Abdi-Ashirta was the ruler of Amurru

Amurru kingdom

Amurru was an Amorite kingdom located at the territory of modern Lebanon during the 14th–12th centuries BCThe first documented leader of Amurru was Abdi-Ashirta, under whose leadership Amurru was part of the Egyptian empire...

, a new kingdom in southern Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

 subject to nominal Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ian control, that was in conflict with King Rib-Hadda

Rib-Hadda

Rib-Hadda was king of Byblos during the mid fourteenth century BCE. He is the author of some sixty of the Amarna letters all to Akhenaten...

 of Byblos

Byblos

Byblos is the Greek name of the Phoenician city Gebal . It is a Mediterranean city in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of present-day Lebanon under the current Arabic name of Jubayl and was also referred to as Gibelet during the Crusades...

.

Rib-Hadda complained bitterly to Akhenaten

Akhenaten

Akhenaten also spelled Echnaton,Ikhnaton,and Khuenaten;meaning "living spirit of Aten") known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV , was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC...

—in the Amarna letters

Amarna letters

The Amarna letters are an archive of correspondence on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic, between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom...

—of Abdi-Ashirta's attempts to carve out a larger kingdom for himself at the former's expense. Abdi-Ashirta's death is mentioned in EA 101 by Rib-Hadda in a letter to Akhenaten. Unfortunately for Rib-Hadda, Abdi-Ashirta was succeeded by his equally capable son—Aziru

Aziru

Aziru was the Canaanite ruler of Amurru, modern Lebanon, in the fourteenth century BC. He was the son of Abdi-Ashirta, the previous Egyptian vassal of Amurru and a direct contemporary of Akhenaten.The dealings of Aziru are well-known from the Amarna letters...

—who would later capture, exile and likely kill Rib-Hadda in the process. Aziru later defected to the Hittite side which caused Egypt to lose control over her northern border province of Amurru which Aziru controlled.