King of Akkad | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Details | |
First monarch | Sargon |
Last monarch | Shu-turul |
Formation | c. 2334 BC |
Abolition | c. 2154 BC 530 BC (King of Sumer and Akkad) |
Appointer | Divine right, hereditary |
The king of Akkad (Akkadian: šar māt Akkadi, lit. 'king of the land of Akkad'[1]) was the ruler of the city of Akkad and its empire, in ancient Mesopotamia. In the 3rd millennium BC, from the reign of Sargon of Akkad to the reign of his great-grandson Shar-Kali-Sharri, the Akkadian Empire represented the dominant power in Mesopotamia and the first known great empire.
The empire would rapidly collapse following the rule of its first five kings, owing to internal instability and foreign invasion, probably resulting in Mesopotamia re-fracturing into independent city-states, but the power that Akkad had briefly exerted ensured that its prestige and legacy would be claimed by monarchs for centuries to come. Ur-Nammu of Ur, who founded the Neo-Sumerian Empire and reunified most of Mesopotamia, created the title "King of Sumer and Akkad" which would be used until the days of the Achaemenid Empire.