invaded the land of Nukhasse, and made prisoners of the people of Qatna.
The Pharaoh is prayed to rescue or ransom them, and to send chariots and
soldiers to the help of his Mesopotamian subjects. If they come all the
lands round about will acknowledge him as lord, and he will be lord also
of Nukhasse; if they do not come, the men of Qatna will be forced to
obey Aziru.

It is probable that the misdeeds of Aziru which are here referred to
were committed at the time he was in Tunip, professedly protecting it
against Hittite attack. It would seem from what Akizzi says, that
instead of faithfully performing his mission, he had aimed at
establishing his own power in Northern Syria. While nominally an officer
of the Pharaoh, he was really seeking to found an Amorite kingdom in the
north. In this he would have been a predecessor of Og and Sihon, whose
kingdoms were built up on the ruins of the Egyptian empire.

A despatch, however, from Namya-yitsa, the governor of Kumidi, sets the
conduct of Aziru in a more favourable light. It was written at a
somewhat later time, when rebellion against the Egyptian authority was
spreading throughout Syria. A certain Biridasyi had stirred up the city
of Inu'am, and after shutting its gate upon Namya-yitsa had entered the
city of Ashtaroth-Karnaim in Bashan, and there seized the chariots
belonging to the Pharaoh, handing them over to the Beduin. He then
joined the kings of Buzruna (now Bosra) and Khalunni (near the Wadi
'Allân), in a plot to murder Namya-yitsa, who escaped, however, to
Damascus, though his own brothers turned against him. The rebels next
attacked Aziru, captured some of his soldiers, and in league with
Etu-gama wasted the district of Abitu. Etakkama, however, as Etu-gama
spells his own name, professed to be a loyal servant of the Egyptian
king, and one of the Tel el-Amarna letters is from him.