HAMMURABI AND THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

Babylon remained just another civilization for me till I read about the remarkable King Hammurabi. I knew that Hammurabi gave the first laws in the world but was not aware of any further information.

What I later read about Hammurabi impressed me.  He is a modern ruler but way back in 1790 BC which was ages ago.

Hammurabi ruled Babylon but how did Babylon come about? As we all know civilizations took root around rivers in the ancient times and Mesopotamia was one such area which have rise to multiple cultures by the virtue of it being located between the rivers Tigris and the Euphrates. 

By 3000 BC itself the Sumerians controlled Mesopotamia with their cities Erich, Eridu, Kish, Lagash, Ur and Uruk. Uruk was the first city of the Sumerian civilization which has come up in 3200 BC itself. It had a population of 50,000 which was big by the then standards.

After about 700 years the Sumerian civilization fell to the Akkadians in 2334 BC.  The Akkadians in turn fell in 2154 BC and then it was the turn of the Semitic Amorites who were from the Arabian Desert in the west. They set up a kingdom in about 1800 BC. This civilization had their capital at Babylon and is known as the Babylonian civilization.

The Babylonian king Hammurabi was one of the greatest rulers of ancient times. He was remarkable in forethought and gave a code of laws to the people and also enforced them. This is the oldest surviving law in the world. The code was originally inscribed on a huge basalt rock. This is now in the “Louvre” museum at Paris. The text of his code runs like the edicts of king Ashoka in our country some 1400 years later. This reads thus:

I rooted out the enemy above and below,

I made an end of war,

I promised the welfare of the land,

I made the peoples rest in friendly habitation,

I have governed them in peace. I have sheltered them in my strength.

Babylon had the first standing army in the world, so its borders were fully protected from infiltration by any invader and gave peace to its people.

There were 280 parts of the code with rules and regulations for Babylonian society which was split into 3 classes (like the 4 classes of our own);

1. Amelu--Nobles, warriors & officials

2. Mushkinu—Commoners, merchants, craftsmen and farmers,

3. Wardu—Slaves

The laws varied according to classes. One can see the resemblances to our own Manu in certain instances.

“ If a noble has broken  another nobles bone, they shall break his bone.”

“If he (noble) has destroyed the eye of a commoner or has broken the bone of a commoner, he shall pay one mina of silver”

Theft from a noble had to be repaid 30 times, but theft from a commoner only 10 times. If a house collapsed and killed the owner, the builder was put to death. If the house killed the owners’ son, then the builders’ son has to die.

Surprisingly Hammurabi was concerned about the treatment of women. He thought about it  in 1700 BC which is simply amazing.  He enacted laws allowing women to inherit the husband’s house, land and possessions.  He also introduced legal formalities in business transactions. No one could sell property or transfer it without a written contract. Hammurabi also regulated wages and setting down maximum rates of work in various trades.

Hammurabi did not invent these laws but he assembled the laws prevalent at that time and also added his own to them. The code was inscribed on a huge pillar so that his people would know what their legal rights were. Hammurabi also extended and improved the canal system of Babylon.

The knowledge of the Babylonians in mathematics was enhanced by their contact with the Egyptians. By about 1700 BC, the Babylonians were using multiplication tables, square roots and even some algebra. They understood Geometry and the principles later stated as the theorem of Pythagoras. We derive the 60 minutes in an hour and 360 degrees in a circle from them. The first library in the world was at Babylon where the books were preserved on papyrus rolls. Babylonians loved poetry and their favorite epic was the “Epic of Gilgamesh” which was originally Sumerian but was absorbed into the Babylonian literature. The legend survives to this day.

When this remarkable king did in 1750 BC, he left no capable successor to takeover and Babylon fell on bad times. First Hittites and later Kassites both Indo European races who lived in the regions of Persia overran Babylon.