Changes

By the rise of the Achaemenid Empire in Iran, in the 6th century BC, we see a new form of rule emerging. On the one hand, empires now began to expand to much larger areas. In the case of the Achaemenids, their state reached from Egypt to Central Asia, and at times pushed into the northern shores of the Black Sea and southeast Europe to the Danube.<ref>For more information about the territories and regions controlled by the Achaemenid Empire, see: Waters, M. W. 2014. Ancient Persia: a concise history of the Achaemenid Empire, 550-330 BCE. New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.</ref> With such a vast distance between regions, the new ruling dynasties needed new strategies to facilitate the maintenance of large states and enable populations within the large empire to accept their overlords. This may have led to the rise of multiculturalism, as we now begin to see more official celebration celebrations of different cultures within the Achaemenid state.

For instance, in Mesopotamia, the Persian Achaemenid king depicted himself as Babylonian, while in Egypt we see depictions of the Achaemenid king as Pharaoh. The best example of this is from the reign of Darius I (522-486 BC; Figure 3). During the reign of Darius , several representations of him as an Egyptian Pharaoh are depicted, including the rebuilding of important temples in Egypt. Before the reign of Darius, the Achaemenid king Cyrus was considered to write perhaps the world's oldest human rights manifesto. <ref> For information about the Achaemenid kings and their tolerant policies, see: Curtis, John, Nigel Tallis, and Béatrice And́́́́ré-Salvini, eds. 2005. Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia. Berkeley: University of California Press, pg. 153.</ref>  What is made clear from these kings is that the Persian Achaemenid Empire recognized its multi-cultural aspects and embraced it with open arms as a strength. [[File:4496698964 ed80712436 b.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|Figure 3. Darius I depicted as Pharaoh in Egypt.]]

[[File:Dura Europos fresco worshipping gold calf.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|Figure 5. This synagogue painting shows a Biblical scene of the burning of the calf. While the story is well known, the art is influenced by Greco-Roman styles and mixes Near East elements.]]With this given history in the Near East, and unlike Europe, multicultural empires persisted long after the fall of Rome and, in fact, continued until the fall of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. However, the rise of nationalism in the 19th-20th centuries and the creation of modern nation -states began to create new realities and opportunities for individuals that have, to some extent, led to the rise of some of the current conflicts in the Near East. Cultural groups now experienced opportunities to express their own beliefs and power more clearly as they were given more opportunities to assert themselves.  In the 20th and 21st centurycenturies, the conflicts in the Near East perhaps reflect this great, long-term conflict that is about the identity of the various regions within the Near East. Regardless of this case, what this shows is that more recent history does not necessarily reflect a historical pattern, where current conflicts between ethnic groups are more likely reflecting new power realities that did not translate to past societies in the region. <ref>For information on how nationalism shaped the more modern Near East, see: Schumann, Christoph, ed. 2010. Nationalism and Liberal Thought in the Arab East: Ideology and Practice. SOAS/Routledge Studies on the Middle East 10. London ; New York: Routledge.</ref>