HITTITES 



110 



725 



new Egyptian armies marching through the length 

 of Syria against tin* hereditary for. <>n the death 

 of tfie treat Thothme> the llit tiles became more 

 formidable, and after al>out fifty yean* of constant 

 wars a treaty of peace WIIH concluded between 

 I Jameses I. and Saplel tlie Hittite king. 



Seti 1. came to tlie throm* two hundred years 

 aft.-r tlie death of Thothmes HI., and he at once 

 marched against tlie Hittites as the 'avenger of 

 broken treaties.' The details of this sanguinary 

 campaign an- depicted in the battle scene on the 

 north side of the great temple of Karnak. At this 

 period the Hittites were dominant in Syria, for one 

 of the inscriptions declares that Syria was brought 

 into subjection through Pharaoh's victory over the 

 llntites. 



Rameses II., the Pharaoh of the oppression, suc- 

 ceeded his father, Seti I., and carriecf on the war in 

 many campaigns. Many temples are adorned with 

 the records of his achievements, the chief of which 

 was his famous battle with the Hittites at Kadesh. 

 Pentaur was present with the Pharaoh as war- 

 correspondent, and he has recorded the events of 

 the day in the world's most ancient epic. A copy 

 of the epic adorns many temples in Egypt, and is 

 written on a papyrus 'roll now in the British 

 Museum. Kheta-sira had assembled his con- 

 federates and allies from many lands, even from 

 Troy, and the battle ended in a draw, followed by 

 an offensive and defensive treaty, and a dynastic 

 alliance. Kheta-sira treats with the Pharaoh on 

 equal terms, and lib name stands first in the world's 

 oldest treaty, which was written in Hittite on a 

 silver plate, Egyptian translations of which have 

 come down to us. Kheta-sira went down into 

 Egypt with his eldest daughter, who became 

 Pharaoh's queen, and thus inaugurated an era of 

 peace. 



Mineptah, the Pharaoh of the Exodus, loyally 

 maintained the treaty, and ' sent wheat in ships to 

 preserve the lives of the Hittites.' More than a 

 hundred years later Rameses III. waged a cruel war 

 in the land of the Hittites, and it is recorded on the 

 temple of Medinet Abou that he brought back into 

 captivity the king of the Hittites. We thus learn 

 from the Egyptian inscriptions that the Hittites 

 were rivals of the Egyptians from the 12th to the 

 20th dynasty. The shock of Egyptian invasion 

 exhausted itself at Kadesh and Carchemish, but 

 the centre of Hittite power lay Ueyond in the broad 

 plains and highlands of Asia Minor, and so they 

 had fresh armies and abundant wealth to enable 

 them to withstand the might of Egypt for a thou- 

 sand years. 



The Hittites occupy an important place in the 

 Assyrian inscriptions. The reign of Sargon of 

 Agade has been placed about the 19th century B.C.; 

 and one date has been deciphered, which if correct 

 would lix that reign about 3800 B.C. Even as early 

 as the reign of Sargon I. the Hittites were a for- 

 midable power, and it has been supposed that in 

 the time of the 19th dynasty in Egypt the Hittites 

 occupied Mesopotamia. When we come to the era 

 of Tiglath-pileser I., about 1130 B.C., the Hittites 

 were paramount from the Euphrates to the Lebanon. 

 Tiglath-pileser I. drove back the Hittites from his 

 borders, and for a time made them tributaries, but 

 they soon threw off the Assyrian yoke, and a des- 

 perate struggle for supremacy was waged for four 

 hundred years between the empire of Assyria and 

 that of the Hittites. The reign of Assur-nasir-pal 

 (883-858 B.C.) is largely a record of wars with the 

 Hittites. His son, Shalmaneser, undertook thirty 

 campaigns chiefly ' in the land of the Hittites. ' 

 The war continued to the close of the king's reign, 

 and was carried on by the kings who succeeded 

 him ; and one hundred years later the Assyrians 

 vrere still in deadly conflict with the Hittites. 



II it tites, who first appear in the Aw*yrian 

 ptioiih in the reign of Sargun I ., were destined 

 to disappear from history in the reign of hi- name- 

 Hake. Sargon II. cume to tlie throne in 721 .<'., 

 and his fust year wan distinguished by the rupture 

 "i .-.miaria and the eapti\ity of the Israelite**, and 

 four yearn later (717 B.C.) he brought the emjiire of 

 tin- /I it I iii- to a i'lo-e by the defeat of I'ixiri and 

 the capture of Cart-hem ish. 



TluiH ended the mighty empire of the Hittitex, 

 having maintained its existence, defying all em-mi"-, 

 longer than the empires of Babylon, or Assyria, or 

 Greece, or Rome. The fact that the frontier towns 

 of the Hittites had continued their resistance to 

 the Assyrian arms, in almost yearly campaigns, 

 throughout successive centuries, suggests that the 

 Hittite empire must have l>een strong in resource.* 

 beyond the frontier; and the mention of over 300 

 geographical Hittite names, in the inscriptions, 

 shows how extended that dominion must have been. 



In November 1872 the writer of this article suc- 

 ceeded in making casts of the famous Hamah (q.v.) 

 inscriptions, which he declared to l>e Hittite remains. 

 The theory, at first received with incredulity, is now 

 admitted, and sculptures of the same character are 

 now found to exist throughout the length and 

 breadth of Asia Minor and northern Syria, from 

 Hamah on the Orontes to Eyuk by the Halvs, and 

 from Carchemish on the Euphrates to the Euxine 

 and the yEgean. A beginning has been made in 

 decipherment, but the first steps, though sure, are 

 slow. There is no room for doubt as to their Hittite 

 origin. The cuneiform inscriptions were called 

 Assyrian before Grotefend made the happy guess 

 that led to their decipherment. The hieroglyphics 

 were called Egyptian before Champollion and Birch 

 began to unravel the mysteries of the Rosetta 

 Stone ; and it does not seem a violent supposition 

 that the remarkable inscriptions ' in the land of the 

 Hittites ' may have been produced by the warlike 

 but cultured people who once inhabited the land. 



A set of Hittite inscriptions and sculptures may be seen 

 iu The Empire of the Hittites, by the present writer 

 (1884 ; 2d ed. 1886), as well as chapters on Hittite geog- 

 raphy, art, and learning, religion and nationality. See 

 also Sayce, The Hittites; or, the Stunt of a Foritntten 

 People (R. T. S., 1888); Le"on de Lantsh'eere, LesHittitrs 

 (Brussels, 1892); Conder, The Hittites inui their Lan- 

 guage (1898). 



II i t /iu. FERDINAND, a German biblical scholar, 

 was born 23d June 1807, at Hauingen, in Baden, and 

 educated at Heidelberg, Halle (where the influence 

 of Gesenius determined him in favour of Old Testa- 

 ment studies), and Gottingen. In 1833 he was 

 called to Zurich as professor of Theology, and in 

 1861 returned to fill the similar chair at Heidelberg. 

 The first work which established his fame was his 

 commentary on Isaiah (1833). Besides a tran.-la- 

 tion of the Psalms, with a commentary (1835-36), 

 he furnished for the Exegetisches HantUnn-h zinn A. 

 T. the commentaries on the twelve minor prophets 

 ( 1838 ; 4th ed. 1881 ), on Jeremiah ( 1841 ), Ezekiel 

 ( 1847 ), Ecclesiastes ( 1847 ), Daniel ( 1850 ), the Song 

 of Solomon ( 1855), Proverbs ( 1 858 ), and Job ( 1875). 

 This able and combative rationalistic critic is also 

 known by Die Erfndung des Alphabet* (1840), 

 Urgeschichte und Mythologie der Pnilistaer (1845), 

 Geschichte des Volkes Israel (1869-70), &c., and by 

 numerous contributions to the learned journals. 

 He died at Heidelberg, 22d January 1875. 



Hivites ( ' villagers' or 'midlandcrs'), a Canaan- 

 itish people, the main body of which lived in the 

 region from Lebanon and Hermon to Hamath, buk 

 who had colonies, apparently isolated, in southern 

 Palestine, as at Gibeon. 



H'Lassa. See LHASSA. 



Ho. See HOANG-HO. 



