Hammurabi's Code

In the remotest times....they were in Great Iraq. Leaders.....they wrote constitutions more than two thousand years before Christ...they ruled with justice according to the first constitution in the world...they issued it in the first letters of the first writing that they created where they are the first to inscribe words and write lines..they spoke languages such as Babylonian and Sumerian...a country that created itself thousands of years before Christ, a library and a school—indeed libraries and schools—for science..and culture..Iraq produced great leaders throughout history and until now..there was .the martyr "Saddam Hussein"...a descendant of those lineages. One of those great leaders....met his fate...by treachery and betrayal..and hatred..at the hands of enemies against history..and against civilization...because they are small and remain..their strength has not yet hardened..they are newcomers before the history of Iraq whose age precedes the history of the first writing by thousands of years.!!....Leaders may err. Fathers may err....but their errors...are bearable and forgivable...in the face of the grandeur of achievements..and loyalty to the nation.....Saddam died proud..the pride of ancient Iraq.....while others in the present age still do not know the guidance of the road in the desert except by following the camel’s tracks..because "the droppings point to the camel" ...so...as for Iraq...old and new despite the disasters and the burning of its libraries and the looting of its antiquities..and its destruction and occupation.....it remained a source of science and culture and fathers...and a country of pride...Baghdad was a capital and will remain a capital for anyone who thinks to read and to know what is around him in all directions.!!

King Hammurabi drafted laws for life.....laws that addressed more than 44 subjects, collected and edited from prior laws, with some provisions deleted because they did not accord with the era in which Hammurabi lived. And he did well...!!

Hammurabi means "the great lord" or "head of the family" and Hammurabi recorded these laws during his reign, which extended from 1793 BC – 1750 BC, on a large stele of "black diorite" stone measuring 225 cm in height and 60 cm in diameter..cylindrical in shape, found in the city of Susa – the capital of Elam in ancient Iraq...a French archaeological excavation mission found it and carried it to the Louvre Museum in Paris where it still is...and the topics were organized into 300 provisions of which 282 provisions remain..clearly written in the Babylonian language and cuneiform script..This information was drawn from some of the sources consulted: the book "Hammurabi..A Historical Study" and the book "The Code of Hammurabi" and a number of other books on this subject..

About 282 detailed provisions remained; their subjects were organized as follows. I list them briefly, citing only some provisions:

Provisions 1–5: relate to the judiciary and witnesses.

Provisions 6–25: relate to theft and plunder, among these provisions:

"Article 16: If a lord shelters in his house a runaway slave or a maid who has returned to the state or to any ordinary citizen, and does not bring him to the police station, then the owner of that house is executed."

and "Article 21: If a lord’s cow makes a breach in a house, they shall execute it before that breach and build a wall on it."

and "Article 25: If a fire breaks out in a lord’s house and the lord goes to extinguish it, and he sees the condition of the homeowner, then that man is thrown into the fire."

Provisions 36–41: on military affairs.

Provisions 42–100: on the field, orchards and the household.

Provisions 100–107: on wholesale stores, merchants’ shops and dealings with small traders, among these provisions:

"Article 101: If a merchant lends money to a peddler for business and the peddler incurs a loss while roaming, he shall pay the merchant the capital only."

Provisions 108–111: the tavern of wine, among these provisions:

"Article 109: If conspirators gather in a tavern of a female wine-seller and those conspirators are not arrested and not brought before the palace, then that female wine-seller is executed."

Provisions 112–126: on sale.

Provisions 127–195: family affairs and their rights and relations among members, among these provisions:

"Article 130: If a person raped the chastity of a lord’s wife who had never known a man, and had not yet entered her father’s house and slept in her bosom, and was caught in the act, then that man is killed..and that woman is cast out."

and "If a finger is pointed at a lord’s wife because of another man but she was not caught in the act of lying with the other man...then she shall cast herself into the river for the sake of her husband."

and "Article 153: If a woman caused the death of her husband because of another man, then they shall stake this woman." and "Article 194: If a lord gave his child to a wet-nurse and that child died in the hands of the wet-nurse, and if she made an agreement for another child without the knowledge of his father or mother..then they must prove that against her and then they shall cut off her breast because she made an agreement for another child without the knowledge of his father or mother."

Another provision: "If a child struck his father then they shall cut off his hand."

Provisions 196–227: penalties of compensation and fines for breach of agreements, contracts and commitments, among these provisions:

"Article 205: If a slave of a lord slapped the cheek of a man of the noble class..then his ear is cut off." and "Article 218: If a physician performed a dangerous operation on a lord with a bronze lancet and caused the death of the lord, or opened the orb of a lord’s eye and damaged the lord’s eye, then they shall cut off his hand.."

and "Article 221: If a physician sets a broken bone of a lord or cured a painful swelling, the patient must pay the physician 5 shekels of silver" ...

and "Article 226: If the brander removed the brand of his slave without the knowledge of his master so that it is not seen, then they shall cut off his hand."

Provisions 228–240: prices and setting wages for houses and boats, among these provisions:

"Article 229: If a builder built a house and his workmanship was not strong so that the house he built collapsed and killed the householder, then that builder must be killed." and "Article 230: If the householder’s son is killed, then they shall kill the builder’s son."

Provisions 241–277: wages of animals and persons.

Provisions 278–282: setting the limits of slaves and their rights and duties:

"If a slave said to his master, ‘You are not my master,’ and it was proven that he is a slave, then his master shall cut his ear."

11-1-2019