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{{Short description|673–663 BCE military campaign}}
{{Infobox military conflict
|conflict=Assyrian conquest of Egypt
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|image_size=250px
|caption=Map of the Neo-Assyrian Empire 824-671 BCE
|date=
|result=Assyrian military conquest of
|place=
|casus=
|combatant1=[[Neo-Assyrian Empire]]
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}}
{{Battles involving Assyria}}
The '''Assyrian conquest of Egypt''' covered a relatively short period of the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] from 673
==Context==
The [[Egyptians]] and [[
In 681 BCE, Sennacherib was murdered while praying to the god [[Nisroch]] by one or more of his own sons (allegedly named Adremelech, Abimlech, and Sharezer), perhaps as retribution for his destruction of Babylon.<ref>{{cite book |title=Esther's revenge at Susa |first=Stephanie |last=Dalley |authorlink=Stephanie Dalley |pages=63–66 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tRY39cGC_K8C&pg=PA63 |isbn=9780199216635 |date=2007-11-29|publisher=OUP Oxford }}</ref><ref>According to 2 Kings 19:37, while praying to the god [[Nisroch]], he was killed by two of his sons, [[Adramalech]], and [[Sharezer]], and both of these sons subsequently fled to [[Urartu]]; this is repeated in Isaiah 37:38 and alluded to in 2 Chronicles 32:21.</ref>
==Invasion of Esarhaddon (673 BCE)==
[[File:Battle scene between Kushites and Assyrians, Temple of Amon, Jebel Barkal.jpg|thumb|Relief from the [[Temple of Amun, Jebel Barkal]], showing [[Kingdom of Kush|Kushites]] defeating Assyrians]]
[[Esarhaddon]] (ruled 681–669 BCE), the son of Sennacherib, led several campaigns against [[Taharqa]] of Egypt, which he recorded on several monuments. His first attack in 677 BCE, aimed at pacifying [[Arab]] tribes around the [[Dead Sea]], led him as far as the [[Brook of Egypt]].
===Campaign of 673 BCE===
[[File:Taharqa,_Louvre_Museum.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Statue of Kushite ruler and [[pharaoh]] of the [[25th Dynasty]] [[Taharqa]] (ruled 690-664 BCE), who led the fight against the Assyrians. [[Louvre Museum]] reconstruction.]]
[[Esarhaddon]] then raided Egypt in 673 BCE. This invasion, which only a few Assyrian sources discuss, ended in what some scholars have assumed was possibly one of Assyria's worst defeats.'''{{Sfn|Ephʿal|2005|p=99}}''' Taharqa and his army defeated the Assyrians outright in 674 BC, according to Babylonian records.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Rescue of Jerusalem|date=2002|publisher=Soho Press, Inc.|isbn=1-56947-275-0|location=New York, NY|pages=x,
===Campaign of 671 BCE===
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[[File:Asarhadon Berlín 04.JPG|thumb|The [[Victory stele of Esarhaddon]] (now in the [[Pergamon Museum]]) was created following the king's victory in Egypt and depicts Esarhaddon in a majestic pose with a war mace in his hand and a vassal king kneeling before him. Also present is Ushankhuru, the small son of the defeated pharaoh [[Taharqa]], kneeling and with a rope around his neck.]]
[[File:Ushankhuru (head portion).jpg|thumb|upright|Ushankhuru, the captive son of Taharqa, as depicted by the Assyrians on the [[Victory stele of Esarhaddon]]]]
{{
Three months after having received this prophecy, Esarhaddon's forces were victorious in their first battle with the Egyptians. Despite the prophecy and initial success, Esarhaddon was not convinced of his own safety. Just eleven days after he had defeated the Egyptians, he performed the "substitute king" ritual, an ancient Assyrian method intended to protect and shield the king from imminent danger announced by some sort of omen. Esarhaddon had performed the ritual earlier in his reign, but this time it left him unable to command his invasion of Egypt.'''{{Sfn|Radner|2003|p=171–172}}'''
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''The [[Babylonian Chronicles]]'' retells how Egypt "was sacked and its gods were abducted".<ref>ABC 1 Col.4:25; also in ABC 14:28–29</ref> The conquest resulted in the relocation of a large number of Egyptians to the Assyrian heartland.'''{{Sfn|Radner|2012|p=471}}''' In an excerpt from the text inscribed on his victory stele, Esarhaddon describes the conquest with the following words:
{{
Upon the Assyrian king's departure, however, Taharqa intrigued in the affairs of [[Lower Egypt]], and fanned numerous revolts. In 669 BC, Taharqa reoccupied Memphis, as well as the Delta, and recommenced intrigues with the king of Tyre.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Welsby |first1=Derek A. |title=The Kingdom of Kush |date=1996 |publisher=British Museum Press |location=London, UK |isbn=071410986X |pages=103,
A new campaign was launched by Esarhaddon in 669 BCE. However, he became ill on the way and died. His elder son [[Shamash-shum-ukin]] became king of Babylon and his son [[Ashurbanipal]] became king of Assyria, with Ashurbanipal holding the senior position and Babylon subject to Nineveh.<ref>ABC 1 Col.4:30–33 and ABC 14:31–32, 37</ref>
The remains of three colossal statues of Taharqa were found at the entrance of the palace at [[Nineveh]]. These statues were probably brought back as war trophies by [[Esarhaddon]], who also brought back royal hostages and numerous luxury objects from Egypt.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=William Stevenson |last2=Simpson |first2=William Kelly |title=The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt |date=1 January 1998 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-07747-6 |page=235 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zJYMRcibM_QC&pg=PA235 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thomason |first1=Allison Karmel |title=From Sennacherib's bronzes to Taharqa's feet: Conceptions of the material world at Nineveh |journal=IRAQ |date=2004 |volume=66 |page=155 |doi=10.2307/4200570 |jstor=4200570 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iraq/article/abs/from-sennacheribs-bronzes-to-taharqas-feet-conceptions-of-the-material-world-at-nineveh/D17D4A6C2CCD658A6B6985EA8D389BC8 |language=en |issn=0021-0889|quote=Related to the subject of entrances to buildings, the final case study that allows insight into conceptions of the material world at Nineveh and in Assyria concerns the statues of the 25th Dynasty Egyptian king Taharqa excavated at the entrance to the arsenal on Nebi Yunus. I have argued elsewhere that Egypt was a site of fascination to the Neo-Assyrian kings, and that its material culture was collected throughout the period.}}</ref>
==Invasion of Ashurbanipal (667 BCE)==
[[File:Ashurbanipal II's army attacking Memphis, Egypt, 645-635 BCE, from Nineveh, Iraq. British Museum.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Assyrian siege of an Egyptian fort, probably a scene from the war in 667 BCE referring to the capture of [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]]. Sculpted in 645 – 635 BCE, under [[Ashurbanipal]]. British Museum.<ref>{{cite web |title=Wall panel; relief British Museum |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1856-0909-33 |website=The British Museum |language=en}}</ref>]]
[[Ashurbanipal]], or "Ashur-bani-apli" (''Ashurbanapli, Asnapper''), succeeded his father [[Esarhaddon]] to the throne. He continued to campaign in and to dominate Egypt, when not distracted by having to deal with pressures from the Medes to the east, and [[Cimmerians]] and [[Scythians]] to the north of Assyria. He installed a native Egyptian Pharaoh, [[Psammetichus I|Psammetichus]], as a vassal king in 664 BCE.
However, after [[Gyges of Lydia]]'s appeal for Assyrian help against the Cimmerians was rejected, [[Lydia]]n mercenaries were sent to Psammetichus. By 656/655 BCE, this vassal king was able to declare outright independence from Assyria with impunity,
[[File:Ashurbanipal The First Egyptian War.jpg|thumb|Account of [[Ashurbanipal]]'s campaign in Egypt against Taharqua (translation of the cuneiform, from the [[Rassam cylinder]] of Ashurbanipal).<ref>{{cite book |last=Luckenbill |first=Daniel David |url=https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/ancient_records_assyria2.pdf |title=Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia |pages=290–296 |author-link=Daniel David Luckenbill |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1927}}</ref>]]
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Ashurbanipal defeated [[Taharqa]] in 667 BCE, who afterwards fled to [[Thebes (Egypt)|Thebes]]. Ashurbanipal marched the Assyrian army as far south as [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]], and sacked numerous revolting cities:
{{
As late as 665 BC, the vassal rulers of Sais, Mendes, and Pelusium were still making overtures to Taharqa in Kush.<ref name=Torok>{{cite book |author=Török, László |title=The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization |publisher=BRILL |location=Leiden |year=1998 |isbn=90-04-10448-8 |
Taharqa died in city of [[Thebes (Egypt)|Thebes]]<ref>''Historical Prism inscription of Ashurbanipal I'' by Arthur Carl Piepkorn page 36. Published by University of Chicago Press [http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/as5.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319214845/http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/as5.pdf |date=2012-03-19 }}</ref> in 664 BCE. He was followed by his appointed successor [[Tantamani]], a son of [[Shabaka]], himself succeeded by a son of Taharqa, [[Atlanersa]].<ref>[http://www.nubia2006.uw.edu.pl/nubia/abstract.php?abstract_nr=69&PHPSESSID=472ec4534c78263b6d4a0194e6349d8b Why did Taharqa build his tomb at Nuri?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303200711/http://www.nubia2006.uw.edu.pl/nubia/abstract.php?abstract_nr=69&PHPSESSID=472ec4534c78263b6d4a0194e6349d8b |date=2016-03-03 }} Conference of Nubian Studies</ref>
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:Kushite soldiers of Taharqa fighting the Assyrians.jpg|
File:Exhibition I am Ashurbanipal king of the world, king of Assyria, British Museum (45973251301).jpg|Nubian prisoners escorted by Assyrian guards out of the Egyptian city.<ref name="Wall panel; relief British Museum">{{cite web|title=Wall panel; relief British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1856-0909-33|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref>
File:Egyptian prisoners, Memphis relief.jpg
</gallery>
===Second campaign against Tantamani (663 BCE)===
{{further|Sack of Thebes}}
[[File:
Egypt was still seen as vulnerable and [[Tantamani]] invaded Egypt in hopes of restoring his family to the throne. This led to a renewed conflict with [[Ashurbanipal]] in 663 BCE.
Once the [[Assyria]]ns had appointed [[Necho I]] as king and left Egypt, Tantamani marched down the [[Nile]] from Nubia and reoccupied all of Egypt including Memphis. Necho I, the Assyrians' representative, was killed in Tantamani's campaign.
In reaction, the Assyrians led by [[Ashurbanipal]] returned to Egypt in force. Together with [[Psamtik I]]'s army, which comprised [[Carians|Carian mercenaries]], they fought a pitched battle in north [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]], close to the temple of Isis, between the [[Serapeum]] and [[Abusir]]. Tantamani was defeated and fled to Upper Egypt but just 40 days after the battle, Ashurbanipal's army arrived in [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]]. Tantamani had already left the city for Kipkipi, a location that remains uncertain but might be [[Kom Ombo]], some {{convert|200|km|mi|abbr=on}} south of Thebes.{{sfn|Kahn|2006|p=265}} The city itself was conquered "''smashed (as if by) a floodstorm''" and heavily plundered, in the [[Sack of Thebes]].{{sfn|Kahn|2006|p=265}} The event is not mentioned in Egyptian sources but is known from the Assyrian annals,<ref>Robert G. Morkot: ''The Black Pharaohs, Egypt's Nubian Rulers'', London {{ISBN|0948695234}}, p. 296</ref> which report that the inhabitants were deported. The Assyrians took a large booty of gold, silver, precious stones, clothes, horses, fantastic animals, as well as two obelisks covered in electrum
[[File:Ashurbanipal's Second Campaign in Egypt (Rassam cylinder).jpg|thumb|Ashurbanipal's Second Campaign in Egypt, in the [[Rassam cylinder]]]]
[[File:Egypt - Capture of Memphis by the Assyrians.png|thumb|Capture of Memphis by the Assyrians.]]
{{
The sack of Thebes was a momentous event that reverberated throughout the Ancient Near East. It is mentioned in the [[Book of Nahum]] chapter 3:8-10:
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A prophecy in the [[Book of Isaiah]]<ref>[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(World_English)/Isaiah#Chapter_20 20:3-5]</ref> refers to the sack as well:
{{cquote|text=Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush, so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to
The Assyrian reconquest effectively ended Nubian control over Egypt although Tantamani's authority was still recognised in Upper Egypt until his 8th Year in 656 BCE when [[Psamtik I]]'s navy peacefully took control of Thebes and effectively unified all of Egypt. These events marked the start of the [[Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt]].
==Egyptian-themed artifacts in Assyria (not of Egyptian origin)==
Various artifacts depicting Egyptian pharaohs, deities or persons have been found in [[Nimrud]], and dated to the Neo-Assyrian period, 9th-7th centuries BCE.<ref>{{cite web|title=Furniture plaque carved in high relief with two Egyptianizing figures flanking a volute tree |website=Metropolitan Museum of Art|url= https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/325564 }}</ref> <gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
Carved ivory panel showing young Egyptian pharaohs flanking a lotus stem and flowers. From Nimrud, Iraq. Iraq Museum in Baghdad.jpg|Carved ivory panel showing young Egyptian pharaohs flanking a lotus stem and flowers. From Nimrud, Iraq. Iraq Museum, Baghdad.
Carved ivory panel showing young Egyptian men flanking lotus stem and flowers. From Nimrud, Iraq. Iraq Museum.jpg|Carved ivory panel showing young Egyptian men flanking lotus stem and flowers. From Nimrud, Iraq. Iraq Museum.
Carved ivory panel showing young bearded Egyptian men flanking lotus stem and flowers. From Nimrud, Iraq. Iraq Museum.jpg|Carved ivory panel showing young bearded Egyptian men flanking lotus stem and flowers. From Nimrud, Iraq. Iraq Museum.
File:Egypto-Assyrian cylinder seal.jpg
</gallery>
==Decline of the Neo-Assyrian Empire==
[[File:Egypt - Psamtek Enters Ashdod.png|thumb|left|Egyptian ruler [[Psamtik I]]
The new Egyptian Dynasty, having been installed by the Assyrians, remained on friendly terms with them. But the Neo-Assyrian empire began to disintegrate rapidly after a series of bitter civil wars broke out involving a number of claimants to the throne. While the Neo-Assyrian Empire was preoccupied with revolts and civil war over control of the throne, [[Psamtik I]] threw off his ties to the Assyrians circa 655 BCE, and formed alliances with King [[Gyges of Lydia]], and recruited mercenaries from [[Caria]] and [[ancient Greece]] to resist Assyrian attacks.
Assyria's vassal state of [[Babylonia]] took advantage of the upheavals in Assyria and rebelled under the previously unknown [[Nabopolassar]], a member of the [[Chaldea]]n tribe, in 625 BCE. What followed was a long war fought in the Babylonian heartland.
[[File:Battle of Carchemish.png|thumb|In 605 BCE, a last Egyptian force fought the Babylonians at the [[Battle of Carchemish]], helped by the remnants of the army of
A general called [[Ashur-uballit II]] was declared king of Assyria, and with belated military support from the Egyptian pharaoh [[Necho II]], who wished to contain the westward advance of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, held out at [[Harran]] until 609 BCE.<ref name="Grant, R G pg 19">Grant, R G. ''Battle a Visual Journey Through 5000 Years of Combat''. London: Dorling Kindersley, 2005 pg 19</ref> Egyptian aid continued to the Assyrians, who desperately attempted to curb the increasing power of the Babylonians and Medes.
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==Sources==
*{{Cite journal|last=Ephʿal|first=Israel|date=2005|title=Esarhaddon, Egypt, and Shubria: Politics and Propaganda|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/JCS40025994|journal=Journal of Cuneiform Studies|publisher=University of Chicago Press|volume=57|issue=1|pages=99–111|doi=10.1086/JCS40025994|s2cid=156663868 |via=}}
*{{cite book|last=Frahm|first=Eckart|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nhsmDwAAQBAJ|title=A Companion to Assyria|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|year=2017|isbn=978-1-118-32524-7|editor=E. Frahm|location=Hoboken|chapter=The Neo-Assyrian Period (ca. 1000–609 BCE)}}
*{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancient.eu/Ashurbanipal/|title=Ashurbanipal|last=Mark|first=Joshua J.|date=2009|website=Ancient History Encyclopedia|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=28 November 2019}}▼
*{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancient.eu/
▲*{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancient.eu/
*{{Cite journal|last=Radner|first=Karen|date=2003|title=The Trials of Esarhaddon: The Conspiracy of 670 BC|url=https://repositorio.uam.es/handle/10486/3476|journal=ISIMU: Revista sobre Oriente Próximo y Egipto en la antigüedad|publisher=Universidad Autónoma de Madrid|volume=6|pages=165–183|via=}}
*{{Cite journal|last=Radner|first=Karen|date=2012|title=After Eltekeh: Royal Hostages from Egypt at the Assyrian Court|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316233295|journal=Stories of long ago. Festschrift für Michael D. Roaf|publisher=Ugarit-Verlag|volume=|pages=471–479|via=}}
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{{Rulers of the Ancient Near East}}
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[[Category:7th century BC in Egypt]]
[[Category:7th century BC in Assyria]]
[[Category:Esarhaddon]]
[[Category:Ashurbanipal]]
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