Esther: Mystery Queen of the Medes

King Ahasuerus of the Median Empire is perplexed. He wishes to give his beautiful, unsophisticated bride Queen Esther, her heart’s desire. However, he is at a loss. What does she want? He will go to any lengths to please her. Why, he has already offered her half the kingdom. And yet she speaks of celebrations in the street and invites him to private banquets… This is a narrative of high intrigue set within one of the largest dynasties of its time. As a new queen, with a clearly besotted husband, Esther hopes desperately that she has the power to intercede with a royal death decree that was cunningly devised to manipulate the king. The stakes are high. No law of the Medes and Persians can be revoked. Esther must decide – will she try to use her influence to save a nation – her people? King Ahasuerus is not aware of her national heritage, for she is a Jewess. But it is unthinkable to approach the king without his royal summons. If Esther displeases the monarch in this, she could face instant death. She is urged on by her fellow countryman and royal advisor, Mordecai, who encourages her with the words, ‘And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” As she prepares to go to Ahasuerus, Esther gathers her faltering courage. “I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” The result of Esther’s story impacts the rise and fall of nations which still battle for supremacy today in the Middle East.

Queen Vashti - (excerpt)

by Linda Ruth Brooks publishing services (Notes)

on Saturday, March 30, 2013 at 11:41am

Queen Vashti stirred in her sleep, one arm flung across her face as she unconsciously tried to block out the bright rays of sunshine streaming through the window above. In her dream she was running away from a large white creature with coloured spots and two horns. It carried several young girls in its arms. As it approached a cave, the muffled screams of other girls echoed from its bowels. Suddenly a young man passed her. As though propelled by an unseen power, he chased and killed the creature. Then the young man rolled the stone away, freeing the girls from the cave and the clutches of the creature. Vashti linked arms with the young man and together they led the girls away from the cave.

     She awoke with a gasp. The sunlight now danced across the mosaic tile floor of her bed chamber. Tearing herself away from the dream and its meaning, she allowed her thoughts to slip towards reality. Maids in waiting bustled round in the room next door silently preparing her breakfast. Today she must entertain the princesses of the kingdom and provide for their entourages. But the memory of her dream lingered. Vashti made a mental note to consult the Magi priests for its interpretation on their next visit to the palace to advise the king.

     But her first priority was her devotions to Auramazdaha. She reached for the parchment above the shelf of her gilded bed and flipped open a page. ‘Always remember to practice good thoughts, good words and good deeds,’ read the words of the Prophet Zoroaster. Now she was ready for whatever the day might bring.

The last few months at court had been a blur of activity. For nearly one hundred and eighty days her husband King Astyages, Shahan Shah of the Medes had entertained the dignitaries of the provincial satrapies of the Median and Babylonian empires. The Kings, princes and their officials had been treated to tours of the palace complex with its administrative buildings, treasury, art collection, and of course, his expansive home and seat of government.

     Now their wives and consorts would soon be arriving for the queen’s banquet. Vashti was looking forward to entertaining the world’s leading ladies including her sister-in-law Queen Amytis from Babylon and Princess Aryenis of Lydia. Some of these women had become her friends over the years, although a few clearly disapproved of the Median queen’s controversial influence at court and her dedicated work for the common citizens of the empire. But others were inspired by her enlightened approach and came to the feast to bask in her reputation as a formidable woman, not to be easily challenged.

Query Letter Esther

Queen Esther and Purim of Jewish people

What a difference a hundred years can make!

A new novel, exposing startling historical bloopers reveals Queen Esther, initially a Jewish captive to King Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, wasn’t known by that name at all during her reign. In an extraordinary stroke of fate the Queen of Purim escaped the tyrannical megalomania of the Persian King Xerxes, when she was taken captive in 597 BCE, eighty-eight years before he was born.

Simple revelations sitting for years under historian’s noses indicate that prior to being involuntarily committed to his harem, the orphaned Hadassah married the volatile but easily manipulated King Ahasuerus (Astyages) Shahan Shah of the Medes, son of Median Empire builder King Cyaxares and already husband of Queen Vashti, whom he sacked unceremoniously when the personal between them became political. Queen Esther’s real name was Esteraka of the Medes.

Now before all you serious ancient history buffs hang your heads in shame, wring your hands in despair, or even cloak your protests in some protective bronze armour inscribed with myriads of historical documents, take a minute to consider some easily understood, readily available evidence to support these claims.

For centuries scholars of the Old Testament where the story of Esther originates failed to link it to events in the complimentary book of Daniel. Having unquestioningly accepted the ancient Persian and Jewish stories that removed Queen Vashti from historical records and replaced her with an Esther who would have been old enough to be King Xerxes’ greatgrandmother, they ignored Ahasuerus’ paternity of Darius the Mede, who was born in 601BCE, and the unmistakable implication that his first wife Vashti was Darius’ mother. With Ahasuerus’ (Astyages) reign commencing in 585 BCE, Vashti and Esther (Esteraka of the Medes) were undoubtedly his two wives of the book of Esther, set in the period 597-574 BCE.

Was this glaring chronological error deliberately fabricated for underdetermined reasons or was it just a succinct myth characterising a finely tuned romantic story involving a captive girl and a Middle Eastern Shah whose empire dominated the then known world? Alternatively could it have been an attempt to cover the machinations between the era’s empires and their enemies’ attempts to establish political strongholds in a then and still heavily contested region?

Hamma Mirwaisi and Alison Buckley began to unravel the answers to these questions in Vashti Queen of the Ancient Medes, the first of their historical novels in the Airyanem Civilisation series. The sequel, Esther Mystery Queen of the Medes peels way the layers of fanciful assumptions about the Purim hero to tell her story candidly, within its actual historical context, leaving discerning readers with more than a suspicion about its connections to present circumstances in the Middle East.

The sequel is expected to soon be complete at 80,000 words.

Blind as a Bat – from Ancient Aryan language

By Alison Buckley and Hamma Mirwaisi

Author’s of the Vashti Queen of the Ancient Medes-Book

Blind as a Bat - Ancient Aryan language throws light on origins of ‘Shem-bat’ observance

Judaism is regarded as the cradle civilization of the seventh day ‘Shabbat’ or Sabbath, but close examination of the language of the ancient Aryans reveals a devotion to the seven day weekly cycle not unlike the ancient Hebrews’.

The descendants of the ancient Aryan (Airyanem) civilization still live today in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. A proud, independent people they have spiritually and physically survived many crushing layers of oppression imposed by conquering regimes since the fall of the Median Empire around 520 BCE. Early references to the Medes identified them symbolically and literally in the biblical book of Daniel. ‘Huart’ was their self-definition of ‘bear’ which became ‘Kurd’, a name which today still describes a distinct ethnic nation of people scattered throughout the former territories of the Medes.

The Kurds have retained their ancient pristine language, including its links to the beliefs of their forbears. At least one Kurdish linguist has recently shown that the Aryan civilization originally centred on the Zagros Plateau of present day Iran, featured a distinctly ‘Shem-bat’ oriented lifestyle.

The number seven was regarded as holy in ancient Aryan times. The origins for the term ‘blind as a bat’ possibly came from the Kurdish term ‘bat’ caused by the light of ‘Shem’ or ‘Shema-kura’ meaning candles, which when combined resemble the Hebrew ‘Shabbat’. For the Kurds the brightness of the seven candles they traditionally burned on the seventh day blinded them to all powers other than God. The Hebrews’ seven branched candle stick immediately springs to mind.

To keep their focus on the holy ‘Shem-bat’ the ancient Aryans marked the days of the week by naming them according to the number of candles lit progressively for each day. For example yekshema was one candle for Sunday; dushema was two candles for Monday followed by sheshema, charshema, pinjshema and finally jinjshema for the coming together of everyone on Friday. This practice is reminiscent of the Jews gathering on Friday evening to mark the commencement of Shabbat.

Even more impressively the names of the days of the week guided the ancient Aryans’ though their spiritual walk with God. Starting with day one, ‘Dadvah Ahura Mazdā,’ meant ‘I will only ask God to help me,’ ‘Vohu Manah’ identified ‘my only God,’ Aša Vahišta focused on ‘the Lord of heaven,’ ‘Khšathra Vairya’ entreated ‘bring us Messiah,’ ‘Spenta Ārmaiti’ confirmed ‘He will enlighten us’, ‘Haurvatāt’ recognized ‘He who is leading us to your path,’ and finally ‘Ameretāt’ announced ‘He is the king coming from you.’

Similarly the culminating celebration of God’s holy presence amongst his people on the seventh day is well known to Jews and various denominations of Christians. Interestingly the place of the Messiah in the middle of the week is also found in the Christian New Testament book of Revelation and the account of the Hebrew prophet Daniel. Additionally these daily injunctions could easily be seen as precursors to the introductory Hebrew Ten Commandments.

In practical terms, today’s Kurds still revere the number by making seven twists in the front of their sash-like belts.

The ancient Aryans followed the prophet Zoroaster, and his teachings survive today in the practice of Zoroastrians. Pre-dating or co-existing with Judaism this ancient belief system pre-empted the more mystical elements of Hinduism and Buddhism and founded its own offshoots.

Related to the Kurdish Avesta the archaic language of the Gathas spawned the Indian Rigveda in about 1700 BCE, indicating Zoroaster’s existence around 1700-1500 BCE. This date means he might have known of Abraham and his encounters with God.

Living amongst the tribal-pastoral people of the Lake Matine area of ancient Kurdistan, now the Lake Urmia region currently shared by Iran, Iraq and Turkey, Zoroaster developed teachings that spread west through the land of the Airyanem Vaejah (Aryan people). Whether the patriarch Abraham in nearby Shinar knew of them is debatable but the Hebrew God’s later injunction on Mount Sinai to remember Shabbat implies it was previously observed by his descendants.

Not unlike the ancient Hebrew priests Zoroaster described himself in the Gathas as a ‘zaotor,’ able to compose a ‘manthra’ or inspired utterance of power. Training for the priesthood from the early age of seven he qualified at age fifteen and spent years in a wandering quest for truth.

The Gathas and later the Pahlavi works mentioned he was thirty when he first received divine inspiration. "He went down to a river to fetch water; there he encountered a radiant figure introducing himself as Vohu Manah ‘Good Purpose’. The light led him to ‘Ahura Mazda’ the Lord of Wisdom and five other radiant figures, before whom he did not see his own shadow upon the earth, and it was then that he received his revelation." Zoroaster applied his knowledge to understand the living soul as having nine parts, with each of three physical, subtle material and spiritual divisions comprising three elements.

Perhaps his origins in proximity to Noah’s legendary boat grounded on Mount Ararat also prompted Zoroaster to scientifically and spiritually consider the division of the sun’s white light into seven different colours by the rainbow.

History records the Medes’ seven-walled Sar Kalai palace of their ancient capital, Ecbatana (now Hamadan in Iran), with each wall trimmed in the visible colours of the planets. Although aware of the existence of only two of the races on the scientific colour or non-colour spectrum, they probably mixed with traders from the Eastern Orient and wondered if four more races existed in lands beyond the Great Sea.

Today’s Kurds still revere the number by making seven twists in the front of their sash-like belts.

More investigation is needed to support findings based on the ancient but still living Kurdish language. However, the Airyanem people’s reverence for the number seven is easily identifiable with other ancient and contemporary spiritual beliefs and practices. The ancient Aryan symbol for the number seven showing the five highest angels standing with God before Zoroaster is a memorial to this complex spiritually, socially and scientifically advanced civilization, whose knowledge and achievements could well have informed the ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Hebrew cultures.

Several attempts have been made to alter the seven day weekly cycle, the most famous ten day week introduced by the French during the 1790’s failed spectacularly. Even alterations to the Western calendar have not affected the work attributed by some to the Creator.

The assumption of the exclusive influence of these cultures on today’s Eastern and Western traditions is currently under challenge in a series of historical novels outlining the part played by the Aryan people in previous eras and the implications for their role in today’s problematical Middle East.

Commencing with the life of the Median Queen Vashti, the other Queen of the Jewish Purim festival story of Queen Esther, they move through Esther’s marriage to Vashti’s husband, Astyages (Ahasuerus) of the Medes and on to the reign of Astyages’ Persian grandson, the famous general Cyrus the Great.

Reply to Dr Wippich’s writing from Germany below about this statement

Thank you Dr. Wippich for your comments.

Please accept the by defining Aryan from the Sanskrit arya (noble) and civilisation as bringing a people under a regular system of laws and education, where societies achieve mixture of poetry and prose in our title. To clarify further we will resume an advanced stage of development and organization.

Replying to your comments we would maintain the following:

When you look at Kurdistan today you see women guerrillas fighting for the two and a half thousand year old rights that Queen Vashti was forced to yield and which their sisters under repressive regimes cannot access.  They are mostly ‘invisible’ amongst the fresh living springs of the mountains to which the Kurdish people have been driven for centuries by the river plains dwellers, whose occupied land they originally owned. Their weapons, although different from the bows, arrows and spears used by Vashti to hunt the bambis of the king’s grounds are just as finely tuned to meet their mark as their civilisation’s female founder.

If Queen Vashti, born into the only known ancient culture that gave women equality, refused her husband’s request then it stands to reason that she must have been asked to do something illegal, or personally defamatory or both. Her husband Ahasuerus (Astyages of the Medes, the forbears of the Kurds) made a decree against her and sent it out by post, indicating a high degree of legal organisation, literacy, transport and communications.

While those Kurdish women not dominated by externally imposed misogyny have the equal rights and status that most women in the West would envy, how can anyone dispute the enviable and viable indicators that these enlightened traditions came from a civilisation? We will henceforth explore the nobility of its qualities.

On the slightly less uplifting topic of stones, there are monuments throughout Kurdistan that add veracity to claims in our books. The tombs of King Cyaxares, Queen Esther and her Prime Minister, Mordecai are freely accessible to visitors and it’s easy to see that they have been copied by the Nabateans of Petra. The ruins of the Medes’ palace citadel described in detail by Herodotus (at least one Greek historian got it right) at Hamadan (formerly the Medes’ capital Ecbatana) are still under excavation. Saddam Hussein was the second ‘Babylonian’ to try to copy the original Hanging Gardens of the great Sar Kalai.

How many more bones are yet to be recovered from this site and that of Godin Tepe in western Iran (should be Aryan) is unknown. But the limited evidence of human remains at Gobekle Tepe in south-eastern Turkey is far surpassed by arrangements, not unlike the younger Stonehenge, of its accredited world’s first temple, consisting of some sixteen foot stones (yes Kurdistan has more) weighing six to ten tons (admittedly only two thirds of the biggest stones in the Great Pyramid, but the Aryan Medes did not take slaves).

These early engineers, mathematicians and astrologers preceded the Medes who helped the Babylonians conquer the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh by building earthen ramparts against the walls up which they sent the best of their mountain climbers. Then they raided King Ashiburnipal’s huge palace in their red chariots. The Median magi were the only ones with sufficiently accurate knowledge of the stars to pinpoint the arrival of the infant Jesus Christ in distant Judea.

It is a scientific tenet now established by those seeking to legitimise the evolutionary origins of humanity that ‘we are still searching for the missing link.’ We would like to adopt similar archaeological licence in relation to the existence of ancient Aryan bones, that are yet to tell us more of their lives.

But on the matter of DNA origins we can announce that the Jews’ and the Aryans’ are the same, posing even more questions about their centuries old enmity.

Although they have not yet been found empire building was in the bones of Vashti’s husband. His father, historically confirmed as King Cyaxares, established the empire by defeating the Scythian interlopers using the code words ‘Aha’ and ‘Shverosh’ (revolt now). This became the generic title for all Median (not Persian) kings as mis-claimed by some interpreters of the biblical book of Esther.

Evidence for the family placement and role of Vashti has become apparent in the last two centuries when theologians closely studied the prophecies and history in the biblical book of Daniel. It revealed that Astyages, most likely born around 620 BCE, the Ahasuerus husband of Vashti and Esther was also the father of Darius the Mede, (the only other Ahasuerus comes after Darius the Great just beyond 520 BCE) who was sixty two years old in 539 BCE. The most likely mother of Darius is Vashti, Ahasuerus’ first wife. It is plausible that Vashti suffered from her husband’s indulgence in a harem although Hadassah-Esther’s subjection to then non-traditional patriarchal power and subordination is more vividly portrayed.

Your mention of Vashti’s divorce which was anathema in her family and fidelity based culture (more qualities which past and present cultures either relinquished, lost or were deprived of by force or complicit brainwashing), reminds us of the divorce of her descendants from freedom. The faces of some of the contemporary Kurdish grandmothers may be calm, whether their grandchildren fighting in their armies to regain the land of Queen Vashti have survived or not, but their young people are more than disturbed about a future of domination by several foreign nations.

Why this intense sense of identity amongst the Kurds? Where does the indefatigable belief in Kurdistan come from? Even the casual observer could conclude that these sentiments and desires are deeply ingrained in these people whose dress, food, music, poetry, literature, ethnic crafts, jewellery, (what is left of these pre-marauded arts), horse handling skills, social customs and belief in themselves as a nation are mostly unique to these stateless people. Why would they bother to fight four different countries at once if they didn’t come from a definitive culture within the context of a civilisation founded on an ideology of monotheism similar to the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti (who coincidentally was a forbear of Vashti –they were originally of the same Mitanni tribe)?

Certainly Darius the Great, a descendant of King Astyages of Media was competently literate. Hamma Mirwaisi has read and translated the Behistun (Behishtan) cuneiform inscriptions written by King of Kings Darius the Great. This document was originally deciphered by the honorable Professor Roland G. Kent, 1953 See UC Berkeley documents.

The Achaemedian Empire King of Kings Darius the Great left extensive cuneiform inscriptions in the Aryan language (Kurdish people are using the same language today), he said this below:

In Darius, Behishtan (DB), Column 4, number 89 below:

He is saying I used Aryan language in my inscriptions’ writing.

88 m : taumâm : uba(r)tâm : paribarâ : thâtiy : Dârayavaush : xshâyathiya : vashnâ : Au

‘Protect well the family of these men, because they helped me against those separated from my path, praise upon him, Darius, he is king and law givers, by the favor of,’

89 ramazdâha : i(ya)m : dipîmaiy : ty(âm) : adam : akunavam : patisham : ariyâ : âha : utâ : pavast

‘Auramazdâ (God), this is the inscription which I made, among us, mankind, there are those who are not wise, our reward is written, in Aryan language, alert, as known, it is on clay tablets and on parchment it was composed,’

The written language in different formats, evidence of organised religion and laws is recorded in stone! For a more comprehensive translation of this magnificent document see Hamma’s site

http://behistuncuneiforminscriptions.blogspot.com/

We want to engage western scholars and readers to examine their own origins. As mentioned above the people from Middle East and Asia share common ancestors with western people but have been fighting one another for over 2500 years.

The western countries are dominated by Greek and Jewish scholars’ versions of history; both were enemies of one another but they have become enemies of the Aryan people for different reasons. Greeks came from Africa and became the enemies of the Medes and the Persians; they tried to change the history of the Aryan people for political reasons, especially after Alexander the Great conquered the land of the Airyanem people. As we have noted this land was rich in natural resources, noble, civilised people and a well organised society. Nothing has changed, including their domination by foreigners.

The Hebrew people came from Hurrian (Aryan settlers) tribes and became enemies of the other Aryan tribes, even to our time. They even changed their own identity unsuccessfully to African in order to distinguish themselves from the hated Aryan tribe of Matine, who conquered the Hurrian land.

Arab Africans and later Mongol Turks occupied the land of the Aryan people, the four groups above (Greek, Jews, Arabs and Turks) allied to despise the Aryan people.

In the same way ancient Roman, and the modern British, French, Russian and American Empires under the influence of Greek and Jewish teaching banded together against the Aryans of the Middle East under the influence of Islamic Arabs who constituted another force in the conflict.

The four groups above divided the Aryan people against one another for over 2500 years. That is why the Airyanem Civilization has been neglected and overlooked by western people.

We are writing a series of books to revive the Airyanem Civilization; please share your views so more people can understand the reasons for the ignorance of this civilization in relation to the better known and publicised civilizations found throughout the world.

Kurdistan has been oppressed for two and half thousand years. Unlike its older politically challenged and financially spent neighbours who have long worked to deprive it of its legitimacy on the world stage, Kurdistan is young, energetic, full of vigour and waiting to be born. When all its parts are finally knit together, it will emerge as predicted in the age old prophecy as the Returned Medes.'

Follow this story from its earliest times by reading the Airyanem Civilisation series by Alison Buckley and Hamma Mirwaisi.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHH

User Profile for Dr.Wippich

Dr.Wippich        

        

Registered:        Dec 14, 2012

Total Posts:       1

Location    NRW Germany

Occupation         medicine, history etc

Biography born 1945 - still living

Dr.Wippich Reply to my post at link below

https://kdp.amazon.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=409075&tstart=0

         

Posts: 1

Registered: 12/14/12

Re: What is the Airyanem civilization? compared to Egyptian Civilization

Posted: Dec 14, 2012 7:26 AM     in response to: Hamma Mirwaisi

fiction , fantasy , emancipator , romance

        

Hi, Hamma 

I assume, this was no question of Yours but a poetical statement? - it isn't possible to compare fresh living springs & "green grass of home" with stones, bones & translated ancient "news" from 4 to 6'000 years ago . Queen Vashti - the poor divorced-one of the Purim story located in about 2'400 years ago - has to "live-up" in that (kurdish?) book in modern view comparing her fate as that of "the woman hero who said NO"-(emance) - to say "no" was a main idea for "Achilles" in Homer's Ilias...)

nevertheless we have nothing more than the name of Vashti and this "No - I don't" (could have been shy and weak - the "feudalistic-potentates" were quick with consequences (until today) - and "happy new queen" Hadassa-Esther of this book still has to fear this husband, because he had the power to kill with or without reason (imagine: it were deadly dangerous to go to her husband and see him, for any question, only he had to call for her). We even don't really know who king "Ahashwerosh" should have been, there always could have been such husbands, kings or not. - ok, in the Purim-megillah is no description of a "civilisation" - you understand?

Each romances-author is free to undertake historical researches on that time in Persian regions - the poetry is totally free to imagine a living being - even a "Bambi" - and its life, in past or future times, and even fantasy-books may have an political side-effect - surely this one tries to have such, and why not?

in those ancient times I know of an "Kurdish"-problem with the peoples of the high mounts and the Assyrian king Sargon II, much earlier (they liked to say "no" - the "everlasting problem" between highlanders existing under very hard conditions are "free" as long as unvisible for the river-peoples, no time for writing poetical chronicles)

but this "Airyanem civilization" - there is no need to compare with any other culture, it is even worse to do this.

A good tale to make folks imageable "living-ups" may take some living people from such mountains from today - it may take a look at the possibilities of their modern "Vashtis" - what their grandmothers can tell about such situations even some decades back and while still in their homelands - look in their faces (not at a green grass nice flower) - there is a specific face of calm freedom - I saw it, and women had always their community in such worlds and other regions - the men had their own, too - with own rules to be free without saying "no".

And imagine: the "harem" for the women (Vashti came out, Hadassa-Esther went in) is an own system of power and sub-ordination - that of the ancient & modern oriental kings was huge, some hundreds of women and children mainly in their intern hierarchic order. TRADITION in capital letters... much much elder than any of our civilisations, sometimes more rude (I imagine the Chinese times of about 1900).

As for a book on this topic, the readers will decide. That's correct. - To write such tale is nevertheless a win-win-situation for the author.

greetinx

Edited by: Dr.Wippich on Dec 14, 2012 7:33 AM

Belly dancers of Middle East !!!

Our Specialty is on “Airyanem Civilization” not Egyptian Civilization!

Belly dancers of Middle East (Politicians) in the past and now are operating with the same mentalities’ without noticeable changes.

Query Letter

Could a striptease routine affect the rise and fall of ancient Middle Eastern empires? Long before belly dancing Queen Vashti, a good Zoroastrian girl, defied her husband, the Median Emperor Astyages during his drunken party in one last act. Vashti Queen of the Ancient Medes takes the vexed political issue of women’s attire, or its scarcity, back to the Middle East of the sixth century BCE. Women readers over fifteen who value their freedoms, including fashion choices, will be  inspired by Vashti’s struggle, represented in the fight of her descendants, the female guerrillas of today’s Kurdistan for a woman’s right to choose.

The political astuteness and benevolence of Queen Vashti's reign and life clearly distinguish her from her ancestor and spiritual trail blazer, Queen Nefertiti. In contrast to the violence and opportunistic relationships of Cleopatra, Vashti’s preservation of family and empire at great personal cost extracts a strong and determined female character from previous distortions, untruths and mistranslations of Greek and Jewish interpretations of the Medo-Persian era. Contemporary figures such as Hilary Clinton and the Queen of England provide closer comparisons.

After escaping Saddam Hussein’s hit list former Muslim educated refugee and member of the Kurdish Pershmerga army Hamma Mirwaisi translated for the US during the Iraq war, where he discovered rare documents in his native language on the history of his forbears, the Ancient Medes. His findings became The Return of the Medes, an analysis of Kurdish history. After contacting Hamma, high school English and History teacher Alison Buckley, a keen student of traditional portrayals of women in the biblical Old Testament, found Queen Vashti, (the other queen in the famed Purim account of Queen Esther), a true historical figure, wife and mother, indomitable champion of human rights and early founder of the seminal Aryan civilization.

Hamma and Alison already have several platform blogs informing readers of the political, historical and cultural issues involved in Queen Vashti’s life and dilemma. A separate blog describes the relevance of the issues she faced for readers today. Both authors are available for interviews and videos with the media or other public or private forums such as universities and churches to further establish their platform. The next title by these authors in the Aryan civilization series Esther, Mystery Queen of the Medes examines the role of a Jewish slave girl in the era’s imperial power games.

Query letter

By Alison Buckley (Author) and Hamma Mirwaisi (Author)

Could a striptease routine affect the rise and fall of ancient Middle Eastern empires? Long before belly dancing Queen Vashti’s attendance at her drunken husband’s party revealed all. A good Zoroastrian girl, she defied her husband, the Median Emperor Astyages in one last act. Years before, his father convinced her to marry the corrupt but alluring heir to the throne, and now she is paying the price. Vashti Queen of the Ancient Medes takes the vexed political issue of women’s attire or its scarcity back to the Middle East of the sixth century BCE. Women readers over fifteen who value their freedoms, including fashion choices, will be  inspired by Vashti’s struggle, represented by the fight of her descendants, the female guerrillas of today’s Kurdistan, for a woman’s right to choose.

Apart from spiritual similarities with her ancestor Queen Nefertiti, Queen Vashti’s political astuteness and benevolence distinguish her reign and her life. In contrast to the violence and opportunistic relationships of Cleopatra, Vashti’s preservation of family and empire at great personal cost extracts a strong and determined female character from previous distortions, untruths and mistranslations of Greek and Jewish interpretations of the Medo-Persian era. Comparable modern figures include Hilary Clinton and the Queen of England. The next title in the Aryan civilization series Esther, Mystery Queen of the Medes examines the role of a Jewish slave girl in the era’s imperial power games.

After escaping Saddam Hussein’s hit list former Muslim educated refugee and member of the Kurdish Pershmerga army Hamma Mirwaisi translated for the US during the Iraq war, where he discovered rare documents in his native language on the history of his forbears, the Ancient Medes. His findings became The Return of the Medes, an analysis of Kurdish history. A keen student of traditional portrayals of women in the biblical Old Testament, high school English and History teacher Alison Buckley suspected Queen Vashti, the other queen in the famed Purim account of Queen Esther also harboured a heroic story. Contact with Hamma verified Vashti as a true historical figure, wife and mother, an indomitable champion of human rights and a founder of the seminal Aryan civilization.

Hamma and Alison already have several platform blogs informing readers of the political, historical and cultural issues involved in Queen Vashti’s life and dilemma. A separate blog describes the relevance of the issues she faced for readers today. Both authors are available for interviews and videos with the media or other public or private forums such as universities and churches to further establish their platform.