A number of non-Greek etymologies have been suggested for the name, The form Apaliunas (< sup > d </ sup >) is attested as a god of Wilusa in a treaty between Alaksandu of Wilusa and the Hittite great king Muwatalli II ca 1280 BCE.

In a Hittite text is mentioned that the king invited a Babylonian priestess for a certain " purification ".

However, Sargon took this process further, conquering many of the surrounding regions to create an empire that reached westward as far as the Mediterranean Sea and perhaps Cyprus ( Kaptara ); northward as far as the mountains ( a later Hittite text asserts he fought the Hattite king Nurdaggal of Burushanda, well into Anatolia ); eastward over Elam ; and as far south as Magan ( Oman ) — a region over which he reigned for purportedly 56 years, though only four " year-names " survive.

Another important example is the Tawagalawa Letter written by an unnamed Hittite king ( most probably Hattusili III ) of the empire period ( 14th-13th century BC ) to the king of Ahhiyawa, treating him as an equal and suggesting that Miletus ( Millawanda ) was under his control.

The story can be compared to that of a 13th century Hittite king who was forced to take the throne after a lifetime of loyalty when his life was in danger: like David, he was assisted by his god, whose divine will decided the course of events.

Francis William Newman expressed the critical view common in the early 19th Century, that if the Hittites existed at all " no Hittite king could have compared in power to the King of Judah ...".

The head of the Hittite state was the king, followed by the heir-apparent, although some officials exercised independent authority over various branches of the government.

The letter describes one Piyama-Radu as a troublesome rebel who overthrew a Hittite client king and thereafter established his own rule over the city of Troy ( mentioned as Wilusa in Hittite ).

In 1230 BC Hittite king Tudhaliya IV ( ca.

Similarly, a Hittite king wrote the so-called Tawagalawa letter to the Great King of Ahhiyawa, concerning the depredations of the Luwiyan adventurer Piyama-Radu.

Neither of the names of the great kings are stated ; the Hittite king could be either Muwatalli II or his brother Hattusili III, which at least dates the letter to LHIIIB by Mycenaean standards.

* 1595 BC: Sack of Babylon by the Hittite king Mursilis I.

He was overthrown following the " sack of Babylon " by the Hittite king Mursili I, and Babylonia was turned over to the Kassites, with whom Samsu-iluna had already come into conflict in his 6th year.

The date of the sack of Babylon by the Hittite king Mursilis I is considered crucial to the various calculations of the early chronology of the ancient Near East, since both a solar and a lunar eclipse are said to have occurred in the month of Sivan that year, according to ancient records.

However, Nebuchadnezzar failed to extend Babylonian territory further, being defeated by Ashur-resh-ishi I, king of the Assyrians for control of formerly Hittite controlled territories in Aramea ( Syria ).

In 1274 BC Shalmaneser I ascended the throne, a powerful warrior king, he annexed territories in Syria and Canaan previously under Egyptian or Hittite influence, and the growing power of Assyria was perhaps the reason why these two states made peace with one another.

The Amoritic-Hurrian kingdom of Yamhad is recorded as struggling for this area with the early Hittite king Hattusilis I around 1600 BCE.

The army of the Hittite king Mursili I made its way down to Babylon and sacked the city.

From the form of the name, it is suspected that Shamgar may actually have been a Hittite, a similar name occurring with Sangara, a Hittite king of Carchemish ; it is also the case that Anath is the name of a Canaanite deity, and son of Anath is thus merely a royal title.

In a treaty between the Hittite Great King Tudhaliya IV and his vassal, the king of Tarhuntassa, we read of the city " Parha " ( Perge ), and the " Kastaraya River " ( Classical Kestros River, Turkish Aksu Çayı ).

In his second year he defeated Shattuara, king of Hanilgalbat, and his Hittite and Ahlamu allies.

The Hittite king Suppiluliuma I invaded the Mitanni vassal states in northern Syria and replaced them with loyal subjects.

It is unlikely that Seti I made a peace treaty with the Hittites or voluntarily returned Kadesh and Amurru to them but he may have reached an informal understanding with the Hittite king Muwatalli on the precise boundaries of the Egyptian and Hittite Empires.

His campaigns of reconquest culminated in the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC, where he led Egyptian armies against those of the Hittite king Muwatalli II and was caught in history's first recorded military ambush.

The Battle of Kadesh ( also Qadesh ) took place between the forces of the Egyptian Empire under Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II at the city of Kadesh on the Orontes River, in what is now the Syrian Arab Republic.

Muwatalli is reported by Ramesses to have called for a truce, but this may be propaganda since Hittite records note no such arrangement.

The Hittite king, Muwatalli II, continued to campaign as far south as the Egyptian province of Upi ( Apa ), which he captured and placed under the control of his brother Hattusili, the future Hattusili III.

His campaigns of reconquest culminated in the Battle of Kadesh, where he led Egyptian armies against those of the Hittite king Muwatalli II and was caught in history's first recorded military ambush but Ramesses was able to rally his troops and turn the tide of battle against the Hittites thanks to the arrival of the Ne ' arin.

Muwatalli II (< sup > m </ sup > NIR. GÁL ) ( also Muwatallis, or Muwatallish ) was a king of the New kingdom of the Hittite empire ( ca.

It states that this ruler sacked the city of Tarhutassa which was a Hittite city and had briefly served as the Empire's political capital under the reign of Muwatalli II.

In the treaty between Muwatalli II and Talmi-Šarruma of Aleppo, reference is made to a ruler named Hattusili, but it is debated whether the reference is to an otherwise unknown Hittite ruler, or rather to Hattusili I.

The Hittite kings are held to be ghost doubles of the Neo-Babylonian kings, and Rameses II's battle with the Hittites at Kadesh is identical to Necho's fight against Nebuchadrezzar II at Carchemish, Nabopolassar is Mursili II, Neriglissar is Muwatalli, Labashi-Marduk is Urhi-Teshup, and Nebuchadrezzar II is Hattusili III.

Alaksandu was a king of Wilusa who sealed a treaty with Hittite king Muwatalli II ca.

Among the proposed etymologies is the Hurrian and Hittite divinity, Aplu, who was widely invoked during the " plague years ".

After 1180 BC, the Hittite empire disintegrated into several independent " Neo-Hittite " states, subsequent to losing much territory to the Middle Assyrian Empire and being finally overrun by the Phrygians, another Indo-European people who are believed to have migrated from The Balkans.

A further theory, mentioned by Egyptian hieroglyphs, is that the destruction of the palaces is related to the attacks of the mysterious Sea Peoples who destroyed the Hittite Empire and then attacked the 19th then the 20th dynasties of Egypt.

He was followed by Adad-nirari I ( 1295 – 1275 BC ) who continued expansion to the northwest, mainly at the expense of the Hittites and Hurrians, conquering Hittite territories such as Carchemish and beyond.

Set was also identified by the Egyptians with the Hittite deity Teshub, who was a storm god like Set.

The name Teucer is believed to be related to the name of the West Hittite God Tarku ( East Hittite Teshub ) -- the Indo-European Storm God -- a role which explains his relationship to Belus, who is the Semitic storm god Baal.

If we may believe the transmission of Nicolaus of Damascus who quotes him, Xanthus wrote the name with-ks -, like in the Hittite and Luwian texts ; given that Lydian also belongs to the Anatolian language family, it is possible that Xanthus relied on a local non-Greek tradition according to which Mukšuš was a Luwian.

The Hittite conquest of Aleppo ( Yamhad ), the weak middle Assyrian kings who succeeded Puzur-Ashur III, and the internal strifes of the Hittites had created a power vacuum in upper Mesopotamia.

The fugitive Shattiwaza may have gone to Babylon first, but eventually ended up at the court of the Hittite king, who married him to one of his daughters.

He sought Hittite help, but that kingdom was preoccupied with internal struggles, possibly connected with the usurpation of Hattusili III, who had driven his nephew Urhi-Teshup into exile.

Asherah (; Ugaritic:: ' ṯrt ; ), in Semitic mythology, is a Semitic mother goddess, who appears in a number of ancient sources including Akkadian writings by the name of Ashratum / Ashratu and in Hittite as Asherdu ( s ) or Ashertu ( s ) or Aserdu ( s ) or Asertu ( s ).

In the Slavic version of the myth, Perun is a god of thunder, whilst Veles acts as a dragon who opposes him, consistent with the Vala etymology ; He is also similar to the Etruscan Underworld-monster Vetha and to the dragon Illuyankas, enemy of the storm god of Hittite mythology.

Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and afterward of David, by whom she gave birth to Solomon, who succeeded David as king.

In 1274 BC, Karkisa are also mentioned among those who fought on the Hittite Empire side against the Egyptians in the Battle of Kadesh.

It has been proposed by some biblical scholars that Mahalath is another name for Esau's wife Basemath who is mentioned in Genesis 36 ; J. B. Phillips suggests that Esau changed the names of his Hittite wives as a way of pacifying his parents for the grief he caused them when he married Canaanite women, since he had two wives in his life called Basemath, he had to change the Ishmaelite's name, of which he chose: Mahalath.

Hittite ( natively " the language of Neša ") a. k. a. Nesite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, an Indo-European people who created an empire centred on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia ( Asia Minor ).

After a brief initial delay due to the disruption caused by the First World War, Hrozný's decipherment, tentative grammatical analysis, and demonstration of the Indo-European affiliation of Hittite were rapidly accepted and more broadly substantiated by contemporary scholars such as Edgar H. Sturtevant who authored the first scientifically acceptable Hittite grammar with a chrestomathy and a glossary.

The most important of these is the myth " The Moon God who fell from the Sky ", written in both Hattic language and Hittite.