Hittites

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

the English name of a people who waged war with Egypt and Assyria for a thousand years, and who moved on parallel lines with the people of Israel from the call of Abraham to the Captivity. When the Semitic tribe with Abraham at their head moved from Haran to Canaan the Hittites inhabited the land (Gen. xv: 20), and 50 years later Abraham, a wandering sheikh, purchased a grave for his wife from the Hittites, who were then in possession and power at Hebron (Gen. xxiii: 4). The patriarch's family continued to live side by side with the Hittites; and Esau, the bedawi, the HOANG-Hno grandson of Abraham, married two Hittite wives (Gen. xxvi: 35). During the sojourn in Egypt the Israelites had the promise of occupying the land of the Hittites oft repeated (Exod. iii: 8). Next in importance is the testimony of the Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions. In the Egyptian inscriptions the Hittites stand out as rivals of the Pharaohs in peace and war from the 12th to the 20th dynasty. The Hittites occupy an important place in the Assyrian inscriptions. The reign of Sargon of Agade has been placed about the 19th century B. C. Even as early as the reign of Sargon I. the Hittites were a formidable power, and it has been supposed occupied Mesopotamia. About 1130 b. c., the Hittites were paramount from the Euphrates to the Lebanon. Tiglath-pileser I. drove back the Hittites from his borders, and made them tributaries, but they soon threw off the Assyrian yoke, and a desperate struggle for supremacy was waged for 400 years. The reign of Assur-nasir- 20 pal (883-858 B. c.) is largely a record of wars with the Hittites. His son, Shalmaneser, undertook 30 campaigns chiefly "in the land of the Hittites." The war continued to the close of the king's reign, and was carried on by the kings who succeeded him; and 100 years later the Assyrians were still in deadly conflict with the Hittites. Sargon II. came to the throne in 721 B. C., and his first year was distinguished by the capture of Samaria and the captivity of the Israelites, and four years later (717 B. c.) he brought the empire of the Hittites to a close by the defeat of Pisiri and the capture of Carchemish. Thus ended the mighty empire of the Hittites, having maintained its exist ence, defying all enemies, longer than the empires of Babylon, or Assyria, or Greece, or Rome.