The Cyrus Cylinder, symbol of Persian tolerance, heads to US
The 2,600 year old Cyrus Cylinder, a promise of tolerance from the ancient Persian King, is heading to the US for the first time.
Can an ancient hunk of clay bearing a message of tolerance from the Persian Empire help Americans and Iranians chip away at a generation of mutual hostility?Skip to next paragraph
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The Cyrus Cylinder arrives in the United States for the first time this week, a 2,600-year-old symbol of enlightened rule that heralded the freedom of the Jews after the capture of Babylon by the Persian King Cyrus the Great.
The size of a football with tapered ends and some shards lost to the centuries, the Cyrus Cylinder today represents a potent blend of Persian pride and tolerance and respect for others and their beliefs, and is regarded as one of the most iconic objects of the ancient world.
Inscribed upon the baked-clay cylinder in spiky cuneiform script is a proclamation made by Cyrus when he conquered Babylon in 539 BC. Noting that he was “king of the universe” – the Persian Empire then was the largest the world had ever seen – Cyrus describes how, with the help of the “great lord,” he peaceably captured Babylon and set free captured minorities, including the Jews.
“I permitted all to dwell in peace,” reads the last line on the cylinder.
The significance of the object, and the promise it holds of introducing Americans to an aspect of Iranian heritage far from the usual drumbeat of nuclear talks and angry rhetoric, was made clear at a recent send-off ceremony at the British Museum in London, where the cylinder now lives. It was discovered in present-day Iraq by a British expedition in 1879.
A greater union
“What the Cyrus Cylinder does is remind us of the greater union we all have with one another. We are not islands, no man is an island, no culture is an island,” said Karen Armstrong, a well-known religious scholar, at the British Museum send-off of the cylinder to the US.
“The ideas of the Persian tradition permeate the Western tradition, and it’s there at a profound level. The idea that we are separate, individual…that these ideologies cannot coexist, is an illusion,” said Ms. Armstrong. “And sometimes it’s easier to focus on a particular object like that, to look at its history, to see its effects…the way cultures have always interacted and melded with one another creatively.”
Cyrus provided the example of a world leader “compassionate and respectful for other peoples, and this is the challenge I think that the Cylinder gives us today, and also its great hope,” said Armstrong.
The US tour starts this week at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC., and will travel to Houston, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, cities where concentrations are highest of Iranian-Americans living in the US. The tour is sponsored by the London-based Iran Heritage Foundation.
When the cylinder was loaned by the British Museum to Iran in 2010-2011 up to one million Iranians came to see it, though the visit was not without controversy. At the unveiling ceremony, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke of how the cylinder emphasized freedom of thought and “respect for human beings’ greatness and basic rights.”
The comments caused a stir among regime critics, coming less than a year after Iranian security forces crushed an uprising sparked by charges of massive fraud in Iran’s 2009 presidential election.