THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF KING
ANUSHIRWAN.[FN#463]
It is told of Anushirwan, the Just King, that once upon a time he
feigned himself sick, and bade his stewards and intendants go
round about the provinces of his empire and the quarters of his
dominion and seek him out a mud-brick thrown away from some
ruined village, that he might use it as medicine, informing his
intimates that the leaches had prescribed this to him. So they
went the round of the provinces of his reign and of all the lands
under his sway and said to him on return, "In all the realm we
have found nor ruined site nor castaway mud-brick." At this
Anushirwan rejoiced and rendered thanks to the Lord, saying, "I
was but minded to try my kingdom and prove mine empire, that I
might know if any place therein remained ruined and deserted, so
I might rebuild and repeople it; but, since there be no place in
it but is inhabited, the affairs of the reign are
best-conditioned and its ordinance is excellent; and its
populousness[FN#464] hath reached the pitch of perfection."--And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
When it was the Four Hundred and Sixty-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
high officials returned and reported, "We have found in the
empire nor ruined site nor rotten brick," the Just King thanked
his God and said, "Verily the affairs of the realm are
best-conditioned and its ordinance is excellent and its
populousness hath reached the pink of perfection." And ken thou,
O King, continued Shahrazad, that these olden Kings strave not
and toiled not for the peopling of their possessions, but because
they knew that the more populous a country is, the more abundant
is that which is desired therein; and because they wist the
saying of the wise and the learned to be true without other view,
namely, "Religion dependeth on the King, the King on the troops,
the troops on the treasury, the treasury on the populousness of
the country and its prosperity on the justice done to the
lieges." Wherefore they upheld no one in tyranny or oppression;
neither suffered their dependants and suite to work injustice,
knowing that kingdoms are not established upon tyranny, but that
cities and places fall into ruin when oppressors are set as
rulers over them, and their inhabitants disperse and flee to
other governments; whereby ruin falleth upon the realm, the
imports fail, the treasuries become empty and the pleasant lives
of the subjects are perturbed; for that they love not a tyrant
and cease not to offer up successive prayers against him; so that
the King hath no ease of his kingdom, and the vicissitudes of
fortune speedily bring him to destruction. And they tell a tale
concerning
