Iranian artists plan World Peace Carpet

Iranian artists plan World Peace Carpet
Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:10:16 GMT

Cyrus Cylinder is kept in British museum in London

Iranian artists plan to weave the World Peace Carpet, director for the Cultural and Historical Complex of Sa'ad Abad Eshrat Shayeq says.

The design of the handmade carpet is taken after the Cyrus the Great's Cylinder, said Shayeq, who is also a member of the Iranian parliament (Majlis).

Bearing a declaration issued by the Persian king Cyrus II in Babylonian cuneiform, the Cyrus Cylinder is described as the world's first charter of human rights.The cylinder was unearthed in 1879, in Esagila (the Murdak temple of Babylon).

Shayeq said the Cyrus Human Rights Charter and will be woven in several languages and the carpet will bear the names of all the weavers.

The inscription which is an indication of the primitive king's broad-mindedness reads: From [Babylon] to Assur and (from) Susa, Agade, Esnunna, Zamban, Me-Turnu, Der, as far as the region of Gutium, the sacred centers on the other side of the Tigris, whose sanctuaries had been abandoned for a long time, I returned the images of the gods, who had resided there [i.e., in Babylon], to their places and I let them dwell in eternal abodes. I gathered all their inhabitants and returned to them their dwell.

In 1971, the charter was translated in all six UN official languages, with a replica of the Cylinder kept at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.