When Khosrow Anushirvan concluded his wise discourse, the assembled sages and nobles were struck with awe, rising as one to shower praise upon their monarch. The King of Kings then summoned the foremost scholars of the realm to structure the imperial administration. He partitioned his vast dominion into four administrative quarters, delineating their prosperous cities: first Khorasan, which brought joy to the hearts of the eastern magnates; second, Qom, Isfahan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Ardabil, and the lands of Gilan; third, Pars, Ahvaz, and the marches of Khazar stretching from East to West; and fourth, Iraq alongside the borderlands of Rome. For the impoverished across these quarters, the king unlocked the imperial treasuries, relieving their bodily toil.
Turning his intellect to fiscal policy, Khosrow reformed the ancient taxation system. Where past rulers had extracted a third or a fourth of all harvests, King Qobad had reduced the levy to a single tenth, though time cut short his reform. Anushirvan completed the task by ordering a comprehensive land survey using measuring ropes. He instituted a benevolent land tax: if a farmer lacked seed or draft oxen for plowing, the royal treasury furnished him with supplies to ensure no land lay fallow, while uncultivated plots were entirely exempt from tax.
Specific, light duties were placed upon fruit-bearing trees—such as olives, walnuts, and date palms—that bore fruit by the festival of Mehregan, while minor crops of Khordad were untaxed. The poll tax on non-landowners was fixed fairly according to wealth and split into three yearly installments so that no subject suffered oppression. To prevent corruption, three identical copies of the tax registries were maintained: one under the chief treasurer and vizier, one dispatched to provincial governors, and one held by the High Priest. Finally, Khosrow deployed secret inspectors throughout the empire to report every act of justice or transgression. Under this righteous rule, the realm flourished in unprecedented harmony, such that the wolf and sheep drank peacefully at the very same stream.