In the face of all this, Mursili once more displayed the true
mettle of a great warrior-leader. Threats to the eastern part of his
empire were met with prompt and decisive action. The king
despatched an army under his experienced general Nuwanza to
deal with the Azzi-Hayasan enemy in the northeast. His
resounding success there resulted in the expulsion of all enemy
forces from the Upper Land and the restoration of Hittite control
over it. A second expeditionary force was despatched by Mursili
under the command of his general Kurunta to deal with the Syrian
rebels in Nuhashshi and Qadesh. Here too the campaign ended in
decisive Hittite victories. Qadesh had been placed under siege, and
victory over it was facilitated by the ruler’s eldest son who killed his
father and threw open his city’s gates to the besiegers. Mursili
himself undertook the reconquest of Carchemish. The Assyrians
were driven out of the land, back across the Euphrates. Mursili
installed Sharri-Kushuh’s son on the viceregal throne. Then he
proceeded to Aleppo where he formally installed Telipinu’s son as
viceroy.
For the rest of Mursili’s reign, the region in Syria covered by
Hittite vassal states seems to have remained relatively stable, no
doubt due largely to the presence of the two viceregal kingdoms
there. Both were ably managed by the current viceroys, as they had
been by their fathers.
In the west, however, Mursili was confronted with new
rebellions. These prompted further Hittite military operations,
under His Majesty’s direct command–though peace wasfinally
restored to most of the region by diplomatic means, when Mursili
concluded, or renewed, one-to-one treaties with the rulers of the
Arzawa lands. Problems to the north of the homeland were not so
easily resolved. Mursili spent much of the last half of his reign on
regular campaigns in the north, where he claims to have led his
troops further than any other Hittite king. But the campaigns were
not always successful. And even when they were, Mursili had
frequently to follow them up with further expeditions when the
conquered lands quickly resurrected themselves, and rose again to
cast off Hittite sovereignty. Not surprisingly, the Kaska people
figure frequently in the king’s northern campaigns. Despite all the
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