Thursday, March 16, 2006

First peace treaty document

According to this article ( hattip Damascene), "the document of the first peace treaty in the history of mankind has been found in Aleppo. It dates back to 2,400 years ago" .

The treaty was concluded between "the Hittite and Egyptian empires after the Battle of Kadesh c. 1280 BC. The battle took place in what is now modern day Syria, [...]recorded in two versions, one in Egyptian hieroglyphs and the other in Akkadian using Cuneiform script; fortunately, both versions survive. This dual language method is common to many subsequent treaties. What is rather different from other treaties is that the two copies were differently worded. Although the majority of the text is identical, the Hittite version claims that the Egyptians came to them asking for peace whereas the Egyptian version of the same text say it was the other way round [...].It contains many elements found in more modern treaties although it is perhaps more far-reaching than the simple declaration of the end of hostilities in later treaties. It also contains a mutual assistance pact in the event that one of the empires should be attacked by a third party, or in the event of internal strife. There are articles pertaining to the forced repatriation of refugees and provisos that they should not be harmed; this might be thought of as the first extradition treaty. There are also threats of retribution if the treaty is broken". (From Wikipedia)

and finally ...

"This treaty is considered of such importance in the field of international relations that a reproduction of it hangs in the United Nations headquarters". Wow Bravo !

I have a weak spot for history, and Syria being as a repository of historical gems is one of my favourite places. For more of my thoughts on Syria check this post here - just scroll down to the relevant topic.

2 comments:

LadyCroc said...

Syria a gem? You must be joking!

I have been to Syria many times, and each time it gets more boring. Damaskus looks like a city in former East Germany and everybody runs around in sports wear and copycat Abibas sneakers.

The most interesting things for me in Syria was the funny small tornados in the desert and the one time I actually made one of the border secret service officers shut up and get red in his face.

Otherwise Syria to me is the most boring country in the world. Next to Poland.

Remember the fuzz and party in the streets in Tripoli on September 1? I was in Syria on March 8 some years ago (Syrian national day) - everyone was gone, street was empty, shops closed. No party, no nothing.

I managed to buy a doll and some toys for my kids in some remote store in the desert; it cost me the equivalent of 2 USD - and it took my daughter about 2 minutes to rip of the head and the arms of the doll, squeeze the belly and the hair of the doll pulled of without her hardly touching it. Made in China from cheapest materials.

Only thing worth buying in Syria is the sugared fruits (fawakah mujaffafah). They are incredible good and I always buy around 6-7 kilo of the stuff.

History?
I visited the National Museum in Damaskus. There is one thing to see only, and that´s a shot-down Israeli plane standing in the garden. Both Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey has much more history to show off than Syria.

Syria is certainly not a gem for me, rather it´s like an old box in the attic covered in dust that contains things I should have thrown out long time ago in stead of keeping.

Anonymous said...

Safia it seems you have had a bad experience of Syria :) why go again if you did not like it first time ?

Ya 3azizti outward looks are the most deluding, you should always look into the heart. From the sound of things you have not found the heart of Syria. I'm not sure what you were expecting or searching for? I'm talking about history not Chinese dolls and Adiddas knockoff. I've been to Lebanon , Turkey and Jordan countless times, the packaging is good I must admit ..but with PR you can make even a broom look like a model mish hikki ?
Look at Libya...we have so many gems but who knows about them ? now we are trying to encourage tourism. We have Italian designer clothes but we also have cheap Chinese copies of everything ....that's not an argument against us is it ?