Hammurabi

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Hammurabi

Hammurabi (Akkadian

Akkadian language

Amorite language

Amorite is an early Northwest Semitic languages, spoken by the Amorite tribes prominent in early Near Eastern history. It is known exclusively from non-Akkadian proper names recorded by Akkadian language scribes during periods of Amorite rule in Babylonia , notably from Mari, Syria, and to a lesser extent Alalakh, Tell Harmal, and Khafajah....
?Ammurapi, "the kinsman is a healer," from ?Ammu, "paternal kinsman," and Rapi, "healer"; (ca. 1795 – 1750 BC middle chronology) was the sixth king of Babylon

Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
. He became the first king of the Babylonian Empire

Babylonia

Babylonia was a state in Lower Mesopotamia , Babylon as its franklin. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi created an empire out of the territories of the former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad....
, extending Babylon's control over Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khuzestan Province of southwestern Iran....
by winning a series of wars against neighboring kingdoms. Although his empire controlled all of Mesopotamia at the time of his death, his successors were unable to maintain his empire.

Hammurabi is known for the set of laws called Hammurabi's Code

Code of Hammurabi

The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved ancient law code, created ca. 1760 BC in ancient Babylon. It was enacted by the sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi....
, one of the first written codes of law

Civil code

A civil code is a systematic compilation of laws designed to comprehensively deal with the core areas of private law. A jurisdiction that has a civil code generally also has a code of civil procedure....
in recorded history

Recorded history

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Hammurabi'

Start a new discussion about 'Hammurabi'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

History

Hammurabi was a First Dynasty

First Babylonian Dynasty

The chronology of the first dynasty of Babylonia is debated as there is a Babylonian King List A and a Babylonian King List B. In this chronology, the regnal years of List A are used due to their wide usage....
king of the city-state

City-state

A city-state is an independent country whose territory consists solely of a single major city and the area immediately surrounding it. Examples include the city-states of ancient Greece , the Phoenician cities of Canaan , the Sumerian cities of Mesopotamia , the Mayans of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica , the central Asian cities along the Silk Roa...
of Babylon, and inherited the power from his father, Sin-muballit

Sin-Muballit

Sin-Muballit was the father of Hammurabi. He was the fifth king of the First Babylonian Dynasty of Babylonia, reigning ca. 1748 to 1729 BC....
, in ca. 1792 BC. Babylon was one of the many ancient city-states that dotted the Mesopotamian plain and waged war on each other for control of fertile agricultural

Agriculture

Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
land. Though many cultures co-existed in Mesopotamia, Babylonian culture gained a degree of prominence among the literate

Literacy

The traditional definition of literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write, or the ability to use language to Reading , Writing, Listening, and Speech communication....
classes throughout the Middle East

Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
. The kings who came before Hammurabi had begun to consolidate rule of central Mesopotamia under Babylonian hegemony

Hegemony

Hegemony first denoted the dominance of a Greek city-state over other city-states, then denoted the dominance of one nation over others. The political scientist Antonio Gramsci developed the former conceptions to identify the dominance of one social class over the other social classes in a society by means of cultural hegemony....
and, by the time of his reign, had conquered the city-states of Borsippa

Borsippa

Borsippa was an important ancient city of Sumer, built on both sides of a lake about 17.7 km southwest of Babylon, on the east bank of the Euphrates....
, Kish

Kish

Kish may refer to:...
, and Sippar

Sippar

Sippar , was an ancient Sumerian and later Babylonian city on the east bank of the Euphrates, some 60 km north of Babylon....
. Thus Hammurabi ascended to the throne as the king of a minor kingdom in the midst of a complex geopolitical

Geopolitics

Geopolitics is the art and practice of using international political power. Traditionally, the term has applied primarily to the impact of geography on politics, but its usage has evolved over the past century to encompass a wider connotation....
situation. The powerful kingdom of Eshnunna

Eshnunna

Larsa

Larsa , was an important city of ancient Sumer. It lies some 25 km southeast of the ruin mounds of Uruk , near the east bank of the Shatt-en-Nil canal ....
controlled the river delta. To the east lay the kingdom of Elam

Elam

Elam was an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran.Elam was centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of Khuzestan and Ilam Province , as far as Jiroft in Kerman province and Burned City in Zabol, as well as a small part of southern Iraq....
. To the north, the Shamshi-Adad I

Shamshi-Adad I

Shamshi-Adad I rose to prominence when he carved out a large kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, the Old Assyrian Kingdom, although the Assyria was soon defeated by Hammurabi of Babylon and remained in the shadow of the Babylonian Empire throughout this period....
was undertaking expansionistic wars, although his untimely death would fragment his newly conquered Semitic

Semitic

In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages....
empire.

The first few decades of Hammurabi's reign were relatively peaceful. Hammurabi used his power to undertake a series of public works, including heightening the city walls for defensive purposes, and expanding the temples. In ca. 1766 BC, the powerful kingdom of Elam

Elam

Trade

Tradeis the willing exchange of goods, Service , or both. Trade is also called commerce. A mechanism that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter , the direct exchange of goods and services....
routes across the Zagros Mountains

Zagros Mountains

The Zagros , are the largest mountain range in Iran and Iraq. They have a total length of 1 500 km from western Iran, on the border with Iraq to the southern parts of the Persian Gulf....
, invaded the Mesopotamian plain. With allies among the plain states, Elam attacked and destroyed the empire of Eshnunna

Eshnunna

Eshnunna was an ancient Sumerian city and city-state in lower Mesopotamia. Although situated in the Diyala River north-east of Sumer proper, the city nonetheless belonged securely within the Sumerian cultural milieu....
, destroying a number of cities and imposing its rule on portions of the plain for the first time. In order to consolidate its position, Elam tried to start a war between Hammurabi's Babylonian kingdom and the kingdom of Larsa

Larsa

Larsa , was an important city of ancient Sumer. It lies some 25 km southeast of the ruin mounds of Uruk , near the east bank of the Shatt-en-Nil canal ....
. Hammurabi and the king of Larsa made an alliance when they discovered this duplicity and were able to crush the Elamites, although Larsa did not contribute greatly to the military effort. Angered by Larsa's failure to come to his aid, Hammurabi turned on that southern power, thus gaining control of the entirety of the lower Mesopotamian plain by ca. 1763 BC.

As Hammurabi was assisted during the war in the south by his allies from the north, the absence of soldiers in the north led to unrest. Continuing his expansion, Hammurabi turned his attention northward, quelling the unrest and soon after crushing Eshnunna. Next the Babylonian armies conquered the remaining northern states, including Babylon's former ally Mari

Mari, Syria

Mari was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city, located 11 kilometers north-west of the modern town of Abu Kamal on the western bank of Euphrates river, some 120 km southeast of Deir ez-Zor, Syria....
, although it is possible that the 'conquest' of Mari was a surrender without any actual conflict. In just a few years, Hammurabi had succeeded in uniting all of Mesopotamia under his rule. Of the major city-states in the region, only Aleppo

Aleppo

Aleppo is a city in northern Syria, capital of the Aleppo Governorate; the Governorate extends around the city for over 16,000 km? and has a population of 4,393,000, making it the largest Governorate in Syria by population....
and Qatna

Qatna

Qatna, The tell occupies 1 km?, which makes it one of the largest bronze Age towns in western Syria. The tell is located at the edge of the limestone-plateau of the Syrian desert towards the fertile Homs-Bassin....
to the west in Syria maintained their independence. However, one stele of Hammurabi has been found as far north as Diyarbekir, where he claims the title "King of the Amorites".

Vast numbers of contract tablet

Clay tablet

In ancient times, small tablets made out of clay were used as a writing medium.From the 4th millennium BCE in the Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian and Hittites civilisations of the Mesopotamia region, Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylus often made of reed....
s, dated to the reigns of Hammurabi and his successors, have been discovered, as well as 55 of his own letters. These letters give a glimpse into the daily trials of ruling an empire, from dealing with floods and mandating changes to a flawed calendar

Calendar

A calendar is a system of organize days for a social, religious, commercial or administrative purpose. This organization is done by giving names to periods of time ? typically days, weeks, months and years....
, to taking care of Babylon's massive herds of livestock. Hammurabi died and passed the reins of the empire on to his son Samsu-Iluna

Samsu-Iluna

Samsu-Iluna , was the King of Babylon, who reigned from 1749 BC to 1712 BC.He was a son of Hammurabi. During the reign of Samsu-Iluna the Babylonian Empire lost a lot of provinces....
in ca. 1750 BC.

Code of laws

Milkau Oberer Teil Der Stele Mit Dem Text Von Hammurapis Gesetzescode 369 2

Hammurabi is best known for the promulgation

Promulgation

Promulgation or enactment is the act of formally proclaiming or declaring new statute or administrative law when it receives final approval....
of a new code of Babylonian law

Babylonian law

Archaeological material for the study of Babylonian law is singularly extensive. So-called "contracts" exist in the thousands, including a great variety of deeds, Conveyancing, bonds, receipts, accounts, and most important of all, actual legal decisions given by the judges in the law courts....
: the Code of Hammurabi

Code of Hammurabi

The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved ancient law code, created ca. 1760 BC in ancient Babylon. It was enacted by the sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi....
. This was written on a stele

Stele

A stele is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerals or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living ? inscribed, carved in relief , or painted onto the slab....
, a large stone monument, and placed in a public place so that all could see it, although it is thought that few were literate. The stele was later plundered by the Elamites and removed to their capital, Susa

Susa

Susa was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian Empire and Parthian empires of Iran, located about 250 km east of the Tigris River.The modern town of Shush, Iran is located at the site of ancient Susa....
; it was rediscovered there in 1901 and is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris

Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
. The code of Hammurabi contained 282 laws, written by scribe

Scribe

A scribe is a person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession. The profession, previously found in all literate cultures in some form, lost most of its importance and status with the advent of printing....
s on 12 tablets. Unlike earlier laws, it was written in Akkadian

Akkadian language

Akkadian or Assyrian-Babylonian is a Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian language, an unrelated language isolate....
, the daily language of Babylon, and could therefore be read by any literate person in the city.

The structure of the code is very specific, with each offense receiving a specified punishment. The punishments tended to be harsh by modern standards, with many offenses resulting in death, disfigurement, or the use of the "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth

Eye For An Eye

Eye For An Eye is a Poland Hardcore punk punk rock band founded in 1997 in Bielsko-Biala. EFAE, as it is also known, plays an old school style of punk, more along the veins of The Exploited or even, some say, Agnostic Front....
" (Lex Talionis

An eye for an eye

The phrase "an eye for an eye", ; , is a quotation from in which a person who has taken the eye of another in a fight is instructed to give his own eye in compensation....
"Law of Retaliation") philosophy. Putting the laws into writing was important in itself because it suggested that the laws were immutable and above the power of any earthly king to change. The code is also one of the earliest examples of the idea of presumption of innocence

Presumption of innocence

The wikt:presumption of innocence being innocent until proven guilt y is a legal right that the accused in criminal trials has in many modern nations....
, and it also suggests that the accused and accuser have the opportunity to provide evidence

Evidence

Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either a) presumed to be true, or b) were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth....
. However, there is no provision for extenuating circumstances

Extenuating circumstances

In law, extenuating circumstances are criminal cases in which, though an offense has been committed without legal justification or excuse, its gravity, from the point of view of punishment or moral opprobrium, is mitigated or reduced by reason of unusual or extreme facts leading up to or attending the commission of the offense....
to alter the prescribed punishment.

A carving at the top of the stele portrays Hammurabi receiving the laws from the god Shamash

Shamash

Shamash was the common Akkadian language name of the Solar deity and god of justice in Babylonia and Assyria, corresponding to Mesopotamian mythology Utu....
, and the preface states that Hammurabi was chosen by the gods of his people to bring the laws to them. Parallels to this divine inspiration for laws can be seen in the laws given to Moses

Moses

Moses is a Hebrew Bible Hebrews religious leader, lawgiver, prophet, to whom the Mosaic authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbeinu in Hebrew , he is the most important prophet in Judaism, and also an important prophet of Christianity, Islam, the Bah?'? Faith, Rastafari movement, Chrislam and many ot...
for the ancient Hebrews. Similar codes of law were created in several nearby civilizations, including the earlier neo-Sumer

Sumer

Sumer was a civilization and a historical region located in Southern Iraq , known as the Cradle of civilization. It lasted from the first settlement of Eridu in the Ubaid period through the Uruk period and the Dynastic periods until the rise of Babylon in the early 2nd millennium BC....
ian example of Ur-Nammu's code

Code of Ur-Nammu

The Code of Ur-Nammu is the oldest known tablet containing a law code surviving today. It was written in the Sumerian language ca. 2100-2050 BC....
, and the later Hittite code of laws

Hittite laws

The Hittite laws have been preserved on a number of Hittite language cuneiform script tablets found at Hattusa . Copies have been found written in Old Hittite as well as in Middle and Late Hittite, indicating that they had validity throughout the duration of the Hittite Empire ....
.

Legacy and depictions

Under the rules of Hammurabi's successors, the Babylonian Empire was weakened by military pressure from the Hittites

Hittites

The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a Hittite language of the Anatolian languages of the Indo-European languages family, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia ca....
, who sacked Babylon around 1600 BC. However it was the Kassites

Kassites

The Kassites were an ancient Near Eastern tribe who gained control of Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire after ca. 1531 BC to ca....
who eventually conquered Babylon and ruled Mesopotamia for 400 years, adopting parts of the Babylonian culture

Culture

Culture is difficult to define. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions....
, including Hammurabi's code of laws.

Because of Hammurabi's reputation as a lawgiver, his depiction can be found in several U.S. government buildings. Hammurabi is one of the 23 lawgivers depicted in marble

Marble

Marble is a nonfoliated metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite . It is extensively used for Marble sculpture, as a architecture material, and in many other applications....
bas-reliefs in the chamber

United States Capitol

The United States Capitol serves as the seat of government for the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States....
of the U.S. House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as "the House", is one of the bicameralism of the United States Congress; the other is the United States Senate....
in the United States Capitol

United States Capitol

The United States Capitol serves as the seat of government for the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States....
. An image of Hammurabi receiving the Code of Hammurabi from the Babylonian sun god

Solar deity

A Solar Deity , is a deity who represents the sun, or an aspect of it. People have worshiped these for all of recorded history. Hence, many beliefs have formed around this worship, such as the "missing sun" found in many cultures ....
(probably Shamash

Shamash

Shamash was the common Akkadian language name of the Solar deity and god of justice in Babylonia and Assyria, corresponding to Mesopotamian mythology Utu....
) is depicted on the frieze

Frieze

In architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain or?in the Ionic order or Corinthian order?decorated with bas-reliefs....
on the south wall of the U.S. Supreme Court building

United States Supreme Court building

The Supreme Court building is the seat of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is situated in Washington, D.C. at 1 First Street NE, on the block immediately east of the United States Capitol....
.

Hammurabi

History

Code of laws

Legacy and depictions

See also

External links