The value of the Ādāb al-Muluk as a historical source: An insight into the ideals and...

8/19/2019 The value of the &Amacr;d&amacr;b al-Muluk as a historical source: An insight into the ideals and expectations of…

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The value ofthe &Amacr;d&amacr;b al-Mulukas a historicalsource: An insight into the ideals andexpectations of Islamic society in the MiddlePeriod (A.D. 945-1500)

sunil KumarDepartment of HistoryUniversity of Delhi

Although Charles Lieu had, as early as 1879, brought the attention ofscholars to the existence of a manuscript of Fakhr-i Mudabbir’s work, Adabal-Harb wa al-Shajf ’ah in the British Museum (Add. 16,853), and HermannEth6 had, in 1903, noted a more complete version ofthe same manuscript in

the India Office (10 ms, 2767), entitled Addb al-Muluk wa Kiftyat al-Mamluk (Custom of Kings and Maintenance of the Subjects), it was only in1938 that superficial attention was first paid to this work.’ Recently Dr.Sahili Khwansari proceeded to edit and publish the British Museummanuscript, presumably in complete ignorance of the more complete workavailable at the India Office. Fortunately, the lacuna was bridged by theefforts of Muhammad Sarwar Maulavi who published the missing six chapte.rsfrom Khwansari’s edition making the text accessible to a wider audience ofscholars.2 2

Unfortunately, we are still in considerable doubt about the details of theauthor’s life. Fakhr-i Mudabbir’s other work, the Shajara-i anslb-i MubdrakSh3hi (a portion of which was edited and published by E.D. Ross as the

Acknowledgements: This paper has benefited from conversations with Dr. John E. Woods,P. Sprachmann, Linda Darling, and D. Streusand. None ofthem are, however, responsible forthe views presented here.

1 Charles Rieu, Catalogue ofthe Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, IndiaOffice Library, 1879) 2, pp. 487-88, and Hermann Ethé, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts inthe Library of the India Office (Oxford, India Office Library, 1903) 1, pp. 1493-96.

2 Fakhr-i Mudabbir, &Amacr;d&amacr;b al-Harb wa al-Shaj&amacr;’ah, edited by Dr. Sahili Khwansari (Teheran,Iqbal, 1967). Fakhr-i Mudabbir, &Amacr;d&amacr;b al-Mul&umacr;k wa Kif&amacr;yat al-Maml&umacr;k, edited by MuhammadSarwar Maulavi (Teheran, Haidari, 1976). There is also a Polish fascimile edition of the BritishMuseum manuscript: Ananiasz Zajaczkowaski, Kit&amacr;b &Amacr;d&amacr;b al-Harb wa-š-ša&gbreve;&amacr;’a, Le traiteIranien de l’Art Militaire du XIII siecle (Warszawa, Panstwowe Wydawn, Naukowe, 1969).

at UB Heidelberg on March 27, 2016ier.sagepub.comDownloaded from

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T3Kkh-I Fakhr al-Din Mubarakshäh, 1922)3 gives us little information toadd to what we can

gleanfrom the Adab a/-Mu/ük. It is

likelythat Fakhr-i

Mudabbir’s ancestors were ’people of the pen’ who had served both theGhaznavids and the Ghurids. It was the latter’s excursions and pacificationof the Punjab that afforded Fakhr-i Mudabbir the opportunity to escapefrom the depredations of the Ghuzz who were becoming increasingly activein the Ghazni region (c 1160-1180)/ In his preface to the Shajara-i ansiibFakhr-i Mudabbir relates in some detail the machinations involved in

acquiring a patron for his work, and the resulting good fortune and famewhich accrued once Sultan Qutb al-Din Aybak (120fr-1210) had been suitably

impressed byit. Prior to his

immigrationto Lahore, Fakhr-iMudabbu notes

that he had been in service of ~1 iya~ al-Din Muhammad Qhuri(1163-1203).s It is not clear, however, as to what was the exact nature of hisduties, but if the contents ofhishd3b and Shajara are any guide, it definitelyinvolved a relatively close experience with the administration and the militaryset-up. He was probably a ’man of the pen’ who with the death of Qbiyamal-Din in 1203 needed a patron, and therefore proposed to present hisShajara-i ansab to Muiz al-dïn. However, since Muiz al-d-m was murderedbefore the work could be formally presented, it was finally dedicated to

Qutbal-Din

Aybak.The Adtib a/-Mulük wa

Kifiiyat al-Mamlük,a later

unconnected work, was in turn, dedicated to Qutb al-Din’s successor,Shams al-Din Iltutmish (1210-1236).6The India Office text, according to Hermann Eth6, comprises 138 folios

and is divided into forty chapters. Of the forty chapters, the first twelve aredevoted to the qualities and responsibilities of a king, and advice

3 Fakhr-i Mudabbir, T&amacr;rikh-i Fakhruddin Mubaraksh&amacr;h, edited by E.D. Ross (London,Royal Asiatic Society, 1927); see also his article ’The Genealogies of Fakhrudd&imacr;n Mubaraksh&amacr;h’ in

A Volume of Oriental Studies presented to Edward G. Browne, edited by T.W. Arnold and

Reynold A. Nicholson

(Cambridge, University Press, 1922), pp.392-413. It must be

noted,however, that E.D. Ross identified Fakhr-i Mudabbir incorrectly, a problem complicated bylater scholars: I.M. Shafi, ’Fresh Light on the Ghaznavids,’ Islamic Culture, 12 (1938),pp. 190-92; A.A.S. Khan, ’Fakhr-i Mudabbir,’ Islamic Culture, 12 (1938), pp. 397-404, andonly laid to rest by M.S. Khan, ’The Life and Works of Fakhr-i Mudabbir,’ Islamic Culture, 51(1977), pp. 127-40. Also see a translation of Chapter II (British Museum) of the &Amacr;d&amacr;b al-Harbwa al-Shaj&amacr;’ah by E. McEwen, ’Persian Archery Texts,’ Islamic Quarterly,18 (1974), pp. 76-99.4See E.D. Ross’ summary of the preface of the ’Genealogies’ of Fakhr-i Mudabbir in A

Volume of Oriental Studies, op. cit., p. 409, for an explanation of the author’s immigration toLahore. In the &Amacr;d&amacr;b Fakhr-i Mudabbir makes cursory remarks about his family. Among hisclaimed ancestors are the Caliph Ab&umac r; Bakr, and the ’Abb&amacr;sid propagandist Abu Muslim (M.S.

Khan, ’Life and Works ofFakhr-i Mudabbir,’ op. cit., p. 129). He further claimed tobe relatedthrough his mother to Amir Bilk&amacr;tig&imacr;n of Ghazni (E. McEwen, ’Persian Archery Texts,’ op.cit., p.86); his paternal great-grandfather Ab&umac r; al-Faraj was the ’treasurer’ of Sultan Ibr&amacr;himMas’&umacr;d (I.M. Shafi, ’Fresh Light on the Ghaznavids,’ op. cit., pp. 200-4). His father, adistinguished teacher and scholar, was alive till 1203 (M.S. Khan, ’Life and Works of Fakhr-iMudabbir,’ op. cit.).

5 See E.D. Ross’ summary in A Volume of Oriental Studies, op. cit., pp. 409-12.6 Ibid.




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on what qualities he should seek in the people he chooses to appoint as his

officials. These’ include: chapter 5, the wazir, the vizier (helper of the king);chapter 6, the Mustaufi (comptroller), (I will subsequently follow theorganisation of the published text which differs from the manuscript);chapter 7, the Mushrif (inspector); chapter 8, the Sahib Barid (post master/director of intelligence); chapter 9, the Vakil (deputy of the monarch);chapter 10, the Amir UCzjib (chamberlain; Eth6 has Amir Sahib which seemsto be an error for Amir ufjib) ; chapter 11, the AmirDad (minister of justice);chapter 12, the Rasal (envoy). The subsequent twenty-eight chapters con-centrate on subjects relating to war: deployment of soldiers, strategy,

description and evaluation of arms, jihad (holy war) and, in general, thecorrect method of waging war. Within the context of this paper I shall,however, be restricting my study to within chapters six to eleven, i.e., thosechapters omitted from the British Museum manuscript, and hence ftomKhwansari’s edition.

In his article on the ’Life and Works of Fakhr-i Mudabbir’ M.S. Khannotes that the Addb al-Muluk wa Kifäyat al-Mamlük belonged to the literarygenre of ’Mirror for Princes’. As such it contained counsels on statecraft sothat good administration, stable government and welfare of the subjectscould be achieved,’ i.e., a means whereby an ideal order couldbe establishedin this world. On this level the Addb al-Mulak is very similar to the twobetter known Adab work~-the administrative manual of Abu al-Fazl, the’Ain-i Akbariand the anonymous Tadhkirat al-Mulük. It differs from them,however, in that the Addb a/-Mu/ük is not concerned with defining thevarious levels of administrative.infrastructure with its ’checks and balances,’or details on the revenue collecting agencies of the government. Theenumerated duties of the officials in the Addb are not comprehensive, norare they emphasised; it is the manner in which these responsibilitiesare tobe

discharged that is of importance to Fakhr-i Mudabbir.It has frequently been charged that this genre of literature reflects a

theoretical rather than a practical state of affairs, that a certain ’idealisation’of the ’actual’ circumstances forces the historian to utilise this informationwith great care. This is the problem that I have dealt with here. What is thevalue of the Addb a/-Mu/ük wa Kifdyat a/-Mamlük as a text containingrelevant historical information on the Delhi Sultanate? I have proceeded to

7 M.S. Khan, ’Life and Works of Fakhr-i Mudabbir,’ op. cit., p. 138. A.K.S. Lambton—in her

essay,

’Islamic Mirror for Princes,’ Atti del Convegno Internazionale sul Tema: La Persia nelMedioevo (Rome, AcademisNazionale dei Lincei, 1971), pp. 438-39—also cursorily examines the&Amacr;d&amacr;b al-Harb.

8 See, for example, my M.A. thesis, Norm and Reality in the Delhi Sultanate, University ofBridgeport, 1978, or the numerous writings of A.K.S. Lambton who sees ’Islamic Mirrors forPrinces’ as ’pointing’ society to an ideal, and since the ’reality’ was so far removed from it ’theyimplicitly protest against contemporary evils’. A.K.S. Lambton ’Islamic Political Thought,’The Legacy of Islam, edited by Joseph Schacht with C.E. Bosworth (Oxford, University Press,1979), p. 417.




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answer this question by first seeking to identify some of the ideals and

paradigms conceived by Fakhr-i Mudabbir. In the light of these paradigms Ihave sought to evaluate the information contained in the text concerning thefunctions of the six aforementioned officials. I have next attempted to seewhether similar types of paradigms can be noticed in other texts from othergenres of Persian literature of this period; i.e., can one claim that the idealsinfluencing Fakhr-i Mudabbir were operable on a wider scale within the’composite society’ of the Ddr al-Islam during the ’Middle Period’ (945-1500) ? My main argument in the conclusion is that it is hard to translate theinformation in the Addb al-Mulük into ’structures’ of government and

administration, but that the information available is of relevance andimportance in attempting to understand the value-systems influencingsociety, and in particular the paradigms influencing the functions of itsofficials. That the ideals contained in this genre were shared by others on amore general scale only goes to show that despite those numerous individualswhose ’actual’ conduct was at variance with these ideals, these systems of

thought served as effective touchstones whereby people’s activities could bejudged...

In seeking to identify some of the ideals and paradigms conceived byFakhr-i Mudabbir I have found it useful to attempt to reconstruct his ownintellectual preconceptions on how the world should be ordered and itsaffairs managed by officers who held delegated responsibility.

Fakhr-i Mudabbir poses a constant dichotomy between selfishness andselflessness; between a state of being where one is motivated solely byconcerns of private interest, and a state of being where one strives to benefithis fellow men. Attendant with the former are the vices of greed andmaterialism, and the person himself is a ~dlim, i. e. , one who goes beyond theappropriate bounds.’ Conversely, with the attitude of selflessness are related

the characteristics of generosity and justness; the individual is a Muslim,i.e., one who has submitted to (the will of) God, and follows the True Path(i.e., to the Shar’idt for Fakhr-i Mudabbir, but an ambiguous term otherwisewhich is also used in connection with pre-Islamic Sassanian monarchs byother writers of Mirrors for Princes where the just monarch or vizier isextolled as a person who follows the ’true path’). God, on the Day ofJudgement, judges the virtues of each person according to his deeds in thisworld, the fear of which should be motivation enough for the z£lim toreform.

To a certain extent the same set of value systems apply to governments; aregime could be either oppressive (where the greed of its stronger partici-pants leads to the exploitation of the weaker), or it could be just (where thealtruism of its officials generates prosperity). This concept was formulated

9 The etymology of the wordz&amacr;lim (Arabic root z.l.m.) has been worked out by ToshihikoIzutso, Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Quran (Montreal, McGill University, 1966),pp. 164-72.




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best in the notion of the ’Circle of Justice’ which implied that the welfare of

the various ’estates’ of the statewere

mutually dependent.’° Socialdisharmony would result ifone ofthese ’estates’ sought to oppress the other,or alternately, sought to contaminate the rest of society through the practiceofheretical beliefs. The role of the king and his officials were perceived fromthis perspective; through the enforcement of justice they had to establishorder, or in other words they had to guarantee that none ofthe individuals intheir trust were either being oppressed by others, or affected by hereticalbeliefs and practices. The benefits were tangible in this world-peace,security and material prosperity and, more intangibly, one could be assured

of a worthy deliverance from the confusion of the Day of Judgement. Thiswhole system ofthought could be, once again, resolved into its two essentials:the selfish and the selfless individual. Or, from another perspective, theideals influencing the private individual proved to be those which motivatedhis behaviour as an official of the monarch, his functions stemming from a

personal responsibility undertaken for the moral ordering of the naturalworld. As we will see, Fakhr-i Mudabbir directly addresses the problem ofthe ’basic moral dichotomy’&dquo; when he entreats the officials of the state to bealtruistic in their motives and advises them to uphold the concept of the

’Circle of Justice’ as the only way to guarantee just government andharmonious social relations.In evaluating the information in the Adib al-Muluk concerning the six

officials, I propose to consider Fakhr-i Mudabbir’s thoughts from two pers-pectives. Initially I have sought to reconstruct the nature and content of thegeneral moral exhortations contained in the text that are directed towardsthe officials. I have also sought to locate the application of these ideals inspecific instances when Fakhr-i Mudabbir discusses the duties and functionsof these officials. As a result, on one level the dichotomy between the

selfless and the selfish individual/official, as perceived by Fakhr-i Mudabbir,will become clarified and on another level how these same ideals weretranslated onto the level of government in the application of the Circle ofJustice will be elaborated.

10 The ’Circle of Justice’ has been elaborated upon in the Q&amacr;b&umacr;s N&amacr;ma of Kai K&amacr;’&umacr;s ibnIskander: ’Make it your (the vizier’s) constant endeavour to improve cultivation and to governwell; for understanding this truth, good government is secured by armed troops, armed troopsare maintained by gold, gold is acquired through cultivation, and cultivation sustained throughpayment of what is due to the peasantry by just dealing and fairness. Be just and equitabletherefore....’ Kai K&amacr;’&umacr;s ibn Iskander, Q&amacr;b&umacr;s N&amacr;ma translated by Reuben Levy (New York,E.P. Dutton and Co., 1951), p. 213.

11 According to Izutso, Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Quran, the basic moral dichotomyin Islam may be sought in the opposition of k&amacr;fir (unbeliever) and m&umacr;’min (believer) in theQuran. He regards these as central qualities aroundwhich revolve other related variations (pp.105-16). In seeking to identify the two ’essentials’—the selfless and the selfish individual inFakhr-i Mudabbir’s thought—my intention is not to set up a ’structure’ ofmy own into which a

’system of thought’ can be moulded. Instead I have sought to highlight a central theme (asIzutso did with the Quran)from its various manifestations in the &Amacr;d&amacr;b al-Mul&umacr;k,other Mirrorsfor Princes and texts from other genres of Persian literature.




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Fakhr-i Mudabbir’s concern regarding the actions of the officials of the

king manifest themselves fairly early in the text when he notes that:

... in each condition that may occur, he (the Mustauft) shouldnot neglectthe side of rectitude and he should be warned of the Day of Judgement,for verily, whatever man sows he reaps (p. 19,11. 16-17).

He further amplifies on his conception of the ’side of rectitude’ in noting ofthe Vakil that he should

...

make a good life for the people of the state, the rich lords of thegovernment and the subjects. He should have respect for thepirs (dervishsheikhs), the lords of the benches (gddi, judge?), and seek a good omenfrom them until he becomes famous with the good works of his mag-nanimity. And he should adorn his lower and upper garment with thegood sweat of upright manliness and less injury, until his fortune iseverlasting and he acquires a good name in this world and in the here-after, so that he gets a worthy deliverance in each of the two worlds(p. 31,11. 3-7)...

Practically the same advice is tendered to the AmirUajib in the next chapter:

He should endeavour in good works and respect the ulema, the elders andthe pirs and know good omens. He should strive to the limit in performingcharitable deeds and granting alms, and he should, himself, earn famewith these praiseworthy habits so that with these he should be free fromdamnation and by degrees, in this manner, attain paradise, such that thisworld is transient and in the Day of Judgement good works and bene-

ficiences shall be understood and grasped. Thus, he should persevere inthe application of the totality of these qualities and strive in obedienceand good deeds (p. 35,11. 5-10). <

The notion that if ~the intentions and deeds of the individual were ’good’ the--blessings ofGod would be showered upon him and those in his trust is clearlybrought out by Fakhr-i Mudabbir when he narrates the story of YusufSaddiq (Joseph, the just) the Mustaufi of the Egyptian Pharaoh RayänVard. During the period when a famine had dragged on in Egypt for seven

years, and Rayan Valid had been helpless in overcoming it, Yusuf $ad(fiq’on behalf ’off the welfare of the people and not from any private interest’(p. 18, 1.5), had offered his services to the king as the most capableaccountant of his age. Needless to say, because of his worthy and altruisticintentions he had been successful in terminating the famine. The moral ofthe story is both simple and effective: God is with the individual whodischarges his responsibilities unselfishly, the covetous person needs fear




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the Day ofJudgement.’2 More specific admonishments are contained in the Adib

al-Mulakdirected towards the

personwho

exploitshis

positionover

the Muslims and the subjects for his own benefit:

... and in every condition that may be, he (the Barid) should keep in ahonest direction and the prescribed and the obligatory should be preservedwith contentedness, and he should not be overly covetous (p. 28, ll.1-2).

And:

... he(the Vakil) should

not

hold up things for his self-interest for giftsand bribes, and he should be open in his work and hold his anger and bewithout malice (p. 29,11. 6-7).

Furthermore: ,

... in ordering he (the Amir Hdjib) should not be insulting and disgracefuland he should certainly not voice his own self-interest such that from it theMuslims may be injured (p. 33,11. 8-9).

And finally in advice to the Vakil:

... to each event and happening which be-falls on thenotables a fractionof it should have no injury to the heart of the Muslim. And to all thosepeople towhom leisure and government has arrived a portion of it shouldnot be towards the tranquillity of the heart, so that he reflects and

. deliberates on this affair, just as the Prophet has said: (tradition in Arabic) the heart of the Muslim is between the two fingers of God, he

forms itas

he pleases, i.e. (Persian translation), the enslaved heart of thebeliever is in between the fingers of the Godly power and his heartprevails without effect on the throne of God the Almighty (p. 30,11. 10-16).&dquo;

12 In the secondchapter of the&Amacr;d&amacr;b al-Harb wa al-Shaj&amacr;’&amacr;h (Khwansari’s edition) pp. 65-66,Fakhr-i Mudabbirexpresses the belief that if the intentionsofthe kingwere good, or if the rulerand the governor decided in their hearts to enforce justice then the blessings of God wouldcome on their kingdom: rain would come at thedue time, the springs, canals, streamswould fill,there would be abundance of crops, the roads would be safe, and the kingdom prosperous.Exactly the opposite would happen, however, ifhedecided upon oppression and extortion. Seealso A.K.S. Lambton, ’Mirror for Princes,’ op. cit., pp. 438-39.

13 Fakhr-i Mudabbir did not, apparently, see the contradiction here. His general approach inthe text is (as we have already seen) that the individual could carve out his own fortune in bothworlds through his actions in this life. The Arabic tradition, however, lays a strongemphasis onthe inability of the Muslim to alter his fate, it being in the hands ofGod who fashions it as Hewills. The Persian translation of this tradition, on the other hand, does not emphasise the

omnipotent power ofGod to form man’s will to His desire quite as much as the original Arabicone does.




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Taken in their totality, these exhortations can also serve to define the moti-

vating ideal of government, and Fakhr-i Mudabbir summed them up in verse:

Do justice, do justice for that is paradise,The house of the Khosroes is that of God (p. 27,1. 11).

The premium given in this verse to justice-enough to liken the idealisedcourts of the pagan Khosroes of Iran to Paradise-is noteworthy. We havehere the sum of our author’s advice to the king’s officials to practice justiceand philanthropy upon which the entire edifice of government-based uponthe ideals of the Circle of Justice-was founded. The

relationshipbetween

moral advice to the officials, and Fakhr-i Mudabbir’s conception of theirfunctions in government, will become clearer when we look at more specificinformation concerning each of them in turn.

It is clear that Fakhr-i Mudabbir concedes that the office of the Mustaufi‘crequires technical skill beyond the average notable of the kingdom. One ofthe qualifications in choosing a Mustaufi, imposed by our author in the formof advice to the king, is that the individual should be from a family ofMustaufts and trained in the art of istffd (accountancy). Fakhr-i Mudabbirgoes to

great lengthsto establish the

prestigeof this

office,and cites

evidence to show how the office was entrusted at one time with ’Ali, with theangel Michael; God, ultimately, being the final accountant (pp. 17-19). Inthe process of establishing this ’chain of transmission’ very little informationis offered concerning the duties of the Mustaufi. However, a very interestingstatement is made concerning the latent power inherent in such a position:

... and from the favoured angels the science of accountancy was attachedto Michael-on him be peace-who is the Mustaufi of God, and theprovisionings of the people and the drops of rain are entrusted with him(p. 19,11. 4-6).

By implication therefore, the potential prosperity of the state could beguaranteed by the Mustaufi. However, while Fakhr-i Mudabbir gives us noinformation on how, in fact, the Mustaufi could achieve this result, hisnarration of the story of Rayan Valid and his Mustaufi, Yusuf $addiq, doesinform us that an able person motivated by no selfish principles couldconfirm prosperity for the people. He does mention that theMustauf ‘c should

... not depart from the fixed regulations towards bribery, salutations andpresents and he should not allow excessive freedom to the $äJ:tib jam’a(= the ’amil, the revenue collector, purveyor? or an earlier version of thelater petty army commander, the jam’adär?). If they (the $a,hib jam‘a’s)were to order, he should not, as a matter of course, assents to it, and heshould not become an accomplice (to extortions) which is a kind ofZulum(injustice) (p.19,11. 12-15).




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This, together with a passage in the text exhorting the Mustaufito check theaccounts of the various departments of the king’s household (p. 19),exhausts all the information concerning the nature of the office of theMustaufi contained in the text. As the comptroller he received the revenuefrom the collectors (sdhib jam ’a? / ’amïls}-that is as much data as we cangarner from the Addb al-Muluk.

In conclusion Fakhr-i Mudabbir talks of the prospects and conditions of

advancement:

And when in condition and work he holds honesty such that because ofhonesty he reaches the Vizierate such that in most kingdoms the Mustauftshave reached the Vizierate and the works of the kingdom are entrusted withthem and have become the existing digrcity of the king and his associates,and that has been a product of honesty and a lack of molestation of thepeople. So that in this good affair reflect that deliverance from theconfusion (of the Day ofJudgement) is from these praiseworthy qualities(p. 20,11. 5-9).

We see a different perspective here: the benefits of ’honesty and lack ofmolestation’ are to be seen not merely in the prosperity of the state, they areto be also noticed in a ’career’ advancement in both this and the nextworld-the tangible and the intangible benefits to the selfless man.The information concerning the duties of the Mushrif and the Barid are

considerably more detailed in the Adab al-Mulük. Like the Mustaufi it isrequired that he should be of a good background, and while no specifictraining is required of him he should possess certain moral qualities. Hemust be

trustworthy, cautious, of honest word and deed, shrewd, honest and onewho should be God-fearing and pious. So that with his word and pen hecreates confidence amongst all the people of the state and to every placethat his pen comes to, to no person of that region causes misgiving (p. 21,11. 3-6).

This he should strive to do by appointing deputies to oversee the variousdepartments of the Sultan’s household and state so that ’no work before himis difficult, and each incomplete work is finished with caution and investi-

gation’ (p.21, 11.

8-9).Thus, he should

appoint deputiesover

workshops,the kitchen, the stables, the wine-cellars, the pharmacy, the army and overthose involved in the royal hunt (pp. 21-24). The deputy should insure thatno discrepancies, extortion, pilferage or adulteration mars the efficiencyof these ’departments’. For example, the deputy appointed over the work-shops should exhibit and endorse all the wares of the workshop every sixmonths, and




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... he should abstain from covetousness and alienation and not becomean

accomplice ofthe treacherous ’amils, delegatesor the

$£bibJam’a and

he should not be occupied with corrupt motives so that if an inquiry isstarted and they discover a problem excessive regret would, then, be ofno avail (p. 22, ll. 13-15).

Similarly the deputy appointed over the stables should daily seek discre-pancies in the required number of horses and make an account of all thematerial related to the upkeep of the ’elephant-stable’. He should ensurethat one-fifth ofthe booty acquired in war should be set aside, ’and from that

which is God’s the soldiers should not become enamoured’ (p. 23,11.1fr17).He should be careful of treachery and rebellion and should not assessexcessive taxes on the army, instead he should assure a comfortable liveli-hood for it. In a similar vein, a watch should be kept over those involved inthe royal hunt, and while they should get high salaries, they should beaudited regularly so that no ’decrease may occur’. The sum result of thevigilance displayed by the Mushrif and his deputies should ’strengthen andcorroborate the pen and confirm the renewal ofthe letter and the bond,’ i.e.,the laws, regulations and bestowals of the monarch should thereby be

protected.Concerning the responsibilities of the Sdhib Barfd, Fakhr-i Mudabbir isremarkably direct in his introductory paragraph:

The known opinion of the exalted kings of Islam is that the greatest of allthe works of the kingdom is the work of the Barid which is related to

possessing news ofhappenings and events. From whatever may bo--leanand fat, hearsay of night and day, at all times-it should be brought to thehearing of the king. And news from a little to a lot, a generality to a

particularity, should be observed from the side of honesty. He should notwrite (information) in the news despatch until correct inquiry and clearinvestigation has been carried out. It is certainly improper to accuse aperson falsely and slander a true Muslim with a corrupt motive. Andthrough bribery he should not conceal any portion of the events ormisfortunes. He should not conceal virtue nor support traitors andcriminals. He should appoint an efficient, God-fearing deputy so that theconditions and news (are collected) with rectitude and life and propertyare not alienated. And he should fear God ... (p. 25,11. 1-10; p. 26,1. 1).

Our author further stresses the need to keep a watch upon social transactionswithin the state which should be noted down in a register maintainedexplicitly for this purpose (p. 27). The Band chosen for this task should behonest, trustworthy, God-fearing, shrewd and should be regarded as one ofthe pillars of the state. Through their training in the affairs of social transac-tions and their ability as masters of literary composition, Fakhr-i Mudabbir




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notes that at least in the time of the Ghaznavid dynasty some Baridsappointed as Viziers, derived an everlasting name because of their honestyand literary fame (p. 27). Ultimately, a Sdhib Barid who ’makes honestreports and performs justly and does not depart from the truth with a corruptmotive (p. 27, 11. 3-4) ... (becomes through his efforts) the cause of thesalvation of this world and the hereafter and is delivered from the fatigue ofthe Day of Judgement’ (p. 28,11. 3-4).

Fakhr-i Mudabbir offers little information to dispel the long-standingconfusion regarding the nature of the office of the Vakil. Both Frye andLambton identify him as a part of the personnel related to the court (asdistinct from the chancery, i.e., the Vizier, the Mustaufi, the ,Sahib Barid.the Mushrif, the Amir Ddd, etc.), and also note the ever present tensionbetween him and the other official of the court: the Amir /:läjib.14 The titleVakil is etymologically derived from the Arabic root V. K.L.-to entrust,assign, to be appointed as representative or agent-and it is best, within thecontext of this text, to regard this official as a deputy of the monarch withwide-ranging duties.’S The official should be well experienced in thevicissitudes of life as well as have considerable experience having served, atone time or another, in the offices normally held by the notables of the state(p. 29). Moreover,

he should not hold up things for his self-interest or for gifts and bribes. Heshould be open in his work, and be able to hold his anger and be withoutmalice and in the rights of patent 1ië should neither diminish nor pursuedeep inquiry and if someone does not volunteer new information or openhis heart he should (leave) that work to the pleasure of God (i.e., heshould not interfere). And he should certainly not place the burden onanyone, and he should seek the trust of the people and not delay theirwork. He should be useful and

helpfulso that the work is

completedand if

14 R.N. Frye, ’The Samanids,’ Cambridge History of Iran, edited by R.N. Frye (Cambridge,University Press, 1975), Vol. 4, pp. 143-44; A.K.S. Lambton ’The Internal Structure of theSeljuq Empire,’ Cambridge History of Iran, edited by J.A. Boyle (Cambridge, UniversityPress, 1968), Vol. 5, p. 226.

15 John R. Perry, Justice for the Underprivileged: The Ombudsman Tradition of Iran,’Journal ofNear Eastern Studies, 37 (1978), pp. 203-15, has sought in the history of Islamic Iranan officer comparable to the Sassanian drig&omacr;shan yatakg&omacr;w (literally, ’poor-attorney’) and hasnoticed that in the concept of the vak&imacr;l-i ra’iyyat (agent of the indigent)—the functions ofwhichwere represented under the Seljuqs by the ra’&imacr;s (supervisor of a city or province, with deputiesin

all citiesand

districts),under the

Aqquyunlu by the Parw&amacr;nchiyi ’ajaza wamas&amacr;k&imacr;n (secretaryof the powerless and indigent), under the Safavids by the Kalantar (locally appointed head oftown or community; peoples’ representative) and thereafter In the autonomous office of thevak&imacr;l-i ra’iyyat—the peoples’ ombudsman may be found. One may profitably seek similarfunctions for the vak&imacr;l in this text—a people’s representative appointed by the monarch. Thenotion that he should protect the people from the notables is stated in the text. The informationis sparse, however, and remains to be substantiated from our other sources for the period (seealso the point made in the conclusion of this paper).




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accidents and misfortunes befall they should not result because that workremained incomplete (p. 29,11. 6-11; p. 30.1. 1) .... So it is necessary thata person should be liberal and loyal for the Vakil in ordering and regulatingshould be like the lieutenant of the king and he should have a separatedivdn (register/department). And he should choose even-tempered,circumspect servants so that the people of the age, and the inhabitants ofthe state regard him with eyes of honour and greatness for his greatnessshould be the greatness of the king, his master. And they should obey himin these affairs and seek the thanks of God for every person does notmerit this job (p. 30, ll. 19-22; p. 31,11. 1-3).

It is frustrating to find references to both the duties of the Vakil and hisdepartment without being able to further specify what these entailed. It isclear, however, that they involved considerable interaction with the notablesof the kingdom, and there are, therefore, exhortations to be both circum-

spect and tactful. However, as seen in a passage cited earlier, no relationshipshould be at the expense of the Muslims ’or towards the tranquillity of theheart’ (i.e., selfish endeavour) to assure thereby a ’worthy deliverance ineach of the two worlds’ (p. 31,1. 7).There is more specific information concerning the other court official, the

Amir Hajib. As a liaison between the king and the petitioners he is remindedto be a ’temperate corrector’ and neither revengeful nor spiteful (p. 29).

And if the king and lord of the age sometimes speaks rough and tyrannicalwords such that from it injury is obtained, give him a message: To all thepeople do not speak roughly and harshly which results in injury to theheart of the Muslims from which evil is born for with one unprovoked

. harsh word a thousand people are injured, however, a lot of strategy isrequired to gain the heart of the believers (p. 33,1. 12; p. 34,11. 1-4).

The advice continues, and concerning the Amir Hdjib, Fakhr-i Mudabbirnotes in a similar vein that the official should be merciful, attentive, generousand honest so that people trust him and bring petitions to him which he takescare of without delay (p. 34). He should not drink wine (for in this fashionthe petitions of the subjects are delayed) a vice, which if indulged in, couldbe mitigated by the bestowal of suitable alms (p. 35). Similarly he shouldnever deem himself too busy to attend prayers or to seek blessings from theImam. Finally ’on the supplicants he should do that which is possible by wayof benefaction. Until with these praiseworthy qualities he becomes famousand derives a good name’ (p. 35,11. 19-20).

Fakhr-i Mudabbir notes of the Amir Dad that he should be the ’most

excellent, and from his (exalted) peers he should be the most respected forthe Amir Dad is the second in rank ti the king and he shoud be the Sahib-ifarm,in (author of commands, p. 37, 11. 7-8).’ Here Fakhr-i Mudabbir is




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expounding on one of his favourite topics--justice; he not only devotestwice the amount of space

definingthe

responsibilitiesof this

particularofficial, but insists that the Amir Däd should be chosen from the mostexalted of the nobles of the state so that he has a ’genealogy beyondreproach’ (p. 37). He should be from the side of the qadis and the judgeswith whom he should be in agreement in all matters excepting those per-taining to selfish interests (p. 37). In assuring that the rights of the subjectsare not exploited he should be cautious of enemies and spies and of revealingentrusted information, of officials who misuse benefactions, of merchantswho hoard and thereby raise prices; he should install honest people at thecourt of

appeals (Divdn-i Ma:¡.älim), supportthe

Muhtasib (censor)in his

inspectoral duties, set up a divdn of justice and one of grants, so that allaffairs may be sifted and any errors rectified. He should attempt to reformmurderers and other criminals, assure that all public edifices are in goodrepair and the city streets properly patrolled at night, he should appointresponsible guides over caravans (pp. 38-42). The official is warned that

he should not neglect his duties for the Amir Dad is the lieutenant and thedeputy of the king such that he must carefor all ofhis districts and subjects

forthe Sultan has entrusted these

responsibilitieswith him. He

should,thus, be very careful for on the Day of Judgement God Almighty willindeed ask of him and he will not be able to pass off negligence for theoffice of the Amir Did is very delicate and difficult (p. 41,11. 13-17).

He notes again in a similar vein that:

All these affairs are dependent on the office of the Amir Dad so that he

definitely supports these particularities and ... obtains the salvation of

the hereafter and is delivered from thetorture

of the Day of Judgement,for God the Great will interrogate in detail and will not leave in anundeterminate state (p. 39,1. 20; p. 31, ll. 1, 2-3).

Ultimately the AmirDad ’should take exceptional care in these particularities(assuring that the provenders do not force up the price of goods) so that allthe subjects become well-wishers and loyal to the government’ (p. 42).To sum up the information recounted here, certain main themes and

relationships may be profitably drawn out of the text. Unquestionably, the

predominant one is that ofjustice manifested in its several forms: appropriateaccounting of revenue returns, auditing of the related workshops anddepartments of the state, gathering of intelligence reports, liaison activity onbehalf of the monarch, presentation of petitions, and the preservation oflaw. In each of these instances the implementation of justice would beimpossible if the officials did not display the moral capability of selflessaction. It is onlyin keeping with this logic that Fakhr-i Mudabbir emphasises




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the moral qualities of the officials in the text, the benefits resulting fromtheir altruistic deeds, and the damnation befalling, not merely upon them-

selves, but upon everybody under their trust due to their selfish actions. Inthe dichotomy between4 the selfless and the selfish individual/official wehave the genesis of the ideals influencing government in the formulation ofthe Circle of Justice. The essential theme of the entire concept of the Circleof Justice is founded on the realisation that every segment of society-thearmy, the notables, the peasantry, etc.-is dependent upon the other.Exploitation by one of the other inevitably leads to the destruction of theentire edifice resulting in (apart from oppression) famine and othereconomic catastrophes.

It is hardly possible to assert that these paradigms are peculiar to the Addbal-Mulük. Instead one could easily substantiate the claim that preciselysimilar ideals influenced other authors of the Mirrors for Princes. I-proposeto give here certain references from some Mirrors for Princes arranged in achronological order-the first two are testaments given by fathers to theirsons: Amir Tahir dhu al-Yaminain’s epistle to his son ’Abdallah (c. 821); theQabus Ndma, Sultan Kai Ka’u5 ibn Iskander ibn Qabus ibn Washmgir’sadvice to his son Gilanshah (c. 1082); the third one is the famous politicalmemorandum of the Seljuq vizier, Nizam al-Mulk, dedicated to his master

Sultan Malikshah, the Siydsat Näma (c. 1092).’6Tahir Dhu al-Yaminain advises his son:

God has been gracious to you and has accordingly made it incumbentupon you to show tenderness towards those of his creatures over whomHe has appointed you shepherd. He has enjoined you to behave justlywith them, to maintain his Divine Truth and legal prescriptions amongstthem, to protect them, to defend their private possessions and women-folk, to preserve them from bloodshed, to keep the roads safe for them

and to create the peaceful conditions in which they can go about theirdaily work. He holds you fully responsible for all things enumeratedabove (p. 31) .... There is nothing more likely to bring to disaster anycourse of action regarding your subjects which you may embark upon,than avarice. For know that if you are avaricious, you will want to grabeverything and give nothing. If you behave thus, none of your projectswill go right for very long. Your subjects will only have confidence in yourbenevolence inasmuch as you refrain from arbitrary exactions on theirwealth and avoid tyrannising over them, and your subordinates will only

remain sincerely devoted to your interests as long as you give themadequate allowances and good pay. Therefore shun avarice, and know16 C.E. Bosworth, ’An Early Arabic Mirror for Princes: T&amacr;hir Dh&umacr; al-Yam&imacr;nain’s Epistle to

his Son ’Abd All&amacr;h(206-821),’Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 29 (1970), pp. 25-41; Kai K&amacr;’&umacr;sibn Iskander, Q&amacr;b&umacr;s N&amacr;ma; Niz&amacr;m al-Mulk, Siy&amacr;sat N&amacr;ma, The Book of Governmentor Rulesfor Kings translated by H. Darke (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978).




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that avariciousness was the first act of rebellion by man against his Lordand that the abode of the rebel

againstGod is that of abasement and

disgrace, according to that God, He is exalted and magnified, says in Hisbook: ’Those who are protected from niggardliness of soul, they are theones who prosper’ (Quran 49: 9, 54: 16) (p. 36).

We have already cited a description of the Circle of Justice from theQäbüs Nama (see fn. 10). In this reference Kai Ka’us elaborates on the sametheme:

The welfare ofthe

peoplemust be as

carefully safeguarded byhim as that

of the bodyguard, for the king resembles the sun in that he cannot shineupon one man and not upon another. Moreover in the same way that the

people’s submissiveness is secured by the soldiery, so the maintenance ofthe soldiery is made possible by the people. And it is through the peoplethat the country is made prosperous, for the revenues are earned by the

people, who remain settled and prosperous if given what is rightfullytheirs. Therefore, let there be no place in your heart for extortion; thedynasty of kings who recognise rights endures long and becomes old butthe

dynastyof extortioners

swiftly perishes,because fair treatment means

prosperity and extortion means a depopulated land .... The sages saythat the well-spring of thriving conditions and of happiness in the world isa just king, while the source of desolation and misery is a king who is anoppressor (p. 229).

Niz, am al-Mulk maintains the same ideas in his SiyasatNämawhen he notes:

The person most worthy for kingship is he whose heart is a repository of

justice,whose house

isa haven for wise and

religious men,and whose

boon-companions and agents are discreet and God-fearing (p. 49) .... Sothat you may know that kings have always been concerned for the rightsof the weak and watchful of the doings of officers, assignees and pages(gbulams) for the sake of their reputation in this world and salvation inthe next (p. 41) .... Of a certainty the Master of the World (theKing)‘--may Allah perpetuate his reign-should know that on that greatday he will be asked to answer for all those of God’s creatures who areunder his command, and if he tries to transfer (his responsibility) to

someone else he will not be listened to (p. 13) .... In the eyes ofGod (beHe exalted) there is no sin greater than a King’s sin. The right way for aking to acknowledge God’s grace is by looking after his subjects, givingthem justice and preserving them from oppressors. When a king is atyrant all his countries begin to practise tyranny .... Verily God abandonsthem in His wrath and before long the world goes to ruin and they are alldestroyed .... (p. 43)




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While the common themes of justice and the prosperity resulting from itsenforcement can be fairly easily sought in all of these passages, thesereferences also serve to highlight another important trend of thought whichis ony peripherally developed in the six chapters of the Ãdäb al-Muluk waKifäyat al-Mamluk: the relationship of the officials with the king. If weremember that the chapters on the king and the vizier (chapters 1-5) in the

Adab al-Mulük are not . included within the purview of this paper theincomplete development of these themes seems to be perfectly under-standable. However, ifwe refer to the underlined sections of the referencescited following page 315 of this paper the nature of the relationship betweenthe monarch and his officials can be profitably elaborated upon. In eachinstance it is clarified that the benefits accruing from an official’s philanthropicactions resound to the credit not merely of that individual, but upon his kingas well.&dquo; Just as God holds each individual responsible for the effectivefulfilment of his responsibilities, He holds the king to account for anymisdemeanours within his realm. The Siyäsat Näma is most clear on thispoint: .

There is also a tradition that on resurrection day whoever had anycommand in this world over God’s creatures, even over the inhabitants of

°

his own house or over his own underlings, will be questioned about it....(p. 12)

And the following story in the same text of ’Abd Allah ibn ’Umir ibnal-Khattab who had to suffer perdition for twelve years because a sheep hadbroken a foot on a bridge near Baghdad which he had neglected to repair,only confirms the advice.’e Furthermore the relationship between God andthe king, the king and his officials, God and the individual/official, isconsistently seen as contractual. Since God/king had confirmed (’Beengracious to you ...’-see Tahir Dhu al-Yaminain’s advice to his son, quotedearlier in this paper) an individual/official/king in a certain social position itwas then ’incumbent upon (him) to show tenderness towards those of Hiscreatures over whom He (had) appointed (him) shepherd’. As in a contract,

17 The belief that the king’s officials mirrored the qualities of their patron, or were, in fact,extensions and complemented his personality, is reflected in the Nasihat al-Mul&umacr;k(Counsel for

Kings) of al-Ghazali, translated by F.R.C. Bagley (London, Oxford University Press, 1971),pp. 107-8: ’Ardashir has said "Every king will be advised to seek, and having found to keep,these four: (i) a waz&imacr;r who can be trusted,(ii) a Dabir (secretary) who possesses erudition,(iii) aH&amacr;jib (chamberlain) who shows mercy, and(iv) a nad&imacr;m (boon companion) who gives goodcounsel. When the minister is trustworthy, this shows that the king is safe; when the secretary iserudite, it shows that the king is intelligent, when the chamberlain is merciful, the people bringtheir petitions to the king, and when the boon companion is a good counsellor, it shows that thethings are not headed for disaster."

’

18 Fakhr-i Mudabbirwarns the Am&imacr;r D&amacr;d to ensure that the bridges, buildings and edifices ofthe city were in a state of repair.




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if the terms were not

upheld,the

guilty party (inthis case, the selfish

individual) was held liable in (His) court.It remains to be seen, however, if similar ideals can be perceived in other

genres of near-contemporary Persian literature; could one claim that theideals influencing Fakhr-i Mudabbir were operable on a wider scale in the’composite’ Islamic society of the Där al-Isldm during the early MiddlePeriods? Since the literature on the Mirror for Princes is generally in theform of advice to rulers and their officials, I thought it would be interestingto see if a ruler, recounting the achievements of his reign, would refer toideals which we

haveidentified as

being presentin such

literature.Fortunately, there is epigraphic evidence-which, prior to its destructionwas copied down and exists as an appendix to two manuscripts of ShamsSirdi ‘Afif’s Tdrikh-i Firüz Shdhi in the British Museum and in the AligarhUniversity Library-inscribed by F’iruz Shah (1351-88) on one of hisprominent buildings in the FlI11z Shah K6tli and purported to contain his’triumphs’ (the manuscript copy of the epigraph is entitled FutüJ:¡ät-i Fin2zShohi-the Triumphs of F’iruz Shah)}9 The inscription is in the form ofthanks to God for having made FlI11z Shah triumphant in government. Thus,

all of his achievements are couched as if they were favours bestowed uponthe king by God. Amongst his ’triumphs’ he notes:

The most Merciful and Compassionate God strengthened the mind ofHisown slave, hopeful of (His) mercy, in order that he might devote hisaspiring might in such a way that a Muslim’s blood be not unjustly shed,and that hemay not be tortured in any way ....Show mercy when you are strong, as charity is better than anger. When

greatness has been bestowed upon you by God, the habit of punishing

rashly is wrong .... (p. 451)His other achievements include: securing the property of the Believers,removal of all oppressive non-Shar’iat taxes, subjugation of all hereticalmovements and heretics including the Hindus with their idols and temples,the recognition of the Caliph, establishment of charitable institutions fordervishes and the indigent (pp. 451--63) .20 Furthermore, in an extremely ’interesting passage he notes:

Another favour of God was this ...(that)

this sinful servant derived

strength, so that he, on behalf of the Sultan (i.e., Muhammad ibnTughlug, Fruz Shah’s predecessor and kinsman) ... won over with riches

19 See N.B. Roy’s edition of the text in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal,7 (1941), pp. 61-89, and his translation, ’The Victories of Sultan Firuz Shah of the TughluqDynasty,’ Islamic Culture, 15 (1941), pp. 449-64.

20 See also a similar inscription of Uzun Hasan (1453-78) dated 1470, cited by H.M.Tabatabai, Farm&amacr;nh&amacr;-yi Turkm&amacr;n-i Qaraquyunlu wa Aqquyunlu (Qum. Hikmat, 1974),pp. 76-77.I am indebted to Dr. John E. Woods for this reference.




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the heirs of those persons who were executed as well as other persons

whose limbs such as eyes, hands, nose and feet were mutilated during thetime of his majesty Sultan Muhammad Shah .... Having secured thedeeds of gratifications attested by witnesses and put them in a chart, weplaced it at the head of the tomb of the Sultan ... so that by Hisuniversal kindness He might immerse our revered master and cherisher inmercy and make them reconciledto our master by His own treasures ....

(pp. 462-63)

Thus, while on one hand F’iruz Shah implied that through the favour ofGod

equable justice, suppression of heresy and moderate taxation (essentialelements in the Circle ofJustice) his Sultanate could hope to seek the ’Mercyof God,’ the actions of his predecessor tainted by oppression needed hisintercession to be guaranteed the same. Here, once again, we have theresults of both, an altruistic and a selfish individual. The one fulfilled hisresponsibilities to the extent that he could attempt to lighten the burden ofguilt off his tyrannous kinsman. The dichotomy between the selfless and theselfish individual and the ideals of the Circle of Justice, which the former,once confirmed in a position of responsibility, must uphold, are confirmed in

this text.Further confirmation may also be sought from other quarters of the

Islamic world during this period. The most illuminating would probably bethe letters of the 11-Khdnid vizier Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah (d. 1312) writtento various kings, officers and members of his family.2’ Aside from thevaluable information on current affairs, these letters also contain advice tothe Mongol rulers during a period when the disharmony caused by theMongol Turkic exploitation of the rural peasantry and the urban elite hadcaused a massive economic crisis in !I-Khdnid Iran. In a letter to his son

Shihab al-Din he explains the rationale of the reforms that he is advocating:

... But the exchequer of income is the ra’iyyat (peasantry) themselves,since the said treasury is filled by their good efforts and their economies.

And if they are ruined, the kings will have no revenue. After all, if you. look into the matter, the basis tif administration is justice, for if, as they

say, the revenue of the Pädishäh is from the army, and the governmenthas no revenue but that paid by the army (i.e., the booty, one-fifth ofwhich went to the state),z2 yet an army is created by means of taxation,and there is no army without taxation. Now tax is paid by the ra’iyyat. And the ra’iyyat are preserved by justice. There are no ra’iyyat if there isno justice (pp. 154-SS).

21 I.P. Petrushevsky, ’Rashid al-Din’s conception of the State,’ Central Asiatic Journal,14 (1970), pp. 148-62.

22 See the duties of theMushrifdiscussed earlier in this paper.




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His patron the !I-Khiinid monarch Ghazan Khan (1295-1304) shared thesame sentiments and affirmed in a ’policy speech’ addressed to his nobles:

I am not on the side of the täjik (Iranian) ra‘iyyat (peasantry). If there is apurpose in pillaging them all, there is no one with more power to do thisthan I. Let us rob them together. But ifyou wish to be certain ofcollectinggrain and food for your tables in the future, I must be harsh withyou. Youmust be taught reason. If you insult the ra’iyyat, take their oxen and seed,and trample their crops into the ground what will you do in the future? ...So far as God Almighty has entrusted us with them we shall be responsible

’

for the good and harm done to them. What shall we reply when we areoppressing them ourselves? ... For this we shall get nothing exceptmisfortune, and in any business which we would undertake there will beno success .... (p. 155)

The question that follows naturally is where are these paradigms&horbar;which,as we have seen, influence kings, their officials, and litterateurs&horbar;derivedfrom? Several historians in evaluating the Mirror for Princes genre havenoted how their notion of an idealised

justicecan, in fact, be traced all the

way back to pre-Islamic Iran and Mesopotamia. 23 The answer, I believe,rests (as Marshall Hodgson never fails to remind us) in the agrarian base ofeach of these empires.24 Its rulers and notables (residing in urban centres)undoubtedly recognised the inherent dependence of their comfort andsecurity upon the revenue paying peasantry of the land, and hence theexhortations to practice justice, and specifically to be aware that the wealthof the realm upon which its notables depended was derived from their

subjects. At

least, duringthe Islamic

periodthese ideals were often seen in

purelyIslamic terms, Tahir Dhu al-Yaminain’s epistle to his son only being a case inpoint. The ideal of the selfless man and his activity in society at large can, forexample, be interpreted from an entirely Sufi point of view as the internaland external jihad (holy war). The attempts that the believer has to make tocleanse his own soul of all non-Shar’iidt selfish aspirations so that he may becapable, externally, to fulfil God’s bidding in spreading the word of Islamand establishing justice, may be regarded as a restatement of the ideals thatwe have previously established. Similarly, the widespread prevalence ofthese ideals couched in Islamic terms has also been noticed

byPeter

Hardyin his ’Force and Violence in Indo-Muslim Persian Writing on History and

23 See, for instance, the efforts of Edward A. Kracke, Jr., ’Early Visions of Justice for theHumble in East and West,’ Journal of the American Orienral Society, 96 (1976), pp. 492-98, toseek a cross-cultural analysis of manners by which plaintiffs brought their complaints to theattention of their monarch.

24 Manshall G.S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam: Classical Age of Islam (Chicago, UniversityPress, 1974), Vol. 1, pp. 105-20.




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Government’. He reached some interesting conclusions concerning the

distinctions in terminology often made by Muslim writers between violencewhen it results in disorder in the kingdom (rebellion against a legitimatelyconfirmed, just monarch) and violence perpetrated in the cause of estab-lishing a Shar’iit upholding government. Concerning the former the Muslimwriters are unequivocal in their condemnation, and use a vocabularyborrowed from the Quran&horbar;~M~ya/t (revolt, insolence, perverseness),isyän (disobedience, transgression), ma’asiya (rebellion, disobedience),fasad (corruption, depravity, sedition, disorder~with a contextual rangeof meanings from ’ingratitude towards God for benefits received or being

received,’ to ’act unlawfully and unjustly against others’.25 Significantlyenough, violence for a just cause, or which, at a later date, has beneficentresults, is often glossed over without any such condemnation. A valuableperspective is offered here to evaluate the ideals influencing a large body ofwriters. The premium is obviously on the maintenance of order-the statusquo-and violence that destabilises the realm (no doubt, with catastrophiceconomic consequences) is censured in the strongest Quranic terminology.The emphasis, despite the language used, is ultimately that the agrarianorder be preserved. The distinction between violence undertaken to suit

one’s selfish interests and violence perpetuated to defend/improve/expandthe ideal social order is, in the final analysis, evaluated in terms of itsbeneficial or deleterious consequences to society, economy and religion.The selfless man pursues a course of action which preserves the Circle of

Justice, and which, by implication, protects the peasantry, trade, and theelements of society that derive sustenance from it. Within its cultural contextthese ideals were given formulation by certain elitest segments of societywith the final aim of preserving the agrarian order and, through it, their owninterests. Perceived from this angle it is not important whether these Muslim

writers were actually ’idealising’ the ’actuality’ of the situation; they wereeffectively conveying the expectations of an elite segment of society at acertain period.

It is into these ideals and expectations which motivated the Islamic worldduring the Middle Periods that the Addb a/-Mu/uk wa Kiflyat al-Mamlakand other works of its genre offer a significant insight. Although they maywell deal with administration and ’bureaucrats,’ texts in this genre need to bevery carefully distinguished from administrative handbooks like the ‘Ain-i

Akbari or the Tadhkirat al-Mulak and jurisprudential literature like the

Abkäm al-Sul!äniyya of al-Miwardior

the Kitdb al-Kharaj of Abu Yusuf.This is not to imply that there is no information on administrative detail inthe Ãdtib al-Mulak. Quite the contrary. In the chapter on the AmirDäd inthe ~4da~, for example, Fakhr-i Mudabbir concludes by warning the official

25 Peter Hardy, ’Force and Violence in Indo-Persian Writing on History and Government inMedieval South Asia,’ in Islamic Society and Culture edited by M. Israel and N.K. Wagle(Delhi, Manoharlal, 1983), pp. 165-208.




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to be careful of the ’Allfffn wa ghallikshin (grain and fodder merchants) soas they may not hoard essential food supplies and thus raise prices causingdistress to the people (p. 42). This piece of information fits in remarkablywell with our current knowledge of the problem that the Delhi Sultans facedin ensuring adequate consumer and military supplies in Delhi at a reasonableprice. In fact, Zia’ al-Din Barani in his Fatawä-i Jahandarf (Precepts ofGovernment) expounded on the subject at length, provoking the editor andtranslator of the text to delineate that section of his advice in a specificchapter on ‘Price Control’.26 However, as in this case, the informationcontained in the Addb a/-Mu/ük can serve to substantiate our findings from

other sources (see also on the office of the Vakil, fn. 15).The true worth of the Adab, at least in my opinion, can be best realized

only if we approach the text, and others of its genre, from the perspectivethat they were written in. The Adib al-Mulak and the other Mirrors forPrinces were conceived as advice to rulers (or, as the case may be, astestaments to their successors) on how their government their responsibilityin this world-may be secured. Then while the administrative ’machinery’may indeed be discussed, the emphasis is wholly on the manner in which theindividual should discharge his responsibility. Furthermore, responsibilityhere is not conceived as duties and frictions inherent in a certain position,but is seen as a personal responsibility undertaken for the moral ordering ofthe world. The ideal of selflessness motivates the actions of the king and hisofficials and seeks application in the policies of the king in the form of theCircle ofJustice. That the ideals contained in the Mirror for Princes’ genre of

literature were shared by others on a more general scale only goes to showthat despite those innumerable individuals whose ’actual’ conduct was atvariance with these ideals, these systems of thought served as effectivetouchstones whereby

people’sactivities could be judged and the expectations

of at least a segment of society voiced.27

26Zi&amacr;’al-D&imacr;n Baran&imacr;, Fataw&amacr;-i Jah&amacr;nd&amacr;r&imacr;, translated by Muhammad Habib and Afsar

Begum (Allahabad, Kitab Mahal, n.d.), pp. 34-38.27 To claim that the Mirror for Princes in describing the ’ideal’ and not the ’real’ should be

treated with great care by historians (inasmuch as the actual activity of the king, or the Ayatollah, was not in line with the paradigms or the ideals of the Mirrors for Princes) is verysimilar to claiming that one should treat the Fundamental Rights as mentioned in the IndianConstitution in a similar fashion, for they certainly do not reveal the ’reality’ of the ’actuality’.However, in both cases the claimant would be missing the point; the Mirrors for Princes asmuch as the Fundamental Rights (if I may be allowed to complete this anachronistic parallel)delineate the expectations of society at a certain period. While the latter may, indeed, seekinsurance in its implementation in the force of law, the former seeks it in the threat of Divineretribution—from the most powerful of all judges.

The value of the Ādāb al-Muluk as a historical source: An insight into the ideals and...

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