Parents Ashur-dan I Grandchild Tiglath-Pileser I Great grandchild Ashur-bel-kala | Children Ashur-resh-ishi I Grandparent Ninurta-apal-Ekur | |
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Mutakkil-Nusku, inscribed mmu-ta/tak-kil-d, "he whom Nusku endows with confidence," was king of Assyria briefly ca. 1133 BC, during a period of political decline. He reigned sufficiently long to be the recipient of a letter or letters from the Babylonian king, presumed to be Ninurta-nādin-šumi, in which he was lambasted and derided.
Biography
He was a younger son of the long-reigning king, Aššur-dān I (ca. 1179 to 1134 BC) and succeeded his brother Ninurta-tukultī-Aššur, whom he ousted in a coup and subsequently went on to fight in a civil war that seems to have pitched the Assyrian heartland against its provinces. He appears on the Khorsabad Kinglist which relates that “Mutakkil-Nusku, his (Ninurta-tukultī-Aššur’s) brother, fought against him. He drove him to Karduniaš (Babylonia).” Contemporary evidence suggests that Ninurta-tukultī-Aššur sought sanctuary in the border town of Sišil, where Mutakkil-Nusku’s forces engaged him in battle, the outcome of which is lost.
The fragments of one or perhaps two Middle Assyrian letters exist, from an unnamed Babylonian king, possibly Ninurta-nādin-šumi, to Mutakkil-Nusku, where he is told that "You should act according to your heart (ki libbika).” The text lambastes him for failing to keep an appointment, or a challenge, in Zaqqa and seems to confirm that Ninurta-tukultī-Aššur had reached exile in Babylonia.
His victory was short-lived as ṭuppišu Mutakkil-Nusku kussâ ukta'il KUR-a e-mid, “(he) held the throne for ṭuppišu (his tablet), then died,” perhaps his inaugural year and part way into his first year only. One interpretation suggests this was while his father still nominally ruled. Apart from a brief economic text concerning 100 sheep of Mutakkil-Nusku, without a royal title, and his appearance in the genealogies of his descendants such as one of his son, Aššur-rēša-iši I, there are no other extant inscriptions.