Message of the king to Sin-tabni-uṣur: It is well with me. May thy
heart be cheered. Concerning Sin-shar-uṣur, what thou didst send.
How could he say evil words of thee and I hear anything of them?
Shamash perverted his heart and Ummanigash slandered thee before
me and would give thee to death. Ashur, my god, withholds me. I
would not willingly slay my servant, and the support of my
father’s house. In that case, thou wouldst perish with thy lord’s
house. I would not see that. He and Ummanigash have compassed thy
death, but because I know thy faithfulness I have increased my
favor and bestowed honor upon thee. Is it not so? For these two
years thou hast not caused hostility or want to thy lord’s house.
What could they say against a servant who has loved his lord’s
house and I believe it? And with respect to the service which thou
and the Assyrians, thy brothers, have done, what thou sendest, all
that thou hast done and the guard thou hast kept, ... which is
pleasing before me [I will reward] and return thee favors to thy
children’s children.
(M813) It is clear that Sin-shar-uṣur and Ummanigash had been intriguing
against Sin-tabni-uṣur. There are several persons of the name
Sin-shar-uṣur about this time. No less than three Eponyms bear the name
after B.C. 648. The _aba mâti_, or governor of Hindana, or the _arḳû_
might be meant here. But there was a brother of Sin-tabni-uṣur, of this
name, who perhaps coveted his post. Among the many unpublished texts which
refer to him one may, perhaps, be found to explain the hostility. Nor is
it clear which Ummanigash is meant. There was one of the three sons of
Urtaku, who took refuge at the court of Ashurbânipal, when their father
was murdered and dethroned by his brother, Teumman. When the Assyrian king
espoused his cause, he was enabled by Assyrian troops to defeat and slay
the usurper Teumman and take the throne of Elam. But he was faithless and
allied himself with Shamash-shum-ukîn. He was dethroned by his cousin,
Tammaritu, shortly before the fall of Shamash-shum-ukîn. That he, while at
the Assyrian Court, should have slandered the governor of Ur, is quite in
accordance with his character, but what was his purpose, or what he
alleged, we do not know. There was another Ummanigash, brother of Urtaku;
another, son of Umbadara; another, a son of Amedirra. The latter raised a
rebellion against Ummanaldash, as we learn from a report by Bêl-ibnî.(899)
After his usual salutations, Bêl-ibnî reports,
(M814)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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