“Us against the Others? How the figure of the enemy was built up in the Middle-Assyrian royal inscriptions (from Aššur-uballiṭ to Eriba-abad II)”

Résumé En

My contribution proposes to explore the taxonomy of the enemy in the Middle Assyrian royal inscriptions, in order to better understand the stylistic and rhetorical construction of an ideal figure able to highlight a Middle Assyrian identity. First and foremost, I wish to analyze and catalog the literary tools (stylistic in particular) that the royal inscriptions use to represent the enemy, and to define which “pattern of the enmity” is depicted in these programmatic texts, showing how it evolves in time. As a result, I will be able to highlight an ideal type of the enemy, which appears to be more complex than it seems at first sight, particularly because the frontier of Assyria itself is mobile on a diachronic level. Furthermore, I will show how we can find a variability of “otherness”, analyzing the different typologies of relations through which Assyria expresses its attitude and position with strangers, “enemies” or neighbours on the international and diplomatic scene. In addition, I will show how “the Other” is not at all “unknown” by Assyrians, in spite of the rhetorical attempt to make the enemy appears strange and foreign. Regular contacts with foreign territories (thanks to diplomacy and military intelligence for example) are implicit throughout the texts, even though the scribal tradition prefers to hide them. Above all, the Other can quickly become Ours, through the phenomena of cultural integration, be it by military capture or predation. This phenomenon is confirmed by recent archaeological studies, thanks to the ceramic and architectural record (in sites such as Tell Barri, Kurd Qaburstan, Tell Sabi Abyadh or Satu Qala).