The Sayings of Cyrus the Great to be Published

The sayings of Cyrus the Great will be published by Arash Irani, under the title 'The King of Lights' or 'I am Cyrus the Great, the King of Joys', by Seyed Ali Salehi. Salehi, who published a collection titled 'Reinterpretation of the Avesta and the Holy Book' twenty years ago, mentioned in an interview with the Heritage News website about his new work: 'In early 2002, I gradually became interested in reading the inscriptions of the Achaemenids. This enthusiasm grew so much that it encouraged me to reinterpret them.' He notes that the main theme of these reinterpretations is based on human rights. 'Cyrus the Achaemenid was a messenger of freedom, justice, tolerance, and civilization for the common family of humanity. Even his wars were not for conquest and the extermination of other nations, but rather liberating wars.' Recently, Shirin Ebadi stated that the Peace Prize was given to the people of Iran too late. She is right; the first architect of peace, justice, and freedom was an Iranian man.' According to this report, the collection includes five pillars: love, tolerance, justice, peace, and freedom. When asked how faithful he was to the original texts in his reinterpretation, Salehi stated: 'I have captured the spirit of the words and the essence of the message and adorned it with contemporary language and atmosphere, just as I did with the Avesta and the Holy Book.' He further clarified that the words of Darius the Great do not have a place in this book, stating: 'Darius was a king, but Cyrus is a messenger. Darius was a person of oppression and bloodshed, but Cyrus the Great was a people-loving philosopher and soldier of freedom. In this book, all words are only spoken from the perspective of Cyrus the Achaemenid.'