Class and Society in Ancient Near Eastern Law

Sources

The Free Landed Class. Law is typically based on the values of the governing class; that is, those who own property have the greatest risk of loss and are thus in need of income protection. As the ancient Mesopotamian economy was primarily based on large-scale agriculture and animal husbandry, the elite comprised owners of land, houses, gardens, livestock, and slaves. Commerce and trade represented other major sources of income. In the Old Babylonian period (circa 1894 - circa 1595 b.c.e.) a member of the elite landowning class was referred to as an awilum, a noble or “a free person.” In the later Neo-Babylonian period (625-539 b.c.e.) free citizens were called mar bane. Legal provisions gave this class rights and privileges that were not available to members of lower-status groups. Esteem among nobles was in accordance with their level of status within this class. For example, one of the provisions in the Laws of Hammurabi specifies: “If a free man should strike the cheek of a free man who is of status higher than his own, he shall be flogged in the public assembly with sixty stripes of an ox whip” (LH §202).

The Dependent Class. During the Old Babylonian period, the crown had vast holdings of land that produced income and tax revenue for the king’s own use. A lower class of commoners (Akkadian: mushkenu; singular: mushkenum) was a dependent population who lived on the king’s land, owned livestock and occasionally slaves, and paid to the palace a portion of their yield. They may also have had military responsibilities. Commoners received special consideration in Old Babylonian law. Several provisions in the code protected their right to own slaves. One of them specifies: “If a man has harbored in his house either a lost male or female slave of the palace or a lost male or female slave of a commoner and has not brought (him or her) forth at the proclamation of the herald, the owner of that house shall be put to death” (LH §16).

Dependent-Class Status. Commoners were considered to be of lower social status than nobles. Their low income was derisively referred to in an Old Babylonian letter: “I am a member of the awilum-class, he is (only) a member of the mushkenum-class, how can he repay me a favor?” The Old Babylonian codes often contrast the status of the commoner to the status of the nobleman when referring to damages in personal-injury suits. Compensation for causing injury to a commoner was always considerably less than damages awarded to a nobleman for the same injury:

If a free man has knocked out a tooth of a free man of his own rank, they shall knock out his tooth. If he has knocked out a commoner’s tooth, he shall pay one-third mina (twenty shekels) of silver. (LH §§200-201)
If a free man has struck the cheek of a(nother) free man who is of the same rank as himself, he shall pay one mina (sixty shekels) of silver. If a commoner has struck the cheek of a(nother) commoner, he shall pay ten shekels of silver. (LH §§203-204)

Women, Children, and Slaves. Women and children, even those of noble birth, were considered possessions of the master of the house and were thus of lesser status. Both male and female slaves, whether belonging to a member of the noble class, the commoner class, the palace, or the temple, were clearly distinguished as the lowest class. The laws also refer to specialized laborers and craftsmen. Unless they are specifically designated as possessing lesser status, it is commonly assumed that they belonged to the noble class.

Sources

Jean Bottéro, Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning and the Gods, translated by Zainab Bahrani and Marc Van de Mieroop (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).

Muhammed A. Dandamaev, Slavery in Babylonia: From Nabopolassar to Alexander the Great (626-331 B.C.), revised edition, translated by Victoria A. Powell, edited by Marvin A. Powell and David B. Weisberg (De Kalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1984).