Gambulu Explained

The Gambulu, Gambulai,^[1] or Gambuli^[2] were a tribe of Arameans in ancient Babylonia.^[3] They were the most powerful tribe along the eastern border of Babylonia,^[4] or in the south toward the border with Elam.^[5] It is difficult to pinpoint their exact location.^[6] H. W. F. Saggs places them "south of the Diyala river toward the Elamite border."

When Assyrian king Sargon II (722-705) waged war against them in the city of Dur-Athara, 18,430 were deported.^[7]

The Gambulu, along with the Puqudu, continued to be politically important as far as the sixth century.^[8]

Notes and References

1. Book: Claude Hermann Walter Johns. Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters. 1904. C. Scribner's sons. 361.
2. Book: George Smith. Ancient History from the Monuments: Assyria: From the Earliest Times to the Fall of Nineveh. 1876. Scribner, Armstrong. 167.
3. Book: H. W. F. Saggs. Babylonians. 2000. University of California Press. 978-0-520-20222-1. 133.
4. Book: John Boederman. The Cambridge Ancient History. 1997. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-22717-9. 52.
5. Book: Trevor Bryce. The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the fall of the Persian Empire. 10 September 2009. Routledge. 978-1-134-15907-9. 247.
6. Book: Edward Lipiński. The Aramaeans: Their Ancient History, Culture, Religion. 2000. Peeters Publishers. 978-90-429-0859-8. 479.
7. Book: Peter Dubovský. Hezekiah and the Assyrian Spies: Reconstruction of the Neo-Assyrian Intelligence Services and Its Significance for 2 Kings 18-19. 2006. Gregorian Biblical BookShop. 978-88-7653-352-5. 268.
8. Book: Paul-Alain Beaulieu. A History of Babylon, 2200 BC - AD 75. 20 November 2017. Wiley. 978-1-119-45907-1. 172.