Kadashman-Enlil I of Babylonia Accuses Amenhotep III of Disrespect and Dishonesty

The written exchanges between Amenhotep III (ca. 1391–1353 B.C.E.) of Egypt and Kadashman-Enlil I, his Kassite peer in far-away Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq),^[1] highlights how cuneiform scribes were able to bridge the vast geographical, linguistic, and cultural differences between kings. In EA 1, Amenhotep III responds to a (no longer extant) letter from Kadashman-Enlil I, in which the Kassite king apparently accused the pharaoh of disrespecting his messengers and withholding royal gifts.

Disrespecting the Kassite Princess

He complains that Amenhotep III married a Babylonian princess—Kadashman-Enlil I’s sister. However, he failed to honor the terms of the marriage agreement. He further accuses the pharaoh of preventing Babylonian envoys from speaking to the princess, to verify her wellbeing.

Amenhotep III’s letter begins with the expected introductory and greeting formula, addressing Kadashman-Enlil I as his “brother”:^[2]

^{EA 1:1-6} Speak to Kadashman-Enlil king of the land of Karaduniash, my brother! Thus Nibmuʿareʿa the great king, king of the land of Egypt, your brother: With me all is well; may all be well with you. With your house, with your wives, with your sons, with your senior officials, with your horses and with your chariotry, (and) in the midst of your territories, may all be exceedingly well.

The body of the letter, however, is scathing. Amenhotep III refutes these accusations and turns on Kardashman-Enlil I’s emissaries, saying they are liars, or at best, incompetent. He defends his actions: the Kassite King’s emissaries did see the Kassite princess. However, they did not recognize her. They then came up with conspiracy-theory like claims that she was missing. The letter undermines the Kassite envoy:

^10-17 Now I have heard the message which you sent to me concerning it, saying: ‘You seek my daughter for your wife and my sister whom my father gave to you is there with you but no one has seen her now, whether she is alive, whether she is dead.’ (This) is what you sent me in your tablet; these are your words. When have you sent your dignitary who knows your sister, who can converse with her and identify her and let him converse with her?

^18-25 The men whom you send are nonentities. One was the [ . . . ] of Zaqara, the other was an ass herd of the land of [ . . . ]. There was not one among them who [knows her] who was close to your father and who [can identify her]. Moreover, as for the envoys that re[turned t]o you and [sai]d she is [not] your sister, [there was none a]mong the t[wo that knew her], [and could tell you, m]ore[over, she is well] and alive. Was there given [something] in[to his] hand in order to deli[ver it] to her mother?

^26-36 And as for your writing, saying “You spoke to my envoys while your wives were assembled, standing before you, saying ‘Behold your mistress who is standing before you,’ while my envoys did not recognize her; was it my sister who is like her?” And now you wrote, saying “My envoys did not recognize her,” and you say, “So who has identified her?” Why don’t you send your dignitary who will tell you the truth, the welfare of your sister who is here? Then you can trust the one who enters in to see(!) her house and her relationship with the king.

^36-45 And when you write saying: “Perhaps it was the daughter of some lowly person either one of the Kaskeans or a daughter of the land of Khanigalbat, or perhaps of the land of Ugarit which my envoys saw. Who can trust those that she is like her? ˹This˺ one did not open her mouth. One cannot trust them in anything.” These are your words. And if yo[ur sister is ]dead then why would they conceal [her] de[ath and why] would we present anoth[er? … Surely the great god(?)] Amon [knows your ] sis[ter is alive! ]

As the letter continues it becomes clear that the two rulers are in a vitriolic spat that is about more than just a missing family member. Kadashman-Enlil has complained that the pharaoh is not sending him gifts, and even compared Amenhotep III’s administration negatively to that of his father, Thutmose IV.

This personal attack struck a nerve. The pharaoh retorts that Kadashman-Enlil I’s envoys are misleading him. He has been sending Kadashman-Enlil I gifts. His emissaries are not reporting back truthfully to the Kassite court:

^{EA 1:62-77} And as for your citing the words of my father, leave it! Don’t speak of his words! Moreover, ‘Establish friendly brotherhood between us.’ This is what you wrote; these are your words. Now, we are brothers, I and you, both of us, but I got angry concerning your envoys because they speak to you, saying, ‘Nothing is given to us who go to Egypt.’ Those who come to me, does one of the two go [without] taking silver, gold, oil, garments, everything nice [more than from] another country, but he speaks untruth to the one who sends him? The first time the envoys went off to your f[ath]er and their mouths were speaking untruths. The second time they went forth [and] they are speaking lies to you.

Thus, Amenhotep III declares, he has decided to cut off gifts to Kadashman-Enlil I, since there is no assurance that anything that he sends will arrive to its destination. (Why are both sending gifts, if the people entrusted with the gifts lie and perhaps steal them?)

So I myself said, ‘If [I gi]ve them something or if I don’t give them, they will speak lies likewise, so I made up my mind about them; I did not gi[ve to ] them further.”

Kadashman-Enlil I Responds

In another exchange between these two rulers, Kadashman-Enlil I explicitly refers to past interactions with Egypt to criticize how Amenhotep III is treating him in comparison with how the pharaoh used to treat his father, Kurigalzu I (c. 1400–c. 1375):

^{EA 3.1–6} [Sp]eak [to Nibm]uʿareʿa king of the land of Egyp[t m]y [brother]; [thus Kad]ashman-Enlil, king of the land of Karaduniash, your brother. [It is w]ell [with me]. With you, your house, your wives, [with yo]ur [sons,] your land, your chariotry, your horses, your [senior officia]ls, may it be very well.

^7-12 Concerning the young woman, my daughter, about whom you wrote concerning a marriage relationship, the girl is grown up, she is nubile. Send and let them take (her) away. In the past, my father used to send an envoy and you would not detain him many days. You used to set him on his way quickly and you used to send a lovely greeting gift to my father.

Kadashman-Enlil I further complains that the pharaoh has detained his emissaries, and has send him sub-par greeting gifts:

^{EA 3.13-17} Now, when I sent an envoy to you, six years have you detained him, but in the sixth year you have sent thirty minas of gold that looks like silver for my greeting gift. They melted down that gold in the presence of Kasî, your envoy and he witnessed (it).

^18-22 When you celebrated a great festival, you did not send your envoy, saying: “Come[, eat] and drink,” and a greeting gift of the festival [you did] no[t send]. These thirty minas of gold which yo[u sent, are not equ]al to the [gr]eeting gift that I sent to you in any sing[le] year….”

Kadashman-Enlil I accuses the pharaoh of deliberately delaying his messengers. His reference to the golden age of diplomatic relations during his father’s reign serves as a warning to the pharaoh—relations have since soured and Kadashman-Enlil I is unhappy. His main complaint is that his envoys are not respected at the Egyptian court and that they return to Babylonia empty-handed.

Burna-Buriaš II Correspondence

In another letter from Kadashman-Enlil I’s son and successor, Burna-Buriaš II reminds Akhenaten, Amenhotep III’s son and successor, of the diplomatic history between the two courts. Burna-buriaš II complains that there has been a hiatus in the flow of letters and high-caliber gifts, and that the gold that he did receive was impure:

^{EA 10:8–24} From the time of Karaindaš, since the envoys of your fathers were coming to my fathers up to now, they have been friends. Now, as for me and you, we are friends. Three times your envoys have come hither, but you have not sent me any really nice greeting gift and I also have not sent you any really nice greeting gift.

As for me, there is nothing lacking, and as for you, there is nothing that you lack. As for the envoy whom you sent, the twenty minas of gold that were sent were not complete. And when they put them in the kiln, not five minas came out! [The gold] which did come out had the look of ashes when it turned dark (cooled).

He repeats this accusation of poor-quality gold in another letter (EA 7:68-72) and asks the pharaoh to personally seal and send the next shipment.