Still would the Persian subject endorse the precept of
Sa’dí, [a famous Persian Poet] that ‘The vice approved by the king becomes a
virtue; to seek opposite counsel is to imbrue one’s hands in his own blood.’
The march of time has imposed upon him neither religious council nor secular
council, neither ‘ulamá nor senate. Elective and representative institutions have
not yet intruded their irreverent features. No written check exists upon the
royal prerogative.
- Lord Curzon (Extract from “Persia and the Persian
Question”, quoted by Shoghi Effendi in the Introduction to the Dawn-Breakers)
