being pushed south, out of his dominions, but is here said to be due to a Phœnician league with his foes. It does not appear who Khatib was. Perhaps the name was Hittite,[1] and he may have been the Prince of Hamath or of Emesa. The following letter from Aziru’s father, Abdasherah, belongs to a later period of the war, when Ullaza and all the cities north of Gebal had been conquered by the Amorites. It is couched in the same insidious language; and the letters of Ribadda, which follow, show that Amenophis was not open to conviction for a long time, though warned by his true friends. The proclamation is still later, after the attack on Sidon, and may fitly conclude the Amorite correspondence.
97 B.—“To the King my Son my Lord thus Abdasratu[2] thy servant, the dust of thy feet. At the feet of the King my Lord seven times and seven times I bow. Behold I am the King’s servant, and a dog who is his neighbor (or his ‘friend’?); and all the land of the Amorites is his. I often said to Pakhanati[3] my Paka (Egyptian resident), ‘Let him gather soldiers to defend the people of this King.’ Now all (cursed?) as King, the King of the Phœnician (Kharri) soldiers . . . Kharri: the King shall ask if I do not guard the city of Simyra (and) the city Ullaza. Lo my Paka is in her: I proclaim the Sun-King; and I have (given orders?) to obey. The city Simyra is a neighbor,[4] and all the lands are the King’s—my Sun, my Lord; I watch for him: and I know that the King my Lord is very glorious; and Pakhanati my Paka is established to judge therein.”
Copy of a Proclamation against Aziru, sent to Egypt by Khanni, when sent again to Syria
92 B.—“To the Chief of the Amorite city by letter thus (says) your Lord. A chief of the city of Gebal has said thus
- ↑ “Khat-ib” may mean “Hittite hero.” The name of the Hittites means probably “the confederates”; and the sign used on Hittite monuments for the nation seems to be that which represents two allies facing each other.
- ↑ Abdasherah, as Dr. Sayce points out, means the servant of the goddess Asherah (“the grove” of the Bible), and this is rendered certain by the sign for Deity prefixed in one instance. It has no connection with the name of Ashtoreth.
- ↑ An Egyptian name, “Pa-Khemt” or “Pa-Khent,” meaning “very strong” (see B. M. 24, Pakhamnata). It appears from Ribadda’s letter that the station of this Paka was Simyra, and apparently the Amorites killed him later on.
- ↑ The word “Gur” is used in these letters as in the Bible, and, like the Arab “Jâr,” to mean a man of one tribe or race protected by a powerful tribe or person of another country.
