The triumph of the Hittite arms in these, and doubtless other minor expeditions, had now established the authority of the Hittite king throughout the region of northern Syria, and had extended his frontier until it bordered on that of the Amorites, hitherto professed allies of the Pharaoh. These early settlers have recently been recognised as of Aramaic (Semitic) stock; in records of Babylonia as old as the time of Hammurabi, from which this inference is made, they are described as living in the western deserts, and now appear to have pushed gradually northward, until they had occupied, like Bedouin, all the habitable fringe of the tongue of desert lying between Mesopotamia and the Lebanon. Their patriarch, Ebed-Asherah, now found himself in the same dilemma as Aitakama and other northern chieftains had before him, but the rapid advance of the Hittite power left him little time for hesitation.[769] He and his sons were the recognised leaders of the Amorite tribes in peace and policy and war. They had watched with anxiety the approach of the Hittite leader on Tunip from Nukhasse,[770] and the failure of the Pharaoh to send them support could not but have added to their concern. Quick by instinct to read the signs of the times, they covertly came to an understanding with the chief of Kadesh, a city already under the Hittite suzerainty, if not actually within the domain of Aitakama. At the same time Aziru, the most active of the sons of Ebed-Asherah, making pretence of still serving his old master, cast his eye upon the city of Sumur as his nearest prize. The change of attitude and subtle dealings of the Amorites did not escape the notice of the Pharaoh’s emissary, who reported Sumur to be in great danger though not yet fallen, and Ebed-Asherah’s sons as minions of the new northern power.[771] The Egyptian sovereign was grieved but inactive. In a letter addressed to the Amorite chief[772] he charged them with their duplicity, and ordered the appearance of Aziru as a hostage at his court. The latter, however, evaded the command. He would seem to have already brought about the downfall of Sumur and other cities, and felt some natural hesitation in accepting his sovereign’s invitation. He found also a pretext for postponing the rebuilding of Sumur as commanded,[773] and still protested his fidelity. In response, however, to a more peremptory summons, in spite of shifts and subterfuges, Aziru appeared ultimately at Thebes[774] for the judgment of his case. But the Amorites had influence at court, as appears from a letter of their patriarch to one of the officials asking for his son’s release.[775] Amon ‘passed sentence’ on Aziru and ‘granted him his life.’[776] The mercy extended to Aziru, however, was unavailing; and further allegiance to the Pharaoh could only have proved fatal to the best interests of his people. The Hittite cause was clearly triumphing, indeed the Egyptian made no apparent effort to resist his oncoming; in