# Sin-shumu-lishir
**Sin-shumu-lishir** (Sîn-šumu-līšir, also written Sîn-šumu-lēšir or Sin-shum-lishir) was an Assyrian general and chief eunuch who claimed kingship over Assyria and [Babylonia](https://www.edgepedia.org/babylonia) in 626 BC, in the collapse that followed the reign of [Ashurbanipal](https://www.edgepedia.org/ashurbanipal) (666-25 BC), the last great monarch of Assyria.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/assurbanipal-king-of-assyria-666-25-bc/) • [2](http://persiababylonia.org/archives/glossary/sin-sumu-lesir/) The Uruk King List credits him with a reign of one year in 626 BC,[3](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/uruk-king-list/) and he is first attested in Assyrian sources as a general of Ashur-etil-ilani.[4](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/sin-shumu-lishir) His rule was brief and its extent disputed: one reference work calls him king over Assyria and Babylonia,[2](http://persiababylonia.org/archives/glossary/sin-sumu-lesir/) while another concludes that he never controlled the whole Assyrian empire and most likely ruled only part of Babylonia.[4](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/sin-shumu-lishir)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Offices before kingship | General of Ashur-etil-ilani and his chief eunuch[2](http://persiababylonia.org/archives/glossary/sin-sumu-lesir/) • [4](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/sin-shumu-lishir) |
| Claimed kingship | 626 BC (eBL lists a tentative 627?)[4](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/sin-shumu-lishir) • [5](https://www.ebl.lmu.de/tools/list-of-kings) |
| Regnal length | One year per the Uruk King List; only his first year is attested[3](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/uruk-king-list/) • [4](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/sin-shumu-lishir) |
| Attested cities of his year | Babylon (Bab-ili), Nippur, and Ru'a[4](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/sin-shumu-lishir) |
| Position in king lists | Uruk King List: after Kandalanu (647-627), alongside Sin-šar-iškûn; eBL Assyrian list: entry 114a[3](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/uruk-king-list/) • [5](https://www.ebl.lmu.de/tools/list-of-kings) |
| Royal status | RINAP 5/3 (2023) suggests he was not a member of the royal family; Frahm notes royal descent cannot be entirely excluded[6](https://www.academia.edu/125196987/Assyrian_royal_eunuchs) |
## Career as general and chief eunuch
Before his bid for the throne, Sîn-šumu-lēšir served as chief eunuch of Aššur-etel-ilāni, and Assyrian sources first attest him as a general of that king.[2](http://persiababylonia.org/archives/glossary/sin-sumu-lesir/) • [4](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/sin-shumu-lishir) The office of chief eunuch put him at the center of the court; eunuchs significantly influenced Neo-Assyrian political processes during the ninth and eighth centuries.[6](https://www.academia.edu/125196987/Assyrian_royal_eunuchs)
Whether he had any royal blood is a point of disagreement. RINAP 5/3 (2023, p. 32) suggests that the eunuch who reigned briefly in 627-626 BC "was not a member of the royal family".[6](https://www.academia.edu/125196987/Assyrian_royal_eunuchs) E. Frahm, in *A Companion to Assyria* (2017), holds that his accession "effectively ending more than a thousand years of uninterrupted rule by members of the Adasi dynasty", yet a footnote adds "that it cannot be entirely excluded that he too was a member of the royal family".[6](https://www.academia.edu/125196987/Assyrian_royal_eunuchs) No DNA evidence bears on the question.[6](https://www.academia.edu/125196987/Assyrian_royal_eunuchs)
## The succession crisis after Ashurbanipal
Ashurbanipal, son of [Esarhaddon](https://www.edgepedia.org/esarhaddon), reigned 666-25 BC and was the last great monarch of Assyria.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/assurbanipal-king-of-assyria-666-25-bc/) His son and successor Ashur-etil-ilani is thinly attested: two inscriptions and a few Nippur tablets dated in his second and fourth years, in which he still bore the title king of Sumer and Accad.[7](https://cristoraul.org/english/readinghall/THIRDMILLENNIUMLIBRARY/ASSYRIA/THE-HISTORY-OF-ASSYRIA/11-THE-FALL-OF-ASSYRIA.html) After him, [Sin-shar-ishkun](https://www.edgepedia.org/sin-shar-ishkun) was acknowledged as king over a portion of Babylonia for at least seven years, on the evidence of business documents dated at Sippar and Uruk, though the city of Babylon was not included in this district.[7](https://cristoraul.org/english/readinghall/THIRDMILLENNIUMLIBRARY/ASSYRIA/THE-HISTORY-OF-ASSYRIA/11-THE-FALL-OF-ASSYRIA.html) It was into this contested succession that the chief eunuch stepped.[2](http://persiababylonia.org/archives/glossary/sin-sumu-lesir/)
## Reign and claim to kingship, 626 BC
Sîn-šumu-lēšir took the throne in his own name after his predecessor's death, and one archival glossary titles him king over Assyria and Babylonia (626).[2](http://persiababylonia.org/archives/glossary/sin-sumu-lesir/) The reach of that kingship is contested. A note on the [Uruk King List](https://www.edgepedia.org/uruk-king-list) says that he and Sin-šar-iškûn acted as some sort of Assyrian governors in Babylonia,[3](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/uruk-king-list/) and the specialist reference concludes that he never controlled the whole empire and most likely ruled only part of Babylonia.[4](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/sin-shumu-lishir) Only after the death of Kandalānu can he be considered "king of Babylonia".[2](http://persiababylonia.org/archives/glossary/sin-sumu-lesir/)
His rule was short. The Uruk King List gives him a single year,[3](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/uruk-king-list/) and because only his first year is evidenced, his reign likely did not last much longer than that.[4](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/sin-shumu-lishir) The same year saw a new dynasty begin in Babylon: the Babylonian Chronicle ABC 2 records that after a year without a king in the land, [Nabopolassar](https://www.edgepedia.org/nabopolassar) ascended the throne in Babylon on the twenty-sixth day of the month Arahsamna, 23 November 626 BC, giving an accession year of 626/625.[8](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/abc-2-early-years-of-nabopolassar) The chronicle dates his first activities to the month Addaru of that accession year, between 24 February and 23 March.[8](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/abc-2-early-years-of-nabopolassar)
## Primary sources and chronology
Four kinds of evidence attest him.
- King lists: the Uruk King List (King List 5) assigns him the entry "Sin-šumlišir, 1 year, 626", immediately after Kandalanu's 21 years (647-627) and alongside Sin-šar-iškûn.[3](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/uruk-king-list/) The eBL edition of the Assyrian king list records a separate entry numbered 114a, "Sin-šumu-lišir, 627?", placed between Aššur-etel-ilani (ending 627) and the subsequent reign.[5](https://www.ebl.lmu.de/tools/list-of-kings)
- Dated economic texts: his first regnal year appears in tablets from the Babylonian cities of Babylon, Nippur, and Ru'a.[4](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/sin-shumu-lishir)
- [Chronicles](https://www.edgepedia.org/chronicles): ABC 2 brackets his period, recording the year without a king before Nabopolassar's accession on 23 November 626 BC.[8](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/abc-2-early-years-of-nabopolassar)
- Possibly epic poetry: he may be mentioned in the Nabopolassar Epic.[2](http://persiababylonia.org/archives/glossary/sin-sumu-lesir/)
The dating is debated. The Uruk King List places his one year in 626,[3](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/uruk-king-list/) and Na'aman (ZA 81, 1991, p. 247) argues the reign must fall in 626, because before that year [Kandalanu](https://www.edgepedia.org/kandalanu) reigned over his attested cities and after it Nabopolassar and Sinsharishkun did.[4](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/sin-shumu-lishir) The eBL king list nevertheless gives the tentative date 627?,[5](https://www.ebl.lmu.de/tools/list-of-kings) and RINAP 5/3 (2023) speaks of a brief reign in 627-626 BC.[6](https://www.academia.edu/125196987/Assyrian_royal_eunuchs) The question matters because his single attested year overlaps the very year in which Nabopolassar's reign begins in the Uruk King List (626-605): the year 626 was shared between the Assyrian claimant and the founder of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty.[3](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/uruk-king-list/)
## A eunuch general at the end of a dynasty
The numbers measure how sudden his rise was. More than a thousand years of uninterrupted rule by the Adasi dynasty ended when he ascended the throne,[6](https://www.academia.edu/125196987/Assyrian_royal_eunuchs) and his one attested year contrasts with the 21-year reigns the Uruk King List records on either side of him in Babylonia: Kandalanu (647-627) before, Nabopolassar (626-605) after.[3](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/uruk-king-list/) A chief eunuch, an office whose holders in earlier centuries had influenced Assyrian politics without claiming the crown,[6](https://www.academia.edu/125196987/Assyrian_royal_eunuchs) now took the throne in his own name.[2](http://persiababylonia.org/archives/glossary/sin-sumu-lesir/) The claim was made by a non-royal or possibly royal eunuch amid a disputed succession.[4](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/sin-shumu-lishir) • [6](https://www.academia.edu/125196987/Assyrian_royal_eunuchs)
## References
1. AŠŠURBANIPAL, Encyclopaedia Iranica. https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/assurbanipal-king-of-assyria-666-25-bc/
2. Sîn-šumu-lēšir, Archives in Context glossary. http://persiababylonia.org/archives/glossary/sin-sumu-lesir/
3. Uruk King List, Livius. https://www.livius.org/sources/content/uruk-king-list/
4. Sin-shumu-lishir, ancientmesopotamia.org. https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/sin-shumu-lishir
5. List of Kings, eBL (LMU Munich). https://www.ebl.lmu.de/tools/list-of-kings
6. Assyrian royal eunuchs (2024 discussion of RINAP 5/3, 2023, and Frahm 2017). https://www.academia.edu/125196987/Assyrian_royal_eunuchs
7. The History of Assyria, 11: The Fall of Assyria. https://cristoraul.org/english/readinghall/THIRDMILLENNIUMLIBRARY/ASSYRIA/THE-HISTORY-OF-ASSYRIA/11-THE-FALL-OF-ASSYRIA.html
8. ABC 2: Early Years of Nabopolassar, Livius. https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/abc-2-early-years-of-nabopolassar
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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 › Neo-Assyrian Empire › Neo-Assyrian Empire: rulers and royal family*
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