Middle Assyrian Laws

Historical source page 10

An Assyrian Law Code 9 his slaves and of the creditor over his debtor. In the Assyrian Code, divorce is treated in a single paragraph (§ 36) which gives the husband the choice — according 'as his heart moves him', as the phrase runs — to give his wife something when he dismisses her or to send her away empty-handed. The Hammurabi Code has quite a number of restrictions to such an arbitrary procedure. The assumption throughout the Babylonian Code is that a man divorces his wife either because she is childless or because of some charge against her. In the former case it is provided (§ 138) that the marriage settlement and dowry be returned to the wife. If there was no marriage settlement, the husband gives his wife 60 shekels of silver on divorcing her (§ 139). She is not sent away 'empty-handed'. If there are children (§ 137), the divorced wife receives her dowry and sufficient maintenance to rear her children; and upon their reaching the age of majority, she is given a share of her former husband's estate equivalent to the portion of one son and is free to marry whom she chooses. The husband is prohibited (§ 148) from divorcing his wife because she has become afflicted with disease. He must keep her and support her in his house as long as she lives, but if she prefers to live elsewhere, she receives her dowry. Only in case there is a definite charge of neglecting her husband and her household, of being a 'gad-about', is she sent away empty-handed (§141). Moreover, the wife has a right to bring a charge of neglect or of improper conduct against her husband, and if the charge is estab- lished (§ 142) she recovers her dowry and goes to her father's house. It is in keeping with the general attitude toward the wives and daughters as the property of the husband and father that the wife and daughter can be sold or pledged for debt to a creditor. The Hammurabi Code (§117), while recognizing the right, changes the transfer to a limited indenture for three years, and provides that 'in the fourth year they (wife, son and daughter) must be given their freedom'; and as a further provision, dictated by humane considerations, the master who sells a female slave who has born him children for debt, must ransom the woman (§ 119). There is no time limit to the pledging of a member of a man's household in the Assyrian Code. On the other hand, it is pre- cisely in connection with this subject, that we find the newly discovered code striking a' higher note. It is provided (Text No. 1, § 47) that a creditor who holds his debtor's daughter for