Sin-kashid

Sîn-kāšid (inscribed in : EN.ZU-kà-ši-id; died 1833 BC) was the Amorite king of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Uruk during the 18th century BC. No date lists are known nor any year names so his regnal length is uncertain, but it is likely to have been fairly long due to the voluminous building inscriptions extant for which he is best known. He was contemporary with Nur-Adad of Larsa and Enlil-bani of Isin. His apparent lack of relationship with any of the preceding rulers of Uruk and his omission of mentioning his father in any of his inscriptions has led to the belief that he was the founder of a dynasty. He participated in a diplomatic marriage with Šallurtum, the daughter of Sumu-la-El, the second king of the First Babylonian Dynasty, as her name and epithets appear in the seal impressions of three clay bullae recovered from the remains of his palace.

Biography

Sîn-kāšid seems to have begun his career as a viceroy of Dūrum, a small town near Uruk, a city initially under the hegemony of the kings of Isin. It was the beneficiary of his building works as cones commemorate his construction of a temple, the Eniḫušil, “house that bears a fearsome splendour,” to one of the tutelary deities, Lugal-Irra, and the Emeslam for the other one, Meslamtae’a. His letter to the god Meslamtae’a became a belles-lettre of later ages, used in scribal education.

He successfully wrestled the city-state of Uruk away from the dominion of Larsa, thereby founding a 50-year dynasty. He shared genealogical links with Babylon, as he belonged to the same royal lineage of the Amnānum tribe, an oft repeated claim in his inscriptions with his title of "king of the Amnānum," and married a daughter of the second king of Babylon to cement those links further.

He constructed an enormous palace, the Ekituššaḫula, “House – Abode of Rejoicing” and the numerous bricks, tablets and cones (examples pictured) which were imbedded in its walls have found their way into museum collections all over the world, giving him a prominence much greater than that which might have been suggested by political events of his time; a possible reconstruction of his palace can be seen here. A small cache of 25 school texts were found in a room in the ruins and include mathematical exercises and lexical lists. He rebuilt the temple, which was called Eanna, "House of Heaven," and provided a cella (Epapaḫ) for the gods An and Inanna in it, and thereafter styled himself ú-a-é-an-na, “provider of Eanna.” He engaged in many other religious construction projects including the building of an “oval” for a temple (E[ša]ḫula), of the goddess Nanaya, temples for Enki, Iškur, the Egal-maḫ for Ninisina, and a temple (Ekankal), for Lugalbanda and Ninsun. He installed a daughter, Nīši-īnīšu, as NIN-DINGER priestess of his personal god, Lugalbanda, and built a shining “gipar,” or residence, for the entu-priestess.

He was eventually succeeded by his son Sin-iribam, his grandsons Sîn-gāmil and Ilum-gāmil, and a certain Etēia of unknown provenance, before the dynasty was replaced by An-am, and his son ÌR-ne-ne (Irdanene), kings who had adopted Sumerian names in marked contrast to the Akkadian monikers of his dynasty.

His daughter was Ninšatapada, "Lady Chosen by [means of] the Heart [Omens]," the high-priestess of Meslamtae’a in the city of Dūrum, who apparently authored a letter-prayer to Rim-Sin I (c. 1822-1763 BC), extant in six later copies, in which she pleaded him to end her exile. She supposedly wrote it in old age, after she had been exiled from Dūrum for 4 or 5 years. Rim-Sin would take the city celebrated in his 20th year-name "Year in which Kisurra was seized and annexed to Larsa and (Rim-Sin), with the help of the strong weapon entrusted to him by Enlil, destroyed Durum (Der)". He was to capture Uruk the following year, driving out An-am’s son and successor, Irdanene.

In a foundation tablet, Sîn-kāšid names himself "... provider for Eanna, governor of Dürum, king of Amnã-num ...". It is known from other inscriptions that several other members of the dynasty took the title "King of the Amnanum (Tribe)" (lugal am-na-nu-um) and were members of the same Yaminite tribe of Amnanum as the rulers of Babylon.

An oath text of Ibel-pi-El, ruler of Eshnunna, provides synchronism for Sîn-Kāšid with several rulers: