The reduction of the allowances given by the ruler reduces the tax revenue

Dynasty and government serve as the world’s greatest marketplace, 674 providing the substance of civilization.

If the ruler holds on to property and revenue, or if they are lost or not properly used by him, then the property in the possession of the ruler’s entourage 675 will be small.

The gifts which they, in their turn, had been used to give to their entourage and people, stop, and all their expenditures are cut down.

They constitute the greatest number of people (who make expenditures), and their expenditures provide more of the substance of trade than (the expenditures of) any other (group of people). Thus (when they stop spending), business slumps and commercial profits decline because of the shortage of capital.

Revenues from the land tax decrease, because the land tax and taxation (in general) depend on cultural activity, commercial transactions, business prosperity, and the people’s demand for gain and profit.

It is the dynasty that suffers from the situation and that has a deficit, because under these circumstances the property of the ruler decreases in consequence of the decrease in revenues from the land tax.

The dynasty is:

• the greatest market, the mother and base of all trade.
• the market that provides the substance of income and expenditures for trade.

If government business slumps and the volume of trade is small, the dependent markets will naturally show the same symptoms, and to a greater degree. Furthermore, money circulates between subjects and ruler, moving back and forth.

If the ruler keeps it to himself, it is lost to the subjects.

41. Injustice brings about the ruin of civilization

Attacks on people’s property remove the incentive to acquire and gain property. People, then, become of the opinion that the purpose and ultimate destiny of (acquiring property) is to have it taken away from them.

When the incentive to acquire and obtain property is gone, people no longer make efforts to acquire any.

The extent and degree to which property rights are infringed upon determines the extent and degree to which the efforts of the subjects to acquire property slacken.

When attacks (on property) are extensive and general, extending to all means of making a livelihood, business inactivity, too, becomes (general), because the general extent of (such attacks upon property) means a general destruction of the incentive (to do business).

If the attacks upon property are but light, the stoppage of gainful activity is correspondingly slight. Civilization and its well-being as well as business prosperity depend on productivity and people’s efforts in all directions in their own interest and profit. When people no longer do business in order to make a living, and when they cease all gainful activity, the business of civilization slumps, and everything decays.

People scatter everywhere in search of sustenance, to places outside the jurisdiction of their present government. The population of the particular region becomes light.

The settlements there become empty. The cities lie in ruins. The disintegration of (civilization) causes the disintegration of the status of dynasty and ruler, because (their peculiar status) constitutes the form of civilization and the form necessarily decays when its matter (in this case, civilization) decays.676a

One may compare (here) the story which al-Mas’udi tells in connection with the history of the Persians.

In the days of King Bahram b. Bahram, the Mobedhan, the chief religious dignitary among the Persians, expressed to the King his disapproval of the latter’s injustice and neglect for the consequences that his injustice must bring upon the dynasty.

He did this through a parable, which he placed in the mouth of an owl. The King, hearing the cry of (an owl), asked (the Mobedhan) whether he understood what it was saying.

The Mobedhan replied:

“A male owl wanted to marry a female owl. The female owl, as a condition prior to consent, asked the male owl for the gift of twenty villages ruined in the days of Bahram, that she might hoot in them. (The male owl) accepted her condition and said to her= ‘If the King continues to rule, I shall give you a thousand ruined villages. This is of all wishes the easiest to fulfill.’ "

The King was stirred out of his negligence by that story.

He had a private talk with the Mobedhan and asked him what he had in mind. The Mobedhan replied: “O King, the might of royal authority materializes only through the religious law, obedience toward God, and compliance with His commands and prohibitions.

The religious law persists only through royal authority. Mighty royal authority is achieved only through men. Men persist only with the help of property. The only way to property is through cultivation.

The only way to cultivation is through justice.

Justice is a balance set up among mankind. The Lord set it up and appointed an overseer of it, and that is the ruler. You, O King, went after the farms and took them away from their owners and cultivators.

They are the people who pay the land tax and from whom one gets money. You gave their farms as fiefs to (your) entourage and servants and to sluggards. They did not cultivate (the farms) and didnot heed the consequences. (They did not look for the things) that would be good for the farms.

They were leniently treated with regard to the land tax (and were not asked to pay it), because they were close to the king. The remaining landowners who did pay the land tax and cultivated their farms had to carry an unjust burden.

Therefore, they left their farms and abandoned their settlements. They took refuge in farms that were far away or difficult (of access), and lived on them. Thus, cultivation slackened, and the farms were ruined. There was little money, and soldiers and subjects perished.

Neighboring rulers coveted the Persian realm, because they were aware of the fact that the basic materials that alone maintain the foundation of a realm had been cut off.”

When the King heard that, he proceeded to look into (the affairs of) his realm.

The farms were taken away from the intimates of the ruler and restored to their owners. They were again treated, as they had formerly been treated. They began again to cultivate (their farms). Those who had been weak gained in strength. The land was cultivated, and the country became prosperous.

There was much money for the collectors of the land tax. The army was strengthened. The enemies’ sources of (strength) were cut off. The frontier garrisons were manned. The ruler proceeded to take personal charge of his affairs.

His days were prosperous, and his realm was well organized.

The lesson this (story) teaches is that injustice ruins civilization. The ruin of civilization has as its consequence the complete destruction of the dynasty.

In this connection, one should disregard the fact that dynasties (centered) in great cities often infringe upon justice and still are not ruined. It should be known that this is the result of a relationship that exists between such infringements and the situation of the urban population.

When a city is large and densely populated and unlimited in the variety of its conditions, the loss it suffers from hostile acts and injustice is small, because such losses take place gradually. Because of the great variety of conditions and the manifold productivity of a particular city, any loss may remain concealed.

Its consequences will become visible only after some time. Thus, the dynasty which committed the infringements (of justice) may be replaced before the city is ruined.

Another dynasty may make its appearance and restore the city with the help of its wealth. Thus, the (previous) loss which had remained concealed, is made up and is scarcely noticed.

This, however, happens only rarely.

The proven fact is that civilization inevitably suffers losses through injustice and hostile acts, as we have mentioned, and it is the dynasty that suffers therefrom.