Sykes' History of Persia - Heritage Institute

1 86 HISTORY OF PERSIA
dice : but, as may be supposed, the kings who left everything
to their ministers suffered from boredom, just as
much as the modern pleasure seeker and we read of cases
;
in which carving or even planing wood was a royal dis-
traction. Except for the listening to " the Book of the
Chronicles of the Kings of Persia and Media " recorded
in the book of Esther, no literature is mentioned, and it
is unlikely that the monarchs could read or write. Since,
however, we know that even Alfred the Great " could not
write and perhaps could not read," ^ this ignorance is not
extraordinary. Even to-day in Persia I have known men
holding high positions who could neither read nor write,
and, as their letters were not signed but sealed, their
ignorance was by no means easily discovered.
Below the King were the heads of the great families,
known as the " Seven Princes," whose it
right was to
demand admission to the monarch's presence at any
time, unless he were in the women's apartments. They
frequently filled the great offices and formed a permanent
council. Below them, again, were the younger scions and
adherents of the
great families. The trading community
was held in
great contempt ; and consequently there was
no intermediate class between the nobility and the com-
monalty. A subject admitted to an audience prostrated
himself on entering the presence and his hands remained
hidden throughout. This custom still survives.^
The Queen was supreme in the women's quarter.
She had the right to wear the royal tiara and lorded itover
the other wives. She possessed large revenues of
her own and a personal staffs of officials and servants.:
When a woman of character filled the position, her
influence was necessarily great, and to this history
bears full evidence. The inferior wives, it would seem,
had relatively little influence, and the hundreds of con-
cubines, unless they attracted the monarch's special notice,
shared the
royal couch for only one night. The position
of the Queen herself was liable to be overshadowed by
that of the Queen-Mother, who took precedence and
;
^ The British Empire^ by Professor A. F. Pollard, p. 23.
2 when I first came to Persia I was surprised to see servants all standing with their
arms crossed, until I learned that they were hiding their hands out of respect.