city state · Mesopotamia and Iran

Hamazi

2500 BCE – 2400 BCE (approx.) · capital Hamazi

A shadowy early kingdom in the hills east of the Tigris, listed among the holders of kingship in the Sumerian King List and in contact with distant Ebla.

Origins

Hamazi is known only from a handful of texts, and even its location is uncertain; most scholars place it in the Zagros foothills between the Diyala and the Lesser Zab, perhaps near modern Sulaymaniyah. It appears in the Early Dynastic period, around the 25th century BCE.

Rule and society

The Sumerian King List records a single king, Hadanish, as holding kingship for Hamazi before it passed to Uruk. A letter from the archives of Ebla in Syria, sent to a ruler named Zizi of Hamazi, shows that the kingdom was part of a long-distance diplomatic network and exchanged gifts with Syrian courts. Nothing is known of its society, language or religion beyond these mentions.

Decline and legacy

Hamazi disappears from the sources by the Akkadian period, presumably absorbed by stronger neighbours or by the Akkadian Empire's campaigns in the Zagros. A late Ur III text mentions people of Hamazi, but no later state of the name is known.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

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

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻