“Month Adar, year of the (images of) Ištar and Nanaa.”
The day of the month is not given, so that we are in doubt as to whether the second tablet preceded the first or followed it. In all probability the latter was the case, or else the two actions were simultaneous, and the fact that the witnesses and officials of the court are the same in both documents speaks in favour of this.
In Babylonia, as in all the ancient East, there was the great blot upon their civilization which has not even at the present time, the dawn of the twentieth century, disappeared from the earth, namely, that of slavery. Throughout the long ages over which Babylonian domestic literature extends, the student finds this to be always present, and one of the most striking examples is contained in the following document, which exhibits the blot with all its possible horrors—
“(Tablet of) Šamaš-nûri, daughter of Ibi-Šân. Bunini-âbi and Bêlisunu have bought her from Ibi-Šân, her father—for Bunini-âbi a wife—for Bêlisunu a servant. The day Šamaš-nûri says to Bêlisunu, her mistress, ‘Thou art not my mistress,’ they shall shave off her hair, and sell her for silver. As the complete price he has paid five shekels of silver. He has taken the key.[30] The affair is concluded. He is content. (At no future time) shall one bring a claim against the other. They have invoked the spirit of Šamaš, Aa, Marduk, and Ḫammurabi.”
(Here follow the names of seven witnesses.)
“Month Iyyar, day 3rd, year of the throne of Zērpanitum” (the 12th year of Ḫammurabi or Amraphel).
That a father should part with his daughter for [pg 186] money in order that that daughter should become the wife of a man already married, agreeing at the same time that the young woman should become the slave of the first wife, would seem to the ordinary Western mind at the present day most barbarous. That it was not the lowest depth, however, is implied by the condition attached to the contract, and containing a kind of penalty, namely, that if the new wife denied that the first wife was her mistress, she might be sold as a slave. In what her position differed from that of a thrall, however, does not appear.
Naturally the case of Hagar, the slave of Sarah, Abraham's wife, will at once occur to the reader, though the two differ somewhat. Nevertheless, it is not improbable that the well-known Bible-story explains that of the tablet, in giving a reason for the purchase of Šamaš-nûri—namely, in order to give the purchaser, Bunini-âbi, a chance of having offspring, which, in all probability, his first wife Bêlisunu had not brought him. It is difficult to imagine that she would consent to the introduction of a rival for any other reason. Of course, the new wife may have been well treated, but a transaction of the kind here recorded naturally gave an opening to all possible abuses. Another case of the taking of a second wife, with the proviso that she is to be the servant of the first, is that of Iltani (see pp. [174-175]), who, however, was not a slave, and had a regular marriage-deed. Moreover, she is described as the sister (âḫat), not the slave (âmat) of the first wife.
On the same plate of the British Museum publication from which the foregoing is taken, there is a more ordinary document referring to slavery, and in this case it is to all appearance the sale of a real slave-woman and her child—
“1 slave-woman, Bêlti-magirat by name, and her child, handmaid of Šarrum-Addu and Ḫammurabi-Šamši, Nabium-malik, son of Addu-naṣir, has bought [pg 187] from Šarrum-Addu, son of Addu-naṣir, and Ḫammurabi-Šamši, his wife. As the complete price he has paid 18-½ shekels of silver. At no future time shall they make claim against each other. They have invoked the spirit of Marduk and Ḫammurabi.”