Peace as Mutual Recognition

Abstract

In the Hittite treaties, foreign countries are either enemies (nakru)¹ or friends/allies (salmu). Only those integrated into the Hittite political system by a formal pact fall into the second category; if they ‘rebel’, they too become enemies. To the group of enemies belong ‘Hurri, Misri (= Egypt), Karduniash (= Babylonia), Ashtata, Alshe, and every enemy country close to the border of your (= the vassal’s) land, which is enemy of the Hatti land’. To the friends/allies belongs ‘every country close to the border of your land, which is an ally of the Hatti land — Mukish, Qadesh, Nuhashe — but rebels and becomes enemy of the Hatti land’.² The act of rebellion is here expressed by the verb saharu (‘to change direction’), with the same implications that we have already seen for nabalkutu (‘to transgress’) in the middle-Assyrian royal inscriptions (Chapter 12).