User:Firooz

I (Firooz Fassihi M.D.)am a 60 year old Iranian Medical Doctor, I am not member of any Political Party, Organization, nor any other group and societies except Scientific ones related to my job; ISN, MESOT, IrSN. etc. I am interested in history, films and movies. I would be delighted to recieve any kind of feedback. Here I am going to content Views, Articles, Editorials, ...etc, Concerning The History of Glorious Persia and Persian Empire, Iran and Iranian Culture and Civilization. Also these pages will include the truth about todays Iran and Iranian daily life and what lies beneath. In this Blog I want to defend my Beloved Country against the false propaganda coming out of the TV boxes thru out the World and show the reality of this Great Nation

'Cyrus Cylinder'

Cyrus' cylinder (British Museum, London)	Introduction The Cyrus Cylinder, discovered in 1879 and now in the British Museum, is one of the most famous cuneiform texts, because it was once believed that it confirmed what the Bible says (Isaiah 44.23-45.8; Ezra 1.1-6, 6.1-5; 2 Chronicles 36.22-23): that in 539 BCE, the Persian conqueror Cyrus the Great had allowed the Jews to return from their Babylonian Exile. Although this information can in fact not be found in the text (only countries east of the Tigris are mentioned), the Cyrus Cylinder remains an interesting document, because it shows that the common elements of Babylonian royal propaganda were also used by the Persian conqueror: for example the restoration of the temples, good care for the gods, and a lengthy titulary (cf. the Nabonidus Cylinder from Sippar for a parallel). So, Cyrus presented himself to the conquered nation as a normal ruler. There is no evidence that Cyrus inaugurated a new policy of tolerance. The document is also interesting because it confirms information from the Nabonidus Chronicle: that, after the battle of Opis, the capture of Babylon itself was peaceful. Sources that indicate that Nabonidus, the last king of Babylonia, was impopular and believed to be mad, such as the Verse Account, are also corroborated by the Cyrus Cylinder. Modern propaganda The cylinder played an important role in the imperial propaganda of Shah Mohammad Reza Palavi, who in 1971 used it as symbol of the celebration of what he called the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian monarchy. A copy was given to the United Nations (text). The Shah tried to prove that the secular Iran with religious freedom that he wanted to promote had existed before, and in this context, the Cyrus Cylinder has been called the "world's human rights charter". This interpretation ignores the stereotypical nature of the document. However, the idea that the Cyrus Cylinder plays a role in the history of human rights, has turned out to be quite persistent, and because the text itself does not enable the interpretation, a fake translation has been made that can still be found on many places on the internet and was, for instance, quoted by Shirin Ebadi when she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. The fake translation can be recognized because the name of the supreme god, Marduk, is replaced by Ahuramazda, and because it contains lines like I announce that I will respect the traditions, customs and religions of the nations of my empire and never let any of my governors and subordinates look down on or insult them as long as I shall live. From now on, while Ahuramazda lets me rule, I will impose my monarchy on no nation. Each is free to accept it, and if any one of them rejects it, I shall never resolve on war to reign. I do not know the author of the falsification, but because the fake text is usually published after the text known as fragment-A, I suspect that it was made before fragment-B was discovered. I do not know what is more disturbing: that someone has made a falsification to prove the Shah's propaganda, or that no university has put online the correct text to contradict this unpleasant fraud. The transcript of the text offered on the next page has been adapted from the edition by Hanspeter Schaudig (below); the translation is based on Mordechai Cogan's, published in W.H. Hallo and K.L. Younger, The Context of Scripture. Vol. II: Monumental Inscriptions from the Biblical World (2003, Leiden and Boston), but has been adapted to Schaudig's edition with the help of Bert van der Spek. Description of the text Fragment A: The clay cylinder (BM 90920) is about 23 cm wide and 8 cm in diameter. It is inscribed on all sides and contains lines 1-35. Fragment B: There is a small fragment (8,6 cm wide, 5,6 cm high), containing lines 36-45, that can be joined to the main part. It used to be in the collection of the Yale University (NBC 2504) but is, together with main fragment, now in the British Museum. Editions •	H.C. Rawlinson, Th.G. Pinches, A Selection from the Miscellaneous Inscriptions of Assyria and Babylonia (1884, 1909 London), #35 •	P.-R. Berger, "Der Kyros-Zylinder mit dem Susatzfragment BIN II Nr.32 und die akkidischen Personennamen im Danielbuch" in: Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 65 (1975) 192-234 •	Hanspeter Schaudig, Die Inschriften Nabonids von Babylon und Kyros' des Großen (2001 Münster) Thanks to Michael Kozuh, Matthijs Risselada, Hanspeter Schaudig, Bert van der Spek, Mr. Stolper

By Phyllis McIntosh Washington File Special Correspondent Washington -- Iranian-Americans are more numerous in the United States than census data indicate and are among the most highly educated and prosperous people in the country, according to research by the MIT Studies Group, an independent academic organization, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M IT). The group estimates that the actual number of Iranian-Americans may top 691,000 -- more than twice the figure of 338,000 cited in the 2000 U.S. census. According to the latest census data available, more than one in four Iranian-Americans holds a master's or doctoral degree, the highest rate among any of the 67 largest ethnic groups studied from Europe, Former Soviet Union, Asia, Australia, South and Latin America. With their high level of educational attainment and a median family income 20 percent higher than the national US average, Iranian-Americans contribute substantially to the U.S. economy. Through surveys of Fortune 500 companies and other major corporations, the researchers identified more than 50 Iranian-Americans in senior leadership positions at companies with more than $200 million in asset value, including General Electric, AT&T, Verizon, Intel, Cisco, Motorola, Oracle, Nortel Networks, Lucent Technologies, and eBay. Fortune magazine ranks Iranian Born Pierre Omidyar, founder and chairman of the board of eBay, the wildly popular online auction company, as the second richest American entrepreneur under age 40 with an estimated wealth of over seven billion dollars. Iranian-Americans are also prominent in academia. According to a preliminary list compiled by ISG, there are more than 500 Iranian-American professors teaching and doing advanced research at top-ranked U.S. universities, including MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, the University of California system (Berkeley, UCLA, etc.), Stanford, the University of Southern California, Georgia Tech, University of Wisconsin, University of Michigan, University of Illinois, University of Maryland, California Institute of Technology, Boston University, George Washington University, and hundreds of other universities and colleges throughout the United States. Iranians have achieved a high level of success in the United States because unlike many immigrants, most left their homeland for social, political, or religious reasons, rather than in search of economic opportunity. The two large waves of immigrants who came to the United States because of the 1979 revolution in Iran consisted mainly of people with education and assets, he notes. "These were people who could make it to the U.S. and sustain themselves in the U.S. It was a pre-selection, not your typical immigration where people come mainly for financial reasons," he said. In another recently issued report, the Iranian Studies Group has undertaken the mission of convincing Iranian-Americans to become more active participants in the American political process. According to surveys in some major cities, fewer than 10 percent voted in the last presidential election. The report cites the experiences of other ethnic groups, such as Israeli-Americans, Arab-Americans, and Cuban-Americans, to show how Iranians could use their collective voice to influence U.S. foreign policy regarding Iran and address the needs of the Iranian-American community.