Israel issues stamp on Iranian history.

Israel has issued a postage stamp with a picture of the clay cylinder issued by King Cyrus the Great of Persia proclaiming human rights for all the peoples under his rule, including Jews.

Even more unusually, the stamp bears the inscription "Declaration of Cyrus" in Farsi. Israeli stamps normally only containing wording in Hebrew, Arabic and English.

In 586 BCE, Babylonia conquered Jerusalem, destroyed the Hebrew temple and scattered many of the city's Jews into exile, including in Babylon.

Fifty years later, Cyrus conquered Babylon and freed the Jews and others who had been pressed under the Babylonian heel. The Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem.

The Old Testament Book of Ezra reports: "The Lord roused the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his realm by word of mouth and in writing as follows: Thus said King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord God of Heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has charged me with building Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Anyone of you of all His people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem that is in Judah and build the House of the Lord God of Israel, the God that is in Jerusalem."

Many modern biblical researchers were skeptical about this story. Among other things, they reasoned it was improbable a Persian king would have declared that he was acting as a messenger of the God of Israel.

But archeological excavations conducted in the ancient city of Babylon in 1879, discovered the clay cylinder bearing a long inscription in Akkadian that supported the Biblical story.