Die Babylonier

The name Babylon has often had a questionable reputation from antiquity to the present day. The legendary Tower of Babel was seen as a symbol of human arrogance, punished by God with the confusion of languages, and the image of the Harlot of Babylon long persisted as a cipher for immorality and corruption. However, beyond myths and prejudices, historical Babylonia emerges as one of humanity's oldest high cultures, distinguished by the early development of writing and the emergence of sciences such as astronomy, medicine, and mathematics. King Hammurabi earned everlasting fame by transforming Babylonia into a stable empire in the 18th century BC and creating a comprehensive legal code. Finally, around 1200 BC, the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is still regarded as one of the major works of world literature, received a unified, canonical version in Babylonia.

Michael Jursa provides a compact, readable introduction to the history of one of the most significant peoples of the ancient Near East. He describes the rise of the Babylonians in the 2nd millennium BC under King Hammurabi, the development of their society, economy, culture, religion, and legal system, the foreign policy developments of their empire, and ultimately its downfall in the struggles against the Persians in the 6th century BC.