Abstract

Zabala(m) Early Bronze Age city in southern Mesopotamia, belonging to the Sumerian city-state of Umma. It was apparently destroyed during the reign of the Akkadian king Rimush (2278–2270), who reports that he fought a battle with Zabala and the nearby city of Adab, killing 15,718 of the enemy’s troops and taking 14,576 of them prisoner, including the cities’ governors; he then demolished the walls of both cities (*DaK 200–1, *RIME 2: 41–2). But Zabala (like Adab) was subsequently rebuilt. Temples dedicated to its tutelary deity, Ishtar, were built or rebuilt by a number of rulers, including Naram-Sin (2254–2218) (George, 1993: 115, no. 664), his successor Shar-kali-sharri (*RIME 2: 192) and, in the Old Babylonian period, Hammurabi (George, 1993: 160, no. 1245). The goddess Ishtar of Zabalam was also worshipped in other cities, i.e. in the temples built for her in Nineveh and Babylon by Naram-Sin (*DaK 86, *RIME 2: 138–40).