King of All Peoples (Akkadian: à ¡ar kià ¡à ¡at nià ¡ÃÂ) was a rarely attested title of great prestige claimed by some of the kings of Assyria. It was one of several ancient Mesopotamian titles explicitly claiming world domination, the others being à ¡ar kibrÃÂt erbetti (King of the Four Corners of the World) and à ¡ar kià ¡à ¡atim (King of the Universe). Unlike these other two titles, which had their origins during the Akkadian Empire ~2300 BC and had endured widespread recognition and usage throughout more than a thousand years of Mesopotamian history, the title of à ¡ar kià ¡à ¡at nià ¡Ã appears to have been a later Assyrian invention only used by a handful of kings.'
Unlike the other titles of supposed world domination, "king of all peoples" does not refer to a territorial domain, but rather that the Assyrian king was superior to foreign people and that he possessed a legitimate right to govern (all of) them.' It appears in the titularies of the Middle-Assyrian kings Shalmaneser I and Tukulti-Ninurta I.'
à  ar kià ¡à ¡at nià ¡Ã was one of several titles used by the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II, other similar titles and epithets used by him include à ¡apir kal nià ¡Ã ("commander of all peoples") and à ¡a naphar kià ¡à ¡at nià ¡Ã ipellu ("he who rules all people"). To enforce his right to rule over all peoples, Ashurnasirpal made sure that his new capital of Kalhu had a very distinct multi-ethnic character as the result of moving people from throughout his empire to its location. The title of à ¡ar kià ¡à ¡at nià ¡Ã was also a frequently used and important title of Ashurnasirpal's successor Shalmaneser III.'