Athar Alrafedain

Abstract

There are many Akkadian texts from the ancient Babylonian period mentioning a country called “Yassan”, located in northern Mesopotamia. It is not well known in recent studies, and where it’s located, what is its geographical framework, who governed it, and what is the nature of its relationship with the contemporary political entities neighboring it? This is the problem that the research aimed to clarify; Depending on the available textual evidence.
It became clear that Yassan is the name of a country on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, north of the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, which played an important role in the conflicts and alliances that arose in the region of Syrian Jazīra and Mount Sinjar, during the reign of Zimri-Lim king of Mari, and after the collapse of the Kingdom of Mari, and the division of the region into many small political entities.
The research traces the history of the country during the 18th century B.C., during the reign of two kings in Razama (North), which was its capital, and they are known in the texts of Mari, Šubat-Enlil and Qaṭṭara, and it shows the nature of its relations with the neighboring political forces, as well as distant ones such as the Kingdom of Yamḫad / Ḫalab "Aleppo" which her king (Ḫammurabi) had begun to gain loyalists, and extend his influence in those areas, and trying to precede the expansion of the influence of Ḫammurabi king of Babylon there.