Susanchites

The Susanchites were the inhabitants of Shushan (Susa), the Elamite capital that served as one of the administrative capitals of the Persian Empire. They are named in Ezra 4:9 among the adversaries of the Jews who wrote to the Persian king Artaxerxes opposing the rebuilding of Jerusalem — a letter designed to alarm the king about a potentially rebellious Jewish community. Shushan's prominence as the setting for the Book of Esther (and later Nehemiah's service at the Persian court) gives its inhabitants historical significance in the post-exilic period.

The mixed population of Samaria that opposed the rebuilding effort included peoples from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Shushan (Ezra 4:9–10), reflecting the Assyrian and Babylonian policy of population exchange that had filled the northern territories with diverse ethnic groups after the deportation of Israel.