‘You yourself can imagine which government serves the king best, ours or that of the Muslims; ours being fullheartedly devoted to the welfare of the country, [since] we are not people who have or seek other countries, [whereas] that of the Muslims is only to the end of becoming rich and then to leave for those places which they consider to be either their fatherland or holy.’106 This was an extraordinary statement for its times, expressing perhaps a kind of proto-nationalism, though Muslims in this context seemed to mean the Persians rather than the Dakhni faction.
