Also known throughout antiquity as Hammurapi, Ammurapi and Khammurabi, Hammurabi was the sixth king of Akkadia (Babylon). He conqured Sumeria and Akkad, ending the Amorite rule over the land. Thus, he became the first king of the Babylonian Empire to rule over the whole of Mesopotamia. According to Samuel Noah Kramer, in his book "The Sumerians Their History, culture and character," "…in the previously unimportant city of Babylon, an outstanding Semitic ruler named Hammurabi came to prominence. After some three decades of a rather troubled rule, he attacked and defeated Rim-Sin of Larsa, as well as the kings of Elam, Mari, and Eshunna, and thus, about 1750 B.C., became the ruler of a united kingdom reaching from the Persian Gulf to the Habur River. With Hammurabi the history of Sumer comes to an end, and the history of Babylonia, a Semitic state built on a Sumerian foundation, begins." (pg. 72)

He is most known for his code of laws, sometimes referred to as the Codex Hammurabi. His laws were not the first to be written down in Mesopotamian history, but they were by far the most extensive record we have found to date. You can read more about Hammurabi's code here. It consists of a prologue, a list of the codes and then an epilogue.

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