ELAM, the name given in the Bible to the province of Persia called Susiane by the classical geographers, from Susa or Shushan its capital. Strabo (xv. 3. 12, etc.) makes Susiane a part of Persia proper, but a comparison of his account with those of Ptolemy (vi. 3, I, etc.) and other writers would limit it to the mountainous district to the east of Babylonia, lying between the Oroatis and the Tigris. Along with this mountainous district went a fertile low tract of country on the western side, which included the marshes at the mouths of the Euphrates and Tigris. This low tract, pro ducing large quantities of grain, was intensely hot in summer; the high regions, however, were cool and well watered.
The whole country was occupied by a variety of tribes, speaking agglutinative dialects for the most part, though the western dis tricts were occupied by Semites. Immediately bordering on the Persians were the Amardians or Mardians, as well as the people of Khapirti (Khatamti, according to Scheil), the name given to Susiane in the Neo-Susian texts. Khapirti appears as Apir in the inscriptions of Mal-Amir, which fix the locality of the district. Passing over the Messabatae, who inhabited a valley which may perhaps be the modern Mah-Sabadan, we come to the fourth principal tribe of Susiane, the Cissii (Aesch. Pers. i6), or Cossaei, the Kassi of the cuneiform inscriptions (see KASSITES). So im portant were they, that the whole of Susiane was sometimes called Cissia after them, as by Herodotus (iii. q I, v. 49, etc.) . In fact Susiane was only a late name for the country, dating from the time when Susa had been made a capital of the Persian em pire. In the Sumerian texts of Babylonia it was called Numma, "the Highlands," of which Elamtu or Elamu, "Elam," was the Semitic translation. Apart from Susa, the most important part of the country was Anzan (Anshan, contracted Assan), where the native population lived unaffected by Semitic intrusion.
The principal mountains of Elam were on the north, belonging to the Parachoathras chain. There were numerous rivers flowing into either the Tigris or the Persian Gulf. The most important were the Ulai or Eulaeus (Koran) with its tributary the Pasitigris, the Choaspes (Kerkhah), the Coprates (river of Diz, called the Itite in the inscriptions), the Hedyphon or Hedypnus (Jerrahi), and the Croatis (Hindyan). Shushan or Susa, the capital now marked by the mounds of Shush, stood near the junction of the Choaspes and Eulaeus (see SUSA). J. de Morgan's excavations at Susa have thrown a flood of light on the early history of Elam and its relations to Babylon. The earliest settlement there goes back to neolithic times, but it was already a fortified city when Elam was conquered by Sargon of Akkad (380o B.c.) and Susa became the seat of a Babylonian viceroy. From this time onward for many centuries it continued under Semitic suzerainty. Before the rise of the i st Dynasty of Babylon, however, Elam had recov ered its independence, and in 228o B.C. the Elamite king Kutur Nakhkhunte made a raid in Babylonia and carried away from Erech the image of the goddess Nana. The monuments of many of his successors have been discovered and their inscriptions de ciphered. One of them was the Chedor-laomer (Kutur-Lagamar) of Genesis xiv. About 133o B.c., Khurba-tila was captured by Kuri-galzu III., the Kassite king of Babylonia, but Sutruk-Nakh khunte (1220 B.c.) carried fire and sword through Babylonia, slew its king, Zamama-sum-iddin, and carried away a stela of Naram Sin and the famous code of laws of Khammurabi from Sippara. He also conquered the land of Asnunnak. He was succeeded by his son, who was followed on the throne by his brother, one of the great builders of Elam. In 720 B.C. Khumbanigas met the Assyri ans under Sargon at Dur-ili in Yamutbal, and though Sargon claims a victory the result was that Babylonia recovered its inde pendence under Merodach-baladan and the Assyrian forces were driven north. From this time forward it was against Assyria in stead of Babylonia that Elam found itself compelled to exert its strength, and Elamite policy was directed towards fomenting revolt in Babylonia and assisting the Babylonians in their struggle with Assyria. In 704 B.C. the combined forces of Elam and Baby lonia were overthrown at Kis, and in the following year the Kassites were reduced to subjection. The Elamite king was de throned and imprisoned in 70o B.c. by his brother Khallusu, who six years later marched into Babylonia, captured the son of Sennacherib, and raised a nominee of his own, Nergal-yusezib, to the throne. In 68q B.C. Khumba-Khaldas II. endeavoured to gain Assyrian favour by putting to death the son of Merodach-baladan, but was himself murdered by his brothers, Urtaki and Teumman (68i B.C.), the first of whom seized the crown. On his death Teumman succeeded and immediately provoked a quarrel with Assur-banipal by demanding the surrender of his nephews who had taken refuge at the Assyrian court. The Assyrians pursued the Elamite army to Susa, where the Elamites were defeated, Teumman captured and slain, and Umman-igas, the son of Urtaki, made king, his younger brother Tammaritu being given the district of Khidalu. Umman-igas afterwards assisted in the revolt of Babylonia, but his nephew, a second Tammaritu, raised a rebellion against him and seized the crown. Tammaritu marched to Baby lonia; while there, his officer Indabigas made himself master of Susa but was himself overthrown and slain by a new pretender, Khumba-Khaldas III., who was opposed by three other rivals, two of whom maintained themselves in the mountains until the Assyrian conquest of the country. The return of Khumba-Khal das led to a fresh Assyrian invasion, and the Elamite army was almost exterminated on the banks of the Itite. The whole country was reduced to a desert, Susa was plundered and razed to the ground, the royal sepulchres were desecrated, and the images of the gods and of 32 kings "in silver, gold, bronze and alabaster," were carried away. All this must have happened about 64o B.C. After the fall of the Assyrian empire Elam was occupied by the Persian Teispes, the forefather of Cyrus, who, like his immediate successors, is called in the inscriptions "king of Anzan." Susa once more became a capital, and on the establishment of the Persian empire remained one of the three seats of government, its lan guage, the Neo-Susian, ranking with the Persian of Persepolis and the Semitic of Babylon as an official tongue. In the reign of Darius the Susianians attempted to revolt, but they gradually became completely Aryanized, and their agglutinative dialects were sup planted by the Aryan Persian from the south-east.
Elam, "the land of the cedar-forest," with its enchanted trees, figured largely in Babylonian mythology, and one of the adven tures of the hero Gilgamesh was the destruction of the tyrant Khumbaba who dwelt in the midst of it. A list of the Elamite deities is given by Assur-bani-pal; at the head of them was In Susinak, "the lord of the Susians," whose image and oracle were hidden from the eyes of the .