The Babylonian Talmud is for Babylonian Jews. Cyrus, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, he was a Jew. The Babylonian Jews took over Persia and created the Torah and Talmud. Although the Babylonian Talmud, or Bavli, has been a text central and vital to the Jewish canon since the Middle Ages, the context in which it was produced has been poorly understood. Delving deep into Sasanian material culture and literary remains, Shai Secunda pieces together the dynamic world of late antique Iran, providing an unprecedented and accessible overview of the world that shaped the Bavli. Cyrus is called messiah in the Tanakh, and referred to as an anointed one in the Bible, Isaiah 45:5-7 (KJV): "I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:"