ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY AND PRACTICEnopoly of force and by treating everyone alike. His rigorous insistence
on the letter of the law is illustrated best by the celebrated story of
the bedouin who violated the curfew at Basra in 665. In an effort to
curb crime, Ziyad had made violation of the curfew a capital offense;
but the bedouin, ignorant of the rule, had brought his milch camel
into the city for sale the following morning. When the shurta caught
him out on the street at night, he was taken to Ziyad, who believed
his story but said that his execution would serve as an example to the
people and had him beheaded.^28 I::Iaritha called Ziyad a just leader
(Ar. imam) who was determined in the face of distractions, and praised
the bounty that streamed from his hands like milk, sharing it equally
with rich and poor alike so that no one complained of inequity. 29
Failure by either the ruler or his subjects to perform their duties dis-
solved the bond, and Ziyad is said to have told the Basrans that if he
should fail to keep his word they could disobey him.3o
I:Iaritha also emphasized Ziyad's responsibility to protect and de-
fend his subjects. He described how, at a time of evil and fear, Ziyad
arose as the sword of God among them-bright and radiant, strong,
experienced, unworried, and energetic-and was victorious by God's
command.31 Although, on the whole, I:Iaritha's themes of generosity
and protection appeal to virtues from his native Arab background, it
is worth noticing that the local Nestorian Christians normally ad-.
dressed the late Sasanian monarchs as "victorious."
In fact, the way the concept of reciprocal obligations was symbolized
by the image of the imam and his flock (Ar. ra'iyya) is very close to
indigenous pre-Islamic traditions in Iraq. The imagery of shepherd and
sheep used for political and religious authority and responsibility,
which comes from ancient Mesopotamia, was employed both by the
local Christian ecclesiasticalleaders 32 and by the Sasanian rulers who
called themselves royal shepherds.^33 In praising Ziyad, I:Iaritha says
28 rbn 'Abd Rabbihi, 'Iqd, Ill, 471-72; Tabari, Ta'rtkh, Il, 76-77.
29 Tabari, Ta'rtkh, Il, 78. The Sasanian background of the emphasis on administrative
equity is assumed by the way tradition has a native dihqiin advise the governor, whom
al-I:Iajjaj appointed to be in charge of upper FalIuja at the end of the seventh century,
to give the same judgment to a notable (Ar. shartf) as to a commoner so that people
would trust him; see Ja~i~, Rasii'i/ (Cairo, 1964), Il, 32.
30 Ibn Abi l-I:Iadid, Nahj, XVI, 202.
31 Tabari, Ta'rtkh, Il, 78.
32 F. Nau, "Histoires d'A!J.oudemmeh et de Marouta, metropolitains jacobites de
Tagrit et de l'Orient," PO 3 (1909), 92. The use of such imagery in Syriac Christian
literature is very consciously Biblical.
33 Dinawari, Akhbiir at-{iwiil, pp. 30,44, 108; R. Frye, "The Charisma of Kingship