Hammurabi is the Mesopotamian king credited with creating the Code of Hammurabi around 1754 BCE.
Hammurabi ruled Babylon from approximately 1792 to 1750 BCE and expanded a relatively small kingdom into a major power in southern Mesopotamia. His law collection was written in Akkadian cuneiform and placed on a large stone stele, probably so its royal authority could be publicly displayed.
The code contains nearly 300 legal judgments covering property, trade, wages, marriage, inheritance, injury, and slavery. Its famous principle of proportional retaliation is often summarized as “an eye for an eye,” although the penalties varied according to social status and circumstances.
The stele was discovered at Susa in modern Iran, where it had been carried in antiquity. Hammurabi’s code was not the first Mesopotamian law collection, but it is the best-known surviving example.