| [[246]] One of
the glorious boons of his Majesty the Shahinshah which shone forth in this
auspicious year was the abolition of enslavement. The victorious troops
which eams into the wide territories of India used in their tyranny to
make prisoners of the wives and children and other relatives of the people
of India, and used to enjoy them or sell them. His Majesty the Shahinshah,
out of his thorough recognition of and worship of God, and from his abundant
foresight and right thinking, gave orders that no soldier of the victorious
armies should in any of his dominions act in this manner. Although a number
of savage natures who were ignorant of the world should make their fastnesses
a subject of pride and come forth to do battle, and then be defeated by
virtue of the emperor's daily-increasing empire, still their families must
be protected from the onset of the world-conquering armies. No soldier,
high or low, was to enslave them, but was to permit them to go freely to
their homes and relations.
It was for excellent reasons that His Majesty gave his attention to this subject, although the binding, killing, or striking the haughty and the chastising of the stiff-necked are part of [[247]] the struggle for empire-- and this is a point about which both sound jurists and innovators are agreed-- yet it is outside of the canons of justice to regard the chastisement of women and innocent children as the chastisement of the contumacious. If the husbands have taken the path of insolence, how is it the fault of the wives, and if the fathers have chosen the road of opposition, what fault have the children committed? Moreover the wives and innocent children of such factions are not munitions of war! In addition to these sound reasons there was the fact that many covetous and blind-hearted persons from vain imaginings or unjust thoughts, or merely out of cupidity, attacked villages and estates and plundered them, and when questioned about it said a thousand things and behaved with neglect and indifferrence. But when final orders were passed to the abolition of this practice, no tribe was afterwards oppressed by wicked persons on suspicion of sedition. As the purposes of the Shahinshah were entirely right and justi, the blissful result ensued that the wile and rebellious inhabitants of portions of India placed the ring of devotion in the ear of obedience, and became the materials of world-empire. Both was religion set in order, for its essence is the distribution of justice, and things temporal were regulated, for their perfection lies in the obedience of mankind. ===========
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