THE ‘CIRCLE OF JUSTICE’ Jennifer A. London 1,2 Abstract: For hundreds of years, medieval Arabic and Persian rulers invoked sayings known as the ‘circle of justice’ as a model for how to organize their kingdoms. In each case, the ‘circle of justice’ describes an ideal relation among classes (namely the ruler or political class, tax collectors, the military and the agricultural class). Yet authors invoked these sayings in diverse ways that allowed them to advocate for different political visions of who should rule, how kingdoms ought to be ordered and who should get left out of politics altogether. In this article, I analyse three invocations of the ‘circle of justice’ to interpret how medieval Arabic and Persian authors deployed it to promote their unique political goals. In the end, my analysis instructs us in the com- plex theories of justice that existed in medieval Islamic contexts, as well as the rhetori- cal means by which these writers legitimized their systems of rule. Medieval Arab and Persian kings, ministers and historians invoked two say- ings that they attributed to the Greek philosopher Aristotle and to ArdashÌr, the founder of the Persian Sasanian dynasty. While the narrative forms of these sayings differ slightly, both emphasize the ways that leaders ought to organize society to facilitate stability, order and prosperity. The saying attrib- uted to Aristotle reads: The world is a garden, and the fence of it is the dynasty; The dynasty is authority, and through it customs are kept alive; The customs are a way of governing, which is implemented by the sovereign; The sovereign is a shepherd, and the soldiers help him; The soldiers are helpers, and money provides for them; Money is livelihood, that the flock gather; The flock are slaves, devoted to the service of justice; Justice is a norm; and it is alive in the world; The world is a garden . . . 3 HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT. Vol. XXXII. No. 3. Autumn 2011 1 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for the Humanities, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA. Email: jennifer.london@tufts.edu 2 Thanks go to John Woods, Danielle Allen, Elizabeth Urban, Everett Rowson, Orit Bashkin, Nancy Luxon, Roxanne Euben, Leigh Jenco, Nathan Tarcov, Jennifer Pitts, Malik Mufti, Jennie Han, Lisa Wedeen and the anonymous reviewers at the History of Political Thought. 3 We find this saying in a text attributed to Aristotle, Kitªb Sirr al-Asrªr (The Book of the Secret of Secrets). Supposedly, it was a letter Aristotle wrote to Alexander, as the teacher was too old to follow his student on his campaign to Persia. An Arabic version of the text is attributed to ninth-century translator YaÊyª ibn al-BiðrÌq. Contemporary scholars consider this treatise to be apocryphal and believe it was written in Arabic in or before the tenth century. See the introduction to M. Manzalaoui, Secretum Secretorum: Nine English Versions (Oxford, 1977). See also the introduction to ‘Abd al-RaÊmªn Copyright (c) Imprint Academic 2011 For personal use only -- not for reproduction