[On the Regulations and Appointments of the Empire]
 
[Twelve Special Regulations]

The very first ordinance which issued from me, on ascending the throne of my ancestors, was that which related to the chain of justice, one end of which I caused to be fastened to the battlements of the royal tower of the castle of Agrah, and the other to a stone pillar near the bed of the river Jumnah; to the end that, when at any time the dispensers of law under my authority might fail in the administration of justice, the injured party by applying his hand to the chain would find himself in the way of obtaining speedy redress. The chain was of gold, one hundred and forty guzz in length, with eighty small bells attached at different distances, and it was of the weight of sixty maunns of Hindûstaun, equal to six hundred maunns of Irâk.*

I instituted twelve special regulations, to be applied by the different func­tionaries of the empire as rules of conduct, never to be deviated from in their respective stations.

1. I remitted altogether to my subjects three several sources of revenue, the Zekhaut, Sermohary, and Tumgha, which in the whole yielded to my father no less than sixteen hundred Hindustany maunns of gold, equal to sixteen thousand maunns of Irâk.*

2. I ordained that wherever the property of God’s people entrusted to my charge should be wrested from them, either by highway robbery or any other act of violence, the inhabitants of the district, as best knowing whence it pro­ceeded, should be compelled to produce either the property or the depredator. I directed, when the district lay waste or destitute of inhabitants, that towns should be built, and the population registered, and every method resorted to that might contribute to protect the subject from injury. I charged the Jaguir­daurs, or feudatories of the empire, in such deserted places to erect mosques and substantial serrais, or stations for the accommodation of travellers, in order to render the district once more an inhabited country, and that wayfaring men might again be able to pass and repass in safety. For these purposes I pro­vided that where the district was immediately dependent on the crown, and the residence of a Kroury,* that officer was authorized to prosecute these works at the expense of the imperial treasury.

3. Merchants travelling through the country were not to have their bales or packages of any kind opened without their consent. But when they were per­fectly willing to dispose of any article of merchandize purchasers were permitted to deal with them, without, however, offering any species of molestation.

4. When a person shall die and leave children, the individual not being in the employment of the state, no man whatever was to interfere a pin’s point in his property, nor to offer the slightest molestation to the children: but when there were neither children nor direct or unquestionable heirs, the inheritance was to be applied to defray the expenses incurred for mosques and talaub, or water-tanks, so as to secure perpetual blessings on the soul of the departed.

5. No person was permitted either to make or sell either wine or any other kind of intoxicating liquor. I undertook to institute this regulation, although it is sufficiently notorious that I have myself the strongest inclination for wine, in which from the age of sixteen I have liberally indulged. And in very truth, encompassed as I was with youthful associates of congenial minds, breathing the air of a delicious climate—ranging through lofty and splendid saloons, every part of which decorated with all the graces of painting and sculpture, and the floors bespread with the richest carpets of silk and gold, would it not have been a species of folly to have rejected the aid of an exhila­rating cordial—and what cordial can surpass the juice of the grape? May it not happen that theriauk, or opiates, or stimulants, have been rendered habitual to the constitution? and heaven forbid that this should deprive a man of the most generous feelings of his nature. With some acknowledged beneficial effects, it must however be confessed, that these indulgences to excess must expose a man’s infirmities, prostrate his constitutional vigour, and awaken false desires, such being the most injurious properties belonging to the list of stimulants.* At the same time, we cannot but remember that kelourica is brother’s son to theriauk.

For myself, I cannot but acknowledge that such was the excess to which I had carried my indulgence, that my usual daily allowance extended to twenty, and sometimes to more than twenty cups, each cup containing half a seir (about six ounces), and eight cups being equal to a maunn of Irâk.* So far, indeed, was this baneful propensity carried, that if I were but an hour without my beverage, my hands began to shake and I was unable to sit at rest. Convinced by these symptoms, that if the habit gained upon me in this proportion my situation must soon become one of the utmost peril, I felt it full time to devise some expedient to abate the evil: and in six months I accordingly succeeded in reducing my quantity gradually from twenty to five cups a day. At enter­tainments I continued, however, to indulge in a cup or two more: and on most occasions I made it a rule never to commence my indulgence until about two hours before the close of the day. But now that the affairs of the empire demand my utmost vigilance and attention, my potations do not commence until after the hour of evening prayer, my quantity never exceeding five cups on any occasion; neither would more than that quantity suit the state of my stomach. Once a day I take my regular meal, and once a day seems quite sufficient to assuage my appetite for wine; but as drink seems not less necessary than meat for the sustenance of man, it appears very difficult, if not impossible, for me to discontinue altogether the use of wine. Nevertheless, I bear in mind, and I trust in heaven that, like my grandfather Homayun, who succeeded in divesting himself of the habit before he attained to the age of forty-five, I also may be supported in my resolution, some time or other to abandon the perni­cious practice altogether. “In a point wherein God has pronounced his sure displeasure, let the creature exert himself ever so little towards amendment, and it may prove, in no small degree, the means of eternal salvation.”

6. No person was permitted to take up his abode obtrusively in the dwelling of any subject of my realm. On the contrary, when individuals serving in the armies of the state came to any town, and could without compulsion secure an abode by rent, it were commendable; otherwise they were to pitch their tents without the place, and prepare habitations for themselves. For what grievance could be more irksome to the subject than to see a perfect stranger obtrude into the bosom of his family, and take possession most probably of the most con­venient part of his dwelling, leaving to his women and children, peradventure, not space enough to stretch out an arm!

7. No person was to suffer, for any offence, the loss of a nose or ear. If the crime were theft, the offender was to be scourged with thorns, or deterred from further transgression by an attestation on the Korân.*

8. The Krouries and Jaguirdaurs were prohibited from possessing themselves by violence of the lands of the subject, or from cultivating them on their own account; neither was the Jaguirdaur or feudatory of any district to exercise any sort of authority beyond the limits of his own, nor to force either man or beast from another district into his own. On the contrary, his attention was to be wholly and exclusively devoted to the cultivation and improvement of the district allotted to himself.

9. [This article is perfectly unintelligible in the manuscript, but seems directed to impose some restraint on the improper use of theriauk or antidotes of any kind, or possibly prescribing the rule by which they shall be ad­ministered.]

10. The governors in all the principal cities were directed to establish infirmaries or hospitals, with competent medical aid for the relief of the sick, who were to be conveyed thither; the expense to be defrayed from the im­perial exchequer until the final recovery of the patient, who was then to be discharged with a sufficient sum of money for his exigencies.

11. During the month of my birth, which was that of the former Rebbeia, the use of all animal food was prohibited both in town and country; and at equidistant periods throughout the year a day was set apart, on which all slaughtering of animals was strictly forbidden. In every week also, on Thurs­day, that being the day of my accession, and Sunday, was forbidden the use of animal food, it being considered unjustifiable to deprive any animal of life on that day on which the creation of the world was finished. For a period of more than eleven years was the same abstinence observed by my father, during which on no consideration would he permit himself to taste of animal food on a Sunday. On that day, therefore, I thought it right to prohibit the use of such food in every place throughout my dominions.

12. I issued a decree confirming the dignitaries and feudatories of my father’s government in all that they had enjoyed while he was living; and where I found sufficient merit, I conferred an advance of rank in various gradations. Thus a commander of ten horse I advanced to the command of fifteen, and so on in proportion to the highest dignitaries of the realm.