The Amorite dynasty that made Babylon Mesopotamia's supreme city; Hammurabi's reign (c. 1792–1750 BC) produced the most famous legal code of antiquity and unified southern Mesopotamia for the last time before the Kassites.
Ended in 1595 BCE when Hittite king Mursili I raided and sacked Babylon, destroying the Hammurabi dynasty; the Kassites subsequently filled the power vacuum and established control over Babylonia.
The best scholarly biography of Hammurabi, situating his law code and military campaigns in their historical context.
Essential background on the Old Babylonian cultural and economic world.