Description

The Cyrus Cylinder or Cyrus Charter is an ancient clay cylinder, now broken into several pieces, on which is written a declaration in Akkadian cuneiform script in the name of Persia’s Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great. It dates from the 6th century BC and was discovered in the ruins of Babylon in Mesopotamia in 1879. It is currently in the possession of the British Museum, which sponsored the expedition that discovered the cylinder. It was created and used as a foundation deposit following the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, when the Neo-Babylonian Empire was invaded by Cyrus and incorporated into his Persian Empire.

The text on the Cylinder praises Cyrus, sets out his genealogy and portrays him as a king from a line of kings. The Babylonian king Nabonidus, who was defeated and deposed by Cyrus, is denounced as an impious oppressor of the people of Babylonia and his low-born origins are implicitly contrasted to Cyrus’ kingly heritage. The victorious Cyrus is portrayed as having been chosen by the chief Babylonian god Marduk to restore peace and order to the Babylonians. The text states that Cyrus was welcomed by the people of Babylon as their new ruler and entered the city in peace. It appeals to Marduk to protect and help Cyrus and his son Cambyses. It extols Cyrus as a benefactor of the citizens of Babylonia who improved their lives, repatriated displaced people and restored temples and cult sanctuaries across Mesopotamia and elsewhere in the region. It concludes with a description of how Cyrus repaired the city wall of Babylon and found a similar inscription placed there by an earlier king.

The Cylinder’s text has traditionally been seen by biblical scholars as corroborative evidence of Cyrus’ policy of the repatriation of the Jewish people following their Babylonian captivity (an act that the Book of Ezra attributes to Cyrus), as the text refers to the restoration of cult sanctuaries and repatriation of deported peoples. This interpretation has been disputed, as the text identifies only Mesopotamian sanctuaries, and makes no mention of Jews, Jerusalem, or Judea. The Cylinder has also been referred to by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran as the first declaration of universal human rights, a view rejected by some historians as anachronistic and a misunderstanding of the Cylinder’s generic nature as a typical statement made by a new monarch at the beginning of his reign. Neil MacGregor, former Director of the British Museum, has stated that the cylinder was “the first attempt we know about running a society, a state with different nationalities and faiths—a new kind of statecraft”. It was adopted as a national symbol of Iran by the Imperial State which put it on display in Tehran in 1971 to commemorate 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire. On October 14, 1971, the Shah’s sister, Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, presented the United Nations Secretary General U Thant with a replica of the Cylinder. The princess asserted that “the heritage of Cyrus was the heritage of human understanding, tolerance, courage, compassion and, above all, human liberty”.

منشور آزادی ملل یا منشور حقوق بشر کوروش، استوانه‌ای از جنس سفال است که در سال 539 پیش از میلاد به فرمان کوروش دوم هخامنشی ساخته شده و دور تا دور آن مجموعه‌ای از سخنان و دستورات او به خط میخی نقش شده است. در سال 1971 میلادی، سازمان ملل متن روی این استوانه را به شش زبان رسمی این سازمان منتشر کرد و کوروش کبیر، به دلیل صدور نخستین اعلامیه حقوق بشر نزد همه جهانیان محترم است. منشور آزادی ملل کوروش یکی از بزرگترین نشانه‌های روحیه بردباری در فرهنگ ایرانی است. این مجسمه که با الهام از منشور کوروش ساخته شده است، ارتفاعی نزدیک به 14 سانتی‌متر و وزنی در حدود سه‌و‌نیم کیلوگرم دارد و جنس آن از فایبرگلاس است.برای ایستایی بهتر روی پایه‌ای قرار داده شده است. مجسمه‌ها می توانند از هر جنسی باشند، می‌توانند در هر اندازه و شکلی باشند، پیچیده یا ساده باشند. اما به طور قطع هر کدام پیامی برایمان دارند. می‎توانند قهرمان‌های اساطیری باشند که در داستان‌ها اسمشان را شنیده‌ایم، یا می‌توانند شکل‌های ساده هندسی باشند. می‌توانند پیکره شاعر محبوبی بر سر میدان شلوغ شهر باشند، یا حتی پرنده‌ سفالی روی طاقچه. مجسمه‌ها مثل سفر می‌مانند. سفری از زندگی روزمره به سوی احساس و اندیشه، به سوی زیبایی و از همه مهم‌تر به سوی گفتگوی تمدن‌ها، فرهنگ‌ها و اندیشه‌های مختلف و متفاوت با یکدیگر. مجسمه‌ها می‌توانند بیانگر یک اندیشه، فرهنگ یا تمدن باشد. فرهنگ و اندیشه‌ای که گاهی اوقات از قرن‌های گذشته با انسان سخن می‌گوید