Mystery of the oldest law of humanity

The Hammurabi Code is the oldest human law document that has been well preserved until now. The law was created around 1760 BC in ancient Babylon. The name of the law is set according to the person who issued it, the sixth king of Babylon - Hammurabi. In this article, we will learn a little bit about this ancient law and its importance.

The importance of the Hammurabi Code

If we think about ancient times or observe them through movies or books, it is often difficult to see justice or justice in these dynasties. What we often see is sometimes just the oppression of the class, the slaves, the murderous tyrants like . In general, there will be completely dominant classes in society. However, King Hammurabi of Babylon laid an important foundation for the law of mankind. He partially defended the weak, creating a fairly fair atmosphere in his kingdom by law.

The West Asia region has two large rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. This is the cradle of human civilization. The unified man of the area was also Babylon Hammurabi king . Ancient Babylon was a flourishing reign, an agricultural empire with many urban centers. All activities of this area are very busy. The presence of the Hammurabi Code has helped to keep this flourishing, helping society comply with a strict set of rules. Historians studying the law of Hammurabi claim that understanding the law is also about understanding a large aspect of ancient Babylon. Compared to the human world at the time, Babylon was the most glorious period of the history of the bipolar representing a more advanced, sophisticated society than Medieval Europe.

Part of the code that has existed so far is engraved on a basalt stone nearly 2.5m high. This stele is believed to have been placed in the temple in some parts of the empire. This stele was unearthed in 1901 by French archaeologist Jean-Vincent Scheil and is now on display at the Louvre Museum (France). The upper part of the stone tablet touches King Hammurabi in front of the gods. In this text, the word 'justice' is used throughout and the notion that justice is sunlight requires light to black people, showing the light throughout the ground is clearly shown.

To this day, this law continues to be studied. It is considered to be the door that gives our generation a social, cultural, and political perspective of the ancient Babylonian civilization.

Law in the Code of Hammurabi

This code is said to be extremely advanced and mentioned many issues like modern now. Of course, although there are many unreasonable points, if compared to the common ground of development at that time, the law in Hammurabi law helped balance and regulate society, playing a big role in maintaining the Babylonian empire's prosperity. The structure of the code is divided into three distinct parts with the introduction, content and ending.

Historians have seen about 100 issues in the law on real estate and commercial laws, including issues such as debt, interest rates, and collateral. For example, if a dam is broken, causing damage to the plant, the responsibility will belong to the owner of the dam, who will have to compensate for the crops of the people, even if the owner is as powerful as how Babylon's economy used currency to exchange early on, the law also set standards and limits for loan contracts to control abuse of loan sharking. The lender must complete the contract before the witnesses and must wait for the right time as prescribed to ask the borrower to pay the debt. The mortgaged assets can be home, land and even wife and children.

In addition to the issue of land and money, there are also about 100 other laws that regulate certain issues in society such as marriage, inheritance of children, adultery . Marriages are often an economic agreement. joint between future husband that woman's father. In the law of Hammurabi, divorce is allowed, but it is bound by fees and sometimes the husband will have to return the dowry. Crime of incest and adultery of women will be put to death or exile. However, the woman is also somewhat protected, the wife has the right to divorce if she finds an adulterous husband, is accused by her husband and the husband is not allowed to leave his wife when he learns that the wife is suffering from leprosy. The man is still the master of the family and he has full authority to use his child before they get married. The use here may include working, assigning debt, even selling children . If a child attacks his father, they will be punished by cutting off the hand. The inheritance law clearly divides the two types of wills and inheritance according to the law.

In addition, scholars believe that the most interesting part of Hammurabi's law is criminal law. This code expresses more than class and some unfairness to objects. We will learn more about this issue together.

The harsh penalties of the law

In order to maintain a stable society, King Hammurabi has set up some very harsh penalties for certain types of crimes to be deterrent to the entire people. Cutting a part is common. There are about 28 crimes of all kinds, from robbery, adultery, witchcraft to death.

In such an ancient society, class issues were still very heavy and quite influential. Punishment also often depends on the social status of the culprit. When a noble person hurts a low-status person, the penalty may be a fine. In contrast, when people in the lower classes commit crimes against the nobility, he will have to endure much more severe punishment. Hamurabi's Law also applies the same idea as the law that the Jewish people call lex talionis - the law of revenge . In short, this law means 'eye for eye, tooth for tooth' . If you are blinded by a person, you will be punished by blindness.

For ancient Babylonians, that means being completely fair. The unreasonableness of this law is expressed in the case that if a mason breaks the building, causing the host's death, the builder must die. It is a rigid retaliation because the builder is not guilty, why is he the one who must die? However, in that era, people still considered it a fairness, a fair reason that was stereotyped and in fact unfair.

From the idea coincidence in Hamurabi law with lex talionis - comes from Jewish Mosaic law. There are several assumptions that the Jewish Mosaic law evolved on the basis of Hammurabi. However, this is purely hypothetical because they are very different from each other and Mosaic law is said to be more humane.

Conclusion

Until now, the value of the law is still focused on research and exploitation of inheritance. The law has elaborately built, adjusted and vividly reflected the socio-economic and socio-cultural activities of Babylon Kingdom. The law is not only valuable for legal research but is also a valuable rich historical resource for us to have a better understanding of ancient Babylonian civilization.