The Code of Hammurabi

Assalamualaikum, hello :-)

Gosh, it's been ages since my last update! I'm not so good at maintaining this baby blog of mine. Well baby, it's time to rise and shine! :p hehe. Alhamdulillah, I've just finished my freshman year at IIUM and I can't wait to be a sophomore! I hope my sophomore year will be more fun and much much better and meaningful than my freshman year. Ameen. Since I am not so busy, for now, I should and I must update my blog more often. At least once a week kan! Sooooooo, what should I write about? Hmmm... (tapping my fingers on the table, thinking, thinking and still thinking of a topic to write about). TINK! Tetiba ada light bulb atas kepala. Lol. Since, my final paper was History, I thought it would be interesting to share about one of the topics that I learnt during last semester and it was on the Code of Hammurabi and and and and believe it or not, this topic came up as one of the questions in the exam! Happy gila! :D Okay okay, dari aku merepek panjang lagi, lets continue with the lesson shall we? :-)

So, to begin, King Hammurabi (handsome kan abe kat atas ni? hehe I admire his gras bilong fes) was the first emperor during the Babylonian civilization and his main focus was of course his code of laws. The code of Hammurabi was one of the important features of the Mesopotamia civilization and it was considered by historians as the first written code ever existed. The purpose of creating the code was because, since King Hammurabi had created a vast empire, it was only through his code that he could control his people. There were about 282 laws contain in the Hammurabi's code and King Hammurabi focuses mainly on business deals, crimes, relationships and household but non of the laws emphasizes on religion. Hmm, I wonder why...

Furthermore, The Hammurabi's code was believed to be the first code to focus on the law of retaliation a.k.a 'lex talionis', for example; an eye for an eye. Another example of 'lex talionis' is, if a man knocked out the teeth of his equal, then his teeth shall be knocked out too; a tooth for a tooth. Ouch! 

Another aspect of the Hammurabi's code is presumption of innocence, meaning that everyone is considered to be innocent unless he or she is proven to be guilty without any reasonable doubt. Once a man is being judged or sentenced, his punishments will not be reduced and can never be redrawn. 

One thing about the Hammurabi's code which is not in line with the modern standard is, it is considered to be too harsh. This is because, most punishments will lead to death and disfigurement, for example; if a son strike his dad, his hands shall be cut off! Scary (gigit jari you all)!

In addition, the code was carved on a stone monument. The stone monument was said to be seven feet high, taller than any man alive. It was carved on a stone because at that time there was no such thing as paper. The stone monument was placed in a public area so that every individual could see and read it, hence, they will know what they will get as punishments if they commit certain crimes. The Hammurabi's code was later copied by other civilization. It was believed that the Mosaic code of Prophet Musa was taken partly from the Hammurabi's code. This was proven when historians studied the Mosaic code and found several similarities between the Mosaic code and the code of Hammurabi.

Oh my, I feel like taking my History paper again! Hehe =p Okay this should be enough. Walla! Finally, I updated my first blog post of 2013. In Shaa Allah, I'll update more sooooooon! Till next time, au revoir!