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King Hammurabi of Babylon King Hammurabi of Babylon JACK M. SASSON ACCORDING TO HIS own testimony, Hammurabi propriate to Hammurabi is doubtless because (Hammurapi) was destined for kingship since in books on world history, on the art of antiq­ time immemorial, when two powerful gods, uity, on the evolution of consciousness, or on Anu and Enlil, entrusted to a third god, Mar­ the spirit or ethics of law, we have long since duk, control over destiny, on Earth as in conceded to this Babylonian king the third heaven. At that time, too, the gods set Babylon attribute: champion of justice. Indeed, "Ham­ above all other lands, and its rule was made murabi" and "Lawgiver" have come to be prac­ everlasting. Here is how Hammurabi describes tically synonymous in most modern pub­ himself on an inscribed black basalt stele we lications. have come to call the Code of Hammurabi: At that time, to give happiness to the people, Anum and Enlil pronounced my name "Hammu­ BABYLON rabi," me, the pious and god-fearing ruler, to de­ cree equity in the land, to eradicate the wicked Hammurabi, who ruled from 1792 to 1750 BCE, and the evil so that the powerful might not op­ came to the throne almost a hundred years after press the powerless, to rise like Shamash and illu­ mine the land for the black-headed (people). his ancestor Sumu-abum established his dy­ nasty at Babylon in 1894. At that time Babylon Primordial selection, self-praise, and dedica- was no major power, but its political history tion to justice combine readily in Mesopo­ went back at least to the time of the Agade (Ak­ tamian tradition: before Hammurabi at least kadian) Dynasty. One of its kings, Shar-kali­ two kings, Ur-Nammu of Ur (III) and Lipit­ sharri, built a temple to the deities Annunitum Ishtar of Isin, cover the same ground, albeit and II-aba in Babylon. During the Ur III period more succinctly, in the prologues to legal pre­ diverse persons were appointed ENSi, "gover­ scriptions they issued for their own people. If nor," of Babylon. The name of the city was we treat the three components of such senti­ written KA..DINGIR. (RA) in Sumerian, equivalent ments separately, we may note that the first to bab ilim in Akkadian, meaning "God's two items-divine preference and boast-are Gate," a name it held throughout its history. quasi-formulaic in Mesopotamian monumental Whether or not "God's Gate" is itself folk ety­ royal inscriptions; indeed they are featured in mology on a very ancient and no-longer­ inscriptions of rulers who, we now know, had understood name is still under discussion. Dur­ every reason to be modest about themselves. ing Hammurabi's time, Babylon was also That these two elements seem to us more ap- known in written form as TIN.TIR, and there is a gOl History and Culture "Hammurabi" or "Hammurapi"? There is still a debate on how to read the king's nected the Babylonian Hammurabi with a king of name, and for this reason you will often find two Shinar named Amraphel (Genesis 14), they opted for spellings: "Hammurapi" and "HammurabL" It is -rapi as the second element. When documents in al­ generally accepted that the name contains two ele­ phabetic cuneiform were recovered from Ugarit (Ras ments: hammu and rap/bi. The issue has gotten Shamra) in the 1930S, a number of its kings of the complic~ted because some would treat the name as second half of the second millennium were seen to Babylonian (East Semitic) and others as Amorite be named cmrp, and this spelling was retrojected on (West Semitic). As the first element is undoubtedly the name of the famous king of Babylon, thus lead­ West Semitic, the second should also be treated as ing many to read his name cammu + rapi, meaning such. But, at this point the problems mushroom. "The (Divine) Kinsman/Uncle heals." The cuneiform script itself was invented for This interpretation is possible; but in this chapter Sumerian and adapted for Akkadian, so it is not well (as in the Cidlizations of the Ancient Near East ref­ suited to represent a number of consonants that oc­ erence set), the traditional "Hammurabi" is kept be­ cur in Semitic languages. Scribes use five to six dif­ cause there is no reason to assume that in different ferent cuneiform signs to write the name, most often cultures names with homonymic components must spelling it ha+am+mu+ra+bi. The sign that we have the same meaning. Moreover, Mesopotamian transcribe h"a represents a number of Semitic pho­ scribes exclusively used the sign for the syllable -bi nemes am~ng which were /:tet (a voiceless pharyn­ in "Hammurabi" (as almost always in other names geal) and cayin (a voiced pharyngeal). The difference with -rabi) even when they had another sign for -pi. between them, however, is significant because the In the West, in Alalakh (modem Tell Atchana), "hammu-" element would mean "heat" (hence scribes would sometime use GAL, the Sumerian word "Sun") if the first consonant was heard as a het (but meaning "vast, large," instead of the -rabi element possibly also "father-in-law"), but "people, nation" in "Hammurabi." Finally, in Babylonian traditions, or "paternal uncle, kinsman" if heard as an cayin. For presumably closer to a truer understanding of the the second element of the name, "mighty, vast" meaning of the name, "Hammurabi" was understood would be its meaning if read -rabi, but something to as kimta rapastu, "Vast Nation," again favoring -rabi do with healing if read -rapi. as the second element. In older literature, the tendency was to differ on the meaning of the first element (hence "Sun" or Moral: It is all right for people to use either spelling, "[Divine] Kinsman") but to understand the second provided that they not become dogmatic about their element as -rabi. But because some scholars con- choice. likelihood that before the Agade period, it had to be seen there are those of first millennium a name that was pronounced *Baballr but Babylon. (See "Nabonidus" below.) Hammu­ written BAR.KI.BAR. In Hebrew the city was rabi's own capital, lying beneath the present called babel, allegedly because God "confoun­ remains, must have been much more modest in ded (balal) , the speech of the whole earth" size; but because of the rise of subsoil water (Genesis 11:9); but we get our own name for levels in the region, it is now largely heyond the city from the Greek translation of the Bible, archaeological inspection. For this reason al­ the Septuagint, where it was written babylon. most all of our information on Old Babylonian Babylon sat astride the Arakhtum-either a Babylon, that is the Babylon of Hammurabi's branch of the Euphrates or the great river itself dynasty, comes from material excavated in before it shifted its route-and its soil could be other sites under Hammurabi's control, corre­ among the most fertile in the ancient world if spondence recovered at capitals of powers constantly worked and watered. Its ruins are friendly or hostile to Babylon, copies done in divided among a number of tells that are now antiquity of inscriptions no longer extant, and partially walled-off for display to tourists visit­ monuments taken elsewhere as spoils of war. ing Iraq; but the immense remains that are still The most famous example in the last category 902 King Hammurabi of Babylon 46" E 34' N ~7 MESOPOTAMIA ~Y·Eshnunna cSf IN THE AGE OF o Baghdad HAMMURABI Sipp{lr. AKKAD EMUTBAL Kazallu~7.Kutha Babylon .Kish 200 km • Mashkan-shapir Dilbat """'"":========-100 mi • : NiPpur 12' N Isin 300 mi 35'N Uruk ••1 SUMER Lars~ Ur • Malgium? Uncertain location o Baghdad Modern location 30'N area of detail 45'E is the Code of Hammurabi, itself likely pro­ As the new dynasty was settling in Babylon, mulgated in two versions over a ten-year pe­ the major powers in the region were Isin (at riod, the second of which was produced in at modern Ishan Bahriyat) and Larsa (at modern least two copies. When in the twelfth century, Senkereh). After the Elamites sacked Ur to­ the Elamites raided Babylon, they took to their ward the end of the third millennium, these capital Susa (biblical Shushan, modern Shush) two cities successively-for a while even al­ one or perhaps two copies of the second ver­ ternatingly-took control of southern Mes­ sion. From there, in 1902 French archaeol­ opotamia. Most of our information on what ogists retrieved the Code of Hammurabi, now happened during his reign and that of one of the treasured objects of the Louvre. his immediate successors comes from what we call "year-dates," "year-names," or "year­ formulas." It was a common practice in south­ ern Mesopotamia for scribes to label each year BABYLON BEFORE HAMMURABI of their king's reign after a major royal activity occurring the previous year and to use such a We do not know how Sumu-abum (1894-1881), "year-date" when dating a legal or administra­ the dynasty's founder, came to Babylon. We tive document. For example, they would write: suspect that he was one of many Amorite tribal "Month Abum; day 12; year: Sumu-abum cap­ leaders who chose to move his dwelling from a tured Kazallu." In some cases an event was tent beyond the city walls to a palace within it. deemed so spectacular that scribes would initi­ Well after Hammurabi's own day, the new state ate a rising count from that moment.
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