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Friday 25 January 2013

Query Letter on Queen Vashti to an Agent and readers attention!!!

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

The Kurdish women guerrillas who fight to regain the land whose theft was initiated on that fateful day when Vashti refused to come before the king.


Co regent of the Median and Babylonian Empires, daughter of General Cicataxma, chosen by her father-in-law Shahan Shah Cyaxares, Vashti, Queen of the Medes walks the long corridor to the garden court of King Astyages’ (Ahasuerus’) palace. Waiting for her is her drunken husband, cavorting riotously with his concubines, foreign visitors and even the servants. Never would she expose herself in such a way as he had demanded. Trapped, the net set by her enemies is closing around her, the gaping mouth of its jade studded door opening before her.

How had their marriage come to this? Aeons ago Astyages had drawn her into the shelter of the fragrant pine trees of the hunting grounds during a late summer storm, where they had finally come together after tempestuous years of other loves and imperial demands. 

Now her other passion, the Median Empire, carefully entrusted to her is under threat. Does the king’s unexpected order signify a plot to also undermine the Babylonian Empire, which the Median monarchs now administer for his sister Queen Amytis following her husband King Nebuchadnezzar’s fall into insanity?

The magi had warned her of Asytages’ deterioration over the last six months of celebrations of his imperial grandeur. 
Ashtizai, her lifelong maid and blood sister, squeezes her hand.  Will this be the last time she crosses the threshold of the garden court?

Historical Background and Significance

In 582 BCE when she was illegally deposed by her husband, King Ahasuerus (Astyages) Queen Vashti of Media ruled an empire from India to western Turkey and from Georgia to the Sudan. A descendent of Queen Nefertiti, grand step-mother of Cyrus the Great and daughter of the Medes’ leading general, she was entrusted with the fostering of the seminal Aryan civilisation  by her father-in-law King Cyaxares, who brought the Median Empire from its tribal origins to a parallel and allied power to King Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon.

Denied her rightful as the first feminist place in history Vashti has previously been relegated to secondary importance behind Esther of Purim and biblical fame. Now knew research has thrown light on the pivotal significance of her downfall for Middle Eastern history, which heralded the two and a half thousand year subjection of her Aryan civilisation to Persia, Judea, Greece, Rome and later Arabia and Turks. Emerging from the distortions and deletions of their politically and culturally dominant discourses Vashti has no ancient rival and can only be compared to present day stateswomen such as Hilary Clinton and Queen Elizabeth of England.

The recent assassination of three women Kurdish activists in Paris highlights further the relevance the historical novel Vashti, Queen of the Ancient Medes.Today her indomitable spirit lives on in her descendants,the Kurdish women guerrillas who fight to regain the land whose theft was initiated on that fateful day when Vashti refused to come before the king.

Thursday 24 January 2013


By Alison Buckley



In 582 BCE when she was illegally deposed by her husband, King Ahasuerus (Astyages) Queen Vashti of Media ruled an empire from India to western Turkey and from Georgia to the Sudan. A descendent of Queen Nefertiti, grand step-mother of Cyrus the Great and daughter of the Medes’ leading general, she was entrusted with the fostering of the seminal Aryan civilisation by her father-in-law King Cyaxares, who brought the Median Empire from its tribal origins to a parallel and allied power to King Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon.

Denied her rightful place in history as the first feminist Vashti has previously been relegated to secondary importance behind Esther of Purim and biblical fame. Now knew research has thrown light on the pivotal significance of her downfall for Middle Eastern history, which heralded the two and a half thousand year subjection of her Aryan civilisation to Persia, Judea, Greece, Rome and later Arabia.

Emerging from the distortions and deletions of their politically and culturally dominant discourses Vashti has no ancient rival and can only be compared to present day heroes such as Hilary Clinton and Queen Elizabeth of England. 

Today her indomitable spirit lives on in her descendants, the Kurdish women guerrillas who fight to regain the land whose theft was initiated on that fateful day when Vashti refused to come before the king.

For the full story go to


Monday 21 January 2013

When did the incident between Queen Vashti and King Ahasuerus take place?

There is a compelling case from the Old Testament for QueensVashti and and Esther to have been the wives of King Astyages (Ahasuerus) son of King Cyaxares of the Medes who ruled the Median Empire from around 630 to 585 BCE. Astyages was probably born around 620 BCE.becoming the father of Darius the Mede in 601BCE. His first wife Vashti must have been the mother of Darius the Mede, who was 62 years old in 539 BCE when he took the Babylonian kingdom for his nephew General Cyrus of Anshan, a part of Persia.
Astyages' removal of Vashti occurred in 582 BCE and four years later her married the Jewess Esther, making her Queen of the Medes. Astyages was a Median king, not a Persian. He cannot be confused with the Persian King Xerxes, who was born around 519 BCE and cannot therefore have been the husband of Vashti and Esther.
The book Vashti Queen of the Ancient Medes is the first historical novel that frees these ancient Middle Eastern queens from the chains of historical distortions, ommissions and cover-ups designed by the dominant powers who followed to erase the true story of the Medes, their culture and the Airyanem Vaejah civilisation which was the first to grant the human rights enjoyed by so many today.
Ironically and most unjustly, their descendants the contemporary Kurds fight now in the land of Queen Vashti for the rights their ancestors enjoyed, particularly for women. The novel describes how Queen Vashti's struggle reflects ther uncompromising stand for freedom of conscience and choice.

Thursday 10 January 2013

Vashti and the fashion police

Just as Vashti was punished for crimes related to her refusal to expose herself in front of a raucous crowd of her husband's guests so are women in her Airyanem land now suffering for their appearance if they are not wearing what the law considers appropriate covering or undesireable additions such as face or unnatural colourings. What lengths are human beings prepared to go to in order to control others according to their own insecurities? Is a woman wearing nail polish really such a threat? Maybe if it is poisoned and she accidentally scratches someone in order to free herself from the constraints of the fashion police, but then that sort of resistance might lead to the death penalty.
Vashti wasn't a threat.She was battling to defend her nation from internal attack. You will have to read the book to discover what happened after she refused to be dictated to about her appearance.

Sunday 6 January 2013

When did Queen Vashti live?




A few steps in careful analysis of the Biblical books of Esther and Daniel produce a compelling case for Vashti having lived in the period 620-539BCE. The key is the status and role of her husband Ahasuerus. In the book of Esther Ahasuerus is the husband of Vashti and Esther. In the book of Daniel he is the father of Darius the Mede, who was aged sixty-two in 539 BCE.  So Darius’ father was born around 620 BCE. But are they the same person? 

It is very likely that the father of Darius the Mede was Astyages the son of King Cyaxares of Media who reigned from 625-585BCE. Ahasuerus (derived from ‘Achashverosh’, a signal term used by Cyaxares in the defeat of the Scythians who initially usurped his throne) was a generic name for Median kings.  As such it cannot be confused, (no matter how many linguists or other hopefuls fiddle with it) with the Persian King Xerxes, who was born around 100 years after Astyages (generically titled Ahasuerus) who ruled from 585 to 550 BCE.

The beginning of the book of Esther tells us that Ahasuerus ruled 127 satraps of the Medes and the Persians from India to Ethiopia from Susa, the former capital of Elam. He was not a Persian king, as the then Persian king was Cyrus I of Anshan, situated further south east of Susa. So a Median king named Ahasuerus, not a Persian king, ruled the 127 satraps and was the husband of Vashti and Esther.

The Ahasuerus in Ezra 4:6 apparently lived after Cyrus King of Persia, (Cyrus the Great) who ruled from 559-539BCE. He is not Darius the Mede who died around 537 BCE. No more Median kings are mentioned in history or the bible. This Ahasuerus is correctly not denoted as the husband of Vashti and Esther and is probably Xerxes I (it is still not clear how the Hebrew Ahasuerus can become Xerxes) who has never been termed a Median although he had Median blood.

We can only conclude from biblical evidence and accepted historical facts that the father of Darius the Mede was the husband of Vashti and Esther, placing the events of the book of Esther in the period of 585-575 BCE.