Cyrus Cylinder Feature - Washington Life Magazine - April 2013

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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR INTRODUCES THE FAMED CYRUS CYLINDER TO WASHINGTON PLUS DANNY GLOVER’S AFRICA PASSION | ARTS OUTLOOK | FASHION GOES TROPICAL TWO GEORGETOWN MANSIONS FETCH MILLION

CYRUS THE GREAT

COMES TO AMERICA THE CYRUS CYLINDER A -YEAR-OLD ICON OF IRANIAN RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE STARTS A FIVE-CITY U S TOUR AT THE ARTHUR M SACKLER GALLERY OF ART IN WASHINGTON E D I T E D BY N A N CY B AG L E Y A N D S O R O U S H S H E H A B I

As CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour recently noted, “Today we are served an almost daily diet of tensions and threats among Iran and Israel and the United States over Iran’s nuclear program. But not many may know that 2,600 years ago Jews and Iranians — then called Persians — lived in harmony, and that the Jews owed their very freedom to the Persian King, Cyrus the Great. This little clay object, the Cyrus Cylinder, tells us why. One can read the story in the Old Testament, how the first temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, who forced the Jewish people into exile and captivity until the Persian King Cyrus conquered Babylon and freed the Jews to go home and rebuild their temple.

His account is written on this ancient clay. And if you look closely, you can see the cuneiform figures, the oldest form of writing, carved into the surface.”

director of the British Museum, at the opening night of the Cyrus Cylinder exhibition and tour, made possible by a partnership between the British Museum, the Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF) and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art.

And there by the waters of Babylon, they sat down and wept. And then, Cyrus arrives and allows all the deported people, not only the Jews, but especially the Jews, to go home, to take with them the vessels from the temple that had been stolen and to rebuild the temple.The reason why the cylinder is so interesting is because most people in Europe and America only know the story from the Hebrew bible.They know the story of the Jews coming back, rebuilding the temple, Cyrus having allowed them to go. This is the story from the other side, from the Persian end. So this document is a great document in the story of Israel and in the story of Iran. And that’s why it’s so powerful now.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Why is this 2,600-year-old cylinder so important today?

NEIL MACGREGOR: [The Cylinder reflects] the first serious attempt to govern a society or state of people from different nationalities and faiths. The ancient Persian Empire was the first empire to address that.

What Cyrus decides after he conquers Babylon, in 539 B.C., is that he is going to allow the ‘It’s not just a touchstone for different communities to go home to the lands Jews and a source of Iranian idenfrom where they’d been deported and allow all the different parts of his empire to worship tity, it also helps form the basis their own gods.This is an astonishing statement of democracy and human rights of how you run a multicultural, multi-faith in Europe and at the founding of society. It’s 2,600 years old but we all know the United States of America.’ it’s what we need today to think about just as —CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR much. That’s why it matters.

CA: I hadn’t been aware of the incredible role that the ancient Persian King Cyrus plays in the life of Jews, in the life of Jerusalem.

NM: He’s absolutely central, the Jews had been attacked by the Syrians,

by Nebuchadnezzar, by Belshazzar and the people of Jerusalem had been taken captive and deported to Babylon.

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CA: Do you think it has some kind of worth, particularly today, when we’re in a state of really bad relations between Israel and Iran, between the United States and Iran?

NM: The Cyrus Cylinder reminds us how strange the [political] situation is today, because through all Jewish history from the prophet Isaiah, from Ezra onwards, Cyrus and the Iranians are the good rulers. They’re the rulers who allowed the Jews to return. And when the British government in 1917 issued the Balfour declaration to create the homeland for the Jews in Israel, the Jews of Eastern Europe compared King George V to the Persian King Cyrus. Cyrus has always been a hero in Jewish tradition. So, the current state of relations is an odd historical phenomenon. Same in the United States, because when the Founding Fathers in the 18th century

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The following are excerpts from a discussion between Amanpour and Neil MacGregor,

were trying to decide how to govern the U.S., what role religion would play, this was the model. We know that Jefferson had two copies of the biography of Cyrus in his library and that he told his grandson that he should study the life of Cyrus. The United States Constitution is, in many ways, a reflection of these ideas. If you want people to live peacefully together, you need to allow different kinds of religion in the same state. So, it’s very odd that Iran and the U.S. are in this state at the moment, because they each share the same founding principles.

CA: I heard you say that the Cyrus Cylinder is an even more important document in terms of governance, human rights and freedom than the American Constitution or even the Magna Carta.

NM: Well it’s much older than either of them but the three do deserve to be put together.

The Cyrus Cylinder, the Magna Carta and the American Constitution are all part of a dream of what a society could be, what a society should be. One of the things that I found very fascinating, is that a couple of years ago, the British museum lent the Cyrus Cylinder to Tehran, and it became in Tehran a focus of real national pride. This is part of Iran’s story that needs to be remembered.

that can be part of an Islamic tradition.

CA: Did all of this surprise you?

NM: It surprised me very much and I think it’s worth thinking about when we look at the role that the Cyrus Cylinder plays. Here is a state, thought of as exclusively Islamic, which quite deliberately focused on pre-Islamic Iran and articulated that the values set out in the

‘The Cyrus Cylinder reminds us how strange the [political] situation is today, because through all Jewish history from the prophet Isaiah, from Ezra onwards, Cyrus and the Iranians are the good rulers. They’re the rulers who allowed the Jews to return.’— NEIL MACGREGOR Cyrus Cylinder of religious toleration are Iranian values. Just as in the Parliament of the Islamic Republic there are still seats reserved for Christians, Zoroastrians and Jews. So Cyrus’ ideal lives on in the Islamic Republic.

CA: What did the Iranians want you to do, did they want you to bring it here to the U.S.?

P H OTOS BY H A SA N SAR BAK H S H I AN

CA: How did it come that you took the cylinder to Iran?

NM: The request came from the Iranians. One of the roles of museums like the Sackler and the British Museum is to ensure that the community of scholarly research goes on functioning as a community, whatever is happening politically.

We’ve been trying in recent years to show the history of Iran to the public, because you can only understand a country if you understand its history and above all how it sees its history. I was surprised that the Cylinder is the one thing they wanted to borrow. It was shown on its own to great acclaim in Tehran [and there was a] great debate.What I found fascinating is the role Cyrus has played in the Jewish tradition and later in the Christian tradition. But interestingly [Iranian Vice President] Mashaei began talking about Cyrus as a forerunner of the prophet, embodying values

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Image of Persepolis at the entrace to The Cyrus Cylinder exhibit.

NM: Yes, we talked a lot about this. And when it was in Iran there was a great deal of discussion because this is not just part of Iran’s history, but of the whole Middle East, and indeed of the world. It has shaped the way people think ever since. We talked about our desire to bring it to the United States and that was met with great enthusiasm by the Iranian government.

CA: By President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

NM: Yes. He talked very interestingly about Cyrus. He also is an heir of Cyrus, like Jefferson, like everybody else. Of course, everybody wants to be Cyrus’ heir. He was talking about the Cyrus Cylinder as representing Iran’s commitment to justice and to different religions living together. I think he wanted very much that the world be reminded of this part of Iran’s history and that there’s a long history of Iran being the voice of tolerance.

CA: So in sum, Cyrus and his heirs, Darius, and on and on, represented a multicultural, multifaith tolerance. Is that what they represent?

NM: What they represent is the first recognition that if you’re going to run a society with different languages and different beliefs, you cannot impose one system by force. You need to find a way of getting the consent of your different peoples by recognizing their diversity. And that is the question we all now address when you live in a world city like London, where there are hundreds of different nationalities, languages and religions living together. But there’s only been one empire that really ever accommodated those differences and it is the ancient Persian one. That’s why it has become again a period of history that people want to study and we can learn from. How did the Persians, for several centuries, hold together this extraordinarily diverse group of people, in moderate peace and in great prosperity?

CA: I really am fascinated about how Thomas Jefferson was so devoted to it as well and had, as you say, copies of the biography of Cyrus.

I’ve read that the Cyrus biography was required reading in the 18th century, along with Machiavelli, for all who wanted to go into

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Thomas Jefferson’s copy of Cyrus the Great’s biography, “Cyropaedia” by Xenophon (Photo by Reza Ganji/IHF America)

“I would advise you to undertake a regular course of History and Poetry in both languages. In Greek, go first thro’ the Cyropaedia, and then read Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon’s Hellenus and Anabasis...”

- THOMAS JEFFERSON, from a letter written to his grandson, 1820

Gold plaque showing Persian Zoroastrian priest, from the time of Cyrus the Great (Photo by Reza Ganji/IHF America)

The Cyrus Cylinder tour was made possible by a partnership between the British Museum, the Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF) and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art. Numerous Iranian American organizations and individuals have contributed their

governance and politics.

NM: It’s not just Jefferson, it’s not just Machiavelli.

By the time you get to the 18th century, everybody in Europe is interested in Cyrus. One of the best sellers in France is Les Voyages de Cyrus, written in English and French by the same author. We know that there are even Icelandic poems about Cyrus in the 18th century. It is impossible to exaggerate what he meant to the Enlightenment world, the world out of which the American Constitution is born.

CA: Doesn’t it blow your mind that this is a Persian king in today’s world where Persia is viewed so negatively by so many people?

NM: It’s astonishing. You talked about the relationship between Israel and Iran, the U.S. and Iran being so bad. But, this is a very new phenomenon. For most of western history, the Persian Empire, and that moment in Iranian history, has been the model to which statesmen look to think how to solve problems.

CA: Does the actual Cylinder say the Jews were allowed to go back to Jerusalem?

NM: No. The Cyrus Cylinder is only about what happens in Mesopotamia, but fascinatingly the words used in the Cyrus Cylinder are exactly the words used in the Hebrew bible in Chronicles and Ezra. God called Cyrus and took him by the hand. God tells Cyrus to be his Shepard, to set the people free. The difference is of course that in Babylon, it’s the Babylonian god that does that. In the Hebrew Scriptures it’s Jehovah. But they use the same words and they speak to Cyrus in the same way. And this is evidence I think that there’s a general decree by Cyrus to let everybody go home. And the Jews in Jerusalem know what is happening in Babylon because a lot of them have just come from there. And of course we know so much about this because they stopped building the temple in Jerusalem, and then, as we all know from building projects, sponsorships, etc. money runs out. It gets slow, things start going badly. So, the Jews in Jerusalem appeal to Darius to help them.

time and money to support bringing the cylinder to exhibitions in Washington (3/5-4/28), Houston (5/36/14), New York (6/20-8/4), San Francisco (8/9-8/22) and Los Angeles (10/2-12/2).

More information and press on the tour can be found at:

CA: The son of Cyrus?

NM: Yes, the son of Cyrus. And the Jews said your king wanted this temple to be built what are you going to do? So, they go through the files in the bureaucracy and they find the document where

Cyrus said this temple must be built and that the Persians will help. Ezra in the Hebrew scriptures tells us this and he quotes the document in Aramaic, a language the Persians used. So, thanks to the extraordinary bureaucracy of the Persian Empire, another great thing they really ace on bureaucracy, they’re wizard record keepers. And then the temple goes ahead. More money comes, on orders from the Persian King and the Second Temple gets completed.

CA: Is there also a dispute as to whether the Cylinder really is a human rights document?

NM: I suppose it depends on what you mean by human rights. It’s clearly about the rights of peoples. I mean we now tend to think about human rights being the rights of individuals. The Cylinder is about the rights of communities to organize themselves in their own way, live where they choose, and worship their own gods. So, that’s also a very important aspect of human rights. In

‘What’s extraordinary about Cyrus, is that he appears as a paragon of princely statesmanship in the two pillars of Western cultures, that is the Greco-Roman tradition and the Bible .... The story of Persia, Iran, is part of the story of modern United States’ —JULIAN RABY Director of the Sackler Gallery.

that sense it is probably the oldest document we have of an articulated statement by a ruler that the communities over which he rules will have certain rights and privileges that he will defend.

CA: And what do you hope to achieve by taking it on a five-city U.S. tour [in D.C through April 28, then Houston, NYC, SF and LA]?

NM: There are two real values in it. Firstly, it’s more important now than ever to understand Iran. And one can only understand a country by understanding its history and how it views its own history. And most of us are not taught very much about Iranian history in school. So I hope it’ll allow a large public to think, again, about what it means to be an Iranian. The second is that I hope it will help us all think about how we tackle the question of great diversity of ethnicities and faiths

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Dame Jillian Sackler and Julian Raby

+ Leonard Levin, Mrs. Levin, Dr. Darioush and Nina Nasseri and Ford Peatross

Rep. Henry Waxman

Sima Ladjevardian, Farhood Malek and Nasrin Soudavar

WL SPONSORED

OPENING NIGHT AT THE SACKLER GALLERY FOR

THE CYRUS CYLINDER Rod Baharloo and Rudi Bakhtiar with Sheila and Afshin Molavi

Saadi, Fatema and Abolala Soudavar

PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL AND HASAN SARBAKHSHIAN +

Jafar Davoody and Mamucher Azmudeh

Amina Semlali, Trita Parsi and Mitra Lore

Christopher Isham, Darya Nasr and Alireza Rastegar

+ Nasser Manesh and Gary Tinterow

Nader Biglari

Vali Nasr and Maureen White

Christiane Amanpour

Forough Yazdani and Katy Sadeghian

Neil MacGregor, Lady Susie Westmacott and Amb. Peter Westmacott

P H OTO CAPT I O N H E RE

WL EXCLUSIVE

BRITISH AMBASSADOR’S RECEPTION FOR

THE CYRUS CYLINDER WA S H I N G T O N L I F E

David Sanger, Jane Harman, washingtonlife.com P R I L Wright |and Robert Litwak | ARobin

PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL

31 Fateh Dalia and Hossein

+ Nasser Kazeminy, Annie Totah, Empress Farah Pahlavi, and David and Haleh Niroo

+ Alma and Rep. Charles Rangel WL EXCLUSIVE

CELEBRATING THE DIVERSITY OF NOROOZ AT THE 4TH ANNUAL NOWRUZ COMMISSION GALA * Hasti and Amir A hami

Mellon Auditorium PHOTOS BY TONY BROWN * AND RONALD BAKER +

+ Mela and Mort Anvari

At their gala honoring the Iranian New Year (celebrated by 300+ million people worldwide) founders Bijan and Gissou Kian, and Nasser Kazeminy, together with ambassadors from 11 nations which also celebrate Norooz (or Nowruz), welcomed over 450 guests including high-ranking military officers and members of Congress. The vivacious Rudi Bakhtiar served as emcee while guests enjoyed a traditional Persian meal prepared by Design Cuisine and colorful performances by the Silk Road Dance Company and entertainers from other countries.

* Xavier Hermes

* Gissou Kian, Christine

+ Morgan Gomroki and Sara Aliabadi

* Jasmin and Cmdr. Babak Barakat

P H OTO CAPT I O N H E RE

RaďŹ ekian and Bijan Kian

* Ardavan Aliabadi and Nazli Karimi

* Silk Road Dancers 32

+ Jim and Suzanne Mellor with Lori and Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn

* Shamin andSaid Jawad with Namik Tan P R I L and Amb. | washingtonlife.com | AFĂźgen

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Pouria Abbassi and Saghi Modjtabai

Darien Salahi, Rep. Gregory Meeks and Ladan Ahmadi

Rep. Mike Honda and Hadi Sadegh, WL EXCLUSIVE

PAAIA CELEBRATES THE ARRIVAL OF THE CYRUS CYLINDER AND THE IRANIAN NEW YEAR Capitol Hill

Nancy Bagley, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Soroush Shehabi

Rep. Carolyn Maloney,

Rep. Jackie Speier

Rep. Trent Franks

Rep. Donna Edwards

PHOTOS COURTESY OF PAAIA

The Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Amer icans (PAAIA) in conjunction with Representatives Michael Honda, Randy Forbes, Frank Wolf, and Carolyn Maloney hosted a reception for members of Congress and congressional staff.

Eleven members, including Leader Nancy Pelosi, acknowledged the contributions of Americans of Iranian descent in the U.S. PAAIA announced that, working together with representatives Henry Waxman, Peter Roskam, and 11 other Republican and Democratic members on Capitol Hill, it had assisted in introducing a bipartisan resolution recognizing the cultural and historical significance of the Iranian New Year (Norooz or Nowruz) and acknowledging the Cyrus Cylinder as a symbol of respect for human rights and religious tolerance.

Traditional Iranian New Year “Haft-Seen” (photo courtesy of PAAIA)

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Yousef Javadi and Rep. Anthony Cardenas

Kimia Ramezani and Setareh Ebrahimian

Morad Ghorban, Rep. Andre Carson and Robert Babayi

“Nowruz embodies the principle that each individual’s thinking, speaking, and conduct should always be virtuous. It promotes compassion for our fellow human beings irrespective of ethnicity or religion. Because of this, Nowruz maintains a unique capacity to unite people of many faiths.”

— Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA/17th)

“Forced from the homes of their ancestors, faced with persecution and prejudice, Iranian Americans turned to our country … for a place to rebuild their lives and live out their dreams. They have since taken on leadership roles [and] their prominence is a tribute to our country’s promise of pluralism and diversity.”

— Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA/49th)

“I would also like to thank PAAIA for setting up this event.“Celebrations like Nowruz provide an opportunity to teach the American people about the rich cultural history of the Iranian people.”

- Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA/4th)

The Iranian American community is important, not self-important, but important in how it gives back. The minute [Iranian Americans] hit this soil, [they] help to build bridges.”

- Rep. Anthony Cardena (D-CA/49th)

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