Samsi (also Shamsi) reigned for over 20 years in the 8th century BCE, the chosen successor of Queen Tabibe who abdicated in her favor. At the time of her succession, she continued Zabibe’s oath of allegiance to the Assyrians, but she later changed her mind. The Assyrians again sought to intimidate Samsi without engaging their armies, but she was unimpressed. The Queen made an alliance with Rakhianu of Damascus, and they fought the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser in 732 BCE.

According to the Assyrian records, Pileser attacked many Arab tribal areas and defeated Samsi in the neighborhood of Mount Sa-qu-ur-ri. The Assyrians took many prisoners of war, 30,000 camels, and more than 20,000 oxen as booty. An inscription records that 9,400 of her soldiers were killed, and in addition 5,000 bags of various types of spices, altars of gods, armaments including an ornamental staff of her goddess, and her estates were seized. As she fled to the desert, Pileser set fire to the remaining tents at the battle site. Later, she went to Assyria to pay tribute to the king and was permitted to reign, under official Assyrian supervision. Samsi is Arabic for “my sun.”

-excerpted from Retso, “The Arabs in Antiquity: Their History from the Assyrians to the Umayyads.” ISBN 978-1-136-87282-2, and the blog of https://amonamon2.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/arabian-queens/