Zahiran Explained

Zahiran also known as Sahiri or Sa-hi-ri,^[1] also known as Zahiran^[2] was an Iron Age city of the ancient near east.^[3] It was a city in what is today Syria.

During the Mari–Ebla war (2300 BC) Zahiran was the site of a battle between Igrish-Halam King of Ebla,^{[4] [5] [6] [7]} and Iblul-il, King of Mari.^{[8] [9]} About a decade later it would be absorbed into the empire of Sargon of Akkad.

The town was sacked in the Battle of Nineveh (612 BC). The chronicle of Aššur-uballit II, known as Chronicle 3,^[10] states of the Battle of Nineveh between Babylonian and Assyrian armies that "in the month Âbu the king of Akkad and his army went upstream to Mane, Sahiri and Bali-hu. He plundered them, sacked them extensively and abducted their gods."^{[11] [12]}

Notes and References

1. Albert Kirk Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (Eisenbrauns, 1975) p91.
2. [Cyrus Herzl Gordon]
3. Fr. Joseph Ponessa, Laurie Manhardt, Sharon Doran, Come and See: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Israel (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2014)
4. Dolce, Rita (2008). "Ebla before the Achievement of Palace G Culture: An Evaluation of the Early Syrian Archaic Period". In Kühne, Hartmut; Czichon, Rainer Maria; Kreppner, Florian Janoscha. Proceedings of the 4th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 29 March - 3 April 2004, Freie Universität Berlin. 2. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. . p68.
5. Michalowski, Piotr (1995). Van Lerberghe, Karel; Schoors, Antoon, eds. Immigration and Emigration Within the Ancient Near East: Festschrift E. Lipiński. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta. 65. Peeters Publishers & Department of Oriental Studies, Leuven. . ISSN 0777-978X p462.
6. Roux G, Ancient Iraq. (Penguin UK, 1992) p.200.
7. Feliu L., (Brill, 2003) p40.
8. Aaron Alexander Burke, The Architecture Of Defense: Fortified Settlements Of The Levant During The Middle Bronze Age (Volume One) 2004. p183.
9. Edgar Peltenberg (2007). Euphrates River Valley Settlement: The Carchemish Sector in the Third Millennium BC. p. 118.
10. https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/abc-3-fall-of-nineveh-chronicle/? Chronicle Concerning the Fall of Nineveh
11. A.K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian chronicles (1975)
12. Bill T. Arnold, Bryan E. Beyer, Readings from the Ancient Near East: Primary Sources for Old Testament Study (Baker Academic, 2002) p. 156.