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The Battle
of Qarqar (or Ḳarḳar) was fought in 853 BC, when the army of Assyria led by
king Shalmaneser III encountered an allied army of
eleven kings at Qarqar,
led by Hadadezer
(also called Adad-idr and possibly to be identified with Benhadad II) of Damascus
and King
Ahab of Israel. This battle, fought during the 854 BC–846 BC Assyrian Conquest of Syria,
is notable for having a larger number of combatants than any previous battle,
and for being the first instance in which some peoples enter recorded history
(such as the Arabs).
The battle is recorded on the Kurkh
Monolith. The ancient town of Qarqar at which the battle took place has
generally been identified with the modern-day archaeological site of Tell
Qarqur near the village of Qarqur.
According
to an inscription later erected by Shalmaneser, he had started his annual campaign,
leaving Nineveh
on the 14th day of Iyar.
He crossed both the Tigris and Euphrates without incident, receiving the submission and
tribute of several cities along the way, including Aleppo. Once past
Aleppo he encountered his first resistance from troops of Irhuleni, king
of Hamath, whom
he defeated; in retribution, he plundered both the palaces and the cities of
Irhuleni's kingdom. Continuing his march after having sacked Qarqar, he
encountered the allied forces near the Orontes
River.
The
Twelve Kings
Twelve
Kings is an Akkadian term meant to symbolize any kind of
alliance. The most famous example is in the Kurkh
Monolith, where an alliance of 11 kings are listed as 12 in the Assyrian
document as fighting against Assyrian King Shalmaneser
III in the battle of Qarqar. Shalmaneser's inscription describes the forces
of his opponent Hadadezer in considerable detail as follows:[4]
King
Hadadezer
himself commanded 1,200 chariots, 1,200 horsemen and 20,000 soldiers;
King
Irhuleni of Hamath commanded 700 chariots, 700 horsemen and 10,000 soldiers;
King
Ahab of Israel sent 2,000 chariots and 10,000
soldiers;
The
land of KUR Gu-a-a (sometimes identified with Que - Cilicia), or Byblos sent 500
soldiers;
The
land of KUR Mu-us-ra- (see note)[5] sent
1,000 soldiers;
The
land of Irqanata (Tell
Arqa) sent 10 chariots and 10,000 soldiers;
The
land of Arwad
sent 200 soldiers;
The
land of Usannata (in the Jeble region of Lebanon) sent
200 soldiers;
The
land of Shianu (in the Jeble region) - figures lost
King
Gindibu of Arabia sent 1000 camelry;
King
Ba'asa, son
of Ruhubi, of
the land of Ammon sent 100 soldiers.
Battle
Shalmaneser
boasts that his troops inflicted 14,000 casualties upon the allied army,
capturing countless chariots and horses, and describes the damage he inflicted
on his opponents in savage detail. However, the royal inscriptions from this
period are notoriously unreliable. They never directly acknowledge defeats and
sometimes claim victories that were actually won by ancestors or predecessors.
If Shalmaneser had won a clear victory at Qarqar, it did not immediately lead
to further Assyrian conquests in Syria. Assyrian records make it clear that he
campaigned in the region several more times in the following decade, engaging
Hadadezer six times, who was supported by Irhuleni of
Hamath at least twice. Shalmaneser's opponents held on to their thrones after
this battle: though Ahab of Israel died shortly afterwards in an unrelated
battle, Hadadezer was king of Damascus until at least 841 BC.
