Amarna letter: Royal Letter from Abi-milku of Tyre to the king of Egypt

This letter was written around 1350 B.C., at a time when Egypt controlled the southern half of the Levant. Local rulers were vassals of the Egyptian king and communicated with him, in part, through letters written on clay using a reed stylus. Some of these letters survive to modern times.

In this letter, Abi-milku, the ruler of the city of Tyre (called Surru in the ancient language), writes to his superior, the Egyptian king, concerning ships held on this king’s behalf. Tyre, then an island near the coast (the city was only connected to the mainland in 332 B.C. when Alexander the Great built a siege ramp), would have been a port for trading vessels but also, as this letter suggests, a militarily strategic stronghold for Egypt. While vassals were expected to support Egyptian imperial interests, letters like Abi-milku’s show that the local rulers expected protection in return.

"To the king, my lord: Message of Abi-milku, your servant. I fall at your feet 7 times and 7 times. What the king, my lord, ordered, that I have done. The entire land is afraid of the troops of the king, my lord. I have had my men hold(?) ships at the disposition(?) of the troops of the king, my lord. Whoever disobeyed has no family, has nothing alive. Since I guard(?) the city(?) of my king, my lord, my safety(?) is the king’s responsibility(?). May he take cognizance of(?) his servant who is on his side(?)."
(adapted from Cuneiform Texts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Vol. I, No. 103)

Abi-milku’s letter, along with over three hundred other letters of Egyptian vassals, was found in the late 1880s at the site of Amarna. In Abi-milku’s day, Amarna was the capital of the Egyptian king Amenhotep IV / Akhenaten (ca. 1353-1336 B.C.). Records of correspondence with vassals and great kings seems to have been kept in administrative offices near the palace. Although the letters were to be sent to Egypt, they were written in the Akkadian language using the cuneiform ("wedge-shaped") writing system. The letters would have been read aloud and translated at the Egyptian court by messengers.

Although many vassals appear to have sent letters at fixed but infrequent intervals, several Levantine rulers, including Abi-milku, seem to have corresponded more regularly. Ten letters written by Abi-milku, including this example, are known. While some present practical concerns similar to that of this letter (e.g., protection of ships, relations with other local rulers, supplies for the island city), several letters are more poetic and seemingly have no aim outside the praise of the Egyptian king as the source of life and well-being. Abi-milku’s knowledge of Egyptian kingship has suggested to modern scholars the possibility that he was educated at the Egyptian court before being installed as the vassal ruler of Tyre.

Elizabeth Knott, Research Associate, Ancient Near Eastern Art, 2016

Purchased by the Museum from Maurice Nahman, Cairo, 1924.

Hayes, William C. 1959. Scepter of Egypt II: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom (1675-1080 B.C.). Cambridge, Mass.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 295.