The Hakhamanishian/Achaemenids, millennia ahead of their age and time.
More than two millennia ago, the Hakhamanishian kings gave the world Human rights, Women's rights, workmen's rights, liberty to all and equality of all religions, a benchmark not achievable even today. What is even more remarkable, astonishing is that these standards, which we struggle to achieve even today were conceived so far ahead of their time. This was a time when men and women from conquered lands were ordinarily enslaved and women were considered a mere commodity.
They also gave us the festivals that we celebrate in a different guise, form, semblance as Christmas, Thanksgiving and St.Valentine's day.
Rulers oft' dispossessed others, lives, livelihood, possessions, freedom,
Cyrus, Darius, Ardeshir granted all equality, justice, liberty, freedom.
The world has witnessed many empires, established by one nation to colonize others, wherein their natural and human resources were drained for the use of the colonizer. Any benefit accruing to the ruled nation was minimal or unintended.
But 2,500 years ago an empire was established by the Hakhamanishian,
/Achaemenids, which was unique, remarkable in so many aspects.
The Old testament of the Holy Bible mentions, that Cyrus was the king, who abolished slavery, liberated the Jews and permitted them to return to Jerusalem to build their second temple. People of all faiths were permitted to worship their own Gods. Temples to the Egyptian, Jewish and Babylonian Gods were also constructed.
The declaration of human rights of the United Nations is based on those given by Emperor Cyrus 2,500 years ago. He abolished slavery 2,300 years before Europe and America did.
The Qanat water management system created by digging underground channels from far off springs to towns originated in the time of Cyrus. It is an astonishing, astounding marvel of engineering, how people working with basic tools could establish a gradient of a few degrees for water to flow up to 45 km, as we see at Gonabad in Khorasan. This technology was replicated by Persian engineers at the Kharga oasis in the deserts of Egypt.
The Darius canal was a precursor to the modern Suez canal. It's main function was to promote, facilitate and ease trade between Persia and Egypt.
Darius had a dam built on the river Indus to prevent the annual famines in his sixteenth province/satrapy, the Sind.
Sepandarmazgan, the festival dedicated to the Spenta Armaiti was woman’s day, the day of love, the precursor of St.Valentine's day. It was celebrated on the 5th day of the month of Esfand/Spandarmad, 23rd February to praise, applaud and honour the chaste and loving wife. Women were allowed to sit on a throne and gifts were presented to them. The Spenta Armaiti is also the guardian and preserver of the Earth and creation. Thus emphasis was placed on being considerate, thoughtful, grateful for the bounties of nature.
Women were granted pay, equal to men and maternity benefits. On the festival of Mardgiran, they could choose their own husband. They selected their own professions. There were women Generals, admirals and Mobeds/ clergy.
The first workmen’s compensation was started for those injured during labour. Workers would be granted their salary for the rest of their lives if unable to work.
The first royal road of 2,600 km was constructed to join Susa in the south of Iran to Sardis on the Mediterranean coast in modern Turkey.
‘Chapar Khane’ is a Persian term for the first postal service system used during in the Achaemenid Empire on the royal road. It was created by Cyrus the Great and later developed further by Darius the Great as a method of communication throughout the Persian lands.
The system comprised of a series of stations along the 2,600 m highway throughout the empire, where the ‘Chapars’ would ride horseback, delivering messages from one part of the kingdom to another within a week.
As the empire expanded, men from newly taken over areas were absorbed in the army. Those who desired a civilian life were resettled mainly in Khuzestan.
2,500 years before the Geneva convention, the Persians had their own set of humane, clement, charitable laws for the treatment of prisoners of war. No massacres were ever perpetuated. Captured Roman prisoners of war settled in the villages called dahat-e-Rumye and this policy was carried on by Sassanian kings as well. They had their own places of worship and clergy. They were allowed to construct their town similar to the ones they originated from. When one Roman complained, there was a mulberry tree outside his home in Antioch, Shah Anushirwan asked a tree to be planted in front of his new home, bigger than the one he had.
At least two of the great Persian poets of later centuries, Omar Khayyam and Hafez-e-Shirazi professed their faith in the Pir-e-Mogon/ Prophet of the Magi
i.e Zoroaster.
In 400 B.C, the ancient Persians created the world’s first ever refrigerator. Persian word for fridge is Yakhchal, the ice pit, which is how today's fridge started out. The original structure had a domed shape somewhat like a small mountain, and it was used to store mainly ice and food items. Water was left out to freeze in the cold desert nights and collected before dawn and placed in the Yakhchal.
Passing warm-air over water to be cooled was an ancient attempt at air conditioning. The Badgirs/ wind catchers are seen in Yazd and even Dubai today.
The most popular string instrument of the middle east and Africa, 'oud' was developed in Iran. The earliest version of the modern day guitar exists in the form of the tar or lut – a wooden instrument on which strings were plucked to produce music. The popular sarod of the Indian subcontinent developed from the Rabab. The harp was called a chang and another version is the ghanoon. The traditional kamanche is the forerunner of the violin. It had three, then four strings and rests on the ground while being played.
We see all these at the museum of musical instruments in Tehran.
The Sassanians made unique contributions in the field of world architecture. Ardeshir-e-Papakan is credited with the innovation of both the minaret and a squinch, a small arch placed between adjacent walls of a rectangular or square room to permit placement of a dome on it. All the beautiful, elegant domed buildings of the world, from the Taj Mahal to St.Mark's cathedral in Venice owe their presence, existence to this development.
The design of the Taq-e-Kasra, palace of Khosrow is said to be one for eternity. Sassanian floral inscriptions developed at Ctesiphon and Kermanshah are seen at the Taj Mahal, built by Persian architects a millennium later.
The same floral patterns are replicated in the alluring, graceful, complex designs of Persian carpets seen at the carpets museum in Tehran. The carpets museum also has a copy of the first Hakhamanishian carpet called the Pazyryk, which dates back 2,500 years. The motifs are similar to those from Takht-e-Jamshid.
The first arch of the world dates back to the 13th century B.C. It is seen at the Haft Tappeh area near Shush/ Susa.
The entire system of medical training prevalent in the world today was first devised, conceived by Sassanian Emperor Ardeshir-e-Papekan and implemented, established by his eminent son, Shapur the great at the Farhangestan/ medical university of Gundishapur. Shahbanu Azadokht, his queen was greatly involved in it's functioning. Here physicians in training worked as apprentices to a group of senior doctors. In the 6th century, Gundishapur university developed, progressed under patronage of Khosrow Anushirwan to attain the highest standard in the world. It welcomed scientific minds from Rome, India and China, granting refuge specifically to those persecuted in the Byzantine lands by Justinian.
The motif, theme, emblem of the moon and star, which has such widespread popularity, acclaim, adulation, adoration was first seen in the crowns of the Sassanian kings.
What is the relevance, pertinence, significance of all these facts?
In a world, bursting with intolerance, hatred and fanaticism, where large nations are fragmenting into smaller nonviable, feeble, untenable units, there is a message of the Great kings of our past. If a ruler is perceived to be benevolent, liberal, tolerant, just, fair and above all humane, it is possible for 40 million subjects of 24 nations to live together peacefully and prosper. This is the only way, our desecrated, damaged, mutilated, vandalized, defiled world can survive.
Kings, Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes rise above narrow confines of nationality, faith, ethnicity and belong to the whole of humanity.
