[_Note,_--Brockelmann's edition of the _Uyunal Akhbar_ is not accessible to me in India. I have carefully examined the first volume of the Cairo Edition and the following will show the wealth of Iranian material comprised in the book.--G.K.N.] When the Kisra died this was reported to the Prophet who inquired who was going to succeed the dead emperor and when he was told his daughter, the princess Buran, the Prophet declared that the nation could not prosper inasmuch as its affairs depended upon a woman. (p. 11). [Sidenote: Next-of-kin marriage.] I have read in the _Book of the Persians_ an epistle written by Ardeshir, son of Babak to his subjects declaring that the ecclesiastical authorities were the upholders of the religion and that the warriors were the bearers of the casque and literature, and were ornaments of the empire and that the agriculturists were pillars of the country. (p. 15). [In the course of the epistle there is a reference to marriage of next of kin, the king exhorting his subjects to _tazauwa-ju-fil qarabayn_.] [Sidenote: _Kitab Ain_ or the Pahlavi _Ain-nameh._] [Sidenote: Anushirwan's rule.] I have read in the _Ain_ that a king of Persia said in his address to his people: "I am only the ruler of people's bodies, not their minds; and I govern with justice, not according to my pleasure; and I safeguard people's property, not their secrets." Furthermore, the Persians say the most efficient of rulers is he who draws the bodies of his subjects to fealty to him through their hearts. When Anushirwan appointed a person to an office he directed his secretary to leave out in the appointment order a space of four lines so that he may fill it up with his own hand, and when the appointment order was brought to him he would write in it "govern the good people by love, and for the common people mix liberty with awe and govern the proletariat with levity." (p. 15). And it is said in the _Book of the Persians_ that the hearts of the people are the treasuries of the king, so that whatever is put there should be made known to him. (p 17). [Sidenote: The _Taj._] And I have read in the _Taj_; Said Aberwez to his son Shiruya who had put him into prison, [and here follow some views relating to the treatment of soldiers.] And in one of the _Books of the Persians_ it is stated that Ardeshir said to his son, "Oh, my son, the empire and the religion are two brothers which cannot do the one without the other. For the religion is the foundation and the empire is the guardian and whatever has no foundation falls and whatever has no guardian to look after it goes to waste" [And then proceeds to advise him as to the treatment of the nobles, warriors, the clergy, etc. Then are described the five qualities essential in a man occupying a post in the imperial government] And it is said in the _Taj_ that Aberwez wrote to his son Shiruya from his prison.... (p. 20)