Amorite Kingdom of Yamhad

The Amorites are commonly regarded as a branch of the northwest Semitic speaking people, tribal nomadic groups in origin who inhabited parts of Syria and Palestine.

In Babylon, a dynasty of Amorite kings was established around 1894. Yamhad was Middle and Late Bronze Age Amorite kingdom in northern Syria. It royal seat was located at Aleppo.

By the beginning of 18th center BC, Yamhad had replace Ebla as the dominant power in the region, exercising sovereignty over a number of cities and petty kingdoms between the Euphrates and Orontes rivers. The first ruler of Yamhad kingdom known as Sumu-epuh, a contemporary of Yahdun-Lim (1810-1794), king of Mari, who had married a princess of Aleppo.

The greatest ruler, Hammurabi (1792-1750) was the fifth member of this dynasty. Yarim-Lim I (1789-1765), ruler of the kingdom Yamhad in northern Syria, was the third king of Amorite descent who reigned in this period.

Kingdom of Yamhad dominance over northern Syria continued until the reign of Yarim-Lim III in the second half of 17th century BC.

In this period, the Hittite king Hattusili I conducted a series of campaigns against of the city-states subject or allied to Yamhad. He succeeded in capturing and destroying a number of these states but failed to take the royal capital Aleppo, which was finally captured and sacked by his successor Mursili I in 1595 BC. Its destruction brought the kingdom of Yamhad to an end.
Amorite Kingdom of Yamhad