The Cyrus Cylinder and Achaemenid Imperial Policy

Kuhrt, Amélie

doi:10.1177/030908928300802507

Cited by 63 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…It does conclude with Cyrus's claims to have restored neglected sanctuaries and to have returned their kidnapped gods. Scholars consider these acts and the composition and placement of the cylinder itself in the temple in Babylon as components of a program designed to situate Cyrus's rule in the long standing traditions of effective, legitimate, and pious royal behavior (Kuhrt , ; Michalowski ; Vanderhooft ). Thus, the biblical references to the edict must not be associated with the programmatic intentions of the text of the Cyrus Cylinder itself.…”

Section: Evidence Purported To Relate To the Judean Return From Babylmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cuneiform Sources for Judeans in Babylonia in the Neo‐Babylonian and Achaemenid Periods: An Overview

Pearce

2016

Religion Compass

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Cuneiform Sources for Judeans in Babylonia in the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid Periods: An Overview Cuneiform documents written in Babylonia provide valuable evidence for the experience of the Judeans who came there during the Exile and who remained throughout the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods. Recent publications add significant data to the corpus previously known. The article describes and summarizes the relevant cuneiform evidence that informs an understanding of the Judeans' role in the social and economic history of Babylonia. Comparanda make clear that the Judeans occupied a place in the Babylonian economy and social order similar to that of other deportee populations in Babylonia.The Bible preserves historical narratives of, as well as prophetic and literary responses to, the Babylonian Exile and its aftermath; these, in turn, ref lect on events that catalyze the transformation of Judean deportees and their descendants into adherents of the nascent Jewish identity and faith. Scholars recognize the need to incorporate a wide variety of documentation in order to assess the full range of Judean experiences in the early Second Temple period. Recent studies introduce new perspectives to the analysis of archeological, historical, and textual evidence for economic and social history in Judah (see, e.g., Miller, Ben Zvi, and Knoppers 2015). With regard to the sources produced by the Babylonian Empire, scholars have had to contend, until recently, with a corpus of limited size and scope that constrained contextualizing social and economic experiences of Judeans there. The picture began to change with the publication of an administrative text written in 498 BCE ( Joannès and Lemaire 1999; Lemaire 2005) in āl-Yāḫūdu, "Judahtown." This previously unknown settlement in southern Babylonia offered concrete evidence for the existence of a settlement populated largely by Judeans nearly a century after the first exilic wave (597 BCE). In 2014, Pearce and Wunsch published another 100+ administrative and legal documents written in āl-Yāḫūdu and environs; editions of another collection of nearly equal size and contents are due to appear (Wunsch forthcoming). The date of the earliest āl-Yāḫūdu text now known, 572 BCE, confirms a Judean presence on the Babylonian landscape in the first generation following the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. The latest āl-Yāḫūdu text dates to 477 BCE; thus there exists nearly continuous documentation of Judeans in Babylonia to and beyond the period of the construction of the second Temple. These sources (to which add Joannès and Lemaire 1996; Abraham 2005 Abraham -2006 enrich the investigation of social and economic forces that shaped the experiences of the exiles' descendants and that provided a foundation for an enduring Jewish community in Babylonia. The present study reviews and summarizes the Babylonian cuneiform evidence for Judeans in the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods.Although they all refer to aspects of the topic under consideration here, the terms Neo-Babylonia...

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Section: Evidence Purported To Relate To the Judean Return From Babylmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cuneiform Sources for Judeans in Babylonia in the Neo‐Babylonian and Achaemenid Periods: An Overview

Pearce

2016

Religion Compass

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“…The cultural layering becomes more difficult to plot, and minority elements more 'microscopic', even if weaknesses in the Hellenistic system of control allowed for minor kingdoms and cultural complexes to subsist in marginal independence (Atropatene and Armenia at first, then Pontus, Sinope, and upon Seleucid decline Galatia and Cappadocia) (Capdetrey 2007). Regional and local cults, as well as east-west syncretisms flourished, in contrast to the prior empires with more 'limited de-centralising' religious policies (Persia) or stridently dispossessive attitudes (Assyria) (Kuhrt 1983;Cogan 1974), and in that sense minorities of 'local religious choice' became more manifest with Hellenisation-ahead of expansionist Rome.…”

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confidence: 95%

Ethno-Religious Minorities in the Near East: Some Macrohistorical Reflections with Special Reference to the Zazas

Trompf

2013

Iran Cauc

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The historical study of ethnic and religious minorities in the Near East presents as an endless task for years ahead. This paper offers a tour d'horizon of key minority issues from ca. 1300 B.C. to the present while plotting the way minorities-whether defeated, put under serious constraint, tolerated or marginalised-have been conceptualised in the historical record. Looking at history this way opens up the richness and importance of 'minority studies', and allows for reflection on the history of interpretations of the 'suppressed other' over the centuries. The contribution approaches Zaza ethno-religiosity as a brief test case.

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“…It is similar to, but more encompassing than, the habeas corpus principle (Morsink, 1999). A much earlier reference to human rights ideas can be found in the Cyrus Cylinder, a clay cylinder from the 6th century BC that features an inscription that some refer to as the “first declaration of human rights” (Kuhrt, 1983: 84).…”

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confidence: 99%

Are human rights western—And why does it matter? A perspective from international political theory

Mende

2019

Journal of International Political Theory

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A widespread assumption alleges that human rights are not universal, as they claim to be, but are instead Western oriented. Yet a growing body of research provides evidence that human rights are not just Western. Both perspectives are critical of repressive dimensions in the human rights regime, though they recommend different approaches to addressing them. This article explores both viewpoints from an International Political Theory perspective. Examining the pluralist idea, institutionalization, and application of human rights, the first section argues that human rights are not just Western. The second section investigates why it nevertheless matters to ask whether human rights are Western. This article develops four interrelated criteria: dynamic pluralism, awareness of power and inequalities, contextual universalism, and open normativity. These criteria help determine whether human rights are (not just) Western, and, more importantly, they provide the basis for an emancipatory human rights regime.

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The Cyrus Cylinder and Achaemenid Imperial Policy

Cited by 63 publications

References 0 publications

Cuneiform Sources for Judeans in Babylonia in the Neo‐Babylonian and Achaemenid Periods: An Overview

Cuneiform Sources for Judeans in Babylonia in the Neo‐Babylonian and Achaemenid Periods: An Overview

Ethno-Religious Minorities in the Near East: Some Macrohistorical Reflections with Special Reference to the Zazas

Are human rights western—And why does it matter? A perspective from international political theory

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