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This illustration falls in the Third Discourse, Section 4 on the tenets of good government. In the text, Nasir al-Din Tusi contrasts the example of a ‘Virtuous Government’, which is true to justice and the good treatment of its subjects, with a ‘Deficient Government’, which is tyrannical and treats its subjects as slaves. The painting, in which a man is flogged at the order of the ruler, might plausibly relate to either.
See AKM288 for an introduction to a manuscript of the Ethics of Nasir (Akhlaq-i Nasiri) and links to the other paintings within this manuscript.
— Marika Sardar
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