city state · Anatolia and the Levant

Kahat

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

Kahat, a small kingdom of the upper Khabur plains in the age of Mari, one of many rival city-states of the region known as Ida-Maras.

Origins

Kahat grew at Tell Barri on the Jaghjagh river in north-eastern Syria, a site inhabited since the 4th millennium BCE. By the 18th century BCE it was one of the minor kingdoms of the Ida-Maras district, between the larger powers of Mari, Ashnakkum and Shubat-Enlil.

Rule and society

Known mainly from the Mari letters, its kings swore alliances with Zimri-Lim and switched sides as the balance of power shifted. Kahat was also a religious centre of the storm god, honoured in later Hurrian and Assyrian sources. Italian excavations since 1980 have explored the town.

Decline and legacy

The kingdom lost its independence when Hammurabi's Babylonian Empire and later the Mitanni Empire reshaped northern Mesopotamia. Kahat survived as a town under Mitanni and the Assyrian Empire.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Connections (1)

  • Kahat was a vassal of Mari1775 BCE – 1761 BCE

More states of Anatolia and the Levant →

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

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻