Mutakkil-Nusku

Mutakkil-Nusku, inscribed ^mmu-ta/tak-kil-^dPA.KU (meaning "he whom Nusku endows with confidence") was king of Assyria briefly c. 1132 BC, during a period of political decline. He reigned sufficiently long to be the recipient of a letter or letters from the Babylonian king, presumed to be Ninurta-nādin-šumi, in which he was lambasted and derided.

He was a younger son of the long-reigning king, Aššur-dān I (c. 1179 to 1134 BC) and succeeded his brother Ninurta-tukultī-Aššur, whom he ousted in a coup and subsequently went on to fight in a civil war that seems to have pitched the Assyrian heartland against its provinces. He appears on the Khorsabad Kinglist^{[i 1]} which relates that “Mutakkil-Nusku, his (Ninurta-tukultī-Aššur’s) brother, fought against him. He drove him to Karduniaš (Babylonia).” Contemporary evidence suggests that Ninurta-tukultī-Aššur sought sanctuary in the border town of Sišil, where Mutakkil-Nusku’s forces engaged him in battle, the outcome of which is lost.^[2]

The fragments of one or perhaps two Middle Assyrian letters exist,^{[i 2]} from an unnamed Babylonian king, possibly Ninurta-nādin-šumi, to Mutakkil-Nusku, where he is told that "You should act according to your heart (ki libbika).” The text lambastes him for failing to keep an appointment, or a challenge, in Zaqqa and seems to confirm that Ninurta-tukultī-Aššur had reached exile in Babylonia.^[3]

His victory was short-lived as ṭuppišu Mutakkil-Nusku kussâ ukta'il KUR-a e-mid, “(he) held the throne for ṭuppišu (his tablet), then died,” perhaps his inaugural year and part way into his first year only.^[4] One interpretation suggests this was while his father still nominally ruled.^[5] Apart from a brief economic text concerning 100 sheep of Mutakkil-Nusku, without a royal title, and his appearance in the genealogies of his descendants such as one of his sons, Aššur-rēša-iši I,^[3] there are no other extant inscriptions.^[5]