### ASSUR
#### I. DIVINITY
A national god of the Assyrians who gave his name to the capital of the kingdom. He is one of the few gods who did not penetrate into Babylonia, despite Assyrian supremacy over the southern Mesopotamian region in the time of the Sargonids.
The fortunes of the god are bound up with those of the city; when Assyria became a great empire, the power of A. grew to such an extent that he surpassed the other deities and became the imperial god. A. is essentially a warrior god who delivers the enemies into the hands of his people. To him the victors dedicate the spoils of war.
In the Assyrian lists of deities, A. comes immediately after Anu, and sometimes even precedes him. It may be said with good reason that in the Assyrian pantheon he occupies the place accorded to Marduk in the Babylonian pantheon.
Some authors emphasize the great affinity that this god shows with the national god of the Israelites. In this connection, it should be noted that the essential elements found in Yahweh—monotheism and jealous guardianship of the moral law—do not appear in the national god of the Assyrians, whose characteristic is that of being a warrior god.
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#### II. CITY
A city on the right bank of the Tigris, named (Assyrian and Hebrew 'Aššūr) after the supreme Assyrian god Aššūr, from which the entire territory of the Assyrians took its name (as the Amorites did from Amurru). In cuneiform documents this territory is called *mat Aššūr* ("land of A.") and in the Bible "kingdom of A." or simply "A." In the Old Assyrian period (from its origins to 1115 B.C.), it was the capital of the Assyrians until Shalmaneser I (1290–1260 B.C.) established his capital at Kalah (modern Nimrūd), south of Nineveh, 70 km north of A., and later Tiglath-Pileser I at Nineveh (c. 1100 B.C.). A., however, always remained the religious capital: the temple of A. housed the political and military archives. On a rock at the edge of the steppe, the ruins of A. are today called Qal'at Šerqāt, opposite the Ġebel Ḥamrīn. Its history is largely identical with that of the Assyrians. While its earliest kings bore the title of "prefect" and "priest" of A., Shamshi-Adad I (c. 1802–1760 B.C.) proclaimed himself *Šar kiššat* ("king of the world"), because he dominated the "land between the Tigris and the Euphrates."
A. has prehistoric origins. Before the middle of the 3rd millennium B.C., Sumerian language and culture prevailed there, as attested by statues found in the lower strata of its ruins. Its earliest local kings (c. 2500 B.C.) were Ellil-Kapkapu, Ušpia (who built the temple of the god Aššūr-šur-šur-kur-ka, "mountain of the lands"), and Kikia (who built the city walls). Before 2300 B.C., the Semitic race and civilization established themselves there. An inscription of the king (šakkanakku "prefect") Zāriqum shows A. as a vassal of the king Bur-Sin of Ur (2228–2220 B.C.). However, while the dynasties of Larsa and Isin contended for supremacy in Mesopotamia, A. emancipated itself, and its king Ilu-šuma extended his dominion as far as Ur, Akkad, and Nippur (c. 2030 B.C.). With Puzur-Ashur I (2086–2072 B.C.) begins the uninterrupted series, until the disappearance of Assyria, of the patesis and kings of A. Hammurabi restored A., then a Babylonian military outpost. It was long subject to the kingdom of Mitanni, whose king Tushratta (c. 1390–1370 B.C.) still possessed it (with Nineveh) in the Amarna period. The city reached its zenith under the kings Ashur-uballit and Adad-nirari I (c. 1350–1285 B.C.), who initiated the victorious rise of independent Assyria.
It was a sacred city, renowned for its temples of Ashur, Ishtar, Adad (later joined by the temple of Anu), Enlil (rebuilt by Shamshi-Adad I), and Shamash or the Sun (built by Arik-den-ili, c. 1325–1311 B.C.), and retained this primacy even after Nineveh became the capital. Semiramis (Sammuramat), mother of Adad-nirari III (806–782 B.C.), erected a monument there. A rebellion in A., led by priests, stripped Shalmaneser V of the kingdom and gave it to Sargon II (722 B.C.). Esarhaddon (681–669 B.C.) exempted A. from tributes and services; he restored the temple of Ashur, celebrating its dedication with the Assyrian nobles for three days. His son Ashurbanipal paid similar homage. In 615 B.C., the Babylonian Nabopolassar attempted in vain to capture A., but at the end of 614 B.C., the Medes of Cyaxares conquered and destroyed it, and on its ruins formed an alliance with Nabopolassar; the end of Assyria followed in 612 B.C. The Parthians later founded a city there (2nd–1st centuries B.C.), equipped with a grand palace adorned with Hellenistic stucco ornaments. Even in the 3rd century A.D., the god Ashur was still worshipped by a few faithful among the ruins.
In the Bible, "Assur" never designates the city (except Gen. 2:14 in Hebrew), but always Assyria (people and region); the term "Assyria" is unknown to the Hebrews, though known to the Greeks (Herodotus, I, 178–85 and 192, where 'Aššuq'it corresponds to Baššu'kawit). The Vulgate calls the people "assyrius," but usually "Assyrii"; the Hebrew text, to denote the Assyrians, always uses A. ('Aššu'it); the name was then inherited by the empires succeeding that of Assyria: Babylon (2 Kings 23:29) and Persia (Ezra 6:22).
Gen. 10:11 relates that Nimrod, a Hamite of Kush, came from Shinar (Babylonia) to A. (region); Mic. 5:6 therefore calls A. the "land of Nimrod." Indeed, Assyria was initially colonized by non-Semites from southern Mesopotamia. But the people of A. are rightly said to descend from Shem (Gen. 10:22).
The ruins of A. (Qal'at Serqat) were explored from 1902 to 1914 by W. Andrae, who identified six archaeological strata, gigantic fortifications, many palaces and temples, including the double temple of Anu and Adad with two tiered towers, various temples of Ishtar, the *Bit Akiti* ("house of the festival," where the New Year's festival was celebrated), and the tomb of Sennacherib (705–681 B.C.). Important is the account of the cosmogony (akin to the *Enūma eliš*, *v.*) found in the excavations of A. (H. Gressmann, *Altorientalische Texte zum Alten Test.*, 2nd ed., Berlin-Leipzig 1926, pp. 131–132). The inscriptions found at A. were published by L. Messerschmidt and F. Delitzsch (1912), by O. Schroeder (1920–22); those of religious content by E. Ebeling (1915–17).
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