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Hayasa-Azzi or Azzi-Hayasa, Haisa was a confederation formed between the Kingdoms of Hayasa located South of Trabzon and Azzi, located North of the Euphrates and to the South of Hayasa.

Before Tudhaliya III (1500-1340s BC)

Hittite inscriptions deciphered in the 1920s by the Swiss scholar Emil Forrer testify to the existence of a mountain country, the Hayasa and/or the Azzi, lying around Lake Van. Several prominent authorities agree in placing Azzi to the north of Ishuwa. Others see Hayasa and Azzi as identical.

Records of the time between Telipinu and Tudhaliya III are sketchy. The Hittites seem to have abandoned their capital at Hattusa and moved to Sapinuwa under one of the earlier Tudhaliya kings. In the early 14th cenutury BC, Sapinuwa was burned as well. Hattusili III records at this time that the Azzi had "made Samuha its frontier." It should be borne in mind that people who view themselves as great civilizations are not always too particular about which group of so-called "Barbarians" they are fighting. Also at times multiple atrocities are blamed on one group as a rallying cry for a current war.

Tudhaliya III and Suppiluliuma I (1340s-1320s BC)

Tudhaliya III chose to make the city of Samuha, "an important cult centre located on the upper course of the Marassantiya river"as a temporary home for the Hittite royal court sometime after his abandonment of Hattusa in the face of attacks against his kingdom by the Kaska, Hayasa-Azzi and other enemies of his state. Samuha was, however, even seized by forces from the country of Azzi, as Hattusili III notes. At this point in time, the kingdom of Hatti was so besieged by attacks from its enemies that many neighbouring powers expected it to collapse. The Egyptian pharaoh, Amenhotep III, even wrote to Tarhundaradu, king of Arzawa thus saying: "I have heard that everything is finished and that the country of Hattusa is paralysed."(EA 31, 26-27) However, Tudhaliya rallied his forces; indeed, the speed and determination of the Hittite king may have surprised Hatti's enemies including the Kaska and Azzi-Hayasa. Tudhaliya sent his general Suppiliuma, who would later serve as king himself under the title Suppiluliuma I, against Hayasa. The Hayasa initially refused to fight, and retreated from a direct battle with the Hittite commander. Bryce notes, however, that Tudhalia and Suppiluliuma eventually:

"invaded Azzi-Hayasa and forced a showdown with its king Karanni (or Lanni) near the city of Kumaha. The passage (in the 'Deeds of Suppiluliuma') recording the outcome of this battle is missing. But almost certainly, the Hittite campaign resulted in the conquest of Azzi-Hayasa, for subsequently Suppiluliuma established it as a Hittite vassal state, drawing up a treaty with Hakkana, its current ruler.(CTH 42)"

The Hayasan's were obliged to repatriate all captured Hittite subjects and cede "the border which Suppiluliuma claimed belonged to the Land of Hatti.

During their reigns, the cuneiform tablets of Boğazköy begin to mention the names of three successive kings who ruled over a state of Hayasa and/or Azzi. They were Karanni, Mariya, and Hakkana.

Karanni made incursions into the Hittite empire, which were stopped by Tudhaliya together with Suppiluliuma. Mariya, the next king of Hayasa, who had married a Hittite princess, was punished with death because of his breach of matrimonial contract.

Hukkana, the third in the line, also married a Hittite princess; by now, Suppiluliuma had become king himself and Hukkana had married Suppiluliuma's sister.

In a treaty signed with Hukkana, Suppiluliuma I mentions a series of obligations of civil right:

"My sister, whom I gave you in marriage has sisters; through your marriage, they now become your relatives. Well, there is a law in the land of the Hatti. Do not approach sisters, your sisters-in law or your cousins; that is not permitted. In Hatti Land, whosoever commits such an act does not live; he dies. In your country, you do not hesitate to marry your own sister, sister-in law or cousin, because you are not civilized. Such an act cannot be permitted in Hatti."

Despite these restrictions imposed upon Hukkana, he was no meek and submissive brother-in law in political and military affairs. As a condition for the release of the thousands of Hittite prisoners held in his domain, he demanded first the return to home of the Hayasan prisoners confined in Hatti.

Mursili II (1320s-1290s BC)

The kingdom of Hayasa-Azzi remained quiet for a time, perhaps hit by the same plague which claimed Suppiluliuma and his son Arnuwanda II. But in Mursili's seventh year (three years before Mursili's eclipse - so, 1315 BC), the "lord of Azzi" Anniya took advantage of Pihhuniya's unification of the Kaskas and raided the Hittite border town of Dankuwa.

Cavaignac wrote of that period that Anniya "had sacked several districts and refused to release the prisoners taken. He had created a political union of the tribes of Armenia, and organized a kingdom which extended from the River Iris (Yeshil-Irmak) to the Lake of Van."

Hayasa's good fortune did not continue long, however. The Hittite King Mursili II, having defeated Pihhuniya and consulted the oracles, invaded Hayasa in. In the following spring, he crossed the Euphrates and re-organized his army at Ingalova ”Angegh, Angel” which, about ten centuries later, was to become the treasure-house and burial-place of the Armenian kings of the Arshakuni Dynasty. One of the captured fortresses lay on the west side of the Lake of Van.

The Annals of Mursili describe these campaigns;

The people of Nahasse arose and besieged" (name indecipherable). "Other enemies and the people of Hayasa likewise. They plundered Institina, blockaded Ganuvara with troops and chariots. And because I had left Nuvanzas, the chief cup-bearer, and all the heads of the camp and troops and chariots in the High Country, I wrote to Nuvanzas as follows; 'See the people of Hayasa have devastated Institina, and blockaded the city of Ganuvara.' And Nuvanza led troops and chariots for aid and marched to Ganuvara And then he sent to me a messenger and wrote to me; 'Will you not go to consult for me the augur and the foreteller? Could not a decision be made for me by the birds and the flesh of the expiatory victims?

And I sent to Nuvanza this letter: 'See, I consulted for you birds and flesh, and they commanded, Go! because these people of Hayasa, the God U, has already delivered to you; strike them!

And as I was returning from Astatan to Carchemish, the royal prince Nana-Lu came to meet me on the road and said, 'The Hayasan enemy having besieged Ganuvara, Nuvanza marched against him and met him under the walls of Ganuvara. Ten thousand men and seven hundred chariots were drawn up in battle against him, and Nuvanza defeated them. There are many dead and many prisoners.

(Here the tablets are defaced, and 15 lines lost.)

And when I arrived in Tiggaramma, the chief cup-bearer Nuvanza and all the noblemen came to meet me at Tiggaramma. I should have marched to Hayasa still, but the chiefs said to me, 'The season is now far advanced, Sire, Lord! Do not go to Hayasa.' And I did not go to Hayasa.

After Anniya's defeat, neither Azzi nor Hayasa re-emerge in the Hittite (or Assyrian) record as a unified nation.

References

1. Trevor R. Bryce, The Kingdom of the Hittites, Oxford University Press. 1998, p.160
2. Bryce, op. cit., p.160
3. William L. Moran, The Amarna Letters, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992., p.101
4. Bryce, op. cit., pp.160-162
5. Bryce, op. cit., pp.162-63
6. Bryce, op. cit., p.163
7. CTH 61, 43, 78

See also

• Ishuwa
• Hurrians
• Phrygians
• History of the Hittites
• Indo-European languages
• Prehistoric Armenia

• Hayasa
• Hittite Empire
• Ancient peoples
• Prehistoric Armenia