AKKAD (Cuneiform Agade or Akkadu, transcribed by Assyriologists 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; there stood the temple E-ul-maš of the goddess Anunitum. It was the capital of the region of the same name (māt Akhadu), to which the flourishing Kish also belonged, comprising the northern part of the Mesopotamian plain (15,000 sq km) and bordering to the south on Sumer (v.). It was the seat of a kingdom and of a dynasty that enjoyed a most flourishing culture between 2525 and 2330 B.C. The Akkadians, who appear toward the end of the 4th millennium B.C., with a tendency to expand southward, played a predominant part in Assyro-Babylonian culture and history. Their not lengthy dynasty was Semitic, as was the majority of the population.
The rulers fostered cultural growth, especially in the arts. The king lists (from a much later period) record eleven names:
| 1st Sargon (or Šarruken) | 55 years of reign |
|---|---|
| 2nd Rimuš | 15 " " |
| 3rd Manštusu | 7 " " |
| 4th Naram-Sin | 56 " " |
| 5th Sarkališari | 25 " " |
| 6th-9th Igigi, Imi, Nani, Elulu | 3 " " |
| (interregnum) | |
| 10th Duda | 21 " " |
| 11th Sudurul | 15 " " |
Sargon-Šarruken, the first known king, was a valiant and fortunate warrior. He defeated the rival Lugalzaggisi, king of Uruk and of Lagash, who prided himself on the title of king of A. and Sumer (in Sumerian: Uri and Kingi); then he deposed him and occupied the southern part of Mesopotamia as far as the Persian Gulf. In the east he conquered the regions of Barabai and of Elam. In the northwest he reached the "cedar forest," Lebanon, and the "silver mountains," the Taurus mountains; indeed, according to the more recent legends, he would have conquered the island of Cyprus.
The following kings had a happy reign, especially Naram-Sin, who gave impetus to culture and art. After two centuries, with Sudurul, the kingdom fell apart and the Semites were again subjected to the Sumerians (4th and 5th dynasties of Uruk and 3rd of Ur). These, however, after about two centuries, were in turn subjugated (22nd or 21st century B.C.) by a powerful Semitic dynasty (v. AMORITES), the 1st Babylonian dynasty (v. HAMMURABI), which ruled unchallenged over all of Mesopotamia.
The most ancient inscriptions of A., in cuneiform characters borrowed from the Sumerians but in a Semitic language, are contemporary with the most ancient Sumerian ones. The Akkadian language, which would later be called Babylonian and Assyrian, belongs to the northern group of the Semitic languages. Even before and after its own dynasty, A. preserved its own language free of Sumerianisms, even while living in permanent contact with the Sumerians, with whom it formed a single nation, and even though it had borrowed from them so many cultural and religious ideas. The inscriptions of A. illustrate its religion and culture, as well as its political and economic history (v. ASSYRIA; BABYLONIA).