The Code of Hammurabi Was Not the First Written Legal Code
Executive Summary
- It is often proposed that Hammurabi’s Code was the first written legal code.
- We cover this inaccuracy.
Introduction
Hammurabi’s Code is something many have heard of, but there is a large amount of misunderstanding. We cover one of the significant misunderstandings in this article.
Not The Oldest, But the Best Organized and Preserved
People have tended to confuse the HC being the oldest written law in human history, which it is not, with being the best-preserved, which it is. This is explained in the following quotation.
It is the longest, best-organised, and best-preserved legal text from the ancient Near East. It is written in the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian, purportedly by Hammurabi, sixth king of the First Dynasty of Babylon. Although Hammurabi’s Code was the first Mesopotamian law collection discovered, it was not the first written; several earlier collections survive. There are additionally thousands of documents from the practice of law, from before and during the Old Babylonian period. The Code was thought to be the earliest Mesopotamian law collection when it was discovered in 1902—for example, C. H. W. Johns’ 1903 book was titled The Oldest Code of Laws in the World.[31] The English writer H. G. Wells included Hammurabi in the first volume of The Outline of History, and to Wells too the Code was “the earliest known code of law”.[33] However, three earlier collections were discovered afterwards: the Code of Lipit-Ishtar in 1947, the Laws of Eshnunna in 1948, and the Code of Ur-Nammu in 1952. – Wikipedia
The Code of Ur-Nammu is considered the oldest written code that has been discovered in human history, dating to around 400 years before the Code of Hammurabi. Here is a sample of some of these laws.
If a man commits a murder, that man must be killed.
If a man commits a robbery, he will be killed.
If a man commits a kidnapping, he is to be imprisoned and pay 15 shekels of silver.
If a slave marries a slave, and that slave is set free, he does not leave the household.[1]
If a slave marries a native [i.e. free] person, he/she is to hand the firstborn son over to his owner.
If a man violates the right of another and deflowers the virgin wife of a young man, they shall kill that male.
If the wife of a man followed after another man and he slept with her, they shall slay that woman, but that male shall be set free. [§4 in some translations]
If a man proceeded by force, and deflowered the virgin female slave of another man, that man must pay five shekels of silver. (5)
If a man divorces his first-time wife, he shall pay (her) one mina of silver. (6)
If it is a (former) widow whom he divorces, he shall pay (her) half a mina of silver. (7)
If the man had slept with the widow without there having been any marriage contract, he need not pay any silver. (8)
If a man is accused of sorcery [translation disputed], he must undergo ordeal by water; if he is proven innocent, his accuser must pay 3 shekels. (10)[6]
If a man accused the wife of a man of adultery, and the river ordeal proved her innocent, then the man who had accused her must pay one-third of a mina of silver. (11) – Wikipedia
Who Discovered Hammurabi’s Code, Muslims or Europeans?
See the following quotation.
The Code of Hammurabi, was discovered by a French archaeological expedition under the direction of Jacques de Morgan in 1901-1902 at the ancient site of Susa in what is now Iran. It was written on a piece of black diorite, 2.25 m (7 ft. 5 in.) in height, and contained 282 sections. Although the block was broken into three pieces, the major portion of it has been restored and is now in the Louvre in Paris. – Truth Magazine
Hammurabi’s Code is a significant point of pride in the Middle East.
However, likely, no one in the Middle East or elsewhere would even know it existed if it weren’t for Europeans.
Conclusion
Curiously, the myth of the Hammurabi Code being the oldest code in human history persists to this day. The code was discovered in 1902, and it was lost not long after its creation in around 1750 BC. This means that it would have been difficult for it to have influenced later codes (unless those were written very close to that time of Hammurabi) as the code was lost to history until the modern era.