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Around 1259 BC, Ramesses II of Egypt and the Hittite king Hattusili III made peace after generations of rivalry over Syria. Egypt carved its copy on temple walls, the Hittites kept theirs on clay tablets, and both survive.

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The rivalry peaked in 1274 BC at the Battle of Kadesh, on the Orontes River in today's Syria, where neither side won outright. About fifteen years later came the treaty, sometimes called the Treaty of Kadesh, although it never mentions the battle. Both kings promised not to attack each other, to help each other against outside enemies and rebels, and to hand back each other's political refugees. The Egyptian version is carved in hieroglyphs at Karnak and the Ramesseum in Thebes. The Hittite version, written in Akkadian, the diplomatic language of the day, was found in 1906 at Hattusa, the Hittite capital, near today's Boğazkale in Çorum province. Two of its tablets are in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums, and a copy hangs at United Nations headquarters in New York.

Türkçe oku
MÖ 1259 dolaylarında Mısır firavunu II. Ramses ile Hitit kralı III. Hattuşili, Suriye yüzünden kuşaklardır süren çekişmeye son verip barış yaptı. Mısırlılar antlaşmayı tapınak duvarlarına kazıdı, Hititler kil tabletlere yazdı; iki nüsha da günümüze ulaştı.

Çekişme MÖ 1274'te, bugünkü Suriye'de Asi Nehri kıyısında yapılan Kadeş Savaşı'yla doruğa çıktı; iki taraf da kesin bir zafer kazanamadı. Antlaşma bundan yaklaşık on beş yıl sonra imzalandı. Ona Kadeş Antlaşması da denir, ama metinde savaştan hiç söz edilmez. İki kral birbirine saldırmayacağına, dış düşmanlara ve isyancılara karşı birbirine yardım edeceğine ve birbirinin siyasi kaçaklarını geri vereceğine söz verdi. Mısır nüshası Teb'de, Karnak Tapınağı'nın ve Ramesseum'un duvarlarına hiyerogliflerle kazınmıştır. Dönemin diplomasi dili Akadca ile yazılan Hitit nüshası ise 1906'da Hitit başkenti Hattuşa'da, bugünkü Çorum'un Boğazkale ilçesinde bulundu. Tabletlerden ikisi İstanbul Arkeoloji Müzeleri'nde sergileniyor; antlaşmanın bir kopyası da New York'taki Birleşmiş Milletler binasının duvarında asılı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Egyptian–Hittite peace treaty
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