What would Cyrus the Great make of it?
There’s something more than faintly ironic about the argument between a democratic state like Britain and an authoritarian nation like Iran over an artefact that some claim is the first proclamation of human rights in history. I refer to the British Museum object known as the Cyrus cylinder and you can read about the dispute in this article.
Now I was in Iran a few months ago and, while I was there, I saw the tomb of Cyrus the Great at Parsagadae and heard a local guide at Persepolis claim that his statement was the first charter of human rights. You can read my account of the trip here.
The holiday inspired me to write a short story which mentions the Cyrus cylinder. It is entitled “The Man From Iran” and you can read it here.