ABSTRACT
It is related, O auspicious King, that the Khalīfah Muhammad ibn Thailūn, Sultān of Egypt, was as wise and good a ruler as his father had been cruel and oppressive. Instead of torturing his subjects to make them pay the same taxes three or four times over, and beating them with sticks to make them dig up the few poor coins which they had hidden in the earth from the collectors, he bent his whole power to bring back tranquillity and justice to his people. He used the treasures which Thailūn had violently amassed, to protect poets and sages, to reward the valiant, and to help the poor. Therefore Allāh blessed his reign; the risings of the Nile had never been so regular and abundant, the crops never so rich and frequent, the fields of lupine and lucern never so green, and the bags of the merchants’ gold never so heavy.
