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During his reign, he conquered the city-states of Elam , Larsa , Eshnunna , and Mari. He ousted Ishme-Dagan I , the king of Assyria , and forced his son Mut-Ashkur to pay tribute, thereby bringing almost all of Mesopotamia under Babylonian rule. Hammurabi is best known for having issued the Code of Hammurabi , which he claimed to have received from Shamash , the Babylonian god of justice.
Unlike earlier Sumerian law codes, such as the Code 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 the presumption of innocence.
Although its penalties are extremely harsh by modern standards, they were intended to limit what a wronged person was permitted to do in retribution. The Code of Hammurabi and the Law of Moses in the Torah contain numerous similarities, but these are probably due to shared background and oral tradition, and it is unlikely that Hammurabi's laws exerted any direct impact on the later Mosaic ones.
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 to Marduk , the national 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 become seen as an important figure in the history of law. Hammurabi was an Amorite First Dynasty king of the city-state of Babylon, and inherited the power from his father, Sin-Muballit , in c. Babylon was overshadowed by older, larger and more powerful kingdoms such as Elam , Assyria , Isin , Eshnunna and Larsa for a century or so after its founding.
However his father Sin-Muballit had begun to consolidate rule of a small area of south central Mesopotamia under Babylonian hegemony and, by the time of his reign, had conquered the minor city-states of Borsippa , Kish , and Sippar. Thus Hammurabi ascended to the throne as the king of a minor kingdom in the midst of a complex geopolitical situation. The powerful kingdom of Eshnunna controlled the upper Tigris River while Larsa controlled the river delta.
To the east of Mesopotamia lay the powerful kingdom of Elam which regularly invaded and forced tribute upon the small states of southern Mesopotamia. In northern Mesopotamia, the Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad I , who had already inherited centuries old Assyrian colonies in Asia Minor , had expanded his territory into the Levant and central Mesopotamia , [6] although his untimely death would somewhat fragment his empire.
The first few decades of Hammurabi's reign were quite 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 order to consolidate its position, Elam tried to start a war between Hammurabi's Babylonian kingdom and the kingdom of Larsa. As Hammurabi was assisted during the war in the south by his allies from the north such as Yamhad and Mari , the absence of soldiers in the north led to unrest. Hammurabi entered into a protracted war with Ishme-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. In just a few years, Hammurabi succeeded in uniting all of Mesopotamia under his rule. Vast numbers of contract tablets , dated to the reigns of Hammurabi and his successors, have been discovered, as well as 55 of his own letters. The Code of Hammurabi was inscribed on a stele 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 in Iran and is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris. The code of Hammurabi contains laws, written by scribes on 12 tablets. Unlike earlier laws, it was written in Akkadian , 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 very harsh by modern standards, with many offenses resulting in death, disfigurement, or the use of the " Eye for eye, tooth for tooth " Lex Talionis "Law of Retaliation" philosophy. A carving at the top of the stele portrays Hammurabi receiving the laws from Shamash , the Babylonian god of justice, [27] and the preface states that Hammurabi was chosen by Shamash to bring the laws to the people. Wright argues that the Jewish Covenant Code is "directly, primarily, and throughout" based upon the Laws of Hammurabi.
Hammurabi was honored above all other kings of the second millennium BC [35] and he received the unique honor of being declared to be a god within his own lifetime.
I myself continued to put straight their confused minds. 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.
After extolling Hammurabi's military accomplishments, the hymn finally declares: This song for you was composed in his reign. May he be given life forever!
During the reign of Hammurabi, Babylon usurped the position of "most holy city" in southern Mesopotamia from its predecessor, Nippur. Around the same time, native Akkadian speakers threw off Amorite Babylonian rule in the far south of Mesopotamia, creating the Sealand 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 as Adasi and Bel-ibni , as well as to the Sealand Dynasty to the south, Elam to the east, and to the Kassites from the northeast. Thus was Babylon quickly reduced to the small and minor state it had once been upon its founding. The coup de grace for the Hammurabi's Amorite Dynasty occurred in BC, when Babylon was sacked and conquered by the powerful Hittite Empire , thereby ending all Amorite political presence in Mesopotamia. This Kassite Dynasty ruled Babylon for over years [43] and adopted many aspects of the Babylonian culture , including Hammurabi's code of laws.
In the late nineteenth century, the Code of Hammurabi became a major center of debate in the heated Babel und Bibel "Babylon and Bible" controversy in Germany over the relationship between the Bible and ancient Babylonian texts. Ships with Tracking Number! May not contain Access Codes or Supplements. Buy with confidence, excellent customer service! Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
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Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. The study offers significant new evidence demonstrating that a model of literary dependence is the only viable explanation for the work. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Wright is also author of The Disposal of Impurity: The stele was later plundered by the Elamites and removed to their capital, Susa ; it was rediscovered there in in Iran and is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Jewish Studies in the 21st Century.
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