CHAPTER XXIV - THE HITTITES AND SYRIA (1300-1200 B.C.)

Summary

THE LATER REIGN OF MUWATALLISH

Since the conquest of Shuppiluliumash the Hittites had considered Kinza (Qadesh on the Orontes) and Amurru their southernmost possessions. With the rise of the Nineteenth Dynasty, the Egyptians sought to recover their former Syrian dependencies, in other words to dislodge the Hittites and to drive them as far north as possible. The issue then, seen from the Hittite point of view, was this: which of the two rivals was to dominate Syria and, more specifically, which of them was to control Kinza and Amurru?

The latent rivalry between the Egyptians and the Hittites erupted into open warfare as soon as Amurru, as an immediate result of the successful Syrian campaign of Sethos 1(1318-1304) which had brought the pharaoh at least as far north as Kinza (Kidsa, Qadesh), was compelled to abrogate the treaty which bound it to the Hittite king. This was done in a formal way which must have made it clear to the Hittite that Bente-shina, then king of Amurru, had no other alternative. Kinza had likewise been drawn into the Egyptian orbit, the rest of Syria, however, remained in Hittite hands. At that time Muwatallish had ruled over the Khatti Land for only a short time. Conditions induced him to acquiesce temporarily. He doubtless sent the customary message to Ramesses II (1304-1237) upon his accession to the throne of the pharaohs; but he definitely did not consider himself, as Egyptian sources will have it, a subject of the pharaoh. On the contrary, it is obvious that he prepared feverishly for the inevitable trial of strength. It was close at hand when Ramesses in the campaign of his fourth year (1301), reached Beruta and Byblos.