Section
It is obligatory upon the sovereign that whenever his subjects are stricken by distress or overtaken by hardship and poverty, he come to their aid—above all in times of drought and soaring prices, when people are barred from earning a living and cannot obtain their daily bread. In such circumstances the ruler must supply them with food and assist them from his own treasuries with money. Nor may he allow anyone from among his household, courtiers, or followers to oppress the populace, lest the people grow weak and migrate beyond his jurisdiction to some other dominion; the sovereign’s revenues would then collapse, the income of the treasury diminish, and the only beneficiaries would be the hoarders who delight in high prices. The king’s reputation would suffer, and he would become the target of public denunciation. For this reason the monarchs of old were extremely wary of such matters: they watched over their subjects out of their own coffers and supported them from their stored wealth and hidden reserves.

Story: It is related that the custom of the ancient Persian kings was to grant their subjects access to them on the festival days of Nowruz and Mihrjān. Three days beforehand a herald would cry out, “Prepare yourselves for such-and-such a day, so that each person may put his affairs in order, bring forth his case, and ascertain his proof. Whoever has an adversary and wishes to complain of him before the king should first seek reconciliation.” When the appointed day arrived, the herald would stand at the king’s gate and proclaim, “Whoever prevents another from entering to see the king—the king is absolved of that person’s blood!” Petitions were then gathered from the people and laid before the king, who examined each one individually. Seated to his right was the mobedhān—the title in their language for the chief judge. If among the petitions there was one containing a grievance against the king himself, the king would rise from his throne, kneel before the mobedhān opposite his adversary, and say, “Grant this man justice against me first; do not incline toward partiality or favoritism, and do not prefer me to yourself, for when God bestows good fortune upon His servants…”