MID9

Seyyed Mosque/ Isfahan/ Iran

Cyrus the Great "King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire"

Following the Persian conquest of Babylon, Cyrus issued the Edict of Restoration, in which he authorized and encouraged the return of the Jewish people to what had been the Kingdom of Judah, officially ending the Babylonian captivity. He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and left a lasting legacy on Judaism due to his role in facilitating the return to Zion, a migratory event in which the Jews returned to the Land of Israel following Cyrus's establishment of Yehud Medinata and subsequently rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem, which had been destroyed by the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. According to Isaiah 45:1,[14] Cyrus was anointed by Yahweh for this task as a biblical messiah; he is the only non-Jewish figure to be revered in this capacity.

Queen Puabi’s headdress, Ancient Sumeria, Early Dynastic III (2550-2450 BCE)

Puabi (Akkadian: “Word of my father”), also called Shubad due to a misinterpretation by Sir Charles Leonard Woolley, was an important person in the Sumerian city of Ur, during the First Dynasty of Ur (c. 2600 BC). Commonly labeled as a “queen”, her status is somewhat in dispute. Several cylinder seals in her tomb identify her by the title “nin” or “eresh”, a Sumerian word which can denote a queen or a priestess. The fact that Puabi, herself a Semitic Akkadian, was an important figure among Sumerians, indicates a high degree of cultural exchange and influence between the ancient Sumerians and their Semitic neighbors.

1. Queen Puabi’s Headdress, Diadem, Beaded Cape, and Jewelry

2. The headdress includes a comb, hair rings, wreaths, hair ribbons, and earrings

4. Frontlet with beads and pendant gold rings, 2 wreaths with poplar leaves, wreath with willow leaves and inlaid rosettes, and a string of lapis lazuli beads

Christ on the Mount of Olives, 1819, Francisco Goya

Medium: oil,panel

François-Marius Granet (1775-1849)

A monk in the doorway of a monastery corridor

from A Compendium Of Demonology and Magic (c. 1775)