The Stages of Dynasties

15. How the desert attitude differs among the people in the different stages

A dynasty goes through 5 stages and encounters new conditions.

Through those conditions in each stage, the dynasty’s supporters acquire traits that do not exist in any other stage.

1. The successful overthrow of all opposition, and the appropriation of royal authority from the preceding dynasty.

In this stage, the ruler serves as model to his people by the manner in which he acquires glory, collects taxes, defends property, and provides military protection.

He does not claim anything exclusively for himself to the exclusion of (his people), because (such an attitude) is what is required by group feeling, (and it was group feeling) that gave superiority (to the dynasty), and (group feeling) still continues to exist as before.

2. The ruler gains complete control over his people, claims royal authority all for himself, excluding them, and prevents them from trying to have a share in it.

In this stage, the ruler of the dynasty is concerned with gaining adherents and acquiring clients and followers in great numbers, so as to be able to blunt the aspirations of the people who share in his group feeling and belong to his group, who are of the same descent as he himself and have the same claim to royal authority as he has. He keeps them from power and bars them from the sources of (power).

He stops them from getting to it, and, eventually, all the power is in the hands of his family. He reserves all the glory that he is building up to the members of his own house. He spends as much, or more, care to keep (his people) at a distance and to subdue them, as the first members of the dynasty expended in the search for power. The first (members of the dynasty) kept strangers away, and all the people who shared in their group feeling supported them in this. He, on the other hand, keeps (his) relatives away, and he is supported in this effort only by a very small number of people, who are not related to him. Thus, he undertakes a very difficult task.

3. The leisure and tranquillity in which the fruits of royal authority are enjoyed. (These fruits are) the things that human nature desires, such as acquisition of property, creation of lasting monuments, and fame.

The ruler’s abilities are spent:

• collecting taxes
• regulating income and expenses
• bookkeeping and planning expenses
• erecting large buildings, big constructions, spacious cities, and lofty monuments
• presenting gifts to embassies of nobles from foreign nations and tribal dignitaries
• dispensing bounty to his own people
• supporting the demands of his followers and retinue with money and positions.
• inspecting his soldiers, paying them well, and distributing fairly their allowances every month.

Eventually, the result of this (liberality) shows itself in their dress, their fine equipment, and their armor on parade days. The ruler thus can impress friendly dynasties and frighten hostile ones with (his soldiers).

This stage is the last during which the ruler is in complete authority. Throughout this and the previous stages, the rulers are independent intheir opinions. They build up their strength and show the way for those after them.

4. Contentment and peacefulness

The ruler is content with what his predecessors have built. He lives in peace with all his royal peers. He adopts the tradition of his predecessors and follows closely in their footsteps.

He imitates their ways most carefully. He thinks that to depart from tradition would mean the destruction of his power and that they knew better (what is good for the preservation of) the glory they themselves had built.

5. Waste and squandering

In this stage, the ruler wastes on pleasures and amusements (the treasures) accumulated by his ancestors, through (excessive) generosity to his inner circle and at their parties. Also, he acquires bad, low-class followers to whom he entrusts the most important matters (of state), which they are not qualified to handle by themselves, not knowing which of them they should tackle and which they should leave alone.

The ruler seeks to destroy the great clients of his people and followers of his predecessors. Thus, they come to hate him and conspire to refuse support to him. He loses a number of soldiers by spending their allowances on his pleasures (instead of paying them) and by refusing them access to his person and not supervising them (properly).

Thus, he ruins the foundations his ancestors had laid. In this stage, the dynasty is seized by senility and the chronic disease from which it can hardly ever rid itself, for which it can find no cure, and, eventually, it is destroyed.