but at this particular moment they acknowledged Assyrian sway. Were they
excited to rebellion against the latter power by the emissaries of
its rival, or did they merely think that Assur-nazir-pal was too
fully absorbed in the affairs of Naîri to be able to carry his arms
effectively elsewhere? At all events they coalesced under Nurrammân,
the sheikh of Dagara, blocked the pass of Babiti which led to their
own territory, and there massed their contingents behind the shelter of
hastily erected ramparts.**

* According to Hommol and Tiele, Zamua would be the country
extending from the sources of the Radanu to the southern
shores of the lake of Urumiah; Schrader believes it to have
occupied a smaller area, and places it to the east and
south-west of the lesser Zab. Delattre has shown that a
distinction must be made between Zamua on Lake Van and the
well-known Zamua upon the Zab. Zamua, as described by Assur-
nazir-pal, answers approximately to the present sandjak of
Suleimaniyeh in the vilayet of Mossul.

** Hommol believes that Assur-nazir-pal crossed the Zab near
Altin-keupru, and he is certainly correct: but it appears to
me from a passage in the _Annals_, that instead of taking
the road which leads to Bagdad by Ker-kuk and Tuz-Khurmati,
he marched along that which leads eastwards in the direction
of Suleimaniyeh. The pass of Babiti must have lain between
Gawardis and Bibân, facing the Kissê tchai, which forms the
western branch of the Radanu. Dagara would thus be
represented by the district to the east of Kerkuk at the
foot of the Kara-dagh.