Tabal (Akkadian: 𒆳𒋫𒁄 and 𒌷𒋫𒁄, romanized: Tabal[3][4]) was a Luwian-speaking Syro-Hittite state which existed in southeastern Anatolia in the Iron Age.
Tabal | |||||||
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Early 1st millennium BC–7th century BC | |||||||
Capital | Artulu | ||||||
Common languages | Luwian | ||||||
Religion | Luwian religion | ||||||
Government | Monarchy | ||||||
Great King | |||||||
Historical era | Iron Age | ||||||
• Established | Early 1st millennium BC | ||||||
• Disestablished | 7th century BC | ||||||
| |||||||
Today part of | Turkey |
The native name of the kingdom of Tabal might have been Sura (𔒂𔖱𔔆).[2]
The Tabalians may have, at least partially, descended form the Nairi tribe Tuali.[5]
The name Tabal given to the kingdom by the Neo-Assyrian Empire was likely an Akkadian term meaning "bank" or "shore" of a body of water, in reference to the kingdom and region of Tabal being on the southern bank of the Halys river, and was a tāprasu-construct of the Akkadian verb abālu (𒀀𒁀𒇻), meaning lit. 'dry out'.[6]
Alternatively, the name of Tabal might have been of native Anatolian Luwian origin, and been related to the name of the Lydian town Tabala (Ancient Greek: Ταβαλα, romanized: Tabala) and the Hittite mountain name Tapala (𒄯𒊕𒋫𒉺𒆷). The obscurity of the etymology of Tabala and the still unknown location of Mount Tapala however make this etymology very uncertain.[7]
The kingdom of Tabal was located in a region bounded by the Halys river, the Taurus Mountains, the Konya Plain and the Anti-Taurus Mountains, and which was occupied by a cluster of Syro-Hittite states.[8][9]
The Neo-Assyrian Empire used the name of Tabal in a narrow sense to refer to the kingdom of Tabal and in a broader sense to designate this larger region of which the kingdom was part of as well as to the other states within this region.[8][10]
Modern scholarship therefore designates the kingdom as "Tabal proper" to distinguish it from the broader region of Tabal.[8][10]
The kingdom of Tabal was one of the several states located in the larger region of Tabal, and was the northernmost and largest of them: the territory of Tabal proper was bounded to the north by the Halys river and it covered the modern Turkish provinces of Kayseri and Niğde.[8][9]
The capital of Tabal might have been located at the site of present-day Kululu, and another city belonging to this state was discovered at Sultanhan, itself in the western whereabouts of Kululu.[8][10][11]
The first mention of Tabal proper is from the records of the Neo-Assyrian king Shalmaneser III's campaign of 837 BCE in the region of Tabal, which was then constituted of 24 states.[12]
During this campaign, Shalmaneser III invaded the lands of the Tabalian king Tuwatis I and destroyed the settlements in his kingdom, forcing the latter to flee to his capital of Artulu.[10] Shalmaneser III then besieged Artulu, but Tuwatis I immediately surrendered when the Neo-Assyrian army surrounded his city, and his son Kikki paid tribute to Shalmaneser III along with the rulers of the 23 other states of the region, after which Kikki might have been installed by Shalmaneser III as the new king of Tabal.[12][13][14][11]
The kings of the region of Tabal offered tribute to Shalmaneser III again in 836 BCE, after he had conquered the fortress of Uetaš during campaign in Melid.[12][11]
During the century following the campaign of Shalmaneser III, the kingdom of Tabal had absorbed several of the nearby small states in the Tabalian region to grow into the largest, and northernmost, of its six main kingdoms, with the others being Atuna, Tuwana, Ištuanda, Ḫubišna, and Šinuḫtu.[15][9]
In the middle of the 8th century BCE, Tabal was ruled by Wasusarmas, who might have been a descendant of Kikki, and is attested as having been a tributary of the Neo-Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III following the Neo-Assyrian conquest of Kinalua.[16][11] Wasusarmas defeated a coalition of eight enemy rulers near the city of Parzuta located near his western borders with the help of the kings Warpalawas II of Tuwana, Kiyakiyas of Šinuḫtu, and the otherwise unknown king Ruwatas. This victory allowed Wasusarmas to expand his borders to the west.[8][17]
At this time, Tabal might have contained a sub-kingdom within its territory whose ruler was named Ruwas.[18]
Despite being a Neo-Assyrian tributary, Wasusarmas continued his predecessors' traditions by styling himself using the prestigious titles of "Great King" (𔐒, uras Ḫantawatis) and "Hero" (𔐕, ḫastalis), leading to Tiglath-pileser III accusing Wasusarmas of acting as his equal, in consequence of which he deposed Wasusarmas around c. 732 to c. 730 BC and replaced him with a commoner named Ḫulli.[8][16][11]
In 726 BCE, Tiglath-pileser III's son and successor, Shalmaneser V, deported Ḫulli along with his whole family to Assyria. The situation of Tabal during the exile of Ḫulli is unknown.[8][16]
Following the union of the Phrygians and the Muški under the Phrygian king Midas, his kingdom became a major rival to Neo-Assyrian power in eastern Anatolia, and the region of Tabal became contested between the Neo-Assyrian and Phrygian empires.[19]
Midas tried to convince the still independent local rulers of Tabal to switch their allegiances to Phrygia, and several of them accepted his offer.[19] Shalmaneser V's successor, Sargon II, reacted by restoring Neo-Assyrian power in the Tabalian region, from where deported the rebellious rulers to Assyria and gave their cities to rulers who had remained loyal to him, and settled Assyrians and other foreigners in Tabal.[19]
In 721 BC, Sargon II returned Ḫulli and his family to Tabal, placed Ḫulli's son Ambaris on its throne, and married his own daughter, Aḫat-abiša, to Ambaris.[8][16][11]
At this time, Tabal's western borders extended to the region of modern Konya and its southern borders extended to the northern border of the country of Ḫilakku, which was itself given to Ambaris as dowry by Sargon II,[20][11] who was trying to establish a centralised authority under a ruler whom he could trust in Tabal so as to contain the threat to Neo-Assyrian power in Anatolia posed by the Phrygian king Midas.[8]
Sargon II himself claimed to have "widened the land" which he had given to Ambaris, and this new enlarged and reorganised kingdom of Tabal was given the new name of Bīt-Burutaš.[8][20]
Ambaris however later lost favour with Sargon II, who accused him of conspiring with Phrygia and Urartu, and consequently deported Ambaris, his family and his chief courtiers to Assyria in 713 BCE. After this, Bīt-Burutaš and Ḫilakku were placed under the administration of a Neo-Assyrian governor and were settled by people deported from other regions newly conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, thus putting Tabal under direct Assyrian rule,[8][21][11] although Sargon II also handed over part of the territory of Bīt-Burutaš to Warpalawas II of Tuwana, who had remained a loyal subject of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.[22]
Neo-Assyrian governors were imposed on Ḫilakku and Quwe by Sargon II,[19] with the first of these being Aššur-šarru-uṣur, who possibly as early as 713 BC was appointed as governor of Quwe and also held authority on Hilakku and the Tabalian region.[23][24]
The hostilities between the Neo-Assyrian and Phrygian empires soon came to and end by 710 BC, which in turn provided to Sargon II the opportunity to consolidate Neo-Assyrian rule over Anatolia, and especially the kingdoms of Tabal.[25][19]
In 705 BC, Sargon II campaigned against the Cimmerians in Tabal but he died in battle, ending Neo-Assyrian direct rule on the region,[19] with Tabal becoming independent again.[11]
However, Neo-Assyrian activities in the region continued for a while, with the Neo-Assyrian king Esarhaddon having campaigned there against the Cimmerians from his base in Quwe, resulting in the defeat and killing of the Cimmerian king Teušpā in Ḫubišna in 679 BC.[19]
Under the reign of Esarhaddon itself, a Tabalian ruler named Iškallu allied with the king Mugallu of Melid, against whom Esarhaddon campaign in 675 BC, suggesting that Tabal had been reconstituted after the end of Neo-Assyrian rule over Anatolia.[19][26][27]
Some time around c. 675 BC,[28] the Cimmerians invaded and destroyed the Phrygian empire, due to which Midas committed suicide, and they sacked its capital of Gordion.[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] The Cimmerians consequently settled in Phrygia[45] and subdued part of the Phrygians[46] so that they controlled a large area consisting of Phrygia from its western limits which bordered on Lydia to its eastern boundaries neighbouring the Neo-Assyrian Empire,[47] after which they made the region of Tabal into their centre of operations.[29][48][36][37]
Assyrian sources from around this same time therefore recorded a Cimmerian presence in the area of Tabal,[49] and, between c. 672 and c. 669 BC, an Assyrian oracular text recorded that the Cimmerians, together with the Phrygians and the Cilicians, were threatening the Neo-Assyrian Empire's newly conquered territory of Melid.[37][50][46][39] The Cimmerians were thus active in Tabal, Ḫilakku and Phrygia in the 670s BC,[46] and, in alliance with these former two states, were attacking the western Neo-Assyrian provinces.[51][39]
By the time that Esarhaddon had died and been succeeded by his son Ashurbanipal, Melid had annexed Tabal, due to which Mugallu became referred to in Neo-Assyrian records as the king of Tabal. Mugallu established diplomatic ties with the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and started paying annual tribute to it after sending an embassy and one of his daughters to Ashurbanipal.[19][52][27]
Around c. 640 BC, Mugallu's son and successor rebelled against the Neo-Assyrian Empire and allied with the Cimmerian king Dugdammē, but he died the same year, after which Tabal disappeared from ancient sources.[19][27]
The fate of Tabal is unclear, although it might possibly have been ultimately destroyed by the Cimmerian invasions.[19]
By the time Tabal reappeared in later ancient sources, it had become known by the name of Cappadocia,[19] whose inhabitants were called Syrians (Συροι, romanized: Suroi; Συριοι, romanized: Surioi) or Leucosyrians (Λευκοσυροι, romanized: Leukosuroi) by the ancient Greeks, with this name likely being a derivation of the Luwian name of Tabal, Sura.[53]
Tabal is mentioned in the Bible under the name of Tubāl (Hebrew: תבל).[54]
The Hittitologist Sanna Aro has suggested that the name of the Tibarenoi mentioned living on the Black Sea shores of Anatolia in the 5th century BC by Herodotus of Halicarnassus and Xenophon might possibly have derived their name from that of Tabal.[54] However, the scholars Federico Giusfredi, Valerio Pisaniello and Alfredo Rizza, following the Hittitologist Zsolt Simon, have rejected this proposal due to the distance between the territory of the Tibarenoi and of Tabal, their different ethnic and linguistic affiliations, and on phonetic grounds.[55]