Akkad (Cuneiform Agade or Akkadu, transcribed by Assyriologists as Achad, Akhad or Accad)

ACCAD (cuneiform Agade or Akhadu, which Assyriologists transcribe as Achad, Akhad, or Accad). — Ancient city of northern Babylonia, one of the four founded by Nimrod in Shinar (Gen. 10:10), perhaps the present-day Tell ed-Deir; it contained the temple of the goddess Anunitum, E-ul-maš. It was the capital of the eponymous region (māt Akhadu), which also included flourishing Kiš and comprised the northern part of the Mesopotamian plain (15,000 sq km), bordering Sumer to the south (v.). It was the seat of a kingdom and a dynasty that enjoyed a flourishing culture between 2525 and 2330 B.C. The Akkadians, who appear toward the end of the 4th millennium B.C., tending to expand southward, played a predominant role in Assyro-Babylonian culture and history. Their short-lived dynasty was Semitic, as was the majority of the population.

The rulers encouraged cultural development, especially in the arts. The lists of kings (from a much later period) record eleven names:

Sargon-Šarruken, the first known king, was a brave and successful warrior. He defeated his rival Lugalzaggisi, king of Uruk and Lagaš, who boasted the title of king of A. and Sumer (in Sumerian: Uri and Kingi); he then deposed him and occupied the southern part of Mesopotamia as far as the Persian Gulf. To the east he conquered the regions of Barabai and Elam. In the northwest he reached the “cedar forest,” Lebanon, and the “silver mountains,” the Taurus Mountains; indeed, according to more recent legends, he is said to have conquered the island of Cyprus.

The succeeding kings enjoyed a prosperous reign, especially Naram-Sin, who promoted culture and art. After two centuries, under Sudurul, the kingdom fell apart, and the Semites were again subjected to the Sumerians (the IV and V dynasties of Uruk and the III dynasty of Ur). After approximately two centuries, however, these in turn were subjugated (in the 22nd or 21st century B.C.) by a powerful Semitic dynasty (v. AMORRITI), the 1st Babylonian dynasty (v. HAMMURABI (HAMMURAPI)), which ruled unchallenged over all Mesopotamia.

The oldest inscriptions of A., in cuneiform characters borrowed from the Sumerians but in a Semitic language, are contemporary with the oldest Sumerian inscriptions. The Akkadian language, which later came to be called Babylonian and Assyrian, belongs to the northern group of Semitic languages. Both before and after its own dynasty, A. preserved its language pure of Sumerian elements, while living in permanent contact with the Sumerians, with whom it formed a single nation, and while borrowing from them many cultural and religious ideas. The inscriptions of A. shed light on its religion and culture, as well as on its political and economic history (v. ASSIRI; BABILONIA).

Giustino Boson