tribal confederation · Mesopotamia and Iran

Bit-Yakin

880 BCE – 640 BCE (approx.) · capital Dur-Yakin

The most powerful Chaldean tribe of southern Babylonia, home of Merodach-baladan, the long-time rival of the kings of Assyria.

Origins

Bit-Yakin occupied the marshes and coastland at the head of the Gulf, the region once called the Sealand. Its fortified centre was Dur-Yakin. Like the other Chaldean tribes, it appears in Assyrian annals in the 9th century BCE, when its chiefs paid tribute to Shalmaneser III.

Rule and society

Its sheikhs grew rich from date palms, Gulf trade and control of the marsh routes, which also made their land a refuge from Assyrian armies. Merodach-baladan II (Marduk-apla-iddina) made himself king of Babylon from 721 to 710 BCE and again in 703 BCE, allied with the Neo-Elamite kingdom and sent envoys as far as Judah, an embassy mentioned in the Bible.

Decline and legacy

Sargon II took Dur-Yakin in 709 BCE, and Sennacherib pursued the tribe's refugees by ship to Elam in 694 BCE. Merodach-baladan's grandson Nabu-bel-shumati joined Shamash-shum-ukin's revolt and died in Elam around 648 BCE, after which Bit-Yakin disappears as a power.

Lineage

Bit-YakinChaldean Empire 626 BCE – 539 BCE

Connections (1)

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

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻