to death for making a false declaration or for being in an il-
legitimate business.
THE MIDDLE EAST
BY DAVID PETECHUK
Th e world’s oldest surviving legal codes and laws come from
Mesopotamia. Th e fi rst known legal code, the Code of Uru-
kagina, dates to 2350 b.c.e., and the region probably had le-
gal prescriptions for centuries prior to this code, which was
developed by and named aft er a ruler of Lagash. Before the
Code of Urukagina, laws designating crimes and their pun-
ishment were probably based on the customs of the people
and prevailing ideas of right and wrong. Although customs
and laws transmitted orally served their purpose, as Meso-
potamian cities and kingdoms grew and literacy spread, laws
were put into writing to reduce vagueness or public discord
about exactly what constituted a crime and what should be
the punishment.
As with most ancient cultures, punishments for crimes
were oft en severe. For example, a document dating to around
the time of the Code of Urukagina notes that both thieves
and adulteresses had their names inscribed on rocks, which
were then used to stone them to death. Although the Code of
Urukagina is the oldest-known legal code, an actual text has
never been found, and its existence is known only through
references in other ancient writings. Th e oldest legal code re-
covered dates to time of Ur-Nammu, who ruled the Sumerian
city of Ur from 2112 to 2095 b.c.e. Of the code’s decipherable
segments, approximately 40 statements focus on crimes and
punishment. Monetary fi nes and the death penalty were the
primary punishments for crimes and were established in a
manner that the refl ected the social conventions of the times.
For example, defl owering a virgin wife of another man re-
sulted in a death sentence. However, if the woman was only
a slave to a man, the penalty was only fi ve shekels of silver.
Murder was punishable by death, but physical wounds in-
fl icted on another were punished with a monetary fi ne, partly
because prison was seldom used as a means of long-term
punishment.
Th e jewel of ancient Mesopotamian law is the Code of
Hammurabi. Established in the 18th century b.c.e., it is the
earliest surviving record of an entire code of laws proclaimed
by a king to his people. What makes the code especially ex-
citing to historians is that it includes the entire prologue
explaining moral and spiritual rationalization for the laws.
Hammurabi, who ruled Babylon from 1795 to 1750 b.c.e.,
states that his goals are to punish severely those who are evil
and to protect those who are weak. Nevertheless, many of
the laws were based on social status, with harsher penalties
infl icted for crimes committed against the upper class while
the same crime against someone from the lower class usually
garnered a much less severe punishment. Hammurabi, how-
ever, kept in mind that lower social status meant lesser ability
to pay fi nes. As a result, poor people usually had to pay low-
er fi nes than their rich counterparts. Overall Hammurabi’s
code applied various penalties to the population according
to three classes: amelu (patrician), muskinu (free non-land-
owner), and ardu (slave).
Th e most signifi cant aspect of Hammurabi’s codes for
crime and punishment is his establishment of the law of retri-
bution, known in legal language as lex talionis and popularly
familiar as the biblical law of “an eye for an eye.” For example,
historians believe that before Hammurabi, monetary fi nes
for causing bodily injuries were deemed suffi cient largely
because injuries to private individuals were not considered
crimes against the state or society in general. Hammurabi,
however, set more severe penalties for physically harming an-
other person, such as cutting off the hand of a son who struck
his father. His rationale for these harsher penalties may have
stemmed not only from the concept of lex talionis but also
from a belief that fi nes and lesser punishments alone were not
enough to ensure that his people obeyed the laws.
Hammurabi’s comprehensive set of codes guided by lex
talionis covered a wide range of crimes, such as bearing false
witness. Th e penalty for someone falsely accusing another of
crime was to suff er the punishment assigned to that crime. So
if a man falsely accused another of murder, the accuser would
be executed instead. Other examples include cutting off a sur-
geon’s hand when his work resulted in the death or loss of a
limb of a patient and the execution of a builder or his son if
a building collapsed and killed its owner. Cases dealt with in
this manner also included crimes involving slavery, sexual of-
fenses, assault and bodily injuries, murder, theft , and debts.
As for the death penalty, ancient Mesopotamian laws
required death for a wide range of crimes, including the ille-
gal buying of a slave from a minor, selling or receiving stolen
goods, false claim to another’s possessions, disorderly conduct
in a tavern, and the practice of magic. While the means of ex-
ecution for these crimes was oft en not specifi ed, other crimes
resulted in specifi c types of execution. Hanging was the pun-
ishment for many crimes, among them burglary, obliterating
a slave’s brand, and a woman’s seeking to have someone mur-
der her husband. Other forms of execution included burning
when convicted of incest with one’s own mother and drown-
ing for certain cases of adultery, rape, and bigamy.
Th e Code of Hammurabi greatly infl uenced the legal sys-
tem throughout the Near East and Persia for several centuries,
including the dominant rule of the Assyrians until around
5 00 b.c.e. As a result, the predominant form of punishment
remained corporal and, other than death, included severe
beatings of up to 100 blows, forced labor, and various types
of mutilation, such as cutting off the tongue. Similarly, in an-
cient Persia, under the rule of Darius I (r. 522–486 b.c.e.), the
penalty for attacking and severely injuring or killing some-
one was fi ve to 200 lashes of the whip. For the most severe
crimes, usually crimes against property, the state, or the king
or his family, death by impalement was a typical punishment.
(Little information is available concerning punishments for
ordinary crimes in Persia.)crime and punishment: The Middle East 299