in his treasuries is like a man who laid the foundation of a wall but, impatient for it to dry, went ahead and raised the structure upon it; in the end, both foundation and wall collapsed.
Accordingly, the sultan must take from his subjects only in due measure and bestow his gifts only in due measure, for each of these actions has a fixed limit, as the following story illustrates.
A story: It is said that one day the caliph al-Maʾmūn appointed four men to provincial governorships. To the first he handed the patent for Khurāsān, clothing him in a robe of honour worth 3,000 dinars. The second he made governor of Egypt, presenting him with an identical robe, and the third he entrusted with Armenia, granting him a similar robe as well. That same day he summoned a mobedhān (Zoroastrian high priest) and asked, “O dehqān, did the Persian kings ever give robes of this value? I have heard that theirs never exceeded 4,000 dirhams.”
The mobedhān replied, “May the Commander of the Faithful enjoy long life! The kings of Persia possessed three qualities that you do not: (1) they took from their subjects in proportion and spent in proportion; (2) they took only from sources where taking was lawful and gave only to those who merited it; (3) none feared them save people of questionable character.”
Al-Maʾmūn said, “You have spoken the truth,” and offered no further reply.
For this very reason, when al-Maʾmūn later opened the grave of Khosrow Anūshirwān, unsealed his coffin and examined it, he found the body moist and undecayed, the garments perfectly fresh, and on the king’s hand a costly ring set with a large red ruby, the like of which al-Maʾmūn had never seen. Inscribed on the stone were the words “bah mah nah mah bah,” meaning: “Generosity is the greatest—and yet greatness is not merely generosity.” Al-Maʾmūn ordered the corpse to be covered with a cloth woven of gold.
A servant who was with him secretly removed the ring from Khosrow’s finger without al-Maʾmūn noticing. When the caliph learned of it, he had the ring returned and commanded the servant’s execution, saying, “He almost brought disgrace upon me, for people would have said of me until the Day of Resurrection that al-Maʾmūn was a grave-robber who opened Khosrow’s tomb and took the ring from his finger.”