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feet, for that she was become the Viceroy s wife. Then they came
round her and easing her of the weight of her clothes and
ornaments, began to look upon her beauty and grace. Presently the
wives of the Amirs and Viziers heard that King Sherkan had bought
a damsel unmatched for beauty and accomplishments and versed in
all branches of knowledge, at the price of three hundred and
twenty thousand dinars, and that he had set her free and married
her and summoned the four Cadis to examine her. So they asked
leave of their husbands and repaired to the palace. When they
came in to her, she rose and received them with courtesy,
welcoming them and promising them all good. Moreover, she smiled
in their faces and made them sit down in their proper stations,
as if she had been brought up with them, so that their hearts
were taken with her and they all wondered at her good sense and
fine manners, as well as at her beauty and grace, and said to
each other,  This damsel is none other than a queen, the daughter
of a king. Then they sat down, magnifying her, and said to her,
 O our lady, our city is illumined by thy presence, and our
country and kingdom are honoured by thee. The kingdom indeed is
thine and the palace is thy palace, and we all are thy handmaids;
so do not thou shut us out from thy favours and the sight of thy
beauty. And she thanked them for this. All this while the
curtains were drawn between Nuzhet ez Zeman and the women with
her, on the one side, and King Sherkan and the Cadis and merchant
seated by him, on the other. Presently, Sherkan called to her and
said,  O queen, the glory of thine age, this merchant describes
thee as being learned and accomplished and asserts that thou art
skilled in all branches of knowledge, even to astrology: so let
us hear something of all this and give us a taste of thy
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quality.
 O King, replied she,  I hear and obey. The first subject of
which I will treat is the art of government and the duties of
kings and what behoves governors of lawful commandments and what
is incumbent on them in respect of pleasing manners. Know then, O
King, that all men s works tend either to religion or to worldly
life, for none attains to religion save through this world,
because it is indeed the road to the next world. Now the world is
ordered by the doings of its people, and the doings of men
are divided into four categories, government (or the exercise
of authority), commerce, husbandry (or agriculture) and
craftsmanship. To government are requisite perfect (knowledge of
the science of) administration and just judgment; for government
is the centre (or pivot) of the edifice of the world, which is
the road to the future life since that God the Most High hath
made the world to be to His servants even as victual to the
traveller for the attainment of the goal: and it is needful that
each man receive of it such measure as shall bring him to God,
and that he follow not in this his own mind and desire. If the
folk would take of the goods of the world with moderation and
equity, there would be an end of contentions; but they take
thereof with violence and iniquity and persist in following their
own inclinations; and their licentiousness and evil behaviour in
this give birth to strife and contention. So they have need of
the Sultan, that he may do justice between them and order their
affairs prudently, and if he restrain not the folk from one
another, the strong will get the mastery over the weak. Ardeshir
says that religion and the kingship are twin; religion is a
treasure and the king its keeper; and the divine ordinances and
men s own judgment indicate that it behoves the folk to adopt a
ruler to hold the oppressor back from the oppressed and do the
weak justice against the strong and to restrain the violence of
the proud and the unjust. For know, O King, that according to the
measure of the ruler s good morals, even so will be the time; as
says the apostle of God (on whom be peace and salvation),  There
are two classes, who if they be virtuous, the people will be
virtuous, and if they be depraved, the people also will be
depraved: even princes and men of learning. And it is said by a
certain sage,  There are three kinds of kings, the king of the
Faith, the king who watches over and protects those things that
are entitled to respect and honour, and the king of his own
inclinations. The king of the Faith constrains his subjects to
follow the laws of their faith, and it behoves that he be the
most pious of them all, for it is by him that they take pattern
in the things of the Faith; and the folk shall do obedience to
him in what he commands in accordance with the Divine ordinances;
but he shall hold the discontented in the same esteem as the
contented, because of submission to the Divine decrees. As for
the king of the second order, he upholds the things of the Faith
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and of the world and compels the folk to follow the Law of God
and to observe the precepts of humanity; and it behoves him to
conjoin the sword and the pen; for whoso goeth astray from what
the pen hath written, his feet slip, and the king shall rectify
his error with the edge of the sword and pour forth his justice
upon all men. As for the third kind of king, he hath no religion
but the following his own lusts and fears not the wrath of his
Lord, who set him on the throne; so his kingdom inclines to ruin,
and the end of his arrogance is in the House of Perdition. And
another sage says,  The king has need of many people, but the
folk have need of but one king; wherefore it behoves that he be
well acquainted with their natures, to the end that he may reduce
their difference to concord, that he may encompass them one and
all with his justice and overwhelm them with his bounties. And
know, O King, that Ardeshir, styled Jemr Shedid, third of the
Kings of Persia, conquered the whole world and divided it into
four parts and let make for himself four seal-rings, one for each
division of his realm. The first seal was that of the sea and the
police and of prohibition, and on it was written,  Alternatives.
The second was the seal of revenue and of the receipt of monies,
and on it was written,  Culture. The third was the seal of the
commissariat, and on it was written,  Plenty. The fourth was the
seal of (the Court of Enquiry into) abuses, and on it was
written,  Justice. And these remained in use in Persia until the
revelation of Islam. King Chosroes also, wrote to his son, who
was with the army,  Be not over-lavish to thy troops, or they
will come to have no need of thee; neither be niggardly with
them, or they will murmur against thee. Do thy giving soberly and
confer thy favours advisedly; be liberal to them in time of
affluence and stint them not in time of stress. It is said that
an Arab of the desert came once to the Khalif Mensour[FN32] and
said to him,  Starve thy dog and he will follow thee. When the
Khalif heard his words, he was enraged, but Aboulabbas et Tousi
said to him,  I fear that, if some other than thou should show
him a cake of bread, the dog would follow him and leave thee.
Thereupon the Khalif s wrath subsided and he knew that the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]