The Battle of Malgu was fought between Babylon and the Sumerian kingdom of Kishu in 1204 BC amid the Late Bronze Age collapse.
With Qingu defeated, King Adad-shuma-usur of Babylon - seeking to rebuild Sargon of Akkad's empire - embraced an expansionist policy. As he led an army to invade Ekurma to the east, he dispatched his general Sin-idinna to secure the Sealand to the south, taking advantage of Kishu and Kengir's war with Duranki to attack Kishu.
Sin-idinna and his army besieged the town of Malgu, which was reinforced by several strong Kishu garrisons. Sin-idinna decided to lure the defenders out of the town, settling in for a siege until Kishu's army mounted a sortie. The two armies met in battle outside Malgu, and the Kishu army concealed itself in several thickets and scrubland, forcing the Babylonian army to divide itself into thirds and advance in different sectors. The Babylonian left flank was the first to engage, charging into a woodland where the Kishu army's right flank had sheltered. Babylon then committed its center to reinforce the embattled left as the right dealt with the Kishu reinforcements. The Babylonian left flank suffered significant losses, while the center, supported by Sin-idinna's bodyguard unit, withstood a fierce attack from experienced Kishu units. The tide of battle was turned when the Babylonian right broke through the Kishu left and charged into the slaughter at the center of the battlefield, helping to overwhelm Kishu's army. Babylon secured a pyrrhic victory, losing nearly half their army, but greatly weakening the defenders. Babylon would not take the town until they launched a final assault that cost them 378 more men, and, because of his distance from Babylonia, Sin-idinna was forced to replace them with poor-quality Akkadian farmers.
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