principality · Mesopotamia and Iran

Bit-Hamban

850 BCE – 700 BCE (approx.)

A Zagros principality on the great road from Mesopotamia into Iran, repeatedly raided and finally annexed by Assyria.

Origins

Bit-Hamban lay in the western Zagros, probably around the upper Diyala and the Kermanshah region, along the route later called the Great Khorasan Road. It appears in Assyrian annals from the reign of Shalmaneser III in the mid-9th century BCE as a land of local lords.

Rule and society

Nothing is known of its institutions beyond Assyrian campaign reports, which list towns captured and tribute of horses and livestock. Its rulers seem to have been local chiefs rather than kings of a centralised state, sometimes in league with neighbours such as Parsua and Ellipi.

Decline and legacy

Tiglath-Pileser III incorporated Bit-Hamban into the Assyrian Empire in 744 BCE, and under Sargon II it formed part of the Assyrian provincial system in the Zagros. It disappears from the record by about 700 BCE.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Connections (1)

More states of Mesopotamia and Iran →

Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Bit-Hamban. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/bit-hamban
MLA
“Bit-Hamban.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/bit-hamban. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Bit-Hamban.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/bit-hamban.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Bit-Hamban’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/bit-hamban (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻