Lullaya

Lullaia or Lullaya, inscribed in cuneiform phonetically ^mlu-ul-la-a-a,^{[i 1][i 2]} a hypocoristic name, was the 53rd king of Assyria to be added to the Assyrian King List. He was a “son of a nobody,” i.e. unrelated to a previous monarch, and reigned six years, from 1621–1616 BC (middle chronology) or 1599–1594 BC (short chronology), during a period when a rather diminished Assyria was overshadowed by its more powerful neighbor, the Mitanni.^[1] Reade speculates that he may be identified with the earlier king, Aššūr-dugul, on the basis of their similar lengths of reign and lack of royal parentage.^[2]

Biography

He was the last in the sequence of kings omitted from the dissident Assyrian Kinglist known as KAV 14,^{[i 3]} which otherwise provides the only extant sequence of Shamshi-Adad I’s later successors, Mut-Ashkur and Rimush.^[3] The Synchronistic Kinglist^{[i 4]} gives his Babylonian counterpart as Ayadaragalama of the Sealand Dynasty.^[4] There are no extant inscriptions from Lullaia's or his predecessor's reigns in marked contrast with their Sealand contemporaries.^[1]

He was succeeded by Shu-Ninua, the son of his predecessor, Bazaya, for whom he may have acted as regent until reaching his majority as there is no tradition that Lullaia was a usurper.

Inscriptions

1. ↑ Khorsabad List, IM 60017 (excavation nos.: DS 828, DS 32-54), ii 22.
2. ↑ SDAS List, IM 60484, ii 19.
3. ↑ Assyrian Kinglist fragment VAT 9812 = KAV 14: 5.
4. ↑ Synchronistic Kinglist, Ass 14616c (KAV 216), I 7’.

References