Rib-Hadda

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Rib-Hadda

Rib-Hadda (also rendered Rib-Addi, Rib-Addu, Rib-Adda) was king of Byblos

Byblos

Byblos is the Greek language name of the Phoenician city Gebal . It is a Mediterranean city in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of present-day Lebanon under the current Arabic language name of Jbeil and was also referred to as Gibelet during the Crusades....
during the mid fourteenth century BCE. He is the author of some sixty of the Amarna letters

Amarna letters

The Amarna letters are an archive of correspondence on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic, between the Ancient Egypt administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom....
all to Akhenaten

Akhenaten

Akhenaten , was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, who died 1336 BC or 1334 BC. He is especially noted for attempting to compel the Egyptian population in the monotheism worship of Aten, although there are doubts as to how successful he was at this....
. His name is Akkadian

Akkadian language

Akkadian or Assyrian-Babylonian is a Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian language, an unrelated language isolate....
in form and may invoke the West Semitic god Hadad

Hadad

Haddad ??? ??? was a very important northwest Semitic language storm and rain God , cognate in name and origin with the Akkadian language god Adad....
, though his letters invoke only Ba'alat Gubla, the "Lady of Byblos" (probably another name for Asherah

Asherah

Asherah , in Semitic mythology, is a Semitic mother goddess, who appears in a number of ancient sources including Akkadian language writings by the name of Ashratum/Ashratu and in Hittites as Asherdu or Ashertu or Aserdu or Asertu....
).

Rib-Hadda's letters often took the form of complaints or pleas for action on the part of the reigning Pharaoh

Pharaoh

Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt, only during the New Kingdom, specifically, during the middle of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt....
.

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Rib-Hadda (also rendered Rib-Addi, Rib-Addu, Rib-Adda) was king of Byblos

Byblos

Amarna letters

Akhenaten

Akkadian language

Hadad

Asherah

Rib-Hadda's letters often took the form of complaints or pleas for action on the part of the reigning Pharaoh

Pharaoh

Beirut

Beirut is the Capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2.1 million as of 2007. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's coastline with the Mediterranean sea, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport and also forms the Beirut District area, which consists of the city and its suburbs....
, whose ruler had confiscated two Byblian merchant vessels. In EA 122, Rib-Hadda complained of an attack by the Egyptian

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
commissioner Pihuri

Pihuri

Pakhura was an Ancient Egypt commissioner in the "Land of Retenu" mentioned in the Amarna letters. He probably served under Pharaoh Amenhotep III and/or Akhenaten....
, who killed a number of Byblos' Shardana

Shardana

The Sherden sea pirates are one of several groups of "Sea Peoples" who appear in fragmentary historical records for the Mediterranean region in the second millennium B.C.; little is known about them....
mercenaries and took captive three of Rib-Hadda's men.

Rib-Hadda was involved in a long-standing dispute with Abdi-Ashirta

Abdi-Ashirta

Abdi-Ashirta was the ruler of Amurru, a new kingdom in southern Syria subject to nominal Egyptian control, that was in conflict with King Rib-Hadda of Byblos....
, the ruler of Amurru

Amurru

Amurru are names given in Akkadian language and Sumerian language texts to the god of the Amorite/Amurru people, often forming part of personal names....
(probably in southeastern Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic , is a country in Western Asia, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea....
and southwestern Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
), who hired mercenaries from among the Habiru

Habiru

Habiru or Apiru or pr.w was the name given by various Sumerian, History of Ancient Egypt, Akkadian, Hittites, Mitanni, and Ugaritic sources to a group of people living as nomadic invaders in areas of the Fertile Crescent from Northeastern Mesopotamia and Iran to the borders of Egypt in Canaan Depending on the source and epoch,...
, Shardana

Shardana

The Sherden sea pirates are one of several groups of "Sea Peoples" who appear in fragmentary historical records for the Mediterranean region in the second millennium B.C.; little is known about them....
, and other warlike tribes. EA 81 contains a plea for Egyptian

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
aid against Amurru, whose ruler Rib-Hadda accused of luring away his followers and inciting them to rebellion. He reported further that an assassin sent by Abdi-Ashirta had attempted to kill him. Rib-Hadda pleaded with Akhenaten

Akhenaten

Archers (Egyptian pítati)

The Archers , or P?tati, or P?tati–army–forces-, were the pharaoh's Archer-Army often requested and dispatched, to support the Ancient Egypt vassalage in Canaan, or northern Canaan....
to defend him from the forces of Amurru and from his own increasingly resentful peasantry. In one of the most poignant of the Amarna texts, Rib-Hadda wrote "the people of Ammiya have killed their lord and I am afraid." (EA 75). He added: "like a bird in a trap so I am here in Gubla (ie: Byblos)." (EA 74 & EA 81) Zemar

Zemar

Zemar was a Phoenician city in what is now Lebanon. Zemar was a major trade center.Zemar appears in the Amarna letters; Ahribta is named as its ruler....
, a city previously under his control, fell to Abdi-Ashirta (EA 84). Shortly thereafter the Egyptian commissioner Pahannate was withdrawn from northern Canaan

Canaan

Canaan is an ancient term for a region encompassing modern-day Israel and Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Jordan, Syria and northeastern Egypt....
, leaving Rib-Hadda without even the appearance of Egyptian support. His pleas for assistance evidently went unanswered (EA 107) and caused much annoyance to Akhenaten. Akhenaten's irritation with Rib-Hadda is recounted in EA 117 where the pharaoh is quoted saying to Rib-Hadda "Why do you alone keep writing to me?" (EA 117) While Abdi-Ashirta is reported to have been killed in EA 101, this only provided temporary relief to Rib-Hadda since the former was succeeded by his son Aziru

Aziru

Aziru was the Canaanite ruler of Amurru, modern Lebanon, in the 14th century BC. He was the son of Abdi-Ashirta, the previous Egyptian vassal of Amurru and a direct contemporary of Akhenaten....
; Rib-Hadda soon after complains about the depradations caused by "the sons of Abdi-Ashirta" in several Amarna letters to Akhenaten such as EA 103 and EA 109

In EA 89, Rib-Hadda reported a coup d'etat

Coup d'état

A coup d??tat , often simply called a coup, is the sudden unconstitutional overthrow of a government by a part of the state establishment – usually the military – to replace the branch of the stricken government, either with another civil government or with a military government....
in neighboring Tyre, in which the ruler of Tyre, his fellow kinsmen, was killed along with his family. Rib-Hadda's sister and her daughters, who had been sent to Tyre to keep them away from Abdi-Ashirta's Amurru invaders, were also presumed to be among those killed. If this was not bad enough, Rib-Hadda wrote again to report that the Hittites

Hittites

The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a Hittite language of the Anatolian languages of the Indo-European languages family, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia ca....
were invading Egyptian protectorates in Syria and burning "the King's lands". (EA 126). At one point Rib-Hadda was forced to flee to exile in Beirut

Beirut

Ammunira

Ammunira was the king of Beirut in the mid fourteenth century BCE. He is mentioned in several of the Amarna letters, and authored letters EA 141-43 ....
. (EA 137) In EA 75, Rib-Hadda details the changing political situation around Byblos:

[Ri]b Hadda says to his lord, king of all countries, Great King: May the Lady of Gubla grant power to my lord. I fall at the feet of my lord, my Sun
Ra

Ra is an ancient Egyptian Solar deity . By the Fifth dynasty of Egypt he became a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the noon, with other deities representing other positions of the sun....
, 7 times and 7 times. May the king, my lord, know that Gubla (ie: Byblos), the maidservant of the king from ancient times, is safe and sound. The war, however, of the Apiru against me is severe. (Our) sons and daughters and the furnishings of the houses are gone, since they have been sold [in] the land of Yarimuta for our provisions to keep us alive. "For the lack of a cultivator, my field is like a woman without a husband." I have written repeatedly to the palace because of the illness afflicting me, [but there is no one] who has looked at the words that keep arriving. May the king give heed [to] the words of [his] servant... ...The Apiru killed Ad[una the king] of Irqata-(Arqa
Arqa

Arqa is a village near Miniara in the Akkar district of northern Lebanon, 22 km northeast of Tripoli, Lebanon, near the coast. It is significant for the Tell Arqa, an archaeological site that goes back to Neolithic times, and during the Crusades there was a strategically significant castle....
), but there was no one who said anything to Abdi-Ashirta
Abdi-Ashirta

Abdi-Ashirta was the ruler of Amurru, a new kingdom in southern Syria subject to nominal Egyptian control, that was in conflict with King Rib-Hadda of Byblos....
, and so they go on taking (territory for themselves). Miya, the ruler of Arašni, seized Ar[d]ata, and just now the men of Ammiy have killed their lord. I am afraid. May the king be informed that the king of Hatti
Hatti

Hatti in Bronze Age Anatolia refers to*the area of Hattusa, roughly delimited by the Halys bend*the Hattians of the 3rd millennium BC and 2nd millennium BC millennia BC...
has seized all the countries that were vassals of the king of Mitan
Mitanni

Mitanni or Hanigalbat was a loosely organized Hurrian-speaking Hittite vassal state in northern Syria from ca. 1500 BC-1300 BC."The Assyrians called the lands of Mitanni Hanigalbat while to the Hittites it was the land of the Hurrians....
...Send arc[hers]
Archers (Egyptian pítati)

The Archers , or P?tati, or P?tati–army–forces-, were the pharaoh's Archer-Army often requested and dispatched, to support the Ancient Egypt vassalage in Canaan, or northern Canaan....

An aged and ailing Rib-Hadda continued to write to Pharaoh, telling him of violent upheavels in Phoenicia

Phoenicia

Phoenicia was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, extending to parts of Israel, Syria and the Palestinian territories....
and Syria, including revolutions instigated by Abdi-Ashirta's son Aziru

Aziru

Aziru was the Canaanite ruler of Amurru, modern Lebanon, in the 14th century BC. He was the son of Abdi-Ashirta, the previous Egyptian vassal of Amurru and a direct contemporary of Akhenaten....
coupled with incursions by Apiru raiders. (e.g., EA 137)

Rib-Hadda was ultimately exiled by his younger brother Ilirabih

Ili-Rapih

Ili-Rapih was the follow-on mayor in Byblos-, and the brother of Rib-Hadda, the former mayor of Gubla, ; Ili-Rapih is in the 1350-1335 BC Amarna letters Text corpus, and wrote 2 follow-on letters to the Pharaoh after the death of Rib-Haddi....
and not long afterwards, killed at the behest of Aziru. This event is mentioned in Amarna letter EA 162 from Akhenaten to Aziru.

Resources

Baikie, James. The Amarna Age: A Study of the Crisis of the Ancient World. University Press of the Pacific, 2004.
Cohen, Raymond and Raymond Westbrook (eds.). Amarna Diplomacy: The Beginnings of International Relations. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
Moran, William L. (ed. and trans.) The Amarna Letters. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.