Shalmaneser III and the Battle of Qarqar

At Qarqar on the Orontes a coalition of twelve rulers stood against Shalmaneser III: Damascus, Hamath and—as the Assyrian inscription lists him—Ahab the Israelite with two thousand chariots. The king proclaimed victory, but did not march west again for years—so the affair ended in a draw. A few years later, on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser, King Jehu was depicted bowing with tribute: the oldest known image of an Israelite. From this point on, the Assyrian annals become an outside source for the history of the neighbouring kingdoms.