Rib-Addi of Byblos was threatened by Abdi-Ashirta and his son Aziru,
Amorite rulers who followed the Hittite "party line" in seeking to
remove northern Syria from the Egyptian sphere of influence. Gebal, or
Gubla, was the ancient name of Byblos, a city which carried on commerce
with Egypt as early as 3000 B.C. Excavations have produced a cylinder
from the Thinite period of Egyptian history when the earliest Pharaohs
occupied the throne. Vases discovered at Byblos bear the names of
ancient Pharaohs including Mycerinus (twenty-seventh century B.C.), Unis
and Pepi (twenty-fourth century B.C.). From the port of Byblos, Egypt
imported cedars and spruce for use in building ships. Ships of Byblos
also carried jars of oil, spices, wine, and leather.
Although Rib-Addi wished to continue to serve as a loyal vassal of
Egypt, the chaos of the political situation pressed heavily upon him.
The Amarna collection includes fifty-three letters which he addressed to
Amenhotep II and Akhenaton warning them of the difficulty of the
situation. In one of them he notes:
Abdi-Ashirta has written to the warriors, "Assemble yourselves in the
house of Ninib, and we will fall upon Byblos."... Thus have they
formed a conspiracy with one another, and thus have I great fear that
there is no man to rescue me out of their hand. Like birds that lie in
a net, so am I in Byblos. Why do you hold yourself back in respect to
your land? Behold, thus I have written to the palace, and you have
paid no attention to my word.... What shall I do in my solitude?
Behold, thus I ask day and night.[33]
Abdi-Ashirta and his son Aziru also wrote letters to Egypt affirming
their loyalty. Two of them were addressed by Aziru to Dudu, an officer
of the Egyptian court with a Semitic name. Evidently Dudu occupied a
place in the court of Akhenaton comparable to that which Joseph occupied
some years before (Gen. 41:37-57). Aziru wrote:
To Dudu, my lord, my father.
So says Aziru, your son your servant:
At the feet of my father I will fall down. May my father be well.
Dudu, behold I have performed the wish of the king, my lord, and
whatever may be the wish of the king, my lord, let him write and I
will perform it. Further: Behold, you are there, my father, and
whatever is the wish of Dudu, my father, write, and I will indeed
perform it. Behold you are my father and my lord, and I am your son.
The lands of Amurru are your lands, and my house is your house, and
all your wish, write, and indeed I will perform your wish. And indeed
you are sitting before the king, my lord. Enemies have spoken
slanderous words to my father before the king, my lord. But do not
admit them. May you sit before the king, my lord, when I arise, and do
not admit against me slanderous words. I am a servant of the king, my
lord, and I will never depart from the words of the king, my lord, and
from the words of Dudu my father. But if the king, my lord, does not
love me but hates me, what shall I then say?[34]
There can be no doubt that Rib-Addi, and not Aziru, was truly loyal to
Egypt, for Aziru had made an alliance with Egypt's enemies, the
Hittites. Writing to the Egyptian Pharaoh, Rib-Addi complained:
I have written to the king, my lord: "They have taken all my cities.
The son of Abdi-Ashirta is their lord. Byblos is the only city that
belongs to me." And have I not sent my messenger to the king, my lord?
But you did not send soldiers, and you did not permit my messenger to
leave.... Send him with auxiliaries. If the king hates his city, then
I will abandon it, and if he permits me, an old man, to depart, then
send your man that he may protect it. Why was nothing given to me from
the palace? I have heard of the Hati people (i.e. the Hittites) that
they burn the lands with fire. I have repeatedly written but no answer
has come to me. All lands of the king, my lord, are conquered, and my
lord holds himself back from them, and behold, now they bring soldiers
from the Hati lands to conquer Byblos. Therefore care for thy
city.[35]
Rib-Addi stood alone in defending Byblos, but the force of the enemy
proved too much. He fled to Beirut where he found refuge in the palace
of its prince, Ammunira, with whom he was related by marriage. Byblos
fell, but Rib-Addi still hoped for aid from Egypt to win it back. From
Beirut he wrote:
If the king holds back in respect to the city, all the cities of
Canaan (Kinahni) will be lost to him.... But let the king, my lord,
quickly send archers that they may take the city at once.[36]
Finally Egypt did act. Aziru was apprehended and taken to Egypt where he
was evidently detained for some time. A son of Aziru addressed a letter
to the Egyptian official Dudu begging him for his father's release:
Aziru is your servant. Do not detain him there. Send him back quickly
that he may protect the lands of the king, our Lord.
He goes on to mention "the Sudu people" who were taking advantage of
Aziru's absence to further their own ends:
And all lands and all Sudu-people have said, "Aziru does not come from
Egypt." And now the Sudu steal out of the lands and exalt themselves
against me, saying, "Your father dwells in Egypt, so we will make
hostility with you."[37]
We do not know what happened to Rib-Addi. By his own testimony he was an
old man, but whether he died of natural causes or was a casualty in the
battles of his generation we do not know. There seems to be a poetic
justice in the fate of Aziru. As he had terrorized the Phoenician
countryside, so his Amorite lands were terrorized by other tribes which
were seeking a place for themselves in a time of general chaos. While
Suppiluliumas backed Aziru, the Hittites were really only using him as a
pawn to weaken Egyptian control in Asia and prepare the way for Hittite
domination.