Women's mirror
As a woman mirror the panel A is called the Middle Assyrian laws . The term goes back to the German-Italian legal historian Mariano San Nicolò , who as a professor at the University of Munich, together with his Leipzig colleague Paul Koschaker, was particularly concerned with researching cuneiform writing rights . The table contains approximately 60 legal clauses, whereby the beginning and the end of the table mainly contain criminal law provisions, most of which relate to crimes that can be committed by or against women. In between, there are mainly marriage law provisions.
The criminal regulations deal primarily with property crimes , such as theft or embezzlement of temple and family property, as well as offenses against sexual morality, such as rape , abortion , pimp , adultery , arbitrary divorce by women, inappropriate clothing and defamation of wives. But there are also general criminal offenses such as murder or homosexuality among men. It is noticeable that the punishments in comparison to the Babylonian Codex Ḫammurapi seem significantly more cruel and that the women appear to be disadvantaged in terms of personal and property rights compared to their husbands. However, there are parallels to the Codex Ḫammurapi in the provisions of marriage law. The Central Assyrian laws also require a marriage contract between the groom and the bride's father, whereby the groom had to pay a bride price . After the marriage, according to the Frauenspiegel, the man was entitled to extensive private criminal law against his wife, which, in addition to the right to punishment, also provided for the death penalty in the event of adultery.
As for the Central Assyrian laws in general, its legal nature has not yet been finally clarified for the Frauenspiegel.
literature
- Paul Koschaker: Source-critical investigations on the "ancient Assyrian laws" (= messages of the Middle East-Egyptian Society . Volume 26.3 ). Hinrichs, Leipzig 1921, p. 79-84 (Koschaker still assumed that these were ancient Assyrian laws.).
Individual evidence
- ^ Mariano San Nicolò: Contributions to legal history in the area of cuneiform legal sources . Aschehoug, Oslo 1931, p. 90 .
- ↑ z. B. Tearing out the nipples as a punishment in Section 8; Rape and emasculation as punishment for homosexuality in Section 20
- ↑ a b Viktor Korošek : Cuneiform right . In: Bertold Spuler (ed.): Orientalisches Recht (= Handbook of Oriental Studies ). 1st section, supplementary volume 3. Brill, Leiden 1964, p. 154 .