Mitanni (
Hittite cuneiform KUR URUMi-ta-an-ni, also
Mittani Mi-it-ta-ni) or
Hanigalbat (
Assyrian Hanigalbat, Khanigalbat cuneiform
?a-ni-gal-bat ) was a
Hurrian kingdom in northern
Mesopotamia from ca.
1500 BC, at the height of its power, during the
14th century BC, encompassing what is today southeastern
Turkey, northern
Syria and northern
Iraq (roughly corresponding to
Kurdistan), centered around the capital
Washukanni whose precise location has not yet been determined by archaeologists.
The Mitanni kingdom is thought to have been a feudal state led by a warrior nobility of Indo-Aryan descent[citation needed], who invaded the Levant region at some point during the 17th century BC, their influence apparent in a linguistic superstrate in Mitanni records. The spread to Syria of a distinct pottery type associated with the Kura-Araxes culture has been connected with this movement, although its date is somewhat too early.[1]
Mitanni in northern Mesopotamia extended from Nuzi (modern Kirkuk) and the river Tigris in the east, to Aleppo and middle Syria (Nuhashshe) in the west. Its centre was in the Khabur river valley, with two capitals Taite and Washshukanni, called Taidu and Ushshukana respectively in Assyrian sources. (Vasu-khani would mean "mine of wealth" in Sanskrit, but cf. Luwian vasu- "good", Bashkani in modern Kurdish good water source) The whole area allows agriculture without artificial irrigation; cattle, sheep and goats were raised. It is very similar to Assyria in climate, and was settled by both indigenous Hurrian and Amoritic-speaking (Amurru) populations.
"This kingdom was simultaneously known under three names Mitanni, Hurri and Hanigalbat (and to the Egyptians and Canaanites also under a fourth name, the West Semitic designation Naharina or Naharima). All three names were equivalent and interchangeable," asserted Michael C. Astour.[2]
