Great King Research Articles

THE PERSIAN ROYAL TENT AND CEREMONIAL OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

From 330 b.c. Alexander transformed his court by adopting a number of court personnel and practices from the Achaemenids. This included the adoption by the king of a mixed Persian and Macedonian royal costume, proskynēsis, Persian spear-bearers and certain Persian officers, such as the chiliarch and the chief usher (εἰσαγγελεύς). But Alexander also used an imposing tent and an audience style modelled on that of the Great King. It is my intention here to investigate the Persian-style tent of Alexander and the two court offices called the chiliarch and chief usher, associated with the king's new audience-style.

Fox's "A message from the great king: Reading Malachi in light of ancient Persian Royal Messenger texts from the time of Xerxes" (Book Review)

Fox's "A message from the great king: Reading Malachi in light of ancient Persian Royal Messenger texts from the time of Xerxes" (Book Review)

The titles of King Artashes I according to the Aramaic inscriptions on boundary stones

The titles of Armenian kings of the Artaxiad (Artashesian) dynasty are known mainly owing to coin legends and rather scanty data of ancient historiographers. Artaxiads were usually represented by a short title of ‘king’ or ‘great king’. We see different variants of short titles in Greek: ‘king’, ‘great king’ and the title ‘king of kings’ on the coins of Tigran II (95-55 BC). The same titles were inherited by his son Artavazd II (55-34 BC). The only exception was the coin of Tigran III (20-8 BC) with the legend reading ‘Great king Tigran, Philhellenos and Philopatoros’. These epithets were adopted by him as a sign of his pro-Parthian orientation and anti-Roman stance.

History & Geography

History & Geography Christopher T. Begg, Isaac M. Alderman, William J. Urbrock, John W. Wright, Paul L. Redditt, Victor H. Matthews, Joseph E. Jensen, OSST J. Edward Owens, and David A. Leiter 233. Damien Agut-Laborère, "Beyond the Persian Tolerance Policy: Great Kings and Egyptian Gods during the Achaemenid Period," Religion in the Achaemenid Persian Empire, 319-28 [see #609]. A.-L.'s article examines how Persian rule in Egypt disrupted the balance of power there between the crown and the temples to the benefit of the former. The extant evidence indicates that Cambyses introduced long-lasting changes in local religious policy, which [End Page 55] were continued by Darius I, but then modified to some extent by Darius II. Overturning the status of Egyptian temples that prevailed when they first arrived in Egypt, the Persian kings privileged the priesthoods of the temples in Memphis to the detriment of those of Thebes. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 234. James Anderson, "Creating Dialectical Tensions: Religious Developments in Persian-Period Yehud Reflected in Biblical Texts," Religion in the Achaemenid Persian Empire, 9-23 [see #609]. A.'s article explores how the Hebrew Bible transmits two contradictory portraits of Yhwh: as the only, universal god and as one god among many. This tension has generally been explained as deriving from the composite nature of the biblical texts, which overlay more recent traditions atop older ones. However, in light of the growing consensus that a Persian-period context provides the formative era for the writing and editing of the Hebrew Bible, a more tenable explanation would understand the tension as the deliberate creation of a Yehudite dialectic on the part of the scribal elites in Yehud. This dialectic generated continuity as well as discontinuity with the past. In delineating this Yehudite dialectic, A. suggests that a Persian-period context presents the most likely setting for its emergence, in which context the dialectic ultimately sought to address an ideological debate by advancing Yhwh's takeover of the pantheon. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 235. [Dan 6:1; 11:1] Steven D. Anderson and Rodger C. Young, "The Remembrance of Daniel's Darius the Mede in Berossus and Harpocration," BS 173 (2016) 315-23. Modern commentators on the Book of Daniel commonly assert that there is no reference in ancient extrabiblical literature to Daniel's Darius the Mede (see Dan 6:1; 11:1), apart from writings such as Josephus which are themselves dependent on Daniel. However, the ancient writers Berossus and Valerius Harpocration are independent of Daniel and yet refer to a king named Darius who reigned before the king who is currently called Darius I. These references should prompt contemporary scholars to reconsider the assertion that Darius the Mede is unknown in extant ancient extrabiblical literature. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 236. Nathanael J. Andrade, "Assyrians, Syrians and the Greek language in the late Hellenistic and Roman Imperial Periods," JNES 73 (2014) 299-317. While Syrians and Assyrians are characterized geographically as situated either west or east of the Euphrates, the Syrians were seen by Greeks and Romans to be a subset of the Assyrians. Syrians themselves used the Greek language in maintaining a complex identity as Greeks, Romans, and Assyrians which allowed them to participate in Western culture as well as critique its arbitrary geographical distinctions.—I.M.A. 237. Shawn Zelig Aster, "Israelite Embassies to Assyria in the First Half of the Eighth Century," Bib 97 (2016) 175-98. A.'s article shows that the kingdom of Israel sent ambassadors on an annual basis to the Assyrian empire during much of the reign of Jeroboam II, and explores the implications of these contacts for the interpretation of Isaiah 1–39 and Hosea. These diplomatic contacts are based on points Frederick Mario Fales has raised regarding Nimrud Wine List 4 (ND 6212), whose importance for biblical studies has hitherto not been recognized. The recipients of the wine rations in this list are to be identified as ambassadors of vassal [End Page 56] kingdoms, among them Samaria, who visited Assyria to pay annual tribute...

The Love of God: Divine Gift, Human Gratitude, and Mutual Faithfulness in Judaism by Jon D. Levenson

Reviewed by: The Love of God: Divine Gift, Human Gratitude, and Mutual Faithfulness in Judaism by Jon D. Levenson J. L. Manzo jon d. levenson, The Love of God: Divine Gift, Human Gratitude, and Mutual Faithfulness in Judaism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015). Pp. xxii + 235. $29.95. This clearly conceived and well-written monograph by Jon Levenson makes an important contribution to understanding the idea of the love of God in Jewish tradition from biblical times to the present. The book is aimed at a lay audience as well as biblical scholars. Following the introduction, the book is divided into five chapters. In chap. 1, “A Covenantal Love,” L. traces the concept of the love of God conceived in the Deuteronomistic theology to the ancient Near Eastern treaties in which a vassal king pledged his love, that is, his exclusive loyalty, to a great king, who in turn promised to protect the vassal. Among the texts cited by L. are the Hittite emperor covenant text to his vassal from the fourteenth century b.c.e.: “Do not turn your eyes to anyone else! Your fathers presented tribute to [End Page 118] Egypt; you [shall not do that]!” and a text from Assurbanipal, king of Assyria, who required his vassal in the seventh century b.c.e. to swear, “we will love the king of Assyria, our Lord” (p. 9). L. notes that in these texts, which have a striking resemblance to the love of God in Deuteronomy, love is described as acts of obedient service. Levenson’s comparative analysis, which becomes the standard by which he interprets the concept of love in subsequent chapters, suggests that the love of God is not primarily a sentiment: “where love is understood primarily as a sentiment,” says L., it is “eviscerated”; “its days become numbered”; love becomes a “treacly thing that appeals only to the emotionally weak” (p. 91). Covenantal love is not based on an emotion because it cannot be elicited or demanded. When Israel, therefore, is commanded to “love the Lord,” Israel is reminded of its obligation to respond to God in loyalty, service, obedience, gratitude, and sacrifice. L.’s argument that the love of God is unsentimental is particularly effective in illuminating that the love of God and the fear of God work in tandem in the Hebrew Bible. In chap. 2, L. takes up the Deuteronomic exhortation, “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might” (6:5). After presenting the interpretation of the principal nouns, “heart,” “soul,” and “might,” in the Hebrew Bible, L. turns to the rabbinic reinterpretation of these terms. The rabbis interpreted the “heart” to mean that one is to love God “with both your Inclinations, the Inclination to do good and the Inclination to evil” (p. 68). How is the evil inclination used to love God? One loves God by self-mastery of the evil tendency, which may be directed toward positive ends. According to L., the phrase “with all your soul” is a reference to martyrdom, while “with all your might” refers to serving God in times of prosperity or adversity. L. shows that the rabbis understood the love of God not as a sentiment but as sacrifice and self-giving. Since there is an emotional component to “love,” in chap. 3 L. analyzes selected passages in Hosea, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah that eroticize God’s love for Israel. L. focuses primarily on the metaphor in Hosea 1–2 of Israel as God’s wife and God as Israel’s husband to describe a love relationship that has been severed because Israel has played the harlot by going after other deities. Despite Israel’s infidelity, the prophets also envision a future time when, after Israel has learned her lesson, God will remarry her. The erotic descriptions used by the prophets inspired the rabbis to interpret the Song of Songs as God’s marriage proposal to Israel on Sinai, where the marriage was consummated in the tabernacle. In chap. 4, the conversation on the love of God shifts to medieval Jewish ideas that explain it in mystical or philosophical terms. L. points out...

Herodotus' Persian Stories: Narrative Shape and Historical Interpretation

Herodotus' Persian stories have a distinctive shape, well-rounded, often centring on the king and his court, with women prominent. This shaping has interpretative value, and so does the 'biographical' character of the Persian books: the stories are like that because the world is like that. Greek history is messier and less linear. How far does this explain Persian imperialism? Perhaps by explaining the difficulty of persuading the king to exercise restraint, given the problems of talking straight at court. Ultimately this may be more about power than about Persia, with the might of the Great King offering the clarity of extremes. The Athenian empire was now presenting an opposite extreme of democratic freedom, and the jury was out on how that would end.

Antíoco I, grande como Ciro e Dario, ou a realeza babilônica revisitada: uma abordagem intercultural de três textos régios antigos

Este artigo propõe identificar elementos comuns no cilindro de Ciro, na inscrição de Behistun e no cilindro do templo de Ezida, em Borsipa, ou cilindro de Antíoco, como forma de compreender as apropriações Aquemênidas e Selêucidas da tradição monárquica babilônica. Tais apropriações indicariam, em termos históricos, as principais estratégias de legitimação de Dario (o primeiro Grande Rei a aderir ao Zoroastrismo) e Antíoco I, cujo poder repousava tanto na descendência de Seleuco quanto na participação ativa do rei em costumes políticos e religiosos babilônicos.

Sir William Keith of Delny: courtier, ambassador and agent of noble power

Sir William Keith of Delny was the illegitimate son of a Buchan laird, who rose through the young King James VI's chamber to become Master of the Wardrobe. He also served as ambassador for James to various countries, most remarkably in the failed mission to save Mary Queen of Scots from English execution. This article explores the nature of James's reliance on lesser men as courtiers, in his trust in individuals to deliver his sentiments and how his favour could be won, lost and regained. It also explores the same dynamics in the relationship between William and his kinsman superior, George Keith, fourth earl Marischal. William is shown to be one of Jacobean Scotland's great intermediaries, between earl and king, king and courtiers, king and foreign governments.

The Literary Achievements of the King Ashurbanipal (626 – 668 B.C)

King Ashurbanipal, 668-626 BC was the last great King in the Assyrian Empire. His empire was extended to include Palestine, Phoenician kingdoms, Syria, Mesopotamia, Oaratu, Elam and Egypt. In his reign, the Assyrian empire had enjoyed the wealth, well-being and power. It was celebrated during his victories by establishing major buildings in the cities of Mesopotamia, especially the city of Nineveh. The remains of his palace were discovered in Tel Qongiq (Currently, it is called Mosul). This palace in its planning and its works represents the peak of the Assyrian genius in sculpture and architecture.The aim of the present study is to shed light on the great artistic heritage of a civilization which is one of the oldest and ancient human civilizations through the study and investigating its great artistic connotations. The study also aims to raise this issue to supply researchers and educators with some general information about the civilized critical period in the ancient history of Iraq with respect to the technical side when presenting Ashurbanipal’s Arts and sculptures of a high-quality workmanship. A researcher depends on his study on the historical, analytical and descriptive method. They are considered as the finest curriculum that describes and analyzes the historical and artistic phenomenon. The Ashurbanipal's arts were characterized by a wonderful artistic achievement and the uniqueness of the Assyrian sculptor' deeds which were not matched by the works of the other models in the field of visible incarnations, large winged bulls and high statues. As the war was a source of the Assyrian kings’ favorite pride, it attracted the sculptor’s attention through the orders of Ashurbanipal to photograph the war in different aspects and with more details. The small lively views add to the tragedy of war to give an especial human touch. The most important thing in the Ashurbanipal's arts that draws attention and admiration are the scenes of the wounded animals. The Assyrian artists presented realistically and objectively the deadly pain that the animals going through or suffering from as in the scenes of the famous hunt which show aesthetic property that the artist realized through his human feelings towards these creatures. What distinguishes these scenes is that they attract whoever sees them through their splendid beauty. These scenes make up the natural conclusion to the art of collage which represents the concept of ownership in Mesopotamia, which reached its apogee and its regeneration under the Ashurbanipal's auspices. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n4p380

Old Testament Figures as Possible Current “Mentors”: Exploratory Pastoral-Theological Reflections

ABSTRACTThis article explored the possible role of a “mentor” and is based on theoretical pointers from the Old Testament figures. Throughout the article mentoring was explored according to the approach of (T. Van der Walt:2007, 309). The background and narratives of Old Testament figures such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, David and Solomon were investigated. They were chosen for their leadership and guidance. Abraham and Jacob were the patriarchs of the Bible. Moses was and is still recognized as the greatest leader in history. Elijah and David were great and mighty prophets and kings. These narratives linked with the theory about mentoring and the significance thereof in today’s society of a father as mentor in a home.

Shane Strate. The Lost Territories: Thailand’s History of National Humiliation

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.)The Lost Territories: Thailand's History of HumiliationShane StrateHonolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2015, xii+253p.The notion of the winners being the ones who write history does not always ring true in the case of Thailand. In Thai historiography, loss and humiliation have also found their way into service as a predominant ideological foundation backing up various state strategies, from the preservation of certain political regimes, the creation of faces of the enemy, to the need to construct the nation's identity. The Lost Territories: Thailand's History of Humiliation by Shane Strate discusses the pertinent topic of how national humiliation has been politically exploited, and thus became politically useful, in supporting ethnic chauvinism and military expansion, and in the modern day, ironically, the glorification of Thai monarchs, even when it distastefully reveals the vulnerabilities of the Thai state.In August 2015, the military government of General Prayuth Chan-ocha completed its mission to resurrect the glorious days of Siam's past kings. The (Rajapakdi means loyalty to the monarchy) houses giant statues of seven Siamese kings from all four dynasties- Sukhothai, Ayutthaya, Thonburi, and Rattanakosin. This is a project eerily similar to that seen in the Myanmar capital of Naypyidaw, which showcases the three great kings of Burma-Anawratha, Bayinnaung, and Alaungpaya-supposedly serving to legitimize the then military government of General Than Shwe. Undoubtedly, the Rajapakdi Park is designed primarily for a similar purpose: injecting a sense of royal loyalty at the time when Thailand is once again in the custody of a military regime.Refreshing the magnificent past of Siamese kings is not merely about celebrating Siam, or Thailand, as a great nation with uninterrupted independence. As emphasized in Strate's book, National Humiliation has re-emerged alongside the well-known Royal-Nationalist as a dogmatic tool to sponsor a form of anti-Western imperialism. Whereas the Royal- Nationalist ideology stresses the widely known argument of Thailand being the only nation in Southeast Asia not to be colonized by Western powers, the Humiliation discourse unveils the dark side of Thai relations with the West, through unfair treaties, extraterritoriality, trade imbalances, and territorial loss. The West was assigned as the harboring ill intention to disparage the Siamese national pride. But as history tells it, Siam, either under the absolute monarchy or military rule, has continued to overcome obstacles and threats posed by the evil other. Strate calls it a tragic heroism characterized by suffering and foreign oppression (p. 43).Strate elaborates precisely on how the Humiliation discourse has been discursively used to achieve specific agendas of the Siamese state. There were benefits in depicting Siam as a vulnerable state surrounded by big and small enemies in the region. The book focuses mainly on two periods: Siam under the absolute monarchy during the peak of colonialism and Thailand under the military regime at the turn of the Second World War, including its aftermath. Through these different periods, Siam, while selectively adopting some Western elements, such as its modernity and concept of sovereignty, openly detested its imperialist bullying that paved the way for Siamese heroes to emerge. In other words, national tragedies gave birth to national heroes. But these same national tragedies also allowed such heroes to hold on tightly to their rule, perhaps no less brutal than the bullying West.Whichever themes one choose to examine-Royal-Nationalist or Humiliation discourses- they are used to primarily defend the political interests of the Thai elites. For example, following the Thai invasion of French Indochina in 1941, as Strate explains, the Thai aggression was not the result of Japanese prodding, but it was born out of the military regime's (of Phibul Songkhram) search for political legitimacy (p. …

A Comparative Study between Gurukul System and Western System of Education

<p>India, in ancient times has witnessed students which used to be like the great king Vikramaditya. He followed the teachings of his Guru, the creator of arthshastra in India The Great Chanakya,that was the power of gurukul system which transform a kid from rags to riches.</p><p>The guru used to be the person in command, whose orders were could not be delayed nor refused. He used to keep his shishya at their home like their child not like their pupils, there was a 24 hour guru-shishya relation in which the guru used to inculcate the values in his pupil through various instances and different jobs which he assigned to his pupils. The shishya used to be in continuous touch in all the walks of life with their gurus, we know about the guru shishya relation reaching to the pinnacle with the instance of Eklavya who struck his thumb on the very indication of Dronacharya who didn’t even accepted him as his shishya.</p><p><br />But as the time has passed in hundreds of decades,the relationship beweenn The Guru and shishya has been suffered a lot. The advent of British Rule in India has brought western method of teachings which has deteriorated the relation between guru and shishya and had changed it drastically now , guru see his pupils as customers and pupils look their gurus as service providers.</p>

The Achievements of Petar Krešimir IV and Its Historical Implications: Focused on Religion Policy and Territorial Expansion

크로아티아 역사상 크레쉬미르 4세는 최대 전성기를 이룬 왕으로, 오늘날까지도 크로아티아인들에게 ‘왕 중의 왕’으로 불리고 있다. 본 연구에서는 그의 여러 업적들 중 로마 교회 확립에 따른 크로아티아인들의 가톨릭 민족 정체성 수립과 아드리아 연안도시들로의 영토 확장이 지니는 역사적 의미를 살펴보고, 그 결과에 대한 역사적 해석을 새롭게 시도해보는 데 있다. 이를 위해 본 논문의 제 2장에서는 동·서 로마제국의 분기점이자 동·서 교회의 교차 점, 그리고 1054년 교회 대분열 당시 분열의 십자로에 자리했던 크로아티아 중세 왕국의 전략적 고민에 대해 설명하고자 한다. 또한 당시 크레쉬미르 4세가 선택한 로마 교회로의 종교 정책 확립과 이것이 불러 온 역사적 의미를 분석 한다. 제 3장에서는 로마 교회로의 종교 정책 확립과 영토 확대에 따라 야기된 중세 크로아티아와 비잔틴 제국과의 관계 악화 과정을 살펴보고, 그 의미에 대해 소개하고자 한다. 제 4장에서는 크레쉬미르 4세의 영토 확장이 지니는 의미에 대해 설명하고, 이러한 업적이 훗날 20세기 이 지역 역사 논쟁에 어떤 의미를 지니게 되는 지를 재해석하고자 한다. 제 5장에서는 크레쉬미르 4세의 업적들이 지니는 역사적 의미는 어떠했는지 그리고 훗날 그 역사적 투영에 대해 소개하고자 한다.Peter Krešimir IV(Petar Krešimir IV), called the ‘Great King’ or ‘King of King’ until now, was the great ruler of the Medieval Kingdom of Croatia. During his region, the Croatian territory reached its peak in history. In this study, I will analyze what are the historical significances of his achievements focused on the establishment of Catholic national identity in accordance with the Roman Church and territorial extension to the Adriatic coastal town. And I will try to analyze a historical reinterpretation of its results. The structure of this paper is as follows: In the chapter II, I will introduce a strategic concerns of the medieval Kingdom of Croatia under the situation which was located at a junction of East-West Rome, the intersection of East-West Church and the crossroad of Church Schism. And also I will analyze the process of establishment of religion policy of the king Peter Krešimir IV based on the Roman Catholic, and its history. In the chapter III, I will analyze what were the historical meanings of religion policy and territorial enlargement of the king Peter Krešimir IV focused with complicated relations of medieval kingdom of Croatia and Byzantine empire. In the chapter IV, I will discuss about the historical significances and 20C' disputes having territorial expansion of the king Peter Krešimir IV. And finally in the chapter V, I will summarize what were the historical significances and its reinterpretations on achievements of the king Peter Krešimir IV.

The Relationship Between Buddhism and Indigenous Beliefs and People as Reflected in the Names of Lokapālas in Early Buddhist Literature

The purpose of this article is to analyze aspects of the relationship between Buddhism, indigenous beliefs and people through the names of lokapālas in early Buddhist literature, and especially the names of the three great kings, Dhataraṭṭha, Virūḷha (or Virūḷhaka), and Virūpakkha. The study revealed that the name of the three great kings, Dhataraṭṭha, Virūḷha (or Virūḷhaka), and Virūpakkha, may reflect traces of earlier or contemporaneous indigenous beliefs and people who had cultural encounters with Buddhism. The indigenous beliefs consist of the nāga cult, belief in spirits, early practice of urn-burials and belief in the soul or spirit of the dead rising from the grave, primitive beliefs of Aryan people and, nāga as a tribe. Buddhism shows an attempt to incorporate these beliefs and people into the Buddhist cosmology by elevating some local gods, indigenous beliefs and tribal people to divine status, such as lokapālas, who become chieftains of the gandhabbas, the nāgas, and the kumbhaṇḍas, in order to show acceptance of earlier or contemporaneous indigenous beliefs and tribes. These findings may help to improve understanding more of the sociology of early Buddhism.

Materiality of Memory in Shakespeare’s Second Tetralogy

This paper examines allusions to tombs made by Richard II and Henry V in Shakespeare’s second tetralogy, focusing on references to royal monuments in Westminster Abbey. Richard II’s solipsistic meditations on burial and commemoration reveal his narcissism and inability to envision the country continuing without his divinely appointed guidance. In contrast, Henry V’s nuanced invocations of imagined and real world monuments display a sophisticated understanding of the historiographic power of tombs. Throughout these plays, Shakespeare’s Henry V subtly invokes images of the commemorative art within Westminster Abbey in order to solidify his legacy as one of England’s great warrior kings.

“The Great King of the Türks”

This paper deals with the accounts of the “Great King of the Türks”, called Šâba, in the Iranian, Arabic and Transcaucasian sources, basing themselves on the Sâsânid “Book of Kings” (Ḫvadây Nâmag) and preserved in Iranian tradition. He is noted but unnamed in the Byzantine sources and appears, most probably, as Bağa Qağan/Chuluohou in the Chinese accounts. The Sâsânid hero Bahrâm Čôbîn defeated and killed him in a battle at Herat in 588. His name/title /honorific, like those of many of the early Türk rulers is not Turkic.

Kuruntas: A Recollection of the Relevant Data

Abstract As a son of the Hittite great king Muwatallis II Kuruntas had rights to the Hittite throne superior to those of the usurper Ḫattusilis III and his son and successor Tud ḫaliyas IV. Because of this, scholars are inclined to the view that he exercised his rightful claim to the throne by means of a “coupe d’etat”, which seems to be underlined by sealings and a rock-relief staging Kuruntas as a great king. In the following paper the evidence on this topic will be reviewed and the validity of more peaceful scenarios will be investigated.

Darius I and the Sabaeans: Ancient Partners in Red Sea Navigation

1 Unlike the modern Suez Canal, the ancient waterway discussed here did not link the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, but only provided access to the Red Sea from the Nile by connecting various lakes in the Eastern Delta: G. Posener, “Le Canal du Nil a la mer Rouge,” CdE 13 (1938): 259–73; C. A. Redmount, “The Wadi Tumilat and the ‘Canal of the Pharaohs’,” JNES 54 (1995): 127–35; C. Thiers, Ptolemee Philadelphe et les pretres d’Atoum de Tjekou: nouvelle edition commentee de la stele de Pithom (CGC 22183), Orientalia Monspeliensa 17 (Montpellier, 2007), 107–17; J. P. Cooper, “Egypt’s Nile-Red Sea Canals: Chronology, Location, Seasonality and Function,” in Connected Hinterlands: Proceedings of the Red Sea Project IV, held at the University of Southampton, September 2008, ed. L. Blue et al. BAR International Series 2052 (Oxford, 2009), 195–209 (this reference kindly provided by Henry P. Colburn); D. Agut-Labordere, “Creer la route: le canal des pharaons entre la Mer rouge et la Mediterranee de Nechao II a Darius Ier,” Egypte, Afrique & Orient 75 (Jan. 2015): 61–66. 2 For the canal stelae in general, see recently R. B. Gozzoli, The Writing of History in Ancient Egypt during the First Millennium BC (ca. 1070–180 BC): Trends and Perspectives, Golden House Publications, Egyptology 5 (London, 2009), 116–21, and G. Vittmann, “Agypten zur Zeit der Perserherrschaft,” in Herodot und das Persische Weltreich. Akten des 3. Internationalen Kolloquiums zum Thema “Vorderasien im Spannungsfeld klassischer und altorientalischer Uberlieferungen,” ed. R. Rollinger, B. Truschnegg, and only a fraction of the hieroglyphic inscriptions survive, and much of the remaining fragments preserve banal expressions typical of the Egyptian Konigsnovelle genre:3 extended royal epithets of Darius, standard obsequies by courtiers, and highly formal discourse between the Great King and his advisers. Valuable historical and geographical details specific to the Suez canal endeavor, meanwhile, have mostly disappeared in the lacunae. In the only critical edition of the available hieroglyphic texts, Georges Posener accomplished an exemplary job sorting out fragments, consulting earlier squeezes or archival copies, and suggesting conservative restorations wherever possible.4 Yet the bulk of his

National Heroization of the Great King Sejong &The Transformation of Commemoration CultureSince Democratization

National Heroization of the Great King Sejong &The Transformation of Commemoration CultureSince Democratization

Nonviolence Writ Large

Say “nonviolence” today and your hearers are likely to think of protest marches and sit-ins, but nonviolence, as Mahatma Gandhi said, “is not the inanity it has been taken for down the ages.” It is a law of nature and can be applied in any relationship or situation, including statecraft. Indeed, Gandhi argued that “it is blasphemy to say that nonviolence can only be practiced by individuals and never by nations which are composed of individuals.”In North America, an early experiment in nonviolent statecraft began in March 1681, when King Charles II granted William Penn governorship of the vast territory in North America that today bears his name. Penn was a close friend of George Fox, founder of the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers), and the Quaker regime he created remained an island of peace even as traumatic battles between Native Americans and European settlers swept over surrounding territories. Penn’s “Holy Experiment” only came to an end about seventy years later — not, please note, because the nonviolent colony could not defend itself but because later generations lost faith in its nonviolent principles. Those principles, along with some ideas borrowed from the Iroquois Confederacy, created a foundation of governance that we would envy today: freedom from racism and intolerance (Penn had himself been imprisoned in London for his Quaker beliefs), restorative justice (Penn reduced the 212 capital crimes under British law to two and made all prisons “work houses” for rehabilitation), democracy (even though the king had granted him absolute power over the colony), and peace. The “Great Law” that Penn established in 1682 did away with war and standing armies. What a contrast to the “statecraft” (or corporate craft?) working its violence today in Ladakh, as Helena Norberg-Hodge poignantly describes on page 34 of this issue of Tikkun.Though Penn was not aware of it, his was not the world’s first experiment in nonviolent statecraft (nor was it the last, as Matt Meyer skillfully shows in his essay on page 31). Around 260 bce, a great king of Northern India, Ashoka Maurya, succeeded in conquering a neighboring kingdom in a huge battle, but was so overwhelmed when he saw the devastation he had caused that he renounced war on the spot. Adopting Buddhism, which seemed at the time a more practical basis for compassionate rule, he actually expanded his reign to almost the whole subcontinent and his peaceful empire lasted until his death in 232 bce. Like Penn’s Holy Experiment, the Ashokan rejection of war did not occur in a vacuum but was built on aspects of nonviolence in the supporting culture, including nonviolence toward animals in Ashoka’s case, and religious tolerance. A famous edict of his states “He who cannot respect another’s religion has no respect for his own.”I happened to be in Japan when the first noises were made about abolishing Article Nine of the Japanese Constitution, which encodes Japan’s famous renunciation of militarism, and Japanese friends asked me how to prevent this loss. I argued that you can’t just renounce war, you need to adopt an alternative such as civilian-based defense (where citizens are trained to disobey coup attempts or foreign interventions) and/or unarmed civilian peacekeeping — the work being done across borders in dangerous areas by Nonviolent Peaceforce, Peace Brigades International, and about fifteen other organizations. Nonviolent statecraft must also include the kind of measures adopted by Penn and Ashoka to shift the paradigm from a national security state to “common security” or “total security.”Stephen Zunes, in his highly informative essay on page 29, explains that the successes of nonviolence he lists have not come, “in most cases, from a moral or spiritual commitment to nonviolence, but simply because it works.” In other words, we have seen by and large what Gandhi called “the nonviolence of the weak,” and if we think that’s impressive, just imagine what it will look like when we see the nonviolence of the strong — of those who could use force but choose not to because they have an inner sense that we’re all connected. Imagine.