Four Royal Virtues

Jami presents wisdom, temperance, courage, and generosity as necessary conditions of legitimate sovereignty. Each virtue requires mastery over a corresponding vice: wisdom resists servitude to base desire, temperance restrains improper conduct, courage preserves moral independence, and generosity overcomes miserliness.

This scheme resembles the cardinal-virtue classification expressed in Shabestari's account of wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice. Jami adapts that ethical framework to kingship by placing generosity where the broader philosophical classification places justice. The poem therefore treats political authority as the outward consequence of disciplined moral character.