Battle of Mount Kaschiari
| date | 1114 BC Chr. |
|---|---|
| place | Mount Kaschiari in Tur Abdin |
| output | Assyrian victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
5 kings of muski |
|
| Troop strength | |
| unknown | 5 kings, 20,000 soldiers |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
unknown |
The battle on Mount Kaschiari / Kašiari was fought between the troops of the Assyrian king Tukulti-apil-ešarra I (1114-1076) and the Muški who had fallen into Kumme .
prehistory
The Muški had settled in Alzi and Purulumzi (older reading Purukuzzi), the fertile hill country between the source of the western arm of the Tigris and the river bend near Amedi . This area soon aroused the covetousness of the resurgent Assyrian Empire. Tiglat-Pilesar I took to the field against the Muški in his first year of reign.
Course of the battle
The decisive battle against the intruder took place on Mount Kašiari, the southwestern foothills of the Zagros and is only known from Assyrian sources known to be partisan. After this Tiglat-Pilesar I fought against a coalition of five kings and twenty thousand soldiers. He boasts of having crushed their bodies like the weather god , having shed their blood on the peaks of the mountains, that it flowed in torrents through the gorges. The heads of the slain, which the Assyrians used to collect for statistics and the reward of the soldiers, as can be seen, for example, on the Neo-Assyrian reliefs from the time of Sennacherib of Nineveh , "were as numerous as grains of grain. The Assyrians plundered them now defenseless cities and collected rich, "countless" booty. 6,000 muski soldiers who had surrendered were integrated into the Assyrian army.
Post-battle development
The surviving leaders and troops of the Muški fled through the impassable mountains, blocked the narrow pass roads behind them, crossed the Tigris and holed up in the Šereše fortress. The Assyrians made their way over the mountains with bronze axes, pursued the fugitives and besieged Šereše. The identification of Šereše is unclear, it could be either referred to in the inscription Menuash Šurišidaš, Sachau puts it with that of Strabo mentioned (Geographica 01/16/24) Sareisa same.
The allied Qurhi under their king Kili-Teššup / Irrupi, son of Kali-Teššup tried to terrorize them, but Šereše fell before their arrival. The Assyrians now turned full force against the Qurhi and set it on name , a northern tributary of the Tigris. The Qurhi had little to oppose the concentrated Assyrian power, they were put to flight, their king Kili-Teššup fell into the hands of Tiglat-Pileser, together with his family and his entourage. The Assyrians captured 180 bronze vessels for fragrances, five copper vessels and the Qurhi statues of gods, which were made of silver and gold.
Effects
The victory in the battle on Mount Kašiari had decisively weakened the Muški. In a second campaign in the same year Tiglat-Pilesar moved to the eastern Tur Abdin (land Išdiš or Uišdiš, not to be confused with the Uišdiš in Urartu ). His armed forces consisted of only 30 chariots, probably because the terrain was unsuitable for the use of this dreaded weapon. In fact, he had to leave his chariots behind on Mount Aruma, he went on with the foot troops, "brave as a shepherd" in view of the impassable terrain and subjugated Išdiš. No loot is reported, either because there were no rich settlements in the mountainous country or because the Assyrian victory was less decisive than Tiglat-Pilesar was willing to admit, since the mountain dwellers were able to retreat to the summit regions with their flocks "like birds" and there, wait quietly for the invaders to leave.
The following year, Alzi and Purulumzi were incorporated into the Assyrian Empire.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ RD Barnett: Assyrian Sculptures in the British Museum, Recklinghausen 1975, 68
literature
- AT Olmstead: Tiglath-Pileser I. and his wars. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society. 37, 1917, 169-185.