ABSTRACT
In texts of the third and early second millennium, the name ‘Amurru’ was applied to a large expanse of territory encompassing much of modern Syria. Subsequently the name was used in a more restricted sense, covering in broad terms the territory which extended between the Orontes river and the central Levantine coast. During the course of Tuthmosis III’s Syrian campaigns it was incorporated into Egypt’s Syrian empire, but only in a very nominal sense. Amurru was a wild and dangerous land, one through which merchants, envoys or travellers of any description passed at their peril. At any time they were liable to be attacked, robbed and murdered by lawless groups of semi-nomads who infested the mountains and forests of the region and posed a severe threat, not only to those brave or foolish enough to pass through the land without adequate escort, but also to the more settled urban communities within their striking range. Their ability to swoop upon their prey without warning and disappear without trace to their forest lairs and mountain fastnesses before any effective action could be taken against them made the name Habiru, by which they were known, one of the most feared in the entire Syrian region.
