These recurring conflicts were intimately associated with the Mesopotamian question.  Assyria was gradually expanding westward and shattering the dreams of the Babylonian statesmen and traders who hoped to recover control of the caravan routes and restore the prestige of their nation in the west.

Like his father, Adad-nirari I of Assyria had attacked the Aramaean “Suti” who were settling about Haran.  He also acquired a further portion of the ancient kingdom of Mitanni, with the result that he exercised sway over part of northern Mesopotamia.  After defeating Na’zi-mar-ut’tash, he fixed the boundaries of the Assyrian and Babylonian spheres of influence much to the advantage of his own country.

At home Adad-nirari conducted a vigorous policy.  He developed the resources of the city state of Asshur by constructing a great dam and quay wall, while he contributed to the prosperity of the priesthood and the growth of Assyrian culture by extending the temple of the god Ashur.  Ere he died, he assumed the proud title of “Shar Kishshate”, “king of the world”, which was also used by his son Shalmaneser I. His reign extended over a period of thirty years and terminated about 1300 B.C.

Soon after Shalmaneser came to the throne his country suffered greatly from an earthquake, which threw down Ishtar’s temple at Nineveh and Ashur’s temple at Asshur.  Fire broke out in the latter building and destroyed it completely.

These disasters did not dismay the young monarch.  Indeed, they appear to have stimulated him to set out on a career of conquest, to secure treasure and slaves, so as to carry out the work of reconstructing the temples without delay.  He became as great a builder, and as tireless a campaigner as Thothmes III of Egypt, and under his guidance Assyria became the most powerful nation in Western Asia.  Ere he died his armies were so greatly dreaded that the Egyptians and Assyrians drew their long struggle for supremacy in Syria to a close, and formed an alliance for mutual protection against their common enemy.

It is necessary at this point to review briefly the history of Palestine and north Syria after the period of Hittite expansion under King Subbi-luliuma and the decline of Egyptian power under Akhenaton.  The western part of Mitanni and the most of northern Syria had been colonized by the Hittites.[410] Farther south, their allies, the Amorites, formed a buffer State on the borders of Egypt’s limited sphere of influence in southern Palestine, and of Babylonia’s sphere in southern Mesopotamia.  Mitanni was governed by a subject king who was expected to prevent the acquisition by Assyria of territory in the north-west.

Subbi-luliuma was succeeded on the Hittite throne by his son, King Mursil, who was known to the Egyptians as “Meraser”, or “Maurasar”.  The greater part of this monarch’s reign appears to have been peaceful and prosperous.  His allies protected his frontiers, and he was able to devote himself to the work of consolidating his empire in Asia Minor and North Syria.  He erected a great palace at Boghaz Koei, and appears to have had dreams of imitating the splendours of the royal Courts of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon.