This is the first biography in English of King Hammurabi, who ruled Babylon from 1792 to 1750 BC and presents a rounded view of his accomplishments.

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• Describes how Hammurabi dealt with powerful rivals and extended his kingdom.
  
• Draws on the King’s own writings and on diplomatic correspondence that has only recently become available.
  
• Explores the administration of the kingdom and the legacies of his rule, especially his legal code.
  
• Demonstrates how Hammurabi’s conquests irrevocably changed the political organization of the Near East, so that he was long remembered as one of the great kings of the past.
  
• Written to be accessible to a general audience.

Marc Van De Mieroop is Professor of Ancient Near East History at Columbia University, New York. He has written numerous books and articles, including most recently A History of the Ancient Near East, c. 3000–323 BC (Blackwell Publishing, 2004).