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Lipit-Ishtar

King of Isin

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ1076870 ↗
Source-derived summary

Lipit-Ishtar (Akkadian: 𒇷𒁉𒀉𒁹𒁯, Lipit-Ištar; died c. 1924 BC) was the 5th king of the First Dynasty of Isin, according to the Sumerian King List. The King List notes that he was the son of Ishme-Dagan, and was succeeded by Ur-Ninurta. Some documents and royal inscriptions from his time have survived, however, Lipit-Ishtar is mostly known due to the Sumerian hymns that were written in his honor, as well as a legal code written in his name (preceding the famed Code of Hammurabi by about 100 years)—which were used for school instruction for hundreds of years after Lipit-Ishtar's death. The annals of Lipit-Ishtar's reign recorded that he also repulsed the Amorites.

He died when the king of neighboring Larsa, Gungunum attacked the kingdom of Isin.

See also

Isin

Sumer

Amorites

Cuneiform law

History of Sumer

List of Mesopotamian dynasties

Notes

Further Readings

James R. Court, Codex Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Scholars Press, 1995.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Lipit-Ishtar” is king of Isin. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Lipit-Ishtar, King and Isin, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1924, 1995—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Lipit-Ishtar, King and Isin is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “king of Isin” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1076870. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1924 and 1995.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Lipit-Ishtar”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Lipit-Ishtar primary sources, Lipit-Ishtar archive and Lipit-Ishtar research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lipit-Ishtar”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Lipit-Ishtar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.