HAMMURABI, 6th king of the Amoritic or West Semitic dynasty of Babylonia, reigned 43 years, 2067-2025 B.C. and is one of the most illustrious figures of ancient history. The so-called Babylonian dynasty was founded by Sumu-abu in 2169 B.C. at Babylon, which thus was raised from an unimportant town on the eastern bank of the Euphrates to the dignity of a capital, and a rival of the far more ancient and greater city, Kish, 8 m. to the east. The invasion of Babylonia by the Canaanitic race of the west had already resulted in the founding of a West Semitic dynasty at Isin in 2301 B.C., a city in southern Sumer, which, until the rise of the Canaanitic kingdom of Babylon, shared with Ellasar the control of Sumer and Accad. At first, the kingdom founded at Babylon by this ancestor of the famous line of 11 kings at Babylon had control of only a small region north and south of the capital, and under the first two kings there was even a rival kingdom at Kish, only 8 m. away. During the reigns of Ham murabi's five predecessors the kingdoms of Isin and Ellasar suc cessfully maintained control of the whole southern area of Baby lonia ; and Sinmuballit, predecessor of Hammurabi, conquered and put an end to the kingdom of Isin with the aid of Rim-Sin of Ellasar, in 2076, or only nine years before Hammurabi came to the throne, only to lose it again to Rim-Sin, the powerful king of Ellasar, seven years later, and Hammurabi himself did not gain control of the whole of Babylonia and put an end to the kingdom of Rim-Sin until his 3oth year (2038).
Although his father, Sinmuballit, had largely succeeded in be queathing to his illustrious son the united control of Sumer and Accad, the military and political achievement of Hammurabi in finally establishing a central and efficient Government at Babylon, which included not only Sumer and Accad, but extended northward to the central provinces of the Tigris and Euphrates, must be regarded as one of the most far-reaching events in ancient history. Henceforth Babylon was to be the political and intellectual centre of West Asiatic history right down to the Christian era. His name is particularly associated with the great law code pro mulgated for the use of the courts throughout the empire. The only fairly complete text of this Semitic code was found at Susa, inscribed on a diorite stela 8 ft. high, which had been taken to Elam as plunder by invaders during the later period of Babylon's decline, probably in the period of the Pashe dynasty (I 2th-11 th centuries). The text is inscribed in 21 horizontal columns on the obverse beneath a bas relief of the king, who stands in attitude of prayer before the seated sun god (Shamash), who delivers to Hammurabi the laws of the kingdom, a motif undoubtedly con nected with the legend of Moses and the revelation of the Deca logue from Yahweh on Mt. Sinai. The last five or six columns of the obverse have been defaced by the Elamitic invader, who probably intended to inscribe here a relation of his conquest of Babylon. The reverse is complete and carries 28 horizontal col umns. The first four columns and top of column five of the ob verse, contain the prologue, which is the principal source for Hammurabi's extensive restorations of the temples and cults of Babylonia and Assyria. The last five columns of the reverse con tain the epilogue, a glorification of the mighty works of peace executed by Hammurabi. Sixty-five laws are contained on the ob verse, and about 4o laws are defaced at the bottom; the reverse contains 183 laws. Fragments of the code as redacted on a series of tablets for use at Nippur in the same period have been ex cavated there, and fragments of an Assyrian copy of the 7th cen tury were found at Nineveh. These partially restore the great gap in the Susa stela.
Hammurabi is generally identified with Amraphel, king of Shinar, who with Arioch of Ellasar, Cheodorla'omar of Elam and Tidal, king of Goiim, invaded Canaan in the days of Abraham. Since Hammurabi apparently enjoyed peaceful relations with the powerful Elamitic king, Rim-Sin of Ellasar, and his father, Kudur mabug, ad-da of Emutbal and of Amurru, the biblical records appear to harmonize with these facts and the identification has never been successfully disproved.
Although no great literary or historical documents from his reign have survived, a great number of administrative documents and letters from it are known and are constantly increasing. There is little doubt but that the theological reconstruction of the Sumerian pantheon, by which the priests of Babylon raised Mar duk, the local deity, to the rank of a great god, began at this time. To his and the succeeding reigns of Samsuiluna, Abi-eshu', Ammi ditana and Ammizaduga, may certainly be ascribed the gradual completion of the Accadian version of the Epic of Creation in six books or tablets, in which Marduk is made to displace the older Ninurta of the Sumerian legend of Creation. Hammurabi regularly employs Sumerian as the language of his records of temple and cult restorations and of other dedicatory inscriptions, as did all his successors.
The derivation of his name is disputed; the element lzammu, `ammu, ammu, ammi is clearly the West Semitic word `am, "fam ily, relative," Arabic "uncle," and it is characteristic of West Semitic religion to describe a deity as "father, brother, uncle." A grammatical gloss explains hammu by kimtu, "family." The element rabi is usually explained as meaning "great," "the uncle is great." There is another king by this name of the Canaanitish kingdom of Hana, whose capital Tirga is the modern Asharah on the middle Euphrates, near the mouth of the Habur. This name is spelled Ammurabi, and Hammurapih; the Hana kingdom is contemporary with the Cassite dynasty of Babylonia. Since the name of the famous king of Babylon is once written Ammurapi it has been argued that the name should be pronounced Hammur api, Ammurapi, with the meaning "the uncle is exalted, high," but this suggestion is not generally accepted.