Shulgi of Ur

Shulgi ruled the Third Dynasty of Ur for forty-eight years, from about 2094 to 2046 BC, and built the most thoroughly bureaucratic state of the ancient world. He was the son of Ur-Namma, and the enormous volume of administrative tablets from his reign — tens of thousands survive — is what makes it exceptionally well documented. He standardised weights, measures and the calendar across Sumer and Akkad, and imposed a uniform accounting system. Provinces owed fixed contributions to a central redistribution centre at Puzrish-Dagan, and the records track livestock, grain and labour in detail. He also reformed the writing of numbers and the sexagesimal system used for calculation. He created a professional standing army and campaigned repeatedly in the Zagros against the Lullubi and Simurrum, and built a wall against the Amorites. He established scribal schools at Ur and Nippur, and the curriculum used there is the reason so much Sumerian literature survives — including hymns praising his own accomplishments. One claims he ran from Nippur to Ur and back in a single day, about three hundred kilometres, to officiate at festivals in both. He boasted of literacy, musicianship and skill in several languages. A law collection attributed to his father, and possibly to him, predates Hammurabi's by three centuries and assesses fines in silver for injuries rather than mutilation. He had himself declared a god during his lifetime, with temples and offerings. The state he built collapsed within two reigns of his death, overrun by Amorites and Elamites, and Ur was sacked around 2004 BC.

• Lived: 2094 BCE – 2046 BCE
• Nationality: Iraqi
• Roles: ruler, administrator, poet