Map of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and its
expansions.
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom centered on
the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia (present day
northern Iraq), that came to rule regional empires a number of
times through history. It was named for its original capital, the
ancient city of Assur. Assyria was also sometimes known as Subartu,
and after its fall as Athura, Syria and Assuristan. The term
Assyria can also refer to the geographic region or heartland where
these empires were centered. Their descendants still live in the
region today, and they form the Christian minority in Iraq.
After the fall of the Akkadian Empire circa 2080, it eventually
coalesced into two separate nations; Assyria in the north, and
later Babylonia in the south.
Assyria was originally a minor Akkadian kingdom which evolved in
the 23rd to 21st Centuries BC. Originally, the early Assyrian kings
would certainly have been regional leaders only, and subject to
Sargon of Akkad who united all the Akkadian speaking peoples of
Mesopotamia under the Akkadian Empire which lasted from 2334 BC to
2154 BC. The Akkadian nation of Assyria (and later on also
Babylonia) evolved from the dissolution of the Akkadian Empire. In
the Old Assyrian period of the Early Bronze Age, Assyria had been a
kingdom of northern Mesopotamia (modern-day northern Iraq),
competing for dominance with its fellow Akkadian speaking southern
Mesopotamian rival, Babylonia which was often under Kassite rule.
During this period it established colonies in Asia Minor. It had
experienced fluctuating fortunes in the Middle Assyrian period.
Assyria had a period of empire under Shamshi-Adad I in the 18th and
17th Centuries BC, following this it found itself under short
periods of Babylonian and Mitanni-Hurrian domination in the 17th
and 15th Centuries BC respectively, and another period of great
power and empire from 1365 BC to 1076 BC, that included the reigns
of great kings such as Ashur-uballit I, Tukulti-Ninurta I and
Tiglath-Pileser I. Beginning with the campaigns of Adad-nirari II
from 911 BC, it again became a great power, overthrowing the
Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt and conquering Egypt, Babylonia,
Elam, Urartu/Armenia, Media, Persia, Mannea, Gutium,
Phoenicia/Canaan, Aramea (Syria), Arabia, Israel, Judah,Edom, Moab,
Samarra, Cilicia, Cyprus, Chaldea, Nabatea, Commagene, Dilmun and
the Hurrians, Sutu and neo Hittites, driving the Nubians, Kushites
and Ethiopians from Egypt, defeating the Cimmerians and Scythians
and exacting tribute from Phrygia, Magan and Punt among others.