BIT-YAKIN

   A Chaldean tribe in southern Babylonia during the first millennium B.C., which settled in the very south of the country, near the marshes. The tribe grew rich and influential when it began to control access to the Persian Gulf and thus the maritime trade route south.

   When Babylonia was under Assyrian occupation in the seventh century B.C,. the Bit-Yakin made several, at times successful attempts to challenge Assyrian hegemony. Their most famous leader, who assumed kingship in Babylon, was Merodach-baladan, the arch-enemy of Sennacherib.