CHAPTER XVII - THE STRUGGLE FOR THE DOMINATION OF SYRIA (1400-1300 B.C.)

Summary

MITANNIANS AND HITTITES—TUSHRATTA AND SHUPPILULIUMASH

Syria lies at the crossroads of the Near East between Mesopotamia in the east, Anatolia in the north and Egypt in the south. Both Mesopotamia and Anatolia are lacking in indispensable raw materials which they must acquire by trade. For them, then, Syria means access to world trade. Through Syria pass the overland communications that lead from one to the other. More significant still, Syria possesses ports where merchandise from far-away countries is received and exchanged for whatever Asia has to offer. By land and by sea Syria is also linked to Egypt, another important centre of ancient civilization. For these reasons all political development in the Near East tends toward the domination of Syria by its neighbours. In antiquity possession of this key position assured supremacy in the world as it then existed. The fourteenth century, a period of intensive interrelations among all parts of the world, was no exception. In fact, the struggle for the domination of Syria was never more marked than during this period.

The efforts of the various powers involved in the struggle were facilitated by the ethnic and social conditions which they encountered when they invaded Syria. The Amorite rule over the country had created a large number of small city-states which were organized along feudalistic lines. This had become more accentuated when the Hurrians, revitalized by Indo-Aryan dynasts, had expanded from Upper Mesopotamia toward the west. Hurrian knights had then replaced the Amorite princes, taken over the best parts of the land for themselves and their liegemen (mariyanna), and now formed a caste of their own.