Around 1000, the Israelites were united under elected kings, first Saul and then David, a warlord who made his name fighting the Philistine tribes of the coast. David, whose existence as the founder of a kingdom called the House of David is confirmed by a stele found at Tel Dan, chose a small Canaanite stronghold and shrine as his capitaclass="underline" Jerusalem. On Mount Moriah, David’s son Solomon built a temple to the one god idiosyncratically worshipped by the Israelites, who disdained Baal and the Canaanite pantheon of gods. There is no evidence for Solomon’s existence except the Bible,* but there is plenty of evidence for the Jewish Temple that existed soon afterwards. The united Israelite kingdom quickly broke up: the House of David ruled the southern part, Judah – the origin of the word Jew – based around the richly endowed Jerusalem Temple that was raided by one of the Libyan pharaohs of Egypt, who mentioned it in his inscriptions. The northern half of Canaan was ruled by a larger, more formidable kingdom, Israel, built up by a general, Omri, who seized the throne, founded a new capital, Samaria, where the ivory artefacts of his splendid palace have been found, and made it a regional power, building his own temple, conquering Moab across the Jordan and marrying his son Ahab to a princess of Sidon: Jezebel.
Israel was close to the Canani* and their rich coastal city states, like Tyre, Byblos and Acre (Lebanon/Israel), traders in purple dye, cedarwood, carved ivory and ebony (imported from Africa) and glass artefacts, united together at this time under a priest-king Ithobaal of Sidon, Jezebel’s father. Worshipping Baal, Astarte and other gods, the Canani – also known as the Phoenicians – voyaging in ships powered by rows of enslaved oarsmen, were already founding colonies in Sicily, Sardinia, Spain (Cadiz), trading and seeking new sources of iron, tin and silver, even passing into the Atlantic to found Mogador in Morocco. In the process, they spread their written language, an alphabet of 22 consonants, just at the time the Tyrians founded their New City, Qart Hadasht – Carthage (Tunisia). Assyrian kings furnished their palaces with Canaanite ivories; Omri’s palace in Samaria was filled with the Canani’s ivory carvings and treasures.
The marriage of Ahab to Jezebel linked Omri’s family to this sophisticated Eurasian network, very far from the puritanical priests of remote Jerusalem. Many of the achievements assigned by the Bible to Solomon may describe Omri, who built the port-fortress at Tel Kheleifah on the Red Sea between Elath and Aqaba, to trade spices and ivory, via the kingdom of Sheba (Yemen/Eritrea), with Africa, Arabia and India. But when Omri died in 873, Ahab and Jezebel faced an imminent threat: Assyria was back.
Shalmaneser III, portrayed on his steles gripping a royal mace and wearing the crown, robes and braided long beard of an Assyrian monarch, blessed by his god Ashur, reconquered Iraq, attacked into Persia – boasting that he received the tribute of the Paruwash (the first mention of the Persians) – then struck westwards, demanding the tribute of Israelites and Canani.
Ahab of Israel and Hadanezer of Aram-Damascus refused and massed their armies, joined by the 1,000 cameleers of King Gindibu of the Arabs, their first appearance in history, and the first recorded use of camels in battle.*
Shalmaneser marched south. Jews and Arabs, Aramaeans and Phoenicians drew their swords.
TIGLATH-PILESER AND FAMILY: THE WORLD -CONQUERING ASSYRIANS
Shalmaneser, fielding 100,000 men that day, defeated the Israelite–Aramaean–Arab alliance, killing 14,000 of them, but a rebellion called him home. As soon as he was gone, the allies fell out among themselves: Ahab returned to his alliance with his compatriots in Jerusalem, marrying his daughter Athaliah to its heir. But he was killed by Hadanezer. Jezebel oversaw the succession of her family in Jerusalem and Samaria, but in 825, ‘Jehu of the House of Omri’ – as the Assyrians called him – assassinated both kings and then trapped Queen Mother Jezebel in her Samarian palace, where she faced down the rebels dressed in her royal jewels and regalia, only for three court eunuchs, suborned by the rebels, to toss her out of the window. Jehu trampled the queen with his horse, her body torn apart by dogs – and paid tribute to Shalmaneser.
The sole survivor of this family massacre was Queen Mother Athaliah of Judah who seized power in Jerusalem and ruled in her own right – that rare phenomenon, a queen regnant. But Athaliah was – like her mother Jezebel – a homicidal megalomaniac who slaughtered the royal family to retain power. Only one Davidic prince was hidden from her killers. Once his survival was known, the courtiers assassinated Athaliah. Israel was an Assyrian vassal but tiny Judah survived as Assyria itself faltered.*
In 754 Urartu, a mountain kingdom famed for its military ferocity and bronze craftsmanship, situated in the mountains of north-western Iran, Azerbaijan and Armenia, shattered the Assyrians. The downfall seemed final, but one man changed everything: his real name was Pulu, a prince who governed the Assyrian capital Kahlu (Nimrud). In 745, taking the name Tiglath-Pileser III, he created a new Assyria, diminishing the overmighty nobility, recruiting a professional army and specialized auxiliaries, all funded by his efficient tax collecting, directed though a cabinet of seven; his orders stamped with the imperial seal of the king killing a lion were conveyed along royal roads by special couriers. Tiglath-Pileser was voracious and tireless, in perpetual motion, scourging Elam, climbing with his men into the mountains to defeat Urartu* and routing an Arab queen. When Damascus and Israel besieged Jerusalem, King Ahaz of Judah unwisely invited Tiglath-Pileser to help: ‘“I’m your servant … Come and save me,” and the King of Assyria came.’
Tiglath-Pileser made Judah a vassal and reduced Israel to a rump, whose king in 727 desperately sought a way to escape Assyrian rule: he appealed to Egypt, but its pharaohs no longer counted. The unthinkable was about to happen: Kush was about to take Egypt.
ALARA OF KUSH: FIRST AFRICAN EMPIRE
In 727 BC, Piye, king of Kush, galloped northwards into Egypt. Kush had existed for millennia alongside Egypt, its twin riverine civilization. Around 800, a local ruler called Alara, who later assumed the title of king, united a realm based in Napata, a city founded by Thutmose III, close to the holy cobra mountain of Jebel Barkal, which was governed by a literate court – with secretaries of the archives and chief treasurers. Kush fielded crack archers and formidable cavalry, all funded by trade between the Mediterranean, inland Africa and, via the Red Sea, India.
Alara oversaw a hybrid Egyptian–Kushite religion. Originally Kushites buried their dead beneath circular mounds at el-Kurru near their capital Kerma, accompanied by droves of relatives or servants, sacrificed by being buried alive. Then their kings started to build pyramids for their burials: 200 pyramids still stand in Sudan, almost double those of Egypt. Like a pharaoh, Alara called himself Son of Amun and married his sister. Alara’s brother Kashta succeeded him just as the instability in Egypt, particularly a conflict in Thebes between a king and his Amun priests, forced the latter to seek asylum in Napata, the new Kushite capital, where they encouraged Kashta to see himself as the legitimate guardian of Amun – and of Egypt.