XIVe-XIIe front S.J. - C.
Furnace bridge of Toukoulti-Ninourta I
The apogee of the first Assyrian kingdom is the reign of Tukulti-Ninurta I. It crushes the Hittite army of Tudhaliya IV and succeeds in seizing Babylon.
The fight against MitanniensThe Assyrian revival begins in XIVe century. Eriba-Adad I (around 1383-1356) succeeds in rejecting the supervision mitannienne and, since 1370, recovers the city of Ninive as well as the territories located at the accesses of the Tiger.
Assour-Ouballith I (around 1366-1330), also undertaking, wars against Mitanniens and intervenes even in the business of the kingdom kassite of Babylon. Its successors, maintaining the same policy quarrelsome, run up again against Mitanniens passed under the protection of Hittite, fight the mountain dwellers of Zagros and Kurdistan and dispute with the Babylonians the control of trade route carrying out in Iran.
The quarrelsome policy of the AssyriansIn XIIIe century, the Assyrians do not cease fighting against the waves of invasions or their neighbors. Their quarrelsome heat affects then until their religious designs: Assour, their national god, takes from now on a warlike character and claims with the universal domination. The war is perceived like an act of piety; of defensive, it becomes offensive. Adad-Nirari I (around 1298-1266), Salmanasar I (around 1266-1236) and Toukoulti-Ninourta Ier (around 1236-1199) further conduct campaigns possible from their borders. The Egyptians and the Hittite ones, alarmed, are united in vain (1269).
From countryside in shift, the Assyrians end up imposing their power. To high Mésopotamie annexed by Salmanasar I, Toukoulti-Ninourta I adds Babylonia, the countries of Akkad and Sumer, which allows him, following the example of the Sumerian kings and akkadiens of formerly, to proclaim “king of the universe”. To commemorate its triumph on Babylon, it founds close to Assour a new city bearing its name.
Aramaic pushThe empire, like formerly that of Shamshi-Adad I, does not survive its sovereign. The size of Toukoulti-Ninourta and perhaps also its megalomania is worth the suspicion of the nobility to him, which ends up imprisoning it then to assassinate it. However, at the end of its reign, the political map of the Middle East appreciably changed. Babylonia kassite reconstituted itself since 1214, and the Assyrians must from now on take into account newcomers: in the North-West, the nomads Moushki (of Phrygian) and Kaska (originating in the mountains of the Bridge) and, in south-west, Semites, who soon will form the Aramaic confederation.
In the middle of XIIe century, Assyrie, thus besieged, undergoes moreover the attack of Elamites, to which she concedes the area of Small Zab. In spite of the reactions of Assourresh-Ishi I (1133-1115) and the exploit of Toukoulti-apil-Esharra I er (1115-1076) - which ventures until - beyond Lake Van and intervenes in the Mediterranean where he holds to ransom the Phoenician cities -, Assyrie cannot resist formidable thorough of its adversaries. The Aramaics, after having taken Babylonia, settle in full heart of the Assyrian country, devastate the campaigns and massacre the populations.