the Amorites: A Political History of Mesopotamia in Early Second Millennium Bce: 133

What happens when an empire that ruled over vast territory for several generations crumbles and gives way to local powers headed by tribal dynasties of foreign origins? This historical scenario unfolded in Mesopotamia around 4,000 years ago, and its development is surveyed in this book. This study of the political history of Mesopotamia – today’s Iraq and Syria – in the Old Babylonian period (ca. 2000-1600 BCE) is the first comprehensive historical synthesis of this kind published in English after many decades. Based on numerous written sources in Sumerian and Akkadian – royal inscriptions, letters, law collections, economic records, etc. – and on up-to-date research, it presents the region’s political history in a meticulous geographic and chronological manner. This allows the interested academic and non-academic reader an in-depth view into the scene of ancient Mesopotamia ruled by competing dynasties of West Semitic (Amorite) origin, with a complex web of political and tribal connections between them.