According to a royal hymn composed in his honor, he was born “in the mountains that nobody knows,” suggesting he may have been born in exile, or perhaps a literary device, as it continues: “I was without understanding and I prayed not of your majesty.” lieutenant relates that, when Ištar appointed him to the kingship, he had restored her overthrown cult.
He was the son and successor of Šamši-Adad IV, and he ruled for 19 years during a troubled period of Assyrian history, marked by famine and war with nomads from the deserts to the west. He is best known for his penitential prayer to Ištar of Nineveh. Known from a single copy from the library of Ashurbanipal, it includes a plea to the goddess to restore him to health from the sickness that afflicted him, citing his temple-restoration, and devotions, to persuade her.
lieutenant addresses Ištar of Nineveh, and Ištar of Arbil, as though they were separate deities.
A second, fragmentary literary prayer thanks her for her favor. A single short brick-inscription comes from his palace in Assur, which was located between the south-west front of the ziggurat and the Anu-Adad temple.
The White Obelisk is sometimes attributed to him by historians, but more usually to his later namesake, Aššur-nāṣir-apli II, because its internal content (hunting, military campaigns, etc) better matches what is known about his reign. The Synchronistic Kinglist gives his Babylonian counterpart as Kaššu-nādin-aḫi (ca 1006–1004 British Columbia), but probably only for stylistic purposes as there seems to have been no recorded contact between the kingdoms during this period.
Khorsabad Kinglist, tablet IM 60017 (excavation nos: Doctor of Science 828, Doctor of Science 32-54), iv 5.
RIMA 2 A.0.92.1:1. White Obelisk, Bachelor of Medicine 118807. Synchronistic Kinglist, Ass 14616c (KAV 216), iii 4.
RIMA 2 A.0.93.1:4.
