AKHLAME

also spelled Akhlam, ancient Semitic nomads of northern Syria and Mesopotamia and traditional enemies of the Assyrians. They are first mentioned about 1375 BC in an Egyptian source (one of the Tell el-Amarna letters), in which they are said to have advanced as far as the Euphrates River; about the same time there was also evidence of them in Assyria, at Nippur, and around the Persian Gulf. During the next century, they interrupted travel between Babylon and Hattusa (Bogazky), and Tukulti-Ninurta I (124408 BC) of Assyria recorded that he conquered the mountains of the Akhlam. An inscription of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser I (11151077), however, refers for the first time to the Akhlam-Aramaeans, and soon thereafter the Akhlame disappear from Assyrian annals and are replaced by the Aramaeans. The relationship between the Akhlame and the Aramaeans is still a matter of conjecture.