13 THE ISRAELITE-JUDAHITE STRUGGLE formation of the Ashurbanipal Library, in which the entire corpus of Mesopotamian texts was assembled, its scope and systematization surpassing all Babylonian tablet collections before or since 34. This initiative, too, was indicative of the Assyrian efforts to gain the upper hand in the religious-cultural struggle with Babylonia for the prize of controlling the heritage of ancient Mesopotamia. The Assyrian-Babylonian Kulturkampf has not escaped the attention of scholars, and Peter Machinist defined it as follows 35 : “ These were in large measure over political identity, indeed, cosmological identity: which state, which capital — Babylon, Assur, Nineveh — would be the cosmic center? Put another way and focusing on the Assyrian ruling elites specifically, we may say that Babylonia was for these elites not simply a military or political problem of governance; it was also a problem of ownership of the cultural patrimony of Mesopotamia ... for Sennacherib what was ultimately at stake was the neutralization of the cultural/cosmic imperium that Babylon represented and its transfer to Assyria”. Political Policy: Esarhaddon’s Return of Marduk to Babylon”, Religious Transformations and Socio-Political Change. Eastern Europe and Latin America (ed. L. MARTIN) (Berlin 1993) 9-24; VERA CHAMAZA, Die Omnipotenz Assurs, 168-242; M.P. STRECK, “Der Wiederaufbau Babylons ˇˇ unter Asarhaddon und Assurbanipal in Briefen aus Ninive”, AoF 29 (2002) 205-233 ; M. NISSINEN – S. PARPOLA, “Marduk’s Return and Reconciliation in a Prophetic Letter from Arbela”, Studia Orientalia 99 (2004) 199-219. O n the scope and contents of Ashurbanipal’s library, see 34 A.L. OPPENHEIM, Ancient Mesopotamia. Portrait of a Dead Civilization (Chicago, IL 1964) 15-24; S. PARPOLA, “Assyrian Library Records”, JNES 42 (1983) 1-29; idem, “The Royal Archives of Nineveh”, Cuneiform Archives and Libraries (ed. K.R. VEENHOF) (Leiden 1986) 223-236; S.J. LIEBERMAN, “ Canonical and Official Cuneiform Texts: Towards an Understanding of Ashurbanipal’s Personal Tablet Collection”, Lingering over Words. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Literature in Honor of William L. Moran (eds. T. ABUSCH – J. HUEHNERGARD – P. STEINKELLER) (Atlanta, GA 1990) 305- 3 3 6 ; G.B. L A N F R A N C H I , “The Library at Nineveh”, Capital Cities, J.G. WESTENHOLZ (ed.) 147-156; G. FRAME – A.R. GEORGE, “The Royal Libraries of Nineveh: New Evidence for King Ashurbanipal’s Tablet Collecting ”, Iraq 67 (2005) 265-284. For the late date of the extant copies of the letters available for research, see FRAHM, “On Some”, 43-46. P. MACHINIST, “Final Response: On the Study of the Ancient Language, 35 Writing and the State”, Margins of Writing, Origins of Cultures (ed. S.L. SANDERS) (Chicago, IL 2006) 296.