One of the three classes of people in Hammurabi's Code, probably a servant of the state; the other two were awilum and wardum. The muskenum were, under King Hammurabi at least, persons employed by the palace who could be given land to work without receiving it as property. The classes awilum and muskenum are not mutually exclusive: a man in high palace office could fairly easily purchase land as private property, whereas the free citizen who got into debt as a result of a bad harvest or some other misfortune could become part of the servant class.