Hammurabi is best known for having issued theCode of Hammurabi, which he claimed to have received fromShamash, the Babylonian god of justice. Unlike earlierSumerian law codes, such as theCode of Ur-Nammu, which had focused on compensating the victim of the crime, the Law of Hammurabi was one of the first law codes to place greater emphasis on the physical punishment of the perpetrator. It prescribed specific penalties for each crime and is among the first codes to establish thepresumption of innocence. They were intended to limit what a wronged person was permitted to do inretribution. The Code of Hammurabi and theLaw of Moses in theTorah contain numerous similarities.
Hammurabi was seen by many as a god within his own lifetime. After his death, Hammurabi was revered as a great conqueror who spread civilization and forced all peoples to pay obeisance toMarduk, thenational god of the Babylonians. Later, his military accomplishments became de-emphasized and his role as the ideal lawgiver became the primary aspect of his legacy. For later Mesopotamians, Hammurabi's reign became the frame of reference for all events occurring in the distant past. Even after the empire he built collapsed, he was still revered as a model ruler, and many kings across the Near East claimed him as an ancestor. Hammurabi was rediscovered by archaeologists in the late nineteenth century and has since been seen as an important figure in thehistory of law.
Hammurabi ascended to the throne as the king of a minor kingdom in the midst of a complexgeopolitical situation. Hammurabi was anAmoriteFirst Dynasty king of thecity-state ofBabylon, and inherited the power from his father,Sin-Muballit, inc. 1792 BC.[5] Babylon was one of the many largely Amorite-ruled city-states that dotted the central and southern Mesopotamian plains and waged war on each other for control of fertileagricultural land.[6] Though many cultures co-existed in Mesopotamia, Babylonian culture gained a degree of prominence among theliterate classes throughout theMiddle East under Hammurabi.[7] The kings who came before Hammurabi had founded a relatively minor city-state in 1894 BC, which controlled little territory outside of the city itself. Babylon was overshadowed by older, larger, and more powerful kingdoms, such asElam,Assyria,Isin,Eshnunna, andLarsa for a century or so after its founding. However, his fatherSin-Muballit had begun to consolidate rule of a small area of south central Mesopotamia under Babylonian rule and, by the time of his reign, had conquered the minor city-states ofBorsippa,Kish, andSippar.[7]
The powerful kingdom ofEshnunna controlled the upper Tigris River, whileLarsa controlled the river delta. To the east of Mesopotamia lay the powerful kingdom ofElam, which regularly invaded and forced tribute upon the small states of southern Mesopotamia. In northern Mesopotamia, theAssyrian kingShamshi-Adad I, who had already inherited centuries-old Assyrian colonies inAsia Minor, had expanded his territory into theLevant and centralMesopotamia,[8] although his untimely death would somewhat fragment his empire.[9]
The first few years of Hammurabi's reign were quite peaceful.[10] Hammurabi used his power to undertake a series of public works, including heightening the city walls for defensive purposes, and expanding the temples.[11] The powerful kingdom of Elam, which straddled important trade routes across theZagros Mountains, invaded the Mesopotamian plain.[12] With allies among the plain states, Elam attacked and destroyed the kingdom of Eshnunna, destroying a number of cities and imposing its rule on portions of the plain for the first time.[13]
In order to consolidate its position, Elam tried to start a war between Hammurabi's Babylonian kingdom and the kingdom of Larsa.[14] 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.[14] 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 byc. 1763 BC.[15]
As Hammurabi was assisted during the war in the south by his allies from the north such asYamhad andMari, the absence of soldiers in the north led to unrest.[15] Continuing his expansion, Hammurabi turned his attention northward, quelling the unrest. Soon after, he destroyed Eshnunna.[16] Next the Babylonian armies conquered the remaining northern states, including Babylon's former ally Mari, although it is possible that the conquest of Mari was a surrender without any actual conflict.[17][18]
Hammurabi entered into a protracted war withIshme-Dagan I of Assyria for control of Mesopotamia, with both kings making alliances with minor states in order to gain the upper hand. Eventually Hammurabi prevailed, ousting Ishme-Dagan I just before his own death.Mut-Ashkur, the new king of Assyria, was forced to pay tribute to Hammurabi.[19]
In just a few years, Hammurabi succeeded in uniting all of Mesopotamia under his rule.[18] The Assyrian kingdom survived but was forced to pay tribute during his reign, and of the major city-states in the region, onlyAleppo andQatna to the west in theLevant maintained their independence.[18] However, onestele (stone monument) of Hammurabi has been found as far north asDiyarbekir, where he claims the title "King of the Amorites".[20]
Vast numbers of contracttablets, dated to the reigns of Hammurabi and his successors, have been discovered, as well as 55 of his own letters.[21] These letters give a glimpse into the daily trials of ruling an empire, from dealing with floods and mandating changes to a flawedcalendar, to taking care of Babylon's massive herds of livestock.[22] Hammurabi died and passed the reins of the empire on to his sonSamsu-iluna inc. 1750 BC, under whose rule the Babylonian empire quickly began to unravel.[23]
The Code of Hammurabi was a collection of 282 laws dealing with a wide range of issues.[24] It is not the earliest surviving law code[25][b] but was proved more influential in world politics and international relations[27][28] as instead of focusing on compensating the victim of crime, as in earlier Sumerian law codes, the Code of Hammurabi instead focused on physically punishing the perpetrator.[28] It was also one of the first law codes to place restrictions on what a wronged person was allowed to do inretribution[28] and one of the earliest examples of the idea ofpresumption of innocence, suggesting that the accused and accuser have the opportunity to provideevidence.[29] The structure of the code is very specific, with each offense receiving a specified punishment. Many offenses resulted in death, disfigurement, or the use of theLex Talionis philosophy ("Eye for eye, tooth for tooth").[30][28]
The Code of Hammurabi was inscribed on astele 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; it was rediscovered there in 1901 inIran and is now in theLouvre Museum inParis. The code of Hammurabi contains 282 laws, written byscribes on 12 tablets.[27] Unlike earlier laws, it was written inAkkadian, the daily language of Babylon, and could therefore be read by any literate person in the city. At this time, Akkadian replacedSumerian, and Hammurabi began language reforms that would make Akkadian the most common language at this time.[31] A carving at the top of the stele portrays Hammurabi receiving the laws fromShamash, the Babylonian god of justice,[32] and the preface states that Hammurabi was chosen by Shamash to bring the laws to the people.[33]
Tablet of Hammurabi (𒄩𒄠𒈬𒊏𒁉, 4th line from the top), King of Babylon. British Museum.[37][38][39]
Hammurabi was honored above all other kings of the second millennium BC[40] and he received the unique honor of being declared to be a god within his own lifetime.[41] The personal name "Hammurabi-ili" meaning "Hammurabi is my god" became common during and after his reign. In writings from shortly after his death, Hammurabi is commemorated mainly for three achievements: bringing victory in war, bringing peace, and bringing justice.[41] Hammurabi's conquests came to be regarded as part of a sacred mission to spread civilization to all nations.[42] A stele from Ur glorifies him in his own voice as a mighty ruler who forces evil into submission and compels all peoples to worshipMarduk.[43] The stele declares: "The people of Elam, Gutium, Subartu, and Tukrish, whose mountains are distant and whose languages are obscure, I placed into [Marduk's] hand. I myself continued to put straight their confused minds." A later hymn also written in Hammurabi's own voice extols him as a powerful, supernatural force for Marduk:[42]
I am the king, the brace that grasps wrongdoers, that makes people of one mind, I am the great dragon among kings, who throws their counsel in disarray, I am the net that is stretched over the enemy, I am the fear-inspiring, who, when lifting his fierce eyes, gives the disobedient the death sentence, I am the great net that covers evil intent, I am the young lion, who breaks nets and scepters, I am the battle net that catches him who offends me.[43]
After extolling Hammurabi's military accomplishments, the hymn finally declares: "I am Hammurabi, the king of justice."[41] In later commemorations, Hammurabi's role as a great lawgiver came to be emphasized above all his other accomplishments and his military achievements became de-emphasized. Hammurabi's reign became the point of reference for all events in the distant past. A hymn to the goddessIshtar, whose language suggests it was written during the reign ofAmmisaduqa, Hammurabi's fourth successor, declares: "The king who first heard this song as a song of your heroism is Hammurabi. This song for you was composed in his reign. May he be given life forever!"[40] For centuries after his death, Hammurabi's laws continued to be copied by scribes as part of their writing exercises and they were even partially translated into Sumerian.[44]
Political legacy
Copy of Hammurabi's stele usurped byShutruk-Nahhunte I. The stele was only partially erased and was never re-inscribed.[45]
During the reign of Hammurabi, Babylon usurped the position of "most holy city" in southern Mesopotamia from its predecessor,Nippur.[46] Under the rule of Hammurabi's successorSamsu-iluna, the short-lived Babylonian Empire began to collapse. In northern Mesopotamia, both the Amorites and Babylonians were driven fromAssyria byPuzur-Sin a nativeAkkadian-speaking ruler,c. 1740 BC. Around the same time, native Akkadian speakers threw off Amorite Babylonian rule in the far south of Mesopotamia, creating theSealand Dynasty, in more or less the region of ancient Sumer. Hammurabi's ineffectual successors met with further defeats and loss of territory at the hands of Assyrian kings such asAdasi andBel-ibni, as well as to the Sealand Dynasty to the south,Elam to the east, and to theKassites from the northeast. Thus was Babylon quickly reduced to the small and minor state it had once been upon its founding.[47]
Thecoup de grace for the Hammurabi's Amorite Dynasty occurred in 1595 BC, when Babylon was sacked and conquered by the powerfulHittite Empire, thereby ending all Amorite political presence in Mesopotamia.[48] However, the Indo-European-speaking Hittites did not remain, turning over Babylon to theirKassite allies, a people speaking alanguage isolate, from theZagros mountains region. ThisKassite Dynasty ruled Babylon for over 400 years and adopted many aspects of theBabylonianculture, including Hammurabi's code of laws.[48] Even after the fall of the Amorite Dynasty, however, Hammurabi was still remembered and revered.[44] When the Elamite kingShutruk-Nahhunte I raided Babylon in 1158 BC and carried off many stone monuments, he had most of the inscriptions on these monuments erased and new inscriptions carved into them.[44] On the stele containing Hammurabi's laws, however, only four or five columns were wiped out and no new inscription was ever added.[45] Over a thousand years after Hammurabi's death, the kings ofSuhu, a land along the Euphrates river, just northwest of Babylon, claimed him as their ancestor.[49]
ANeo-Babylonian royal inscription, which was intended for display on a stele, commemorates a royal grant of tax exemptions to nine Babylonian cities and presents the royal protagonist as a second Hammurabi.[50]
Relationship to Biblical figures and Mosaic law
In the late nineteenth century, the Code of Hammurabi became a major center of debate in the heatedBabel und Bibel ("Babylon and Bible") controversy in Germany over the relationship between the Bible and ancient Babylonian texts.[51] In January 1902, the German AssyriologistFriedrich Delitzsch gave a lecture at theSing-Akademie zu Berlin in front of theKaiser and his wife, in which he argued that the Mosaic Laws of the Old Testament were directly copied off the Code of Hammurabi.[52] Delitzsch's lecture was so controversial that, by September 1903, he had managed to collect 1,350 short articles from newspapers and journals, over 300 longer ones, and twenty-eight pamphlets, all written in response to this lecture, as well as the preceding one about theFlood story in theEpic of Gilgamesh. These articles were overwhelmingly critical of Delitzsch, though a few were sympathetic. The Kaiser distanced himself from Delitzsch and his radical views and, in fall of 1904, Delitzsch was forced to give his third lecture inCologne andFrankfurt am Main rather than in Berlin.[51] The putative relationship between the Mosaic Law and the Code of Hammurabi later became a major part of Delitzsch's argument in his 1920–21 bookDie große Täuschung (The Great Deception) that the Hebrew Bible was irredeemably contaminated by Babylonian influence and that only by eliminating the human Old Testament entirely could Christians finally believe in the true,Aryan message of theNew Testament.[52] In the early twentieth century, many scholars believed that Hammurabi wasAmraphel, the King ofShinar in the Book of Genesis 14:1.[53][54] This view has now been largely rejected,[55][56] and Amraphel's existence is not attested in any writings from outside the Bible.[56]
Parallels between this narrative and the giving of theCovenant Code toMoses byYahweh atopMount Sinai in theBiblicalBook of Exodus and similarities between the two legal codes suggest a common ancestor in the Semitic background of the two.[57][58][59][60] Nonetheless, fragments of previous law codes have been found and it is unlikely that theMosaic laws were directly inspired by the Code of Hammurabi.[57][58][59][60][c] Some scholars have disputed this; David P. Wright argues that the Jewish Covenant Code is "directly, primarily, and throughout" based upon the Laws of Hammurabi.[61] In 2010, a team of archaeologists fromHebrew University discovered a cuneiform tablet dating to the eighteenth or seventeenth century BC atHazor inIsrael containing laws clearly derived from the Code of Hammurabi.[62]
References
Notes
^fromAmoriteʻAmmurāpi ("the kinsman is a healer"), itself fromʻAmmu ("paternal kinsman") andRāpi ("healer"). The classicistAlan Millard insists thatHammurapi is a more correct spelling.[2]
^Barton, a former professor of Semitic languages at the University of Pennsylvania, stated that while there are similarities between the two texts, a study of the entirety of both laws "convinces the student that the laws of the Old Testament are in no essential way dependent upon the Babylonian laws." He states that "such resemblances" arose from "a similarity of antecedents and of general intellectual outlook" between the two cultures, but that "the striking differences show that there was no direct borrowing."[58]
^Adolf, Antony (8 May 2013).Peace: A World History. John Wiley & Sons. p. 3.ISBN978-0-7456-5459-1.An early study claims that 'peace and prosperity prevailed during his reign', though more recent research confines this preponderantly peaceful period to the first two decades Hammurabi ruled.
^Maher, John C. (2017).Multilingualism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 108.ISBN978-0-19-872499-5.... Akkadian (Babylonian) replaced Sumerian ... The Code of Hammurabi was written in the daily language of Babylon, Akkadian. Hammurabi (c.1810–1750BC), the sixth king of the First Babylonian Empire, initiated language reforms to make Akkadian the pre-eminent lingua franca of antiquity; inscriptions have been found on stone, silver and clay artefacts.
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