3,257
edits
Changes
→Rise of Multiculturalism
==Rise of Multiculturalism==
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 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.
Additionally, it was during the Achaemenid period from the 6th through 4th centuries BC that the world multiculturalism seems to have been first used in any language. <ref> For information about the early use of the term multiculturalism, see: Daryaee, Touraj, Ali Mousavi, and Khodadad Rezakhani, eds. 2014. Excavating an Empire: Achaemenid Persia in Longue Durée. Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers, pg. 9.</ref> In other words, societies were now officially recognized that they contained many cultural groups and that was seen as an asset rather than something that was deemphasized in official propaganda. The glory of kings was now, in part, seen as having multiple people groups within the empire and the unity of many people in support of the king was something to be boastful about. An example of this, in fact, comes from Persepolis, where we see the architecture now incorporating styles from various areas of the empire (Figure 4). <ref> For information about the multiple cultural elements in architecture at Persepolis, see: Babaie, Sussan, and Talinn Grigor, eds. 2015. Persian Kingship and Architecture: Strategies of Power in Iran from the Achaemenids to the Pahlavis. International Library of Iranian Studies 52. London: Tauris.</ref> This is also the time we now begin to see the rise of large and multi-ethnic corporations and trade spanning distant regions, which suggests multiculturalism was found to have had not only ruling benefits, by keeping a large empire together, but facilitated trade and wealth. <ref> For a case study of how trade and multiculturalism benefited each other in the period of the Achaemenid Empire, see: Jigoulov, Vadim S. 2010. The Social History of Achaemenid Phoenicia: Being a Phoenician, Negotiating Empires. BibleWorld. London; Oakville, CT: Equinox Pub. Ltd.</ref>
In fact, it is the increase of wealth and trade that may have created the incentive for multicultural empires to become popular. Later empires, such as the Seleucids, Parthians, and Sassanian also largely adopted tolerant attitudes to their large, multi-ethnic states.<ref> For more information on these states and their histories in relation to multiple ethnic groups, see: Yāršātir, E., & Arberry, A. J. (Eds.). (2007). The Cambridge history of Iran. Vol. 3 (2): The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.</ref> Once again, trade played an important role in creating incentives for states to adopt and integrate foreign cultures, while allowing them to retain more clearly their own distinct identities. Not only in the ancient Near East but by the time the Roman Empire emerges in the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East, we see multiculturalism spreading to the Mediterranean basin. While the Romans did sometimes persecute faiths that they deemed threats, they also largely adopted a tolerant policy towards others cultures.<ref>For more information about Rome's relatively tolerant rule of foreign populations, see: Árnason, J. P., & Raaflaub, K. A. (Eds.). (2011). The Roman Empire in context: historical and comparative perspectives. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K. ; Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
</ref>
The rise of common languages during this time, first expressed in Aramaic, also likely explains how multiculturalism flourished. <ref> For information on how Aramaic plays an important social role, see: Folmer, M. L. 1995. The Aramaic Language in the Achaemenid Period: A Study in Linguistic Variation. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 68. Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters en Dép. Oosterse Studies.</ref> In effect, while cultural groups were free to worship as they pleased in most periods and conduct their own affairs, common language enabled the creation of an identity that groups could relate with to enable the state and, more significantly, the multicultural system to persist. Therefore, while ethnic groups retained their own sets of ideas and religions, they were also integrated into a larger society where a common language allowed them to communicate with others more easily.<ref>For more information about common languages in the Near East in the Classical Age, see: Noble, T. F. X. (2013). Western civilization: beyond boundaries (Cengage advantage edition, Seventh edition). Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pg. 149.</ref>
