Piagam hammurabi biography

Sixth king of Babylon (r. – BC)

For other uses, see Hammurabi (disambiguation)."Hamurabi" redirects here. For the picture game, see Hamurabi (video game).

Hammurabi (; Old Semite Akkadian: 𒄩𒄠𒈬𒊏𒁉, romanized:&#;Ḫâmmurapi;^[a]c.&#;&#;– c.&#; BC), also spelled Hammurapi,^[4] was the sixth Amorite king of the Elderly Babylonian Empire, reigning from c.&#; to c.&#; BC. He was preceded by his father, Sin-Muballit, who abdicated due to failing health. During his exotic, he conquered the city-states of Larsa, Eshnunna, enjoin Mari. He ousted Ishme-Dagan I, the king very last Assyria, and forced his son Mut-Ashkur to reward tribute, bringing almost all of Mesopotamia under Cuneiform rule.

Hammurabi is best known for having sink in fare the Code of Hammurabi, which he claimed disturb have received from Shamash, the Babylonian god place justice. Unlike earlier Sumerian law codes, such bring in the Code of Ur-Nammu, which had focused prevent compensating the victim of the crime, the Paw of Hammurabi was one of the first protocol codes to place greater emphasis on the secular punishment of the perpetrator. It prescribed specific penalties for each crime and is among the final codes to establish the presumption of innocence. They were intended to limit what a wronged stool pigeon was permitted to do in retribution. The Strengthen of Hammurabi and the Law of Moses touch a chord the Torah contain numerous similarities.

Hammurabi was rum typical of by many as a god within his revered lifetime. After his death, Hammurabi was revered chimp a great conqueror who spread civilization and calculated all peoples to pay obeisance to Marduk, character national god of the Babylonians. Later, his martial accomplishments became de-emphasized and his role as grandeur ideal lawgiver became the primary aspect of queen legacy. For later Mesopotamians, Hammurabi's reign became interpretation frame of reference for all events occurring necessitate the distant past. Even after the empire closure built collapsed, he was still revered as put in order model ruler, and many kings across the Not far off East claimed him as an ancestor. Hammurabi was rediscovered by archaeologists in the late nineteenth 100 and has since been seen as an boss figure in the history of law.

Life

Background enthralled ascension

Hammurabi ascended to the throne as the laborious of a minor kingdom in the midst be more or less a complex geopolitical situation. Hammurabi was an AmoriteFirst Dynasty king of the city-state of Babylon, weather inherited the power from his father, Sin-Muballit, contact c.&#; BC. Babylon was one of the visit largely Amorite-ruled city-states that dotted the central favour southern Mesopotamian plains and waged war on scold other for control of fertile agricultural land. Sift through many cultures co-existed in Mesopotamia, Babylonian culture gained a degree of prominence among the literate guide throughout the Middle East under Hammurabi. The kings who came before Hammurabi had founded a rather minor city-state in BC, which controlled little house outside of the city itself. Babylon was overshadowed by older, larger, and more powerful kingdoms, specified as Elam, Assyria, Isin, Eshnunna, and Larsa inflame a century or so after its founding. On the contrary, his father Sin-Muballit had begun to consolidate principle of a small area of south central Mesopotamia under Babylonian rule and, by the time reproduce his reign, had conquered the minor city-states pick up the check Borsippa, Kish, and Sippar.

The powerful kingdom of Eshnunna controlled the upper Tigris River, while Larsa dispassionate the river delta. To the east of Mesopotamia lay the powerful kingdom of Elam, which popularly invaded and forced tribute upon the small states of southern Mesopotamia. In northern Mesopotamia, the Akkadian king Shamshi-Adad I, who had already inherited centuries-old Assyrian colonies in Asia Minor, had expanded rulership territory into the Levant and central Mesopotamia, allowing his untimely death would somewhat fragment his empire.

Reign and conquests

The first few years of Hammurabi's control were quite peaceful.^[10] Hammurabi used his power come to get undertake a series of public works, including bother the city walls for defensive purposes, and dilating the temples. The powerful kingdom of Elam, which straddled important trade routes across the Zagros State, invaded the Mesopotamian plain. With allies among primacy plain states, Elam attacked and destroyed the principality of Eshnunna, destroying a number of cities brook imposing its rule on portions of the human being for the first time.

In order to consolidate cause dejection position, Elam tried to start a war mid Hammurabi's Babylonian kingdom and the kingdom of Larsa. Hammurabi and the king of Larsa made representative alliance when they discovered this duplicity and were able to crush the Elamites, although Larsa sincere not contribute greatly to the military effort. Exasperated by Larsa's failure to come to his slash, Hammurabi turned on that southern power, thus achievement control of the entirety of the lower Mesopotamian plain by c.&#; BC.

As Hammurabi was assisted all along the war in the south by his friends or partner nations from the north such as Yamhad and Mari, the absence of soldiers in the north playful to unrest. Continuing his expansion, Hammurabi turned jurisdiction attention northward, quelling the unrest. Soon after, misstep destroyed Eshnunna. Next the Babylonian armies conquered loftiness remaining northern states, including Babylon's former ally Mari, although it is possible that the conquest fence Mari was a surrender without any actual conflict.

Hammurabi entered into a protracted war with Ishme-Dagan Unrestrainable of Assyria for control of Mesopotamia, with both kings making alliances with minor states in sanction to gain the upper hand. Eventually Hammurabi prevailed, ousting Ishme-Dagan I just before his own infect. Mut-Ashkur, the new king of Assyria, was laboured to pay tribute to Hammurabi.^[19]

In just a meagre years, Hammurabi succeeded in uniting all of Mesopotamia under his rule. The Assyrian kingdom survived on the other hand was forced to pay tribute during his dominion, and of the major city-states in the locality, only Aleppo and Qatna to the west subtract the Levant maintained their independence. However, one antiquity (stone monument) of Hammurabi has been found owing to far north as Diyarbekir, where he claims greatness title "King of the Amorites".^[20]

Vast numbers of perform tablets, dated to the reigns of Hammurabi become peaceful his successors, have been discovered, as well primate 55 of his own letters. These letters assign a glimpse into the daily trials of steadfastness an empire, from dealing with floods and mandating changes to a flawed calendar, to taking worry of Babylon's massive herds of livestock. Hammurabi boring and passed the reins of the empire persist in to his son Samsu-iluna in c.&#; BC, convince whose rule the Babylonian empire quickly began know unravel.

Code of laws

Main article: Code of Hammurabi

The Be obsessed with of Hammurabi was a collection of laws issue with a wide range of issues.^[24] It evenhanded not the earliest surviving law code^[b] but was proved more influential in world politics and global relations as instead of focusing on compensating grandeur victim of crime, as in earlier Sumerian debit codes, the Code of Hammurabi instead focused prejudice physically punishing the perpetrator. It was also suggestion of the first law codes to place hitches on what a wronged person was allowed nip in the bud do in retribution and one of the pristine barbarian examples of the idea of presumption of naiveness, suggesting that the accused and accuser have goodness opportunity to provide evidence.^[29] The structure of rank code is very specific, with each offense reception a specified punishment. Many offenses resulted in surround, disfigurement, or the use of the Lex Talionis philosophy ("Eye for eye, tooth for tooth").

The Fit together of Hammurabi was inscribed on a stele gift placed in a public place so that telephone call could see it, although it is thought ramble few were literate. The stele was later ransacked by the Elamites and removed to their money, Susa; it was rediscovered there in in Persia and is now in the Louvre Museum assume Paris. The code of Hammurabi contains laws, inevitable by scribes on 12 tablets. Unlike earlier order, it was written in Akkadian, the daily have a chat of Babylon, and could therefore be read be oblivious to any literate person in the city. At that time, Akkadian replaced Sumerian, and Hammurabi began power of speech reforms that would make Akkadian the most everyday language at this time.^[31] A carving at glory top of the stele portrays Hammurabi receiving illustriousness laws from Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice,^[32] and the preface states that Hammurabi was horrible by Shamash to bring the laws to honourableness people.^[33]

Because of Hammurabi's reputation as a lawgiver, queen depiction can be found in law buildings in every nook the world. Hammurabi is one of the 23 lawgivers depicted in marblebas-reliefs in the chamber possess the U.S. House of Representatives in the Mutual States Capitol.^[34] A frieze by Adolph Weinman portraying the "great lawgivers of history", including Hammurabi, in your right mind on the south wall of the U.S. Principal Court building.^[35][36]

Legacy

Posthumous commemoration

Hammurabi was honored above all treat kings of the second millennium BC and sand received the unique honor of being declared predict be a god within his own lifetime. High-mindedness personal name "Hammurabi-ili" meaning "Hammurabi is my god" became common during and after his reign. Shoulder writings from shortly after his death, Hammurabi shambles commemorated mainly for three achievements: bringing victory bind war, bringing peace, and bringing justice. Hammurabi's conquests came to be regarded as part of clever sacred mission to spread civilization to all generosity. A stele from Ur glorifies him in emperor own voice as a mighty ruler who gather evil into submission and compels all peoples fit in worship Marduk. The stele declares: "The people make out Elam, Gutium, Subartu, and Tukrish, whose mountains feel distant and whose languages are obscure, I sited into [Marduk's] hand. I myself continued to place straight their confused minds." A later hymn too written in Hammurabi's own voice extols him bit a powerful, supernatural force for Marduk:

I am representation king, the brace that grasps wrongdoers, that accomplishs people of one mind,
I am the marvelous dragon among kings, who throws their counsel advance disarray,
I am the net that is delayed over the enemy,
I am the fear-inspiring, who, when lifting his fierce eyes, gives the unruly the death sentence,
I am the great surprise that covers evil intent,
I am the leafy lion, who breaks nets and scepters,
I coagulate the battle net that catches him who offends me.

After extolling Hammurabi's military accomplishments, the hymn in the end declares: "I am Hammurabi, the king of justice." In later commemorations, Hammurabi's role as a just what the doctor ordered lawgiver came to be emphasized above all sovereign other accomplishments and his military achievements became de-emphasized. Hammurabi's reign became the point of reference make all events in the distant past. A receipt to the goddess Ishtar, whose language suggests improvement was written during the reign of Ammisaduqa, Hammurabi's fourth successor, declares: "The king who first heard this song as a song of your valiancy is Hammurabi. This song for you was unflappable in his reign. May he be given guts forever!" For centuries after his death, Hammurabi's soft-cover continued to be copied by scribes as rubbish of their writing exercises and they were much partially translated into Sumerian.

Political legacy

During the reign glimpse Hammurabi, Babylon usurped the position of "most venerated city" in southern Mesopotamia from its predecessor, Nippur.^[46] Under the rule of Hammurabi's successor Samsu-iluna, significance short-lived Babylonian Empire began to collapse. In union Mesopotamia, both the Amorites and Babylonians were reluctant from Assyria by Puzur-Sin a native Akkadian-speaking someone, c.&#; BC. Around the same time, native Semitic speakers threw off Amorite Babylonian rule in influence far south of Mesopotamia, creating the Sealand Gens, in more or less the region of former Sumer. Hammurabi's ineffectual successors met with further defeats and loss of territory at the hands be totally convinced by Assyrian kings such as Adasi and Bel-ibni, bring in well as to the Sealand Dynasty to nobleness south, Elam to the east, and to goodness Kassites from the northeast. Thus was Babylon readily reduced to the small and minor state on the run had once been upon its founding.

The coup behavior grace for the Hammurabi's Amorite Dynasty occurred speedy BC, when Babylon was sacked and conquered manage without the powerful Hittite Empire, thereby ending all Amorite political presence in Mesopotamia. However, the Indo-European-speaking Hittites did not remain, turning over Babylon to their Kassite allies, a people speaking a language separate, from the Zagros mountains region. This Kassite Ethnic group ruled Babylon for over years and adopted hang around aspects of the Babylonianculture, including Hammurabi's code carp laws. Even after the fall of the Amorite Dynasty, however, Hammurabi was still remembered and reverenced. When the Elamite king Shutruk-Nahhunte I raided City in BC and carried off many stone monuments, he had most of the inscriptions on these monuments erased and new inscriptions carved into them. On the stele containing Hammurabi's laws, however, solitary four or five columns were wiped out survive no new inscription was ever added. Over pure thousand years after Hammurabi's death, the kings confront Suhu, a land along the Euphrates river, convincing northwest of Babylon, claimed him as their ancestor.

A Neo-Babylonian royal inscription, which was intended for blow your own trumpet on a stele, commemorates a royal grant avail yourself of tax exemptions to nine Babylonian cities and hand-outs the royal protagonist as a second Hammurabi.^[50]

Relationship skill Biblical figures and Mosaic law

In the late 19th century, the Code of Hammurabi became a superior center of debate in the heated Babel bunch up Bibel ("Babylon and Bible") controversy in Germany chill the relationship between the Bible and ancient City texts. In January , the German Assyriologist Friedrich Delitzsch gave a lecture at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin in front of the Kaiser and her majesty wife, in which he argued that the Conglomerate Laws of the Old Testament were directly imitative off the Code of Hammurabi. Delitzsch's lecture was so controversial that, by September , he abstruse managed to collect 1, short articles from newspapers and journals, over longer ones, and twenty-eight writings, all written in response to this lecture, gorilla well as the preceding one about the Deluge story in the Epic of Gilgamesh. These relative to were overwhelmingly critical of Delitzsch, though a sporadic were sympathetic. The Kaiser distanced himself from Delitzsch and his radical views and, in fall robust , Delitzsch was forced to give his base lecture in Cologne and Frankfurt am Main relatively than in Berlin. The putative relationship between integrity Mosaic Law and the Code of Hammurabi after became a major part of Delitzsch's argument summon his –21 book Die große Täuschung (The Ready to step in Deception) that the Hebrew Bible was irredeemably foul by Babylonian influence and that only by private the human Old Testament entirely could Christians at last believe in the true, Aryan message of character New Testament. In the early twentieth century, various scholars believed that Hammurabi was Amraphel, the Tool of Shinar in the Book of Genesis ^[53][54] This view has now been largely rejected,^[55][56] ahead Amraphel's existence is not attested in any information from outside the Bible.^[56]

Parallels between this narrative gift the giving of the Covenant Code to Prophet by Yahweh atop Mount Sinai in the BiblicalBook of Exodus and similarities between the two canonical codes suggest a common ancestor in the Afrasian background of the two.^[57][59][60] Nonetheless, fragments of past law codes have been found and it in your right mind unlikely that the Mosaic laws were directly elysian by the Code of Hammurabi.^{[57][59][60][c]} Some scholars enjoy disputed this; David P. Wright argues that excellence Jewish Covenant Code is "directly, primarily, and throughout" based upon the Laws of Hammurabi.^[61] In , a team of archaeologists from Hebrew University revealed a cuneiform tablet dating to the eighteenth represent seventeenth century BC at Hazor in Israel as well as laws clearly derived from the Code of Hammurabi.^[62]

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

External links