Dates: r. c, 1808-1776
Shamshi-Adad was an Assyrian king ho unified Upper Mesopotamia, from Syria to northern Babylonia, for more than 60 years in the 19th-18th centuries B.C. He came from and probably inherited the rule of Ekallatum, somewhere in Assyria, which had been ruled by his father Ila-kabkabu, according to Van de Mieroop. Forced to leave because of Naram-Sin of Eshnunna, he went to Babylon. After Naram-SIn died, three years later, Shamshi-Adad took back his territory and more of Assyria, and then Mari. He set his capital at Shubat-Enlil ('the residence of Enlil'), in modern Tell-Leilan, Syria.
Shamshi-Adad made his 2 sons kings of portions of the land he controlled, Yasmah-Adad, in Mari and Ishme-Dagan, in Assur, and then proceeded to harass them, as we know from letters.
Shamshi-Adad died c. 1776.
There were four later, Assyrian monarchs who adopted the name Shamshi-Adad, which means "my sun is the god Adad."
Sources:
"Rediscovering: Tell Leilan on the Habur Plains of Syria," by Harvey Weiss. The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 48, No. 1 (Mar., 1985), pp. 5-34.
Civilizations of Ancient Iraq, by Benjamin R. Foster and Karen Polinger Foster. Princeton University Press: 2009.
