Shalim-ahum

Shalim-ahum or Šalim-ahum was a ruler of the city-state of Assur fl. c. 1900 BC (short chronology.) The Assyrian King List records his name as Šallim-aḫḫe, inscribed šal-lim-PAB-MEŠ, meaning, “keep the brothers safe”, and he appears among the six kings “whose eponyms are not found”, meaning that the length of his reign was unknown. He was described as the son of Puzur-Ashur I (dumu Puzu Assur) in his only known inscription. He is the earliest independent ruler to be attested in a contemporary inscription. Carved in curious archaic character mirror-writing in Old Assyrian on an alabaster block found during the German excavations at Assur under Walter Andrae, this sole exemplar of his contemporary inscriptions records that the god Ashur “requested of him” the construction of a temple and that he had “beer vats and storage area” built in the “temple area”.

He ruled during a period when nascent Assyrian merchant companies were branching out into Anatolia to trade textiles and tin from Assur for silver. He was succeeded by his son, Ilu-shuma, as recorded in his brick and limestone inscriptions and he appears in the genealogy of his grandson, Erishum I. His name appears in an inscription of Adad-nirari I and one of Shalmaneser I but only in the context of references to his son, Ilu-shuma. Shalim-ahum and his successors bore the title išši’ak Aššur, vice regent of Assur, as well as ensí.