Position in chronology
SAA 01 118. Merchants Petition the Palace (ABL 0231)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Aššur-bani. Good health to the king, my lord! (4) Saili who petitioned the [...] tells me: "A son of Sa[dir] has given 1.5 minas of gold to [...]; he has raised [from h]im 50 [..., and ...] to [......]" (10) A son of Sadir [......] bits and pieces [...... (Break) (r 1) [A son of] Sadir has ra[ised ...] for three years. (r 3) [The son]s of Sadir petitioned the Palace claiming they had weakened (financially), and they say: "We have been authorized by the Palace to raise the iškāru dues from the troops"; (r 7) What Saili is saying is: "In what sense is he weak? Just as I raise the iškāru on my own, so let him too raise it on his own."
Source: Parpola, S. 1987. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I: Letters from Assyria and the West. SAA 1. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa01/P334170/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na ⸢LUGAL*⸣ EN-ia / ARAD-ka maš-šur—[ba*]-ni / lu DI-mu a-na ⸢LUGAL*⸣ [EN]-⸢ia⸣ / msa-ì-lí ša a-na [x x] ⸢x⸣+[x] / i-ḫu-ur-⸢ú⸣-[ni] / ma-a DUMU msa-[dir šu-u] / 01 1/2 MA.NA KUG.GI a-⸢na⸣ [x x] / i-ti-din ma-a 50 ⸢x⸣+[x TA UGU]-ḫi-šú / in-ta-taḫ a-na m[x x x] / DUMU msa-dir [x x x x x] / ḫu-ṣa-bu ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x]-bu* / [DUMU m]⸢sa⸣-dir ina bat*-⸢x⸣+[x x x x] / [iš]-⸢QAR?⸣ 03 MU.AN.NA-MEŠ…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence under Sargon II, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 1, 1987). Letter from a governor or high official to the king of Assyria. ORACC text P334170.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334170). source
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. 1987. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I: Letters from Assyria and the West. SAA 1. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa01/P334170/.
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