Mozaffar Shariaty Home Page
m_shariaty@yahoo.com
To the memory of my wife , Afsane
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The First Declaration of Human Rights by Cyrus The grate
Near 2500 years ago Iran
538 BCE
(in Iran and in Farsi Korosh the grate )
Found by Hormoz Rasam 1879 Nineveh
Language Akkadian
Size
23 cm long
11 cm wide
Length
40+ lines of
writing
(although broken)
Current Location: British Museum
20-22a] I am Cyrus, king of the world,
great king, mighty king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the
four quarters, the son of Cambyses,
great king, king of Anšan, grandson of Cyrus,
great king, king of Anšan, descendant of Teispes, great king, king of Anšan, of
an eternal line of kingship, whose rule Bęl and
Nabu love, whose kingship they desire fot their hearts' pleasure.
The prince of peace
[22b-28] When I entered Babylon in a peaceful manner, I took up my lordly abode in the royal palace amidst rejoicing and happiness. Marduk, the great lord, established as his fate for me a magnanimous heart of one who loves Babylon, and I daily attended to his worship. My vast army marched into Babylon in peace; I did not permit anyone to frighten the people of Sumer and Akkad. I sought the welfare of the city of Babylon and all its sacred centers. As for the citizens of Babylon, [...] upon whom Nabonidus imposed a corvée which was not the gods' wish and not befitting them, I relieved their wariness and freed them from their service. Marduk, the great lord, rejoiced over my good deeds. He sent gracious blessing upon me, Cyrus, the king who worships him, and upon Cambyses, the son who is my offspring, and upon all my army, and in peace, before him, we moved around in friendship.
Religious measures
[28-33] By his exalted word, all the kings who sit upon thrones throughout the world, from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea [i.e., from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf], who live in the districts far-off, the kings of the West, who dwell in tents, all of them, brought their heavy tribute before me and in Babylon they kissed my feet. From Babylon to Aššur and from Susa, Agade, Ešnunna, Zamban, Me-Turnu, Der, as far as the region of Gutium, the sacred centers on the other side of the Tigris, whose sanctuaries had been abandoned for a long time, I returned the images of the gods, who had resided there [i.e., in Babylon], to their places and I let them dwell in eternal abodes. I gathered all their inhabitants and returned to them their dwellings. In addition, at the command of Marduk, the great lord, I settled in their habitations, in pleasing abodes, the gods of Sumer and Akkad, whom Nabonidus, to the anger of the lord of the gods, had brought into Babylon.