Ilī-ippašra

Ilī-ippašra, inscribed DINGIRmeš-ip-pa-aš-ra, and meaning "My god(s) became reconciled with me", was a Babylonian who may have been adopted or apprenticed during the reign of Kassite king Kurigalzu I, ending , and rose to become an official, possibly the governor of Dilmun, during the later reign of Burna-Buriaš II, c. 1359–1333 BC (short chronology). He may have been a successor for Usi-ana-nuri-?, the viceroy of Dilmun who was attested in the cylinder seal of his grandson, Uballissu-Marduk.

Biography

A tablet in poor condition, alleged to have been found at Larsa but provided with a Nippur-provenance designation, details the adoption contract for Ilī-ippašra. His foster parent was Sin-napširra, son of Biriritum, who obtained him from Nazi-Šiqmi, "his master", an obviously Kassite name. It was witnessed by a priest (Šamaš-nišu), a scribe (Izkur-Marduk) and two others (Kidinu and Išabtum) and was dated the 19th day of Šabatu, the year Kurigalzu built the Ekurigibara, the Enlil temple in Nippur (c. 1380s BC).

We next meet Ilī-ippašra some years later, when he is stationed in Dilmun, in his correspondence with Enlil-kidinni, who was the governor, or šandabakku, of Nippur, c. 1342–1336 BC, whom he addresses as Illiliya, a familiar hypocoristicon. The Kassite administrative center was at Qal'at al-Bahrain, confirmed in 1995 by the discovery of a large cache of cuneiform tablets. Three letters have been found in Iraq, but one of these |sign=Ilī-ippašra|source=Tablet Ni.615

A series of madbasa, or date presses were housed in the palace, evidence of the importance of this agricultural activity and the earliest appearance for this equipment which was later to become common on the island. The outcome of the dispute with the Aḫlamû was apparently violent as a massive fire gutted the complex and it was abandoned, never to be rebuilt. dated to the sixth reignal year of Burna-Buriaš (c. 1354 BC). Other fleeting references to a man of this name in undated tablets recovered from the same Nippur cache include an account record where he is listed as the father of Šenni, in other account documents, a roster, and a fragment of a letter.

Inscriptions