Tabal

Area néo- hittite, populated mainly by Louvite S, located in the south-east of the Anatolia, in the area of current the Kayseri. A whole of principalities constituting a kind of confederation emerges there from the ruins of the old kingdom hittite and those of the Kizzuwatna towards the end of thousand-year-old Ier before Jesus-Christ, and perdure until the end of VIIIè century. Its history is especially known to us within the framework of its fight with the Assyrian Empire.

The first Assyrian sovereign has to mention Tabal is Salmanazar III, which undertakes a victorious campaign against the kings of this country and its southernmost neighbor, the That in 839. The emegence of the kingdom of the Urartu in the years which follow will provide to the kings of Tabal an ally of weight vis-a-vis the Assyrians. The kings urartéens Argishti Ier (788-766) and Sarduri II (766-733) initially succeed in pushing back with the Assyrian expansion, but this last and its allies néo-hittites, whose Tabal, is finally beaten by Teglath-Phalasar III into 743. In spite of the retreat of Urartu, Tabal continues to resist Assyrie. It seems whereas the country is plain under the cut of only one king named Washu-Sharma. This one brings together around the kings of other néo-Assyrian kingdoms, but Teglat-Phalasar beats it into 730, deposits it and off-sets it in Assyrie, it to replace by a sovereign marionette, Hulli.

That is not enough to calm the situation, and Hulli joins with the king of Phrygie Midas (Mita de Mushki of the Assyrian texts), and with that of Karkemish. It is the new Assyrian sovereign, Sargon II, which takes the things in hand: it demolishes the enemy coalition into 718, and replaces Hulli by his Ambaris son, who marries the girl of the Assyrian king and even sees himself granted the area of Hilakku (the Cilicie). But this situation was not appropriate obviously for Sargon, which decides to annex purely and simply Tabal into 713, to make an Assyrian province of it. The close kingdoms néo-hittites, That and Kummuhu, undergo the same fate shortly after. That concerns the new step adopted by the Assyrian kings, who prefer to substitute for the vassal kings of the governors of Assyrian origin much more reliable.

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