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Babylonian law is a subset of cuneiform law that has received particular study due to the large amount of archaeological material that has been found for it. So-called "contracts" exist in the thousands, including a great variety of deeds, conveyances, bonds, receipts, accounts, and most important of all, actual legal decisions given by the judges in the law courts. Historical inscriptions, royal charters and rescripts, dispatches, private letters and the general literature afford welcome supplementary information. Even grammatical and lexicographical texts contain many extracts or short sentences bearing on law and custom. The so-called "Sumerian Family Laws" are preserved in this way.
Other cultures involved with ancient Mesopotamia shared the same common laws and precedents extending to the form of contacts that Kenneth Kitchen has studied and compared to the form of contracts in the Bible with particular note to the sequence of blessings and curses that bind the deal. The Maxims of Ptahhotep and Sharia Law,[1] also include certifications for professionals like doctors, lawyers and skilled craftsmen which prescribe penalties for malpractice very similar to the code of Hammurabi.
The discovery of the now-celebrated Code of Hammurabi (hereinafter simply termed "the Code") has made possible a more systematic study than could have resulted from just the classification and interpretation of other material. Fragments of other Ancient codes exist and have been published, but there still remain many points whereof evidence is still lacking. There survive legal texts from the earliest writings through the Hellenistic period, but evidence on a particular point may be very full for one period and almost entirely lacking for another. The Code forms the backbone of most reconstructions. Fragments of it recovered from Assur-bani-pal's library at Nineveh and later Babylonian copies show that it was studied, divided into chapters, entitled Ninu ilu sirum from its incipit (opening words), and recopied for fifteen hundred years or more.
Much Babylonian legal precedent remained in force, even through the Persian, Greek and Parthian conquests, which had little effect on private life in Babylonia; and it survived to influence Romans. The laws and customs that preceded the Code may be called "early"; that of the Neo-Babylonian empire (as well as the Persian, Greek, etc.), "late". The law of Assyria was derived from the Babylonian, but it conserved early features long after they had disappeared elsewhere.
^Conduct of a Physician, Adabo alto-Tabibo, by Ishsāq ibmn ʻAlī al-Ruhāwī
Babylonianlaw is a subset of cuneiform law that has received particular study due to the large amount of archaeological material that has been found...
earlier Akkadian Empire, Third Dynasty of Ur, and Old Assyrian Empire. The Babylonian Empire rapidly fell apart after the death of Hammurabi and reverted to...
earlier Mesopotamian law codes such as the Codes of Ur-Nammu of Ur and Lipit-Ištar of Isín. The principle is found in BabylonianLaw. If it is surmised...
the ancient literature written in the Akkadian language (Assyrian and Babylonian dialects) in Mesopotamia (Assyria and Babylonia) during the period spanning...
Babylonian astrology was the first known organized system of astrology, arising in the second millennium BC. In Babylon as well as in Assyria as a direct...
The Code of Hammurabi is a Babylonian legal text composed during 1755–1750 BC. It is the longest, best-organized, and best-preserved legal text from the...
normally refers to the collection of writings named specifically the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli), compiled in the 5th century by Rav Ashi and Ravina...
The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile is the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were...
the first law code, which consisted of casuistic statements ("if … then ..."). Around 1760 BC, King Hammurabi further developed Babylonianlaw, by codifying...
Tell Leilan Kurda Nineveh Tell al-Rimah Ekallatum The Old Babylonian Empire, or First Babylonian Empire, is dated to c. 1894–1595 BC, and comes after the...
core of Babylonianlaw. Only fragments of the early criminal laws of Ancient Greece have survived, e.g. those of Solon and Draco. In Roman law, Gaius's...
the Middle Assyrian Empire.: 272 It was very similar to Sumerian and Babylonianlaw, although the penalties for offenses were generally more brutal. The...
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...
Ur Laws of Eshnunna (c. 1930 BC) Code of Lipit-Ishtar (c. 1870 BC) Babylonianlaw Code of Hammurabi (c. 1750 BC in middle chronology) Hittite laws, also...
ascendancy, when Babylonian kings rose to dominate large parts of the Ancient Near East: the First Babylonian Empire (or Old Babylonian Empire, c. 1894/1880–1595...
Translated by L. W. King (1915), See Laws 137 through 164, and Laws 178 through 184 Hammurabi's Code and BabylonianLaw Archived 2013-05-15 at the Wayback...
gradual replacement in common use by Old Aramaic among Assyrians and Babylonians from the 8th century BC. It is the earliest documented Semitic language...
as the genetic father, has been referenced since the ancient times. Babylonianlaw and custom allowed this practice, and a woman unable to give birth could...
first extant law code, consisting of casuistic statements ("if... then..."). Around 1760 BC, King Hammurabi further developed Babylonianlaw, by codifying...
law Federal law (National law) State law Local ordinance History of law Cuneiform lawBabylonianlaw Ancient Greek law Roman law Early Germanic law Legal...
Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Elamites, Hurrians, Kassites, and Hittites. The Code of Hammurabi is the best-known of the cuneiform laws, but there...
The Babylonian Marriage Market is an 1875 painting by the British painter Edwin Long. It depicts a scene from Herodotus' Histories of young women being...
oldest Babylonian texts on medicine date back to the Old Babylonian period in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. The most extensive Babylonian medical...
Jewish Babylonian Aramaic (Aramaic: ארמית Ārāmît) was the form of Middle Aramaic employed by writers in Lower Mesopotamia between the fourth and eleventh...
foreigners received equal protection under Biblical law. In any case, according to the Babylonian Talmud, Uriah was indeed Jewish and wrote a provisional...
Yehudim Bavlim, lit. 'Babylonian Jews'; Arabic: اليهود العراقيون, al-Yahūd al-ʿIrāqiyyūn) is documented from the time of the Babylonian captivity c. 586 BCE...