Mutbaal
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Mutbaal (Akk. "man of Baal") was a Canaanite king of the Amarna period. He is identified in the Amarna letters as a son of Labaya, the ruler of Shachmu.
Mutbaal may be the son whose association with the Habiru raiders Labaya denounced in EA 254. He ruled in Pella on the eastern side of the Jordan river. After his father's death at the hands of the citizens of Gina, Mutbaal and his brother continued their assaults on other Canaanite rulers and their holdings, employing Habiru mercenaries. Eventually Biryawaza of Damascus was ordered by the Egyptian court to take armed action against the sons of Labaya. (EA 250)
David Rohl and a minority of scholars identify Mutbaal with Ishbaal or Ish-bosheth, the son of the Israelite King Saul, but the chronology that would make this identification feasible is not accepted by the majority of scholars.
[edit] Resources
- Baikie, James. The Amarna Age: A Study of the Crisis of the Ancient World. University Press of the Pacific, 2004.
- Cohen, Raymond and Raymond Westbrook (eds.). Amarna Diplomacy: The Beginnings of International Relations. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
- Moran, William L. (ed. and trans.) The Amarna Letters. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
