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{{Short description|Sixth king of Babylon (r. 1792–1750 BC)}} | |||
{{dablink|For the computer game, see ].}} | |||
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{{redirect|Hamurabi|the video game|Hamurabi (video game){{!}}''Hamurabi'' (video game)}} | |||
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| image =Hammurabi Face.jpg | |||
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| caption =] head believed to represent Hammurabi | |||
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| title =King of Babylon | |||
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{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2018}} | |||
{{Infobox royalty | |||
| title = ]<br/>] | |||
| name = Hammurabi<br/>{{lang|akk-x-oldbabyl|{{cuneiform|8|𒄩𒄠𒈬𒊏𒁉}}}} | |||
| image = F0182 Louvre Code Hammourabi Bas-relief Sb8 rwk.jpg | |||
| caption = Hammurabi (standing) receiving his royal insignia from ] (or possibly ]){{sfn|Roux|1992|loc=between 266–267}} | |||
| succession = ] of the ] | |||
| reign = {{circa|1792|1750 BC}} (]) | |||
| predecessor = ] | |||
| successor = ] | |||
| birth_date = {{circa|1810}} BC | |||
| birth_place = ] | |||
| death_date = {{circa|1750}} BC (aged 59–60) | |||
| death_place = Babylon | |||
| issue = ] | |||
}} | |||
{{Contains special characters|cuneiform}} | |||
'''Hammurabi''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|x|æ|m|ʊ|ˈ|r|ɑː|b|i}}; {{langx|akk-x-oldbabyl|{{cuneiform|8|𒄩𒄠𒈬𒊏𒁉}}|translit=Ḫâmmurapi}};{{efn|from ] ''ʻAmmurāpi'' ("the kinsman is a healer"), itself from ''ʻAmmu'' ("paternal kinsman") and ''Rāpi'' ("healer"). The classicist ] insists that ''Hammurapi'' is a more correct spelling.{{sfn|Millard|2004}}}} {{circa|1810|1750 BC}}), also spelled '''Hammurapi''',{{sfn|Khwshnaw|2023}}<ref>{{cite wikisource|title=The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East|volume=1|first1=Charles F.|last1=Hone|date=1917|scan=Index:The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Volume 01.djvu}}</ref> was the sixth ] king of the ], reigning from {{circa|1792}} to {{circa|1750}} BC. He was preceded by his father, ], who abdicated due to failing health. During his reign, he conquered the city-states of ], ], and ]. He ousted ], the king of ], and forced his son ] to pay tribute, bringing almost all of ] under ]n rule. | |||
Hammurabi is best known for having issued the ], which he claimed to have received from ], the Babylonian god of justice. Unlike earlier ]ian law codes, such as the ], 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 ]. They were intended to limit what a wronged person was permitted to do in ]. The Code of Hammurabi and the ] in the ] contain numerous similarities. | |||
'''Hammurabi''' (] from ] ''ˤAmmurāpi'', "the kinsman is a healer," from ''ˤAmmu'', "paternal kinsman," and ''Rāpi'', "healer"; c. ] – ]), was the sixth king of ]. He became the first king of the ], extending Babylon's control over ] by winning a series of wars against neighboring kingdoms. | |||
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 ], the ] 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 the ]. | |||
Hammurabi is known for the set of laws called ], one of the first written ] in ]. These laws were written on a stone tablet standing over six feet tall. Owing to his reputation in modern times as an ancient law-giver, Hammurabi's portrait is in many government buildings throughout the world. Although his empire controlled all of ] by the time of his death, his successors were unable to maintain his empire. | |||
== |
==Life== | ||
===Background and ascension=== | |||
Hammurabi was a ] king of the ] of Babylon, and inherited the throne from his father, ], in ca. 1792 BC.<ref>Van de Mieroop: 1</ref> 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 land.<ref>Van de Mieroop: 1-2</ref>Though many cultures co-existed in Mesopotamia, Babylonian culture gained a degree of prominence among the literate classes throughout the Middle East.<ref name="VM3">Van de Mieroop: 3</ref> The kings who came before Hammurabi had begun to consolidate rule of central Mesopotamia under Babylonian hegemony and, by the time of his reign, had conquered the city-states of ], ], and ].<ref name=VM3/> Thus Hammurabi ascended to the throne as the king of a minor kingdom in the midst of a complex geopolitical situation, surrounded by the more powerful kingdoms of ], ], ], and ].<ref>Van de Mieroop: 3-4</ref> | |||
] | |||
Hammurabi ascended to the throne as the king of a minor kingdom in the midst of a complex ] situation. Hammurabi was an ] ] king of the ] of ], and inherited the power from his father, ], in {{circa|1792 BC}}.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|p=1}} 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 fertile ] land.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop |2005|pp=1–2}} Though many cultures co-existed in Mesopotamia, Babylonian culture gained a degree of prominence among the ] classes throughout the ] under Hammurabi.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|p=3}} 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 as ], ], ], ], and ] for a century or so after its founding. However, his father ] 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 of ], ], and ].{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|p=3}} | |||
The powerful kingdom of ] controlled the upper Tigris River, while ] controlled the river delta. To the east of Mesopotamia lay the powerful kingdom of ], which regularly invaded and forced tribute upon the small states of southern Mesopotamia. In northern Mesopotamia, the ]n king ], who had already inherited centuries-old Assyrian colonies in ], had expanded his territory into the ] and central ],{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|pp=3–4}} although his untimely death would somewhat fragment his empire.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|p=16}} | |||
The first few decades of Hammurabi's reign were relatively peaceful, although the death of ] led to the fragmentation of his northern Semitic empire, and Babylon became comparatively stronger as a result.<ref>Van de Mieroop: 16</ref> Hammurabi used this time to undertake a series of public works, including heightening the city walls for defensive purposes, and expanding the temples.<ref>Arnold: 43</ref> In ca. 1766 BC, the powerful kingdom of ], which straddled important trade routes across the ], invaded the Mesopotamian plain.<ref>Van de Mieroop: 15-16</ref> With allies among the plain states, Elam attacked and destroyed the empire of ], destroying a number of cities and imposing its rule on portions of the plain for the first time.<ref>Van de Mieroop: 17</ref> In order to consolidate its position, Elam tried to start a war between Hammurabi's Babylonian kingdom and the kingdom of ].<ref name="VM18">Van de Mieroop: 18</ref> 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.<ref name=VM18/> 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.<ref name="VM31">Van de Mieroop: 31</ref> | |||
===Reign and conquests=== | |||
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.<ref name=VM31/> Continuing his expansion, Hammurabi turned his attention northward, quelling the unrest and soon after crushing Eshnunna.<ref>Van de Mieroop: 40-41</ref> Next the Babylonian armies conquered the remaining northern states, including Babylon's former ally ], although it is possible that the 'conquest' of Mari was a surrender without any actual conflict.<ref>Van de Mieroop: 54-55 and 64-65</ref><ref name="Ar45">Arnold: 45</ref> In just a few short years, Hammurabi had succeeded in uniting all of Mesopotamia under his rule.<ref name=Ar45/> Of the major city-states in the region, only ] and ] to the west in Syria maintained their independence.<ref name=Ar45/> | |||
{{Infobox military conflict | |||
Vast numbers of contract ]s, dated to the reigns of Hammurabi and his successors, have been discovered, as well as 55 of his own letters.<ref>Breasted: 129</ref> These letters give a glimpse into the daily trials of ruling an empire, from dealing with floods and mandating changes to a flawed calendar, to taking care of Babylon's massive herds of livestock.<ref>Breasted: 129-130</ref> Hammurabi died and passed the reigns of the empire on to his son ] in ca. 1750 BC.<ref>Arnold: 42</ref> | |||
| conflict = Hammurabi's conquests | |||
| date = {{circa}} 1770 BC – {{circa}} 1760 BC | |||
| place = modern-day ] & modern-day ] | |||
| result = Babylonian victory | |||
| combatant1 = ]<br/>]<br/>]<br/>] (until {{circa}} 1760 BC) | |||
| combatant2 = ] | |||
---- | |||
] | |||
---- | |||
] (from {{circa}} 1760 BC)<br/>Minor city-states | |||
| commander1 = Hammurabi<br/>] | |||
| commander2 = unknown | |||
| casualties1 = unknown | |||
| casualties2 = unknown | |||
}} | |||
] votive monument from Sippar, Iraq, dating to {{circa|1792|1750 BC}} showing King Hammurabi raising his right arm in worship, now held in the ]]]The first few years of Hammurabi's reign were quite peaceful.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Adolf |first1=Antony |title=Peace: A World History |date=8 May 2013 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-7456-5459-1 |page=3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J1kh_7BmkoMC&dq=hammurabi+peaceful+reign&pg=PT34 |quote=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.}}</ref> Hammurabi used his power to undertake a series of public works, including heightening the city walls for defensive purposes, and expanding the temples.{{sfn|Arnold|2005|p=43}} The powerful kingdom of Elam, which straddled important trade routes across the ], invaded the Mesopotamian plain.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|pp=15–16}} 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.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|p=17}} | |||
]]] | |||
In order to consolidate its position, Elam tried to start a war between Hammurabi's Babylonian kingdom and the kingdom of Larsa.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|p=18}} 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.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|p=18}} 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 {{circa|1763 BC}}.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|p=31}} | |||
==Code of laws== | |||
{{main|Code of Hammurabi}} | |||
As Hammurabi was assisted during the war in the south by his allies from the north such as ] and ], the absence of soldiers in the north led to unrest.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|p=31}} Continuing his expansion, Hammurabi turned his attention northward, quelling the unrest. Soon after, he destroyed Eshnunna.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|pp=40–41}} 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.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|pp=54–55, 64–65}}{{sfn|Arnold|2005|p=45}} | |||
Hammurabi is best known for the ] of a new code of ] – the ]. This was written on a ], a large stone monument, and placed in a public place so that all could see it, although it is thought that few were ]. The stele was later plundered by the Elamites and removed to their capital, ]; it was rediscovered there in 1901 and is now in the ] in Paris. The code of Hammurabi contained 284 laws, written by scribes on 12 tablets. Unlike earlier laws, it was written in ], the daily language of Babylon, and could therefore be read by any literate person in the city.<ref>Breasted, Page 141</ref> | |||
Hammurabi entered into a protracted war with ] 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. ], the new king of Assyria, was forced to pay tribute to Hammurabi.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Roger B. |last1=Beck |first2=Linda |last2=Black |first3=Larry S. |last3=Krieger |first4=Phillip C. |last4=Naylor |first5=Dahia Ibo |last5=Shabaka |title=World History: Patterns of Interaction |url=https://archive.org/details/mcdougallittellw00beck |url-access=registration |publisher=] |year=1999 |location=Evanston, IL |isbn=978-0-395-87274-1 |oclc=39762695}}</ref> | |||
] | |||
In just a few years, Hammurabi succeeded in uniting all of Mesopotamia under his rule.{{sfn|Arnold|2005|p=45}} The Assyrian kingdom survived but was forced to pay tribute during his reign, and of the major city-states in the region, only ] and ] to the west in the ] maintained their independence.{{sfn|Arnold|2005|p=45}} However, one ] (stone monument) of Hammurabi has been found as far north as ], where he claims the title "King of the Amorites".<ref>{{cite book |title=The Empire of the Amorites |last=Clay |first=Albert Tobias |author-link=Albert Tobias Clay |publisher=] |year=1919 |page= |url=https://archive.org/details/empireofamorites00clayuoft}}</ref> | |||
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 philosophy". While the penalties of his laws may seem cruel to modern readers, the fact that he not only put into writing the laws of his kingdom, but attempted to make them a systematic whole, is considered an important step forward in the evolution of ]. 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 ], and it also suggests that the accused and accuser have the opportunity to provide evidence. However, there is no provision for extenuating circumstances to alter the prescribed punishment. | |||
Vast numbers of contract ], dated to the reigns of Hammurabi and his successors, have been discovered, as well as 55 of his own letters.{{sfn|Breasted|2003|p=129}} These letters give a glimpse into the daily trials of ruling an empire, from dealing with floods and mandating changes to a flawed ], to taking care of Babylon's massive herds of livestock.{{sfn|Breasted|2003|pp=129–130}} Hammurabi died and passed the reins of the empire on to his son ] in {{circa|1750 BC}}, under whose rule the Babylonian empire quickly began to unravel.{{sfn|Arnold|2005|p=42}} | |||
A carving at the top of the stele portrays Hammurabi receiving the laws from the god ], 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 ] for the ancient Hebrews. Similar codes of law were created in several nearby civilizations, including the earlier neo-Sumerian example of ], and the later ].<ref>The information in this section is explained in much more detail in Davies, W.W. (2003). ''Codes of Hammurabi and Moses: With Copious Comments, Index and Bible References''. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0766131246</ref> | |||
== Code of laws == | |||
==Legacy and depictions== | |||
{{Main|Code of Hammurabi}} | |||
Under the rules of Hammurabi's successors, the Babylonian Empire was weakened by military pressure from the ], who sacked Babylon around 1600 BC.<ref name="D19">Deblois: 19</ref> However it was the ] who eventually conquered Babylon and ruled Mesopotamia for 400 years, adopting parts of the Babylonian culture, including Hammurabi's code of laws. | |||
] stele. ], Paris|left]] | |||
The Code of Hammurabi was a collection of 282 laws dealing with a wide range of issues.<ref>{{cite wikisource|author=H. Otto Sommer|wslink=The Laws of Hammurabi, King of Babylonia|year=1908|publisher=Records of the Past, Volume II, Part III.}}</ref> It is not the earliest surviving law code{{sfnp|Driver|Miles|1952|p=9}}{{efn|It is predated by the ], the ], and the ].{{sfn|Roth|1995|pp=13, 23, 57}}}} but was proved more influential in world politics and international relations{{sfn|Breasted|2003|p=141}}{{sfn|Bertman|2003|p=}} 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.{{sfn|Bertman|2003|p=}} It was also one of the first law codes to place restrictions on what a wronged person was allowed to do in ]{{sfn|Bertman|2003|p=}} and one of the earliest examples of the idea of ], suggesting that the accused and accuser have the opportunity to provide ].<ref>''Victimology: Theories and Applications'', ], Albert R. Roberts, Cheryl Regehr, ], 2009, p. 103</ref> 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 the '']'' philosophy ("]").{{sfn|Prince|1904|pp=606–607}}{{sfn|Bertman|2003|p=}} | |||
The Code of Hammurabi was inscribed on a ] 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, ]; it was rediscovered there in 1901 in ] and is now in the ] in ]. The code of Hammurabi contains 282 laws, written by ]s on 12 tablets.{{sfn|Breasted|2003|p=141}} Unlike earlier laws, it was written in ], the daily language of Babylon, and could therefore be read by any literate person in the city. At this time, Akkadian replaced ], and Hammurabi began language reforms that would make Akkadian the most common language at this time.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Maher |first1=John C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rTPADgAAQBAJ |title=Multilingualism: A Very Short Introduction |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-872499-5 |page=108 |quote=... Akkadian (Babylonian) replaced Sumerian ... The Code of Hammurabi was written in the daily language of Babylon, Akkadian. Hammurabi (''c''.1810–1750 {{small|BC}}), 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.}}</ref> A carving at the top of the stele portrays Hammurabi receiving the laws from ], the Babylonian god of justice,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kleiner|first1=Fred S.|title=Gardner's Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective|date=2010|publisher=Wadsworth Cengage Learning|location=Boston, Massachusetts|isbn=978-0-495-57360-9|volume=1|page=29|edition=Thirteenth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mBrvazPDFoYC&q=Hammurabi+code+Shamash&pg=PT61|access-date=1 November 2020|archive-date=17 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140617233155/http://books.google.com/books?id=mBrvazPDFoYC|url-status=live}}</ref> and the preface states that Hammurabi was chosen by Shamash to bring the laws to the people.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=J. M. Powis|author1-link=John Merlin Powis Smith|title=The Origin and History of Hebrew Law|date=2005|publisher=The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.|location=Clark, New Jersey|isbn=978-1-58477-489-1|page=13|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NNgR7RjfSs0C&q=Hammurabi+code+Shamash&pg=PA12|access-date=1 November 2020|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415124102/https://books.google.com/books?id=NNgR7RjfSs0C&q=Hammurabi+code+Shamash&pg=PA12|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
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 ] ]s in the ] of the ] in the ].<ref>"Relief Portraits of Lawgivers: Hammurabi." Architect of the Capitol. </ref> An image of Hammurabi receiving the ] from the Babylonian ] (probably ]) is depicted on the ] on the south wall of the ].<ref>"Courtroom Friezes: North and South Walls: Information Sheet." Supreme Court of the United States. </ref> | |||
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Because of Hammurabi's reputation as a lawgiver, his depiction can be found in law buildings throughout the world. Hammurabi is one of the 23 lawgivers depicted in ] ]s in the ] of the ] in the ].<ref>{{cite web|access-date=19 May 2008|url=http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/lawgivers/hammurabi.cfm|title=Hammurabi|publisher=]|archive-date=22 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211122140950/https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/hammurabi-relief-portrait|url-status=live}}</ref> A ] by ] depicting the "great lawgivers of history", including Hammurabi, is on the south wall of the ].<ref>{{cite web|access-date=19 May 2008 |url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/north&southwalls.pdf |title=Courtroom Friezes |publisher=] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100601113942/https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/north%26southwalls.pdf |archive-date=1 June 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author-link=Joan Biskupic|last1=Biskupic|first1=Joan|title=Lawgivers: From Two Friezes, Great Figures of Legal History Gaze Upon the Supreme Court Bench|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/1998/03/11/lawgivers-from-two-friezes-great-figures-of-legal-history-gaze-upon-the-supreme-court-bench/b9372b89-5b94-4fa2-81d9-300ee24913db/|access-date=28 November 2017|agency=The Washington Post|publisher=WP Company LLC|date=11 March 1998|archive-date=18 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818105814/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/1998/03/11/lawgivers-from-two-friezes-great-figures-of-legal-history-gaze-upon-the-supreme-court-bench/b9372b89-5b94-4fa2-81d9-300ee24913db/|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
==See also== | |||
* ] | |||
== |
==Legacy== | ||
===Posthumous commemoration=== | |||
<div class="references-small"> | |||
|url=https://archive.org/details/babylonianassyri00britiala}}</ref><ref>For full transcription: {{cite web|title=CDLI-Archival View|url=https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/archival_view.php?ObjectID=P365476|url-status=live|website=cdli.ucla.edu|access-date=4 November 2021|archive-date=4 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104175904/https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/archival_view.php?ObjectID=P365476}}</ref>]] | |||
<references/> | |||
</div> | |||
Hammurabi was honored above all other kings of the second millennium BC{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|page=128}} and he received the unique honor of being declared to be a god within his own lifetime.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|page=127}} 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.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|page=127}} Hammurabi's conquests came to be regarded as part of a sacred mission to spread civilization to all nations.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|page=126}} A stele from Ur glorifies him in his own voice as a mighty ruler who forces evil into submission and compels all peoples to worship ].{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|pages=126–127}} The stele declares: "The people of Elam, Gutium, Subartu, and Tukrish, whose mountains are distant and whose languages are obscure, I placed into 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:{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|page=126}} | |||
<blockquote><poem> | |||
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.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|pages=126–127}} | |||
</poem></blockquote> | |||
After extolling Hammurabi's military accomplishments, the hymn finally declares: "I am Hammurabi, the king of justice."{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|page=127}} 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 goddess ], whose language suggests it was written during the reign of ], 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!"{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|page=128}} 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.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|page=129}} | |||
===Political legacy=== | |||
]. The stele was only partially erased and was never re-inscribed.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|pages=129–130}}|left]] | |||
During the reign of Hammurabi, Babylon usurped the position of "most holy city" in southern Mesopotamia from its predecessor, ].<ref name="Schneider">{{citation|last=Schneider|first=Tammi J.|title=An Introduction to Ancient Mesopotamian Religion|publisher=]|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan|date=2011|isbn=978-0-8028-2959-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2HfU9gv0fXYC&q=Iconography+of+Enlil&pg=PA58|pages=58–59|access-date=1 November 2020|archive-date=12 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211112192643/https://books.google.com/books?id=2HfU9gv0fXYC&q=Iconography+of+Enlil&pg=PA58|url-status=live}}</ref> Under the rule of Hammurabi's successor ], the short-lived Babylonian Empire began to collapse. In northern Mesopotamia, both the Amorites and Babylonians were driven from ] by ] a native ]-speaking ruler, {{circa|1740 BC}}. Around the same time, native Akkadian speakers threw off Amorite Babylonian rule in the far south of Mesopotamia, creating the ], 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 ] and ], as well as to the Sealand Dynasty to the south, ] to the east, and to the ] from the northeast. Thus was Babylon quickly reduced to the small and minor state it had once been upon its founding.{{sfn|Roux|1992|pp=243–246}} | |||
The ''coup de grace'' for the Hammurabi's Amorite Dynasty occurred in 1595 BC, when Babylon was sacked and conquered by the powerful ], thereby ending all Amorite political presence in Mesopotamia.{{sfn|DeBlois|1997|p=19}} However, the Indo-European-speaking Hittites did not remain, turning over Babylon to their ] allies, a people speaking a ], from the ] region. This ] ruled Babylon for over 400 years and adopted many aspects of the ]n ], including Hammurabi's code of laws.{{sfn|DeBlois|1997|p=19}} Even after the fall of the Amorite Dynasty, however, Hammurabi was still remembered and revered.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|page=129}} When the Elamite king ] 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.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|page=129}} On the stele containing Hammurabi's laws, however, only four or five columns were wiped out and no new inscription was ever added.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|pages=129–130}} Over a thousand years after Hammurabi's death, the kings of ], a land along the Euphrates river, just northwest of Babylon, claimed him as their ancestor.{{sfn|Van De Mieroop|2005|page=130}} | |||
A ] 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Frazer |first1=Mary |last2=Adalı |first2=Selim Ferruh |date=2021-11-25 |title="The just judgements that Ḫammu-rāpi, a former king, rendered": A New Royal Inscription in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/za-2021-2004/html |journal=Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie |language=en |volume=111 |issue=2 |pages=231–262 |doi=10.1515/za-2021-2004 |s2cid=244530410 |issn=0084-5299 |access-date=20 March 2023 |archive-date=20 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230320152531/https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/za-2021-2004/html |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
===Relationship to Biblical figures and Mosaic law === | |||
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.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=25}} In January 1902, the German Assyriologist ] gave a lecture at the ] in front of the ] and his wife, in which he argued that the Mosaic Laws of the Old Testament were directly copied off the Code of Hammurabi.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=23–25}} 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 the ]. 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 in ] and ] rather than in Berlin.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=25}} 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 book ''Die 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, ] message of the ].{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=23–25}} In the early twentieth century, many scholars believed that Hammurabi was ], the King of ] in the Book of Genesis 14:1.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1440-amraphel|website=]|title=Amraphel|access-date=24 November 2012|author1-last=Rogers|author1-first=Robert W.|author2-last=Kohler|author2-first=Kaufmann|author2-link=Kaufmann Kohler|author3-last=Jastrow|author3-first=Marcus|author3-link=Marcus Jastrow|archive-date=22 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211122081627/https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1440-amraphel|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2014&version=NIV|title=Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 14 - New International Version|access-date=24 November 2012|archive-date=20 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211120171947/https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2014&version=NIV|url-status=live}}</ref> This view has now been largely rejected,<ref>{{cite book|last=North|first=Robert|editor1-last=Metzger|editor1-first=Bruce M.|editor2-last=Coogan|editor2-first=Michael D.|date=1993|title=The Oxford Companion to the Bible|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=|chapter=Abraham|isbn=978-0-19-504645-8|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195046458/page/5}}</ref><ref name="Granerød2010">{{cite book|last=Granerød|first=Gard|title=Abraham and Melchizedek: Scribal Activity of Second Temple Times in Genesis 14 and Psalm 110|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m5mlvNPexSEC&pg=PA114|date=26 March 2010|location=Berlin, Germany|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-022346-0|page=120}}</ref> and Amraphel's existence is not attested in any writings from outside the Bible.<ref name="Granerød2010"/> | |||
Parallels between this narrative and the giving of the ] to ] by ] atop ] in the ] ] and similarities between the two legal codes suggest a common ancestor in the Semitic background of the two.<ref name="Douglas">{{cite book|last1=Douglas|first1=J. D.|last2=Tenney|first2=Merrill C.|author2-link=Merrill C. Tenney|date=2011|title=Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan|publisher=Zondervan|isbn=978-0-310-22983-4|page=1323}}</ref>{{sfn|Barton|1916|p=406}}<ref name="Unger">]: ''Archaeology and the Old Testament''. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing Co., 1954, pp. 156–157</ref><ref name="Free">Free, J.P.: ''Archaeology and Biblical History''. Wheaton: Scripture Press, 1950, 1969, p. 121</ref> Nonetheless, fragments of previous law codes have been found and it is unlikely that the ] were directly inspired by the Code of Hammurabi.<ref name="Douglas"/>{{sfn|Barton|1916|p=406}}<ref name="Unger"/><ref name="Free"/>{{efn|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."{{sfn|Barton|1916|p=406}}}} 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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wright|first=David P.|author-link=David P. Wright|title=Inventing God's Law: How the Covenant Code of the Bible Used and Revised the Laws of Hammurabi|url=https://archive.org/details/inventinggodslaw00wrig|url-access=limited|location=Oxford, England|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=2009|pages= and passim|isbn=978-0-19-530475-6}}</ref> In 2010, a team of archaeologists from ] discovered a cuneiform tablet dating to the eighteenth or seventeenth century BC at ] in ] containing laws clearly derived from the Code of Hammurabi.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Hazor 18: Fragments of a Cuneiform Law Collection from Hazor |journal=Israel Exploration Journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/25193017 |last1=Horowitz |first1=Wayne |issue=2 |volume=62 |pages=158–176 |last2=Oshima |first2=Takayoshi |year=2012 |issn=0021-2059 |jstor=43855622 |last3=Vukosavović |first3=Filip}}</ref> | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
===Notes=== | |||
* Arnold, Bill T. (2005). ''Who Were the Babylonians?'' Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 9004130713 | |||
{{notelist}} | |||
* Breasted, James Henry (2003). ''Ancient Time or a History of the Early World, Part 1''. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0766149463 | |||
* DeBlois, Lukas (1997). ''An Introduction to the Ancient World''. Routledge Publishing. ISBN 0415127734 | |||
* Van De Mieroop, Marc (2005). ''King Hammurabi of Babylon: A Biography''. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1405126604 | |||
* . Britannica, 1911. | |||
== |
===Citations=== | ||
{{ |
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* {{cite wikisource|Hammurabi|type=author}} | |||
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* {{cite book |last=Arnold |first=Bill T. |year=2005 |title=Who Were the Babylonians? |publisher=] |isbn=978-90-04-13071-5 |oclc=225281611}} | |||
title = ]| | |||
* {{cite book |last=Barton |first=George A. |author-link=George Aaron Barton |date=1916 |title=Archæology and the Bible |publisher=] |location=Philadelphia |oclc=38608139 |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43070/43070-h/43070-h.htm |access-date=29 December 2022 |archive-date=29 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229070133/https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43070/43070-h/43070-h.htm |url-status=live }} | |||
years = | | |||
* {{cite book |last=Bertman |first=Stephen |year=2003 |title=Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia |publisher=] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-518364-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1C4NKp4zgIQC |access-date=1 November 2020 |archive-date=14 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414103757/https://books.google.com/books?id=1C4NKp4zgIQC |url-status=live }} | |||
before = ]| | |||
* {{cite book |last=Breasted |first=James Henry |year=2003 |title=Ancient Time or a History of the Early World, Part 1 |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |isbn=978-0-7661-4946-5 |oclc=69651827}} | |||
after = ]}} | |||
* {{cite book |last=DeBlois |first=Lukas |year=1997 |title=An Introduction to the Ancient World |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-415-12773-8 |oclc=231710353}} | |||
{{end box}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Driver |first1=Godfrey R. |author-link1=Godfrey Rolles Driver |last2=Miles |first2=John C. |year=1952 |title=The Babylonian Laws: Edited with Translation and Commentary |volume=1: Legal Commentary |publisher=] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-1-55635-229-4 |oclc=493362814 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lPFJAwAAQBAJ }} | |||
* {{Cite journal |last=Khwshnaw |first=Ardalan |date=2023-02-10 |title=A New Old Babylonian Date List with Hammurapi Year Names |url=https://www.jcoart.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/2075-3047/article/download/549/425 |journal=Journal of Studies in History and Archeology |issue=84 |pages=665–686 |access-date=10 March 2023 |archive-date=10 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230310150801/https://www.jcoart.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/2075-3047/article/download/549/425 |url-status=live }} | |||
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Millard |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Millard |editor-last1=Metzger |editor-first1=Bruce M. |editor-link1=Bruce M. Metzger |editor-last2=Coogan |editor-first2=Michael D. |editor-link2=Michael Coogan |year=2004 |orig-year=1993 |title=Hammurapi |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to the Bible |publisher=] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-504645-8 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195046458.001.0001/acref-9780195046458-e-0309 |url-access=subscription }} | |||
* {{cite journal |last=Prince |first=J. Dyneley |year=1904 |title=The Code of Hammurabi |journal=] |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=601–609 |doi=10.1086/478479 |doi-access=free |jstor=3153895}} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Roth |first=Martha T. |year=1995 |title=Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor |publisher=] |location=Atlanta |isbn=978-0-7885-0104-3 |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;iel=2;view=toc;idno=heb07775.0001.001 |access-date=13 December 2022 |archive-date=5 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221005033946/https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;iel=2;view=toc;idno=heb07775.0001.001 |url-status=live }} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Roux |first=Georges |author-link=Georges Roux |year=1992 |orig-year=1864 |title=Ancient Iraq |publisher=] |location=London |isbn=978-0-14-012523-8}} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Van De Mieroop |first=Marc |year=2005 |title=King Hammurabi of Babylon: A Biography |publisher=] |isbn=978-1-4051-2660-1 |oclc=255676990 |url=https://archive.org/details/kinghammurabiofb00marc }} | |||
* {{citation |last=Ziolkowski |first=Theodore |date=2012 |title=Gilgamesh among Us: Modern Encounters with the Ancient Epic |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=snz_Wle6zvgC&q=Gilgamesh+epic+controversy&pg=PA28 |location=Ithaca, New York and London, England |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-5035-8 |access-date=1 November 2020 |archive-date=9 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211009130250/https://books.google.com/books?id=snz_Wle6zvgC&q=Gilgamesh+epic+controversy&pg=PA28 |url-status=live }} | |||
{{refend}} | |||
== External links == | |||
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* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170722053457/http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/law-code-hammurabi-king-babylon |date=22 July 2017 }} at the Louvre museum | |||
* {{Gutenberg author |id=7173}} | |||
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|SHORT DESCRIPTION=King of Babylon and creator of first known code of laws in the world. | |||
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|DATE OF BIRTH=c. 1810 BC | |||
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Latest revision as of 11:19, 27 December 2024
Sixth king of Babylon (r. 1792–1750 BC) For other uses, see Hammurabi (disambiguation). "Hamurabi" redirects here. For the video game, see Hamurabi (video game).
Hammurabi 𒄩𒄠𒈬𒊏𒁉 | |
---|---|
King of Babylon King of the Four Corners of the World | |
Hammurabi (standing) receiving his royal insignia from Shamash (or possibly Marduk) | |
King of the Old Babylonian Empire | |
Reign | c. 1792 – c. 1750 BC (MC) |
Predecessor | Sin-Muballit |
Successor | Samsu-iluna |
Born | c. 1810 BC Babylon |
Died | c. 1750 BC (aged 59–60) Babylon |
Issue | Samsu-iluna |
Hammurabi (/ˌxæmʊˈrɑːbi/; Old Babylonian Akkadian: 𒄩𒄠𒈬𒊏𒁉, romanized: Ḫâmmurapi; c. 1810 – c. 1750 BC), also spelled Hammurapi, was the sixth Amorite king of the Old Babylonian Empire, reigning from c. 1792 to c. 1750 BC. He was preceded by his father, Sin-Muballit, who abdicated due to failing health. During his reign, he conquered the city-states of Larsa, Eshnunna, and Mari. He ousted Ishme-Dagan I, the king of Assyria, and forced his son Mut-Ashkur to pay tribute, 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. 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.
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 been seen as an important figure in the history of law.
Life
Background and ascension
Hammurabi ascended to the throne as the king of a minor kingdom in the midst of a complex geopolitical situation. Hammurabi was an Amorite First Dynasty king of the city-state of Babylon, and inherited the power from his father, Sin-Muballit, in c. 1792 BC. 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 fertile agricultural land. Though many cultures co-existed in Mesopotamia, Babylonian culture gained a degree of prominence among the literate classes throughout the Middle East under Hammurabi. 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 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 rule and, by the time of his reign, had conquered the minor city-states of Borsippa, Kish, and Sippar.
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, although his untimely death would somewhat fragment his empire.
Reign and conquests
Hammurabi's conquests | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Babylonia Yamhad Larsa Mari (until c. 1760 BC) |
Mari (from c. 1760 BC) Minor city-states | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Hammurabi Yarim-Lim I | unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
unknown | unknown |
The first few years 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. The powerful kingdom of Elam, which straddled important trade routes across the Zagros Mountains, invaded the Mesopotamian plain. 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.
In order to consolidate its position, Elam tried to start a war between Hammurabi's Babylonian kingdom and the kingdom of Larsa. 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 c. 1763 BC.
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. Continuing his expansion, Hammurabi turned his attention northward, quelling the unrest. Soon after, he destroyed Eshnunna. 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.
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. The Assyrian kingdom survived but was forced to pay tribute during his reign, and of the major city-states in the region, only Aleppo and Qatna to the west in the Levant maintained their independence. However, one stele (stone monument) of Hammurabi has been found as far north as Diyarbekir, where he claims the title "King of the Amorites".
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. These letters give a glimpse into the daily trials of ruling an empire, from dealing with floods and mandating changes to a flawed calendar, 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 in c. 1750 BC, under whose rule the Babylonian empire quickly began to unravel.
Code of laws
Main article: Code of HammurabiThe Code of Hammurabi was a collection of 282 laws dealing with a wide range of issues. It is not the earliest surviving law code but was proved more influential in world politics and international relations 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. It was also one of the first law codes to place restrictions on what a wronged person was allowed to do in retribution and one of the earliest examples of the idea of presumption of innocence, suggesting that the accused and accuser have the opportunity to provide evidence. 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 the Lex Talionis philosophy ("Eye for eye, tooth for tooth").
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 1901 in Iran and is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris. The code of Hammurabi contains 282 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. At this time, Akkadian replaced Sumerian, and Hammurabi began language reforms that would make Akkadian the most common language at this time. A carving at the top of the stele portrays Hammurabi receiving the laws from Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice, and the preface states that Hammurabi was chosen by Shamash to bring the laws to the people.
Because of Hammurabi's reputation as a lawgiver, his depiction can be found in law buildings throughout the world. Hammurabi is one of the 23 lawgivers depicted in marble bas-reliefs in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives in the United States Capitol. A frieze by Adolph Weinman depicting the "great lawgivers of history", including Hammurabi, is on the south wall of the U.S. Supreme Court building.
Legacy
Posthumous commemoration
Hammurabi was honored above all other kings of the second millennium BC and he received the unique honor of being declared to be a god within his own lifetime. 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. Hammurabi's conquests came to be regarded as part of a sacred mission to spread civilization to all nations. A stele from Ur glorifies him in his own voice as a mighty ruler who forces evil into submission and compels all peoples to worship Marduk. The stele declares: "The people of Elam, Gutium, Subartu, and Tukrish, whose mountains are distant and whose languages are obscure, I placed into 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:
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: "I am Hammurabi, the king of justice." 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 goddess Ishtar, whose language suggests it was written during the reign of Ammisaduqa, 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!" 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.
Political legacy
During the reign of Hammurabi, Babylon usurped the position of "most holy city" in southern Mesopotamia from its predecessor, Nippur. Under the rule of Hammurabi's successor Samsu-iluna, the short-lived Babylonian Empire began to collapse. In northern Mesopotamia, both the Amorites and Babylonians were driven from Assyria by Puzur-Sin a native Akkadian-speaking ruler, c. 1740 BC. 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 1595 BC, when Babylon was sacked and conquered by 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 isolate, from the Zagros mountains region. This Kassite Dynasty ruled Babylon for over 400 years and adopted many aspects of the Babylonian culture, including Hammurabi's code of laws. Even after the fall of the Amorite Dynasty, however, Hammurabi was still remembered and revered. When the Elamite king Shutruk-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. On the stele containing Hammurabi's laws, however, only four or five columns were wiped out and no new inscription was ever added. Over a thousand years after Hammurabi's death, the kings of Suhu, a land along the Euphrates river, just northwest of Babylon, claimed him as their ancestor.
A Neo-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.
Relationship to Biblical figures and Mosaic law
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. In January 1902, the German Assyriologist Friedrich Delitzsch gave a lecture at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin in front of the Kaiser and his wife, in which he argued that the Mosaic Laws of the Old Testament were directly copied off the Code of Hammurabi. 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 the Flood story in the Epic 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 in Cologne and Frankfurt am Main rather than in Berlin. 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 book Die 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 the New Testament. In the early twentieth century, many scholars believed that Hammurabi was Amraphel, the King of Shinar in the Book of Genesis 14:1. This view has now been largely rejected, and Amraphel's existence is not attested in any writings from outside the Bible.
Parallels between this narrative and the giving of the Covenant Code to Moses by Yahweh atop Mount Sinai in the Biblical Book of Exodus and similarities between the two legal codes suggest a common ancestor in the Semitic background of the two. Nonetheless, fragments of previous law codes have been found and it is unlikely that the Mosaic laws were directly inspired by the Code of Hammurabi. 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. In 2010, a team of archaeologists from Hebrew University discovered a cuneiform tablet dating to the eighteenth or seventeenth century BC at Hazor in Israel containing laws clearly derived from the Code of Hammurabi.
References
Notes
- from Amorite ʻAmmurāpi ("the kinsman is a healer"), itself from ʻAmmu ("paternal kinsman") and Rāpi ("healer"). The classicist Alan Millard insists that Hammurapi is a more correct spelling.
- It is predated by the Code of Ur-Nammu, the Laws of Eshnunna, and the Code of Lipit-Ishtar.
- 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."
Citations
- Roux 1992, between 266–267.
- Millard 2004.
- Khwshnaw 2023.
- Hone, Charles F. (1917). The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East . Vol. 1 – via Wikisource.
- Van De Mieroop 2005, p. 1.
- Van De Mieroop 2005, pp. 1–2.
- ^ Van De Mieroop 2005, p. 3.
- Van De Mieroop 2005, pp. 3–4.
- Van De Mieroop 2005, p. 16.
- Adolf, Antony (8 May 2013). Peace: A World History. John Wiley & Sons. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-7456-5459-1.
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.
- Arnold 2005, p. 43.
- Van De Mieroop 2005, pp. 15–16.
- Van De Mieroop 2005, p. 17.
- ^ Van De Mieroop 2005, p. 18.
- ^ Van De Mieroop 2005, p. 31.
- Van De Mieroop 2005, pp. 40–41.
- Van De Mieroop 2005, pp. 54–55, 64–65.
- ^ Arnold 2005, p. 45.
- Beck, Roger B.; Black, Linda; Krieger, Larry S.; Naylor, Phillip C.; Shabaka, Dahia Ibo (1999). World History: Patterns of Interaction. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell. ISBN 978-0-395-87274-1. OCLC 39762695.
- Clay, Albert Tobias (1919). The Empire of the Amorites. Yale University Press. p. 97.
- Breasted 2003, p. 129.
- Breasted 2003, pp. 129–130.
- Arnold 2005, p. 42.
- H. Otto Sommer (1908). The Laws of Hammurabi, King of Babylonia . Records of the Past, Volume II, Part III. – via Wikisource.
- Driver & Miles (1952), p. 9.
- Roth 1995, pp. 13, 23, 57.
- ^ Breasted 2003, p. 141.
- ^ Bertman 2003, p. 71.
- Victimology: Theories and Applications, Ann Wolbert Burgess, Albert R. Roberts, Cheryl Regehr, Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2009, p. 103
- Prince 1904, pp. 606–607.
- Maher, John C. (2017). Multilingualism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-19-872499-5.
... Akkadian (Babylonian) replaced Sumerian ... The Code of Hammurabi was written in the daily language of Babylon, Akkadian. Hammurabi (c.1810–1750 BC), 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.
- Kleiner, Fred S. (2010). Gardner's Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective. Vol. 1 (Thirteenth ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-495-57360-9. Archived from the original on 17 June 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
- Smith, J. M. Powis (2005). The Origin and History of Hebrew Law. Clark, New Jersey: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-58477-489-1. Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
- "Hammurabi". Architect of the Capitol. Archived from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2008.
- "Courtroom Friezes" (PDF). Supreme Court of the United States. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 June 2010. Retrieved 19 May 2008.
- Biskupic, Joan (11 March 1998). "Lawgivers: From Two Friezes, Great Figures of Legal History Gaze Upon the Supreme Court Bench". WP Company LLC. The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 18 August 2020. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
- Cuneiform Tablets in the British Museum (PDF). British Museum. 1905. pp. Plates 44 and 45. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 January 2021. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
- Budge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis); King, L. W. (Leonard William) (1908). A guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities. London : Printed by the order of the Trustees. p. 147.
- For full transcription: "CDLI-Archival View". cdli.ucla.edu. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
- ^ Van De Mieroop 2005, p. 128.
- ^ Van De Mieroop 2005, p. 127.
- ^ Van De Mieroop 2005, p. 126.
- ^ Van De Mieroop 2005, pp. 126–127.
- ^ Van De Mieroop 2005, p. 129.
- ^ Van De Mieroop 2005, pp. 129–130.
- Schneider, Tammi J. (2011), An Introduction to Ancient Mesopotamian Religion, Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, pp. 58–59, ISBN 978-0-8028-2959-7, archived from the original on 12 November 2021, retrieved 1 November 2020
- Roux 1992, pp. 243–246.
- ^ DeBlois 1997, p. 19.
- Van De Mieroop 2005, p. 130.
- Frazer, Mary; Adalı, Selim Ferruh (25 November 2021). ""The just judgements that Ḫammu-rāpi, a former king, rendered": A New Royal Inscription in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums". Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie. 111 (2): 231–262. doi:10.1515/za-2021-2004. ISSN 0084-5299. S2CID 244530410. Archived from the original on 20 March 2023. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
- ^ Ziolkowski 2012, p. 25.
- ^ Ziolkowski 2012, pp. 23–25.
- Rogers, Robert W.; Kohler, Kaufmann; Jastrow, Marcus. "Amraphel". The Jewish Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
- "Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 14 - New International Version". Archived from the original on 20 November 2021. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
- North, Robert (1993). "Abraham". In Metzger, Bruce M.; Coogan, Michael D. (eds.). The Oxford Companion to the Bible. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-19-504645-8.
- ^ Granerød, Gard (26 March 2010). Abraham and Melchizedek: Scribal Activity of Second Temple Times in Genesis 14 and Psalm 110. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter. p. 120. ISBN 978-3-11-022346-0.
- ^ Douglas, J. D.; Tenney, Merrill C. (2011). Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan. p. 1323. ISBN 978-0-310-22983-4.
- ^ Barton 1916, p. 406.
- ^ Unger, M.F.: Archaeology and the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing Co., 1954, pp. 156–157
- ^ Free, J.P.: Archaeology and Biblical History. Wheaton: Scripture Press, 1950, 1969, p. 121
- Wright, David P. (2009). Inventing God's Law: How the Covenant Code of the Bible Used and Revised the Laws of Hammurabi. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. pp. 3 and passim. ISBN 978-0-19-530475-6.
- Horowitz, Wayne; Oshima, Takayoshi; Vukosavović, Filip (2012). "Hazor 18: Fragments of a Cuneiform Law Collection from Hazor". Israel Exploration Journal. 62 (2): 158–176. ISSN 0021-2059. JSTOR 43855622.
Sources
- Arnold, Bill T. (2005). Who Were the Babylonians?. Brill Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-13071-5. OCLC 225281611.
- Barton, George A. (1916). Archæology and the Bible. Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union. OCLC 38608139. Archived from the original on 29 December 2022. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
- Bertman, Stephen (2003). Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-518364-1. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
- Breasted, James Henry (2003). Ancient Time or a History of the Early World, Part 1. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7661-4946-5. OCLC 69651827.
- DeBlois, Lukas (1997). An Introduction to the Ancient World. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-12773-8. OCLC 231710353.
- Driver, Godfrey R.; Miles, John C. (1952). The Babylonian Laws: Edited with Translation and Commentary. Vol. 1: Legal Commentary. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-1-55635-229-4. OCLC 493362814.
- Khwshnaw, Ardalan (10 February 2023). "A New Old Babylonian Date List with Hammurapi Year Names". Journal of Studies in History and Archeology (84): 665–686. Archived from the original on 10 March 2023. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
- Millard, Alan (2004) . "Hammurapi". In Metzger, Bruce M.; Coogan, Michael D. (eds.). The Oxford Companion to the Bible. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504645-8.
- Prince, J. Dyneley (1904). "The Code of Hammurabi". The American Journal of Theology. 8 (3): 601–609. doi:10.1086/478479. JSTOR 3153895.
- Roth, Martha T. (1995). Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 978-0-7885-0104-3. Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
- Roux, Georges (1992) . Ancient Iraq. London: Penguin Group. ISBN 978-0-14-012523-8.
- Van De Mieroop, Marc (2005). King Hammurabi of Babylon: A Biography. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4051-2660-1. OCLC 255676990.
- Ziolkowski, Theodore (2012), Gilgamesh among Us: Modern Encounters with the Ancient Epic, Ithaca, New York and London, England: Cornell University Press, ISBN 978-0-8014-5035-8, archived from the original on 9 October 2021, retrieved 1 November 2020
External links
- A Closer Look at the Code of Hammurabi Archived 22 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine at the Louvre museum
- Works by Hammurabi at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Hammurabi at the Internet Archive
- Year Names of Hammurabi
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Preceded bySin-muballit | Kings of Babylon c. 1792 – c. 1750 BC (MC) |
Succeeded bySamsu-iluna |
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Isin 1953-1730 BCE (ST) | |
Larsa 1940-1674 BCE (ST) |
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