Sinsharishkun (Sin-shar-ishkun, ca. 627 - 612 BC), who seems to have been the Saràkos (Saracus) of Berossus, was one of the last kings of the Assyrian empire.
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He was the son of Ashurbanipal, and possibly the brother of the last Assyrian king, Ashuruballit II (612-607 BC). He is the last king who has years attested in most Babylonian records. Little is known about this king due to the lack of sources for his time. It seems that he ascended the throne sometime around 627 BC. Although there is no actual proof, it is likely that Sinsharishkun's rise to power wasn't peaceful, he had to deal with the rebellious Sinshumulishir and his older brother and predecessor Ashuretililani.
After defeating his rivals, Sinsharishkun faced a much larger threat. His Babylonian vassal state rebelled under the previously unknown Nabopolassar in 626 BC. What followed was a long war fought in the Mesopotamian heartland. Nabopolassar tried to capture Nippur, the main Assyrian center of power in Babylonia, but failed because of the arrival of Assyrian reinforcements. However Nabopolassar did defeat the Assyrians in the field, and was crowned king in Babylon circa 626 BC. Sinsharishkun then lost more ground, succeeded in recapturing Uruk about 624 BC only to quickly lose it again. When Shinsharishkun led a large army to Babylonia in 623 BC another rebellion broke out in the Assyrian homeland. A relief army was sent back but surrendered without a fight so that the usurper could reach the capital Nineveh without interference, and claim the throne. Chronicles for the next few years are mostly absent and eventually Sinsharishkun was able to quell the homeland rebellion but precious time was lost to solve the Babylonian problem. In 621 BC or shortly thereafter Nabopolassar successfully captured Nippur and so broke the main hold of the Assyrians in Babylonia proper.
By 616 BC Nabopolassar felt strong enough to move the center of operations northward and launch an attack on Assyria itself. In the few short years that followed Ashur, Nimrud, and Nineveh were besieged and destroyed with the help of Medes and Scythians. The fate of Sinsharishkun is not certain, as the section of the Babylonian chronicle in which he is mentioned at the siege of Nineveh is damaged. Whether or not he survived the siege and sack of Nineveh by Chaldeans and Medes, Assyria was soon reduced to a rump state centered around its last capital city of Harran under its last king Ashur-uballit II and then destroyed by the Babylonians.
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Sinsharishkun of Assyria
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| Preceded by Sin-shumu-lishir |
King of Assyria 627–612 BC |
Succeeded by Ashur-uballit II |
The fictional discovery of the tomb of Sinsharishkun just before the outbreak of the First World War is the central topic of the novel Land of Marvels by Barry Unsworth.