The contemporary king of Mitanni was Tushratta.  He corresponded both with his cousin Amenhotep III and his son-in-law Akhenaton.  In his correspondence with Amenhotep III Tushratta tells that his kingdom had been invaded by the Hittites, but his god Teshup had delivered them into his hand, and he destroyed them; “not one of them”, he declared, “returned to his own country”.  Out of the booty captured he sent Amenhotep several chariots and horses, and a boy and a girl.  To his sister Gilu-khipa, who was one of the Egyptian Pharaoh’s wives, he gifted golden ornaments and a jar of oil.  In another letter Tushratta asked for a large quantity of gold “without measure”.  He complained that he did not receive enough on previous occasions, and hinted that some of the Egyptian gold looked as if it were alloyed with copper.  Like the Assyrian king, he hinted that gold was as plentiful as dust in Egypt.  His own presents to the Pharaoh included precious stones, gold ornaments, chariots and horses, and women (probably slaves).  This may have been tribute.  It was during the third Amenhotep’s illness that Tushratta forwarded the Nineveh image of Ishtar to Egypt, and he made reference to its having been previously sent thither by his father, Sutarna.

When Akhenaton came to the throne Tushratta wrote to him, desiring to continue the friendship which had existed for two or three generations between the kings of Mitanni and Egypt, and made complimentary references to “the distinguished Queen Tiy”, Akhenaton’s mother, who evidently exercised considerable influence in shaping Egypt’s foreign policy.  In the course of his long correspondence with the Pharaohs, Tushratta made those statements regarding his ancestors which have provided so much important data for modern historians of his kingdom.

During the early part of the Tell-el-Amarna period, Mitanni was the most powerful kingdom in Western Asia.  It was chiefly on that account that the daughters of its rulers were selected to be the wives and mothers of great Egyptian Pharaohs.  But its numerous enemies were ever plotting to accomplish its downfall.  Among these the foremost and most dangerous were the Hittites and the Assyrians.

The ascendancy of the Hittites was achieved in northern Syria with dramatic suddenness.  There arose in Asia Minor a great conqueror, named Subbi-luliuma, the successor of Hattusil I, who established a strong Hittite empire which endured for about two centuries.  His capital was at Boghaz-Koei.  Sweeping through Cappadocia, at the head of a finely organized army, remarkable for its mobility, he attacked the buffer states which owed allegiance to Mitanni and Egypt.  City after city fell before him, until at length he invaded Mitanni; but it is uncertain whether or not Tushratta met him in battle.  Large numbers of the Mitannians were, however, evicted and transferred to the land of the Hittites, where the Greeks subsequently found them, and where they are believed to be represented by the modern Kurds, the hereditary enemies of the Armenians.