ter takes us back to the age of the Tel el-Amarna tablets.

Nahrima, or Naharaim, was the name by which the kingdom of Mitanni was
known to its Canaanite and Egyptian neighbours. Mitanni, in fact, was
its capital, and it may be that Lutennu (or Lotan), as the Egyptians
called Syria and Palestine, was but a mispronunciation of it. Along with
the Babylonians the people of Naharaim had made themselves formidable to
the inhabitants of Canaan, and their name was feared as far south as
Jerusalem. Even the governor of the Canaanite town of Musikhuna, not far
from the Sea of Galilee, bore the Mitannian name of Sutarna. It was not,
indeed, until after the Israelitish conquest that the last invasion of
Canaan by a king of Aram-Naharaim took place.

Gaza and Joppa were at one time under the same governor, Yabitiri, who
in a letter which has come down to us asks to be relieved of the burden
of his office. Ashkelon, however, which lay between the two sea-ports,
was in the hands of another prefect, Yidya by name, from whom we have
several letters, in one of which mention is made of the Egyptian
commissioner Rianap, or Ra-nofer. The jurisdiction of Rianap extended as
far north as the plain of Megiddo, since he is also referred to by
Pu-Hadad, the governor of Yurza, now Yerzeh, south-eastward of Taanach.
But it was more particularly in the extreme south of Palestine that the
duties of this officer lay. Hadad-dan, who was entrusted with the
government of Manahath and Tamar, to the west of the Dead Sea, calls him
"my Commissioner" in a letter in which he complains of the conduct of a
certain Beya, the son of "the woman Gulat." Hadad-dan begins by saying
that he had protected the commissioner and cities of the king, and then
adds that "the city of Tumur is hostile to me, and I have built a house
in the city of Mankhate, so that the household troops of the king my
lord may be sent to me; and lo, Baya has taken it from my hand, and has
placed his commissioner in it, and I have appealed to Rianap, my
commissioner, and he has restored the city unto me, and has sent the
household troops of the king my lord to me." After this the writer goes
on to state that Beya had also intrigued against the city of Gezer, "the
handmaid of the king my lord who created me." The rebel then carried off
a quantity of plunder, and it became necessary to ransom his prisoners
for a hundred pieces of silver, while those of his confederate were
ransomed for thirty pie