Iakhdunlim was king of Mari

Mari, Syria

Mari was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city, located 11 kilometers north-west of the modern town of Abu Kamal on the western bank of Euphrates river, some 120 km southeast of Deir ez-Zor, Syria...

 in Upper Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...

 during the 19th century BC

19th century BC

-Events:* Hittite empire in Hattusa, Anatolia.* 1900 BC: Proto-Greek invasions of Greece.* c. 1900 BC: Minoan Old Palace period starts in Crete.* c. 1900 BC: Fall of last Sumerian dynasty....

. Of Amorite

Amorite

Amorite refers to an ancient Semitic people who occupied large parts of Mesopotamia from the 21st Century BC...

 origin, he became king after the death of his father Iagitlim

Iagitlim

Iagitlim was king of Mari, Syria during the 19th century BC. He was probably of Amorite origin. Little is known about his reign except that he come in conflict with his neigbhour Ila-kabkabu after the two first had been allies. Iagitlim was succeeded by his son Iakhdunlim....

. Iakhdunlim built Mari up to become one of the major powers of the region. He led a successful campaign to the coast of the Mediterranean. His kingdom was threatened by incursions from various nomad

Nomad

Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...

 tribes, such as the Canaanites, but he was able to subjugate them and force them to pay tribute

Tribute

A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...

. After having established internal peace, he built a temple to the god

Deity

A deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....

 Shamash

Shamash

Shamash was a native Mesopotamian deity and the sun god in the Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian pantheons. Shamash was the god of justice in Babylonia and Assyria, corresponding to Sumerian Utu...

.

Elsewhere, Shamshi-Adad I

Shamshi-Adad I

Shamshi-Adad I Shamshi-Adad I Shamshi-Adad I (fl. late 18th century BC (short chronology) was an Assyrian king. He rose to prominence when he carved out an empire encompassing much of Mesopotamia, Syria and Asia Minor...

 had made himself King of Assyria

Kings of Assyria

The list of Assyrian kings is compiled from the Assyrian King List, an ancient kingdom in northern Mesopotamia with information added from recent archaeological findings. The Assyrian King List includes regnal lengths that appear to have been based on now lost limmu lists...

, and Iakhdunlim received pleads for help from kings threatened by Shamshi-Adad's expansionist plans. But before Iakhdunlim could move against Shamshi-Adad, he was assassinated by his own servants. In the chaos that followed, Shamshi-Adad occupied Mari. Zimrilim

Zimrilim

Zimrilim was king of Mari from about 1775 to 1761 BCE.He was the son or grandson of Iakhdunlim, but was forced to flee to Yamkhad when his father was assassinated by his own servants during a coup. The city was occupied by Shamshi-Adad I, the king of Assur, who put his own son Yasmah-Adad on the...

, Iakhdunlim's son and heir, was forced to flee to Aleppo

Aleppo

Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...

, where he would remain as an exile until Shamshi-Adad's death.