city state · Anatolia and the Levant

Ilansura

1800 BCE – 1700 BCE (approx.) · capital Ilansura

Ilansura, a small kingdom of the Khabur region best known for the unhappy marriage of King Haya-Sumu to two daughters of Zimri-Lim of Mari.

Origins

Ilansura was a city of the Ida-Maras district in north-eastern Syria whose exact site has not been identified. It emerged as an independent kingdom after the death of Shamshi-Adad and the break-up of the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia in the 1770s BCE.

Rule and society

Its king Haya-Sumu was a close ally of Zimri-Lim of Mari, who gave him his daughters Shimatum and Kirum in marriage. Kirum's letters to her father, complaining of humiliation by her sister and pleading to come home, are among the most personal documents of the Mari archive.

Decline and legacy

After Mari was destroyed by the Babylonian Empire c. 1760 BCE, Ilansura disappears from the record.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Connections (1)

  • Ilansura was a vassal of Mari1775 BCE – 1761 BCE

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

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻