On ancient Israel, Jewish exiles in Babylon, & the Cyrus cylinder (supposedly world’s first human rights charter): Many texts when viewed outside their regional context seem remarkable within themselves. Cyrus cylinder has been marketed by Persians as world’s first human rights > 
> charter, but that just speaks to their ignorance of its contemporary Babylonian context. The Babylonian empire was devoted to the cult of Babylon & its high god Marduk. It had been the policy of Assyrians & Babylonians to deport the elites of any state that bothered to rebel >
> but settling them in areas of empire that needed development. Such population exchanges were an established part of Assyrian imperial policy, a means of breaking the old power structure (& was part of imperial policy of Romans, Mongols & even Timur). >
> Nabuchanedzar II (Akkadian: Nabû-kudurri-uṣur, meaning "O god Nabu, preserve/defend my firstborn son"), the greatest Babylonian emperor, devoted all his resources into building the city of Babylon, that had been completely devastated by Assyrians a century ago, into the new >
> wonder of the world, for which he expropriated high tributes from all over the empire. Israel (Israēl; 'El (God) persists/rules', though often interpreted as "struggle with God”) emerges in the historical records as a minor state (along with with Moab, Edom, Ammon & Aram) >
> in Levant by the middle of 9th century BCE, when the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III names "Ahab the Israelite" among his enemies at the battle of Qarqar (853). The Mesha Stele (c. 830), left by a king of Moab, celebrates his success in throwing off the oppression of the >
> “House of Omri" (Omri, according to Hebrew Bible, was the 6th king of Israel). It bears what is generally thought to be the earliest extra-biblical reference to the name of Jewish god YHWH. There is no historical record of any earlier Jewish state, nor of any major >
> kings/patriarchs/prophets named David (Hazrat Daud) or Solomon (Hazrat Suleiman). Israel was mainly a proxy & pawn of the two major empires of the time, Egypt, Assyria, & after the sudden collapse of Assyria, Babylon. In 722 BCE, the expanding Assyrian Empire managed to split >
> Israel into several smaller units & destroyed its capital, Samaria. Judah in the south then emerged as a new Jewish state during the reign of Hezekiah (kings of Judah claimed direct descent from David) centered around its capital Jerusalem. Hezekiah enacted sweeping religious >
> reforms, including a strict mandate for sole worship of YHWH & a prohibition on venerating other deities within the Temple of Jerusalem (the so-called Solomon Temple), triggering a monotheistic movement. In 601 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II unsuccessfully attempted to invade Egypt >
> & was repulsed with heavy losses. This failure led to numerous rebellions among the states of the Levant which owed allegiance to Babylon. The king of Judah, Jehoiakim (Hebrew: Yəhōyāqîm "he whom YHWH has set up") also stopped paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar II & took a >
> pro-Egyptian position. Nebuchadnezzar II soon dealt with these rebellions. According to the Babylonian Chronicles, after invading the land of Hatti (Syria/Palestine) in 599 BCE, he laid siege to Jerusalem, killing Jehoiakim, & imposed heavy tributes on his son, the new king >
> Zedekiah. Zedekiah, inspired by Jerusalem temple priests, revolted again, ceased to pay tribute & entered into an alliance with pharaoh Hophra. In 589 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II returned to Judah & again besieged Jerusalem ending the Davidic line of Jewish monarchy & installing >
> Gedaliah as his governor. But when Ishmael, a member of Davidic royalty, & other elites of Judah killed Gedaliah, along with his entire court, Nebuchadnezzar sent troops to raze Jerusalem & deport its elites, leaving Judah to Jewish peasants & laborers. Contemporary records >
> show that exiled Jews lived a stable life, the Davidic royals received generous stipends from the Babylonian court, in fact Torah was compiled by groups of Jewish priests during the Babylonian exile, & most of the Jewish reforms, infant circumcision, dietary restrictions, >
> weekly sabbaths, etc. were imposed there by Jews to separate Jews from Babylonians & other deportees. After Nebuchadnezzar II’s death there was a civil war & the oligarchs of Babylon installed an outsider, Nabonidus (Akkadian: Nabû-naʾid, "Nabu is praised"), as the new king &
> their proxy. But Nabonidus, after his ten year sabbatical into Levant & Arabia (during which he also visited Yathrib/Medina), tried to reform the Babylonian polity & expand its resources into developing temples & regions at the peripheries of the empire outside Babylonia. He >
> also privileged the moon god Sin (who had been popular in Arabia) over Marduk. This agitated the priests & elites of Babylon who invited Cyrus to take over. Cyrus was lucky to conquer Babylon, the greatest empire of the time, without any fight. The so
-called Cyrus cylinder >
-called Cyrus cylinder >
> (cylinders were old Babylonian propaganda tools) itself was written by Babylonian priests. Persians were tribal nomads & adopted the socio-political structure of Babylonians. There’s no contemporary record of Jews returning to Jerusalem during the lifetime of Cyrus nor was >
> the Jerusalem temple rebuilt. In fact, there were at least 2 rebellions against Persians in Babylon soon after its conquest by Cyrus. Many Jews though went back decades later during the rule of Darius. He needed support in Levant after the revolution of Gaumata, an usurper >
> king & Zoroastrian priest, who took over after the brutal rule of Cambyses & gave empire wide tax relief of 3 years. Gaumata had achieved enormous support & after his death there were many rebellions through out the Persian empire. The return of exiled Jews to Judah itself >
> meant diasaster for the peasants who had been left in Judah. It reimposed the hierarchy of elites, & at the first sign of rebellion, Darius sent a Persian governor to take over. He also expropriated high taxes to appease the Persian nobility. Most Jews still chose to reside >
> in Babylon, making it the center of Jewish renaissance, instead of returning to Jerusalem. >
> PS: Nabonidus’ family was itself part of the deportees from Harran & his mother Adad-guppi was a priestess of god Sin & worked at Nebuchadnezzar II’s court. She apparently lived till the age of 104 & somehow built her family into one of the most prominent ones in Babylon. She >
> is praised in many of Nabonidus' inscriptions as a great priestess. Archeologist D.S. Rice discovered a stele on the pavement steps of the the Umayyad Mosque at Harran (now in ruins) which turned out to be her autobiography (& means that the mosque was most probably once a >
> temple of moon god Sin). Here are the cylinders of Nebuchadnezzar II and Nabonidus, and Gaumata under Darius I's boot engraved at Behistun Inscription in Kermanshah. >
> The Cyrus cylinder was discovered by archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam in 1879.
> Excerpts from Rainer Albertz’ excellent Israel in Exile.
