Hurrians, a people of the ancient Middle East. From the southern Caucasus they occupied the northern part of the Fertile Crescent about 2000 B.C. and soon spread into Mesopotamia and Syria. They are probably the Horites of the Old Testament. An Indo-European minority who settled among them united the Hurrian city-states into the kingdom of Mitanni by 1500 B.C. Neighboring countries, including Assyria, were subjugated. Internal dissension led to the collapse of Mitanni about 1360 B.C.