# Ashur-nadin-apli
Ashur-nadin-apli (aš-šur-SUM-DUMU.UŠ, "Aššur is the giver of an heir") was a king of Assyria who reigned three or four years, dated 1206–1203 BC or 1196–1193 BC depending on the chronology adopted, and who seized the throne during his father [Tukulti-Ninurta I](https://www.edgepedia.org/tukulti-ninurta-i)'s lifetime.[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) His reign fell in a period of dynastic turmoil in his branch of the Middle Assyrian royal line.[2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/ninurta-apal-ekur) • [3](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/564-566-the-assyrian-king-list/)
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| **Name** | Aššur-nādin-apli, "Aššur is the giver of an heir"[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) |
| **Rank** | King of Assyria, son of Tukulti-Ninurta I[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) |
| **Reign** | Three years (Nassouhi King List) or four years (Khorsabad King List and SDAS)[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) |
| **Absolute date** | 1206–1203 BC, or 1196–1193 BC on the short chronology[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) |
| **Accession** | Seized the throne during his father's lifetime[3](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/564-566-the-assyrian-king-list/) |
| **Successor** | Aššur-nērāri III, his son or nephew[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) |
| **Main sources** | Assyrian King List copies, Synchronic King List, Chronicle P, two Assur inscriptions[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) |
## Accession and the murder of Tukulti-Ninurta I
The Babylonian Chronicle P recalls that "Aššur-nāṣir-apli, his son (mar-šu) and the officers of Assyria rebelled, removed him from his throne, shut him up in a room and killed him."[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) The murder took place in Kār-Tukultī-Ninurta, the new capital that Tukulti-Ninurta I had founded about three kilometers north of Aššur on the east bank of the Tigris; the Reallexikon der Assyriologie judges that the construction of this capital had probably enraged the old-established elites of Aššur.[4](https://www.gkr.uni-leipzig.de/fileadmin/Fakult%C3%A4t_GKR/Altorientalisches_Institut/Dokumente/Institut/Mitarbeiter/Streck_Dokumente/RlA/RlA_Tukulti-Ninurta.pdf) • [5](https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/tukulti-ninurta-i) A revolt had already spread to [Babylonia](https://www.edgepedia.org/babylonia), where Elam put an end to the reign of the Assyrian vassal Adad-šuma-iddina in the 22nd regnal year of Tukultī-Ninurta I; the Babylonian counter-offensive preceded the palace revolt in which Ashur-nadin-apli took the throne.[6](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/aofo-2023-0003/html)
Whether he acted personally or as figurehead remains open. The RlA entry identifies Aššur-nādin-apli as the son and probable murderer of Tukulti-Ninurta I and his successor on the throne,[4](https://www.gkr.uni-leipzig.de/fileadmin/Fakult%C3%A4t_GKR/Altorientalisches_Institut/Dokumente/Institut/Mitarbeiter/Streck_Dokumente/RlA/RlA_Tukulti-Ninurta.pdf) and popular scholarship describes him as generally understood as his assassin or at least a primary conspirator who took the throne and restored order.[7](https://www.worldhistory.org/Tukulti-Ninurta_I/) But the chronicle names the son "and the officers of Assyria" jointly as the rebels,[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) so the coup can be read as the work of a faction centered on the alienated elites rather than of one prince alone.
## Sources for the reign
The [Assyrian King List](https://www.edgepedia.org/assyrian-king-list) records that "Aššūr-nādin or nāṣir-apli, his son, seized the throne (for himself and) ruled for three or four years."[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) The copies diverge: the Nassouhi and Khorsabad King Lists give the name Aššur-nādin-apli, the Synchronic King List-style SDAS gives Aššur-nāṣir-apli, and the reign lengths differ, three years in the Nassouhi copy and four in the Khorsabad copy and the SDAS.[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) An ANET-based translation prints entry [79] as: "During the lifetime of Tukulti-ninurta, Aššur-nadin-apli, his son, seized the throne and ruled for 4 years (1196–1193)."[3](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/564-566-the-assyrian-king-list/) The Synchronic King List places him opposite the Kassite king Kaštiliašu, synchronising his reign with Babylonia.[8](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/272-synchronic-king-list/)
Bricks from Aššur read "(Property of) the palace of Aššur-nādin-apli …" (brick Ass. 22346, KAH 2 62).[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) A stone tablet commemorates the rerouting of the Tigris north of the city and the erection of a shrine, and extends the royal epithets to "faithful shepherd, to whom by the command of the gods Aššur, Enlil and Šamaš the just sceptre was given."[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) The sole positively identified eponym (līmu, the official after whom Assyrian years were dated) of his rule is Erīb-Sîn, which dates the stone tablet.[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) A tablet dated to the eponymy of Erīb-Sîn was found at [Tell Taban](https://www.edgepedia.org/tell-taban) (Tâbatu, near modern [Al-Hasakah](https://www.edgepedia.org/al-hasakah)) during salvage excavation directed by Hirotoshi Numoto before dam construction in northeastern Syria; the local ruler Adad-bēl-gabbe's rule there spanned four Assyrian monarchs.[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) A letter addressed to Tukulti-Ninurta I also names as addressee-context his son and successor Aššur-nādin-apli, or alternatively his son [Enlil-kudurri-usur](https://www.edgepedia.org/enlil-kudurri-usur) who succeeded later.[9](https://www.cairn-int.info/load_pdf.php?ID_ARTICLE=E_ASSY_105_0199&download=1)
## Date and chronology
The two absolute datings, 1206–1203 BC and 1196–1193 BC, arise from a ten-year uncertainty over the length of reign of the later king [Ninurta-apal-Ekur](https://www.edgepedia.org/ninurta-apal-ekur), whose conflicting king lists differ by ten years.[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) The Nassouhi King List gives Ninurta-apal-Ekur 13 years while the other king lists give him three; recent scholarship has tended to support the longer reign, but its absolute placement cannot be stated in the same sequence as the dates given above for Ashur-nadin-apli and Aššur-nērāri III.[2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/ninurta-apal-ekur) For comparison, the RlA dates Tukulti-Ninurta I to ca. 1243–1207 (or ca. 1233–1197 on the Lower Chronology, and 1240–1205 after Gasche et al. 1998).[4](https://www.gkr.uni-leipzig.de/fileadmin/Fakult%C3%A4t_GKR/Altorientalisches_Institut/Dokumente/Institut/Mitarbeiter/Streck_Dokumente/RlA/RlA_Tukulti-Ninurta.pdf)
The uncertainty also reflects the state of the eponym record. Middle Assyrian years are dated after the serving līmu official, but only the eponym list KAV 21+ is known for the period, and it only starts with the last decade of Tiglath-pileser I; the chronology of earlier eponyms has to be reconstructed, a process that is far from complete.[10](https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/tcma/Eponyms/index.html) Notably, the three king-list copies agree down to Aššur-dan I (1178–1133) and diverge only before 1178, exactly the span covering Ashur-nadin-apli.[3](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/564-566-the-assyrian-king-list/)
## Reign and political context
The stone tablet's extension of the royal epithets breaks with Assyrian tradition, suggesting a bid for divine support for a tenuous throne.[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) The dynastic turmoil continued after him. Ninurta-apal-Ekur came to the throne only after Enlil-kudurri-usur, another son of Tukulti-Ninurta I, was vanquished by the Kassite Adad-šuma-uṣur and handed over by his own officers; the king list says of Ninurta-apal-Ekur that he "came up from Karduniaš, seized the throne," the same seizure formula used of Ashur-nadin-apli.[2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/ninurta-apal-ekur) Several 12th-century kings are treated as noncanonical, known from epic and letter texts such as BM 34104+ and the Ninurta-tukulti-Aššur letter, showing how loosely the order of kings between Tukulti-Ninurta I and Tiglath-pileser I is fixed.[11](https://www.academia.edu/106425451/The_Tukulti_A%C5%A1%C5%A1ur_Question_and_Other_Noncanonical_12th_Century_Mesopotamian_Kings) After the murder of Tukulti-Ninurta I, nearly a century passed before the Middle Assyrian kingdom had another strong king, Tiglath-pileser I (circa 1114–circa 1076 BC).[5](https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/tukulti-ninurta-i)
## Comparison with predecessors and successors
His three-or-four-year reign contrasts with the 37 years the king list gives his father Tukulti-Ninurta I (1233–1197 in the ANET translation) and the six years it gives his successor Aššur-nirari III, called the son of Aššur-nadin-apli (1192–1187).[3](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/564-566-the-assyrian-king-list/) Aššur-nērāri III was his son or his nephew depending on whether Aššur-nāṣir-apli was a separate prince.[1](https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli) The "seized the throne" formula he shares with Ninurta-apal-Ekur marks both as irregular accessions in the eyes of the list's compilers.[2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/ninurta-apal-ekur)
## References
1. Ashur-nadin-apli (CAVACopedia), https://cavac.at/cavacopedia/Ashur-nadin-apli
2. Ninurta-apal-Ekur (Ancient Mesopotamia: Every OGL Source), https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/ninurta-apal-ekur
3. The Assyrian King List (ANET translation, Livius.org), https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/564-566-the-assyrian-king-list/
4. Reallexikon der Assyriologie, 'Tukulti-Ninurta I' (M. P. Streck), https://www.gkr.uni-leipzig.de/fileadmin/Fakult%C3%A4t_GKR/Altorientalisches_Institut/Dokumente/Institut/Mitarbeiter/Streck_Dokumente/RlA/RlA_Tukulti-Ninurta.pdf
5. Tukulti-Ninurta I (Encyclopedia.com), https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/tukulti-ninurta-i
6. The Eponyms of the Babylonian War of Tukultī-Ninurta I (Altorientalische Forschungen, 2023), https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/aofo-2023-0003/html
7. Tukulti-Ninurta I (World History Encyclopedia), https://www.worldhistory.org/Tukulti-Ninurta_I/
8. Synchronic King List (ANET translation, Livius.org), https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/272-synchronic-king-list/
9. Assyria ca. 1200–934 BC (Cairn), https://www.cairn-int.info/load_pdf.php?ID_ARTICLE=E_ASSY_105_0199&download=1
10. Dating of tablets: Kings, calendar and eponyms (TCMA, ORACC), https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/tcma/Eponyms/index.html
11. The Tukulti-Aššur Question and Other Noncanonical 12th Century Mesopotamian Kings, https://www.academia.edu/106425451/The_Tukulti_A%C5%A1%C5%A1ur_Question_and_Other_Noncanonical_12th_Century_Mesopotamian_Kings
12. The Origins of the Assyrian King List (Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History), https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/janeh-2017-0009/html
13. Three New Kings of Assyria (Journal of Cuneiform Studies 78), https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/741239
14. Assyrian Chronology and Ideology of Kingship (Religions, 2024), https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/15/7/804
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Periods and civilizations › Ancient Near East, Egypt, Nubia, and the Punic world › Ancient Mesopotamia › Kassite Babylonia and Middle Assyria › Kassite Babylonia and Middle Assyria: rulers and royal family › Middle Assyrian kings*
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