Ishme-Dagan I was the son of the Assyria

Assyria

Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...

n king 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...

, put on throne of Ekallatum

Ekallatum

Ekallatum was an ancient Assyrian city of upper Mesopotamia. The exact location of it has not yet been identified, but it was located somewhere along the left bank of the Tigris, south of Assur....

 by his father after a successful military attack. He ruled the area of the upper Tigris

Tigris

The Tigris River is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq.-Geography:...

, including the city-state of Assur

Assur

Assur , was one of the capitals of ancient Assyria. The remains of the city are situated on the western bank of river Tigris, north of the confluence with the tributary Little Zab river, in modern day Iraq, more precisely in the Al-Shirqat District .Assur is also...

. Following Shamshi-Adad's death (in the 17th year of Hammurabi

Hammurabi

Hammurabi Hammurabi Hammurabi (Akkadian from Amorite ʻAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer", from ʻAmmu, "paternal kinsman", and Rāpi, "healer"; (died c...

 of Babylon

Babylon

Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...

), Ishme-Dagan I managed to rule Assyria until himself being ousted by Hammurabi. The much later Assyrian kinglist credited Ishme-Dagan with 40 years, but it is now known, from a recently (2003) discovered limmu

Limmu

Limmu was an Assyrian eponym. At the beginning of the reign of an Assyrian king, the limmu, an appointed royal official, would preside over the New Year festival at the capital. Each year a new limmu would be chosen. Although picked by lot, there was most likely a limited group, such as the men of...

-list of eponyms unearthed at Kanesh, that his reign in Assur lasted 11 years. His brother, Yasmah-Adad

Yasmah-Adad

Yasmah-Adad was the son of the Amorite king Shamshi-Adad I, put on throne of Mari by his father after a successful military attack. After Shamshi-Adad's death he managed to rule for only a short time before being ousted from power by Zimrilim. His brother, Ishme-Dagan, ruled at the same time in the...

, ruled around the same time in the city 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...

, where the correspondence between the father and two sons was found by archaeologists.

See also

• Kings 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...
  
  
• Chronology of the ancient Near East
  Chronology of the ancient Near East
  The chronology of the Ancient Near East provides a framework of dates for various events, rulers and dynasties. Individual inscriptions and texts customarily record events in terms of a succession of officials or rulers, taking forms like "in the year X of king Y". Thus by piecing together many...