This document, known as “The Declaration of Cyrus the Great,” emphasized the removal of all racial discrimination and slavery, and bestowing to all people, freedom to choose their places of residence, and practice their own chosen faith and religion, therefore, attempting to create peace amongst all nations. This Declaration could actually be considered a present from the Iranian people to all humanity, expressed through the words of Cyrus, the founder of the first empire in the Iran. In 1971, the general assembly of the United Nations recognized this declaration as the first Declaration of Human Rights.
The Cyrus Cylinder marks a “fundamental shift in Middle Eastern history:” the creation of the largest empire the world had ever seen, up until that point. Cyrus the Great’s reign began with his invasion of Babylon in 539 BCE. He ruled over the entirety of the eastern Mediterranean, effectively creating the Middle East as we know it today. The empire spanned from Libya and Turkey in the West, to Afghanistan in the East. The Cyrus Cylinder itself functioned like a “press release”, notifying the public that it had a new ruler with new ideas.
- Given the multilingual, multifaith, and multicultural nature of his vast empire, Cyrus the Great was faced with the unique challenge of developing an approach to governance that embraced diversity. According to Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, the Cyrus Cylinder embodies the first state model based on diversity and tolerance of different cultures and religions. According to MacGregor, “What [the Cyrus Cylinder] represents is the first recognition that if you’re going to run a society with different languages [and] different beliefs, you cannot impose by force one system.” This system proved so successful that Cyrus the Great’s dynasty lasted for 200 years, until Alexander the Great invaded the empire. His rule, aggressive and ineffective, caused the hitherto expansive empire to fragment.
Cyrus the Great’s principles of governance, as laid out in the Cyrus Cylinder, were an important influence on Western leaders. Not only did Thomas Jefferson own two copies of Xenophon’s biography of Cyrus the Great, Cyropaedia, but the Cylinder’s ideas gained widespread popularity among political thinkers in Europe and the United States during the 18th century Enlightenment.
After the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which announced the British government’s support for the Zionist cause, Jewish households across Europe displayed images of Cyrus the Great alongside pictures of King George V. Cyrus the Great is credited with freeing Babylon’s Jewish prisoners, previously captured by Nebuchadnezzar, who then returned to their homeland to reestablish their religious practices and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.
The story of Cyrus the Great freeing the Jewish prisoners of Babylon is foundational to Jewish history, and is also told in the Bible’s Old Testament. The biblical prophet Isaiah lauds him and calls him a messiah, meaning “anointed” in Hebrew. In the biblical context, Cyrus the Great is viewed as chosen by the Judeo-Christian god for the distinct purpose of salvation. This differs from the Cylinder’s telling of the event, in which Marduk, the Babylonian god, guides him.
