Ašmu-nikal

Ašmu-nikal or Ašmu-Nikkal was a Queen consort of the Hittite empire.

Biography Ašmu-Nikkal was born as a princess, the daughter of the Hittite great king Tudḫaliya II (also called Tudḫaliya I/II) and Queen Nikkal-mati. She married a man called Arnuwanda, who became Tudḫaliya II's heir, co-ruler, and eventual successor. The nature of the relationship between Ašmu-Nikkal and her husband Arnuwanda was long controversial, since both are described as children of Tudḫaliya II on their respective seals, ostensibly implying that they were siblings or at least half-siblings. This, however, was clearly forbidden by Hittite custom and law, and it is now generally agreed that while Ašmu-Nikkal was indeed the daughter of Tudḫaliya II, Arnuwanda was only his son-in-law and possibly adoptive son, as the daughter's antiyant husband, an acceptable heir in the absence of a son.

Ašmu-Nikkal and Arnuwanda I appear to have had several sons: Ašmi-Šarruma, Mannini, Pariyawatra, Kantuzzili, Tulpi-Teššub, and the future king Tudḫaliya III. Through her son Tudḫaliya III, she was the grandmother of Tudhaliya the Younger and of Ḫenti, the wife of Šuppiluliuma I.

Ašmu-Nikkal, great queen of Hatti, seems to have actively participated in the government of her husband Arnuwanda I, and is cited with him in administrative documents and oaths. Together with Arnuwanda, she offered up prayers to the gods to alleviate the Kaška invasion of the northern portions of the Hittite kingdom. Some instructions and decrees, for example those regarding the rights and entitlements of the "mausoleum guardians," were issued in the queen's name alone. It is possible that Ašmu-Nikkal survived her husband.

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