MARI. - Capital city on the middle Euphrates, today Tell el-Hariri. It had three different periods of flourishing, as appears from the French excavations carried out there under the direction of André Parrot from 1936 onward. The oldest city dates from the time before Sargon of Akkad (ca. 2360 B.C.); the second was roughly contemporary with the kingdom of Ur III (ca. 2070-1960) and was eventually destroyed by Hammurabi, king of Babylon, around 1695; the third is to be placed in the 2nd half of the 13th century B.C.
Of the utmost importance for the history of the ancient East is the second city of M., with which alone we are concerned here. Of the more than 20,000 documents that have come to light, written in an Old Babylonian dialect, almost 15,000 are contracts, divinatory texts or of another kind. The remainder, which constitutes the correspondence of the kings of M., provides new and most valuable information on the topography and the political, commercial and religious history of upper Mesopotamia.
Place names are needed ranging from Susa as far as Crete, among which are the biblical ones of Haran, Nahor and Hazor, as well as the names of more than 30 local kings from Elam to Aleppo. The presence of so many states obliged their kings to a policy of opportunism, so that there was a continuous forming of coalitions and wars to gain the upper hand. Of the kings of M. there are known, for example, Idi-illum, Illum-ishar, Ishtup-illum, Niwar-Mer, Agish-Bilgi, Yagid-Lim, Yabdun-Lim, Yasmah-Adad (an Assyrian usurper) and Zimri-Lim.
The kingdom of the latter probably extended from the region of Rapiqu in the east as far as the great bend of the Euphrates in the west, to the south of Carchemish, and near Haran and Tell Braq in the north. Zimri-Lim had succeeded in retaking power at M., which, after the death of his father, Yabdun-Lim, passed to Yasmah-Adad, installed as viceroy by his father Shamshi-Adad I, king of Assyria. After the death of the latter, Zimri-Lim did away with Yasmah-Adad, but in his turn, although an ally of Hammurabi for a time, he was finally defeated by the Babylonian institution and his city completely cloaked.
In the archives of M. the horse is already indicated as a domestic animal, the Hapiru are named and also a nomadic tribe of Benjaminites (banā ia-mi-na), with whom, however, a direct connection with those of the Bible is not yet established. On the other hand, the fact that one of their war leaders was called dārcidām could throw an unexpected light on the name of the great King and poet of Israel. The royal palace of Zimri-Lim was very imposing. It covered an area of more than 2 and a half hectares and possessed very numerous rooms, archives and princely quarters. The throne room was adorned with wall representations of sacrifices and of the investiture of the King. Although the presence of more than 26 divinities in the pantheon of M. attests the great syncretism that prevailed there, its population was for the most part Amorite (Semites of the west), as appears from the onomastics.
The discoveries of M. are one of the most important factors in determining the new chronology of the ancient East. From what has been said above it is clear that Hammurabi (v.) was not earlier than, but contemporary with Shamshi-Adad I of Assyria. On the other hand it is known that Shamshi-Adad I reigned from 1748 to 1716, which fixes the reign of Hammurabi from 1728 to 1686 (cf. W. F. Albright, in Bull. of the Amer. Schools of Orient. Research, 83 [1942], p. 28 ff.; R. de Vaux, in Revue biblique, 53 [1946], p. 328 ff., who also deals with the not considerable divergences of Sidney Smith [Shamshi-Adad I: 1812-1789; Hammurabi: 1792-1750]).