[4] A fragmentary epic[i 4] describes the conflict between the Assyrian king, Aššur-reš-iši, and Ninurta-nādin-šumi, when the disputed upper Diyala border region and the city of Arbela were contested between them, and suggests the Babylonians withdrew (“fled”) the city on the approach of Assyrian forces.
[5] Although the text is too fragmentary to provide a firm interpretation, it is probably significant that his forces (emūqīšu) penetrated so far north into the Assyrian heartland.
[2] He may be the author of a rather condescending letter to Aššur-reš-iši, preserved in two pieces, in which he chastises the Assyrian king for failing to keep an appointment in the border town of Zaqqa, “If only you had waited one day for me in the city of Zaqqa!.” He threatens to reinstate on the Assyrian throne the king’s predecessor to his predecessor, Ninurta-tukulti-Ashur, who had supposedly been welcomed in exile in Babylon following his overthrow by Mutakkil-Nusku, according to a later chronicle.
[6] The text features three characters: the servant Qunnutu, his master Ashur-shumu-lishir, possibly another pretender to the Assyrian throne, and Ḫarbi-šipak, the Habirū, who may be an envoy of the Babylonian king, but with no other ancient reference to these individuals their roles are uncertain.
[citation needed] His descendants continued to reign through three more generations until the seventh king of the dynasty, Marduk-šāpik-zēri.