed to be a literate and well-educated leader
in order to manage his domains. His passion for knowledge led him to learn to read
and write the Sumerian and Akkadian scripts; he also mastered the sacred knowledge
of the ancient Assyrian religion and much secular knowledge. He was well trained in
martial arts, hunting, horsemanship, and archery, and he was renowned for his
dynamic personality, too. Those qualities made Ashurbanipal a charismatic and
successful contender for assuming the throne on his father's death in December 669.
Already well informed about affairs of state, Ashurbanipal declared himself king, and
the rest of the court accepted his declaration.
Throughout his reign, Ashurbanipal focused on three major projects: subduing
rebellion in his territories; the expansion of religion in society; and being a patron of
scholars and artists. The first problem was especially serious on his ascension to the
throne. When Esarhaddon died, the Egyptian pharaoh Taharqa sparked a rebellion
against Assyrian rule there. Ashurbanipal's troops were able to suppress the uprising
quickly; that demonstrated to Assyria's conquered subjects that the new king would be
a stable and powerful force. He installed Necho I as supreme ruler, which was in
keeping with his promise to maintain native rule. Although Ashurbanipal would lose
Egypt to Psamtik I, trade relations were good, and he was able to maintain strength in
the region.
Ashurbanipal then went on to send troops to reassert Assyrian power over Tyre, Lydia,
and the rest of Syria, as well as Ur and Babylon. Esarhaddon had appointed
Ashurbanipal's half brother, Shamash-shum-ukin, to the position of crown prince of
Babylon. When he became king, Ashurbanipal allowed his half brother to maintain
that position, although he restricted Shamash-shum-ukin's powers over military
control. For over a decade, Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shum-ukin appeared to have
good relations. However, after disagreements over the way Babylon was to be ruled,
Shamash-shum-ukin launched a plot to overthrow Ashurbanipal. Shamash-shumukin made secret alliances with the local leaders of Egypt, Lydia, Phoenicia, Judah,
Nabataea, and Elam, as well as a variety of Chaldean tribes. His plan was to rebel
against Assyrian rule simultaneously—forcing Ashurbanipal to lose power. The
Assyrians were faced with subduing those rebellions, but Ashurbanipal was victorious.
In 648, Shamash-shum-ukin committed suicide.
Despite the overall victory of the Assyrians, small rebellions continued throughout the
empire until 639, when Ashurbanipal finally declared his empire to be stable. That
stability allowed him to focus on his other pursuits. Ashurbanipal was an ardent
patron of the arts and especially fond of sponsoring dramatic architecture and
sculpture. He was also deeply religious and saw to the restoration of the most
important shrines of his kingdom. For Ashurbanipal, it was important that the gods
were aware of the piety of his family, and he and his wife, Ashur-sharrat, were often
seen leading ceremonies and sacrifices publicly.
The greatest contribution of Ashurbanipal's reign, however, was undoubtedly his
extensive library at Nineveh, which is considered by modern practitioners of library
science to be the first systematically organized library in the Near East. At its height,
the library contained more than 30,000 cuneiform tablets, and when it was
rediscovered in 1849, at least 1,200 of the original 5,000 literary texts were recovered
near present-day Mosul, Iraq. Most of the holdings were moved to the British Museum
in London, but a significant portion remained in Iraq, where they were ultimately held
by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities in Baghdad. Sadly, it is believed that many of
those treasures were lost during the violent events of the Iraq War in 2003.
Ashurbanipal took personal control over the library, which became an incredible
reserve for ancient knowledge. He sent his scribes throughout his kingdom to collect
and copy the important Sumerian and Akkadian texts of the region, both holy texts
from the temples and secular works from scientists, lawmakers, and astrologers. Some
of those works include the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Code of Hammurabi, as well as
folktales, spells, poetry, recipes, and dictionaries. Ashurbanipal also maintained his
government records in the library, which essentially created an archive that has
provided scholars with priceless information about his reign.
The building of the library became a crucial factor in the organization of the collection.
Ashurbanipal had his librarians organize the holdings by designating special rooms for
specific topics. The innermost room of the library held the secret archive of his
government, and most of those documents remained classified. One of the most
striking aspects of the documents that remain from that library was that many, both
official and unofficial, as well as sacred and secular, bear signs that they were from
Ashurbanipal's personal collection. It is clear that he took a very personal interest in
that library and considered it to be one of his most important accomplishments.
Despite such attention to cataloging detail, Ashurbanipal's death date remains
unknown; most historians place it ca. 627 BCE. Scholars do know that before his
death, Ashurbanipal declared his sons Ashur-etel-ilani and Sin-shar-ishkun as the coregents of Assyria and Babylonia. Despite that vague information about his final years,
Ashurbanipal's legacy as the inspiration behind one of the ancient world's most
important houses of knowledge solidified his importance to world history.
MLA:
Stockdale, Nancy. "Ashurbanipal." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 6 Jan. 2014.