Page 178 - مجلة دلمون العدد 25 يونيو 2019م

Marriage

As for Polygamy Mesopotamian society dowry, I acknowledge receiving the said
encouraged single wife and early marriage. amount”. The sister announced in presence
However, in certain old Assyrian by-laws it of witnesses “with my acceptance I marry
was suggested that a boy of ten years old Khoworazy and become his wife”.
can get married. This was an exception to The marriage was documented on a clay
the general rule and only after permission of cuneiform mentioning the wedding witnesses
elder brothers. names. In Eshnunna law it mentions that
This is recorded as such “if a man put oil event as follows. “If a man weds a woman
in his fiancées hair or brought food for the without her parents approval, and he did not
wedding day and he died or quit, in this case invite people to a meal or certify his wedding
his father may offer her to the remaining this marriage is illegal even after living with
brothers down to the ten years old brother”. him one year”.
It seems oiling the hair and offering the food This law is put in action in order to protect
are within the marriage rituals, however, the woman from being abandoned later in
marrying the ten year’s old is not the rule. Hammurabi law No 128. “If a man marry a
In an opposite situation if the female dies woman without wedding certificate she is
then the male can marry her sister or decide not (legally) his wife”.
not in that situation the father shall return to
him all silver coins but not items eatable like Hammurabi Law 159
sheep or corns. In Hammurabi law item 159
the father has the right to take everything
given by the man if he refuses or change his
mind and chose another woman. It is written
as follows “if a man brings the engagement
present and pays the dowry but change his
mind later the father can take all what was
given”.
Hammurabi law item 159
But if the father changes his mind in this
case he pays back to the man twice of what
he has given him. The bride to be has the
right to accept or refuse the proposal in
presence of her father or elder brothers.
Some inscriptions discovered in Nozy
(Kirkuk) mentions a young man by the
name Acolinee son of Achaia saying “I wed
my sister (Biltcadomy) to Khworazy (son
of Enya) who paid forty silver shackles as

5