•  
• Titles Great King, Tabarna (From seal impression)
• Name Luwian
• Queen Harapšili, wife. See Hittite Offerings Lists, sections B & E. Responsible for carrying the royal blood.

Alluwamna was banished to Malitaškur by Telipinu for partaking in a revolt (Easton (1981) 27).

Rise of a Hurrian Kingdom

A unique autobiography written by Idri-mi of Alalah sheds some dim light not only on the weakness of the Hittite kingdom in this period, but also on the rise of the Hurrian kingdom of Mittanni in Syria and northern Mesopotamia, which would assume its position as Hatti’s greatest rival in this period. Idri-mi’s autobiography is so unique because it is inscribed on a statue of himself which seems to have become some sort of dynastic heirloom. Even after it had been smashed in the final destruction of Alalah several generations after Idri-mi’s life, it’s pieces seem to have been carefully buried by some reverent individual.

Idri-mi’s life story reads like a great romantic adventure - the prince, driven from his home and forced to spend long years in exile, returned victoriously to reposess his homeland and live out a glorious reign. Or at least, this is the story he tried to present. The reality was somewhat different.

Idri-mi was a young son of Ilim-ilimma, the ruler of Halap, and a wife of his from the nearby city of Emar. Ilim-ilimma’s kingdom encompassed not only Halap itself, but also the lands of Mukiš, Niya, and Ama’e. At some point, “an evil deed happened in Halap”, and Idri-mi and his brothers fled to Emar, the residence of their mother’s family.

The empire of Mitanni united the Hurrian kingdoms, including the kingdom of Halap and its dependencies.

The nature of the “evil deed” is not specified, but it may have been the violent suppression of a revolt in the kingdom against its Hurrian overlord, since Idri-mi reported that his forefathers had had treaty relations with the Hurrian king. If so, then Idri-mi’s forced flight would indicate the Hurrian king’s victory and the ousting of Halap’s ruling family. What we seem to be witnessing is the end of the period of division within the Hurrian lands, as the various contending kingdoms were slowly brought under the thumb of the Hurrian kingdom of Mittanni. Halap itself, although clearly within Hurrian lands, had so far successfully been able to resist being classified as Hurrian. This kingdom, with a long, proud tradition of its own, was not about to let itself be absorbed under the label “Hurrian”. Idri-mi felt no differently. He recognized that his anscestors had treaty relations with “the kings of the Hurrian warriors”, but he refused to recognize Halap as Hurrian. This belief did not originate with him. Even the Hittite kings recognized Halap as somehow different from the other Hurrian entities of Syria (See the seige of Uršu).

In Emar, Idri-mi proved more ambitious than his older brothers. Feeling disgraced at having been ousted from Halap, he took his horse, chariot, and groom and left Emar, crossed through the wilderness and entered the territory of Sutian tribesmen. He only stayed with them for a night before moving on to Ammia in the land of Canaan. He found natives of his father’s kingdom residing in Ammia, and when they recognized him as the son of their old lord they became his men. For several years Idri-mi stayed in Ammia, growing older and gathering together a force around him. How the history of the Hittites and of the Hurrians correlates with this phase of Idri-mi’s career is not at all clear, and the next point at which we can try to make a correlation will not occur for several more reigns in Hatti. As such, we must set aside Idri-mi’s adventures for now and return to the highlands of Anatolia.