Section: Defence, the Vizier's Charge

Section

(Defence, by the Vizier's Zeal)

As for the second section, it is defence. Defence comprises four divisions: the first, the defence of the king against his own partisans (al-awliyāʼ); the second, the defence of the kingdom against enemies; the third, the vizier's defence of himself against his peers (al-akfāʼ); and the fourth, his defence of the subjects (al-raʻīyah) against fear and disorder.

As for the first division, his defence of the king against the king's own partisans: it comes about by three means. The first is that he lead them to obedience to him by inducement (raghbah) and hold them back from disobedience to him by dread (rahbah); for when inducement and dread come one after the other upon the soul, it is humbled before them and led docile, out of fear and out of appetite — and by these two God made the creation His servants, in His promise and His threat. The second is that he provide for their sufficiency, so that they neither take fright through strength nor scatter through weakness, since both are a flaw in rule (al-mulk): for in strength they are enemies set in power, and in weakness they are incapables to be replaced. The firmness of rule lies in strength belonging to the sultan, so that he becomes the one who subdues them, and in strength not belonging to them, so that he does not become the one subdued by them. Word reached al-Maʼmūn that the troops in Khurāsān had rioted and plundered, and he wrote to his governor there: had you been just, they would not have rioted; had you been strong, they would not have plundered. The third is that he guard them against being led astray and keep watch over them against enticement, and that is by two things: the one, inquiry into their affairs, so that he may know the sound among them from the sick; the other, keeping corrupters far from them, so that their corruption may not pass over to them. For restraint is in proportion to discovery, and the one granted respite is either a deviator or an evader, and there is no good in either of them, because of the deviator's straying and the evader's guile. It has been said in the scattered sayings of wisdom (manthūr al-ḥikam): among the signs of a state's (al-dawlah) endurance is the scarcity of heedlessness.

The second division concerns his defence of the kingdom against its enemies. The enemies of kingdoms are those who hold a kingdom alone or who are fortified by strength, and they are of three kinds: peers who are matches, great men who stand above, and upstarts who compete. The peers who are matches are warded off by rapprochement and peaceable dealing. The great men who stand above are warded off by gentleness and pliancy. The competing upstarts are warded off by force and rough handling. For the difference of ranks requires that the people of those ranks be at variance and that their conditions be mutually exclusive. If the higher submits, the lower submits to him, and he is repaid in the coin he pays, as the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: "As you deal, so you will be dealt with." And if he shows hostility, hostility is shown to him, and he lives in dread of the force of the one above and the estrangement of the one below. Some of the sages have said: he whose experience is scant is deceived, and he whose care is scant is thrown down. If he can do without making war upon one of them, let him refrain from it while making it loom, and let him not tear the veil of awe (haybah) nor cut the ties of vigilance, so that he may win four things: the ease of peace, safety from the peril of open combat, the preservation of monies, and the rest of the troops. The ancients said: take deliberateness (anāh) as long as it goes straight for you, and accept the soundness that is given you as a gift; do not hasten to open combat with the enemy so long as you find a way to stratagem, and never weary of drawing out the contest with your enemy, for in delay there is the awaiting of an opening and the winning of a weak point. Shun the seeking of victory by encounter, for it is scarcely attained but by hazards. And let your desire for the obedience of an enemy of yours be dearer to you than spoil, for by it you strike upon the safety of your companions and your subjects. ʻAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, may God the Exalted be pleased with him, said: deal with your enemy by bounty, for that is one of the two victories. And if necessity calls for open combat, after excuse has been given and warning served, let him rouse his resolve (ʻazm) for it and employ his prudence (ḥazm) in it, and let him set upon it after seeking God's guidance, following the religion and practising justice; for none will turn aside from these two save a transgressor struck down. Some of the sages have said: whoever draws the sword of oppression, it is sheathed in his own head; and whoever lays a foundation of evil lays it upon himself. Let wariness be his shield and prudent circumspection his equipment. The sage of the Persians said: beware of neglect in affairs in reliance upon destiny, for every decree has a spoil toward which it runs; the cause of success is work, and the cause of failure is neglect. And it used to be said: think before you resolve, make things clear before you fall upon them, and take counsel before you advance. When war lays down its burdens upon ascendancy and mastery, then pardon and conciliate. The sage of the Rūm wrote to Alexander: when mastery over a people becomes manifest, then lay down anger along with the burdens of war, for in the first state they were enemies, while in this state they are your dependants; so exchange anger toward them for mercy, and injury for beneficence.

The third division concerns the vizier's defence of himself against his peers, and this comes after the setting right of the two flanks: the higher, which is the king, and the lower, which are the subordinates. Peers are of three kinds: the injurer (al-wātir), the injured (al-mawtūr), and the rival (al-munāfis).

As for the injurer: he has already begun with his evil and made his enmity open, and both of these are transgression on his part which gives one comfort in the prospect of victory over him. Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd, blessing and peace be upon them both, said: the arrow of the wrongdoer returns upon him, because his punishment comes swiftly to him. Some of the sages have said: he who does good begins with himself, and he who does evil commits a crime against himself. And in his benevolence you have two rights: a right of requital for the benevolence he has already offered, and a right to ward off the enmity he has made open. As for your right of requital: if you pardon it, you are worthy of the merit; and if you requite it, you are excusable in the requital. It is related of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: "Whoever desires that God raise his building high for him and lift up his degrees for him on the Day of Resurrection, let him pardon the one who wronged him, join himself to the one who cut him off, give to the one who denied him, and be forbearing toward the one who behaved ignorantly toward him." Al-Muntaṣir said: the pleasure of pardon is sweeter than the pleasure of getting even, because the pleasure of pardon is followed by praise, while the pleasure of getting even is followed by regret. The poet said:

My excusing of a foul deed will profit me nothing — when one day it is said to me, and its sayer speaks true: That you will find the doer of evil regretting what he did — while the doer of good has never regretted his deed.

As for your right to ward off his enmity: he has roused you by his openness and weakened his own scheming by making it plain. It has been said in the scattered sayings of wisdom: the weakest of enemies in scheming is the most open of them in his enmity — so beware his onslaught and repel his enmity. The repelling of it varies with the variety of his nature, whether in establishing inducement in him or in straightening it by dread. Luqmān said to his son: my son, withdraw from evil and it will withdraw from you, for evil was created for evil. It has been said in the first scriptures: the evil man's evil is upon him. Al-Ḥasan ibn Sahl said — and al-Fahlamān related it —: three things whose corruption no stratagem can set right: enmity among kinsmen, envy among peers, and feebleness in kings. And three things whose soundness no kind of guile can corrupt: worship in the learned, contentment in the discerning, and generosity in men of means. And three things of which one never has enough: life, wealth, and well-being.

As for the injured: he was met first with ill usage and bore it patiently, and was openly confronted with enmity and concealed his own. So he has the blood-grudge (tirah) of a man wronged and the spring of a snatcher: you guard against the grudge of his grievance by conciliation, and against his snatching by taking precautions. Mujālid related, from al-Shaʻbī, from Ibn ʻAbbās, from the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: "Beware of mutual wrangling (mushārrah), for it buries what is noble and brings out what is foul." It has been said in the proverbs of wisdom: three things of which a little is much — fire, enmity, and sickness. The poet said:

Never trust the days with a freeborn man you have wronged — for the night of a wronged nobleman is no sleeping night.

As for the rival: he is a man seeking a rank. If he attains from it a sufficiency against want, he is accommodating; and if he is straitened in it, he takes flight. So slacken for him the rein of hope, and lower the wing of his rivalry by deputing him and giving him work, that you may repel him by easy dealing from open hostility; and beguile the days with him, for the hours demolish lifetimes. It has been said in the scattered sayings of wisdom: a man is what his hours are, and time lies in his exertions. Do not leave him a leisure in which to busy himself with doing you harm and to make you the pretext for striving after your station, for a man driven to it is bold. If the decree drives some portion of fortune to him, you will have been his benefactor, and he will observe toward you the rights of benefaction. It has been said: among the signs of prosperity is the making of men. Some of the sages have said: do a good turn while it is possible, and the praise of it will remain to you after its days have passed; do good while fortune (al-dawlah) is yours, and good will be done to you when fortune is against you; and make the season of your ease a provision for the season of your affliction. And if the decree turns him back from his wish and destiny bars him from his quest, then you are spared what you feared, and you have done well; and you have reached what you wanted, and you have rested from effort. It has been said in the scattered sayings of wisdom: needs are sought with toil and attained by the decree. Then by your beneficence you have made gratitude due, and by your leaving him at rest you have established an excuse; by these two you have drawn the halter of your rival toward obedience to you, and by these two you have turned him away from setting himself against your rivalry. So he will make you the direction (qiblah) of his hope, since he has had no good but from you and has fulfilled no purpose of his time but through you. It has been said in the scattered sayings of wisdom: whoever sets his opponents right attains his object. It has been said in the scattered sayings of wisdom: one of the sages was asked, what is nobility? He said: brotherhood with peers, and flattery of enemies. And it may be that one who has fallen short of the rank of your rivalry will set himself against you in enmity; so give him one end of his hope and hold one end of his halter, and test him in it, and the outcome will bring you to a stand upon either soundness or corruption: if he proves sound he is helped, and if he proves corrupt he is threatened. Azdashīr ibn Bābak said: beware the onslaught of the noble man when he is hungry, and of the base man when he is full. It has been said in the scattered sayings of wisdom: the cause of mutual enmity is little care. Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd, blessing and peace be upon them both, said to his son: do not count it much that you should have a thousand friends, for a thousand are few; and do not count it little that you should have a single enemy, for one is many. Safety from the days and from the people of the days is one of the lies of vain hopes; so make little of it and do not count much, for it is related of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: "If the son of Adam got nothing of this world but security and safety, these two would suffice him as a killing disease." It has been said in the scattered sayings of wisdom: people are a help toward endurance. And Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mahdī said:

Souls, though they go in dread of death — have hopes that hold them up; A man spreads them out and the days fold them in — the soul unrolls them and death rolls them up.

The fourth division: on the defence of the subjects against fear and against disorder arising from the fruits of neglect. Both of these come of bad conduct and corrupt governance (siyāsah), since they waver between falling short and going too far and depart from justice into deficiency or extravagance. They are the mainstay of the rule that draws its supply from them and the store of the man who makes himself ready: if they are neglected they are corrupted and they corrupt, and if they are dealt with unjustly they perish and they destroy. No rule will stand straight in which the conditions of the subject populations are corrupt, for rule stands to them as the head does to the body: it rises only by the body's strength and holds itself up only by its help. And you owe them three rights. The first is that you assist them toward the soundness of their livelihoods and the abundance of their earnings, so that through them your resources may be abundant and through them your lands may flourish. ʻAṭāʼ related, from Jābir, from the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: "The best of people is the most useful of them to people." Wahb ibn Munabbih said: the man of the best life is he in whose life the life of the people is good. The second is that you restrict yourself to your own dues from them and hold them to those dues by your fair dealing, so that they may be the more eager to increase and the more sincere in obedience; for it has been said: whoever fears your ill usage is convinced of your ill will. And do not entrust the measures of the dues to another than yourself, for then they will hope more in him and incline more toward him. It has been said in the wisdom of old: what the subjects have is brought out only by their governors, what the troops have only by their commanders, and what is in religion and interpretation only by its scholars. The third, that