Amarna_letter_EA_359
King of Battle
Ancient Mesopotamian epic tale
The King of Battle, or šar tamḫāri, is an ancient Mesopotamian epic tale of Sargon of Akkad and his campaign against the city of Purušḫanda in the Anatolian highlands and its king, Nur-Daggal[n 1][1] or Nur-Dagan, in aid of his merchants. It is extant in five manuscripts,[2] two[i 1][i 2] from Amarna in Egypt and six fragments[i 3] of one from the Hittite capital Ḫattuša from the middle Babylonian period and one each from Aššur[i 4] and Nineveh,[i 5] probably from the Neo-Assyrian period. Of the twenty-three tales composed of the Kings of Akkad, this was one of only three, along with the Birth Legend of Sargon and the Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin, to continue to circulate in the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods, some 1,500 years after the events they describe.[3] It is thought to have been committed to writing during the first half of the second millennium, perhaps following a lengthy oral tradition, although the circumstances of its composition are hotly debated.[4]