Kizzuwatna

Several ethnic groups coexisted in Kizzuwatna and their culture represents a fusion of Hurrian, Luwian, and Hittite elements.

The pre-Indo-European Hurrians predate the Luwians in the area,[10] Hittites probably arrived as part of the imperial expansion under Hattusili I and Mursili I.

However, its first king Išputahšu had a Hittite-derived name and the toponym "Kizzuwatna" itself has been suggested to be a Luwianization of Hittite *kez-udne meaning "land on this side" in relation to the mountains.

[12] This suggests the existence of a polity located at the southern end of both a "Great Caravan Route” that connected the Ciician plain with the Troad during the Early Bronze Age[13] and an overland trade route from the Hittite Lower Land to Ebla, Alalakh and Carchemish during the Middle Bronze Age.

[16] One of the earliest direct sources mentioning the name Kizzuwatna is a cretula from Tarsus, stamped with the seal of king Išpudaḫšu.

The city-state of Alalakh, to the south, expanded under its new vigorous leader, Idrimi, himself a subject of the Mitannian king Barattarna.

[22] On Kizzuwatna's north-eastern border, there also existed the state of Ishuwa during this period, that played a political role in the rivalry between Hittites and the Mitanni.

The exceedingly rough and unfavourable terrain of the Tarsus Mountains made it likely that to remain in a position of prominence among their Hurrian- and Luwian- speaking neighbours, the Kizzuwatna requested favourable terms for the treaties, and that they were subsequently granted.

As master equestrians, some of the first in the areas south of the Caucasus region, they provided the horses, which were later favoured by King Solomon and allowed the more aggressive use of the Hittite chariot than their Egyptian and Assyrian rivals were able.

[citation needed] After the fall of the Hittite Empire, the Neo-Hittite kingdom Quwe, or Hiyawa, emerged in the area of former Kizzuwatna.