Page:History of Early Iran.pdf/51

Rh Narute. Amal, Ninkarak, and perhaps Ninurta appear to be the only foreign gods invoked, and even these may have borne Elamite names. The invocation is followed by an oath: "The enemy of Naram-Sin is my enemy, the friend of Naram-Sin is my friend." The Elamite is obviously admitting his vassalage to the ruler of Agade.

By his defeat of the kings of Shimurrum and Namar, Naram-Sin came into direct contact with the inhabitants of the northern and central Zagros. These were the peoples of Lullubium and Gutium, of whom Sargon before him may have heard, who spoke Caucasian languages related to, but distinct from, Elamite. The Lullubi were secure in their pos­ session of a fertile plain within the mountains, the Shehrizor, administered in modern times from the town of Sulaimaniyah. Their marauding bands could easily interfere with the customary traffic along the Babylonian road now marked by the towns of Kifri, Kirkuk, and Altun Köprü. Tradition knew of a king of the Lullubi named Immashkush preceding Sargon; their ruler in the days of Naram-Sin offered battle to the Babylonian in a gorge of the "Black