Iraq: King Ashurbanipal (r. 668 - c.627 BCE) hunting in a palace relief from Nineveh

Ashurbanipal (685 BCE – c. 627 BCE), also spelled Assurbanipal or Ashshurbanipal, was an Assyrian king, the son of Esarhaddon and the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (668 BCE – c. 627 BCE). He established the first systematically organized library in the ancient Middle East, the Library of Ashurbanipal, which survives in part today at Nineveh.

In the Bible he is called Asenappar (Ezra 4:10). Roman historian Justinus identified him as Sardanapalus.

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