Medieval Muslim Mirrors for Princes

The ‘mirror for princes’ genre of literature offers advice to a ruler, or ruler-
to-be, concerning the exercise of royal power and the well-being of the body
politic. This anthology presents selections from the ‘mirror literature’ pro-
duced in the Islamic Early Middle Period (roughly the tenth to twelfth
centuries CE), newly translated from the original Arabic and Persian, as
well as a previously translated Turkish example. In these texts, authors advise
on a host of political issues which remain compelling to our contemporary
world: political legitimacy and the ruler’s responsibilities, the limits of the
ruler’s power and the limits of the subjects’ duty of obedience, the mainten-
ance of social stability, causes of unrest, licit and illicit uses of force, the
functions of governmental offices and the status and rights of diverse social
groups. Medieval Muslim Mirrors for Princes is a unique introduction to this
important body of literature, showing how these texts reflect and respond to
the circumstances and conditions of their era, and of ours.

l o u i s e m a r l o w is Professor of Religion at Wellesley College. She is the

author of Counsel for Kings: Wisdom and Politics in Tenth-Century Iran
(2016) and Hierarchy and Egalitarianism in Islamic Thought (1997). She is
the editor of The Rhetoric of Biography: Narrating Lives in Persianate
Societies (2011), Dreaming across Boundaries: The Interpretation of Dreams
in Islamic Lands (2008) and, with Beatrice Gruendler, Writers and Rulers:
Perspectives on Their Relationships from Abbasid to Safavid Times (2004).

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 CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN THE
HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT

General editor
QUENTIN SKINNER
Queen Mary University of London

Editorial board
MIC HAEL CO OK
Princeton University
H A N N A H D AW S O N
King’s College London
A D O M G E TA C H E W
University of Chicago
EMMA HUNTER
University of Edinburgh
G A B R I E L PA Q U E T T E
University of Oregon
A N D R E W S A RT O R I
New York University
H I L D E DE W E E R DT
Leiden University

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seeks at the same time to enlarge the conventional canon through a global
scope and by incorporating an extensive range of less well-known works,
many of them never before available in a modern English edition, and to
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text. Where possible, the texts are published in complete and unabridged
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 Medieval
Muslim Mirrors
for Princes
An Anthology of Arabic, Persian
and Turkish Political Advice
L OU I S E M A R L O W
Wellesley College

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doi: 10.1017/9781108348645
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 Sylvia and Christopher
in loving memory

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Published online by Cambridge University Press
 Contents
List of Figures and Maps page xi
Preface and Acknowledgements xiii
Conventions xv
List of Abbreviations xvii

PART I INTRODUCTION 1
1 The Arabic, Persian and Turkish Mirror Literatures 3
1.1 Development 6
1.2 The Early or Formative Period (Eighth and Ninth
Centuries) 7
1.3 The Early Middle Period (Tenth to Twelfth Centuries) 10
1.4 The Later Middle Period (Thirteenth to Fifteenth
Centuries) 12
1.5 The Early Modern Period (Sixteenth and Early
Seventeenth Centuries) 16
1.6 Reception 18
2 Contexts 24
2.1 The Early Middle Period 25
2.2 The Polities of the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries 33
3 Texts and Authors 47
3.1 Pseudo-Aristotle, Kitā b al-Siyā sa fı̄ tadbı̄ r al-riyā sa
(Sirr al-asrā r) (Arabic) 47
3.2 Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k (Arabic) 51
˙˙

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3.3Al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k (Arabic) 54

3.4Yū suf Khā ss Hā jib, Kutadgu bilig (Karakhanid Turkish) 56
˙˙ ˙
3.5Kaykā ʾū s b. Iskandar, Qā bū snā meh (Andarznā meh)
(Persian) 59
3.6 Al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar fı̄ akhlā q
˙ ˙
al-malik wa-siyā sat al-mulk (Arabic) 61
3.7 Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k (Persian) 63
˙
3.8 Ghazā lı̄ , Pseudo-Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k (Persian) 66
˙˙
3.9 Al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k (Arabic) 70
˙ ˙
4 Editions and Translations 76
4.1 Pseudo-Aristotle, Kitā b al-Siyā sa fı̄ tadbı̄ r al-riyā sa
(Sirr al-asrā r) (Text 9) 77
4.2 Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k (Text 1) 77
˙˙
4.3 Al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k (Texts 2 and 16) 78
4.4 Yū suf Khā ss Hā jib, Kutadgu bilig (Text 6) 78
˙˙ ˙
4.5 ʿUnsur al-Maʿā lı̄ Kaykā ʾū s b. Iskandar, Qā bū snā meh
˙
(Text 8) 78
4.6 Al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar fı̄ akhlā q
˙ ˙
al-malik wa-siyā sat al-mulk (Texts 3, 7, 10 and 13) 79
4.7 Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k (Texts 11, 14 and 17) 79
˙
4.8 Al-Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k (Text 4) 80
˙˙
4.9 Al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k (Texts 5, 12, 15 and 18) 81
˙ ˙

PART II TEXTS 83
5 The Nature of Sovereignty 85
Text 1 Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k. Chapter Two:
˙˙
On the Privileges of Kings in the Magnificence
of Their Stations; and the Habits That They Are
Obliged to Adopt in Their Cultivation of Virtue
and Avoidance of Vice 86
Text 2 Al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k. Chapter One:
In Explication of the Exalted Status of Kings;
the People’s Inescapable Need for Kings,
and Their Duty to Obey, Exalt and Glorify Them 109
Text 3 Al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar.
˙ ˙
Opening to Part II 130

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Text 4 Ghazā lı̄ , Pseudo-Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k. Part II,
˙˙
Chapter One: On the Justice, Governance
and Conduct of Kings 136
Text 5 Al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k. Chapter Nine:
˙ ˙
Explication of the Position of the Ruler (Sultā n)
˙
in Relation to the Subjects 139
6 The King’s Person and Character 143
Text 6 Yū suf Khā ss Hā jib, Kutadgu bilig. The Qualifications
˙˙ ˙
of a Prince 144
Text 7 Al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar.
˙ ˙
Part I, Chapter One 155
Text 8 Kaykā ʾū s b. Iskandar, Qā bū snā meh. Chapter
Twenty-Eight: On Making Friends; Chapter
Twenty-Nine: Regarding Enemies 167
7 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of
Governance 180
Text 9 Pseudo-Aristotle, Sirr al-asrā r. Third Discourse:
On the Form of Justice 181
Text 10 Al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar.
˙ ˙
Part II, Section 186
Text 11 Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k. Chapter Three:
˙
On the King’s Sitting for the Redress of
Grievances and the Practice of Fine Conduct 190
Text 12 Al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k. Chapter Eleven: On
˙ ˙
Knowing the Qualities That Constitute the Pillars
of the Ruler’s Power, without Which It Has No
Stability 203
8 The Practice of Good Governance 216
Text 13 Al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar.
˙ ˙
Part II, Section 217
Text 14 Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k. Chapter Four:
˙
On the Conditions and the Continual Monitoring
of Tax-Collectors and Viziers 234
Text 15 Al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k. Chapter Twenty-
˙ ˙
Seven: On Consultation and Counsel 247

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9 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies 259

Text 16 Al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k. Chapter Seven:
On the Calamities That Befall Kings 259
Text 17 Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k. Chapter Forty:
˙
On the King’s Forgiveness of God’s Creatures,
May He Be Exalted and Glorified; and the
Restoration to Their Proper Order of All Practices
and Customs That Have Lost Their Order and
Foundation 282
Text 18 Al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k. Chapter Six: The
˙ ˙
Sultan Is a Debtor, Not a Creditor, in Relation to His
Subjects, and He Stands to Lose, Not to Profit 309

Appendix: Index of Qurʾanic References and Quotations 313

Glossary 316
Bibliography 320
Index 357

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 Figures and Maps

Figures
1 Pages from a manuscript of al-Shayzarı̄ ’s al-Manhaj al-maslū k fı̄
siyā sat al-mulū k (also known under the title al-Nahj al-maslū k fı̄
siyā sat al-mulū k), copied in 1115/1703–4; Garrett Collection,
no. 138 HQ, ff. 4r, 9r (Islamic Manuscripts Collection,
Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections,
Princeton University Library) (see Hitti et al., Descriptive
Catalog of the Garrett Collection, 256–7, no. 781). Photographs:
Courtesy of Princeton University Library. page 20
2 Page from the manuscript Kitap ü s-siyase fi tedbir ir-riyase,
written in Ottoman Turkish and dated Muharram 1231
˙
(December 1815); New Series no. 1669, f. 84v (Islamic
Manuscripts Collection, Manuscripts Division, Department of
Special Collections, Princeton University Library). Photograph:
Courtesy of Princeton University Library. 50
3 A ‘circle of justice’ from a manuscript (perhaps copied in the
fourteenth century) of the pseudo-Aristotelian Kitā b al-Siyā sa
fı̄ tadbı̄ r al-riyā sa or Sirr al-asrā r; MS Laud Or. 210, f. 90r
(The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford). Photograph:
Bodleian Libraries Imaging Services, The Bodleian Libraries,
University of Oxford. 184
4 The two sides of a dinar issued during the reign of Sultan
Mahmū d of Ghazna, struck at Ghazna in 414/1023–4, and
˙
inscribed with the names of the Abbasid caliph al-Qā dir bi-llā h

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 List of Figures and Maps

(obverse) and Yamı̄ n al-Dawla wa-Amı̄ n al-Milla Abū l-Qā sim

[Mahmū d] (reverse) (Ashmolean Museum, Islamic Coin
˙
HCR14556). Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of
Oxford. 306

Maps
1 Western Asia and the Mediterranean in the tenth
to twelfth centuries. Credit: Redrawn based on a map
originally produced by Dani Henry. 2

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 Preface and Acknowledgements
This book consists of two parts. Part I comprises an introduction to the
mirror-for-princes literature – that is, the literature of political advice –
produced in Arabic, Persian and Turkish in a roughly two-century-long
period. Part II offers translations of selections from nine mirrors com-
posed or in circulation during this period.
It is a pleasure to thank Michael Cook for his kind invitation to propose
this volume for inclusion in the series Cambridge Texts in the History of
Political Thought, and Hugh Kennedy and Deborah Tor for their gener-
ous support of the project. I am grateful to the National Endowment for
the Humanities, which provided support for the research that led to this
book, and to Wellesley College, for approving my application for a
sabbatical leave, during which I completed the major part of the project.
It is a further pleasure to thank the Israel Institute for Advanced Study
(IIAS) for their graciousness in accommodating me as a remote member
during the spring of 2021, and in particular Uriel Simonsohn and Luke
Yarbrough, who invited me to participate in the IIAS’s research group
‘Cultural Brokerage in Pre-modern Islam’. The opportunity proved
enriching for my studies of the mirror-for-princes literature; in particu-
lar, I profited from numerous stimulating discussions with my fellow
core members, Michal Biran, Eugenio Garosi, Jessica Goldberg, Maria
Mavroudi and Gregor Schwarb.
I am very grateful to Wellesley College’s Dani Henry, who kindly
created Map 1, which appears at the beginning of Part I. For their
photographic services and permission to publish the images that appear
in Figures 1–4, I wish to thank the Department of Special Collections at
Princeton University Library (Figures 1 and 2); the Imaging Services

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 Preface and Acknowledgements

Department at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford (Figure 3);

and the Ashmolean Museum’s Picture Library (Figure 4). Edinburgh
University Press kindly granted permission for the reproduction in
revised form of previously published materials (see Text 1). The earlier
versions appeared in L. Marlow, Counsel for Kings: Wisdom and Politics in
Tenth-Century Iran: The Nası̄ hat al-mulū k of Pseudo-Mā wardı̄
˙˙
(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016) (© L. Marlow, 2016);
reproduced with permission of Edinburgh University Press Limited
through PLSclear. Text 6 is republished, with permission of the
University of Chicago Press, from Robert Dankoff, Wisdom of Royal
Glory (Kutadgu bilig) (© 1983 by The University of Chicago); permis-
sion conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.
I am pleased, furthermore, to thank Angie Batson and Jamie Jesanis of
the Interlibrary Loan Department at Wellesley College; their assistance
in obtaining materials has been invaluable, particularly given the condi-
tions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which I wrote most
of this book. For their patience, their many forms of assistance and their
consistent encouragement, I am deeply grateful to Elizabeth Friend-
Smith, Atifa Jiwa and Elliot Beck, all of Cambridge University Press.
Finally, I have benefited beyond measure from the practical assistance,
patient forbearance and loving support of my husband and son, and I owe
them, in this endeavour as in so many others, an incalculable debt of
gratitude. I dedicate this book to the memory of my parents, whose house
full of books and lifelong love of learning shaped and inspired me, and
whose quiet striving towards fairness and compassion in the world did
much to form my engagement with the subject of this book.

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 Conventions
As a rule, my transliterations from Arabic and Persian follow the stand-
ard scholarly system (used, for example, in the Encyclopaedia of Islam
Three), with a small number of minor modifications. The most notable
adjustments apply to transliteration from Persian, for which I use ż
(instead of d) for the letter dā d (as in Abū l-Fażl), v (instead of w) for
˙ ˙
the letter wā w (as in Urmavı̄ ) and -eh (instead of -a) for final hā ʾ (as in
Shā hnā meh).
Names of places and dynasties appear in their anglicised forms
(Mecca, Damascus, Cairo; Abbasid, Ottoman, Safavid), and without
diacritics. The only exceptions are for relatively little-known historical
place names (al-Hı̄ ra, Mā rib, al-Bahrayn – the latter not to be confused
˙ ˙
with the modern Bahrain) and dynasties (Shaddā dids, Banū ʿAbbā d),
which I have rendered in full transliteration. For Turkish names and
terms, I have, in most cases, used modern Turkish spelling. Commonly
used names of offices (caliph, amir, vizier, qadi) are rendered in their
anglicised forms, and capitalised when applied to specific individuals or
used as titles (Caliph al-Maʾmū n, Sultan Mahmū d, the Khaqan of
˙
Samarqand). Other terms in common use in English (hadith, madrasa,
sharia) appear without diacritics and in Roman script; less common terms
(tafsı̄ r, khā naqā h, fiqh) appear in transliteration and in italics.
I have provided translations of several but not all of the titles of
compositions mentioned in this book. In deciding whether or not to
translate a title, I have aimed to facilitate rather than obscure the book’s
accessibility. Where I have provided translations, they appear at the first
mention of the composition; I have tended not to translate titles when
they appear only in the notes. In references to primary texts, I use the =

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 Conventions

sign in order to indicate equivalent sections of source texts and their

translations; for example, Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k, 4 = Darke,
˙
Book of Government, 2.
Like many pre-modern texts, the selections included in this volume
include certain formulaic phrases, which appear after each mention of
God, the Prophet, members of the Prophet’s family, members of the
early Muslim community and other esteemed persons. These formulae
are essential elements in the original texts, and in many cases I have opted
to include them; I have not done so in an entirely consistent manner,
however, since to do so would sometimes involve substantial repetition,
and it would add significantly to the length of the English versions.

Dates
In most cases, I have provided dates according to the hijrı̄ calendar
(indicated first) and the Gregorian calendar (indicated second). In the
few cases where only one date appears, it represents the Gregorian
calendar unless indicated otherwise. In temporal references of a general
kind, such as ‘fourteenth century’ or ‘mid-tenth century’, these indica-
tors apply to the Gregorian calendar. Names of months of the Islamic
hijrı̄ calendar appear in transliteration (Muharram, Shawwā l).
˙

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 Abbreviations

Abbès, De Makram Abbè s, Al-Mā wardı̄ . De l’É thique du

l’Éthique du prince prince et du gouvernement de l’é tat. Traduit de
l’arabe et pré cé dé d’un Essai sur les arts de gou-
verner en Islam (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2015).
EI2 Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, ed. P.
Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van
Donzel, W. P. Heinrichs (Leiden: Brill, 1960–
20 07) (https://referenceworks-brillonline-
com.ezproxy.wellesley.edu/entries/encyclopae
dia-of-islam-2).
EI Three Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three, ed. Kate Fleet,
Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas,
Everett Rowson (Leiden: Brill, 2007–)
(https://referenceworks-brillonline-com.
ezproxy.wellesley.edu/entries/encyclopaedia-
of-islam-3).
EIr Encyclopaedia Iranica, ed. Ehsan Yarshater,
Elton Daniel (London and Boston: Routledge
and Kegan Paul, 1985–). Encyclopaedia Iranica
Online © Trustees of Columbia University in
the City of New York (https://referenceworks
.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-ira
nica-online/).

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 List of Abbreviations

EQ Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾā n, ed. Jane Dammen

McAuliffe, 6 vols. (Leiden and Boston: E. J.
Brill, 2001–6).
GAL Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen
Litteratur, 2 vols. (first edition, Weimar: E.
Felber, 1898–1902; second edition, Leiden: E.
J. Brill, 1943–9).
GAL SI, SII, SIII Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen
Litteratur [Supplementbände], 3 vols. (Leiden:
E. J. Brill, 1937–42).
Lisā n al-ʿarab Ibn Manzū r, Muhammad b. Mukarram, Lisā n
˙ ˙
al-ʿarab (Cairo: Dā r al-Maʿā rif, 1981).
Mach-Yahuda,
Catalogue of Arabic
Manuscripts Rudolf Mach, Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts
(Yahuda Section) in the Garrett Collection,
Princeton University Library (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1977).
PEIPT The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political
Thought, ed. Gerhard Bö wering (Princeton and
Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2013).
Sirr al-asrā r Pseudo-Aristotle, Kitā b al-Siyā sa fı̄ tadbı̄ r
al-riyā sa al-maʿrū f bi-Sirr al-asrā r, ed. ʿAbd
al-Rahmā n Badawı̄ , in al-Usū l al-yū nā niyya
˙ ˙
lil-nazariyyā t al-siyā siyya fı̄ l-Islā m (Cairo:
˙
Dā r al-Kutub al-Misriyya, 1954), 67–171.
˙
Steele/Ali,
Secretum secretorum Secretum secretorum cum glossis et notulis, ed.
Robert Steele; including the translation from the
Arabic [by Ismail Ali], ed. A. S. Fulton, in Opera
hactenus inedita Rogeri Baconi, Fasc. V (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1920), 176–266.

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 Part I Introduction

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 Semirechye
Jaxa Balasaghun
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Tiflis

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Constantinople KHUR Balkh d uKabul
Granada ASAN in Lahore
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S.
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Map 1 Western Asia and the Mediterranean in the tenth to twelfth centuries.
Credit: Redrawn based on a map originally produced by Dani Henry
 1

The Arabic, Persian and Turkish Mirror

Literatures1

A ‘mirror for princes’ – the term derives from the Latin speculum
principis – is a text that offers advice to a ruler, or ruler-to-be, concerning
the exercise of royal power and the well-being of the body politic. 2
Attested in numerous agrarian societies, the genre flourished for over
a millennium in the pre- and early modern Muslim and Christian
spheres, where mirrors constituted an important vehicle for the articula-
tion of political thought. The affinities among the mirror literatures
produced in Muslim and Christian settings, and to a degree over an
even wider canvas, are striking: they suggest a political culture in many
respects familiar in the courtly circles of medieval Muslim and Christian
rulers alike. The passage of mirrors among the lingua francas of Arabic,
Latin and Greek, and into regional and vernacular languages, is perhaps
as much indicative as it is causative of this affinity.3

1
This volume, it must be acknowledged, is heavily weighted towards mirrors in Arabic and
Persian; among nine examples, only one is in Turkish. The reasons for this uneven
treatment lie in the anthology’s concentration on the Early Middle Period (see below),
when many more mirror-writers wrote in Arabic and Persian than in Turkish, and in the
limits of the author’s expertise.
2
From speculum principis and similar Latin compounds (speculum regis, speculum regale),
analogous terms in the vernacular European languages (mirror for princes, miroir des princes,
Fürstenspiegel) evolved (on the metaphorical use of the term ‘mirror’ in late antiquity and
the Latin West, see Bradley, ‘Backgrounds of the Title Speculum’; Jónsson, Le miroir;
Eberhardt, Via Regia, 400, 496–8). The term did not appear before the twelfth century,
although the ‘genre’ is very much older; see Hadot, ‘Fü rstenspiegel’; Blum, Byzantinische
Fürstenspiegel, 1–18.
3
See further Yavari, Advice for the Sultan, esp. 7–44; Yavari, ‘Political Regard’; Darling,
‘Mirrors for Princes in Europe and the Middle East’; Dvornik, Early Christian and
Byzantine Political Philosophy, II: 659–850; van Berkel, ‘People of the Pen’; and, for
a broader comparative study, al-Azmeh, Muslim Kingship.

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 Part I Introduction

This volume introduces a portion of the extensive body of mirror

literature produced in pre-modern Muslim contexts. Also termed
‘advice’ or ‘advisory’ literature, 4 the Arabic, Persian and Turkish mirrors
treat a host of political issues, including the sources and signs of political
legitimacy, rulers’ responsibilities towards the populations under their
governance, the ruler’s power and its limits, the people’s duty of obedi-
ence and its limits, justice and law, the maintenance of social stability,
causes of unrest, licit and illicit uses of force, the functions of govern-
mental offices and the status and rights of diverse social groups – issues
that remain of compelling importance in the contemporary world.
The contexts in which the pre-modern authors wrote, however, dif-
fered radically from the circumstances facing writers and governments in
post-industrial societies. Commonly addressed (directly or indirectly) to
the person of the ruler, who occupied the central position in the court,
the pre-modern mirror literature circulated among many groups who
participated in the courtly milieu; indeed, it was frequently viziers,
administrators, secretaries, men of letters, men of learning – persons
tied to the court and recipients of royal patronage – who composed
mirrors.5 While mirrors characteristically discuss many of these groups,
they attend first to the royal person: it was axiomatic that the well-being
of the polity depended on the welfare, physical and spiritual, of the ruler;
accordingly, the upbringing and education of the prince, and the good
health, rectitude, dutiful religious observance and pleasing personal
habits of the king were matters of the foremost political significance.
Often devoting separate treatments to the king’s self-governance, his
governance of the persons in his inner circle and his governance of the
population at large, mirror-writers effectively (and sometimes explicitly)
distinguished the distinct fields of ethics, economics and politics – the

4
Although the image of the mirror was not entirely absent from the Arabic, Persian and
Turkish advisory literatures (see Cheikh-Moussa, ‘De la “communauté de salut” à la
“populace”’, 499–500), it did not develop into a generic marker, for which designations
such as ‘book of advice’ and ‘counsel for kings’ came into common use; for the develop-
ment of generic markers, see below, and n. 8.
5
I use the term ‘court’ to describe a temporary grouping of people, such as the persons
mentioned, rather than a stable physical space (von der Hö h, Jaspert and Oesterle, ‘Courts,
Brokerage and Brokers’, 11–12). Almost as important as kings in dispensing patronage
were viziers, who, like kings, were sometimes recipients of mirrors (see below, n. 60). In
general contexts, I use the terms ‘ruler’, ‘king’ and ‘monarch’ more or less interchangeably;
in specific contexts, I use various terms, such as caliph, sultan, amir and king, according to
the office or title of the individual in question. Especially in earlier centuries, the Arabic
term sultā n, later used as a title, connotes ‘power’ in the abstract sense; see Tor, ‘Sultan’.
˙

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 The Arabic, Persian and Turkish Mirror Literatures

Aristotelian divisions of practical philosophy, assimilated into philosoph-

ical discourse in the medieval Muslim and Christian spheres.6
If the ‘mirror for princes’ constitutes a ‘genre’, its identifying features
tend to be functional rather than formal: the term has been applied to
compositions ranging from brief sententiae to collections of stories to
long epic poems.7 In Arabic, Persian and Turkish contexts, the raison
d’ê tre of the mirror literature lies in its overt advisory function. The
phrases nası̄hat al-mulū k (Arabic), ‘counsel for kings’, as well as andarz-
˙˙
nā meh (Persian), pandnā meh (Persian) and nasihatname (Turkish), ‘book
of advice’, came to be used to describe the genre and to identify compos-
itions that belonged to it. (Other generic terms, with slightly differing
connotations, included akhlā q al-mulū k, ‘the dispositions of kings’; ā dā b
al-mulū k, ‘the aphorisms of, or regulations for, kings’; and siyar al-mulū k,
‘rules or regulations concerning the conduct of kings’.)8 As one of the few
acknowledged vehicles of communication between a subject and his
sovereign, the mirror provided a versatile mechanism through which
writers sought not only to advise but also to accomplish a host of other,
unstated purposes: intervening in dynastic and factional politics; advan-
cing a proté gé ; gaining access to personal networks; professional
advancement; competing for patronage, remuneration or employment.
To accomplish these varied ends, authors adapted the medium of the
mirror to suit their interests and circumstances. Almost always, mirror-
writers demonstrated their familiarity with the vast cultural repertoire
known as adab, a term which connoted a body of edifying and

6
Behind my references to the king’s ‘inner circle’ and ‘the population at large’ are the Arabic
terms (also used in Persian and Turkish) khā ss and ʿā mm, ‘special’ or ‘privileged’ and
˙˙
‘common’; in social terms, the former applied to individuals with personal ties, principally
of loyalty and obligation, to the ruler, while the latter designated persons only in indirect
relationship with the ruler, a group that might include a variety of urban constituencies
and the general tax-paying population. Several groups among the khā ssa (the collective
˙˙
term for persons with khā ss status) functioned as intermediaries between the ruler and the
˙˙
general population; see further Mottahedeh, Loyalty and Leadership, esp. 40–96; Paul,
‘Khidma’; Paul, Herrscher, Gemeinwesen, Vermittler; Peacock, Great Seljuk Empire, 158–63;
Cheikh-Moussa, ‘Du discours autorisé ’, 171–5. See further below, Chapter 5, n. 54. The
three-fold modes of royal governance also appear in Carolingian mirrors; see Nelson,
‘Kingship and Empire’, 219–20.
7
For a broad interpretation of the topic (with emphasis on antiquity and the Middle Ages),
see Hadot, ‘Fü rstenspiegel’; see further Hunger, Die hochsprachliche profane Literatur der
Byzantiner, 157–65; and Jónsson, ‘La situation du Speculum regale’, 394–7 (where a more
restricted definition is proposed).
8
See further Zakharia, ‘Al-Ghazâ lî, conseilleur du prince’, 212–16; Gilliot, ‘In consilium
tuum deduces me’, 483; see also Cheikh-Moussa, ‘Du discours autorisé ’.

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 Part I Introduction

entertaining (Arabic) literature, as well as manners, appropriate com-

portment and moral propriety.9 But the mirror-form was almost infin-
itely flexible.10 It is not unusual to find medical, astrological,
philosophical, religious, theological or legal materials in a mirror, and
the relationship between advisory and historiographical writing is par-
ticularly close: mirror-writers used historical examples to teach, and
historians narrated the past with a view to its lessons for the present.11

1.1 Development
From approximately the eighth century to the eighteenth, first the Arabic
language, then Persian and Turkish, provided the linguistic media for
extensive literatures of political advice. Certain features, while not de
rigueur, became prevalent, and it is possible to identify broad phases in
literary development, as well as different strands of intellectual approach.
It is possible, for example, to differentiate between continuous epistles
composed for specific occasions, chiefly concerned with particular areas
of political life, and broadly conceived, book-length compositions sub-
divided into thematic chapters – even though some of the materials in the
latter are likely to appear in the former. It is possible also to distinguish,
among the varied types of advisory literature, compositions grounded
principally in literary culture (adab); treatises presented within
a primarily juristic or a primarily philosophical and ethical conceptual
framework (works of ahkā m and akhlā q respectively); and exhortations of
˙
a homiletic type (nası̄ha, pl. nasā ʾih; mawʿiza, pl. mawā ʿiz).12 Some of
˙˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
9
In a useful comparison, Tarif Khalidi has likened adab to paideia (Arabic Historical
Thought, 83). For general treatments, see Hämeen-Anttila, ‘Adab (a)’; Enderwitz, ‘Adab
(b)’; Toorawa, Ibn Abı̄ Tā hir Tayfū r and Arabic Writerly Culture, 1–6; Toorawa, ‘Defining
Adab by (Re)defining the ˙ Adı̄˙b’, 286–308; for a consideration of interconnections between
the concepts of adab and siyā sa (governance), see Makdisi, Ibn ʿAqil: Religion and Culture
in Classical Islam, 159. For the plural form ā dā b, see Sadan, ‘Ādā b – rè gles de conduite et
ā dā b – dictons, maximes’.
10
The same quality is evident in the European mirror literatures; see, for example, Barrau,
‘Ceci n’est pas un miroir’, 90 (with reference to the Policraticus of John of Salisbury (c.
1120–80)).
11
See further Waldman, Toward a Theory of Historical Narrative; Meisami, ‘History as
Literature’; Meisami, ‘Exemplary Lives, Exemplary Deaths’; Meisami, Persian
Historiography.
12
See Toelle and Zakharia, À la dé couverte de la litté rature arabe, 160; and above, at n. 8. In
her pioneering studies of mirrors, A. K. S. Lambton restricted the use of the term ‘mirror
for princes’ to compositions in the ‘literary’ (adab) mode (‘Islamic Mirrors for Princes’,
419; State and Government, xvii).

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 The Arabic, Persian and Turkish Mirror Literatures

these distinctions emerge over time, and accordingly it is useful to

consider the development of the Arabic, Persian and Turkish mirror
literatures in terms of four loose historical periods, to which I shall refer
as the Early or Formative Period, the Earlier Middle Period, the Later
Middle Period and the Early Modern Period.13

1.2 The Early or Formative Period

(Eighth and Ninth Centuries)
The Early or Formative Period witnessed the first post-conquest compos-
itions of instructive prose in Arabic. It also encompasses the recording in
writing of sixth- and early seventh-century Arabic literature, and the great
wave of translations of Middle Persian, Greek, Syriac and Sanskrit writings
into Arabic. Beginning towards the end of the Umayyad period, usually with
caliphal patronage, a wealth of material was translated from these languages.
Particularly significant for the formation of a mirror literature in Arabic were
narrative cycles, such as Kalı̄la wa-Dimna and Bilawhar wa-Bū dhā saf;
accounts of the kings of the past and collections of royal pronouncements,
such as the ‘Testament of Ardashı̄ r’ (ʿAhd Ardashı̄r); prescriptive accounts of
manners, including stipulations for appropriate conduct at court (Middle
Persian ē wē n, Ar. ā ʾı̄n); epistles, such as the ‘Letter to Julian (the Apostate)’
of Themistius (d. c. 388) and the ‘Letter of Tansar’; and treatises in the fields
of ethics, economics and political philosophy, such as Aristotle’s
Nicomachean Ethics, the Oikonomicos of Bryson (on household management),
and Plato’s Republic.14 A voluminous repertoire of wisdom literature, in the
form of edifying aphorisms and instructive maxims, entered Arabic from
a variety of sources.15 The pseudo-Aristotelian text known as Kitā b al-Siyā sa

13
This sequence of periods is adapted from Hodgson’s outline of a High Caliphal Period
(692–945), an Earlier Islamic Middle Period (945–1258), a Late Middle Period (1258–
1503) and the Period of the Gunpowder Empires (1503–1789) (Venture of Islam, I: 96). In
its entirety, Hodgson’s Middle Period covers roughly half a millennium, 1000–1500; the
texts presented in this anthology date from the earlier rather than the later phase of this
extended period. Cf. Hodgson, Venture of Islam, II: 6–7; see also Berkey, Formation of
Islam, 179–83.
14
On the translation movement and some of its principal products, see Gutas, Greek
Thought, Arabic Culture; Gutas, Greek Wisdom Literature in Arabic Translation; de Blois,
Burzoy’s Voyage to India; Boyce, Letter of Tansar; Dvornik, Early Christian and Byzantine
Political Philosophy, II: 666–9; Zakeri, Persian Wisdom in Arabic Garb; Zakeri,
‘Muhammad b. Khalaf b. al-Marzbā n’; Forster, ‘Buddha in Disguise’.
˙
15
Gutas, ‘Classical Arabic Wisdom Literature’; Shaked, ‘From Iran to Islam’; Zakeri,
Persian Wisdom in Arabic Garb; Daiber, ‘Das Kitā b al-Ādā b al-kabı̄r’.

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 Part I Introduction

fı̄ tadbı̄r al-riyā sa (‘Book of Governance: On the Strategies of Rule’) or Sirr

al-asrā r, ‘Secret of Secrets’ (Secretum secretorum), a collection that includes
a cycle of correspondence purportedly exchanged between Aristotle and
Alexander the Great, derives in large part from materials rendered into
Arabic during this Early Period.16 The vicissitudes of textual transmission
only rarely allow for the comparison of an Arabic ‘translation’ with its
predecessor(s) in another language. Perhaps more importantly, the Arabic
texts created through this process constituted an early Arabic mirror litera-
ture, as well as providing materials for inclusion and development in con-
temporaneous advisory writings in Arabic, and later in Persian and Turkish.
In this period, the distinction between a ‘translation’ and an ‘original’, or
‘new’, composition in Arabic is not always easy to determine; the prevalence,
acknowledged or unacknowledged, of transposed materials in Arabic writing
rendered the categories far from mutually exclusive.17
At least as important as the textual inheritance provided by the
translations was the cultural inheritance that shaped the thought and
writing of many of the earliest mirror-writers in Arabic. Among the
most remarkable individuals in this respect is Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (d. c.
139–40/756–7), who both translated from Middle Persian and wrote
new compositions, on political subjects, in Arabic prose.18 Even
centuries after the seventh-century incorporation of Iran into the
Muslim caliphate, memories of the Sasanian and Zoroastrian past
persisted, shaping writings in Arabic and Persian alike.19 These
memories were communicated at least as much through oral chan-
nels as through written records. As late as the latter part of the
eleventh century, Nizā m al-Mulk states that, in composing his Siyar
˙

16
See Grignaschi, ‘Les “Rasā ʾil ʾAristā tā lı̄ sa ʾilā -l-Iskandar”’; Grignaschi, ‘Le roman
˙˙
é pistolaire classique’. It is not self-evident from which language(s) the text was translated;
see van Bladel, ‘Iranian Characteristics and Forged Greek Attributions’; and further
below, section 3.1.
17
For discussion and examples, see Shaked, ‘Andarz and Andarz Literature’; Shaked,
‘From Iran to Islam’; Safa, ‘Andarz Literature in New Persian’; Zakeri, Persian Wisdom
in Arabic Garb; Zakeri, ‘Ā dā b al-falā sifa’; Zakeri, ‘ʿAlı̄ ibn ʿUbaida al-Raihā nı̄ ’; Yavari,
The Future of Iran’s Past; de Fouché cour, Moralia, 6 and passim; Yousefi, ‘Islam ˙ without
Fuqahā ʾ’.
18
See Kristó-Nagy, La pensé e d’Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ; Kristó-Nagy, ‘Marriage after Rape’;
Shaked, ‘From Iran to Islam’; Hamori, ‘Prudence, Virtue and Self-Respect in Ibn al-
Muqaffaʿ’; Lowry, ‘The First Islamic Legal Theory’.
19
See Savant, New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran, esp. 90–129; Yavari, Advice for the
Sultan, passim; Sattarzade, ‘Persian Institutions’, 72–4 and passim.

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 The Arabic, Persian and Turkish Mirror Literatures

al-mulū k (‘The Conduct of Kings’), he drew on materials that he

had ‘seen, learnt, read and heard’. 20
In the Early Period, the ‘new’ Arabic literature of political advice
comprised two principal literary vehicles, the epistle (risā la, also kitā b)
and the ‘testament’ (wasiyya, ʿahd), the latter an ancient Arabic genre in
˙
which a father, often shortly before his death, offered counsel to his son
and heir or to his children. These compositions, initially, concentrated on
particular topics intended for specific occasions; they gradually grew in
scope and, incorporating the device of internal classification (tasnı̄f), came
˙
to presage the general, subdivided book-length mirror that would become
customary in the Early Middle Period. Examples include the epistles,
addressed to specific individuals, of ʿAbd al-Hamı̄ d al-Kā tib (c. 69–
˙
132/688–750); and the Kitā b al-Sahā ba or Risā la fı̄ l-sahā ba (‘Epistle
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
concerning the Ruler’s Companions’) of Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, who also com-
posed an important advisory manual, al-Ādā b al-kabı̄r.21 These compos-
itions circulated at the caliphal court and in the circles of the caliph’s
secretaries.22 They were soon followed by the Kitā b al-Kharā j
(‘Concerning the Land-Tax’) of the chief judge Abū Yū suf Yaʿqū b
b. Ibrā hı̄ m al-Kū fı̄ (113–82/731–98) and the ‘Testament’ of Tā hir b. al-
˙
Husayn Dhū l-Yamı̄ nayn (159–207/776–822) – the former composed in
˙
response to questions posed to the jurist-author by the caliph Hā rū n al-
Rashı̄ d (r. 170–93/786–809), the latter written at the appointment of the
ruler-author’s son to a provincial governorship – and both already encom-
passing a number of topics.23 Other ninth-century contributions to the

20
Siyar al-mulū k, 4 = Darke, Book of Government, 2 (Darke translates, ‘drawing upon what
I have found out, seen, experienced and learned from masters’); the passage is cited in
Sattarzade, ‘Persian Institutions’, 6.
21
On these genres, see Arazi and Ben-Shammay, ‘Risā la’; Latham, ‘Beginnings of Arabic
Prose’, 154–64; Harmsen, Die Wasiya als literarisches Genre. On ʿAbd al-Hamı̄ d, see al-
˙
Qadi, ‘ʿAbd al-Hamid al-Katib’; al-Qā dı̄ , ‘Early Islamic State Letters’; Latham,
˙
‘Beginnings of Arabic Prose’, 164–79; and on the mixed sources, including Greek,
Persian and Arabian materials, that contributed to his vocabulary, al-Qā dı̄ , ‘Myriad
˙
Sources’, 232–53. On Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, see Latham, ‘Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ and Early
ʿAbbasid Prose’; Cooperson, ‘ʿAbd Allah Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ’; Kristó-Nagy, ‘Reason,
Religion and Power in Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ’. See also the translations of Schö nig (Das
Sendschreiben des ʿAbdalhamı̄d b. Yahyā ) and Pellat (Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (mort vers 140/
˙ ˙
757), ‘conseilleur’ du calife).
22
Schoeler, ‘Relationship of Literacy and Memory’, 123; cf. Schoeler, The Genesis of
Literature in Islam.
23
For English translations, see Ben Shemesh, Abū Yū suf’s Kitā b al-Kharā j; and Bosworth,
‘An Early Arabic Mirror for Princes’; for the latter, see further below, Chapter 2, n. 4,
Chapter 8, n. 47.

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 Part I Introduction

Arabic literature of political advice include compositions inseparable from

the formation of the corpus and culture of adab: the Kitā b al-Sultā n (‘On
˙
the Subject of Power: A Book’) in the anthology ʿUyū n al-akhbā r of Ibn
Qutayba (213–76/828–89) and the mid-ninth-century collection Kitā b al-
Tā j fı̄ akhlā q al-mulū k (‘Book of the Crown: On the Characteristics of
Kings’), both dedicated to al-Fath b. Khā qā n (d. 247/861–2), a courtier
˙
and diplomat to the caliph al-Mutawakkil (r. 232–47/847–61).24 These
compositions, in which topics are treated sequentially within a single
structure, consist substantially of quoted materials, some of them drawn
from translated sources.

1.3 The Early Middle Period (Tenth to Twelfth

Centuries)
The Early Middle Period saw the appearance of book-length mirrors,
authored compositions subdivided into thematic chapters that collect-
ively treated a broad and flexible range of topics related to kingship and
the service of kings.25
An unmistakable feature of the mirror literatures – Arabic, Persian and
Turkish – of this period is the prominence in their production of celebrated
individuals, sometimes themselves participants in the exercise of power, or
exceptionally well situated to intervene in the politics of their times. Often
writing in the later stages of their lives, when their authority was well
established, the chief judge al-Mā wardı̄ (364–450/974–1058), the admired
scholar Ghazā lı̄ (450–505/1058–1111), the vizier Nizā m al-Mulk (408–
˙
485/1018–92), the amir Kaykā ʾū s b. Iskandar (r. 441–c. 480/1049–c.
1087), the esteemed jurist al-Turtū shı̄ (c. 451–520 or 525/1059–1126 or
˙ ˙
24
Ibn Qutayba’s Kitā b al-Sultā n was followed in the early tenth century by an identically
˙
titled opening chapter in the anthology al-ʿIqd al-farı̄d of Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih (246–
328/860–940). The Kitā b al-Tā j fı̄ akhlā q al-mulū k, which also circulated under the
rubric Akhlā q al-mulū k, is the work not of al-Jā hiz (d. 255/868), as traditionally accepted,
˙ ˙
but of Muhammad b. al-Hā rith al-Taghlibı̄ (or al-Thaʿlabı̄ ) (d. 250/864) (Schoeler,
˙ ˙
‘Verfasser und Titel’). As Michael Bonner points out, al-Fath b. Khā qā n, for all his
˙
prominence, seems not to have held any formal government position (Bonner, ‘Waning of
Empire’, 308).
25
On the development of the mirror literatures, see Richter, Studien zur Geschichte der
älteren arabischen Fürstenspiegel; Lambton, ‘Islamic Mirrors for Princes’; Bosworth,
‘Nası̄ hat al-mulū k’; Marlow, ‘Advice and Advice Literature’. Probably the earliest
˙˙
example of the Carolingian mirror literature is the Via Regia, composed in or before
the year 814 (Eberhardt (Via Regia, 195–212, 262–3) concludes that Smaragd wrote in
810).

10

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 The Arabic, Persian and Turkish Mirror Literatures

1131) and the popular preacher Ibn al-Jawzı̄ (510–97/1126–1200 or 1201) –

all of whom wrote mirrors in this period – needed no introduction to their
recipients, who in some cases commissioned their compositions. Notably,
despite the (in some circles) controversial nature of association with rulers,
the mirror-writers of the Early Middle Period include a number of eminent
religious scholars (ʿulamā ʾ, sing. ʿā lim), some of them renowned, more-
over, for their dispositions towards social withdrawal and personal auster-
ity. Al-Mā wardı̄ was called upon on several occasions to serve as an
ambassador, and he composed a number of advisory texts, including (in
all likelihood) mirrors for members of the Buyid dynasty.26 Ghazā lı̄ , even
after his decision to leave his prestigious post in Baghdad for a life of
seclusion in his native province of Khurasan, composed mirrors for both
caliphs and sultans.27 Later in the twelfth century, Ibn al-Jawzı̄ , the
celebrated polymath, historian, jurisconsult and preacher, dedicated
a mirror to the caliph al-Mustadı̄ ʾ (r. 566–75/1170–80), and Taqı̄ al-Dı̄ n
˙
Abū l-Hasan ʿAlı̄ b. Abı̄ Bakr al-Harawı̄ (d. 611/1215) offered counsel to an
˙
Ayyubid ruler.28
The predominance in the Early Middle Period’s extant mirror literature
of writings by or attributed to well-known figures suggests the importance of
illustrious authorship in securing a text’s dissemination and preservation.
Although less eminent persons, such as mid-level bureaucrats and local
scholars, also composed mirrors in the period – the author of an Arabic
Siyā sat al-mulū k (‘The Governance of Kings’), for instance, was probably
a minor official involved in the financial administration under the early
Buyids – relatively few examples of this kind have survived.29 Attributing
a text to a celebrated author occurred frequently in medieval societies, and it
is not surprising, therefore, that the authorship of several of the period’s
mirrors has been called into question. The present volume – setting aside the
pseudo-Aristotelian ‘Secret of Secrets’ – includes extracts from three

26
Al-Sayyid, ‘al-Mā wardı̄ : al-rajul wa-l-ʿasr’; Abbè s, De l’É thique du prince, 173–209.
˙
27
Griffel, Al-Ghazā lı̄’s Philosophical Theology, 49–59; Garden, The First Islamic Reviver,
17–29, 127–30, 138–42; Safi, Politics of Knowledge, 105–24; El-Azhari, Queens, Eunuchs
and Concubines, 288.
28
Ibn al-Jawzı̄ ’s mirror is entitled al-Misbā h al-mudı̄ʾ fı̄ khilā fat al-Mustadı̄ʾ. Al-Harawı̄ ,
who composed his mirror at some point ˙ ˙between˙ 588/1192 and his death ˙ in 611/1215,
may have intended it for al-Malik al-Zā hir Ghā zı̄ (r. 582–613/1186–1216, in Aleppo); see
˙
Sourdel-Thomine, ‘Les conseils du Šayh al-Harawı̄ à un prince ayyū bide’, 205–6, 206,
˘
n. 3. The homiletic mode of these compositions remained prominent in thirteenth-
century Syria; see Peacock, ‘Politics, Religion and the Occult’; and see below, n. 34.
29
For the Buyid example, see Sadan, ‘Une nouvelle source’; Sadan, ‘A New Source of the
Bū yid Period’; Sadan and Silverstein, ‘Ornate Manuals or Practical Adab?’.

11

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 Part I Introduction

mirrors whose authorship has been disputed; if these texts are indeed
pseudepigraphic, it seems highly likely that their attributions – to al-
Mā wardı̄ in the case of the Arabic Nası̄hat al-mulū k, to Nizā m al-Mulk in
˙˙ ˙
the case of Siyar al-mulū k and to Ghazā lı̄ in the case of the Persian Nası̄hat
˙˙
al-mulū k, part II – ensured their survival.
For all the individuality of the mirrors of the Early Middle Period,
certain themes and certain literary features recur, and these would
remain emblematic of mirror-writing in later centuries. A striking,
even defining hallmark of the mirror literature, in continuity with the
advisory writings of the Formative Period, is the high profile given to
ancient and distant figures: Aristotle (384–322 BCE) and Alexander
(356–323 BCE), and the Sasanian monarchs Ardashı̄ r I (r. 226–41) and
Khusraw I Anū shı̄ rvā n (r. 531–79) appear with particular regularity.
Mirror-writers, like other authors, also referred to groups (al-ʿarab, al-
ʿajam, al-furs, al-hind, al-yū nā n, al-rū m), whose designations conveyed
diverse ethnic, territorial and linguistic associations.30 The mirror-
writers’ tendency to pile up a variety of authorities in connection with
specific points was intended to display the universality – and hence
unassailability – of their arguments. Furthermore, the ubiquitous refer-
ences to earlier peoples and dominions permitted authors to occlude their
criticisms of contemporary political conditions by presenting these criti-
cisms as the observations of highly esteemed others, identified with
distant locations and situated in the remote past.31

1.4 The Later Middle Period (Thirteenth to Fifteenth

Centuries)
The surviving manuscripts from the Later Middle Period suggest a mass
production of mirrors in Arabic and Persian. With large numbers of
extant examples, it is possible to identify certain types or models, which,
evident from the beginning of the thirteenth century, were available to
authors to adapt and combine according to their interests and
circumstances.
The earliest model, which remained in continuous popularity, devel-
oped in conjunction with adab, of which it constituted a branch (indeed,
30
A notable example is the gnomologium entitled Jā vı̄dā n khirad (Persian) or al-Hikma al-
˙
khā lida (Arabic) (‘Perennial Wisdom’), of the great writer, historian and ethicist Abū ʿAlı̄
Miskawayh (d. 421/1030).
31
Cf. Yavari, Advice for the Sultan, 45–60, 90; Ferster, Fictions of Advice, 2–3, 8.

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 The Arabic, Persian and Turkish Mirror Literatures

this type might be described under the heading adab (or ā dā b, pl.) al-
mulū k). Seeking not only to impart advice but also to impress and
delight, authors of this kind of mirror, providing models for literary
as well as moral emulation, combined an eclectic abundance of
Qurʾanic quotations and Prophetic hadith (authenticated reports
of the Prophet Muhammad’s sayings and actions), narratives con-
˙
cerning caliphs, kings, sultans and viziers, utterances of sages and
respected authorities of the pre- and early Islamic periods, wise and
witty proverbs and, often of their own composition, verses of
poetry. Writing in Persian, an early thirteenth-century author
described his mirror as a gift of speech (sukhan), in which he
included verses in Persian and Arabic; his ten-chapter book
addresses virtue and its actualisation in conduct, or akhlā q and
ā dā b.32 Perhaps a variant of this model combines set numbers of
texts of a kind, often bilingual and classified into generic groups,
and selected for their relevance to kings; the selection might include
Prophetic hadith, proverbs, utterances of ʿAlı̄ b. Abı̄ Tā lib (d. 40/
˙
661) – cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet, fourth caliph and
First Imam of the Shia – and sayings of sages or early Islamic
authorities.33
Another model, in continuity with the writings of Ghazā lı̄ , is primarily
homiletic, and might be considered under the heading nası̄ha, ‘counsel’,
˙˙
or mawʿiza, ‘exhortation’ or ‘admonition’. Based substantially on
˙
Qur’anic verses and Prophetic hadith, such works, notably popular in
Syria in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, remind the ruler of the
contingency of his power and the great burden of responsibility that God
has placed upon him. The advisory writings of Ibn al-Jawzı̄ and his
grandson Sibt Ibn al-Jawzı̄ (581 or 582–654/1185 or 1186–1256) provide
˙
32
Nizā m al-Dı̄ n Yahyā b. Sā ʿid, Hadā ʾiq al-siyar, dedicated to the Seljuk sultan of Rum
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
ʿAlā ʾ al-Dı̄ n Kayqubā d (r. c. 617–34/1220–37); see the author’s introduction (1–12); for
akhlā q, see especially the first chapter (13–38), and for ā dā b, the ninth and tenth chapters
(123–49). See further de Fouché cour, ‘Hadā yeq al-siyar’; Peacock, ‘Advice for the
˙
Sultans of Rum’, 286–9.
33
The Barı̄d al-saʿā da (609–10/1212–13) of the secretary Muhammad-i Ghā zı̄ Malatyavı̄ ,
written for the Seljuk sultan of Rum ʿIzz al-Dı̄ n Kaykā ʾū s˙ I b. Kaykhusraw (r. ˙607–
16/1210–19), consists of forty Prophetic hadith, twenty sayings from sages (ten are from
ʿAlı̄ b. Abı̄ Tā lib) and twenty Arabic proverbs. Probably dating from roughly the same
˙
period is the collection Khiradnamā -ye jā n-afrū z (or Khiradnā meh) of Abū l-Fażl Yū suf
b. ʿAlı̄ Mustawfı̄ ; this collection consists of 100 entries, each of which comprises a wise
person’s saying, a maxim from ʿAlı̄ and a selection of verses from the Shā hnā meh of
Firdawsı̄ . See de Fouché cour, Moralia, 129–30.

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 Part I Introduction

examples of this kind.34 Overlapping with and perhaps a variant of this

set of mirrors are texts that, again in continuity with Ghazā lı̄ , single out
virtues strongly associated with Sufi teachings, such as repentance,
renunciation, patience, constant mindfulness of and trust in God. In
a period when the many inflections of Sufism, including local and
transregional Sufi movements, became increasingly prominent across
vast areas, these compositions emerged clearly in the thirteenth century,
in the moral writings of the poet Saʿdı̄ (d. 691/1291 or 694/1294),35 and
in the mirrors of leading Sufi practitioners, such as Najm al-Dı̄ n Dā ya
Rā zı̄ (573–654/1177–1256), who wrote in Anatolia, and ʿAlı̄ al-
Hamadā nı̄ (714–86/1314–85), who probably wrote in Kashmir.36
Another model, grounded in the science of moral dispositions (ʿilm al-
akhlā q) or ethics, takes as its foundation the three divisions of practical
philosophy: ethics, economics and politics. Probably the most important
‘mirror’ in this group is the Persian Akhlā q-i Nā sirı̄ (‘Nasirean Ethics’) of
˙
Nası̄ r al-Dı̄ n Tū sı̄ (597–672/1201–74),37 which provided a prestigious
˙ ˙
model for numerous later writings, such as the Akhlā q-i Jalā lı̄ of

34
Meisami drew attention to the homiletic strand of mirror-writing in The Sea of Precious
Virtues, her translation of the anonymous Persian Bahr al-favā ʾid (c. 554–8/1159–62), also
˙
composed in Syria (Meisami, Sea of Precious Virtues, vii). The works of Sibt Ibn al-Jawzı̄
˙
include the Arabic Kanz al-mulū k fı̄ kayfiyyat al-sulū k and Kitā b al-Jalı̄s al-sā lih wa-l-anı̄s
˙ ˙
al-nā sih (613/1216), written in Damascus for al-Malik al-Ashraf Muzaffar al-Dı̄ n (r. 626–
˙˙ ˙
35/1229–37).
35
Notably the Bū stā n (655/1257) and Gulistā n (656/1258), written for the Atabeg Muzaffar
al-Dı̄ n Abū Bakr b. Saʿd-i Zangı̄ (r. 628–58/1231–60) and his son Saʿd II b. Abı̄ Bakr ˙ (r.
658/1260) respectively.
36
Both authors were members of the Kubravı̄ order. Najm al-Dı̄ n, shortly after his arrival in
Kayseri in 618/1221, composed his Persian Mirsā d al-ʿibā d min al-mabdaʾ ilā l-maʿā d as
˙
a gift for followers of the Sufi path. He completed a second recension of the work in Sivas
in 620/1223, and he dedicated this version to the Seljuk sultan of Rum ʿAlā ʾ al-Dı̄ n
Kayqubā d (r. c. 617–34/1220–37). He produced a third, heavily revised recension for the
Mengü cekid ruler of Erzincan, Dā ʾū d b. Bahrā mshā h (see Peacock, ‘Advice for the
Sultans of Rum’, 293). ʿAlı̄ Hamadā nı̄ , author of the Persian Dhakhı̄rat al-mulū k,
composed it at the behest of a group of rulers and eminent persons who solicited such
a work as a ‘useful reminder’ (Dhakhı̄rat al-mulū k, 2).
37
Tū sı̄ , who initially composed the work in 633/1235 for the Ismaili ruler (muhtasham)
˙ ˙
Nā sir al-Dı̄ n ʿAbd al-Rahı̄ m b. Abı̄ Mansū r (r. 621–55/1224–57), wrote a new preface
˙ joining the inner circle
˙ of the Mongol ˙ Il-Khan Hulegu (r. 654–63/1256–65), who
after ̈ ̈
had destroyed the Ismaili settlements in Quhistan and Alamut. A number of scholars
differentiate between the distinctive discourse of akhlā q and the mirror-for-princes
literature; acknowledging this distinctiveness, I include the former in this discussion
nevertheless: presented as political advice, often addressed and dedicated to named rulers,
and incorporating more or less substantial materials from the repertoire of adab, treat-
ments of akhlā q overlap in function as well as content with other modes of mirror-writing.

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Muhammad b. Asad Davā nı̄ (830–908/1427–1503) and the

˙
Akhlā q-i Muhsinı̄ of Husayn-i Vā ʿiz Kā shifı̄ (d. 910/1504–5).38
˙ ˙ ˙
The second part of the Persian Latā ʾif al-hikma (‘Fine Points of
˙ ˙
Wisdom’) (655/1257) of the chief judge Sirā j al-Dı̄ n Mahmū d b. Abı̄
˙
Bakr Urmavı̄ (594–682/1198–1283) also conforms to this model.39 The
ethical sections in treatises of this kind invoke the four cardinal virtues
(wisdom, courage, temperance and justice) based on Plato’s divisions of
the soul, and the Aristotelian definition of virtue as the mean between the
two extremes of excess and deficiency (ifrā t and tafrı̄t); each virtue,
˙ ˙
including the many subordinate virtues derived from each of the four
cardinal virtues, is portrayed as the point of balance between two vices.
The titles under which the treatises in this group circulated indicate the
convention of naming the treatise after the figure to whom it was
dedicated – a practice that would persist in Ottoman and Mughal
contexts.
These models did not imply rigid forms. Instead, they indicated the
range of established advisory discourses, and mirror-writers commonly
combined characteristics of all of these types.
In addition to many of the examples cited in the preceding section, and in
contrast to the extant literature of the Early Middle Period, numerous mirrors
of the Later Middle Period (several of which survive in single manuscripts)
appear to have been the compositions of little-known authors. In these cases it
seems likely that the mirror facilitated, or was intended to facilitate, the
establishment of ties between the previously unconnected author-adviser
and his named recipient. This pattern of mirror-writing – in which the
mirror functioned rather like a letter of introduction – became widespread
in the Later Middle Period; in societies in which, for various voluntary and
involuntary reasons, many people were highly mobile, writers often com-
posed their mirrors upon arrival in a new milieu in which they hoped to be

38
Muhammad b. Asad Davā nı̄ (830–908/1427–1503) dedicated his Lavā miʿ al-ishrā q fı̄
˙
makā rim al-akhlā q, better known as the Akhlā q-i Jalā lı̄ (c. 880/1475), to the Aqquyunlu
ruler Uzun Hasan (r. 857–82/1453–78) and his son Sultā n-Khalı̄ l. Husayn-i Vā ʿiz
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
Kā shifı̄ (d. 910/1504–5), a contemporary of Davā nı̄ , composed his Akhlā q-i Muhsinı̄
˙
(completed in 907/1501–2) for the use of Abū l-Muhsin, the son of the Timurid sultan
Husayn Bayqara (r. 875–912/1470–1506). See Woods, ˙ The Aqquyunlu, 103, 105, 233–4;
˙
and Subtelny, ‘A Late Medieval Persian Summa on Ethics’.
39
Composed in Konya and dedicated to the Seljuk sultan of Rum ʿIzz al-Dı̄ n Kaykā ʾū s II (r.
644–55/1246–57); the title Latā ʾif al-hikma al-ʿIzziyya appears towards the end of the
˙ ˙
author’s text (Urmavı̄ , Latā ʾif al-hikma, 289). The first part of this text is devoted to
˙ ˙
hikmat-i nazarı̄, speculative or theoretical philosophy, and the second to hikmat-i ʿamalı̄,
˙practical philosophy.
˙ ˙

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 Part I Introduction

able to settle.40 These writers required the mediation of other individuals to

convey their mirror-books to their recipients at the court. (It is possible, of
course, that some mirrors operated in this fashion in earlier periods, and that
the impression given by the manuscript record is to some extent an accident
of preservation.)

1.5 The Early Modern Period (Sixteenth and Early

Seventeenth Centuries)
The Early Modern Period saw the continuing composition of mirrors,
especially in the courts of the Ottoman and Mughal emperors, who
inherited, continued and developed earlier patterns of mirror-writing.
The educated Ottoman é lites, within and beyond the imperial court, as
well as in provincial Ottoman settings, created a considerable demand for
advice literature in Arabic, Persian and, conspicuously, Turkish.
Turkish, now a fully established companion to the literary languages of
Arabic and Persian, became the vehicle for the distinctive nasihatname,
a generic name sometimes applied to a new type of advisory composition
concerned with political reform. In the sixteenth century, the vizier Lutfi
Paşa (d. c. 970/1562–3), author of the Asafname (‘Book of Asaf’), and
Kınalızade Ali Çelebi (916–79/1510–1572), author of the Ahlak-i Alaʾi
(972/1564), made substantial use of the earlier mirror literatures, which
they adapted and expanded.41 Still in continuity with the models of the
past but at the same time introducing new elements of directness and
specificity, the historian and bureaucrat Mustafa Âli (948–1008/1541–
1600), in the later sixteenth century, adopted a strikingly critical
approach;42 several seventeenth-century Ottoman writers echoed and even
amplified Âli’s concerns.43

40
See Marlow, ‘The Way of Viziers’.
41
Lutfi Paşa’s discussion of the principles of government was informed by his extensive
practical experience; his title invokes Asaf, Solomon’s vizier (see Coulon, ‘Magie et
politique’). Kınalızade’s reworking of the Akhlā q-i Jalā lı̄ of Davā nı̄ referred to a diverse
group of earlier authorities. See Aksan, ‘Ottoman Political Writing’; Howard, ‘Ottoman
Historiography’; Ferguson, The Proper Order of Things, 255–63.
42
On Âli’s Nushat ü s-selâtin (989/1581), dedicated to Sultan Murad III (r. 982–
1003/1574–95), see Fleischer, Bureaucrat and Intellectual, 95–9; Tietze, Mustafā ʿĀlı̄’s
˙˙
Counsel for Sultans of 1581. Âli also prepared a Turkish adaptation of the Kitā b al-Tā j fı̄
akhlā q al-mulū k (Fleischer, Bureaucrat and Intellectual, 166).
43
These writers include the anonymous author of the Kitā b-ı Mü stetab, Koçi Beǧ, Kâ tib
Çelebi and Na’ima (Fleischer, Bureaucrat and Intellectual; Murphey, ‘The Veliyyuddin
Telhis’; Ferguson, The Proper Order of Things, 235–76).

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The increased demand among Turkish readers also occasioned the

translation, often with the sponsorship of sultans and viziers, of earlier
mirrors, including the Qā bū snā meh (‘Book of Qā bū s’) of Kaykā ʾū s,
Ghazā lı̄ ’s Nası̄hat al-mulū k, the Sirā j al-mulū k (‘Lamp of Kings’) of al-
˙˙
Turtū shı̄ and the Mirsā d al-ʿibā d (‘Path of God’s Bondsmen’) of Najm al-
˙ ˙ ˙
Dı̄ n Dā ya. 44
The Mughal emperors similarly provided extensive patronage for both
the composition and translation of works of advice. Like several of their
Ottoman counterparts, a number of Mughal mirror-writers adopted the
rubric of akhlā q, perhaps in part because the emphasis in that intellectual
tradition on social harmony among interdependent groups disregarded
differences of religious affiliation.45 Examples include the Akhlā q-i Hakı̄mı̄
˙
(987–8/1579–80) of Hasan ʿAlı̄ Munshı̄ Khā qā nı̄ and the Akhlā q-i Jahā ngı̄rı̄
˙
(1029–31/1620–2) of Qadi Nū r Allā h Khā qā nı̄ .46 Like these compositions,
the Mawʿizeh-yi Jahā ngı̄rı̄ (1021/1612–13) of Muhammad Bā qir Najm al-
˙ ˙
Thā nı̄ (d. 1047/1637) reflects continuity with earlier models of mirror-
writing, adapted for the author’s circumstances.47
The Later Middle and Early Modern Periods also saw the translation
of Arabic mirrors, in particular, and to a lesser degree Persian mirrors,
into Hebrew, Latin and a variety of European vernacular languages. The
case of Secretum secretorum is only the best known of several examples. 48
In another case, it seems that Francisco de Gurmendi (fl. 1607–21) –
a royal secretary, who had learnt not only Arabic but also Persian, from
which language he translated diplomatic correspondence from the
Safavid court – used and incorporated al-Turtū shı̄ ’s Sirā j al-mulū k, as
˙ ˙
well as, probably, Miskawayh’s collection of wisdom al-Hikma al-khā lida
˙
(Jā vı̄dā n khirad) and Ghazā lı̄ ’s Nası̄hat al-mulū k, in his writings.
˙˙
Gurmendi dedicated his manual for kingship Doctrina phísica y moral

44
See, for the translations into Turkish of the Qā bū snā meh, de Bruijn, ‘Kaykā vus’, and de
Fouché cour, Moralia, 179–222; of Ghazā lı̄ ’s Nası̄hat al-mulū k, Bagley, ‘Introduction’,
˙˙
xvi–xxiv; of Sirā j al-mulū k, Fierro, ‘Al-Turtū shı̄ ’, 394–5, and Yılmaz, Caliphate
˙ ˙
Redefined, 60, 83; of Mirsā d al-ʿibā d, Algar, ‘Introduction’, 14–16, 20.
45 ˙
Alam, Languages of Political Islam, 11–15.
46
The former was composed for the Mughal prince and governor of Kabul Muhammad
˙ whom
Hakı̄ m Mı̄ rzā , and the latter for the emperor Jahā ngı̄ r (r. 1014–37/1605–27), to
˙
several other mirrors were also dedicated (Alvi, Advice on the Art of Governance, 9–11;
Dā nishpazhū h, ‘Chand athar-i fā rsı̄ dar akhlā q’, 275–7).
47
Alvi, Advice on the Art of Governance, 11–34 (for Alvi’s translation and edition of this text,
see 37–207).
48
See Williams, The Secret of Secrets, 31–141; Forster, Das Geheimnis der Geheimnisse, 113–
247; and below, section 3.1.

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 Part I Introduction

de príncipes (1615) and a translation entitled Libro de las calidades del rey –
both reportedly dependent on translations from Arabic manuscripts – to
Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas, the future Duke of Lerma (1553–1625)
and tutor of the future Philip IV. 49

1.6 Reception
The royal ideals that formed part of courtly political culture included the
expectation that kings should listen to and heed sound advice. They should
also, for similarly instructive and edificatory purposes, study and emulate
the conduct of the wise and just kings of the past.50 These ideals created an
auspicious environment for the presentation of mirrors, and their practical
enactment, carefully controlled, constituted a significant element in the
image of royal legitimacy.51 It is likely that mirrors were read aloud in
courtly gatherings (majā lis, sing. majlis), where authors might rehearse the
deeds of past rulers and reaffirm royal ideals, and, in the case of the more
homiletic examples, that their lecture accompanied religious observances
held on Fridays or during the month of Ramadā n.52 For the king, seeking
˙
to learn from the examples of his royal predecessors, emulating the great
monarchs of the past and heeding the moral reminders of the learned and
virtuous contributed to his reputation and remembrance in the present
world and to his salvation in the next. A good many rulers, at various points
in their reigns, took these injunctions very much to heart: for example, the
Seljuk sultan of Rum ʿAlā ʾ al-Dı̄ n Kayqubā d (r. c. 617–34/1220–37), the
recipient of two advice works in Persian and one in Arabic, consciously
modelled himself on the virtuous kings of the past.53
In their courtly settings, mirrors also carried a presentational value.
Intended for formal delivery to the court and storage in the royal library,
many mirrors took the guise of gifts, a function sometimes signalled in

49
Gilbert, In Good Faith, 224–7.
50
For examples of this ubiquitous injunction, see Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄hat al-mulū k, 112, 127–8 =
˙˙
Bagley, Ghazā lı̄’s Book of Counsel for Kings, 63, 74.
51
See further al-Azmeh, Muslim Kingship, 54–61; Sperl, ‘Islamic Kingship and Arabic
Panegyric Poetry’, 32; Ali, Arabic Literary Salons, 33–74; Zaman, Religion and Politics
under the Early ʿAbbā sids, 81.
52
Authors of mirrors urge this custom upon their royal audiences (Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄hat al-
˙˙
mulū k, 4 = Bagley, Ghazā lı̄’s Book of Counsel for Kings, 5) and praise rulers who practised
it (for instance, Urmavı̄ , Latā ʾif al-hikma, 288, with reference to the Ayyubid ruler al-
˙ ˙
Malik al-Kā mil (r. 615–35/1218–38)).
53
Peacock, ‘Advice for the Sultans of Rum’, 283.

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their titles (notably Tuhfa, ‘Gift’).54 A common topos in the mirror-

˙
writer’s preface describes his fruitless searching for a fitting present to
give to the sovereign whose exalted status leaves him in need of nothing;
the author’s mirror signals his trust, nevertheless, that by dint of his royal
magnanimity, the king will not despise his servant’s only possible offer-
ing, namely a gift of wisdom and counsel. Tokens of an asymmetrical
exchange, mirrors sometimes included sections or chapters devoted to
the topic of gift-giving, and they also discussed the importance of gifts in
diplomatic relations. Nizā m al-Dı̄ n Yahyā b. Sā ʿid, in a mirror for the
˙ ˙ ˙
above-mentioned Seljuk sultan ʿAlā ʾ al-Dı̄ n Kayqubā d, cites the aphor-
isms, ‘The giving of charitable donations (sing. sadaqa) defends against
˙
the afflictions of the next world, and the giving of gifts (sing. hadiyya)
averts the misfortunes of this world’ and ‘Nothing is more effective in
abating the wrath of kings and in pleasing them than gifts’.55
In keeping with this presentational function, the book of advice occasion-
ally took the form of a precious artefact: the collection of cautionary animal
fables Kalı̄la wa-Dimna and the pseudo-Aristotelian Sirr al-asrā r, for
example, sometimes included illustrations.56 While the use of pictorial
images is uncommon, the text’s appearance was nevertheless important.
To enhance their visual appeal as well as to display their logic, some mirrors
take the form of ‘trees’, their points represented through an interconnected
system of roots, trunk, branches and twigs (tashjı̄r).57 Whether intended for
audiences within or outside the court, mirrors often reflect the care of their
designers and calligraphers: the use of different scripts and different colours
of ink for the various voices in the texts and the various elements in the
pages’ composition provided visual interest and at the same time facilitated
the reader’s navigation of the text (Fig. 1).58

54
See, for instance, M. T. Dā nishpazhū h’s edition of an anonymous fourteenth-century
Tuhfeh dar akhlā q va-siyā sat; cf. Marlow, ‘Teaching Wisdom’. For a Byzantine parallel,
˙
see Arabatzis, ‘Nicephoros Blemmydes’s Imperial Statue’, 100–1.
55
Nizā m al-Dı̄ n, Hadā yiq al-siyar, 145; cited in ‘Gift Giving’, EIr.
˙ ˙
56
See O’Kane, Early Persian Painting; Luyster, ‘Kalı̄ la wa-Dimna Illustrations’; Ben
Azzouna, Aux origines du classicisme, 102, n. 101, 127, 184; Islamic Calligraphy
(Catalogue, Sam Fogg Rare Books and Manuscripts), no. 25.
57
Examples include the Sulū k al-mā lik fı̄ tadbı̄r al-mamā lik, also known as the Akhlā q al-
mushajjara (655/1256) of Ibn Abı̄ l-Rabı̄ ʿ (this Arabic work is usually assumed to have
been dedicated to the caliph al-Mustaʿsim (r. 640–56/1242–58)); and the Jawā miʿ al-
˙
ʿulū m of Ibn Farı̄ ghū n (see the facsimile edition of Fuat Sezgin, Compendium of Sciences:
Jawā miʿ al-ʿulū m by Ibn Farı̄ʿū n).
58
See Fig. 1, which represents two pages from a manuscript of al-Shayzarı̄ ’s mirror al-
Manhaj al-maslū k fı̄ siyā sat al-mulū k, copied in 1115/1703–4 (Islamic Manuscripts

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 (a)

Figure 1 Two non-consecutive folios from a copy (dated 1115/1703–4)

of al-Shayzarı̄ , al-Manhaj [sic] al-maslū k fı̄ siyā sat al-mulū k, Islamic
Manuscripts Collection, Manuscripts Division, Department of Special
Collections, Princeton University Library; Garrett Collection 138 HQ.
The pages show entries for two (the first and the fifth) of fifteen royal
qualities that al-Shayzarı̄ identified as essential to the stability and
endurance of the realm. Fig. 1a: MS 138 HQ, f. 4r, includes the point in
the text where al-Shayzarı̄ enumerates these fifteen indispensable royal
qualities and begins his treatment of the first, justice (ʿadl). Fig. 1b: MS
138 HQ, f. 9r, includes the point in the text where al-Shayzarı̄ discusses
the fifth necessary quality, kindness (rifq). The different sections and
voices in the text are reflected in the design of the pages. On f. 4r
(Fig. 1a), the third line, set off by its gold background, presents al-
Shayzarı̄ ’s list of the fifteen necessary qualities; the fifth to sixth lines,
using larger black lettering, introduce the first, justice, which is also

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 (b)

Figure 1 (cont.)

marked in the margin (‘the quality of justice and its excellence’); the
ninth line, set off in red lettering against a gold background, is a Qurʾanic
passage (16:90); and the penultimate line, against a gold background,
introduces a narrative concerning Alexander. On f. 9r (Fig. 1b),
the second line, using red ink and against a gold background, introduces
the fifth quality, kindness (rifq). The formula following the invocation of
the Prophet continues into the margin of the text at line 5, and accord-
ingly highlights Prophetic speech. The lower marginal annotation, in
which red ink appears against a gold background, signals a passage
concerning Anū shı̄ rvā n, and the corresponding line within the frame, in
the same palate, represents the beginning of this passage.
Photographs: Courtesy of Princeton University Library

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 Part I Introduction

Despite the centrality of the king in the mirror literature, mirrors

concerned the entire courtly population, and many examples found
a wide reception beyond the court as well.59 Not uncommonly, viziers
played almost as important a role in providing patronage as their sover-
eigns, a standing reflected in the large numbers of mirrors addressed to
them.60 A fair number of mirrors declare their importance to a general
audience: one manuscript of the Arabic translation of Ghazā lı̄ ’s Nası̄hat
˙˙
al-mulū k carries the label Kitā b Nası̄hat al-mulū k wa-kull ghanı̄ wa-suʿlū k
˙˙ ˙
(‘Book of Counsel for Kings and Every Rich Man and Beggar’), and
extended ‘titles’ such as Kitā b al-Adab wa-l-sulwā n fı̄ nasā ʾih al-salā tı̄n
˙ ˙ ˙
wa-l-mulū k wa-l-qudā t wa-l-wuzarā ʾ wa-l-wulā t wa-l-umarā ʾ (‘Book of
˙
Etiquette and Solace: Counsels for Sultans, Kings, Judges, Viziers,
Governors and Military Commanders’) are not unusual.61 In thirteenth-
century Damascus, the Ashrafiyya Library, which catered not only to its
resident scholars and students but also to external visitors, held copies of
several of the items selected for inclusion in this volume.62 Marginal
annotations similarly reflect the engagement of readers with the mirror
literature.63 The manuscript record leaves little doubt that mirrors
enjoyed a broad audience, especially in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, when in certain cities not only growing rates of literacy but also
the increased affordability of books extended their availability to new,
middle-level sections of society. Collections of wise sayings were

Collection, Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton

University Library; Garrett Collection, MS no. 138 HQ, ff. 4r, 9r).
59
The mirror literatures of medieval Christian Europe display the same feature; see, for
example, Stone, ‘Kings Are Different’.
60
Examples include the Qawā nı̄n al-wizā ra of al-Mā wardı̄ ; a Tuhfat al-wuzarā ʾ by or
˙
attributed to al-Thaʿā libı̄ (see Orfali, ‘Works of Abū Mansū r al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’, 298–9,
˙
no. 36); the Dustū r al-vizā ra of Mahmū d b. Muhammad b. al-Husayn al-Isfahā nı̄ ; the
Minhā j al-wuzarā ʾ of Ahmad al-Isfahbadhı̄ ˙ ˙ van Gelder,˙ ‘Mirror for˙ Princes or
; see also
˙ ˙
Vizor for Viziers’.
61
The manuscripts are MS Laud Or. 210, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford (see
Bagley, ‘Introduction’, xxiii), and MS Garrett no. 4150Y, ff. 33r-46r, Islamic
Manuscripts Collection, Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections,
Princeton University Library (see Mach-Yahuda, Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts, 409,
no. 4753). Especially in its first recension, the Mirsā d al-ʿibā d, mentioned above, provides
another example of a mirror intended for a broad˙ audience (see further Peacock, ‘Advice
for the Sultans of Rum’, 290).
62
Hirschler, Medieval Damascus: Plurality and Diversity in an Arabic Library, 38, and entry
nos. 1337 (Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄hat al-mulū k); 559, 1571 (al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k); 554 (al-
˙˙ ˙ ˙
Siyā sa = Kitā b al-Siyā sa fı̄ tadbı̄r al-riyā sa); 1266a (al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄l
˙
al-zafar); see also nos. 67, 1286a, 558.
63 ˙
Peacock, ‘Advice for the Sultans of Rum’, 295–300.

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 The Arabic, Persian and Turkish Mirror Literatures

perennially in demand, and numerous variously edificatory pieces sur-

vive in miscellanies. An early seventeenth-century text of eclectic con-
tents entitled al-Tuhfa al-saniyya fı̄ siyā sat al-raʿiyya (‘The Splendid
˙
Gift: On the Governance of the Subjects’) offers discussion of five pillars
of sovereignty, ten requirements of royal justice, philosophers’ testa-
ments addressed to kings, the transmitted counsel of various authorities,
a chapter composed of Prophetic texts drawn from the prolific scholar
and historian Jalā l al-Dı̄ n al-Suyū tı̄ (849–911/1445–1505), a chapter
˙
devoted to citations from sages, a sequence of narratives, an epilogue
and, finally, added twelve days later, a supplement explicating pertinent
expressions (alfā z).64
˙

64
By Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Burrı̄ al-Mā likı̄ , al-Tuhfa al-saniyya survives in the
˙ ˙ ˙
author’s autograph copy (dated Rabı̄ ʿ II 1026/April 1617) (Islamic Manuscripts
Collection, Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton
University Library, Garrett no. 4150Y; see Mach-Yahuda, Catalogue of Arabic
Manuscripts, 408–9, no. 4747).

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 2

Contexts

The examples of political advice contained in this anthology, written

across terrain that stretched from Egypt to Central Asia, date from the
first half of the tenth century to the first half of the twelfth century,
a period that corresponds roughly to Hodgson’s Islamic Early Middle
Period (c. 945–1250).1 Several factors contributed to the texts’ selec-
tion. Firstly, limiting the examples to texts composed in the Early
Middle Period highlights the writers’ perceptions of and responses to
the times in which they lived – a relatively contained period which
nevertheless saw significant change. Secondly, it was during this
period, as noted in Chapter 1, that the single-authored, thematically
subdivided (musannaf) mirror-book emerged, and, since no prevailing
˙
set of expectations had yet become established, the mirrors of the Early
Middle Period are often compositions of striking interest and individu-
ality. Thirdly, the period’s mirrors include several of the most cele-
brated examples of the entire Arabic, Persian and Turkish corpora of
political advice.
The first section of this chapter (2.1) offers a general thematic sum-
mary of the period. It refers incidentally to periods of dynastic rule to be
treated directly in section 2.2. This second section provides a roughly
chronological account, in order to locate the specific settings in which the
anthology’s selected mirrors were produced and to convey the intercon-
nections among their authors.

1
See Hodgson, Venture of Islam, II: 6–7; and Chapter 1, n. 13.

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 Contexts

2.1 The Early Middle Period

The Early Middle Period begins with the political disintegration of the
territories that had made up the eighth- and ninth-century caliphate and
ends with a political re-integration of a new and quite different character.
In social, cultural and religious terms, it marks a transition from a long
period of striking variety – in the words of one scholar, ‘exuberant
hybridity’ – towards a period of greater homogeneity, through the
generation of new forms that would prove remarkably durable. 2
The tenth century witnessed a relocation of power and economic
vitality from Baghdad and Iraq to regional settings, where
a commonwealth of polities, under the rule of Muslim dynastic families,
rose, flourished and fell, largely independently of the Abbasid caliphs. At
the base of this regional redistribution of power lay a series of economic
factors, including the collapse of the earlier Abbasid fiscal system, the
reduced productivity of Iraq and the subsequent loss of revenue accruing
to the caliphate.3 The reduction of caliphal power had begun in the
previous century, when the Abbasid governors Tā hir (I) b. al-Husayn
˙ ˙
(159–207/776–822) and Ahmad b. Tū lū n (220–70/835–84) had suc-
˙ ˙
ceeded in passing on their powerful offices to their heirs, initiating the
dynasties of, respectively, the Tahirids (205–78/821–91) in Khurasan
and the Tulunids (254–92/868–905) in Egypt. 4 Even in Iraq, the
Abbasids lost control to their Turkish military commanders, who regu-
larly installed and deposed caliphs according to their interests.5 The
general rise of regional polities in the tenth century completed the
caliphs’ loss of effective power.
As the power of the caliphs diminished, the caliphal office gradually
attained new kinds of significance. It came to represent a powerful
symbolic link with the early Muslim community; the caliphs’ endorse-
ment of the new dynastic rulers provided the latter with a prized token of
legitimacy; and in the first half of the eleventh century, beginning with
2
Chamberlain, ‘Military Patronage States’; the quotation is from p. 135.
3
Kennedy, ‘The Late ʿAbbā sid Pattern’, 360–93.
4
Tā hir (I) b. al-Husayn, governor of Khurasan from 205–7/821–2, was also the author of
a˙ widely disseminated
˙ advisory Testament (see above, and Chapter 1, n. 23). Ahmad
˙
b. Tū lū n became governor of Egypt from 257/871. On the Tahirids, see Bonner, ‘Waning
˙
of Empire’, 313–22; Kaabi, Les Tā hirides, 173–312; Daniel, ‘Islamic East’, 490–3. On the
˙
Tulunids, see Bonner, ‘Waning of Empire’, 319–22; Brett, ‘Egypt’, 559–60.
5
Bonner, ‘Waning of Empire’, 305–13; Van Steenbergen, History of the Islamic World, 150–
6; Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, 158–87; Gordon, Breaking of
a Thousand Swords, esp. 75–140.

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 Part I Introduction

the caliph al-Qā dir (r. 381–422/991–1031), the Abbasids emerged as

leaders of, specifically, a newly self-conscious Sunni Muslim community.
Under propitious conditions, this new status facilitated a brief resump-
tion of significant caliphal political and military power in the early twelfth
century.6
From North Africa to Transoxiana and present-day Afghanistan, the
provinces formerly under caliphal governance, now separate political
entities, remained interlinked by ties of religion, language, trade and
pilgrimage.7 In many regions, conversion, though highly uneven, with
marked differences from town to town and between urban and rural
locations, had produced Muslim majorities, and most major cities now
possessed prominent local Muslim families.8 The Arabic language had
become, and remained, an administrative, commercial, scholarly and
literary lingua franca within and beyond the area of the former caliphal
domains. But the Early Middle Period also saw the development of
distinctive, regionally defined cultural patterns, including the rise of
the New Persian language and its transregional spread, from modern-
day Pakistan and Afghanistan to Anatolia.9 The mirrors selected for
inclusion in this anthology reflect the period’s regional diversity and
the immense cultural achievement that its disparate political formations
fostered.
The period’s regional polities depended on their ability to command
military force. To establish and maintain their power they relied upon
either professional armies composed largely of military slaves, the
support of tribal populations who had affiliated themselves with the
dynastic family, or a combination of the two; each of these models tended
to produce a different pattern of state formation.10 Reliance on

6
In the later Seljuk period, the sultans’ power decreased, and the political and military
power of the caliphs increased; see Tor, ‘Political Revival of the Abbasid Caliphate’;
Hanne, Putting the Caliph in His Place, 141–80 and passim.
7
Kennedy, ‘The Late ʿAbbā sid Pattern’, 361.
8
Bulliet, Patricians of Nishapur, 85–8; Bulliet, ‘Conversion to Islam’.
9
Eventually the language would become deeply established across South Asia as well; see
Spooner and Hanaway, ‘Introduction: Persian as Koine’; Alam and Subrahmanyam,
Writing the Mughal World, esp. 311–38; de Weese, ‘Persian and Turkic from Kazan to
Tobolsk’.
10
Kennedy, ‘The Late ʿAbbā sid Pattern’, 362–4. My occasional use of the term ‘state’ to
refer to the various polities of the period implies their capacity to exert only a fairly
minimal degree of control over their subject populations. In the Early Middle Period,
rulers’ contacts with the vast majority of their subjects, always indirect (see Chapter 1,
n. 6), entailed principally taxation and sporadic levies of troops. The obligations of the

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 Contexts

professional armies, composed chiefly of soldiers initially acquired as

slaves and trained for military service, required a system of governance
capable of producing an abundant and steady stream of revenue, both for
the constant acquisition and training of slaves and for the payment of
their salaries. Tribal forces presented no need for systematic arrange-
ments of this kind, but nor were they amenable to the restrictions or
impositions, such as taxation, that a state, once established, was likely to
demand. The Samanids and Ghaznavids, like the Abbasids, depended
heavily on the use of slave soldiers (ghilmā n, sing. ghulā m, or mamā lı̄ k,
sing. mamlū k). Neither the Buyids nor the Fatimids, who owed their
early successes to the support of Daylami and Kutama (‘Berber’) popu-
lations respectively, began with this dependency, but both developed into
states in which military slavery figured increasingly substantially.11 The
Karakhanids, by contrast, seem never to have used the mechanism of
military slavery; they relied instead on their fellow tribesmen, with whom
they maintained close relations.12 In the most striking example of the
period, the Seljuks owed their rise to power to their successful leadership
of various nomadic Turkish groups (chiefly Oghuz, some of whom
became known as Tü rkmen).13 In the Seljuk case, it seems that the
nomads, rather than receiving payment for their services, supported
themselves by means of their herds and the booty captured in battles
and raids; their leaders probably received presents, rather than salaries,
from the ruling house.14 The Tü rkmen groups remained important in
the maintenance and extension of Seljuk power, even as, probably from
about 447/1055, the Seljuk dynasty, like many earlier polities, eventually

ruling power towards the subject population included the provision of security against
external invasion and internal threats, and the upholding of justice. The redress of
grievances (mazā lim), an important demonstration of royal justice, permitted subjects
˙
limited forms of direct contact with the ruler or, more commonly, the ruler’s representa-
tives (for examples, see Lev, Administration of Justice, 202–28); see further Nielsen,
‘Mazā lim’; van Berkel, ‘Politics of Access’; and Chapter 7, n. 24.
˙
11
Donohue, The Buwayhid Dynasty, 192–210; Brett, ‘Egypt’, 576–7; Van Steenbergen,
History of the Islamic World, 161–3; Tor, ‘Mamluks in the Military’.
12
Bosworth, ‘Steppe Peoples’, 29.
13
The term Tü rkmen, which appears as early as the tenth century as a designation for
Oghuz who had become Muslim, continued to be used for the Seljuks’ nomadic subjects.
See Peacock, Great Seljuk Empire, 22–5, 27–8; Bosworth, ‘Steppe Peoples’, 34; Safi,
Politics of Knowledge, 12–13. The name Oghuz is Turkish; its form in Arabic and Persian
is Ghuzz. Similarly, türkmen is the Turkish form of the word; the Persian form is
turkamā n (sing.), turkamā nā n (pl.).
14
Amitai, ‘Armies and Their Economic Basis’, 542.

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 Part I Introduction

resorted, in addition, to professional armies composed of diverse contin-

gents of slave troops.15
The rise of Turkish Muslim rulers in the states established in the
former caliphal domains and the migrations of Turkic peoples into Iran
and Western Asia were among the most striking and enduring transform-
ations of the Early Middle Period. In the case of the Ghaznavids, it was
military slavery that created their opportunity to seize power; their
founding rulers began as ghilmā n and proceeded, in the first example of
the pattern, to initiate a dynasty of their own. The Seljuks, by contrast,
already constituted a leading family when they and their nomadic fol-
lowers irrupted into the easternmost fringes of Muslim settlement. Their
military strength, grounded in the groups of Oghuz nomads who had
joined them, permitted their gradual expansion across Iran. When,
having reached western Iran, the Seljuks made that area into the centre
of their empire, numbers of their Tü rkmen followers continued their
quest for pasturage into the north and west. These migrations effected
permanent demographic, environmental and economic changes in Iran,
Azerbaijan, the southern Caucasus and Anatolia, with the spread of
pastoralism and the eventual settlement of Turkish (and Muslim) popu-
lations in these regions.16
As important as the increased presence of nomads in parts of Iran, Iraq
and the north-west were developments in practices of land tenure,
taxation and agriculture. A characteristic feature of the period was the
spread and increasing scope of the iqtā ʿ, a term applied to a great variety
˙
of fiscal and land-holding arrangements, all of which involved an initial
grant, made by the governing authority, of rights to collect taxes in
a given area of land.17 The system, never uniform, evolved continuously
during (and after) the Early Middle Period. Its gradual expansion
reflected governmental difficulties in meeting the high costs of salaries

15
See Chamberlain, ‘Military Patronage States’, 143–4. The composition and training of
the army received the attention of Nizā m al-Mulk; see Siyar al-mulū k, 136–9 = Darke,
˙
Book of Government, 99–102 (and see further below, n. 64).
16
Peacock, Early Seljū q History, 1–6, 128–63; Bosworth, ‘Steppe Peoples’, 23; Amitai,
‘Armies and Their Economic Basis’, 545–6; Peacock, Great Seljuk Empire, 20–71.
17
On the iqtā ʿ, see Lambton, ‘Eqtā ʿ’; Cahen, ‘L’é volution de l’iqtaʿ’. The term was
˙ ˙
sometimes applied to the land-grant itself. On the emergence of iqtā ʿ, see also Gordon,
˙
‘The Turkish Officers of Samarra’. For the Buyid period, see Mottahedeh, ‘Note on the
“Tasbı̄ b”’; Cahen, ‘L’é volution de l’iqtaʿ’, 38–42; Bonner, ‘Waning of Empire’, 352–4;
for the Seljuk period, see Lambton, ‘Eqtā ʿ’; Safi, Politics of Knowledge, 87–90; Peacock,
Great Seljuk Empire, 189–215 and passim. ˙

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 Contexts

for military personnel: the iqtā ʿ effectively allowed the grantee to collect
˙
his salary directly and released the government from the obligation to
provide monetary payments. A widespread result of the system was
military involvement in the management of agricultural land. In the
Buyid period, the terms of the grant usually included an explicit limit
on its duration and the denial of all rights of jurisdiction over the
territory’s tax-paying population. In practice and over time, and espe-
cially in the Seljuk period, the grantees’ effective powers over the land
and its population grew so much that, especially in the case of large
grants, the division between the muqtaʿ (assignee), on the one hand, and
˙
the local governor, on the other, became indistinct; both individuals
functioned as deputies to the ruler.18 If in some cases the arrangements
worked to encourage investment in the land and its development, in other
cases they exposed the population to hardship and abuse. A large part of
the mirror-writers’ overriding concern with justice was economic in
nature: a sound economy, in which the producers of wealth were secure
enough to be able to provide dependable labour, was essential to the
support of the state – not only in financial terms, through the generation
of revenue, but also in political terms, through the maintenance of social
stability. Agriculture, the major economic base of the state, was always
vulnerable to anomalous natural and climatic conditions and to political
events; to offset this unpredictability, the mirror-writers urged their
ruler-recipients to oversee the maintenance of irrigation structures and
to promote investment in the land’s productivity.
In another lasting change of the Early Middle Period, the era’s new
political configurations coincided with and to some degree stimulated the
development of firmer delineations of sectarian differences. This process
included the articulation of contrasting expressions of Shiʿi Islam. The
Buyids and Fatimids, most notably, promoted the development of dis-
tinctive intellectual and ritual markers to distinguish themselves as much
from one another as from non-Shiʿi polities and populations.19 The
Buyids, who had taken the Abbasid capital of Baghdad in 334/945,
sponsored, with the Shia of Baghdad, the development of Twelver
Shiʿi intellectual and cultural forms. Rather than seeking to displace
the caliphs, they strived to achieve an accommodation with them; indeed,
like most of the period’s rulers, they coveted the caliphs’ formal

18
Peacock, Great Seljuk Empire, 191.
19
Lev, ‘The Fā timid Caliphate and the Ayyū bids’, 205–6.
˙

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 Part I Introduction

endorsement of their power. 20 By contrast, the Fatimids, who were

Ismaili Shiʿis, explicitly rejected the Abbasid caliphate; they themselves
claimed to have inherited the office of the imamate in a direct line of
descent from ʿAlı̄ , the First Imam, through Ismā ʿı̄ l, oldest son of Jaʿfar
al-Sā diq (d. 148/765), the Sixth Imam. 21
˙
The eleventh century, partly in response to the defining of Shiʿism,
witnessed a trend towards a consolidation of Sunnism. 22 This process,
though neither uniform nor co-ordinated, found expression in all
branches of the religious sciences; some of the mirror-writers repre-
sented in this collection contributed to the project. 23 The caliph al-
Qā dir (r. 381–422/991–1031) promulgated a creed, which his successor
al-Qā ʾim (r. 422–67/1031–75) affirmed; specifically Sunni rituals devel-
oped as well. 24 Gradually, the categories of Sunni and Shiʿi acquired

20
The Buyids, who styled themselves amı̄ r, malik and sometimes shā hā nshā h (‘king of
kings’, an ancient Iranian title), assumed titles such as Muʿizz al-Dawla (‘magnifier of
the state’) and ʿAdud al-Dawla (‘support of the state’); ending in the formula al-Dawla,
˙
these titles suggested a role within rather than above or outside the state, implicitly, in this
case, the caliphal state. On Buyid titulature, see Madelung, ‘The Assumption of the Title
Shā hā nshā h’; Treadwell, ‘Shā hā nshā h and al-Malik al-Muʾayyad’; Richter-Bernburg,
‘Amı̄ r-Malik-Shā hā nshā h’ (see further below, at n. 45). For a striking enactment of
Abbasid-Buyid relations, see the encounter between ʿAdud al-Dawla, seeking additional
˙
caliphal recognition, and Caliph al-Tā ʿı̄ (r. 363–81/974–91) in the year 367/977 (Ibn al-
˙
Jawzı̄ , al-Muntazam, XIV: 252–3; translated and discussed in al-Azmeh, Secularism in the
˙
Arab World, 36–7).
21
When Ismā ʿı̄ l predeceased his father, the universally revered Jaʿfar al-Sā diq, most of the
˙
latter’s followers transferred their allegiance to his surviving son Mū sā , but some, who
would become known as Ismailis, continued to follow a line through Ismā ʿı̄ l’s son
Muhammad; see Daftary, The Ismā ʿı̄ lı̄ s: Their History and Doctrines, 87–98. The term
˙
‘imamate’ (Ar. imā ma) was used widely in theological and juristic discourses to denote
legitimate leadership of the Muslim community, but it developed different connotations
among different groups, who identified it with different individuals and lineages. In the
Shiʿi tradition, after ʿAlı̄ , who became the Fourth Caliph and was, for the Shia, the First
Imam, the imamate and the historical caliphate diverged. The Fatimids’ adoption of the
title ‘caliph’ in addition to ‘imam’ marked their repudiation of Abbasid claims to
legitimate authority.
22
Berkey, Formation of Islam, 189–202; Ephrat, ‘The Seljuqs and the Public Sphere’;
Peacock, Great Seljuk Empire, 246–72; Bulliet, View from the Edge, 115–27, 145–68,
esp. 146–8; Van Renterghem, ‘Controlling and Developing Baghdad’, 120–3.
23
Al-Mā wardı̄ , for example, composed al-Iqnā ʿ, representing the Shā fiʿı̄ perspective, in
response to Caliph al-Qā dir’s request for juridical manuals from each of the four Sunni
schools of law (madhā hib).
24
See Makdisi, Ibn ʿAqil: Religion and Culture in Classical Islam, 8–12; Hanne, Putting the
Caliph in His Place, 70–2, 112–13 and passim. The boundaries articulated in the creed
rejected not only Shiʿism but also, in at least as pronounced a fashion, the broad
rationalist movement of Muʿtazilism (on which see Vasalou, Moral Agents and Their
Deserts). Affinities with Muʿtazilı̄ reasoning appear in the work of Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ and

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clearer and, as Jonathan Berkey has pointed out, more homogeneous

forms.25 The process proceeded alongside Ismaili challenges, which
persisted, albeit highly unevenly, through most of the Early Middle
Period. In the later ninth century, a network of Ismaili missionaries
(duʿā t, sing. dā ʿı̄ ) – agents charged with daʿwa, the call for allegiance –
had become active in several areas, including Iraq, Syria, Fars and
Khurasan, in which last province their most notable converts included
the Samanid amir Nasr II b. Ahmad (r. 301–31/914–43). 26 By far the
˙ ˙
greatest Ismaili political accomplishment, however, was the formation of
the Fatimid empire, which, following the Fatimids’ expansion from
Tunisia into Egypt in 358/969, began sending its own missionaries
throughout Western Asia and Iran. 27 In these circumstances, the
Buyids’ competitors, notably the Ghaznavids and the Seljuks, found it
expedient to accentuate their Sunni affiliations and to portray themselves
as defenders of the Abbasid caliphs against Buyids and Fatimids alike. In
fact, following the Seljuks’ replacement of the Buyids in Baghdad in
447/1055, the new dynasty proved unyielding in its treatment of the
Abbasids, who resisted the demotion that the Seljuks visited upon them;
the Seljuks’ actions, moreover, did not reflect the implacable hostility
towards Shiʿis that their rhetoric might have implied.28 Nevertheless,
the Ghaznavids’ and Seljuks’ expressions of obeisance to the Abbasids
enhanced the prestige of the latter, who now presented themselves as
leaders of a specifically Sunni Muslim population. As Hugh Kennedy has
observed, by the death of the caliph al-Qā dir, the Abbasid caliph com-
manded no troops and controlled no land beyond the gates of his palace,
but he had established his moral and religious authority for the Sunni
community. 29

to a degree, if indirectly, al-Mā wardı̄ himself (on the former, see Ansā rı̄ , ‘Yek andı̄ sheh-
˙
nā meh’; on the latter, see Melchert, ‘Mā wardı̄ , Abū Yaʿlá , and the Sunni Revival’, 46–7;
Cook, Commanding Right, 344; Marlow, Counsel for Kings, I: 14, 248, n. 76).
25
Berkey, Formation of Islam, 189.
26
See Daftary, The Ismā ʿı̄ lı̄ s: Their History and Doctrines, 98–126; Bonner, ‘Waning of
Empire’, 324–32; Crone and Treadwell, ‘A New Text on Ismailism’; and below,
Chapter 9, Text 16.
27
See Daftary, The Ismā ʿı̄ lı̄ s: Their History and Doctrines, 137–237; Walker, ‘The Ismaili
Daʿwa in the Reign of . . . al-Hā kim’. On the Fatimids, see below, section 2.2.
˙
28
Van Renterghem, ‘Controlling and Developing Baghdad’, 118–20; Hanne, Putting the
Caliph in His Place, 102–41; Safi, Politics of Knowledge, 1–42, esp. 35–42; Peacock, Great
Seljuk Empire, 124–55; Tor, ‘Tale of Two Murders’; Tor, ‘Political Revival’; and see
below, n. 65.
29
Kennedy, ‘The Late ʿAbbā sid Pattern’, 393.

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 Part I Introduction

The visible successes of non-Sunni movements and communities

constituted only one factor in the consolidating trends in Sunni identity.
In the eleventh century, numerous cities from Baghdad to Herat suffered
from internal conflicts often expressed in terms of sectarian or factional
difference. A particularly common line of fracture appeared between
adherents of the Hanafı̄ and Shā fiʿı̄ (and in Baghdad, the Hanbalı̄ )
˙ ˙
schools of (Sunni) law. These factional conflicts were neither new nor
invariable, but they seem to have augmented in intensity with the coming
of the Seljuks, who (with perhaps unanticipated results) intervened in
carefully balanced local configurations of power and status.30 A notable
feature of the period, the founding of madrasas – part-residential insti-
tutions of higher learning, especially associated with the teaching of law
according to the established legal schools (madhā hib, sing. madhhab) –
may on occasion have exacerbated tensions, even as it perhaps also, in
some cases, contributed to a re-centring of Sunni Islam.31 The creation of
madrasas, and of the khā naqā hs, likewise combining residential, instruc-
tional and ritual facilities, that developed for Sufi communities, provided
new opportunities for patronage and a new stimulus to mobility; not only
merchants, but also students, scholars, Sufis, scientists, philosophers,
men of letters and poets spent years of their lives far away from their
homelands, and broader sections of the population strived to undertake
the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj), often travelling great distances, if they
˙
were able to do so.32
This volume’s selections chart different moments and reflect different
perspectives in this period of transition and change. The following

30
See Berkey, Formation of Islam, 217–18; Ephrat, A Learned Society in a Period of
Transition, 85–93; Bulliet, Patricians of Nishapur, 61–74; Bulliet, ‘Local Politics of
Eastern Iran’ (treating also Ghaznavid strategies intended to win the support of local
factions); Bulliet, View from the Edge, 122–4; Durand-Gué dy, Iranian Elites and Turkish
Rulers, 197–204, 230–55; Safi, Politics of Knowledge, 25–35, 53–6, 93–5; Peacock, Great
Seljuk Empire, 37–8, 202, 249–50, 268–72, 311–14.
31
Safi, Politics of Knowledge, 90–7; Mottahedeh, ‘Transmission of Knowledge’, 66, 71;
Berkey, Formation of Islam, 196–8; Chamberlain, Knowledge and Social Practice, 69–90;
Van Renterghem, ‘Controlling and Developing Baghdad’, 121–3. The concept of
a ‘recentering’ of Sunnism (as opposed to a ‘revival’) is Bulliet’s (View from the Edge,
145–68, 177–8 and passim).
32
On the madrasa as an instrument of patronage, see Peacock, Great Seljuk Empire, 211–15,
266–7; Safi, Politics of Knowledge, 90–7; Bulliet, Patricians of Nishapur, 70–4;
Chamberlain, ‘Military Patronage States’, 145; Durand-Gué dy, Iranian Elites and
Turkish Rulers, 123–9. On the khā naqā h, see also Safi, Politics of Knowledge, 97–100;
Berkey, Transmission of Knowledge, 56–60; Van Steenbergen, History of the Islamic World,
196–200.

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section offers an account of the specific regions and polities that saw the
production of the mirrors presented in Part II.

2.2 The Polities of the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries

The Samanids
Setting aside the authorless Sirr al-asrā r, the earliest of this volume’s
mirrors is probably the Nası̄ hat al-mulū k of Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ . It seems
˙˙
likely that Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ wrote in the Samanid domains, possibly
during the reign of the amir Nasr II b. Ahmad (r. 301–31/914–43),
˙ ˙
who, as previously mentioned, embraced towards the end of his reign
the teachings of the Ismaili daʿwa. The Samanids (204–395/819–1005),
a dynastic family of Iranian background, began their rise to power when
the caliph al-Maʾmū n (r. 198–218/813–33) initiated the appointment of
four Samanid brothers to the governorships of locations to the east and
south of the Oxus River: Samarqand, Farghana, Shash (modern-day
Tashkent) and Herat.33 The family established its rule throughout
Transoxiana. Following their defeat of the Saffarids (247–393/861–
1003) at Balkh in 287/900, the Samanids also acquired the province of
Khurasan.34 The caliph al-Muʿtadid (r. 279–89/892–902) promptly
˙
appointed the victorious Samanid amir Ismā ʿı̄ l b. Ahmad (r. 279–
˙
95/892–907) governor of the two provinces, Transoxiana and
Khurasan. Through the conventional markers of khutba and sikka –
˙
respectively, the oration delivered in conjunction with the Friday noon-
time congregational prayer and the coinage – the Samanids maintained
a minimal acknowledgement of Abbasid authority, but their liminal
position (they retained their capital in the city of Bukhara) ensured
their autonomy.35

33
See Treadwell, ‘Political History’, I: 64–103; Daniel, ‘Islamic East’, 498–505; Bonner,
‘Waning of Empire’, 344–6.
34
On the Saffarids, whose relative absence from this discussion reflects only the seeming
lack of advisory literature addressed to them, see Bosworth, History of the Saffarids; Tor,
‘Historical Representations of Yaʿqū b b. al-Layth’; Daniel, ‘Islamic East’, 493–8. The
Saffarids appear as largely negative examples in Siyar al-mulū k and elsewhere; see
Chapter 7, Text 11.
35
Acknowledgement of the ruling authority was a traditional element in the khutba; see
˙
Qutbuddin, ‘Khutba: The Evolution of Early Arabic Oration’, 190–4. The inclusion of
˙
the caliph’s name in the sikka, coinage, constituted a formal acknowledgement of and
subservience to the caliph of the time (see Heidemann, ‘Numismatics’, 648–9, 660). See
further below, Chapter 6, n. 48, and for a Ghaznavid example, see Figure 4.

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 Part I Introduction

The early Samanids’ proximity to the frontier enabled them to benefit

from lucrative transregional trade and from campaigning in the Inner
Asian steppe; warfare against non-Muslim populations brought them
large numbers of slaves and strengthened their claims to legitimacy.36
At times the Samanids campaigned in the Caspian regions, where they
established their suzerainty and negotiated alliances with local dynasties
such as the Ziyarids (c. 319–483/931–1090), who, founded by the broth-
ers Mardā vı̄ j b. Ziyā r (r. 319–23/931–5) and Vushmgı̄ r, ruled in Gurgan
and Tabaristan.37 The Ziyarid amir Kaykā ʾū s, whose mirror, known as
the Qā bū snā meh, takes its name from the author’s grandfather, the amir
Qā bū s b. Vushmgı̄ r (r. 366–71/977–81 and 388–403/998–1012 or 1013),
was among the last of the Ziyarid rulers.38
In the latter half of the tenth century, the Samanids faced the rising
power of the Buyids, with whom they competed over territory in central
and northern Iran. Among the most notable initiatives of the Samanids
and their governors was the promotion of the literary medium of New
Persian, that is, the Persian language, now including a large vocabulary of
Arabic loanwords, written in the Arabic script. The Samanids also
sponsored an extensive project of translations from Arabic into Persian.39

The Karakhanids
The confessional frontier shifted when the Karakhanids (382–609/992–
1212), a Turkish confederation within which members of the ruling
family held different cities and regions, converted to Islam in roughly
the mid-tenth century. It was to the Karakhanids and the Ghaznavids
that the Samanids fell at the end of the century. Hasan Bughra Khan
˙
occupied Bukhara in 382/992; when in 389/999 another member of the
Karakhanid family, the Ilig Nasr b. ʿAlı̄ of Özkend, took Bukhara, he
˙

36
Bonner, ‘Waning of Empire’, 344.
37
On the Ziyarids, see Bosworth, ‘Chronology of the Ziyā rids’; Madelung, ‘Minor
Dynasties of Northern Iran’, 212–16 and passim.
38
At one point in 369/979, Qā bū s was evicted by the Buyids, who proceeded to rule his
territories directly, while he took refuge with the Samanids. In 388/998 Qā bū s returned,
on good terms with the Samanids’ successors, the Ghaznavids, with whom the Ziyarids
also intermarried. Qā bū s excelled in the literary arts, demonstrating his skill in Arabic
and, to a lesser extent, Persian; his grandson Kaykā ʾū s, author of the Qā bū snā meh, wrote
his mirror in Persian (see below, section 3.5 and Chapter 3, n. 45).
39
Daniel, ‘Islamic East’, 502–3; Meisami, Persian Historiography, 15–37; Zadeh, The
Vernacular Qurʾan, 302–30.

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divided the Samanid domains with the Ghaznavid sultan Mahmū d (r.
˙
388–421/998–1030). 40 Out of the loose confederation of the
Karakhanids, two lines, an eastern and a western branch, eventually
emerged. From roughly the early to mid-eleventh century, the eastern
‘Hasanid’ branch consolidated its power in the original Karakhanid
˙
territories of Semirechye, Farghana and Kashgharia, while the western
branch controlled the formerly Samanid territories of Transoxiana. The
two branches developed somewhat different cultural styles: the western
Karakhanids, in Transoxiana, continued the cultural patterns – specific-
ally the use of Persian – of their Samanid predecessors; the eastern
branch fostered the use of Turkish, both as an official and a literary
language. A prime example of this early Karakhanid Turkish literature is
the mirror for princes Kutadgu bilig (‘Wisdom of Royal Glory’), which its
author Yū suf Khā ss Hā jib, writing in the religious and cultural centre of
˙˙ ˙
Kashghar, dedicated to Khan Hasan b. Sulaymā n (r. 467–96/1075–
˙
1103). 41
Like the Ghaznavids, the Karakhanids sought the recognition and
endorsement of the Abbasid caliphs: in their coinage, the western
Karakhanids, following an established model, styled themselves mawlā
amı̄ r al-muʾminı̄ n, ‘Client of the Commander of the Faithful’. 42 At
various times, the western and eastern branches of the Karakhanids
became vassals of the Seljuks. 43

The Buyids
Hailing from Daylam, along the south-western shore of the Caspian Sea,
the Buyids (320–454/932–1062) created a large though decentralised
polity in Iraq (334–447/945–1055) and western and central Iran. Initially
mercenary soldiers in the employ of various rulers, including, latterly,

40
The terms ilig and khan were distinct ranks in the ruling hierarchy of the dynasty, the
former subordinate to the latter (Bosworth, ‘Ilek-khā ns or Karakhā nids’).
˙
41
On the Karakhanids’ ‘distinctly Turco-Islamic culture’, see Golden, ‘Turks and Iranians:
An Historical Sketch’, 28; see also Paul, ‘Karakhanids’.
42
This honorific title, attested as early as the reign of Caliph al-Mansū r (r. 136–58/754–75),
˙
did not necessarily imply any formal relationship with the caliph (Wensinck and Crone,
‘Mawlā ’; Crone, Slaves on Horses, 75). It was in common use in the Early Middle Period:
Kaykā ʾū s refers to himself by this epithet (Qā bū snā meh, 3), and in 426/1035 the Seljuks
described themselves as mawā lı̄ amı̄ r al-muʾminı̄ n; see Bosworth, ‘Steppe Peoples’, 41;
Safi, Politics of Knowledge, 5; Van Steenbergen, History of the Islamic World, 180.
43
Bosworth, ‘Steppe Peoples’, 53–4.

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 Part I Introduction

Mardā vı̄ j b. Ziyā r, members of the Buyid family eventually took control
of the territories that their services had helped Mardā vı̄ j to attain. 44
Three Buyid brothers succeeded in gaining caliphal recognition: the
eldest, ʿAlı̄ , invested with the title ʿImā d al-Dawla, ruled in Fars;
Hasan, with the title Rukn al-Dawla (d. 366/976), ruled in the Jibal;
˙
and Ahmad, with the title Muʿizz al-Dawla, ruled in Kirman and
˙
Khuzistan. 45 In 334/945 Ahmad entered Baghdad and established
˙
there the Buyid dominion that would endure until the last Buyids fell
to the Seljuks in 447/1055. When ʿAlı̄ , ʿImā d al-Dawla, ruler of Fars,
died in 338/949 without heir, Hasan’s son ʿAdud al-Dawla (324–
˙ ˙
72/936–83) took control of the province and became the leading member
of the dynastic family. The various territories within the Buyid domains
were, as in the case of ʿAdud al-Dawla’s reign, sometimes united under
˙
a single Buyid ruler and sometimes separate. Like the Samanids, the
Buyids at times compelled the allegiance of dynasties in the Caspian
region, such as the Ziyarids, who, after about 400/1011–12, became
vassals of the Ghaznavids and then the Seljuks.
The linkage under Buyid rule of Iraq and western Iran played
a significant role in the continued nearly exclusive use of Arabic as the
language of administration and literary culture in these areas, even as
Persian had developed extensively in the eastern regions over the course
of the previous century. Indeed, the Buyid era saw great accomplish-
ments in Arabic letters, as exemplified not least in the oeuvres of the
Buyids’ viziers (most notably, al-Sā hib Ibn ʿAbbā d, d. 385/995), as well
˙ ˙
as the prose writings of the historian, philosopher and ethicist
46
Miskawayh (d. 421/1030).
At the beginning of the Buyids’ rule, borders between Sunni and Shiʿi
understandings of Islam, and within the Shia, were often indistinct, but,
as mentioned in section 2.1, the Buyids, once they had attained

44
On the Buyids, see Nagel, ‘Buyids’; Kennedy, ‘Late ʿAbbā sid Pattern’, 364–70;
Mottahedeh, Loyalty and Leadership; Busse, Chalif und Grosskönig; Donohue, The
Buwayhid Dynasty.
45
Titulature played an important part in rulers’ self-presentation and claims to rule. For the
Samanids’ and Buyids’ adoption of the titles malik, ‘king’, and shā hā nshā h, ‘king of kings’,
see Madelung, ‘The Assumption of the Title Shā hā nshā h’; Treadwell, ‘Shā hā nshā h and
al-Malik al-Muʾayyad’; Richter-Bernburg, ‘Amı̄ r-Malik-Shā hā nshā h’; Busse, Chalif und
Grosskönig, 159–84; and above, n. 20.
46
On al-Sā hib Ibn ʿAbbā d, see Pomerantz, ‘Political Biography’. Miskawayh was employed
˙ ˙
as a secretary and librarian under several Buyid viziers and eventually under the amir
ʿAdud al-Dawla.
˙

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ascendancy in Baghdad, fostered a blossoming of the religious sciences

among the Twelver Shia and promoted the establishment of distinctively
Shiʿi festivals. Seeking at the same time to establish a constructive co-
existence with the Abbasid caliphs, the Buyids depended on intermediaries,
whom they found among the notable Shia families of Baghdad, such as the
Sharı̄ fs al-Radı̄ (d. 406/1015) and al-Murtadā (355–436/967–1044), theo-
˙ ˙
logians and litté rateurs, and certain Sunni intellectuals, such as the chief
judge al-Mā wardı̄ , who associated with and seems to have composed mir-
rors for Abbasid and Buyid figures alike. The Buyids faced competition in
the earlier part of their rule from the Samanids, and later, more significantly,
from the Ghaznavids, who, seeking to use their Sunnism to their advantage,
carried out a destructive occupation of Rayy in 420/1029.47 In 447/1055,
the Seljuks took control of Baghdad and completed the fall of the Buyid
dominion.

The Ghaznavids
The Ghaznavids rose to power in present-day Afghanistan in the second
half of the tenth century. 48 A Turkish dynasty, the Ghaznavids were
named not for an eponymous ancestor but for the city of Ghazna, captured
first by the former Samanid general Alptigin and next, in about 366/977,
by a slave soldier in Alptigin’s employ, Sebü ktigin (d. 387/997). In the
last days of the Samanids, Sebü ktigin led his army into Khurasan. Ghazna
became the capital of Sebü ktigin’s son Mahmū d (r. 388–421/998–1030),
˙
who, after the fall of the Samanids, inherited almost all of Khurasan and
49
Afghanistan. In this period, the Ghaznavids amassed enormous wealth
on the basis of, on the one hand, the abundant tax revenues of Khurasan
and, on the other, the extraordinarily rich plunder seized in the course of
Mahmū d’s numerous campaigns against non-Muslim communities in
˙
Afghanistan and Hindustan (northern India). Permanent annexation
seems unlikely to have constituted a major objective of these early exped-
itions into South Asia.50 Nevertheless, Mahmū d continued to extend the
˙

47
The Ghaznavid assault against Rayy singled out Shiʿis, Muʿtazilı̄ s and their institutions,
notably libraries; see Bosworth, Ghaznavids, 53, 200.
48
On the Ghaznavids, see Bosworth, Ghaznavids; Inaba, ‘Ghaznavids’; Kennedy, ‘Late
ʿAbbā sid Pattern’, 370–80.
49
See above, at n. 40.
50
Lahore, however, became an important centre in the early Ghaznavid state; as early as the
reign of Mahmū d, the Ghaznavid mint in Lahore issued bilingual Arabic-Sanskrit coins.
˙

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 Part I Introduction

Ghaznavid territories; notably, in 408/1017, he took direct control of

Khvarazm, the province previously under the rule of his late brother-in
-law, the Khvā razmshā h al-Maʾmū n II b. Maʾmū n I (r. 399–407 or
408/1009–17), recipient of the Ādā b al-mulū k of al-Thaʿā libı̄ . The
Maʾmū nid Khvā razmshā hs (385–408/995–1017), a short-lived line of
rulers bearing this ancient title, had seized power in Khvvarazm in 385/
995 and made their capital in Gurganj (Ar. al-Jurjaniyya), on the left
bank of the Oxus. Mahmū d’s seizure of Khvarazm brought the
˙
Ghaznavids into immediate proximity with the Oghuz nomads of the
surrounding steppes.
The Ghaznavids in many respects perpetuated the administrative and
cultural models of their Samanid predecessors. In a symbolic demonstra-
tion of royal prestige, they gathered an assembly of intellectual luminaries
at their court.51 After Mahmū d took control of Khvarazm, he brought back
˙
to Ghazna the scientist Abū Rayhā n al-Bı̄ rū nı̄ (d. after 442/1050) and al-
˙
Thaʿā libı̄ , both of whom wrote almost exclusively in Arabic. The
Ghaznavids also sponsored literary composition, in poetry and prose, in
the Persian language. The most notable product of this initiative was the
great epic, the Shā hnā meh of Firdawsı̄ (d. 410/1019 or 416/1025), who
had begun the poem under the Samanids but completed it in around 400/
1010, during the reign of Mahmū d. Many of the mirror-writers included
˙
in this volume invoke the Samanids and the Ghaznavids, singly and by
implication collectively, in positive contexts; writers of the Seljuk period,
such as Nizā m al-Mulk, himself shaped in the service of the Ghaznavids,
˙
hark back to these predecessors as models of sound government. The
Iranian kings of the Shā hnā meh also appear, selectively, in the mirror
literature, as exemplars of both wise and occasionally foolish royal conduct.

The Seljuks
Much of the reign of Masʿū d (r. 421–32/1030–41), Mahmū d’s son and
˙
successor, was spent in protracted struggles against the rising Seljuks,
a nomadic Turkish dynastic family, who, led by the brothers Tughril Beg

The city became the Ghaznavid capital in the dynasty’s last days before falling in
581/1185–6. After the fall of Khurasan to the Seljuks, the later Ghaznavids retained
their territories in Afghanistan and extended their rule over parts of Hindustan (see
Bosworth, Ghaznavids, 76–8; Bosworth, The Later Ghaznavids, 64, 76–7; Inaba,
‘Ghaznavids’).
51
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ discusses this aspect of kingship in Text 2.

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(r. 431–55/1040–63) and Chaghri Beg (d. 452/1060), grandsons of the

dynasty’s eponym Seljuk, and their uncle Mū sā Yabghu,52 crossed the
Oxus to enter Khurasan, Ghaznavid territory, in 426/1035. The Seljuks,
who had become Muslim probably in the late tenth century, had lent their
military services to various regional rulers, including the later Samanids
and certain Karakhanids. In 429/1038, having heard that Nishapur had
opened its gates to Tughril (Marv had surrendered to Chaghri Beg the
previous year), Masʿū d marched into Khurasan; during his occupation of
Nishapur, Tughril had the khutba read in his own name (perhaps in
˙
addition to that of the caliph) and adopted, in formal usage, the sweeping
title al-sultā n al-muʿazzam (‘Supreme Ruler’).53 At Dandanqan two years
˙ ˙˙
later, in 431/1040, Masʿū d suffered a complete defeat, which resulted in
the Ghaznavids’ permanent loss of their western territories.54 Chaghri
remained in Khurasan, where he consolidated his power and competed
with the Ghaznavids for control of territories further east. Tughril, mean-
while, continued the Seljuks’ westward expansion across Iran. His cam-
paigns in the Caspian regions included the invasion of the Ziyarids’
territories in 433/1041–2, after which date the latter dynasty became
Seljuk tributaries. In 447/1055, Tughril entered Baghdad and deposed
the Buyid al-Malik al-Rahı̄ m Khusraw Fı̄ rū z (r. 440–7/1048–55).
˙
Significantly later, in 449/1058, the caliph al-Qā ʾim bestowed honorific
titles and robes of honour on Tughril and contracted a marriage with

52
Mū sā Yabghu (Bayghu) b. Seljuk. Yabghu, an ancient Turkish title, denoted varying
ranks at different times in its long usage (see Bosworth, ‘Yabghu’). For broad treatments
of the Seljuks, see Peacock, Early Seljū q History; Peacock, Great Seljuk Empire; Durand-
Guédy, ‘New Trends in the Political History of Iran’.
53
On Seljuk titles, including their use of the expansive term sultā n, see Peacock, Great
˙
Seljuk Empire, 135–7, 138; Safi, Politics of Knowledge, 9–10, 26; Van Steenbergen, History
of the Islamic World, 179–80. Sanjar ruled as malik over the eastern provinces (from 490/
1097 to 511/1118), and as supreme ruler (al-sultā n al-muʿazzam) when in 511/1118 he
˙ ˙˙
attained rule over the Seljuks’ western domains as well. Use of the title al-sultā n al-
˙
muʿazzam was not unprecedented; certain Buyid rulers and the later Ghaznavids had
˙˙
employed it (Nagel, ‘Buyids’; Bosworth, ‘Amı̄ r’; Bosworth, The Later Ghaznavids, 47,
55–6). According to one report, al-Mā wardı̄ refused to countenance such titles, and his
abstention caused a rift between him and Jalā l al-Dawla (Ibn al-Jawzı̄ , al-Muntazam, XV:
˙
264–5, sub anno 429). The honorific title aqdā l-qudā t, ‘the most decisive of the judges’,
awarded in the same year 429 by the caliph al-Qa ˙ ˙ to al-Mā wardı̄ , already Chief Judge
̄ ʾim
(qā dı̄ l-qudā t), was also a matter of controversy: see Melchert, ‘Mā wardı̄ , Abū Yaʿlá , and
˙ ˙
the Sunni Revival’, 44.
54
Following this defeat, Masʿū d, retreating to India, was deposed, and in 432/1041 killed.
Notwithstanding the scale of the Ghaznavid defeat at Dandanqan, the Ghaznavids and
Seljuks remained deeply intertwined for at least the next two decades (Inaba,
‘Ghaznavids’).

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a daughter of Chaghri.55 With these developments Tughril became supreme

ruler over the former Buyid lands in western and southern Iran. With his
capital in Marv, Chaghri ruled over Khurasan and Khvarazm until his death
in 452/1060, whereupon Tughril assumed control of his brother’s territories
as well. The Seljuks had now brought together a territorial expanse that
recalled the domains of the Sasanian Empire.56
After defeating a number of challenges to his accession, Alp Arslan (r.
455–65/1063–72), a son of Chaghri Beg (Tughril had died without
issue), followed Tughril in his rule of both the western and the eastern
portions of the Seljuk Empire. All subsequent rulers of the ‘Great Seljuk’
line, in Iran and Iraq, sprang from Alp Arslan.57 The Seljuk Empire
reached its height during the reigns of Alp Arslan and his son Malikshā h
(r. 465–85/1073–92), a thirty-year period inseparably associated with the
tenure in office of the vizier Nizā m al-Mulk. Nizā m al-Mulk’s effective
˙ ˙
governance of the Seljuk Empire during this period led the historian Ibn
al-Athı̄ r (555–630/1160–1233) to coin the phrase al-dawla al-Nizā miyya,
˙
‘the Nizā mian turn in power’, a term which evokes the extensive network
˙
of personal, familial and professional connections that the vizier estab-
lished across the empire.58 Indeed, the vizier has been likened to
a shadow ruler, and his family to a shadow ruling family, on which the
Seljuks of the period depended to maintain their power and the unity of
their territories.59
In some respects, the Seljuk era displayed a continuity of earlier patterns.
From their nomadic beginnings, the Seljuks gradually moved towards an
imperial, territorially based model of sovereignty, and they adopted and
extended certain political forms that they had initially encountered in
Khurasan.60 Having taken the cities of that province, Tughril retained his
Ghaznavid predecessors’ administrative structures and staff. As the bound-
aries of the state moved, Khurasanians were charged with the administration

55
On the tense relations between the Seljuks and the Abbasids, see Peacock, Great Seljuk
Empire, 124–55; Safi, Politics of Knowledge, 1–41; Van Renterghem, ‘Controlling and
Developing Baghdad’; Tor, ‘Political Revival of the Abbasid Caliphate’.
56
The similarity is noted in Chamberlain, ‘Military Patronage States’, 139.
57
The term ‘Great Seljuk’ is commonly applied to the line of Seljuk sultans who ruled over
the central territories of Iraq and western Iran, especially if they also ruled eastern Iran; it
distinguishes this line of rulers from the regional Seljuk polities of Kirman and Rum
(Anatolia) and the various city-based polities that developed in northern Iraq and Syria.
58
Ibn al-Athı̄ r, al-Kā mil, VIII: 365 (sub anno 456); see further Peacock, Great Seljuk Empire,
68; Safi, Politics of Knowledge, 47.
59
Chamberlain, ‘Military Patronage States’, 143.
60
Chamberlain, ‘Military Patronage States’, 135.

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 Contexts

of the new territories, including the city of Isfahan, which Tughril’s grand-
son Malikshā h (r. 465–85/1073–92), who was born there, would adopt as
the Seljuk capital.61 Particularly under the leadership of Nizā m al-Mulk,
˙
himself a native of Khurasan, numbers of families from Khurasan resettled
in western Iran and Iraq.62 These families contributed to the extension of
the administrative and intellectual cultures of Khurasan to the western parts
of the empire. The advent of the madrasa and khā naqā h would transform
the cities of the western provinces as they had those of Khurasan. It was also
under the Seljuks that Persian, as a leading literary and administrative
language, spread from eastern to western Iran. The present volume’s two
mirror-writers who wrote for Seljuk rulers, Nizā m al-Mulk and Ghazā lı̄ ,
˙
both hailed from the Khurasanian city of Tus. Both men spent long periods
of their lives in western Iran and Iraq; famously, Nizā m al-Mulk founded
˙
his Nizā miyya madrasa (completed in 459/1067) in Baghdad and, in 484/
˙
1091, appointed Ghazā lı̄ to lead it.
Alp Arslan’s constant military activity was directed chiefly against the
Christian powers to the north and west, where, in the 450s/1060s, he led
or organised sporadic campaigns against Armenia, Georgia and the
Byzantine Empire. These campaigns, punctuated by periods of truce,
allowed Alp Arslan’s Tü rkmen troops, who comprised the majority of his
army, to continue their pursuit of pasturage. As the Tü rkmen forces
moved largely into Azerbaijan, the southern Caucasus and eastern
Anatolia, they remained within reach of the Seljuk dynasty, who con-
tinued to depend on their support, but beyond the control of the Seljuk
administration, with its interests in revenue collection, and in matters of
agriculture and trade. David Durand-Guédy has suggested that, possibly
to facilitate the Seljuks’ continued relations with the Tü rkmen groups,
the Seljuk court, a tented encampment, was located sometimes just
outside the city walls, but sometimes, especially in summer, in far-away
pastures, in closer proximity to the nomads.63 Like many earlier dynas-
ties, the Seljuks also began to acquire slave soldiers, to whose training
Nizā m al-Mulk devoted a chapter in his book of advice.64
˙

61
Durand-Guédy, Iranian Elites and Turkish Rulers, 106–9, 230–55.
62
Bulliet, View from the Edge, 145–68; Durand-Gué dy, Iranian Elites and Turkish Rulers,
112–29, 230–55; Durand-Gué dy, ‘An Emblematic Family of Seljuk Iran’.
63
Durand-Gué dy, ‘Ruling from the Outside’; Durand-Gué dy, ‘Where Did the Saljū qs
Live?’; Hillenbrand, ‘Aspects of the Court of the Great Seljuqs’, 23.
64
Amitai, ‘Armies and Their Economic Basis’, 543–4; Siyar al-mulū k, 141–3 = Darke, Book
of Government, 106–8, and see above, n. 15.

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 Part I Introduction

The Seljuks’ campaigns in the north and west hastened Turkish

expansion into Anatolia, particularly after Alp Arslan’s defeat of the
Byzantine army at Manzikert (Malazgird) in 463/1071 and the capture
of the emperor Romanus IV Diogenes. Alp Arslan’s great victory
resulted more from chance than from design, since his intention had
been to advance through Syria and into Egypt in order to confront and
defeat the Fatimids.65 Although Alp Arslan did not immediately press his
advantage and promptly released Romanus, the Battle of Manzikert had
the effect of reducing still further the Byzantines’ capacity to resist
continuing Turkish attacks.66

The Fatimids
The Fatimid dynasty established its rule first in North Africa, from 297/
909, and subsequently in Egypt (358–567/969–1171). Claiming descent
from ʿAlı̄ and the Prophet’s daughter Fā tima, the Fatimids gained the
˙
allegiance of a significant portion of the Ismaili movement. In North
Africa, they established the rule of a caliph-imam who assumed the name
ʿAbdallā h al-Mahdı̄ (r. 297–322/909–34). Attempts during al-Mahdı̄ ’s
reign to conquer Egypt met with failure, but during the reign of the
caliph-imam al-Muʿizz li-Dı̄ n Allā h (r. 341–65/953–75), the Fatimids
succeeded in extending their rule to the east. The victorious general
initiated construction of a new palace city, to be called al-Qā hira (Cairo),
which rapidly replaced the earlier al-Mahdiyya, located on the Tunisian
coast, as the centre of the Fatimid state. The holy cities of Mecca and
Medina acknowledged Fatimid suzerainty, and the Fatimids eventually
extended their empire into Yemen, although their control over positions
in Palestine and Syria, and even North Africa, proved difficult to sustain.
Nor did the several scattered Ismaili communities necessarily accept the
Fatimids’ claims to the imamate; most notably, the Qarmatiyya, followers
˙
of Hamdā n Qarmat in Iraq and eastern Arabia (al-Bahrayn), withheld
˙ ˙ ˙
their allegiance and continued to reject Fatimid authority.
For a period of nearly twenty-two years, the administration of the
Fatimid state fell largely to the Fatimids’ first-named vizier, Yaʿqū b Ibn

65
Despite their rhetorical claims to defence of the Sunni caliphs against a generalised
Ismaili threat, the Seljuks took relatively little action against Ismaili communities; see
Tor, ‘Tale of Two Murders’, 280; Hillenbrand, ‘Power Struggle between the Saljuqs and
the Ismaʿilis of Alamū t’.
66
Mallett, ‘Alp Arslan’.

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 Contexts

Killis (318–80/930–91), who had been born Jewish in Baghdad and

converted to Islam in Egypt. While the Fatimids did not attempt in
a sustained way to impose Ismaili Islam on their subject populations, they
did, with certain exceptions, reduce the differences in status among the
various confessional constituencies, Muslim, Christian and Jewish, in
their domains.67 In the later eleventh century, facing chronic instability,
the Fatimids enlisted the aid of their governor in Acre, the Armenian
mamlū k Badr al-Jamā lı̄ (d. 487/1094), who entered Cairo with his corps
of largely Muslim Armenian troops in 466/1074 and rapidly attained
immense power. His appointment ushered in a succession of ‘military
viziers’, and Heinz Halm has described his office as a de facto sultanate,
akin to the sultanate of the Seljuks in their relations with the Abbasids.68
In 477/1084, Badr’s son al-Afdal assumed the post of vizier; in
˙
a demonstration of his power, the latter arranged marriages between
members of his family and the Fatimid dynasty. Al-Afdal was killed in
˙
515/1121 and replaced as vizier by Ibn al-Batā ʾihı̄ , recipient of al-
˙ ˙
Turtū shı̄ ’s Sirā j al-mulū k, which the author had intended for al-Afdal
˙ ˙ ˙
but completed only after the latter’s assassination.
By the early twelfth century, the Fatimids faced the new challenge of
the Crusades. By 504/1110, the Fatimids had lost Jerusalem (492/1099)
and almost all of the Mediterranean coastal towns, except for Tyre and
Ascalon (lost to the Crusaders in 518/1124 and 548/1153 respectively).
Faced in 564/1168 with the threat of a Frankish invasion of Egypt, the
Fatimids, having rejected the earlier appeal of Nū r al-Dı̄ n Mahmū d
˙
b. Zangı̄ (d. 569/1174) of Aleppo to join forces in the waging of jihā d
against the Franks, appealed to Nū r al-Dı̄ n for support. The threat
receded, but in 564/1169, the Fatimid caliph-imam al-ʿĀ did appointed
˙
Nū r al-Dı̄ n’s Kurdish commander Salā h al-Dı̄ n Yū suf b. Ayyū b (532–
˙ ˙
89/1138–93) to the vizierate. Salā h al-Dı̄ n, the last of the Fatimid viziers,
˙ ˙
adopted a markedly pro-Sunni policy, and, calling in 567/1171 for the
reading of the khutba in the name of the Abbasid caliph, al-Mustadı̄ ʾ (r.
˙ ˙
566–75/1170–80), he asserted Abbasid suzerainty over Egypt and the

67
Brett, ‘Egypt’, 571. Among the most notable exceptions, the caliph-imam al-Hā kim bi-
Amr Allā h (r. 386–411/996–1021) imposed the sharia upon Muslims and˙ enforced
restrictive and discriminatory measures against Christians and Jews. He also ordered
the destruction of churches, including, in 400/1009, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
in Jerusalem (Brett, ‘Egypt’, 575).
68
Halm, ‘Fatimids’. Badr held the title wazı̄ r al-sayf wa-l-qalam (‘vizier of the sword and
the pen’), and his private troops were numbered at over 7,000 (Dadoyan, ‘Badr al-
Jamā lı̄ ’).

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 Part I Introduction

establishment of Sunnism.69 After over two centuries, the Fatimid state

collapsed, and Salā h al-Dı̄ n (Saladin) became the founder of the Ayyubid
˙ ˙
dynasty, which lies beyond the scope of this collection.
Throughout the Early Middle Period, the capacity of rulers to estab-
lish or maintain a centralised hold on power was limited.70 In many cases,
a senior member of the dynastic family appointed male relatives to
provincial territories, where they often ruled with little interference
from the head of the family. The establishment of rule in a given lineage
often faced repeated challenges from contenders in lateral lines of des-
cent. In the case of the Seljuks – more a confederation, or collection of
powerful households, than a unified polity – the apportionment of
territories was also supported by the law and custom of the steppe.71
As previously noted, Alp Arslan, after the deaths of his father Chaghri
in 452/1060 and his uncle Tughril in 455/1062, assumed rule of the
empire in its entirety, but the political unity of the Seljuk Empire
remained tenuous. After the death of Malikshā h, the Seljuk dominions
were effectively divided, as they had been in the period of Tughril and
Chaghri, into a western part (maghrib) and an eastern part (mashriq).
Sanjar, a son of Malikshā h, ruled for many years (490–511/1097–1118) as
malik in Khurasan and the east; following the death of his brother
Muhammad b. Malikshā h in 511/1118, he emerged as the supreme
˙
ruler (al-sultā n al-muʿazzam) over the Seljuks’ western domains as
˙ ˙˙
well, and ruled, largely from Marv, until his death in 552/1157.
Branches of the Seljuk family ruled in Kirman and Anatolia, and mem-
bers of the Seljuk family or the atabegs, guardian-tutors, of young Seljuk
princes established subordinate dynasties of their own in principalities
across Syria and Iraq.72
In situating the mirror literature within medieval Muslim political
thought, scholars have not hesitated to describe it as ‘secular’.73

69
See Van Steenbergen, History of the Islamic World, 213–20.
70
Daniel, ‘The Islamic East’, 466; Paul, Herrscher, Gemeinwesen, Vermittler, esp. 237–60.
71
Peacock, Great Seljuk Empire, 128–31; Chamberlain, ‘Military Patronage States’, 142.
The autonomy of these appanages is reflected in the considerable numismatic variation
among the Seljuk rulers, each of whom appears to have had the right of sikka (Bosworth,
‘Steppe Peoples’, 43, 49).
72
See Peacock, Great Seljuk Empire, 72–123; El-Azhari, Queens, Eunuchs and Concubines,
301–39. The previously mentioned Nū r al-Dı̄ n of Aleppo and the Zangid dynasty to
which he belonged held the title of atabeg.
73
Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought, 246–7, 150 and passim; Yavari, Advice for the
Sultan, esp. 7–44, 81–94; Yavari, ‘Political Regard’, passim; Dakhlia, ‘Les Miroirs des
princes islamiques’; see also Dahlén, ‘Kingship and Religion in a Mediaeval

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Certainly, authors of mirrors acknowledge two categories, sovereignty or

temporal power (mulk (Ar.), pā dshā hı̄ (Persian)) and religion (dı̄ n). From
the Formative Period onwards, authors of mirrors almost invariably
invoke Ardashı̄ r’s pronouncement:
Know that religion and sovereignty are (like) twin brothers: neither
endures without its partner. For religion is the foundation of sover-
eignty, and sovereignty in its turn becomes the guardian of religion.
Sovereignty depends on its foundation, and religion depends on its
guardian. For whatever lacks a guardian vanishes, and whatever has
no foundation crumbles.74
The axiom affirms the necessity and interdependence of the two spheres,
and at the same time it assumes their separation. The Sasanian back-
ground, explicit in the maxim’s attribution to the founder of the dynasty,
enhanced rather than detracted from its prestige in its Arabic and later
Persian and Turkish settings; the formulation appears in the writings of
(Sunni) religious scholars and jurists almost as unfailingly as in the
compositions of secretaries and administrators. The duality of ‘sultan-
ate’ and ‘caliphate’, prominent in the Seljuk period, similarly evoked an
interdependence of the two entities, each with distinct functions. Al-
Mā wardı̄ ’s distinction between two kinds of governorship, the ‘amirate
by appointment’ (imā rat al-istikfā ʾ) and the ‘amirate by seizure’ (imā rat
al-istı̄ lā ʾ), acknowledged a plurality of sources of power; Ghazā lı̄ identi-
fied the necessity of shawka, military force, separable from but
a potential partner to the imamate.75 For the Sunni Muslim jurists,
concepts of separate but potentially co-operative spheres, one represent-
ing military power and the other connoting a historically and religiously
legitimated authority, contributed to the shifting meanings of the

Fürstenspiegel’. For a thorough, comparative treatment of secularism in Christian and

Muslim contexts, see al-Azmeh, Secularism in the Arab World, 7–83.
74
ʿAhd Ardashı̄ r, 53, 97; cited, in the texts represented in this anthology, in Pseudo-
Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, 108; al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar, 201–2;
˙˙ ˙ ˙
Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, part II: 106 = Bagley, Ghazā lı̄ ’s Book of Counsel for Kings, 59;
˙˙
Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k, 80 = Darke, Book of Government, 60; al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j
˙
al-mulū k, I: 252. See further below, Chapter 5, Text 3, n. 125. ˙ ˙
75
The two Shā fiʿı̄ scholars, with others, developed these ideas principally in their juristic
writings. See al-Mā wardı̄ , al-Ahkā m al-sultā niyya, 31–6 = Wahba, Ordinances of
˙ ˙
Government, 32–7; Ghazā lı̄ , al-Mustazhirı̄ , 169–225 (see esp. 182–4, a discussion of
˙
courage (najda), necessary in the imam but attainable through acquisition rather than
innate); Hillenbrand, ‘Islamic Orthodoxy or Realpolitik?’; Crone, Medieval Islamic
Political Thought, 219–55.

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caliphal office.76 In the mirror literature, the importance of religion lay

primarily in its social and political functions: right religion promoted
social cohesion, and, through its support for the principles of justice and
moderation and its repudiation of abuses of power, upheld stability and
order; whereas heterodoxy, deemed to undermine these principles, was
equated with division, conflict and unrest, and portrayed as a disguise for
sedition.
76
See above, at n. 6.

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 3

Texts and Authors

With the exception of Sirr al-asrā r, the texts selected for this anthology
emanated from specific, roughly datable environments, as indicated in
general terms in Chapter 2. An introduction to the texts, in approximate
order of their appearance or composition, appears in the following pages.

3.1 Pseudo-Aristotle, Kitā b al-Siyā sa fı̄ tadbı̄ r al-riyā sa

(Sirr al-asrā r) (Arabic)
The most widely disseminated of the mirrors presented in this collection is
the text known in Arabic as Kitā b al-Siyā sa fı̄ tadbı̄ r al-riyā sa or Sirr al-asrā r
and in Latin as Secretum secretorum.1 This text, presented in the form of
correspondence between Aristotle and Alexander, consists largely of
Aristotle’s advice, reportedly submitted in writing when the philosopher’s
age and infirmity prevented him from joining his young sovereign on
military campaigns. Some Aristotelian pseudepigrapha circulated in Syriac
and Arabic at an early date, before the full development of the large-scale
movement of translation from Greek, Middle Persian and Sanskrit into
Arabic.2 The text of Sirr al-asrā r is composite; it comprises several pieces,

1
The text circulated under several ‘titles’; for examples, see Manzalaoui, ‘The Pseudo-
Aristotelian Kitā b Sirr al-asrā r’, 147; and Hirschler, Medieval Damascus: Plurality and
Diversity in an Arabic Library, Catalogue nos. 509, 1237c.
2
The provenance of the texts that would eventually comprise the Arabic Sirr al-asrā r
remains uncertain. Neither a Greek nor a Syriac version has come to light, although
parts of the Sirr al-asrā r have been shown to be consistent with Hellenistic and classical
Greek antecedents (Manzalaoui, ‘The Pseudo-Aristotelian Kitā b Sirr al-asrā r’, 201–2;
further documented in Williams, The Secret of Secrets, 23–6), and a significant portion of
the text suggests a Persianised context (Manzalaoui, ‘The Pseudo-Aristotelian Kitā b Sirr

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some of which also circulated as independent compositions. Among Sirr al-

asrā r’s most substantial components is the epistolary cycle known as Kitā b fı̄
l-Siyā sa al-ʿā mmiyya, a collection of epistles purportedly exchanged
between Alexander and Aristotle, and perhaps transmitted into Arabic in
the first half of the eighth century.3 Over the next two centuries, the Sirr al-
asrā r increased in size and in scope.4 The Arabic record, with the translations
into Latin made from it, reflects the development of two major recensions,
a ‘Short Form’ (in seven or eight chapters) and a ‘Long Form’ (in ten
chapters).5
From Arabic the Sirr al-asrā r was translated into Hebrew (and thence
into Russian), and into Latin, from which language numerous translations
into vernacular European languages were made.6 The translation into
Latin by John of Seville (Johannes Hispalensis) in the early twelfth century
was based on the Short Form version in circulation in Iberia at that time.
A little over a century later, in about 1230, a cleric named Philip, visiting
the city of Antioch with the Bishop of Tripoli, found a full (Long Form)
Arabic manuscript of the Sirr al-asrā r, which, at the Bishop’s request,
Philip translated into Latin. By the early fourteenth century, this text was
known to both scholarly and lay readers throughout the Latin West.7 The

al-asrā r’, 161; Grignaschi, ‘Remarques sur la formation et l’interpré tation du Sirr al-
ʾasrā r’; Grignaschi, ‘La “Siyâ satu-l-ʿâ mmiyya” et l’influence iranienne’; Van Bladel,
‘Iranian Characteristics and Forged Greek Attributions’; Marsham, Rituals of Islamic
Monarchy, 161–2). See also Grignaschi, ‘L’origine et les mé tamorphoses du Sirr alʾasrā r’;
Williams, The Secret of Secrets, 17, 29.
3
Following the studies of Mario Grignaschi, it is commonly agreed that Sā lim Abū l-ʿAlā ʾ,
secretary to the Umayyad caliph Hishā m (r. 105–25/724–43), played a central role in the
collection’s early formation and transmission (Grignaschi, ‘Les “Rasā ʾil ʾAristā tā lı̄ sa ʾilā -
˙˙
l-Iskandar” de Sā lim Abū -l-ʿAlā ʾ’). See further Cottrell, ‘An Early Mirror for Princes and
Manual for Secretaries’.
4
Manzalaoui’s positing of a long ‘process of accretion’ from numerous antecedents and
backgrounds seems apt (Manzalaoui, ‘The Pseudo-Aristotelian Kitā b Sirr al-asrā r’, 193).
5
The designations are Manzalaoui’s (‘The Pseudo-Aristotelian Kitā b Sirr al-asrā r’, 148).
From the perspective of European reception of the text, Steele had referred to the
‘Western Arabic Form’ and the ‘Eastern Arabic Form’, in a distinction corresponding to
Manzalaoui’s Short and Long Forms respectively; see his ‘Introduction’, in Secretum
secretorum cum glossis et notulis, xiii–xv. On the dating and versions of the Arabic text,
see Forster, Das Geheimnis der Geheimnisse, 11–30.
6
Grignaschi, ‘La diffusion du “Secretum secretorum” (Sirr-al-ʾasrā r) dans l’Europe occi-
dentale’; Ryan and Schmitt, Pseudo-Aristotle, The Secret of Secrets.
7
Schmitt, ‘Pseudo-Aristotle in the Latin Middle Ages’, 5; Forster, Das Geheimnis der
Geheimnisse, 1. On Philip’s translation, see Williams, The Secret of Secrets, 7–30, 60–108;
Forster, Das Geheimnis der Geheimnisse, 120–9. On John’s translation, see Williams, The Secret
of Secrets, 31–59; Forster, Das Geheimnis der Geheimnisse, 114–20; Figueiras, ‘La traduction
castillane de l’Epistola Aristotelis ad Alexandrum de dieta servanda de Jean de Sé ville’.

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philosopher Roger Bacon, whose interest lay less in the book’s political
contents than in the sections dedicated to the occult sciences, prepared an
annotated edition of the text in about 1275.8 In medieval Christian and
Muslim contexts, Sirr al-asrā r and other pseudo-Aristotelian works circu-
lated at least as widely as, if not more widely than, ‘genuine’ Aristotelian
works.9
Numerous translations into languages in use in Muslim communities
also appeared. The manuscript record reflects not only the geographical
and intercultural spread but also the longevity of the text’s interest.
A nineteenth-century copy of a Turkish translation, made apparently
from Arabic, appears with illuminated chapter headings written mostly
in Persian (Fig. 2).10 In its many versions, Sirr al-asrā r forms an import-
ant link among the mirror literatures in Arabic, Hebrew and Latin, and it
both reflected and contributed to a shared foundational political culture
among Muslims, Jews and Christians across pre-modern Eurasia.
The subjects treated in Sirr al-asrā r vary from one redaction to
another. In all its forms, the collection deals with matters considered
relevant to rulership, such as the functions and treatment of viziers,
secretaries, ambassadors, governors and generals, as well as, especially in
the Long Form versions, medicine, physiognomy, talismans and
hygiene. The text reflects the correspondences among the human
body, the body politic and the cosmos; it offers counsel concerning the
king’s comportment, according to the seasons, his physical health, parts
of the body, remedies for the ills that result from an imbalance of the
humours, medical and pharmacological prescriptions, and matters of
military strategy. The physical and bodily and the psychological and
moral dimensions of the king’s person are presented as interconnected.11
A significant portion of the text is aphoristic: often introduced with
the vocative direct address, ‘O Alexander!’, the aphorisms sometimes
announce a theme on which the text elaborates.
Considerable interest lies in the medical and magical sections included
in certain recensions; the very title ‘Secret of Secrets’ evokes esoteric

8
See Grignaschi, ‘Remarques sur la formation et l’interpré tation du Sirr al-ʾasrā r’, esp. 9.
9
Grignaschi, ‘La diffusion du “Secretum secretorum” (Sirr-al-ʾasrā r) dans l’Europe
occidentale’; Schmitt, ‘Francesco Storella’; Gutas, ‘Arabic Lives of Aristotle’ (with an
important discussion of the meaning in this context of ‘authenticity’).
10
See Fig. 2. For an example of the ‘circle of justice’ in an Arabic manuscript, see Fig. 3.
11
Manzalaoui, ‘The Pseudo-Aristotelian Kitā b Sirr al-asrā r’, 194; Forster, Das Geheimnis
der Geheimnisse, 108–11.

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Figure 2 A page from an early nineteenth-century copy (dated 1231/

1815) of a Turkish translation of the Pseudo-Aristotelian Kitā b al-Siyā sa
fı̄ tadbı̄ r al-riyā sa (Kitap ü s-siyase fi tedbir ir-riyase, Islamic Manuscripts
Collection, Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections,
Princeton University Library, New Series, no. 1669). This page (f. 84v)
shows the pseudo-Aristotelian ‘circle of justice’ in diagrammatic form,
and beneath it, in red ink, the title of the following section and the
invocation, ‘O Alexander!’, both in Persian; the writing then returns to
black ink and Turkish.
Photograph: Courtesy of Princeton University Library

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connotations. It is quite striking that a frequent point of difference among

the manuscripts is the inclusion or exclusion, and the location, of the
esoteric materials, including the sections devoted to physiognomy and
onomancy, which sometimes stand alone.12 In Spain, the text’s initial
(twelfth-century) interest lay in its medical contents; it was only in the
mid-thirteenth century that the text gained an audience as a political
treatise.13 In its Arabic forms, Sirr al-asrā r quite often appears in miscel-
lanies that contain other mirrors for princes, or other works related to
medicine or esoterica.14 The text’s lasting and widespread popularity; the
ubiquitous appearances of Aristotle and Alexander in Arabic, Persian and
Turkish mirrors; the high frequency of citations (variously attributed) of
the text’s contents; and the text’s adoption as a model justify its inclusion
in the present anthology.15 Among the mirror-writers considered in the
present volume, Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ cites Aristotle’s counsel to Alexander
more often than he does any other (non-scriptural) authority, and it is
evident from Sirā j al-mulū k that al-Turtū shı̄ either knew Sirr al-asrā r in
˙ ˙
its Long Form or had access to a common source.16

3.2 Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k (Arabic)

˙˙
One of the earliest extant book-length mirrors in Arabic is the Nası̄ hat al-
˙˙
mulū k attributed to the eminent Shā fiʿı̄ jurist, judge, caliphal envoy and
adviser al-Mā wardı̄ (364–450/974–1058). Like the ascriptions of many
medieval compositions, the attribution of this mirror to al-Mā wardı̄ is
open to question.17 The present author takes the text to have originated
in tenth-century eastern Iran, although a later reworking, perhaps in the

12
For a list of Arabic manuscripts, see Manzalaoui, ‘The Pseudo-Aristotelian Kitā b Sirr al-
asrā r’, 148–56.
13
Bizzarri, ‘Le Secretum secretorum en Espagne’, 187–213.
14
Examples include The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS Laud Or. 210;
Royal Asiatic Society, MS Arabic 57.
15
See further Forster, Das Geheimnis der Geheimnisse, 30–48.
16
Manzalaoui, ‘The Pseudo-Aristotelian Kitā b Sirr al-asrā r’, 158–9; Forster, Das Geheimnis
der Geheimnisse, 20–1 and n. 98.
17
Scholarly opinion on the subject is mixed. Scholars who consider the work among al-
Mā wardı̄ ’s writings include Kh. M. Khidr and M. J. al-Hadı̄ thı̄ , who published editions
˙ ˙
of the text in 1983 and 1986 respectively; Mikhail, Politics and Revelation, 64–8; al-
Sayyid, ‘Tamhı̄ d’, 70–1, and ‘al-Mā wardı̄ : al-rajul wa-l-ʿasr’, 102; Bosworth, ‘Nası̄ hat al-
˙ ˙˙
mulū k’; Toelle and Zakharia, À la dé couverte de la litté rature arabe, 161. Scholars who
have concluded that al-Mā wardı̄ did not write the book include Fuʾā d ʿAbd al-Munʿim
Ahmad, al-Mā wardı̄ wa-Kitā b Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, and ‘Muqaddimat al-dirā sa wa-
˙ qı̄ q’; Ansā rı̄ , ‘Yek andı̄ sheh-na˙̄ meh’;
l-tah ˙ Leder, ‘Aspekte arabischer und persischer
˙ ˙

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 Part I Introduction

time of al-Mā wardı̄ , is entirely possible. If the pseudepigraphical status

of the text is granted, the identity of its author remains unknown (hence
the epithet Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ), although Hassan Ansari has presented
a detailed and plausible case for the authorship of Abū l-Hasan ʿAlı̄
˙
b. Muhammad al-Hashshā ʾı̄ al-Balkhı̄ , a student of the Muʿtazilite
˙ ˙
theologian Abū l-Qā sim ʿAbdallā h al-Kaʿbı̄ al-Balkhı̄ (d. 319/931),
the principal theologian of the Baghdadi school of Muʿtazilite theology
in early tenth-century Khurasan.18 Nası̄ hat al-mulū k reflects a distinct
˙˙
intellectual milieu in which local traditions of rationalism (specifically
the Muʿtazilı̄ theology associated with al-Kaʿbı̄ and the philosophy of
the Kindian tradition), an affiliation with the Hanafı̄ legal school,
˙
a strong emphasis on scripture, and a fluency in the repertoire of
Arabic letters combine.19
Composed of ten chapters and an epilogue, Nası̄ hat al-mulū k is an
˙˙
interdisciplinary work: it draws on scriptural, theological, philosophical,
juristic, literary and poetic corpora and is exceptionally dense and diverse
in the range of authorities that it invokes. A large number of Pseudo-
Aristotelian passages appear, and authorities identified as ‘Indian’,
including references to and citations from the Buddha, are unusually
plentiful. The mirror’s ten chapters cover the acceptance of counsel; the
status of kings and the qualities they should adopt; causes of corruption
in the kingdom; exhortations; the king’s self-governance; the king’s
governance of his inner circle (al-khā ssa); the king’s governance of the
˙˙
people at large (al-ʿā mma); collecting and dispensing wealth; managing
enemies; and matters of controversy. The three central chapters, devoted
to the three governances (of the royal self, the king’s inner public and his
outer public), correspond, although Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ does not identify
them in this manner, to the Aristotelian triad of ethics, politics and
economics. In his appeal to the king to govern himself, Pseudo-
Mā wardı̄ urges the cultivation of divine qualities, such as generosity
and forbearance, the acquisition of the divinely enjoined qualities, such

Fü rstenspiegel’, 31, n. 39; Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought, 439; Marlow,
Counsel for Kings, I: 9–17; Abbè s, De l’É thique du prince, 202–3.
18
Ansā rı̄ , ‘Yek andı̄ sheh-nā meh’.
˙
19
Ansā rı̄ , ‘Yek andı̄ sheh-nā meh’; Marlow, ‘Abū Zayd al-Balkhı̄ ’; Marlow, ‘Kings and
˙
Sages’. For an interesting comparison, see Kaya, ‘Kalā m and Falsafa Integrated for
Divine Unity’ (I am grateful to the author of this study for bringing the commonalities
to my attention).

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as patient endurance and prudential resolve, and the following of the

divine commandments. 20
Much of the Arabic Nası̄ hat al-mulū k resembles a treatise; like al-
˙˙
Mā wardı̄ ’s works, its arguments could be charted in a sequence of points
and sub-points. Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ makes copious use of axiomatic, poetic
and narrative exempla, and he advises contemplation of history, but at
least as prominent in his mirror is the use of logic and rational argument.
In this respect Nası̄ hat al-mulū k might be compared with the very much
˙˙
later De regimine principum (c. 1277–80) of Giles of Rome (1247–1316),
which, unlike the mirrors of his European contemporaries and predeces-
sors, presents a logical and systematic sequence of arguments,
a demonstration of the principles which underpin the good governance
of kings and kingdoms. 21
Nası̄ hat al-mulū k also bears comparison with Kitā b al-Tā j fı̄ akhlā q
˙˙
al-mulū k, since identical passages appear in both texts (it is likely that
the two authors drew on a common source). 22 Like al-Taghlibı̄ , author
of Kitā b al-Tā j, Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ portrays kingship in exceptional
terms: the king occupies a unique position in the cosmic order, standing
immediately after prophets in a hierarchical sequence; his power
requires him to mediate between the divine and the human realms
through scrupulous observance of the divine law and care for the
subjects whose welfare is vouchsafed to him. Just as his earthly lot
surpasses that of all other human beings, his responsibilities, and the
punishment that awaits failure, exceed those of the subjects under his
governance.
Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s mirror also displays affinities with the works of
the philosopher al-ʿĀ mirı̄ (d. 381/992), who lived in Khurasan, where
he developed the philosophical tradition of Abū Yū suf Yaʿqū b al-Kindı̄
(c. 183–256/800–70). 23 Both writers emphasise the importance of
rational enquiry into matters of religion. For example, they discuss

20
See especially Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s fifth chapter (Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-mansū b ilā Abı̄
˙˙
l-Hasan al-Mā wardı̄ , 143–202). Following the divine pattern and the divinely enjoined
˙
model also constitutes a recurrent theme in Byzantine and Carolingian political dis-
courses; see Dvornik, Early Christian and Byzantine Political Philosophy, II: 680, 686,
693, 719; Arabatzis, ‘Nicephoros Blemmydes’s Imperial Statue’, 99; Eberhardt, Via
Regia, 559–69.
21
Kempshall, ‘The Rhetoric of Giles of Rome’s De regimine principum’, esp. 166–75.
22
On this text and its authorship, see Chapter 1, n. 24.
23
See Adamson, ‘Kindian Tradition’; Rowson, A Muslim Philosopher on the Soul and Its
Fate; Heck, ‘Crisis of Knowledge’.

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 Part I Introduction

the duty of jihā d in philosophical rather than merely legal terms. 24

Furthermore, both writers place an emphasis on the importance of
religious practice, that is to say, the acknowledgement of the external
(zā hir) aspects of religion (in Paul Heck’s felicitous phrasing, ‘visible
˙
Islam as agent of the sociopolitical good’), against contemporaries who
subordinated external aspects to interior (bā tin) dimensions and, by
˙
extension, figurative interpretations. 25 This internally focused exeget-
ical orientation appeared in a number of contexts, but was a particularly
prominent feature of Ismaili Shiʿism, which, as noted in Chapter 2, had
gained in the early tenth century the allegiance of several notable
individuals, including prominent figures at the Samanid court.
Indeed, several features of Nası̄ hat al-mulū k suggest its first compos-
˙˙
ition towards the end of the reign of the amir Nasr II b. Ahmad (r. 301–
˙ ˙
31/914–43), who at that time embraced Ismaili Islam – possibly to the
alarm of observers such as Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , who equated heterodoxy
with political instability. 26 Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s successors al-Thaʿā libı̄
and Nizā m al-Mulk, formed in the same region and heirs to the same
˙
sense of the lessons of the region’s history, would recapitulate this
perspective in their eleventh-century mirrors and would detail the
case of Nasr II in order to support their arguments. 27
˙

3.3 Al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k (Arabic)

The prodigious philologist and litté rateur Abū Mansū r Muhammad al-
˙ ˙
Thaʿā libı̄ (350–429/961–1038), a native of Nishapur in Khurasan, began
his career in the days of the last Samanids. He spent his entire life at
venues in the east. At various times, he resided in the north-eastern
Caspian province of Gurgan (Ar. Jurjan), where he dedicated several

24
Al-ʿĀ mirı̄ , al-Iʿlā m bi-manā qib al-Islā m, 124, 147–9, 156; cited in Heck, ‘Jihad
Revisited’, 104–6, nn. 12, 13.
25
See Marlow, Counsel for Kings, I: 52, 204–6 and passim; Heck, ‘Crisis of Knowledge’; the
quoted passage appears on p. 117.
26
Ansā rı̄ proposed this dating in ‘Yek andı̄ sheh-nā meh’; see also Marlow, Counsel for Kings,
˙
I: 25–60.
27
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k, 169–72 (see below, Chapter 9, Text 16); Crone and
Treadwell, ‘A New Text on Ismailism’; Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k, 287–96 =
˙
Darke, Book of Government, 212–18. It is perhaps worth noting that whereas the efforts
of the Seljuks against the Ismailis were sporadic and unsystematic (see Chapter 2, n. 65), the
Khurasanian families imported into Seljuk Isfahan undertook in the early twelfth century
a sustained campaign against the Ismailis in that city and its environs (Durand-Gué dy,
Iranian Elites and Turkish Rulers, 182–97).

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works to the Ziyarid amir Shams al-Maʿā lı̄ Qā bū s b. Vushmgı̄ r, a ruler
widely admired for his literary talents and whose name would become
attached to the mirror of his grandson Kaykā ʾū s. 28 In the early eleventh
century, al-Thaʿā libı̄ moved to Khvarazm, where he joined the court at
Gurganj and dedicated several works, including his mirror Ādā b al-
mulū k, to the Khvā razmshā h, Amir Abū l-ʿAbbā s Maʾmū n b. Maʾmū n
(r. 390–407/1000–16). Maʾmū n and his vizier participated vigorously in
the region’s literary culture, and the Maʾmū nid court was remarkable for
its assembly of eminent men of letters, philosophers and scientists,
including al-Bı̄ rū nı̄ and Ibn Sı̄ nā (Avicenna) (d. 428/1037). Al-
Thaʿā libı̄ devotes special attention to royal patronage of the arts and
sciences in his portrayal of the benefits of kingship. After Mahmū d’s
˙
invasion of Khvarazm in 408/1017 and his extinction of the line of
Maʾmū nid Khvā razmshā hs (385–408/995–1017), al-Thaʿā libı̄ , like
some other eminent individuals, was obliged to abandon the Maʾmū nid
court and move to Ghazna. 29 Eventually, he returned to teach in
Nishapur, where he died at an advanced age.30
Ādā b al-mulū k, like the Arabic Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, consists of ten
˙˙
chapters. Al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s chapters cover the need for kings and the duty
of obedience to them; kingship and the manners of kings; the sayings and
counsels of kings, especially caliphs; governance; the customs of kings;
viziers, judges, secretaries, doctors, musicians and other persons in
attendance at the court; warfare and the army; the conduct of kings
towards different categories of people; and the service of kings. With
a strong emphasis on the divine mandate upholding kingship and the
exceptional nature of the royal office, the mirror reflects al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s
lifelong experience in the courts of the north-east. A great many of his
examples are drawn from this regional environment, and he evinced
a particular admiration for the Samanids.31 His mirror displays
a preference for recent and specific examples over the distant and generic
references that became increasingly dominant in mirrors of the subse-
quent centuries. As Julia Bray has demonstrated, a strong ‘aristocratic
principle’ runs through the mirror; this principle appears in, for example,
al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s attachment to the charisma of noble, and above all royal,
birth, and in his recommendations regarding the drinking of wine, an

28 29
See Chapter 2, n. 38, and section 3.5. See section 2.2 and Text 2.
30
For al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s life and works, see Rowson, ‘al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’; Orfali, ‘Works of Abū
Mansū r al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’ and The Anthologist’s Art, esp. 34–96, 97–138.
31 ˙
See Bray, ‘Al-Thaʿalibi’s Adab al-muluk’.

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 Part I Introduction

aspect of courtly culture that he takes for granted.32 The work also
displays al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s expert knowledge of figures of speech, which, in
addition to the thematic categories of his chapters, he uses to organise his
materials.

3.4 Yū suf Khā ss Hā jib, Kutadgu bilig (Karakhanid

˙ ˙ ˙ Turkish)
The second half of the eleventh century saw the appearance, for the first
time, of mirrors in Turkish and Persian in addition to Arabic. These
Turkish and Persian mirrors, indeed, figured conspicuously in the liter-
ary development of the two languages. The language of the Kutadgu bilig,
written in Kashghar in 462/1069–70, is Karakhanid Turkish. The
author, Yū suf Khā ss Hā jib, whose title Khā ss Hā jib (Privy
˙˙ ˙ ˙˙ ˙
Chamberlain) reflects his promotion to that rank in recognition of his
work, dedicated his mirror to the Karakhanid prince of Kashghar,
Tavghach Bughra Khan (Hasan b. Sulaymā n, r. 467–96/1074–1102).
˙
Kutadgu bilig is a didactic and allegorical poem. It takes the form of
a set of dialogues situated within a frame-tale. The dialogues involve four
protagonists: Rising Sun, who represents the king and justice; Full
Moon, who represents the king’s vizier and fortune; Highly Praised,
who represents a sage and intellect; and Wide Awake, who represents an
ascetic and humankind’s last end.33 The poem falls into two parts. In the
first part, after extensive preliminary sections, the king Rising Sun longs
for a good vizier and, upon being introduced to the virtuous young man
Full Moon, appoints him vizier; Full Moon’s son Highly Praised
becomes the king’s counsellor; and the country prospers as a result of
royal justice. In the second part, Highly Praised and his ‘brother’ Wide
Awake engage in a debate concerning the merits of royal service and
communal engagement, on the one hand, and seclusion, on the other;

32
Bray, ‘Al-Thaʿalibi’s Adab al-muluk’, 37, with reference to al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k,
200–1. The consumption of wine is similarly taken for granted in the mirrors of
Kaykā ʾū s (Qā bū snā meh, 67–70) and Nizā m al-Mulk (Siyar al-mulū k, 119, 161–2 =
˙
Darke, Book of Government, 88, 118–19). Yū suf Khā ss Hā jib assumes that royal culture
˙˙ ˙
customarily entails the pleasures of wine-drinking and hunting, even as he counsels
against them (Text 6). In his collection Khā ss al-khā ss, al-Thaʿā libı̄ describes wine,
˙˙ ˙˙
shared among friends, as ‘the alchemy of intimate companionship and the key to
gladdening the soul’ (71).
33
Dankoff, Wisdom of Royal Glory, 3.

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Wide Awake, who initially declines the king’s summons, is eventually

persuaded to counsel the king, but dies shortly afterwards.
The topics covered in Kutadgu bilig are numerous, and in their wide
remit they recall the encyclopaedic quality of the nearly contemporan-
eous Qā bū snā meh of Kaykā ʾū s.34 They include the qualities and respon-
sibilities of the prince, vizier, commander, chamberlain, gatekeeper,
envoy, secretary, treasurer, cook and cupbearer; the proper manner of
serving the prince; how to associate with nobles and commoners,
descendants of the Prophet, scholars, physicians, diviners, dream inter-
preters, astrologers, poets, cultivators, merchants, stockbreeders,
craftsmen, the poor; choosing a wife, bringing up children and man-
aging a household; how to deal with servants, and how to behave in
attending and hosting feasts. As these topics illustrate, Kutadgu bilig,
like other mirrors of the Early Middle Period, seems to address not only
the ruler to whom it is dedicated, but the entire courtly audience, and
possibly an audience beyond the court as well.
Yū suf, who acknowledged the challenges of writing in Turkish,
observes that advisory compositions are represented in ‘every town and
city, every court and palace’. The ‘nobles of this eastern realm’, he writes,
refer to the genre as ‘Adornment of Princes’, while in Iran it is called
shā hnā meh (‘book of kings’), and in Turan kutadgu bilig – a passage that
suggests the use of the phrase kutadgu bilig, like shā hnā meh or nası̄ hat al-
˙˙
mulū k, as a generic designation.35
Beyond the question of language, Kutadgu bilig reflects a thoroughly
mixed cultural environment, a product of the Karakhanids’ liminal
situation, their proximity to the steppe and their long contacts with the
Samanids and Ghaznavids. The mirror contains many allusions to
Qurʾanic and Prophetic texts. It also reflects a milieu steeped in the
discourses of contemporary Sufism: narratives concerning individual
Sufis and reports of their utterances appear frequently, and the themes
of contemplation and action – for example, the relative merits of with-
drawal and austerity, on the one hand, and participation in community

34
See section 3.5.
35
Dankoff, Wisdom of Royal Glory, 253, 259, 260. Yū suf’s discussion would seem to reflect the
reception of the shā hnā meh genre as a mode of advisory discourse, a reception explored at
length, with specific reference to the Shā hnā meh of Firdawsı̄ , in Nasrin Askari’s Medieval
Reception of the Shā hnā meh. The juxtaposition of Iran and Turan, vaguely defined territorial
and political entities, suggests the geographical imagination and language of Firdawsı̄ ’s
Shā hnā meh; see further below, at n. 38.

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and governance, on the other – occupy a substantial part of the text.36 In

addition, Kutadgu bilig evokes the Karakhanids’ long familiarity with
Iranian culture and with Persian, with which language Yū suf’s Turkish is
deeply inflected. On the world-conqueror’s need for virtue, mind and
wisdom in order to rule, Yū suf writes, ‘The Iranians have written all this
down in books.’37 The mirror includes the Persian poetic form, the
quatrain, and it is written in mutaqā rib, the metre of Firdawsı̄ ’s
Shā hnā meh;38 furthermore, the idea of the fickleness of fortune,
a dominant theme in the Shā hnā meh, emerges prominently in parts of
Kutadgu bilig. Robert Dankoff regards the citations ascribed to almost all
of Yū suf’s Turkish authorities, most identified only in general terms (‘the
Khan of the Turks’, ‘the Beg of Begs’), as well as the Turkish proverbs
and quatrains ascribed to anonymous poets, as the work of Yū suf
himself.39 A connection with Bilawhar wa-Bū dhā saf, transmitted in
Uighur, Parthian and Persian and translated into Arabic from Middle
Persian, is possible;40 but in general, Dankoff sees little influence of
Buddhism in Kutadgu bilig. 41
The title Kutadgu bilig denotes ‘The Wisdom that Conduces to Royal
Glory or Fortune’. 42 Yū suf’s concentration on the attribute of wisdom,
indispensable to the king’s success, imparts a reflective quality to his
mirror. He differentiates between wisdom and intellect, the former
acquired and the latter innate; in this respect his vision resembles al-
Mā wardı̄ ’s, with its distinction between acquired and innate types of
intellect or reason. 43
The extent to which Yū suf’s allegorical mirror circulated is difficult to
assess. Although it did not, apparently, become a model for later Turkish
mirrors, it is possible that it contributed to later poetic allegories, also

36
Dankoff, Wisdom of Royal Glory, 16–22.
37
Dankoff, Wisdom of Royal Glory, 48. See further Aneer, ‘Kingship Ideology and Muslim
Identity’.
38 39
Dankoff, Wisdom of Royal Glory, 8. Dankoff, Wisdom of Royal Glory, 10.
40
See Asmussen, ‘Barlaam and Iosaph’; Forster, ‘Buddha in Disguise’.
41
Dankoff, Wisdom of Royal Glory, 13–15.
42
Dankoff, Wisdom of Royal Glory, 1. On bilig, see Chapter 6, Text 6. Aneer perceives
a parallel between the Turkish kut and the Persian farr, as well as other analogies
(‘Kingship Ideology and Muslim Identity’, 46). Denoting the nimbus or aura of kingship
or, loosely, royal charisma, the concept of farr appears in the mirrors of Pseudo-Ghazā lı̄
and Nizā m al-Mulk (see Chapter 5, Text 4 and n. 133; Siyar al-mulū k, 81 (farr-i ilā hı̄ );
˙
and see below, at n. 65).
43
Dankoff, Wisdom of Royal Glory, 12–13; see further Chapter 6, Text 7 and n. 19.

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written in mutaqā rib, such as the Mantiq-i tayr (‘Conference of the Birds’)
˙ ˙
of Farı̄ d al-Dı̄ n ʿAttā r (d. c. 618/1221). 44
˙˙

3.5 Kaykā ʾū s b. Iskandar, Qā bū snā meh (Andarznā meh)
(Persian)
The Qā bū snā meh (‘Book of Qā bū s’) is one of the earliest surviving
examples of Persian mirror literature. It is the composition of the penul-
timate ruler of the Ziyarid dynasty, ʿUnsur al-Maʿā lı̄ Kaykā ʾū s
˙
b. Iskandar b. Qā bū s b. Vushmgı̄ r (b. c. 412/1021–2, r. 441–c. 480/
1049–c. 1087), who composed it for the benefit of his son, Gı̄ lā nshā h, the
last known member of the dynasty. 45 According to the generally received
text of the Qā bū snā meh, Kaykā ʾū s, who had come to the throne in 441/
1049, began his book in 475/1082–3, when he was sixty-three years
old. 46 In his personal and highly distinctive mirror, Kaykā ʾū s drew on
decades of experience spent in power or in the vicinity of the powerful.
Before his accession, he had spent eight years as a boon-companion at the
Ghaznavid court of Mawdū d b. Masʿū d (r. 433–40/1041–50), and had
married a Ghaznavid princess, who became the mother of Gı̄ lā nshā h. 47
Kaykā ʾū s also spent a period of time in the far north-west, at the court
of the Shaddā did ruler Abū l-Aswā r Shā wur I b. Fadl (Fadlū n) I, who
˙ ˙
ruled in Dvin (Armenia) from 413/1022 and from 441/1049 in Ganja (in
the province of Arrā n, now in Azerbaijan). During his residence at the
48

Ghaznavid and Shaddā did courts, Kaykā ʾū s participated in campaigns

at, respectively, the frontiers with Hindustan and Rum. 49 As a member
of a regional dynastic family frequently in unequal alliance with or
44
Dankoff, Wisdom of Royal Glory, 9.
45
Sometimes referred to under the generic titles Andarznā meh, Pandnā meh or Nası̄ hat al-
mulū k, Kaykā ʾū s’s mirror, for reasons that remain obscure, is commonly known ˙ ˙ as the
Qā bū snā meh, apparently an evocation of the author’s grandfather, the ruthless ruler,
learned patron and litté rateur (in Arabic) Shams al-Maʿā lı̄ Qā bū s (d. 403/1012–13) (see
Chapter 2, n. 38). See de Fouché cour, Moralia, 179–223; de Bruijn, ‘Kaykā vus
b. Eskandar’.
46
Qā bū snā meh, 263. It has been suggested that the date indicated in the manuscript as 475
should perhaps be read as 457 (Badavı̄ , Bahth dar-bā reh-yi Qā bū snā meh, 88–99; Badawı̄ ,
‘Tamhı̄ d’, 27–8; cf. Yū sufı̄ , ‘Muqaddimeh’,˙ 16–17); most scholars, however, take the date
of composition to be 475 (Bosworth, ‘Chronology’, 32–3; de Fouché cour, Moralia, 179
and n. 9).
47 48
Qā bū snā meh, 234. Qā bū snā meh, 41–3, cf. 198–9.
49
Qā bū snā meh, 41. The Shaddā dids were a dynasty of Kurdish origin. They ruled from
about 950 to 1200, first in Dvin and Ganja and later in Ani (Peacock, ‘Shaddadids’;
Madelung, ‘Minor Dynasties of Northern Iran’, 239–43).

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 Part I Introduction

vassalage to powerful neighbours, notably the Samanids, Buyids,

Ghaznavids and Seljuks, Kaykā ʾū s was acutely aware of the fragility
and contingency of power, and wrote to prepare his son for any number
of potential eventualities; his own experience had entailed many years of
activity in capacities other than those of prince or ruler.
The Qā bū snā meh consists of forty-four chapters devoted to a great
variety of topics. In case Gı̄ lā nshā h were to be prevented from acceding
to power, Kaykā ʾū s (as implied in the previous paragraph) offered advice
regarding not only the royal office but also numerous other professions.
The book’s chapters fall roughly into three main groups. The first seven
chapters cover broad religious and moral topics: knowledge of God, the
prophets, gratitude and obedience, relations with parents, the cultivation
of accomplishments and speech. The eighth chapter, which marks
a transition between the first and second sections, consists of fifty-eight
maxims reportedly inscribed on the wall of Anū shı̄ rvā n’s tomb. The
ninth to thirtieth chapters address the rules of social behaviour; begin-
ning with the theme of old age and youth, Kaykā ʾū s discusses the
etiquette of eating, wine-drinking, hospitality; jesting, backgammon
and chess; love, pleasure, bathing, sleep and rest, hunting, polo, warfare,
the acquisition of wealth, the safeguarding of trusts; the purchase of
slaves, houses, estates and horses; marriage, the bringing up of children,
choosing friends and being wary of enemies, punishment and forgive-
ness. The thirty-first to forty-third chapters that make up the third major
section treat the professional lives of the student, jurist and teacher, the
conduct of commerce, the sciences of medicine, astronomy and geom-
etry, the conduct of the poet and musician, royal service, the careers of
the boon-companion, secretary, vizier and commander of the army, and
the practice of agriculture and craftsmanship. The last chapter, which
marks the culmination of Kaykā ʾū s’s mirror, is devoted to javā nmardı̄ ,
‘chivalry’, a supreme quality that ensures a good reputation in this life
and a favourable reward in the next.50
In the course of these forty-four chapters, Kaykā ʾū s relates some fifty
narratives. Rather like al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s narratives in Ādā b al-mulū k,
a significant number of the accounts related in the Qā bū snā meh concern
contemporary or near-contemporary figures. Several accounts are auto-
biographical or concern members of Kaykā ʾū s’s family; some involve

50
See de Fouché cour, Moralia, 179–222. On javā nmardı̄ , see Zakeri, ‘Javā nmardi’; and
Chapter 6, Text 8.

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members of the Samanid, Buyid and Ghaznavid dynasties. While a fair

number of Kaykā ʾū s’s narratives feature well-known or notable persons,
others involve unknown or obscure individuals.51 Kaykā ʾū s employs
maxims and verses of poetry, many of his own composition; he also
makes striking use of metaphor.52 Widely admired for its elegance,
simplicity and clarity, the Qā bū snā meh, as the manuscript record attests,
enjoyed a long popularity in the Persian-speaking world. It was translated
into pre-Ottoman Turkish as well as, on several occasions, into Ottoman
Turkish; it contributed to the developing Turkish nasihatname.53 In its
earliest translation into a European language – the German Buch des
Kabus of Heinrich Friedrich von Diez, published in 1811 – the
Qā bū snā meh came to the attention of Goethe, who made appreciative
use of it in his Westöstlicher Divan.54

3.6 Al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar fı̄

akhlā q al-malik wa-siyā sat˙ al-mulk (Arabic) ˙
The polymath Abū l-Hasan ʿAlı̄ b. Muhammad al-Mā wardı̄ (364–
˙ ˙
450/974–1058) wrote several works of political and moral advice, as
well as other treatments of political subjects. On account of his well-
known and widely cited treatise al-Ahkā m al-sultā niyya (‘Political
˙ ˙
Ordinances’) and his advisory and diplomatic activities on behalf of the
Abbasid caliphs, al-Mā wardı̄ is often regarded as a leading defender of
the caliphate against the encroachments of non-caliphal powers, specif-
ically the Buyids. This perception tends to obscure the independence
that al-Mā wardı̄ displayed in both his actions and his writings.55 He
wrote mirrors for the benefit of various rulers, several unnamed, but
almost certainly including members of the Buyid family, to whom he
conveyed embassies in 423/1032 and 429/1037. His authorship of cer-
tain books ascribed to him, as already mentioned, is open to question, but
a probable list of his relevant writings includes, in order of their

51
Cf. Badavı̄ , Bahth dar-bā reh-yi Qā bū snā meh, 130–60; de Fouché cour, Moralia, 182.
˙
52
Amirsoleimani, ‘Of This World and the Next’. In one place, Kaykā ʾū s includes a quatrain
in the Tabarı̄ dialect, followed by a translation into Darı̄ Persian ‘so that it should be
˙
comprehensible to everyone’ (Qā bū snā meh, 98–9).
53
See Birnbaum, The ‘Book of Advice’ by King Kay-Kā ʾū s ibn Iskandar; Yū sufı̄ ,
‘Muqaddimeh’, 21; Bosworth, ‘Kay Kā ʾū s’; de Bruijn, ‘Kaykā vus b. Eskandar’; Aksan,
‘Ottoman Political Writing’, 53–69; Howard, ‘Ottoman Historiography and the
Literature of “Decline”’, 52–77.
54
Goethes Westöstlicher Divan, 153–263. 55
Abbè s, De l’É thique du prince, 207.

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composition, the mirror Durar al-sulū k fı̄ siyā sat al-mulū k (‘Pearls of
Conduct in the Governance of Kings’), dedicated to the Buyid amir
Bahā ʾ al-Dawla (r. 379–403/989–1012), composed at the end of the
tenth century or the very early eleventh;56 Adab al-dunyā wa-l-dı̄ n
(‘Manners for the Lower World and Eternity’), composed between 410/
1020 and 421/1030; the present mirror, Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar
˙ ˙
fı̄ akhlā q al-malik wa-siyā sat al-mulk (‘The Facilitating of Reflection and
Hastening of Success: On the King’s Moral Dispositions and the
Governance of the Realm’), an expanded version of Durar al-sulū k, written
between 423/1032 and 431/1040 and addressed to an unnamed ruler,
possibly Jalā l al-Dawla (r. c. 418–35/1027–44), son of Bahā ʾ al-Dawla; the
Qawā nı̄ n al-wizā ra wa-siyā sat al-mulk (‘Principles of the Vizierate and the
Governance of the Realm’), addressed to an unnamed vizier; and al-Ahkā m
˙
al-sultā niyya, composed late in al-Mā wardı̄ ’s career, probably after 435/
˙
1043, the date of al-Mā wardı̄ ’s mission to the Seljuk sultan Tughril
Bey.57 Whereas al-Mā wardı̄ discusses the qualifications and functions of
the imā m in al-Ahkā m al-sultā niyya, in Tashı̄ l al-nazar he discusses the
˙ ˙ ˙
qualities and duties of the malik – an indication that he wrote the latter for
the benefit of a ruler other than the caliph.
Al-Mā wardı̄ ’s ethical and advisory texts, among which strong resem-
blances are apparent, display his versatility and range; he was steeped in
adab no less than in fiqh and tafsı̄ r.58 Indeed, he compiled a collection of
proverbs entitled al-Amthā l wa-l-hikam (‘Proverbs and Maxims’), the
˙
contents of which recur in many of his writings. Al-Mā wardı̄ character-
istically draws on a wide range of authorities and examples, including
Qurʾanic verses and hadith, verses of Arabic poetry, the ‘Testament of
Ardashı̄ r’, materials ascribed to figures of the Iranian cultural tradition,
the sayings of caliphs and secretaries, Plato, Aristotle and other figures
associated with Greek antiquity, kings and philosophers identified as

56
The attribution of this mirror has been questioned; for arguments in favour of al-
Mā wardı̄ ’s authorship, see Ahmad, ‘Muqaddimat al-dirā sa wa-l-tahqı̄ q’, 35–40; and
˙ ˙
Abbè s, De l’É thique du prince, 203–9.
57
This chronology follows the order proposed in Abbè s, De l’É thique du prince, 208–9. See
also al-Sayyid, ‘Tamhı̄ d’, 82 (with the composition of Tashı̄ l al-nazar dated to approxi-
˙
mately 432/1040–1) and ‘al-Mā wardı̄ : al-rajul wa-l-ʿasr’, 95–6. On the relationship
˙
between Durar al-sulū k and Tashı̄ l al-nazar, see Abbè s, De l’É thique du prince, 203–6.
˙
On the probable late dating of al-Ahkā m al-sultā niyya, see also Melchert, ‘Mā wardı̄ , Abū
˙ ˙
Yaʿlá , and the Sunni Revival’; Laoust, ‘La pensé e et l’action politiques d’al-Mā wardı̄ ’, 15.
58
See Arkoun, ‘L’é thique musulmane d’aprè s Mā wardı̄ ’; Abbè s, De l’É thique du prince, 137–
64.

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Indian. Occasionally, in making a point, he has recourse to his own

experience.59
The two descriptive components of al-Mā wardı̄ ’s title Tashı̄ l al-nazar
˙
wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar fı̄ akhlā q al-malik wa-siyā sat al-mulk point to the two parts
˙
of which his mirror is composed. The first part, dedicated to akhlā q al-
malik, ‘the king’s moral dispositions’, details the ethical qualities (akhlā q)
that the ruler should cultivate. The second part, dedicated to siyā sat al-mulk,
‘governance of the realm’, treats the governance (siyā sa) that he should
pursue. Echoing a foundational precept of practical philosophy, al-Mā wardı̄
presents rulership in the context of the differences among people and the
resulting necessity of co-operation. He discusses virtues, including the
motivation for acquiring them; the beginning of virtues, he writes, is reason,
and the result of them, justice; each virtue represents the mean between two
vices. The principles of sovereignty rest on two matters, governance and its
foundation – the former consisting of cultivation of the lands, protection of
the subjects, management of the army, and the valuation of assets, the latter
consisting of religion, power and wealth.60 The text reflects the diffusion of
philosophical concepts across an interdisciplinary range of intellectual and
literary fields, well beyond the circles of the individuals identified as falā sifa,
that is, philosophers, or specialists in the Arabic tradition of falsafa.61

3.7 Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k (Persian)

˙
Without doubt the most politically effective of the authors whose mirrors
are under consideration, Nizā m al-Mulk (d. 485/1092), vizier to the
˙
Seljuk rulers Alp Arslan (r. 455–65/1063–72) and Malikshā h (r. 465–
85/1072–92), wrote his celebrated Siyar al-mulū k for and at the behest of
Sultan Malikshā h, during whose youth he had been appointed atabeg.62
Over the thirty years of Alp Arslan’s and Malikshā h’s reigns, during

59
Examples appear in Adab al-dunyā wa-l-dı̄ n, 81–2, 242; see also Chapter 8, Text 13.
60
Tashı̄ l al-nazar, 203–23; see Chapter 7, Text 10, and Chapter 8, Text 13, which follow
˙
sequentially.
61
See Arkoun, ‘L’é thique musulmane’, 257–65; and in a more general sense, Rowson, ‘The
Philosopher as Litté rateur’.
62
On the life and career of Nizā m al-Mulk, see Yavari, ‘Nezā m-al-Molk’; Safi, Politics of
˙ ˙
Knowledge, 43–81. The present author follows the majority of scholars in treating Siyar
al-mulū k as the work of Nizā m al-Mulk. The question of authorship has, however, been
˙
raised repeatedly; see Simidchieva, ‘Siyā sat-nā me Revisited’; and for an alternative
proposal, see Khismatulin, ‘To Forge a Book in the Medieval Ages’ and ‘The Art of
Medieval Counterfeiting’. For a persuasive affirmation of Nizā m al-Mulk’s authorship,
see Yavari, ‘Siar al-molū k’ and Advice for the Sultan, 149–50, ˙n. 3.

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which the Seljuk Empire reached its height, Nizā m al-Mulk, at the centre
˙
of a vast network of individuals linked to him through familial, profes-
sional and personal ties, governed the empire in conjunction with the
Seljuk dynasty. Informed by Nizā m al-Mulk’s extensive experience in
˙
administration, which began under the Ghaznavids, Siyar al-mulū k
offers advice on specific matters of governance and the management of
the court.63
Siyar al-mulū k consists of fifty thematic chapters, divided into two
contrasting sections composed some five years apart. According to Nizā m
˙
al-Mulk’s preface, Malikshā h solicited, in 479/1086, a treatise on gov-
ernance, and approved of Nizā m al-Mulk’s submission of thirty-nine
˙
chapters. In 484/1091, the vizier reportedly composed an additional
eleven chapters, but this expanded version of Siyar al-mulū k was never
presented to Malikshā h. Perhaps presciently – he was assassinated the
following year – Nizā m al-Mulk entrusted the manuscript to a librarian,
˙
and left instructions that the full text should be copied and submitted to
the sultan in the event of his death; this plan was obviated, however, by
the death of Malikshā h barely a month after the death of his vizier. While
the earlier parts of the work are highly affirmative of Malikshā h’s ruler-
ship, the later chapters offer a markedly critical perspective on certain
practices of the Seljuk court and identify several systemic problems in the
Seljuk state.64
Several characteristics of Siyar al-mulū k echo al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s Ādā b al-
mulū k and Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s Nası̄ hat al-mulū k. In a development of the
˙˙
earlier authors’ emphasis on the exceptional nature of kingship, under-
pinned by divine mandate, Nizā m al-Mulk portrays sovereignty as the
˙
result of divine appointment, symbolised by the ‘divine aura’ (or efful-
65
gence) (farr-i ilā hı̄ ). He stipulates the ruler’s duty to govern in accord-
ance with justice, and the subjects’ duty of obedience. Like his
predecessors, Nizā m al-Mulk declares the ruler responsible for the
˙
upholding of religion and the suppression of heterodoxy and rebellion,
topics that particularly preoccupied this group of authors. Ostensibly to
illustrate his stated points, Nizā m al-Mulk devotes a substantial part of
˙
his mirror to unusually long narratives, drawn from a traditional Iranian
repertoire and from early Islamic history; like al-Thaʿā libı̄ and Kaykā ʾū s,

63
Noting this quality, Lambton eschewed the designation ‘mirror’ and described Siyar al-
mulū k instead as an administrative handbook (‘Mirrors for Princes’, 420; and ‘Dilemma
of Government’, 55–6).
64
Yavari, ‘Siar al-molū k’. 65
Siyar al-mulū k, 81; see above, n. 42.

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he also relates episodes from recent history. He adapts and shapes these
narratives to maximise their rhetorical and didactic effect.66
Notwithstanding his position at the apex of the imperial administra-
tion (the dı̄ vā n), Nizā m al-Mulk devotes considerable attention to mat-
˙
ters pertaining to royal comportment and the optimal running of the
court (dargā h). The Seljuk court, as noted above, took the form of
a tented encampment, located ‘wherever the sultan happened to be’.67
This feature of Siyar al-mulū k perhaps reflects the division of activities
between the administrative system, over which Nizā m al-Mulk presided,
˙
and the (itinerant) court, which was the sphere and instrument of the
sultan; it seems significant that Nizā m al-Mulk urges the prevention of
˙
courtly interference in matters of administration.68 In the second, darker
part of the book, Nizā m al-Mulk warns the ruler against the invariably
˙
seditious designs of the heterodox, the susceptibility of the heedless to
manipulation and the ignorant or malevolent interventions of women.
These seemingly general condemnations were directed at particular
contemporaneous situations, in which the constraints of the mirror-
writer-vizier’s position prevented him from identifying specific individ-
uals. Nizā m al-Mulk’s disparagement of religious diversity, for example,
˙
is belied by his support for intermarriage between his children and
members of Shiʿi families, and by his visits, with Malikshā h, to Shiʿi
shrines; similarly, the apparently pervasive misogyny that characterises
his chapter ‘On those who wear the veil’ (ahl-i sitr) is thoroughly sub-
verted by the many positive portrayals of women which appear elsewhere
in the book.6 9
As David Durand-Gué dy has persuasively argued, Nizā m al-Mulk’s
˙
attack on the Ismailis also reflects a proximate context. In his later years,
the Ismaili community in Isfahan, the Seljuk capital and seat of the
vizier’s personal power, grew significantly in size and importance, and

66
Simidchieva, ‘Kingship and Legitimacy’; Yavari, Advice for the Sultan, 95–142, passim;
Yavari, ‘Mirrors for Princes or a Hall of Mirrors?’; Yavari, ‘Polysemous Texts and
Reductionist Readings’.
67
Hillenbrand, ‘Aspects of the Court of the Great Seljuqs’, 23; see also Peacock, Great
Seljuk Empire, 166–72; Durand-Gué dy, ‘Location of Rule’, ‘Ruling from the Outside’
and ‘Where Did the Saljū qs Live?’.
68
Bosworth, ‘Political and Dynastic History’, 76–7.
69
Cf. Yavari, The Future of Iran’s Past, 105–25; Safi, Politics of Knowledge, 71–4; Peacock,
Great Seljuk Empire, 67, 258–66. The direct discussion of women appears in chapter 42
(Siyar al-mulū k, 242–52 = Darke, Book of Government, 185–92); but see also Chapter 9,
Text 17.

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 Part I Introduction

this increase in stature presented a challenge to the dominance of the

Khurasani families brought to the city by Nizā m al-Mulk.70 In an effort
˙
to discredit his political opponents, Nizā m al-Mulk, in Siyar al-mulū k,
˙
implied links between these individuals and the increasingly powerful
Ismailis.71 Following the deaths of Nizā m al-Mulk and Malikshā h, civil
˙
war broke out from 485–500/1092–1107, and Isfahan became a major
site in the struggle over the succession. In 500/1107, the city’s Khurasani
families, supporters of the victorious Sultan Muhammad b. Malikshā h
˙
(r. 498–511/1105–18) and opponents of the Ismailis, seized the oppor-
tunity to reclaim their prevailing position in administrative affairs and
among the local é lites; it was at this time that the librarian to whom
Nizā m al-Mulk had entrusted his expanded manuscript, with its fiercely
˙
critical treatments of heterodox groups, above all Ismailis, released the
full text of Siyar al-mulū k.72

3.8 Ghazā lı̄ , Pseudo-Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k

(Persian) ˙˙
Abū Hā mid al-Ghazā lı̄ (450–505/1058–1111), who during his lifetime
˙
enjoyed the status of the foremost Sunni intellectual of the age, was
heavily involved in the politics of his time.73 In 484/1091, Nizā m al-
˙
Mulk appointed Ghazā lı̄ to teach in the prestigious madrasa that bore the
vizier’s name, the Nizā miyya, in Baghdad. Ghazā lı̄ taught at the
˙
Nizā miyya in Baghdad until 488/1095, when a personal crisis, probably
˙
compounded by pragmatic considerations, compelled him to resign from
his post.74 He then left Baghdad and, after some years of itinerancy,
eventually returned to his native Khurasan, where he spent the last
decade or so of his life (493–505/1100–11); during this period he
returned for some time to teaching (at the Nizā miyya in Nishapur),
˙
and he produced some of his most significant works. He lived through
the thirty-year zenith of the Seljuks’ power but also the violent conflict
that erupted after Malikshā h’s death.

70
See section 2.2, at nn. 61, 62.
71
Durand-Gué dy, Iranian Elites and Turkish Rulers, 142–52.
72
Durand-Gué dy, Iranian Elites and Turkish Rulers, 188–90.
73
Griffel, Al-Ghazā lı̄ ’s Philosophical Theology, 49–59; Garden, The First Islamic Reviver,
17–29, 125–42; Safi, Politics of Knowledge, 105–24.
74
For a discussion of the various factors likely to have prompted Ghazā lı̄ ’s clandestine
departure, see Safi, Politics of Knowledge, 107–10.

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Ghazā lı̄ maintained close relations not only with the Abbasid caliphs
but also with the most powerful figures of his time, namely the Seljuk
sultans, Nizā m al-Mulk and Nizā m al-Mulk’s son Fakhr al-Mulk (d.
˙ ˙
500/1006). Ghazā lı̄ treated power and authority in several of his writ-
ings, and he composed advisory texts, usually with a strongly ethical and
homiletic focus, for caliphs, sultans and the general public. An important
political thinker, he not infrequently embedded treatments of political
leadership and integrated political advice into compositions principally
dedicated to other purposes.75 As al-Mā wardı̄ had done, Ghazā lı̄ acknow-
ledged the separate and distinct functions of the imamate (for Ghazā lı̄ ,
represented by the Abbasid caliphate) and sultanate; both necessary, the
former connoted legitimate and legitimising authority, while the latter
provided coercive power (shawka), which was essential for the mainten-
ance of order and stability; the co-operation of these two entities, Ghazā lı̄
sometimes implies, supported their effective confrontation of the com-
mon threat of Ismaili claims. As long as they paid allegiance to the
imamate, the sultans were legitimate and should be obeyed.76 In
Ghazā lı̄ ’s lifetime, the process whereby the Abbasid caliphs became the
symbols of legitimate leadership of the Sunni Muslim community and
represented the community’s historical and relational link with the
Prophet was already quite far advanced.77
One of Ghazā lı̄ ’s earlier mirrors is the short chapter, headed ‘On
governing and exercising authority’, that appears in Kı̄ miyā -yi saʿā dat
(‘The Alchemy of Felicity’), Ghazā lı̄ ’s Persian abridgement of his mag-
num opus, the Arabic Ihyā ʾ ʿulū m al-dı̄ n (‘Revivification of the Religious
˙
Sciences’).78 In its structure, contents and tone, the chapter prefigures
part I of Ghazā lı̄ ’s Persian Nası̄ hat al-mulū k. Ghazā lı̄ urges the ruler
˙˙
(vā lı̄ ) – a general term that avoids identification with a particular figure or
even a particular office – to remember that life is transient,

75
The polemical Kitā b Fadā ʾih al-Bā tiniyya wa-fadā ʾil al-Mustazhiriyya (c. 488/1095),
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
known as Kitā b al-Mustazhirı̄ , composed at the behest of the Abbasid caliph al-
˙
Mustazhir (r. 487–512/1094–1118), provides an example of this phenomenon (see
˙
Hillenbrand, ‘Islamic Orthodoxy or Realpolitik?’; Figueroa, ‘Algunos aspectos del pensa-
miento político de Al-Ghazā lı̄ ’; Garden, The First Islamic Reviver, 18, 25–9; Safi, Politics of
Knowledge, 110–24).
76
See Campanini, ‘In Defence of Sunnism’. 77
See section 2.1.
78
Kı̄ miyā -yi saʿā dat contains a number of sections absent from its Arabic counterpart. The
mirror appears as a substitute for a chapter that in the Ihyā ʾ deals with the life and morals
˙
of the Prophet. Hillenbrand notes that the mirror retains a strong emphasis on the
Prophet’s ethical example (Hillenbrand, ‘Islamic Orthodoxy or Realpolitik?’, 90–1;
Hillenbrand, ‘A Little-Known Mirror’; see also de Fouché cour, Moralia, 223–51).

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 Part I Introduction

a remembrance that will prompt him to govern justly.79 He highlights the

central principle of justice, and the importance of association and con-
sultation with religious scholars; he draws attention to the exemplary
value of the ruler’s actions, and points out the proportionally greater
magnitude of the reward or punishment in store for rulers than for their
subjects. He presents the ruler with ten instructions, rooted in the
principles of the faith, the proper source of government; collectively,
these injunctions emphasise the necessity of justice, the perils of injustice
and the necessity of consultation with scholars.80
As the preceding discussion implies, no disagreement surrounds
Ghazā lı̄ ’s authorship of part I of Nası̄ hat al-mulū k. The authorship of
˙˙
part II, however, is the subject of considerable controversy.81 The
two-part Persian mirror in question circulated under various ‘titles’;82
as in the case of the text’s Arabic namesake, the use of the phrase
nası̄ hat al-mulū k probably arises from the genre to which the book
˙˙
was assimilated. The opening lines of part I indicate that Ghazā lı̄
composed it for a Seljuk ruler, taken to be either Sultan Muhammad
˙
b. Malikshā h (r. 498–511/1105–18) or his brother Sanjar, during the
period of the latter’s rule in Khurasan (490–552/1097–1157); in any
event, Ghazā lı̄ wrote the mirror late in his life (c. 503–5/1109–11),
considerably after his return to his native Khurasan.83 The text
postdates, then, the outbreak of prolonged civil strife that followed
the deaths in quick succession of Nizā m al-Mulk and Malikshā h, and
˙
the collapse of the empire’s political unity; it was written, moreover,
during the period of the Ismaili daʿwa’s most conspicuous activity

79
Ghazā lı̄ ’s uses of the terms imā m and sultā n are sometimes ambiguous; see Hillenbrand,
˙
‘Islamic Orthodoxy or Realpolitik?’, 90; Durand-Gué dy, Iranian Elites and Turkish
Rulers, 210; Peacock, Great Seljuk Empire, 192. On Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ’s use, much earlier,
of the term wā lı̄ , see Hamori, ‘Prudence, Virtue and Self-Respect’, 163 and n. 6.
80
Hillenbrand, ‘A Little-Known Mirror’.
81
Against Ghazā lı̄ ’s authorship of part II, see Crone, ‘Did al-Ghazā lı̄ Write a Mirror for
Princes?’ and Hillenbrand, ‘Islamic Orthodoxy or Realpolitik?’, 91–2; for a contrasting
reading, see Safi, Politics of Knowledge, 115–21; for a nuanced assessment of the various
factors, see Garden, The First Islamic Reviver, 166, 213–14, n. 88.
82
For an example, see Gottheil, ‘A Supposed Work of al-Ghazā lı̄ ’.
83
Sanjar ruled throughout the Seljuk dominions from 511–52/1118–57, but his rule in
Khurasan began as early as 490/1097, in other words during Ghazā lı̄ ’s lifetime. That
Ghazā lı̄ addressed his text to Muhammad b. Malikshā h is specified in the Arabic
˙
translation, which combines parts I and II; the Persian original does not name the person
who requested the work, but the invocation of malik-i mashriq (‘King of the East’)
suggests a reference to Sanjar during his rule in Khurasan.

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 Texts and Authors

within the Seljuk territories.84 The extract presented in this volume

belongs to part II, and, on the strength of the significant arguments
against Ghazā lı̄ ’s authorship, it is treated as a Pseudo-Ghazā lian text.
Importantly, however, the assumption of Ghazā lı̄ ’s authorship of the
entire text has informed the reception of Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, its two
˙˙
parts having been conjoined from an early date, at least since its later
twelfth-century translation into Arabic.85
Part I of Nası̄ hat al-mulū k constitutes an expanded version of the short
˙˙
mirror in Kı̄ miyā -yi saʿā dat.86 It details the ten roots and ten branches of
the tree of faith (ı̄ mā n), the roots consisting of the conviction of the heart
(iʿtiqā d-i dil) and the branches comprising bodily actions (kirdā r-i tan); and
the two springs that water the tree of faith. The text portrays sovereignty as
a divine gift, for which the ruler will be held accountable at the Last Day.
Supporting his points with Qurʾanic verses, Prophetic hadith and author-
ities of the early Islamic period, such as the caliphs ʿUmar I b. al-Khattā b
˙˙
(r. 13–23/634–44), ʿUmar II b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzı̄ z (r. 99–101/717–20) and
Hā rū n al-Rashı̄ d (r. 170–93/786–809), Ghazā lı̄ also makes use of narra-
tives, especially towards the end of the text, where he adduces a sequence
of five cautionary stories to convey the gravity of the ruler’s duties. The
effect of the stories is to impress upon the audience the transience of
worldly enjoyments and their futility in the face of the inexorable judge-
ment to come.87
Part II consists of seven thematic chapters dedicated to, in order,
the justice, governance and conduct of kings (the first and longest
chapter, from which the extract in the current volume is taken); the
vizierate and the conduct of viziers; secretaries and their art; kings’

84
On the fragmentation of the Seljuk Empire following these deaths, see Van Steenbergen,
History of the Islamic World, 188–92. On Ismaili activities and Seljuk responses, see
Daftary, The Ismā ʿı̄ lı̄ s: Their History and Doctrines, 301–46 and passim; Hillenbrand,
‘The Power Struggle between the Saljuqs and the Ismaʿilis of Alamū t’.
85
Toelle and Zakharia, À la dé couverte de la litté rature arabe, 161. The two parts of the work
seem to have been combined at an early date, since it was the full two-part text that Safı̄
˙
l-Dı̄ n Abū l-Hasan ʿAlı̄ Ibn Mubā rak al-Irbilı̄ , member of an eminent family of Shā fiʿı̄
˙
scholars and literary specialists, translated into Arabic, probably in the third quarter of the
twelfth century (see Ibn Khallikā n, Wafayā t al-aʿyā n, IV: 151 (appended to the entry
concerning the translator’s nephew, Sharaf al-Dı̄ n Ibn al-Mustawfı̄ (564–637/1169–
1239); see also Hā jjı̄ Khalı̄ fa, Kashf al-zunū n, I: 337, II: 1958). The Arabic translation
˙ ˙
usually circulates under the title al-Tibr al-masbū k fı̄ nası̄ hat al-mulū k.
˙˙
86
Hillenbrand, ‘A Little-Known Mirror for Princes’, 597, 600.
87
See Chraı̈ bi, ‘L’homme qui ne travaille qu’un seul jour par semaine’, esp. 291–2, and ‘Île
flottante et oeuf de ruhh’, 93.
˘˘

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 Part I Introduction

high aspiration; philosophy and philosophers; the nobility of wisdom

and the wise; and the characteristics, good and bad, of women. Its
chapters consist mostly of examples that in a usually implicit manner
illustrate a proposition.88 Whereas part I addresses the ruler directly,
part II presupposes a general audience, and significant parts are
concerned with advice for persons who serve the ruler in various
capacities.89 It exhibits a perspective reminiscent of that of Pseudo-
Mā wardı̄ and especially Nizā m al-Mulk, in which the king occupies
˙
a preferential position in the divine order: God has singled out and
distinguished two groups of men, prophets and kings; prophets indi-
cate the path to God, while kings protect people from one another
and are responsible for the well-being of humankind; the ruler, who
is God’s shadow on earth, has received the ‘divine aura’ (farr-i ı̄ zadı̄ ),
by which his legitimate, divinely bestowed sovereignty is
symbolised.90 The author employs an eclectic set of references,
evoking Muslim and non-Muslim authorities, including several fig-
ures from the Iranian traditional repertoire.91

3.9 Al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k (Arabic)

˙ ˙
Abū Bakr Muhammad b. al-Walı̄ d al-Andalusı̄ al-Mā likı̄ , Ibn Abı̄
˙
Randaqa (c. 451–520/1059–1126 or –525/1131), known as al-
Turtū shı̄ after his birth in the prosperous commercial town of
˙ ˙
Tortosa (Ar. Turtū sha) on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, became
˙ ˙
the leading Mā likı̄ Sunni jurist of the early twelfth century.92 At the
time of his birth, Iberia, no longer politically unified, was divided
into numerous independent principalities (tawā ʾif, sing. tā ʾifa) of
˙ ˙
varying sizes and strengths.93 In 452/1060, during al-Turtū shı̄ ’s
˙ ˙
infancy, Tortosa, lying along the northern Iberian frontier, fell
under the control of the stronger tā ʾifa of the Banū Hū d in nearby
˙
88
Zakharia, ‘Al-Ghazâ lî, conseilleur du prince’, 218.
89
Bauden and Ghersetti, ‘L’art de servir’, 295–6; Bauden and Ghersetti, ‘Comment servir’,
246.
90
Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, 81; see above, nn. 42, 65.
˙˙
91
Hillenbrand, ‘A Little-Known Mirror for Princes’, 593; Zakharia, ‘Al-Ghazâ lî, conseil-
leur du prince’, 222.
92
On the date of his death (in Alexandria), see Fierro, Abū Bakr al-Turtū šı̄ (m. 520/1126):
˙ ˙
Kitā b al-Hawā dit wa-l-Bidaʿ, 24–5; and for al-Turtū shı̄ ’s life and works, 17–107.
˙ ˙ ˙
93
These principalities were known as ‘parts’ or ‘parties’ (tawā ʾif, sing. tā ʾifa); their rulers
were known collectively as mulū k al-tawā ʾif (Arabic), or˙ reyes de taifas˙ (Spanish).
˙

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Saragossa (Ar. Saraqusta, modern Spanish Zaragoza).94 Al-Turtū shı̄

˙ ˙ ˙
studied first in Saragossa and subsequently in Seville.95 In 476/1084, he
left his native al-Andalus to continue his studies, and to teach, in several
of the major cities of Western Asia. In Baghdad, he inevitably moved in
circles close to Nizā m al-Mulk, whom he perhaps met; he praised the
˙
vizier at length in Sirā j al-mulū k.96 He particularly admired Nizā m al-
˙
Mulk’s founding of educational and religious facilities, notably the
Nizā miyya, and, though a Mā likı̄ , he attended the classes of several
˙
eminent Shā fiʿı̄ jurisconsults.97 In Syria, al-Turtū shı̄ visited Jerusalem,
˙ ˙
and perhaps met Abū Hā mid al-Ghazā lı̄ , towards whose teachings and
˙
example he evinced some ambivalence: in some of his writings, he cited
Ghazā lı̄ in positive contexts, but on other occasions he expressed strong
disagreement.98 In a manner somewhat reminiscent of Ghazā lı̄ , al-
Turtū shı̄ , for a period of time, retired from public life, and withdrew
˙ ˙
to Lebanon to devote himself to meditation and austerity. Finally, in
490/1096–7, he moved to Egypt. After visiting Cairo, he returned to
Alexandria, where he settled permanently, dedicated himself to the
teaching of jurisprudence (fiqh) and hadith and provided instruction to
numerous students from Spain and the Maghrib.99
Like Ghazā lı̄ , al-Turtū shı̄ , by virtue of the prominence of his position
˙ ˙
and the authority attached to his judgement, became involved in the
public affairs of his time. He was particularly drawn into the politics of
his native al-Andalus, where during his lifetime the Almoravids (482–
541/1089–1147) gradually took control of the tawā ʾif still in existence in
˙
483/1090 and brought political unification to Iberia, which, moreover,
100
was now joined with the Maghrib. Saragossa fell to the Almoravids in

94
Viguera-Molins, ‘Al-Andalus and the Maghrib’, 27; Fierro, ‘Al-Turtū shı̄ ’, 24. Tortosa
remained under the rule of a branch of the Banū Hū d until it fell ˙ to
˙ the Almoravids,
probably early in the twelfth century.
95
Fierro, Abū Bakr al-Turtū šı̄ (m. 520/1126): Kitā b al-Hawā dit wa-l-Bidaʿ, 28–9.
96 ˙ ˙ ˙
Sirā j al-mulū k, II: 513–18.
97
Fierro, Abū Bakr al-Turtū šı̄ (m. 520/1126): Kitā b al-Hawā dit wa-l-Bidaʿ, 34–9.
˙ ˙ ˙
98
Fierro, Abū Bakr al-Turtū šı̄ (m. 520/1126): Kitā b al-Hawā dit wa-l-Bidaʿ, 40–1, 107 and
˙ ˙ ˙
passim; Laoust, ‘La suivie de Ġazā lı̄ ’, 154; Garden, The First Islamic Reviver, 143–68,
esp. 154–5. Pointing to the numerous stories and sayings, including examples drawn
from Persian and Indian sources, contained in Sirā j al-mulū k, Goldziher and
Brockelmann both conjectured that al-Turtū shı̄ perhaps deliberately sought to outdo
˙ ˙
Ghazā lı̄ ’s al-Tibr al-masbū k (Goldziher, Streitschrift, 100–1; GAL SI, 830).
99
In Alexandria, al-Turtū shı̄ effectively established Egypt’s first attested madrasa
˙ ˙
(Mulder, ‘Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafiʿi’, 26).
100
Viguera-Molins, ‘Al-Andalus and the Maghrib’, 28.

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 Part I Introduction

503/1110, as did Tortosa at an unknown date in the early twelfth century.

Abū Bakr Muhammad b. ʿAbdallā h Ibn al-ʿArabı̄ (468–543/1076–1148),
˙
a member of the Ibn al-ʿArabı̄ family of Seville and a student of al-
Turtū shı̄ ’s, solicited the support of al-Turtū shı̄ , Ghazā lı̄ and the Abbasid
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
caliph al-Mustazhir (r. 487–512/1094–1118) for Abū Yaʿqū b Yū suf Ibn
˙
Tā shufı̄ n (r. 453–500/1061–1106), effectively the first Almoravid ruler
in al-Andalus.101 The caliph sanctioned the requested regnal titles;
Ghazā lı̄ , possibly with a view to his own future security in the years
following the death of his patron Nizā m al-Mulk, wrote a fatwā in
˙
generous support of Ibn Tā shufı̄ n; al-Turtū shı̄ produced a more
˙ ˙
reserved and critical communication, in which he offered advice and
exhortation, and emphasised the duties of justice and jihā d.102 Abū Bakr
went on to become qadi of his native Seville.103 Another student of al-
Turtū shı̄ , the jurist and reformer Muhammad b. ʿAbdallā h Ibn Tū mart
˙ ˙ ˙
(d. 524/1130), would become the founder of the Almohad movement,
which from 524/1130 to 668/1269 would replace the Almoravids in
North Africa and al-Andalus.
Although he produced several writings in various branches of the
religious sciences, al-Turtū shı̄ ’s mirror for princes, Sirā j al-mulū k, is
˙ ˙
by far his best-known work.104 Initially intended for the Fatimid military
vizier al-Afdal, who had summoned the author against his will from
˙
Alexandria to Cairo, the mirror remained incomplete at the time of al-
Afdal’s assassination in 515/1122. Upon completing the book in 516/
˙
1122, al-Turtū shı̄ dedicated it to al-Afdal’s successor, Abū ʿAbdallā h
˙ ˙ ˙
Muhammad b. Abı̄ Shujā ʿ Fā tik al-Batā ʾihı̄ (d. 522/1128), known as al-
˙ ˙ ˙
Maʾmū n Ibn al-Batā ʾihı̄ , who served as vizier to the Fatimid caliph al-
˙ ˙
Ā mir (r. 495–524/1101–30) from 515/1122 until 519/1125, when he was
arrested and imprisoned, and was finally executed in 522/1128.105

101
The Ibn al-ʿArabı̄ family, especially the scholar Abū Muhammad ʿAbdallā h b. ʿUmar
˙
Ibn al-ʿArabı̄ (d. 493/1099, in Alexandria), had enjoyed extensive ties with the Banū
ʿAbbā d Tā ʾifa of Seville (414–84/1023–91). Father and son left al-Andalus for the
˙
eastern Mediterranean as, in 482/1090, Yū suf Ibn Tā shufı̄ n, having completed his
conquest of North Africa, and with the consent of the local fuqahā ʾ, confronted the
tā ʾifa rulers (Soravia, ‘ʿAbbā dids’).
102 ˙
For a comparison of Ghazā lı̄ ’s and al-Turtū shı̄ ’s responses to Ibn Tā shufı̄ n, see Viguera,
˙ ˙
‘Las cartas de al-Gazā lı̄ y al-Turtū šı̄ ’; Fletcher, ‘Ibn Tū mart’s Teachers’, 309–11.
˙ ˙
103
De Felipe, ‘Berber Leadership and Genealogical Legitimacy’, 58, 67, n. 17; Mediano,
‘L’amour, la justice et la crainte’, 96–7.
104
For al-Turtū shı̄ ’s oeuvre, see Fierro, Abū Bakr al-Turtū šı̄ (m. 520/1126): Kitā b al-
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
Hawā dit wa-l-Bidaʿ, 54–76; for Sirā j al-mulū k, 68–73.
105 ˙
See Chapter 2, at nn. 68–9.

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Comprising sixty-four chapters, Sirā j al-mulū k is, at first glance,

a monumental work of synthesis, in which al-Turtū shı̄ employs with
˙ ˙
consummate skill the full resources of the Arabic literary repertoire. The
mirror is replete with instructive narratives, exemplary maxims and
moral pronouncements, and includes certain references that reflect al-
Turtū shı̄ ’s specifically Iberian heritage.106 Beyond its synthetic dimen-
˙ ˙
sion, Sirā j al-mulū k, in its arrangement, reflects al-Turtū shı̄ ’s insistence
˙ ˙
on fundamental royal attributes and responsibilities, rather than specific
governmental practices, in the interests of political stability and just
government.107 Like most mirrors, the work seems intended for the
edification of readers of all kinds, and not rulers alone.
A dimension of Sirā j al-mulū k which reflects its responsiveness to
contemporaneous conditions is the unusual attention it pays to non-
Muslims, including the position of non-Muslim communities in the
Muslim-governed polity. The Khurasanian writers, as noted in the
preceding pages, frequently displayed a high level of concern regarding
heterodox groups within the Muslim fold. Although al-Turtū shı̄ ended
˙ ˙
his days in the Fatimid domain, by this time the Fatimids had lost much
of their former strength and the challenge of Ismaili Islam seemed less
pressing, in cities along the western, eastern and southern shores of the
Mediterranean, than the advances of European Christian forces. Al-
Turtū shı̄ was well aware of these advances, both in al-Andalus and in
˙ ˙
the eastern Mediterranean. In al-Andalus, Toledo fell to Alfonso VI,
King of Castile and León (r. 1065–1109), in 478/1085; Tortosa would fall
to Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona in 543/1148. The Fatimids, as
previously noted, suffered numerous losses to the Crusaders in the
eastern Mediterranean, from Jerusalem in 492/1099 to Tyre in 518/
1124 and Ascalon in 548/1153. The Fatimids’ resistance, when it materi-
alised, proved ineffective, and they suffered a severe defeat in 517/1123,
a mere year after al-Turtū shı̄ ’s completion of his Sirā j al-mulū k; later, the
˙ ˙
Franks went on to invade Egypt between 560/1164 and 565/1169.108 As
al-Turtū shı̄ wrote, the Fatimids’ territorial losses were mounting, and al-
˙ ˙
Turtū shı̄ ’s adopted domicile in Alexandria lay increasingly close to the
˙ ˙ 109
frontier.

106
Fierro, Abū Bakr al-Turtū šı̄ (m. 520/1126): Kitā b al-Hawā dit wa-l-Bidaʿ, 72–3.
˙ ˙ ˙
107
See Mediano, ‘L’amour, la justice et la crainte’, 95–7.
108
Lev, ‘The Fā timid Caliphate’, 218; see also section 2.2.
109 ˙
As noted by Fierro, Abū Bakr al-Turtū šı̄ (m. 520/1126): Kitā b al-Hawā dit wa-l-Bidaʿ, 46.
˙ ˙ ˙

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 Part I Introduction

A newcomer to Fatimid territory, a Mā likı̄ Sunni and at the height of

his career, al-Turtū shı̄ was in a position to adopt an implicitly critical
˙ ˙
stance in formulating his advice. Against the backdrop of the cumulative
military reversals in the western and eastern Mediterranean, al-Turtū shı̄
˙ ˙
emphasised the need for a robust defence as well as internal reform,
including an enforcement of restrictions against indigenous Christian
and Jewish populations. Most unusually, and possibly driven in part by
the prominence of Armenians at the highest levels of authority in the
Fatimid state, al-Turtū shı̄ included a full version of the ‘Pact of ʿUmar’,
˙ ˙
a purported record of the conditions imposed on and assented to by the
Christians of Syria after their surrender to the caliph ʿUmar b. al-
Khattā b.110 He also devoted a chapter of Sirā j al-mulū k to principles of
˙˙
warfare.111 Al-Turtū shı̄ ’s negative attitude towards Christian militarism
˙ ˙
did not, however, preclude positive treatments of other Christian figures
and themes, such as miracle stories.112
Partly due to the scope of its contents, partly owing to al-Turtū shı̄ ’s
˙ ˙
reputation and partly due to the balanced, fluent and comprehensive
quality of the text, Sirā j al-mulū k rapidly became immensely popular; the
large number of extant manuscripts attests to its appeal and
dissemination.113 The text was well known to al-Turtū shı̄ ’s fellow
˙ ˙
Mā likı̄ , the North African historian, philosopher and proto-sociologist
Ibn Khaldū n (d. 808/1406), who, though he found it inadequate, dis-
cussed it at some length and made extensive use of it in his Muqaddima
(‘Introduction’ [to his History Kitā b al-ʿIbar, ‘Book of Instructive
Accounts’]).114 Sirā j al-mulū k, which was translated into Turkish in
1584, also attained an appreciative audience among Ottoman readers.115

110
See Fierro, Abū Bakr al-Turtū šı̄ (m. 520/1126): Kitā b al-Hawā dit wa-l-Bidaʿ, 38
˙ ˙ ‘Al-Turtū shı̄ ’, 387–96; Mallett,
(section 4.5.6), 73, 75; Fierro, ˙ ‘Two Writings of al-
˙ ˙
Turtū shı̄ ’.
111 ˙ ˙
Included in this sixty-first chapter of Sirā j al-mulū k (II: 694–6) is an account of the battle
of Manzikert (though the place is not named), apparently the earliest in the Islamic
sources and based on recent reports and memories; see Hillenbrand, Turkish Myth and
Muslim Symbol, 27–30.
112
Hämeen-Anttila, ‘Jesus and His Disciples’, 111–12, nn. 17, 19.
113
Fierro, Abū Bakr al-Turtū šı̄ (m. 520/1126): Kitā b al-Hawā dit wa-l-Bidaʿ, 68; for
˙ ˙ ˙
holdings in pre-modern libraries, see, for example, Hirschler, Medieval Damascus:
Plurality and Diversity in an Arabic Library, 222 no. 559 (three copies); and Haarmann,
‘The Library of a Fourteenth-Century Jerusalem Scholar’, 332.
114
Rosenthal, Ibn Khaldûn: The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, I: 83, 316–17, II:
87; cf. Irwin, Ibn Khaldun: An Intellectual Biography, 58–9, 67.
115
Fierro, ‘Al-Turtū shı̄ ’, 394–5; Yılmaz, Caliphate Redefined, 60, 83.
˙ ˙

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 Texts and Authors

It was widely cited amongst writers of Ottoman political literature, and

the historian and bibliographer Hā jjı̄ Khalı̄ fa (1017–67/1609–57)
˙
wrote, ‘Hardly a ruler heard it but that he asked to have it copied, and
no vizier but that he made it his companion; by thorough study of it, the
wise man could dispense with conferring with sages, and the king with
consulting his viziers.’116 A translation into Persian appeared in the
early seventeenth century.117

116
Kashf al-zunū n, II: 984.
˙
117
Fierro, Abū Bakr al-Turtū šı̄ (m. 520/1126): Kitā b al-Hawā dit wa-l-Bidaʿ, 68.
˙ ˙ ˙

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 4

Editions and Translations

With the exception of the extract from Kutadgu bilig, all of the translations
that appear in Part II are the author’s. Partly for the sake of consistency,
I have opted to produce new translations even where excellent English
versions already exist. Although in many cases several decades have passed
since their production, these earlier translations remain extremely valuable,
not least because they provide complete English versions of the source texts.
Particularly for the benefit of readers who wish to explore the texts in their
entirety, I have indicated, for each of the extracts that appears in Part II, the
corresponding sections in previously published translations into English,
French and Spanish. I have referred to several of these translations in
preparing my own, and in several instances I have drawn attention to the
earlier translators’ interpretations in the footnotes.
In producing my translations, I have aimed for a balance of accuracy and
straightforwardness. I have attempted to convey some of the freshness of the
originals, the contemporary resonance of which is sometimes arresting. The
writers, whose intellect and clarity of thought remain striking a millennium
later, evoke for us a coherent vision of a better politics – a politics guided by
certain convictions: the interconnectedness and interdependence of multiple
constituencies, the indispensability of care for the whole, the imperative to
live within the means available and in harmony with the natural environment;
and aspiring to certain aims: the preservation of peace, the promotion of
universal prosperity and the maintenance of acknowledged standards of
fairness.
I have prepared my translations from published editions of the Arabic and
Persian texts, with occasional reference to manuscripts. Details of the edi-
tions and several existing translations appear in the following paragraphs.

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 Editions and Translations

4.1 Pseudo-Aristotle, Kitā b al-Siyā sa fı̄ tadbı̄ r al-riyā sa

(Sirr al-asrā r) (Text 9)
As the basis for my translation, I have used the Arabic edition included in al-
Usū l al-yū nā niyya lil-nazariyyā t al-siyā siyya fı̄ l-Islā m, ed. ʿAbd al-Rahmā n
˙ ˙ ˙
Badawı̄ (Cairo: Dā r al-Kutub al-Misriyya, 1954). The text of Kitā b al-
˙
Siyā sa fı̄ tadbı̄ r al-riyā sa al-maʿrū f bi-Sirr al-asrā r covers pp. 67–171 in this
collection. An English translation of Sirr al-asrā r is available in Opera
hactenus inedita Rogeri Baconi, Fasc. V, Secretum secretorum cum glossis et
notulis – Tractatus brevis et utilis ad declarandum quedam obscure dicta Fratris
Rogeri, edited by Robert Steele (Oxford: Clarendon, 1909). In this book, as
its title indicates, Steele presented an edition of Roger Bacon’s recension of
the Latin version, under the name Secretum secretorum. Steele also included
an English translation of the Arabic text. The translator, Ismail Ali, com-
pleted the project under Steele’s supervision; A. S. Fulton, of the British
Museum, edited the text.1 Ali’s translation covers pp. 176–266 of Steele’s
edition.

4.2 Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k (Text 1)

˙˙
The Arabic text is available in three published editions. They are, in
order of their dates of publication, Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, edited by Khidr
˙˙ ˙
Muhammad Khidr (Kuwait: Maktabat al-Falā h, 1983); Kitā b Nası̄ hat al-
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙˙
mulū k, edited by Muhammad Jā sim al-Hadı̄ thı̄ (Baghdad: Dā r al-Shuʾū n
˙ ˙
al-Thaqafiyya al-ʿĀ mma, 1986); and Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-mansū b ilā Abı̄
˙˙
l-Hasan al-Mā wardı̄ , edited by Fuʾā d ʿAbd al-Munʿim Ahmad
˙ ˙
(Alexandria: Muʾassasat Shabā b al-Jā miʿa, 1988). For my translation
I have made use, principally, of Ahmad’s 1988 edition, to which refer-
˙
ences in the notes apply, unless noted otherwise. A translation of the
Arabic text into Turkish is available in Mustafa Sarıbıyık, Siyaset Senati
(Istanbul: Sosyal Bilimler Enstitü sü , 1996). As far as I am aware, no
complete translation into English has yet appeared. Versions of certain
passages translated in Text 1 appeared in the present author’s Counsel for
Kings (Louise Marlow, Counsel for Kings: Wisdom and Politics in Tenth-
Century Iran: The Nası̄ hat al-mulū k of Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ (Edinburgh:
˙˙
Edinburgh University Press, 2016), I: 59, 97–8, 114, 115, 117, 118–19,
1
As Manzalaoui observed (‘The Pseudo-Aristotelian Kitā b Sirr al-asrā r’, 147), Steele
mentions Ismail Ali’s name only in passing; it does not appear on the title page of his
edition (Steele, ‘Introduction’, vii).

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 Part I Introduction

119–20, 122–4) (© L. Marlow, 2016); reproduced with permission of

Edinburgh University Press Limited through PLSclear.

4.3 Al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k (Texts 2 and 16)

I have prepared my translation from the edition of Jalā l al-ʿAtiyya (Beirut:
˙
Dā r al-Gharb al-Islā mı̄ , 1990). Prior to the appearance of this edition,
Tevfik Rü ştü Topuzoğ lu had produced an unpublished edition of the text,
as well as an excellent translation into English, in his PhD dissertation,
completed at the University of Manchester, in 1974. In 2015, a published
version of Topuzoğ lu’s edition and translation appeared, in two volumes:
Abū Mansū r ʿAbd al-Malik b. Muhammad b. Ismā ʿı̄ l ath-Thaʿā libı̄ : Kitā b
˙ ˙
Ādā b al-Mulū k al-Khwā razm-shā hı̄ , Vol. I: A Critical Edition with
Introduction and Translation; Vol. II: The Arabic Text, Edited and
Translated by Tevfik Rü ştü Topuzoğ lu (Ankara: Tü rk Tarih Kurumu,
2015). In my references to Topuzoğ lu’s translation, I have included refer-
ences to both the 1974 dissertation and the 2015 published version,
between which I have found few differences.

4.4 Yū suf Khā ss Hā jib, Kutadgu bilig (Text 6)

˙˙ ˙
The Turkish text is available in the edition of Reşid Rahmeti Arat,
Kutadgu Bilig (Istanbul: Millî Eǧitim Basımevi, 1947). The translation
that appears in Text 6 is that of Robert Dankoff, who translated the
entire work in Wisdom of Royal Glory (Kutadgu Bilig): A Turko-Islamic
Mirror for Princes (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983). The
section entitled ‘The Qualifications of a Prince’ is republished with
permission of the University of Chicago Press from Robert Dankoff,
Wisdom of Royal Glory (Kutadgu bilig), © 1983 by The University of
Chicago; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.

4.5 ʿUnsur al-Maʿā lı̄ Kaykā ʾū s b. Iskandar, Qā bū snā meh
˙ (Text 8)
In preparing my translations from the Qā bū snā meh, I have used the
edition of Ghulā m-Husayn Yū sufı̄ (Tehran: Shirkat-i Intishā rā t-i ʿIlmı̄
˙
va-Farhangı̄ , 1989). A complete translation into English is available in
Reuben Levy, A Mirror for Princes: The Qā bū s Nā ma (London: Cresset

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 Editions and Translations

Press, 1951), and I have noted the corresponding page numbers from
Levy’s translation for the chapters translated in Text 8. I have not seen
the earlier English translation of P. B. Vachha, which was published in
Bombay, 1916. The Qā bū snā meh has been translated into several other
languages as well; in addition to the series of translations made into
Turkish during the Ottoman period, it was rendered into German
(H. R. von Diez, Buch des Kabus, oder, Lehren des persischen Königs
Kjekjawus für seinen Sohn Ghilan Schach: ein Werk für alle Zeitalter aus
dem Türkisch-Persisch-Arabischen übersetzt und durch Abhandlungen und
Anmerkungen erläutert (Berlin: In Commission der Nicolaischen
Buchhandlung, 1811)), French (A. Querry, Le Cabous name, ou, Livre
de Cabous de Cabous Onsor el-Moali (Paris: E. Leroux, 1886)), Russian
(E. E. Bertel, Kabus-name (Moscow: Izd-vo Akademii nauk SSSR, 1953,
1958)) and Arabic (Muhammad Sā diq Nashʾat and Amı̄ n ʿAbd al-Majı̄ d
˙ ˙
Badawı̄ , Kitā b al-Nası̄ ha al-maʿrū f bi-sm Qā bū snā meh (Cairo: Maktabat
˙˙
al-Anjalū al-Misriyya, 1958)).
˙

4.6 Al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar fı̄

˙ (Texts 3, 7, 10˙ and 13)
akhlā q al-malik wa-siyā sat al-mulk
For this text, I have prepared my translations from the edition of Ridwā n
˙
al-Sayyid, Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar fı̄ akhlā q al-malik wa-siyā sat
˙ ˙
al-mulk (Beirut: Dā r al-ʿUlū m al-ʿArabiyya, 1987). To my knowledge,
no full-length English translation of this mirror has yet appeared. The
reader is referred, however, to the fine translation into French of Makram
Abbè s, which, along with an excellent study and analysis, appears in his
Al-Mā wardı̄ . De l’É thique du prince et du gouvernement de l’é tat (Paris: Les
Belles Lettres, 2015). The notes that accompany my translations refer
the reader to the corresponding pages in Abbè s’s translation.

4.7 Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k (Texts 11, 14

˙ and 17)
I have prepared my translation from the edition of Hubert Darke (Siyar
al-mulū k (Siyā satnā meh), edited by H. S. G. Darke (Tehran:
Bungā h-i Tarjameh va-Nashr-i Kitā b, 1962)). The earlier edition and
the accompanying translation into French of Charles Schefer (Siasset
Namèh. Traité de gouvernement, composé pour le sultan Melik-Châh par le

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 Part I Introduction

vizir Nizam oul-Moulk (Paris: E. Leroux, 1891–7, 1893)) also remain in

use, particularly in the updated edition of Murtażā Mudarrisı̄
Chahā rdahı̄ (Tehran: Kitā bfurū shı̄ Tahū rı̄ , 1955), to which I have also
˙
referred. Two years before his edition appeared in 1962, Darke produced
a full-length translation into English (The Book of Government or Rules for
Kings (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960)). After the subsequent
appearance of an older and critically important manuscript of the Persian
text (dated 673/1274 and known as the Nakhjivā nı̄ MS), Darke used it to
revise his translation; this revised version appeared in 1978. Darke’s
edition and his revised translation are very widely used and, despite the
decades since their publication, they remain exceptionally valuable. In
1960, the translation into German of Karl Emil Schabinger appeared
(Nizā mulmulk, Reichskanzler der Saldschuqen 1063–1092 n. Chr. –
Siyā satnā ma, Gedanken und Geschichten (Freiburg: Karl Alber, 1960)),
and a translation into Italian (Maurizio Pistoso, L’arte della politica (lo
specchio del principe nella Persia dell’XI secolo) (Siyā satnā ma) (Milan:
Luni, 1999)) appeared in 1999.

4.8 Al-Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k (Text 4)

˙˙
As the basis of my translation, I have used the edition of Jalā l al-Dı̄ n
Humā ʾı̄ (Nası̄ hat al-mulū k (Tehran: Kitā bkhā neh-yi Millı̄ , 1972)). I have
˙˙
also made occasional use of the twelfth-century Arabic translation, pub-
lished under the title al-Tibr al-masbū k fı̄ nası̄ hat al-mulū k.2 The Arabic
˙˙
version formed the basis for several Ottoman translation-adaptations into
Turkish. The full-length English translation of F. R. C. Bagley, Ghazā lı̄ ’s
3

Book of Counsel for Kings (London: Oxford University Press, 1964),

remains extremely valuable; it includes, furthermore, an informative and
useful introduction (pp. ix–lxxiv). I have indicated the corresponding
pages in Bagley’s translation whenever I have cited the Persian Nası̄ hat al-
˙˙
mulū k. Also available is the French translation of Hassan Boutaleb, Le
miroir du prince et le conseil aux rois (Beirut: Dar Albouraq, 2014).

2
Al-Tibr al-masbū k fı̄ nası̄ hat al-mulū k, ed. Muhammad Ahmad Damaj (Beirut: Muʾassasat
˙˙ ˙ ˙
ʿIzz al-Dı̄ n lil-Tibā ʿa wa-l-Nashr, 1996). The reader is also referred to the edition,
˙
published under the same title, of Ahmad Shams al-Dı̄ n (Beirut: Dā r al-Kutub al-
˙
ʿIlmiyya, 1988). The Arabic translation passed through two recensions; see Meier, ‘al-
Ġazzā lı̄ , Abū Hā mid Muhammad’. On the various titles under which the Arabic text
˙ ˙
survives, see Damaj, ‘al-Muqaddima’, 9.
3
Meier, ‘al-Ġazzā lı̄ , Abū Hā mid Muhammad’, 404–5.
˙ ˙

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 Editions and Translations

4.9 Al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k (Texts 5, 12, 15 and 18)

˙ ˙
I have used the Arabic edition of Muhammad Fathı̄ Abū Bakr (Cairo:
˙ ˙
Dā r al-Misriyya al-Lubnā niyya, 1994). As previously noted, the Arabic
˙
text was translated into Turkish and Persian. 4 I have consulted the full-
length, two-volume translation into Spanish of Maximiliano A. Alarcón,
Lámpara de los príncipes (Madrid: Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan,
1930–1) and indicated the corresponding page numbers in my notes.

4
Fierro, Abū Bakr al-Turtū šı̄ (m. 520/1126): Kitā b al-Hawā diṯ wa-l-Bidaʿ, 68, no. 24;
˙ ˙ ˙
Fierro, ‘Al-Turtū shı̄ ’, 394–5; and see above, section 3.9.
˙ ˙

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 Part II Texts
While the mirror’s flexibility allowed treatment of a wide variety of
topics, certain themes recur across the Arabic, Persian and Turkish
sources. These themes include the ruler’s need to cultivate personal
virtue, as an example for his subjects and as the foundation for his
sound governance; the exceptional nature of the king’s position, in
which the singular bounties that he enjoys are counterbalanced by
unparalleled responsibilities; the interdependence of the various elem-
ents of the polity and the centrality of justice in the maintenance of
harmony among these constituencies; the king’s overriding duty to
guarantee justice in his realm; the ruler’s responsibility for the security
and prosperity of his subjects, whom God has entrusted to his care; the
king’s need to uphold the law and to abide by it; the importance of royal
association with and deference towards the learned and the wise; the
indispensability of consultation and the heeding of honest counsel; the
need for royal self-control, particularly in the case of anger, and
the avoidance of meting out punishments in haste; and the importance
of studying the ways of past kings. Force may suffice for a ruler to seize
power; but to maintain it, he must earn his subjects’ love. These themes
recur in this anthology’s selected texts, which are grouped, loosely, under
five rubrics: the nature of sovereignty; the king’s person and character;
foundations of royal authority and principles of governance; the practice
of good governance; and problems in the kingdom and their remedies. In
order to convey a sense of the interests, approach, logic and frame of
reference of each author, I have, in most cases, selected full chapters or
complete sections from the source texts, and I have translated them in
their entirety.

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 5

The Nature of Sovereignty

The ancient association of kingship with sacrality remained

a foundational component in the political cultures of late antique
western Asia. Notwithstanding a permanent current of resistance to
earthly sovereigns’ claims to sacerdotal authority, symbolic linkages
of the divine realm with human embodiments of monarchy evolved
continuously and appeared in ever new forms in the iconography,
ceremonial, artistic production and intellectual discourses that sur-
rounded power.1 Panegyric poets and secretary-counsellors at the
early Muslim courts drew on a large, mixed repertoire of ideas and
images, inherited in turn by the mirror-writers featured in the pre-
sent anthology. The formula ‘The ruler is God’s shadow on earth’,
ubiquitous in the Arabic, Persian and Turkish mirror literatures,
provides an example of a perennial yet versatile expression of the
relationship between divine and earthly power. The notion of the
divine mandate – the proposition that the king ruled by virtue of
divine choice and with divine support – constitutes a prominent
theme, even as several authors insisted on the ruler’s accountability
to divine judgement. As the texts included in this chapter will show,
the mirror-authors brought a range of perspectives to the idea of the
connection between divine power and human royalty; even when they
invoke a common repertoire of formulae and metaphors, the writers
employ them to create different meanings.

1
Al-Azmeh, Muslim Kingship, esp. 3–61; cf. Marsham, Rituals of Islamic Monarchy. For
parallels in Carolingian political thought, including mirrors for princes, see Nelson,
‘Kingship and Empire’, esp. 243; Anton, Fürstenspiegel und Herrscherethos, 357–83.

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 Part II Texts

Text 1
Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat
˙˙
al-mulū k. Chapter Two
2

Translator’s Introduction
This text constitutes Chapter Two of Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s Nası̄ hat al-mulū k.
˙˙
In this chapter, Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ presents kingship in the context of an
integrated political, social, moral and religious framework. He places
emphasis on kings’ exceptionalism, a theme that he develops in two direc-
tions. On the one hand, the king enjoys exceptional powers and exceptional
benefits; on the other hand, he shoulders exceptional responsibility. Rather
than using his powers and benefits for the sake of personal advantage or
gratification, the king must treat them as a divinely given trust and employ
them for the good of his subjects; he shall be held fully accountable for
every aspect of his governance, and judged accordingly, in his lifetime by
his subjects, after his death amongst his successors and for all eternity
according to divine judgement. Throughout his carefully sequenced ana-
lysis, Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ emphasises themes of balance and reciprocity: for
every favour that the king enjoys, he faces a corresponding duty; for every
right that God has granted him, he incurs an obligation and owes a debt.
From its opening declarations of royal greatness, this chapter acquires an
increasingly critical tone as Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ turns to the topic of kings
who fail in these duties and obligations; demands of conscience, he implies,
limit the subjects’ duty of obedience to such rulers. In presenting these
ideas, Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ grounds his arguments in both divine revelation
and human reason. Far from being at odds with one another, the revealed
truth and rational understanding fully support one another. Pseudo-
Mā wardı̄ accordingly invokes the authority of the Qurʾan and the
2
Translation prepared from Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-mansū b ilā Abı̄ l-Hasan al-Mā wardı̄ , ed.
˙˙ ˙
Fuʾā d ʿAbd al-Munʿim Ahmad (Alexandria: Muʾassasat Shabā b al-Jā miʿa, 1988), 61–83;
˙
with reference to al-Mā wardı̄ , Kitā b Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, ed. Muhammad Jā sim al-Hadı̄ thı̄
˙˙ ˙ ˙
(Baghdad: Dā r al-Shuʾū n al-Thaqā fiyya al-ʿĀ mma, 1986), 69–107, and al-Mā wardı̄ ,
Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, ed. Khidr Muhammad Khidr (Kuwait: Maktabat al-Falā h, 1983),
˙˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
53–65. Unless otherwise noted, references to the Arabic Nası̄ hat al-mulū k apply to the
˙˙
edition of Fuʾā d ʿAbd al-Munʿim Ahmad. Earlier translations of certain passages appear
˙
in L. Marlow, Counsel for Kings: Wisdom and Politics in Tenth-Century Iran: The Nası̄ hat
˙˙
al-mulū k of Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016), I: 59, 97–8,
114, 115, 117, 118–19, 119–20, 122–4 (© L. Marlow, 2016), reproduced (with modifica-
tion) with permission of Edinburgh University Press Limited through PLSclear.

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

Prophetic sunna, as well as exemplars of human wisdom, such as Aristotle,

the Buddha, sagacious kings of the Indian and Iranian pasts, figures of the
early Islamic period and poets of the pre-Islamic and Islamic eras.
Explorations of the semantic fields associated with various Arabic words
and roots provide Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s analysis with structure and method.
For example, concepts related to the root f-d-l constitute a recurrent
˙
thematic cluster in his exposition: with its connotations of, on the one
hand, priority, privilege and precedence, and on the other hand, moral
excellence and virtue, f-d-l promotes Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s urging of the king
˙
to realise both aspects of the concept; he frequently contrasts the root with
terms related to the root s-kh-r, connoting subordination and subjugation.
In another prominent example, Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ employs the twin con-
cepts of niʿma, favour or benefit, and shukr, gratitude, in order to evoke the
reciprocal obligations of benefactor and beneficiary.

Translation
On the Privileges (Fadā ʾil) of Kings in the Magnificence of Their
˙
Stations; and the Habits That They Are Obliged to Adopt in Their
Cultivation of Virtue and Avoidance of Vice
God, may He be exalted and glorified, has given precedence (tafdı̄ l) to
˙
humankind over the other animals. He has favoured (tafdı̄ l) animals over
˙
plants and minerals, and to humankind He has subjugated (taskhı̄ r)
everything that is in the world: every type of being and every species
that He has created, whether in the sky, on land, or between the two
abodes. Among people of rational intelligence (ahl al-ʿuqū l), this obser-
vation raises no grounds for doubt, contention, controversy or argument,
since the matter is universally attested and generally observed, and
rationally minded people (al-ʿuqalā ʾ) are in agreement about it.
Furthermore, God has said, ‘He has subordinated (sakhkhara) to you
that which is in the heavens and that which is in the earth, all of it, from
Him’ (45: 13);3 ‘He has subordinated (sakhkhara) to you the sun and the
moon, they being persistent; and He has subordinated (sakhkhara) to you

3
The verse that precedes Q 45: 13 combines the concept of subordination with the
reciprocal principles of favour (f-d-l) and gratitude (sh-k-r), which feature prominently
˙
in Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s exposition in this passage. Familiarity with this preceding verse,
which reads, ‘It is God Who has subordinated the sea for you, so that the ships may course
upon it by His command, and that you might seek His favour (fadl), perchance you may be
˙

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 Part II Texts

the night and the day. He has given to you of everything that you have
asked Him for, and if you were to count the bounty (niʿma) of God you
could not reckon it’ (14: 33, 34); and ‘We have ennobled the Children of
Adam; We have carried them on the land and the sea, We have sustained
them with good things, and We have preferred them greatly
(faddalnā hum . . . tafdı̄ lan) over many of those whom We have created’
˙˙ ˙
(17: 71).
Moreover, God has privileged (faddala) kings (mulū k) over the cat-
˙˙
egories of humanity (tabaqā t al-bashar) in the same way that He has given
˙
preference to humanity over the other kinds and species of creation. This
preferment of kings takes several forms, and it is borne out in manifest
signs and evidentiary proofs, which, grounded in both intellect and
divine revelation, are amenable to observation and knowledge (li . . .
dalā ʾil mawjū da wa-shawā hid fı̄ l-ʿaql wa-l-samʿ jamı̄ ʿan hā dira maʿlū ma).
˙ ˙
Among these signs of God’s privileging of kings is the fact that He has
ennobled them by calling them by the epithet that He used to describe
Himself, for He has called them ‘kings’ and He has called Himself
a ‘king’. Of Himself He has said, ‘King of the Day of Judgement (malik
yawm al-dı̄ n)’ (1: 4); and ‘For God is exalted, the True King (al-malik al-
haqq)’ (23: 116; 20: 114). In describing the kings of humankind, He has
˙
said, ‘And God has sent to you Saul as a king’ (2: 247), and ‘When He
made prophets among you and made you kings’ (5: 20). Commending
the concept (maʿnā ) by which a human being might merit the appellation
‘king’, and choosing that epithet of praise for Himself, He has said: ‘Who
possesses sovereignty (mulk) on this day? It belongs to God, the One, the
All-Powerful’ (40: 16); ‘Say, O God, Owner of Sovereignty (mā lik al-
mulk), You bestow kingship (mulk) on whom You will, and You take
kingship away from whom You will’ (3: 26); ‘David slew Goliath, and
God gave him sovereignty and wisdom (al-mulk wa-l-hikma)’ (2: 251);
˙
‘And We brought them a great kingdom (mulkan ʿazı̄ man)’ (4: 54). God
˙
has granted the king the use of this epithet (sifa) in the same way that He
˙
granted to these earlier kings the use of the name (ism) that He was
pleased to apply to Himself, by which He praised Himself to His
creation, and which He then bestowed upon them. He clarified their
precedence (fadl) in this regard when He said, ‘We have apportioned
˙
(qasamnā ) among them their livelihood in the life of this world, and We

thankful (tashkurū n)’ (Q 45: 12), is likely to have informed the audience’s reception of
Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s discussion.

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

have raised some of them above others in degrees (rafaʿnā baʿdahum

˙
fawqa baʿdin darajā tin), so that some of them may take others in subor-
˙
dination (sukhriyyan)’ (43: 32). No one subject to this expression (fı̄
hukmi hā dhā l-lafz) enjoys greater privilege (laysa ahad . . . awlā bi-
˙ ˙ ˙
l-fadl), a more abundant apportionment (ajzal qisman), or a higher degree
˙
(arfaʿ darajatan) than kings, since humanity is subjected to them, bound
to toil in their service (khidma) and to act in accordance with their
command and prohibition (fı̄ amrihim wa-nahyihim).
Another indication of God’s preferment of kings is the fact that God
Almighty has made kings His deputies (khulafā ʾ) in His lands, His
trustees (umanā ʾ) over His servants, the executors of His ordinances in
His creation and of His statutes (hudū d) amongst His creatures. In this
˙
regard it has been said: ‘The sultā n is the shadow of God on earth’, 4
˙
because it is one of His rightful claims that His example should be
emulated in the earth, and His customs kept alive amongst the earth’s
inhabitants. In addition, He has made kings the cultivators of His lands.
He has called them shepherds (ruʿā t, pl. of rā ʿin) to His servants, likening
them to the shepherds who care for livestock and cattle, and comparing
their relationship to their subjects to that between the shepherd and his
flock.5 In this sense the philosophers (al-hukamā ʾ) have called kings
˙
‘trainers’ [of animals] (sā sa, pl. of sā ʾis), for their position in relation to
those under their governance resembles the position of the trainer (sā ʾis)
in relation to the cattle and riding animals that he trains: since their

4
The term sultā n refers to power in the abstract and, in later centuries, to its human
˙
embodiment in the form of an individual ruler (see above, Chapter 1, n. 5). It appears
sometimes in the first, general sense, sometimes in the second, specific sense, and
sometimes in contexts that admit both understandings. Since both meanings apply in
the case of the formulation adduced in this instance, I have on this occasion opted to leave
the term untranslated. Not infrequently, this much-cited formulation is identified as
a Prophetic utterance, and the image of the ruler as God’s shadow, offering shade and
shelter to the earth’s oppressed, is ubiquitous; see below, n. 84. Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ discusses
the meaning of sultā n in the discussion that follows; see below.
˙
5
This passage calls to mind the frequently cited Prophetic hadith allā kullukum rā ʿin wa-
kullukum masʾū l ʿalā raʿiyyatihi, ‘Indeed, each of you is a shepherd, and each of you is
responsible for his flock’ (al-Bukhā rı̄ , Sahı̄ h, IV: 526, Kitā b al-Ahkā m, ch. 1, no. 7138;
˙ ˙ra,˙ ch. 5, 20; al-Maydā nı̄ ˙, Majmaʿ al-amthā l, II:
Muslim, Sahı̄ h, XII: 294–6, Kitā b al-Imā
˙ ˙˙
448). The image of the ruler as a shepherd is an ancient one, which reappeared in ever new
contexts; see Darling, ‘“The Vicegerent of God, from Him We Expect Rain”’; Al-Azmeh,
Times of History, 275; Arabatzis, ‘Nicephoros Blemmydes’s Imperial Statue’, 112; El-
Hibri, Parable and Politics, 6, 14; Rubin, ‘Prophets and Caliphs’, 94; Van Ess, ‘Political
Ideas in Early Islamic Religious Thought’, 160; Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought,
159. See further below, n. 57.

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 Part II Texts

condition is deficient, he takes responsibility for their concerns, and he

knows what is for their good (masā lih, pl. of maslaha) and what for their
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
harm (mafā sid). The philosophers have called the activities that are
particular to kings ‘training’ (siyā sa) (that is, ‘governance’).6
Similarly the past communities of bygone days (al-umam al-mā diya fı̄
˙
l-ayyā m al-khā liya), and the Arabs especially, used to call kings ‘lords of the
earth’ (arbā b al-ard, pl. of rabb al-ard) – ‘lords’ in both an absolute and
˙ ˙
a restricted sense, since they used to regard them with awe, with the hopeful
expectation that they would execute God’s ordinances, carry out His
statutory penalties, uphold His precepts (farā ʾid) and precedents (sunan),
˙
and oversee the subjects’ interests (masā lih) and needs, and that which
˙ ˙
would harm and benefit them – so that these ‘lords of the earth’ would
represent, in the visible realm (fı̄ l-shā hid), the Lord, blessed and glorious,
the perception and beholding of Whom lie beyond the realm of possibility.7
It was by this name that the poet al-Nā bigha addressed al-Nuʿmā n
b. al-Mundhir (r. c. 580–602), when he said:
You will find an excuse or a favourable outcome for a man
Who bows to his lord as if in submission to the Lord of Creation;8

6
Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ describes the derivation of the term siyā sa, customarily used for ‘gov-
ernance’, from the terminology associated with the training or driving of animals. In
keeping with this metaphor, many authors define effective government in terms of the
king’s adept combination of reward and punishment, the instilling in his subjects of hope
and fear (al-raghba wa-l-rahba); the Sirr al-asrā r, for example, stipulates the necessity of
four qualities, religion (diyā na), love (mahabba), hope (raghba) and fear (rahba), in order to
˙
secure the subjects’ obedience (Sirr al-asrā r, in Badawı̄ , al-Usū l al-yū nā niyya, 80 =
˙
Steele/Ali, Secretum secretorum, 187); see further below, Chapter 7, n. 51. In this first
instance of the term’s appearance, I have made the reference to the training or driving of
animals explicit; I shall in most other contexts translate siyā sa as ‘governance’. Especially
in its Persian usages, the term frequently carries strong connotations of discipline and
punishment; see below, Chapter 8, n. 34.
7
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ also mentions the use of the term arbā b, ‘lords’, ‘in the time of the (pre-
Islamic) Khusrows’; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k, 38 (see Text 2, at n. 77).
8
The renowned jā hilı̄ (pre-Islamic) poet al-Nā bigha al-Dhubyā nı̄ composed poetry for the
Ghassanids and the Lakhmids (c. 300–602), Arab dynasties whose lands in the northern
regions of Arabia bordered on Byzantine and Sasanian territories. For the last Lakhmid
king, al-Nuʿmā n III b. al-Mundhir (r. c. 580–602), al-Nā bigha composed, among other
pieces, three ‘apologetic’ poems (iʿtidhā riyyā t), including the qası̄ da ʿayniyya, which
˙
Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ cites in the present instance. The line quoted in Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s
text appears only in certain recensions of al-Nā bigha’s collected poems, notably in the
recension of the philologist and lexicographer Ibn al-Sikkı̄ t (d. 244/858) (Dı̄ wā n al-
Nā bigha al-Dhubyā nı̄ , 237, notes to line 29 of Poem II, pp. 30–9). On al-Nā bigha and
his apologies, see Stetkevych, Poetics of Islamic Legitimacy, 1–47; Arazi, ‘al-Nā bigha al-
Dhubyā nı̄ ’; van Gelder, ‘Apology’.

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

And ʿAdı̄ b. Zayd (d. c. 600) spoke these words:

Consider the Lord of Khawarnaq, as he looked down one day –
Contemplation leads to right guidance.9
On account of the glorious condition of kings, the lexicographers (ahl al-
lugha) have called the king a ‘chief’ (raʾs), since they liken his position in
relation to his subjects to the position of the head (raʾs) in relation to the
body: all the limbs are subordinate (musakhkhara) to the head and
prepared to support it. Furthermore, the body cannot endure, nor even
stand upright, without the head; it is the part of the body in which the
senses meet, and without which the animal could not survive, there being
no difference between the living animal and the dead, or the world of
minerals, other than on account of the senses. The head is the source of
the intellect and moral discrimination (maʿdan al-ʿaql wa-l-tamyı̄ z), with
which God has favoured (faddala) human beings over other animals.
˙˙
On this subject, the poet, in his praise of Humayd b. ʿAbd al-Hamı̄ d
˙ ˙
[al-Tū sı̄ , d. 210/825], said:
˙
Men are a body: the Imam of Guidance
Is the head, and you are the eye in the head.10

9
ʿAdı̄ b. Zayd (al-ʿIbā dı̄ ) (d. c. 600), a renowned Arab Christian poet, spent part of his career at
the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon, and part of it at the Lakhmid capital of al-Hı̄ ra, where al-
˙
Nuʿmā n III eventually had him executed (see Seidensticker, ‘ʿAdı̄ b. Zayd’). The verse that
Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ cites alludes to the Lakhmid ruler as rabb al-khawarnaq, after the lavish
palace that the dynasty, under Nuʿmā n I (d. after 418), had had constructed in the vicinity of
al-Hı̄ ra for his Sasanian overlord, Bahrā m V (r. 420–38). The poem to which the verse
˙
belongs, said to have been composed during the poet’s imprisonment, invokes the themes of
life’s brevity and the fleeting nature of royal power. The poem appears in Ibn Qutayba, al-
Shiʿr wa-l-shuʿarā ʾ, 225–6 (variant); al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k, I: 34; Yā qū t, Muʿjam al-
˙ ˙
buldā n, II: 402 (s.v. ‘Khawarnaq’, 401–3). See further El Tayib, ‘Pre-Islamic Poetry’, 91–2;
Meisami, ‘Places in the Past’, esp. 65–70. Meisami translates the line in question, ‘And
remember the Lord of Khawarnaq: one day he looked down from on high – and in right
guidance (hudā ) is contemplation and clear wisdom’ (p. 69).
10
Writers attributed this verse to two different poets. One was the poet ʿAlı̄ b. Jabala al-
ʿAkawwak (160–213/776–828), celebrated for his panegyrics, of which the most notable
were addressed to the military commanders Abū Dulaf al-ʿIjlı̄ (d. 225/840 or 226/841)
and (as in this instance) Humayd b. ʿAbd al-Hamı̄ d (see Weipert, ‘al-ʿAkawwak, ʿAlı̄
b. Jabala’); this attribution˙appears in Ibn Qutayba, ˙ al-Shiʿr wa-l-shuʿarā ʾ, 864, no. 1633;
al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Iʿjā z wa-l-ı̄ jā z, 165, no. 69. Elsewhere, the verse is attributed to the poet
Mansū r al-Namarı̄ (d. c. 193/809); see al-Rā ghib al-Isfahā nı̄ , Muhā darā t al-udabā ʾ, I:
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
159. The term ‘imam of guidance’ (imā m al-hudā ) refers here to the caliph al-Maʾmū n (r.
198–218/813–33) (Cooperson, Classical Arabic Biography, 27, 34–5, 67–8), whose caliph-
ate Humayd b. ʿAbd al-Hamı̄ d had supported effectively against the challenge of al-
Maʾmu ˙ ̄ n’s uncle Ibrā hı̄ m˙ b. al-Mahdı̄ (162–224/779–839). On the meanings and

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 Part II Texts

Another said:
If the head is sound and held firmly upright, then
Every foundation will stand erect on a basis of justice.11
A virtuous Indian king said in a testamentary charge (ʿahd) to his son:
Know, my son, that this, my testament (wasiyya) and charge (ʿahd) to
˙
you, offers you an analogy. Imagine a man, alive and standing upright:
the man’s head is you, O ruler (ayyuhā l-wā lı̄ ); his heart is your vizier,
his hands are your officials (aʿwā n),12 his legs your subjects. The spirit
(rū h) that supports you is your justice (ʿadā la), so protect this man as
˙
you would protect yourself, and seek the well-being (istaslih) of his
˙ ˙
limbs as you seek the well-being of the limbs of your body.13

applications of the term imā m (pl. aʾimmat) al-hudā , see Crone and Hinds, God’s Caliph,
34, 40, 51, 80 n. 139, 85, 90–1, 100.
11
Like the English word ‘upright’, the terms istaqā ma (v. to rise or stand upright; to be
right, sound, honest) and ʿadl (n. straightness, justice) carry physical and moral connota-
tions; the metaphor depends on both dimensions.
12
The term aʿwā n (sing. ʿawn), when used in the plural, connotes a group of individuals
who assist and support the ruler; while imprecise, the term usually refers to the king’s
higher-ranking officials, auxiliaries or functionaries. Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ wrote, ‘He who
attempts to manage affairs requires six things to do so: sound judgement (raʾy), good
fortune (tawfı̄ q), opportunity (fursa), supporters (or leading officials) (aʿwā n),
˙
a knowledge of good and appropriate behaviour (adab) and exertion (ijtihā d). These
things form pairs: judgement and adab form a pair, since adab cannot be made perfect
without judgement, nor can judgement reach completion without adab; supporters
(aʿwā n) and opportunity form a pair, supporters being of no avail without opportunity,
nor opportunity without the availability of supporters; and good fortune and exertion
form a pair, for exertion is the cause of good fortune, and through good fortune, exertion
leads to success (najā h)’ (al-Adab al-saghı̄ r, in Āthā r Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, 335–6; on the text’s
˙ ˙
attribution to Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, see Zakeri, ‘ʿAlı̄ Ibn ʿUbaida ar-Raihā nı̄ ’, but also Kristó-
˙
Nagy, ‘Authenticity’). Ibn Abı̄ Dharr, in a section dedicated to the indispensability of
aʿwā n to the king, cites two authorities: first, Aristotle, who asserts that the ruler faces
responsibilities of two kinds: the large, which he cannot delegate to anyone else, and the
small, which he is compelled to delegate to competent people whose access to him should
be facilitated, to whose reports he should pay attention, and whose performance should be
assessed, and rewarded or reprimanded; and secondly, Anū shı̄ rvā n, who affirms the
king’s dependence on aʿwā n in order to keep his affairs in order, and details twenty-one
individuals whom he should appoint to leading positions; this statement provides
a transition to the topic that follows, namely the selection of officials (al-Saʿā da wa-
l-isʿā d, 439). Usage makes clear that under certain circumstances, the aʿwā n are liable to
transfer their assistance and support to other potentates; see below, n. 41.
13
Cf. al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ghurar al-siyar, 483–4 (Ardashı̄ r); al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k, where
˙ ˙
the analogy appears without the mention of a source (see below, Text 5, at nn. 141–2).
Compare Maróth, Correspondence, 13; Ibn Abı̄ Dharr, al-Saʿā da wa-l-isʿā d, 193–4 (attrib-
uted to Aristotle); ʿAhd Ardashı̄ r, 100–1 (‘Scattered Sayings’, no. 23).

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An indication of the king’s magnificent stature is that he has been called,

in the terminology of religion and lexicography (fı̄ l-dı̄ n wa-l-lugha),
sultā n. The word sultā n, in linguistic terms, denotes a proof (hujja);
˙ ˙ ˙
God, may He be exalted and glorified, has said, ‘Or have you a clear
proof (sultā nun mubı̄ nun)? Then produce your writing, if you are truthful’
˙
(37: 156, 157); and [in Solomon’s speech, when he gathered the birds and
found that the hoopoe was absent] ‘I shall punish him most severely, or
I shall slaughter him, unless he brings me a clear proof (bi-sultā nin
˙
mubı̄ nin)’ (27: 21). Accordingly, God, the Blessed and Exalted, has
made kings, if they are just, a proof (hujja) over His creation. Similarly,
˙
the Imamiyya [also known as the ‘Twelver’ Shia] apply the words related
from the Prophet – ‘The earth shall never be devoid of a proof (hujja)’14 –
˙
to the immaculate imam (al-imā m al-maʿsū m), whom they supplicate and
˙
to whose remembrance they are devoted. And on account of kings’
magnificent state, the Muslims have applied to the most glorious author-
ity in Islam (al-sultā n al-ajall fı̄ l-Islā m) the term imā m, for he is among
˙
the figures whose example must be followed, whose action must be
emulated and whose command must be carried out.
It is to these lofty concepts (hā dhihi l-maʿā nı̄ al-jalı̄ la) that the noble
names specifically applied to kings point. In this book of ours, we have
chosen, among all these names, to designate the ruler by the term ‘king’
(malik), since it is the clearest and most familiar, widely used and
straightforward name.
Part of the glory of the royal condition and a mark of kings’ privileges
(fadā ʾil) over their subjects and over the various categories of people
˙
(tabaqā t al-nā s) lies in the fact that, although everyone subject to the
˙
king’s authority is similar to him in form (sū ra) and resembles him in
˙
nature (khilqa), and although the king is not burdened with the acquisi-
tion or purchase of his subjects, his subjects’ station in relation to him is,
in many respects, like that of his possessions (mahall al-mamlū kı̄ n).15
˙
Pertinent to this point are the words of God, may He be glorified and
exalted, in the story of Sheba: ‘I found a woman ruling them

14
The hadith appears in al-Kulaynı̄ , al-Usū l min al-Kā fı̄ , I: 40, § 178, nos. 447, 451, 452,
453 (in the last of these attestations, ʿAlı̄˙ states, ‘The earth is never devoid of a proof, and
by God, I am that proof’); see also Abū Nuʿaym al-Isfahā nı̄ , Hilyat al-awliyā ʾ, I: 80 (lā
˙ ˙
takhlū al-ard min qā ʾim lillā h bi-hujjatihi liʾallā tabtula hujaj Allā h wa-bayyinā tuhu). On
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
the Twelver Shia, see section 2.1.
15
The word mamlū k is also used to denote an enslaved person (see section 2.1, at nn. 10–11).
I have translated it as ‘possession’ in this context, because of the lexicographical nature of
Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s exposition.

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 Part II Texts

(tamlikuhum), and she has been given (a generous portion) of all things,
and she has a great throne’ (Q 27: 23). For ‘to rule’ is derived etymo-
logically from ‘property’ (milk), and not from ‘sovereignty’ (mulk).
Furthermore, the subjects can be divided into two sections: those
whose station in relation to the king is that of a raw material (mā dda),
and those whose station in relation to him is that of a tool (ā la). The king
uses the latter to fashion the former according to whatever he wants,
desires, wishes and envisages. In this manner, he will produce the form
(sū ra) that results from his labour, according to the measure of his skill in
˙
the craft and his ability to accomplish his purpose (gharad) and intention
˙
(niyya).
God has stipulated, for everyone, the obligations of prompt obedience
to the just ruler (al-imā m al-ʿā dil) and the virtuous king, as well as sincere
support and respect for his exalted position, and refraining from
opposing him, as long as he obeys God and adheres to His precepts
(farā ʾid) and statutes (hudū d). For He has said, ‘O you who believe! Obey
˙ ˙
God, obey the Messenger, and those in authority among you’ (Q 4: 59).
The Prophet (upon whom be peace) said, ‘Obey the imam, even if he is an
Ethiopian slave, as long as he obeys God among you.’16 He also said, ‘He
who strives to subdue a sultā n will himself be subdued by God.’17
˙
These are a few of the many ways by which God has elucidated the
excellences (fadā ʾil) of kings, their high status, their exalted ranks, their
˙
magnificent stations, their elevated degrees, the glory of God’s favours
(niʿam Allā h) and the many varieties of His benefits (funū n ayā dı̄ hi) to
them.
It is therefore incumbent in every kind of situation that no one should
be more thankful towards God, nor more attentive in upholding the
execution of His precepts and commands, nor more assiduous in the
protection and care of those whose welfare has been entrusted to him,
than kings – since this behaviour constitutes the contractual part (al-
maʿhū d) of kings’ actions in relation to the bondsmen and servants over

16
Al-Bukhā rı̄ , Sahı̄ h, IV: 527, Kitā b al-Ahkā m, ch. 4, no. 7142; Muslim, Sahı̄ h, XII: 312–
˙ ˙˙ ˙ ˙ ˙˙
13, Kitā b al-Imā ra, ch. 8, 36–7; Ibn Mā ja, Sunan, 955, Kitā b al-Jihā d, ch. 39, no. 2861; al-
Dā rimı̄ , Musnad, 28, al-Muqaddima, ch. 16, no. 96. See also al-Rā ghib al-Isfahā nı̄ ,
˙
Muhā darā t al-udabā ʾ, I: 157 (cited, as in the present example, after Q 4: 59). On this
˙ ˙
hadith, see Crone, ‘“Even an Ethiopian Slave”’.
17
Al-Tirmidhı̄ , al-Jā miʿ al-kabı̄ r, IV: 81, Abwā b al-fitan, ch. 47, no. 2224 (man ahā na
sultā na llā hi fı̄ l-ard ahā nahu Allā h).
˙ ˙

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

whose affairs God has given them control (al-maʿhū d min afʿā lihim bi-
man mallakahum Allā hu umū rahum min ʿabı̄ dihim wa-khadamihim).
Kings should also be especially thankful because, if they remember
God’s bounties (niʿam Allā h) towards even the weakest of His creatures
and His kindness (ihsā n) to the least of His bondsmen, they will not find,
˙
in the kindness that creatures display one to another, any favour that
approaches it in worth, nor any favour comparable in value. When kings
make gifts to people, they are giving them the wealth of others as a trust
(wadı̄ ʿatan) or granting them a share in authority (sultā n) over others as
˙
a loan (ʿā riyatan), the goods being placed only temporarily in their hands.
Indeed, kings’ gifts to people decline quickly and disappear rapidly.
Sometimes, these gifts cause harm to their recipients, and bring them
no benefit; sometimes they occasion the recipients’ perdition in religion
and the lower world, at their end and their beginning. Moreover, kings
are satisfied with their subordinates only as long as the grounds for their
favours towards them continue to increase and the bases for their benefits
to them become ever more apparent. They require their subordinates to
become ever more grateful and ever quicker in their obedience to them;
their subordinates, they hold, should undergo ever greater ordeals on
their behalf; they should become ever more punctilious in the fulfilment
of their kings’ rightful claims (huqū q), and in observing kings’ commands
˙
and prohibitions. At the same time it is the view of kings that anyone who
is remiss in a matter, anyone who seeks to modify or exchange a benefit or
who displays ingratitude for it (man qassara fı̄ shayʾin minhu aw ghayyara
˙˙
aw baddala aw kafara niʿmatan) and anyone who belittles a favour
(ghamata sanı̄ ʿatan) deserves their opprobrium and merits deprivation,
˙ ˙
punishment and abandonment. This response applies especially in the
case of anyone who persists in such behaviour, and anyone who commits
disobedience in an open fashion. This is a scale (mı̄ zā n) by means of
which the intelligent person should weigh a good deal of that which
occurs between himself and his Creator; and it is a model (mithā l) that he
should emulate.
Since these matters proceed in the visible realm (fı̄ l-shā hid) in the
manner that we have mentioned, and since kings’ treatment of the people
beneath them follows the path that we have clarified, it follows necessar-
ily that kings should fear the consequences of ingratitude (kufrā n) and the
recompense of disobedience (ʿisyā n). If kings are mindful of the bounties
˙
that God has afforded them – the benefits that He has shown to them in
exalting their status and magnifying their authority, His delegating to

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 Part II Texts

them the governance (siyā sa) of His servants and the cultivation of His
lands, His assigning to them of lasting dominion and endless felicity – if,
indeed, kings are mindful of God’s general bounties (ʿā mmat niʿamihi),
the number of which cannot be counted, and of His specific bounties
(khā ssat[u]hā ), the greatness of which cannot be described – then, it is
˙˙
incumbent upon kings that they should fear the consequences of
ingratitude.
It is furthermore essential that the person who desires increase
(ziyā da) in the favour he receives, who expects his shortcomings to be
met with disregard (ihmā l) and the grant of a reprieve (mudda), and who
aspires to divinely blessed success (husn al-tawfı̄ q) and support (maʿū na)
˙
in this world as well as a fine reward in the world to come, should
persevere and strive in rendering gratitude and obedience, and shun
ingratitude and disobedience; for the recompense of thankfulness is
kindness and increase (al-ihsā n wa-l-mazı̄ d), while the recompense of
˙
ingratitude is punishment, rejection (tankı̄ r), abandonment and
reproach. This understanding impresses itself upon persons who know
God (hā dhā alladhı̄ yalzamu l-ʿā rifı̄ n bi-llā h), and it is indispensable for
persons who are brought close to Him and who are mindful of His
blessings (ʿalā l-muqarrabı̄ n bihi wa-l-dhā kirı̄ n li-ā lā ʾihi), and persons
who confess the truth of His Book and His Verses, for God has said: ‘If
you are grateful, I shall give you more, and if you are ungrateful, then My
punishment is severe’ (14: 7); ‘God does not change a people’s state until
they change that which is in themselves’ (13: 11); ‘We exchanged for their
two gardens two gardens bearing bitter fruit (ukul khamt), the tamarisk
˙
and a small amount of the lote-tree (sidr). In this way We recompensed
them [the people of Sheba] for their ingratitude. Do We punish any other
than the ungrateful?’ (34: 16, 17).18
Next, and in addition to the imperatives that we have already men-
tioned, kings are subject to obligations of a different kind. The king
should be the most assiduous of people in rejecting meanness and
repudiating baseness. He must remain far removed from anything that
compromises his honour, corrupts manly virtue, entails the ruination of
the kingdom, perpetuates disparaging talk and offends the dignity of the

18
Q 34: 16 evokes, in sequence, the domesticated landscape endowed with two luxurious
gardens and irrigation systems, and the flood that caused the rupture of the dam of al-
ʿArim c. 542 in the Yemeni city of Mā rib. The Qurʾanic text presents the flood and its
destructive consequences as punishment for the ingratitude of the people of Sheba, who
had enjoyed such abundance (see Khoury, ‘al-ʿArim’; Gonzalez, ‘Sheba’, 586).

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

royal office and the high standing of his position. He should choose the
noblest and finest practices (sunan) and carry out the worthiest and most
esteemed actions. In order to attain the level of conduct that befits his
rank and corresponds to his high station, he will find it necessary to
perform in ways that he will often find distressing and unpleasant, and he
will need to set aside many of the pleasures that he enjoys. Ardashı̄ r said:
Know that there are two developments that will bring your turn in
power (dawla) to an end: the first of the two is the triumph of a nation
that opposes you; the other is the corruption of your conduct
(adab).19
It is likewise incumbent upon the resolute king and the just ruler (sā ʾis)
that he should be no more assertive in his efforts to improve the behav-
iour (adab) and to eradicate the corrupting and harmful appetites of
anyone else – whether among his subjects, in the midst of his kingdom
or among the entirety of his retainers – than in his efforts towards
himself. For he who is incapable of governing his own self (siyā sat nafsihi)
and of rectifying his own moral characteristics (akhlā q) will naturally find
himself still less capable of rectifying anyone else’s character. 20 A human
being has no power over his carnal self (nafs) unless he is capable of
subordinating his nature (tabʿ) to the dominion of his reason, and his
˙
passion to his judgement. Reason must rule over nature, so that the
individual will choose the directions of his intellect over the inclinations
of his nature, and so that he will give preference to the indications of his
judgement over the desires of his passion. Then he must confront his bad
points with his good characteristics, and his blameworthy traits with his
praiseworthy qualities, so that he is able to accustom himself to virtuous
manners, discipline himself through praiseworthy practice and acquire
qualities that befit his high station, as well as actions becoming to his
stature. This course of self-training should not prove onerous to him,
when considered in the light of his aspiration to virtue now and in the
future, and his aim to prepare for a heavenly reward and to perpetuate his
good memory. For it is fixed in people’s intellects and firmly established

19
ʿAhd Ardashı̄ r, 58, no. 8. The felicitous rendering of dawla as a ‘turn in power’ is
Mottahedeh’s; see Loyalty and Leadership, 132, 185–9.
20
This proposition is ubiquitous in the ethical and edificatory literatures; see, for example,
al-Mā wardı̄ , Adab al-dunyā wa-l-dı̄ n, 148; al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar, 135; al-Rā ghib al-
˙
Isfahā nı̄ , Muhā darā t al-udabā ʾ, I: 18–19; al-Mubashshir b. Fā tik, Mukhtā r al-hikam, 140
˙
(Plato), 279 ˙(Luqma
˙ ̄ n), 20, 26 (Hermes). ˙

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in their souls that the most noble things cannot be attained other than by
swallowing what is distasteful. The furthest reaches of the virtues cannot
be reached other than by bearing severe hardships. God has said: ‘You
shall never attain to piety until you spend of what you love’ (3: 92); and
He has said: ‘God has bought from the believers their lives and their
possessions, because the Garden shall be theirs’ (9: 111). The Prophet,
upon him be peace, said: ‘Heaven welcomes suffered deprivations, and
Hell welcomes indulged appetites.’21 ʿAmr b. ʿUbayd (80–144/699–
761) said:
I have trained my lower self (nafs) so strictly that were I to will it to
abstain from water, it would abstain from it.22
It happened that the Commander of the Faithful al-Maʾmū n (r. 198–
218/813–33) succumbed to his strong appetite for edible clay (tı̄ n), and he
˙
ate a great deal of it. The physicians gathered and tried every possible
remedy and employed every strategy to treat him, yet he would not
desist. One day Thumā ma b. Ashras (d. 213/828–9) entered the caliph’s
presence and saw the physicians gathered round him, consulting with
one another over his case and deliberating together about his treatment.
Thumā ma said: ‘O Commander of the Faithful, show some of the resolve
proper to the office of the caliphate!’ Al-Maʾmū n said to the physicians,
‘Get up, for I have had treatment enough.’ And he never returned to the
habit again. 23
Nothing dominates the speech of persons deficient in intellect and
resolve more than excessive, passionate love. One person in the grip of

21
Muslim, Sahı̄ h, XVII: 241, Kitā b al-Janna, ch. 1, no. 2822; al-Tirmidhı̄ , al-Jā miʿ al-
˙ ˙ ˙
kabı̄ r, IV: 319, Abwā b sifat al-janna, ch. 21, no. 2559; al-Dā rimı̄ , Musnad, 408, Kitā b al-
˙
Riqā q, ch. 117, no. 2877; also cited in al-Tawhı̄ dı̄ , al-Basā ʾir wa-l-dhakhā ʾir, VII: 269
(no. 768). ˙ ˙
22
See also al-Zamakhsharı̄ , Rabı̄ ʿ al-abrā r, II: 522. ʿAmr b. ʿUbayd, a specialist in Prophetic
hadith, was a member of the circle of al-Hasan al-Basrı̄ (d. 110/728) (see below, n. 92);
˙ ˙
after his teacher’s death, ʿAmr played a major role in the formation of the Muʿtazilite
school of theology (which Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ appears to have followed). Renowned for his
renunciation and piety, ʿAmr enjoyed a close association with Caliph al-Mansū r; numer-
˙
ous narratives record his austere, admonishing counsel to the caliph (Mourad, ‘ʿAmr
b. ʿUbayd’).
23
See also Nası̄ r al-Dı̄ n Tū sı̄ (597–672/1201–74), Akhlā q-i Nā sirı̄ , 301 (the Persian term
˙ ˙ ˙
for edible clay is gil); and al-Rā ghib al-Isfahā nı̄ , Muhā darā t al-udabā ʾ, II: 624 (a different
˙ ˙ ˙
attestation of al-Maʾmū n’s predilection for eating clay). The hadith literature documents
a range of negative responses to the eating of clay; see al-Sakhā wı̄ , al-Maqā sid al-hasana,
˙ ˙
146–7, no. 159; Vajda and Scarcia Amoretti, ‘De la condemnation de la géophagie dans la
tradition musulmane’. On Thumā ma, see van Ess, ‘Thumā ma b. Ashras’.

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

excessive passion talked of it a good deal and described it at length. He

said:
Love is like an animal’s back, and you are its rider:
Once you take up the reins, it will turn (according to your will).
Another said:
When fit, this heart has loved with restraint.
Do not count what is sound to be a sin.
A remnant fit for godliness remains in me yet –
Were it not so, I should resemble a man avid for pleasure and my
heart would yield to abandon.

Another said:
By my life, in passionate love, I have followed my intentions
Into old age, even when it has proven difficult:
I have at times approached the beloved, and been told, such is
passion!
And I have at times kept my distance, and been told, this is a poor
show of ardour!
I would have surrendered to passion, were I not
At war with myself over actions that are not permissible.

Another said, in the sense of the first verse:

The loftiest of matters may become contaminated
If deposited in the bellies of snakes.24
And another said:
Peoples, even if they are noble, will never attain glory
Unless – even though they might be great – they are humbled
And abased; then you shall see beings resplendent:
The forgiveness not of the abject, but of the forbearing. 25

24
The poet is Abū ʿAmr Kulthū m b. ʿAmr al-ʿAttā bı̄ ; see Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I:
231–2 (variant); Ibn Qutayba, al-Shiʿr wa-l-shuʿarā ʾ, 234–6; al-Jā hiz, al-Bayā n wa-
˙ ˙
l-tabyı̄ n, III: 354; al-Jā hiz, Kitā b al-Hayawā n, IV: 266 (variant); al-Jahshiyā rı̄ , Kitā b al-
Wuzarā ʾ wa-l-kuttā b, 262;˙ ˙ al-Thaʿā ˙libı̄ , al-Iʿjā z wa-l-ı̄ jā z, 165, no. 46; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-
Tamthı̄ l wa-l-muhā dara, 61.
˙ ˙
25
Usually ascribed to Ibrā hı̄ m b. al-ʿAbbā s al-Sū lı̄ . See Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I:
˙
287 (attributed indefinitely to baʿd al-shuʿarā ʾ); al-Mā wardı̄ , Adab al-dunyā wa-l-dı̄ n,
˙
245; al-Tawhı̄ dı̄ , al-Basā ʾir wa-l-dhakhā ʾir, IX: 202, no. 681 (attributed to al-Nazzā m,
˙ ˙ ˙˙
d. 220/835 or later); al-Rā ghib al-Isfahā nı̄ , Muhā darā t al-udabā ʾ, I: 222; al-Turtū shı̄ ,
˙
Sirā j al-mulū k, I: 339; al-Ibshı̄ hı̄ , al-Mustat raf, I:˙ 419.
˙ ˙ ˙
˙

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A king said:
Those who seek glory risk calamity!26
In commemorating the great efforts of al-Muʿtasim (r. 218–27/833–42)
˙
in his campaigns against the Byzantines and the caliph’s endurance of
hardship in his conquest of Amorium [in 223/383], the poet Abū
Tammā m (188–231/804–46) declaimed:
Caliph of God, may God reward your exertions
On behalf of religion, Islam and earned merit (hasab)!
˙
You have beheld the greater repose; and you have perceived
That it is to be reached only by a bridge of toil. 27
As these transmitted accounts, reported signs and well-known, widely
disseminated verses make clear, the virtues can be attained only by struggling
against nature, and by inducing the body and the carnal soul to eradicate
sinful appetites and passions that undermine laudable intentions or religious
precepts. Most reprehensible actions that human beings relinquish and
abandon only with great difficulty arise from needs, appetites and the forma-
tion of bad habits, which engender the corruption of the self and the neglect of
one’s own nature. A person who wishes to move from reprehensible to
praiseworthy conduct, and from distasteful to commendable actions, will
find that he possesses the capacity and the power to do so. A person who
accustoms himself to behaving well will find that it comes easily to him; he
who grows accustomed to bad conduct, however, will find it difficult to
relinquish.
In praise of the Barmakids,28 al-ʿAtawı̄ produced these excellent verses:
˙
The noble Barmakids have made habitual practice
Of benevolent action, and the people, moreover, have become
accustomed to it.
When they plant, they water; when they build,
They do not undermine the foundation of their construction.
26
For the ascription of this line to Aktham b. Sayfı̄ , see al-Hadı̄ thı̄ , Kitā b Nası̄ hat al-mulū k,
˙ ˙ ˙˙
92–3, n. 154.
27
Al-Khatı̄ b al-Tabrı̄ zı̄ , Sharh Dı̄ wā n Abı̄ Tammā m, I: 32–49; lines 67–8 appear on pp. 48–
˙ ˙
9. On this famous poem, and for translations of the entire text, see Stetkevych, ‘The
ʿAbbasid Poet Interprets History’; Bray, ‘Al-Muʿtasim’s “Bridge of Toil”’. I have bene-
˙
fited from the analysis and translations provided by both of these scholars.
28
The Barmakids, who hailed from Balkh, were a family of highly influential viziers and
administrators in the service of the first five Abbasid caliphs, until Hā rū n al-Rashı̄ d
abruptly removed them from power in 187/803. This poem provides an example of the
Barmakids’ reputation for unparalleled generosity, for which they became proverbial in
Arabic and Persian writings (see further van Bladel, ‘Barmakids’).

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

And when they offer their support to a human being

They provide for his permanent comfort.29

Another said:
I have grown accustomed to the brush of adversity, to the point that
I am entirely familiar with it.
Time has delivered me to patient endurance.
An abundance of troubles has expanded my heart’s capacity for
endurance.
Nevertheless, sometimes it leaves my breast constricted.30
The Arabs used to say:
Goodness is a habit, and wickedness is obstinacy.31

They have also said:

Habit prevails through moral instruction (adab).32
Several philosophers have said:
Habit is a fifth nature.33

29
The poet is, presumably, Muhammad b. ʿAbd al-Rahmā n al-ʿAtawı̄ (or al-ʿAtwı̄ ) (d. 250/
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
864); see Ibn Khallikā n, Wafayā t al-aʿyā n, V: 95 (in the entry for al-Wazı̄ r Ibn al-Zayyā t,
no. 696).
30
The poet is sometimes identified as Abū l-ʿAtā hiya (the verses appear in Dı̄ wā n Abı̄
l-ʿAtā hiya, 200). See also Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, III: 190 (where the verses are
ascribed indefinitely to baʿd al-muhaddithı̄ n); al-ʿAskarı̄ , Jamharat al-amthā l, I: 151; al-
˙ ˙
Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k, I: 411.
31 ˙ ˙
Appears as a Prophetic saying in Ibn Mā ja, Sunan, 80, al-Muqaddima, ch. 17, no. 221 (with
Muʿā wiya recorded as the immediate transmitter). See also al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Tamthı̄ l wa-
l-muhā dara, 29 (a Prophetic maxim); Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, III: 157 (introduced
with˙ the ˙ general formula fı̄ l-hadı̄ th); al-Maydā nı̄ , Majmaʿ al-amthā l, I: 247; also cited in al-
˙
Tawhı̄ dı̄ , al-Basā ʾir wa-l-dhakhā ʾir, VII: 228, no. 671 (a Prophetic utterance).
˙ ˙
32
Reading adab for arab with Muhammad Jā sim al-Hadı̄ thı̄ (Kitā b Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, 96) and
˙ ˙ ˙˙
Khidr Muhammad Khidr (Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, 59). See al-Jā hiz, al-Maʿā sh wa-l-maʿā d, in
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙˙ ˙˙
Rasā ʾil al-Jā hiz, I: 112; Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, III: 15 (attributed to Aktham
˙ ˙
b. Sayfı̄ and Buzurgmihr). The root a-d-b connotes, in this instance, training, education or
˙
inculcation in the body of knowledge and the associated humane values of adab (see above,
Chapter 1, n. 9).
33
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Tamthı̄ l wa-l-muhā dara, 121; al-Murā dı̄ , al-Ishā ra, 85; al-Ibshı̄ hı̄ , al-
˙ ˙
Mustatraf, I: 70. Perhaps more commonly, habit is identified with second nature; see Ibn
˙
Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, III: 157; al-Rā ghib al-Isfahā nı̄ , Muhā darā t al-udabā ʾ, I: 276 (al-
˙ ˙ ˙
hukamā ʾ taqū lu: al-ʿā da tabı̄ ʿa thā niya); al-Tawhı̄ dı̄ , al-Imtā ʿ, II: 217 (qı̄ la: al-ʿā da hiya al-
˙ ˙ ˙
tabı̄ ʿa al-thā niya); Ibn Abı̄ l-Hadı̄ d, Sharh Nahj al-balā gha, XX: 422, no. 455 (al-ʿā da tabı̄ ʿa
˙thā niya ghā liba). ˙ ˙ ˙

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Since the matter is as we have explained, choosing and adopting praise-

worthy characteristics is more appropriate for the king than for anyone
else. For the king cannot reach the true potential of his royal glory (jalā la),
nor will he understand the priority of his station, unless he abandons many
of the appetites of the carnal self and the pleasures of the body. At the same
time, he must acquire virtues. Accordingly, he should choose gratitude
over ingratitude; religiosity over shamelessness; knowledge over ignor-
ance; reason over folly (humq); courage over cowardice; generosity over
˙
miserliness; patience over impatience; praise over blame; forbearance over
heedlessness; composure over frivolity; truthfulness over falsehood;
humility over pride; justice over tyranny; rectitude over error; resolve
over impetuosity; and so on. He should make these choices because
every reprehensible characteristic bears a reprehensible fruit, and every
praiseworthy quality produces a praiseworthy consequence.
It is incumbent upon the person who loves goodness that he should do
nothing but good, and upon him who despises wickedness that he should
avoid wickedness. Moreover, any ruler who has committed shameful
acts, and any king who has engaged in blameworthy activities, resembles,
in his sovereignty, an ostentatious fabrication – a fraudulent imitation of
a king. It befits the virtuous king to elevate himself above such baseness
and to eschew such vice. The king should not be content, for his portion
of royal glory (jalā la), that he should be, on the one hand, called by the
good and noble name of ‘king’, yet at the same time notorious for wicked
and odious actions. If he does behave in this way, he will resemble
a person with an overabundance of things that do not properly belong
to him, or a person wearing clothing to which he is not entitled. There is
nothing more pertinent in this sense than the words of the poet:
If they mount the steps (of the pulpit), let them speak and act well;
There can be no good speech that is not verified by action.34
We have heard that ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwā n (r. 65–86/685–705) was
delivering an oration (khutba) one day in Mecca. When he came to the
˙
moment for the exhortation (ʿiza), a man from the Sū hā n rose and said,
˙ ˙ ˙
34
Muhammad Jā sim al-Hadı̄ thı̄ has identified the poet as ʿAbdallā h b. al-Zubayr al-Asadı̄
˙ ˙
(Kitā b Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, 97–8, n. 167); see Abū l-Faraj al-Isfahā nı̄ , al-Aghā nı̄ , XII: 217–
˙˙ ˙
62. Al-Asadı̄ died in the reign of ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwā n (r. 65–86/685–705); this
chronology perhaps provides an associative link with the narrative account that follows.
For the interpretation of the opening words, idhā rakibū l-aʿwā d, see Fuʾā d ʿAbd al-
Munʿim Ahmad (Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-mansū b ilā . . . al-Mā wardı̄ , 76, n. 64) and Khidr
Muhammad˙ Khidr (Nas ˙ ˙ ı̄ hat al-mulū k, 60, n. 2). ˙
˙ ˙ ˙˙

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

‘Wait! You Umayyads are giving commands, and not following them; you are
issuing prohibitions to others and not abiding by them yourselves. Should we
follow your conduct, as indicated by your persons, or should we obey your
command, as delivered by your tongues? If you say, “Follow our behaviour”,
then where, how, by what proof, and who among God’s allies follows the
oppressive, unjust conduct of persons who by turn consume the wealth that
belongs to God and make God’s servants into slaves? If you say, “Obey our
command, and accept our advice”, then I ask, how can the person who
deceives himself counsel others? How can obedience to a ruler not firmly
rooted in justice be compulsory? If you say, “Accept wisdom, regardless of
where you find it, and welcome exhortation, regardless of where you hear it”,
then on what grounds should we entrust you with the reins of our affairs, and
why should we give you the right of judgement over our lives and posses-
sions? Do you not know that amongst us are persons who are more eloquent
in the arts of exhortation, and more knowledgeable in the skilful uses of
language than you? You should leave these matters to them. Otherwise,
release the cord and abandon the path; then, those whom you have driven
away throughout the lands and those whom you have transported to every
valley will hasten to return. If, on the other hand, these things remain in your
hands, as time passes and the situation reaches a point of extremity, then, for
every person who now stands, there will come a day beyond which he shall
not pass, and after that, a book that will be read to him: “[What kind of book is
this] that leaves neither a small thing nor a great thing without counting it” (Q
18: 49); “Those who have behaved unjustly shall come to know through what
sort of reversal they shall be overturned” (26: 227).’35
According to the ‘Book of . . . Kings’,36

35
This account appears also in al-Nuwayrı̄ , Nihā yat al-arab, VII: 249–50. Numerous
parallels, in which a scrupulous person confronts the hypocrisy of a caliph or caliphal
governor, exist; see, for example, al-Tabarı̄ , Taʾrı̄ kh, VIII: 89–90, 358–59; al-Turtū shı̄ ,
˙ ˙ ˙
Sirā j al-mulū k, I: 127–28; Cooperson, Classical Arabic Biography, 40–64; Cook,
Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong, 50–67.
36
The title of this text has not survived the process of transmission. From its placement in
Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s chapter it seems likely that the title derived from the Arabic version of
a Middle Persian or Sanskrit text. Each of the text’s three editors has proposed a different
conjecture: Khidr Muhammad Khidr reads Shahā mat al-mulū k, ‘The Perspicacity of Kings’
˙ ˙ ˙
(Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, 61); Muhammad Jā sim al-Hadı̄ thı̄ proposes Āʾı̄ n-nā mat al-mulū k, ‘The
˙˙ ˙ ˙
Book of Protocols for Kings’ (Kitā b Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, 99, n. 171); Fuʾā d ʿAbd al-Munʿim
˙˙
Ahmad suggests Siyā sat al-mulū k, ‘The Governance of Kings’ (Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-mansū b
ilā˙ . . . al-Mā wardı̄ , 77, n. 74). ˙˙

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 Part II Texts

Let your action be better than your words, for fine words alone may
provide inducement, whereas fine action aims directly at the desired
objective.
We have read in the Testament of an Indian king to one of his sons:
Your judgement will not appear in a good light if you speak well, but
to the exclusion of action; for you will reach your listeners without
your action attesting to the truth of your speech, or your public
exterior (ʿalā niya) verifying your innermost thought (sirr).37

The Indian leader who is called the Buddha said:

With fine words but no action, a thousand men will never achieve in
a single man the improvement that a single man, by way of good
action, will achieve in a thousand men.38
The Commander of the Faithful ʿAlı̄ , may God be pleased with him, sought
refuge in God from flattering tongues, inquisitive hearts and contradictory
actions.
It was in this sense, more or less, that King Shā pū r b. Ardashı̄ r
(= Shā pū r I, r. 239 or 240–70 or 273) commenced his excellent and
worthy testament. In a section addressed to his son, he said:
To proceed: You have been entrusted with a responsibility so great that
no other worldly matter surpasses it, and you have reached a degree of
importance beyond which no person can pass. Therefore, raise your-
self, through excellent qualities, to the level that befits the magnificent
position that you have attained, and, in modesty, devote yourself to
justice. In this way, you will retain your current standard of opulent
living, and earn its culmination in a state of well-being that has no end
and is never overturned. If you abandon your current path (and
undertake this path of virtue), you will win a fine and lasting reputation
for yourself; for you are heir to and will be remembered for your

37
The passage forms part of the text usually identified as ‘Aristotle’s Testament’ (Wasiyyat
˙
Aristā tā lı̄ s), which, although it circulated as a free-standing text (see al-Mubashshir
˙ ˙
b. Fā tik, Mukhtā r al-hikam, 224), was also incorporated into the epistolary cycle that
˙
included the Kitā b al-Siyā sa fı̄ tadbı̄ r al-riyā sa or Sirr al-asrā r, held to be Aristotle’s
written counsels to his pupil Alexander (see section 3.1). (On the seeming identity of
Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s ‘Indian testament’ with the Wasiyyat Aristā tā lı̄ s, see Marlow, ‘Kings
˙ ˙ ˙
and Sages’.) I have amended the citation in accordance with the slight variant in published
versions of the Wasiyyat Aristā tā lı̄ s; see Maróth, Correspondence, 13; Miskawayh, Jā vı̄ dā n
˙ ˙ ˙
khirad, 220; al-Mubashshir b. Fā tik, Mukhtā r al-hikam, 187.
38 ̄ ˙
See also al-ʿAmirı̄ , al-Iʿlā m bi-manā qib al-Islā m, 152 (where the citation appears without
attribution).

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

conduct, and when you depart from this world, you are bound for
whatever reward or punishment you have prepared for yourself.

In a wise Indian king’s testament to his son, we have found these words:
O my son, I have appointed you to a position of momentous import-
ance, and I have bound you to its responsibilities. Take this respon-
sibility upon yourself and accept it. If this position should hasten the
satisfaction of a desire, take no delight in it; for that is the most
harmful thing to be attained through your high position, a mere
augmentation of what already afflicts you. If in these matters you
find that your desire resists you, then hold it in the utmost suspicion
and redouble your efforts to gain mastery over it. If God grants you
victory over your desire and defends you from its harm, take greater
joy in that victory than in the defeat of your enemies; for the
superiority of relinquishing your desires for God’s sake to the
pleasure and joy that you experience from their indulgence is like
the superiority of God’s reward for the people of Paradise to people’s
allotments in their earthly lives.39
ʿAmr b. ʿUbayd gave concise expression to this idea in his words to Abū
Jaʿfar al-Mansū r (r. 136–58/754–75):
˙
God would not be pleased if any of the people should be positioned
above you; you, therefore, should not be satisfied that anyone might
be more thankful to Him than you are. 40
It is among the king’s duties to ensure that the excellence and nobility of
his actions, qualities, intellect and integrity should complement the
shortcomings of his subjects. The king is called upon to care for his
subjects and summoned to protect them solely for the purposes of their
care and protection: to remedy their hardship and treat their want, to
avert the deficiencies of the deficient, to cover the shame of the shamed,
to support the infirm, to defend his subjects’ womenfolk, to bring justice
to the oppressed against their oppressors and to urge them to follow the
laws of their religion and the precepts, statutes and ordinances of their
religious community.

39
Maróth, Correspondence, 12; al-Mubashshir b. Fā tik, Mukhtā r al-hikam, 186 (see above,
˙
n. 37).
40
Al-Husrı̄ , Zahr al-ā dā b, I: 103. See also Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 106; al-Jā hiz,
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
al-Bayā n wa-l-tabyı̄ n, II: 100 (in both of these cases, the speaker is identified as the
eighth-century littérateur and orator Shabı̄ b b. Shayba, and his caliphal interlocutor is al-
Mahdı̄ (r. 158–69/775–85)).

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 Part II Texts

Given this verity, what is the position of the ruler (sā ʾis) who is
deficient and ignorant, tyrannical and unjust, or shameless and dissolute?
As for the ruler among whose subjects are individuals who combine more
good qualities, and who benefit from the fortification of more excellent
characteristics, than he does – how, other than by force, repression,
compulsion and coercion, could the virtuous, religiously observant,
upright and reflective person submit to such a ruler? This person will
look forward to the ruler’s loss of power and disappearance, since these
events promise the end of the tribulations that the ruler has visited upon
him and the cessation of the king’s tyranny. In these circumstances, the
ruler’s most excellent subjects will become his enemies, and the most
virtuous people of his dominion will transfer their allegiance from him. 41
The most fitting outcome in the case of a king of this kind is his swift
eclipse and imminent fall from power.
King Ardashı̄ r said in his Testament:
Know that if you give priority to combat against hostile nations
over combatting the bad conduct (sū ʾ al-adab) issuing from your
subjects’ lower souls (anfus raʿiyyatikum), then you will have failed
in your duty to protect; in fact, you will have demonstrated neglect.
How, moreover, is the enemy to be resisted with a people whose
hearts are at odds, and susceptible to the fomenting of mutual
hostility?42
In another section, he said:
Know that the king should not be miserly (because miserliness
is the seed of covetousness; nor should he lie), because no one
has the capacity to coerce him; nor should he succumb to anger,
because anger and power lead to intemperance and regret; nor
should he indulge in amusement or foolery, because jesting and
folly are forms of idleness; nor should he be idle, since idleness
is the condition of the rabble (sū qa); nor should he envy, except
for the kings of nations that are well managed (ʿalā husn al-
˙
tadbı̄ r); nor should he fear, for fear is the condition of the
indigent; nor should he govern in an overbearing manner, lest
he become deprived. 43

41
Literally, ‘they will become supporters against him’ (kā na . . . aʿwā nan ʿalayhi); see above,
n. 12.
42
ʿAhd Ardashı̄ r, 60, with a slightly different wording.
43
ʿAhd Ardashı̄ r, 69 (from which the words that appear in parentheses have been added).

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

The philosopher Aristotle said:

He who lacks the capacity to put himself to rights should never
rebuke anyone whom he finds lacking in rectitude. 44
One day Asqaf of Najrā n appeared before Musʿab b. al-Zubayr (d. 72/691),
˙
and he began talking to him about something. Musʿab flew into a rage. He
˙
took a stick and struck Asqaf’s face with such force that he caused him to
bleed. Asqaf said to him, ‘If the amir wills, I shall tell him the words that God
sent down on the tongue of Jesus; but don’t get angry.’ Musʿab said, ‘Speak!’
˙
Asqaf continued, ‘We find in the Gospels that it is not appropriate for the
imam to be foolish, given that judgements are being sought from him, nor for
him to be unjust, given that justice is being sought from him.’45
Aristotle, in his counsel to Alexander, wrote to him:
It is incumbent upon the king that he should distinguish himself with
the best of attributes, because he represents the standard to whom
people refer, and the goal towards which they direct their paths.46
In the king, the scope of the slightest defect is far from small; in the same
way, the scope of the least and most recently acquired of the king’s
virtues is great. In this vein the poet has said:
The sheep cannot survive without a shepherd, who assumes respon-
sibility for her care.
What, then, of the people, if they lack a ruler (wā lin)?
If their affairs are tied to tails (followers) rather than heads (captains),
They are in a state of dire neglect. 47

44
Although the text reads ‘Alexander’, it is usually Aristotle who is referred to as ‘the
philosopher’, with Alexander often in the position of his pupil. The maxim’s sentiment,
moreover, is similar to ideas expressed in the Wasiyyat Aristā tā lı̄ s; cf. Maróth,
Correspondence, 13; Miskawayh, Jā vı̄ dā n khirad, 219–20.˙ ˙ ˙
45
The text’s reference to the Torah is likely to represent a scribal error; I have followed the
reports in al-Rā ghib al-Isfahā nı̄ (Muhā darā t al-udabā ʾ, I: 169), al-Zamakhsharı̄ (Rabı̄ ʿ al-
˙ ˙ ˙
abrā r, IV: 224) and Ibn al-Haddā d (al-Jawhar al-nafı̄ s, 85), which invoke not the Torah
˙
but the Injı̄ l (Gospels). Najrā n, in northern Yemen, became the major centre of
Christianity in southern Arabia and a site of pilgrimage in the sixth century; Asqaf,
a Christian leader, also composed poetry (al-Jā hiz, al-Bayā n wa-l-tabyı̄ n, III: 342–3; al-
Jā hiz, al-Hayawā n, III: 88). Musʿab b. al-Zubayr ˙ ˙ was the brother of ʿAbdallā h Ibn al-
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
Zubayr, who challenged the Umayyads’ claim to the caliphate and ruled from Mecca for
almost a decade; Musʿab, who held the post of governor of Iraq, had a reputation for many
˙
virtues, as well as for occasional flights of anger.
46
Cf. Sirr al-asrā r, 77.
47
Attributed to ʿUbayd Allā h b. ʿAbdallā h b. Tā hir, whose father, ʿAbdallā h b. Tā hir (182–
230/798–844), governor of Khurasan, was celebrated ˙ ˙
for his poetry. For the verse and its

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 Part II Texts

Another poet said:

The people cannot rectify disorder unless they have a leader;
And they have no leader, if it is the ignorant among them who
prevail.48
Similarly, one of the poets said of a king when he saw him enfeebled and
failing:
Tyrants sleep, oblivious to matters of honour
Until a power that never sleeps awakens them:
Behold their ignominy in the largesse that they have bestowed
And their improvement with the cessation of their favours. 49
Another said:
If the chief of the assemblies (sadr al-majā lis) is not a lord (sayyid)
˙
There is no good in the person presiding over the assemblies.
How many a time have I heard the words, ‘Why is it that I see you
walking?’
And I have said in reply, ‘Because you are the person riding.’50
Al-Aʿmash (Sulaymā n b. Mihrā n) (d. 147 or 148/764–5) reported that
Shaqı̄ q b. Salama had said to him, ‘O Sulaymā n, by God, these people
possess neither one of two praiseworthy things: neither the godliness of
the people of Islam, nor the forbearance of the people of the Jā hiliyya.’51

attribution, see al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar, 233; cf. al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k, 69, §
˙
144; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ghurar al-siyar, 483 (Ardashı̄ r).
48
Al-Afwah al-Awdı̄ , Dı̄ wā n al-Afwah al-Awdı̄ , 66, line 8; cited in Ibn Qutayba, al-Shiʿr
wa-l-shuʿarā ʾ, 223; Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 11; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Tamthı̄ l wa-
l-muhā dara, 43–4; al-Mā wardı̄ , al-Ahkā m al-sultā niyya, 5; al-Mā wardı̄ , al-Amthā l wa-
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
l-hikam, 33, 60–239; Usā ma b. Munqidh, Lubā b al-ā dā b, 40; al-Shayzarı̄ , al-Nahj al-
˙
maslū k, 66.
49
Dı̄ wā n Mahmū d al-Warrā q, 277, no. 244. The first word of the text in the Dı̄ wā n reads
˙ in Ahmad’s edition (Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-mansū b ilā . . . al-Mā wardı̄ , 82); al-
khanā zı̄ r, as
˙ ˙˙
Hadı̄ thı̄ ’s edition, followed here, reads jabā bir (Kitā b Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, 106). The first
˙ ˙˙
verse recalls the maxim al-nā su yanā mu fa-idhā mā tū ntabahū , usually included among the
maxims of ʿAlı̄ (Miʾa kalima, in Qutbuddin, Treasury of Virtues, 222, 223; al-Thaʿā libı̄ ,
al-Iʿjā z wa-l-ı̄ jā z, 35, no. 17; al-Sakhā wı̄ , al-Maqā sid al-hasana, 691, no. 1240), but
˙ ˙
occasionally ascribed to the Prophet (al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Iʿjā z wa-l-ı̄ jā z, 25, no. 2).
50
Attributed to Husayn Ibn Khā lawayh (d. 370 or 371/980) (al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Yatı̄ mat al-dahr,
˙
I. 137); for discussion of this possibly later inclusion, see Marlow, Counsel for Kings, I: 59–60.
51
See al-Zamakhsharı̄ , Rabı̄ ʿ al-abrā r, IV: 214. The term jā hiliyya, associated with lack of
knowledge and sometimes wilful ignorance, referred to the period before the Qurʾanic
revelation in Arabia; on the formation and meanings of the paradigm, see Drory, ‘Abbasid
Construction of the Jahiliyya’, and Webb, ‘Al-Jā hiliyya: Uncertain Times of Uncertain
Meanings’. Al-Aʿmash was a major transmitter of Prophetic hadith in Kufa; he is reported
to have made extensive use of traditions allegedly transmitted by the muʿammar

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

How, then, can learned scholars and wise philosophers display respect for
a ruler whose position among them fits this description, except in dire
circumstances and under duress?
We have now completed our treatment of this topic. We have referred
to pertinent texts and included reports from the Book of God and the
exemplary practice (sunna) of His Prophet; in addition, we have adduced
the evidentiary proofs of the rationalists and the sayings of the philo-
sophers. We hereby mark the end of this chapter.

Text 2
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k.
Chapter One 52

Translator’s Introduction
This extract from the Ādā b al-mulū k of al-Thaʿā libı̄ , who lived his entire
life in the east and wrote perhaps a century after Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , is the
first chapter in his ten-chapter mirror. Al-Thaʿā libı̄ echoes many of the
themes of the previous extract, and he illustrates them with an eclectic set
of authorities, including many relatively recent, regional historical
examples. Like Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , he emphasises the exceptionalism of
kings and their uniquely privileged position in the world. Despite the
prominent place given to a discussion of groups who were excessive in their
veneration of kings, it is difficult to miss al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s sense of the unique
status, and perhaps qualities, of the king’s person (it should be remem-
bered that he dedicated his mirror to his royal patron). In comparison with
Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , al-Thaʿā libı̄ pays less attention to kings’ ultimate
accountability to the Creator, and more attention to their appropriate
treatment by their underlings in this world; the theme of reciprocity
between rulers and subjects is considerably less pronounced. The implicit
criticism evident in the latter sections of Text 1 is also absent, and the duty

(exceptionally long-lived) Abū Wā ʾil Shaqı̄ q b. Salama, who, despite the long life ascribed
to him, was perhaps a historical figure (Juynboll, ‘al-Aʿmash’).
52
Translation prepared from al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k, ed. Jalı̄ l al-ʿAtiyya (Beirut: Dā r
˙
al-Gharb al-Islā mı̄ , 1990), 33–48. For the corresponding section in Topuzoğ lu’s transla-
tion, see T. R. Topuzoğ lu, ‘Kitā b Ā dā b al-Mulū k al-Khwā razm-shā hı̄ of Abū Mansū r
˙
ʿAbd al-Malik b. Muhammad b. Ismā ʿı̄ l ath-Thaʿā libı̄ ’ (PhD diss., University of
˙ ̄
Manchester, 1974), I: 6–21, and T. R. Topuzoğ lu, Kitā b Adā b al-Mulū k al-Khwā razm-
shā hı̄ (Ankara: Tü rk Tarih Kurumu, 2015), I: 9–22.

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 Part II Texts

of obedience is affirmed without qualification. Another point of contrast

lies in the two authors’ uses of scriptural authority. Whereas Pseudo-
Mā wardı̄ integrates Qurʾanic citations into a continuous argument and
employs Qurʾanic language to advance the logic of his exposition, al-
Thaʿā libı̄ arranges his direct Qurʾanic citations in a separate section of
his chapter; in this way, he displays his customary attentiveness to the
distinctiveness of different classifications of literary expression and marks
the special status of Qurʾanic language; elsewhere, he integrates echoes of
Qurʾanic phrases, unmarked, into his prose.53 His references to religious
deviation anticipate a later, extended discussion of heterodoxy (see below,
Text 16).

Translation
Chapter One: In Explication of the Exalted Status of Kings; the
People’s Inescapable Need for Kings; and Their Duty to Obey, Exalt
and Glorify Them
God, may His name be exalted, has magnified the standing and status of
kings. He has elevated their ranks, glorified their importance,
empowered them on His earth and ennobled them with His authority.
He has granted them power (qabū l) and majesty (mahā ba), and endowed
them with might (ʿizza) and splendour (ubbaha); for He knows that kings
are necessary for the well-being (salā h) of His servants, and that kings’
˙ ˙
governance and protection in matters of religion and worldly affairs, and
the afterlife, are indispensable to commoners (al-ʿā mma) and the privil-
eged (al-khā ssa) alike.54 He has granted His rule (tamlı̄ k) over humankind
˙˙
to kings, and His extension of power to them stems from His

53
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s often unacknowledged Qurʾanic references and allusions are examples of
iqtibā s, a rhetorical device for which al-Thaʿā libı̄ was well known; indeed, he wrote
a treatise on the subject (Orfali, ‘The Works of Abū Mansū r al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’, 285, no. 9).
˙
54
The ubiquitous binary khā ss (special, private, privileged) and ʿā mm (common, public,
˙˙
general), often applied to categories of people, carries a variety of more particularised
meanings as it appears in different contexts. The term khā ss, for example, was adopted at
˙˙
an early date to designate private crown lands, and the term’s association with the ruler
soon led to its being extended to cover various forms of royal property, as well as
individuals closely connected to the ruler’s person; in this last sense, Julia Bray has
referred to khā ss and ʿā mm as the ruler’s inner and outer publics respectively (‘Ibn al-
˙˙
Muʿtazz and Politics’, 143). Other settings suggest different interpretations; in the
context of twelfth- and thirteenth-century Syria, Daniella Talmon-Heller has referred
to the khā ss and ʿā mm as, respectively, the educated élite and the unlettered classes
(Islamic Piety˙˙ in Medieval Syria, 1). See further above, Chapter 1, n. 6.

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

consummate wisdom (al-hikma al-bā ligha) and His abundant favours

˙
(niʿam[uhu] al-sā bigha).55 He has made obedience to kings similar to the
obligatory religious precepts (farā ʾid): the person who abides by them
˙
receives his reward, and the person who transgresses them is subject to
divine punishment. The binding precepts, the mandatory duties, the
acknowledged stipulations of obedience and the adopted markers of recti-
tude include honouring the person whom God has honoured, glorifying
the person whom He has ennobled, following the person whom He has
endowed with authority and submitting to the person whom He has
entrusted with rule and might. The subjects (raʿiyya) need a ruler (al-
rā ʿı̄ ) in the way that the body needs a head, and the superiority of the ruler
to the subjects resembles the superiority of the trainer (sā ʾis) to the animal
in his charge, or of the horseman (fā ris) to his mount.56 Were it not for
kings, the people would devour one another, just as, were it not for the
shepherd, wild beasts would ravage the flock.57
ʿAbdallā h Ibn al-Muʿtazz (247–96/861–908) articulated this idea in
superb fashion in one of his ‘Short Aphorisms’:

55
The phrase contains echoes of the Qurʾanic phrases hikma bā ligha (Q 54: 5), ‘consummate
˙
wisdom’, and wa-asbagha ʿalaykum niʿamahu zā hiratan wa-bā tinatan (Q 31: 20), ‘He has
˙ ˙
laden you with His favours, without and within’.
56
See above, n. 6. With Topuzoğ lu, I have omitted the apparently redundant phrase fı̄ fadl
˙
al-farā ʾid from the translation (Ādā b al-mulū k, 33 = Topuzoğ lu, ‘Kitā b Ā dā b al-Mulū k’
(1974), 7 = Topuzoğ lu, Kitā b Ādā b al-Mulū k (2015), 9).
57
The likening of the ruler to the shepherd and his subjects to the flock is ubiquitous (see
above, n. 5). ʿAlı̄ b. Abı̄ Tā lib is credited with the maxim, ‘If the shepherd is a wolf, who
˙
will care for the sheep?’ (Ibn Abı̄ l-Hadı̄ d, Sharh Nahj al-balā gha, XX: 420, no. 418 (idhā
˙ ˙
kā na al-rā ʿı̄ dhiʾban, fa-l-shā tu man yahfazuhā )).
˙ ˙
Footnote Citation Not Occurs in Current/Previous page58 Ibn al-Muʿtazz was a gifted poet
and stylist and a highly regarded
literary critic; at the same time,
he was a prominent member of
the Abbasid caliphal house (see
Lewin, ‘Ibn al-Muʿtazz’). On
his ‘Short Aphorisms’ (fusū l
˙
qisā r), cited several times in
˙
Ādā b al-mulū k and elsewhere in
the writings of al-Thaʿā libı̄ , see
Bray, ‘Ibn al-Muʿtazz and
Politics’ (the translation of the
citation in al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s text in
Bray’s, at p. 134). Bray has
argued convincingly that Ibn al-
Muʿtazz, whose contribution to
Arabic literary tradition has

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A people who have no ruler are as corrupt as a body with no soul!58

I have said many times, and I should be pleased to have it recounted from
me, that, while kings’ positions are high, their orders carried out and
their ways of living conducive to contentment, their burdens are many,
their troubles onerous and their tribulations great. Anyone who reflects
intelligently upon the affairs of kings will not reckon the abundant
resources available to them to be excessive. Kings are, after all, obliged
to protect their subjects: to defend them from unexpected disasters, and to
bear their burdens, which exceed twice over the amount that kings receive
for their material welfare. Nor should the common people belittle their lot
in life, since it is owing to the king’s wakefulness that they are able to sleep;
because of the king’s exertions in guarding over their womenfolk and
protecting their dwellings, the subjects find peaceful repose.59 The wealth
that the king accumulates supplies provisions to be used to defend the
subjects against the onslaught of their enemies, or to confront the adversi-
ties that afflict them. In effect, then, the king and his subjects are partners,
and they should avoid mutual hostility and envy.
The caliph Hā rū n al-Rashı̄ d (r. 170–93/786–809) provides an excel-
lent example of this situation. One night, during one of his campaigns, he
was caught in heavy snow, and it caused him considerable suffering. One
of his companions said to him, ‘Consider, O Commander of the Faithful:
we are enduring the hardship (jahd), exertion (nasab) and discomfort
˙
(waʿthā ʾ) of this campaign, while the subjects enjoy the benefits of peace,
rest and sleep.’ He said, ‘Be quiet. It is for them to sleep and for us to keep
vigil: the shepherd must keep his flock and suffer for them.’60
In an ode that he composed for al-Rashı̄ d, Abū Muhammad [ʿAbdallā h
˙
b. ʿAyyū b] al-Taymı̄ (d. 209/824) said:
At your anger, swords and lances stood erect
As you rose up in support of Islam.

long been recognised, was not,

as he has sometimes been per-
ceived, first and foremost a man
of letters who preferred artistic
pursuits to worldly affairs; on
the contrary, he may have seen
his aphorisms as an expression
of his princely birthright of wis-
dom, displayed as evidence of
his fitness to rule. This

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

The subjects slept in the shelter of your justice

While you remained sleepless, keeping vigil over the sleepers’ oblivion.61

What I have said is a matter of complete agreement among people endowed

with rational intellect. Furthermore, people endowed with perception have
witnessed that when a person honours the Shadow of God on His earth,
the Steward entrusted with His rightful claims and the Hand extended
over His creatures; when he heeds him, obeys him, supports him and takes
his side – that person receives praise, both in the present and the future,
and he secures for himself a pleasant life. Whoever, on the other hand,
turns aside from the king’s command and deviates from obedience to him
awaits a prescription of humiliation and misery. He shall burn in the heat
of the sword before he suffers the heat of the Fire; he shall obtain the loss of
both worlds, and that, indeed, is a patent loss (al-khusrā n al-mubı̄ n).62

On the Qurʾan’s Pronouncements concerning Kings

God linked the obedience due to kings with obedience to the Prophet
when He, the Almighty, said:
Obey God, obey the Messenger and those among you who are in
authority (Q 4: 59).
He mentioned His favour in appointing them as deputies (istikhlā f ) when
He said:
It is He who has appointed you as deputies (khalā ʾif ) of the earth,
and He has raised some of you over others in degrees (Q 6: 166).
In the story of Moses (upon him be peace), He said:
O my people! Remember God’s favour to you, how He placed
prophets among you, made you kings and gave you what He had
not given to any other of His creatures (Q 5: 20).
When He sent Moses and his brother to the most tyrannical and deviant
of kings, He said:

politically assertive dimension

of the ‘Short Aphorisms’ seems
highlighted in al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s
foregrounding of them in his
mirror (Bray, ‘Ibn al-Muʿtazz

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 Part II Texts

Go, both of you, to Pharaoh. For he has transgressed; speak to him in

gentle words (qawlan lı̄ nan), that perhaps he may heed or fear (Q 20:
43–4).
When he was reading this verse, Yahyā b. Muʿā dh [al-Rā zı̄ , d. 257 or
˙
258/871–2] said:
My God, since this is the kindness that You show towards the one
who claims divinity, what then awaits the person who confesses his
servitude to You?63
The Almighty Speaker said:
Say: O God, Possessor of Sovereignty! You give sovereignty (mulk)
to whom You will, and You withdraw sovereignty from whom You
will. You exalt whom You will, and You abase whom You will (Q 3:
26).

With these words, God has indicated that the transfer of sovereignty
from one nation (umma) to another and its departure from one family
(usra) to another proceed in accordance with the purpose of the Most
Wise (glorified be His praise). By these means He wills the optimal (al-
aslah) and selects the most suitable. His establishing of sovereignty in one
˙ ˙
dynasty and His removal of it from another are matters that God enacts
according to His wisdom, and by means of which He supports the best
interests (masā lih) of His creation.64
˙ ˙
On People’s Veneration of Kings since Time Immemorial;
and the Excessive Lengths to Which Some People Have Gone
in Glorifying Kings, to the Point of Taking Them as Gods apart
from (the One) God

63
A Central Asian Sufi who lived in Balkh and then in Nishapur, Yahyā b. Muʿā dh was
˙
associated with the Karrā miyya, an ascetic religious-theological movement that attracted
numerous followers, especially among the urban and rural lower classes, in the eastern
regions from the ninth to the eleventh centuries; Yahyā was known for his love poems to
˙
God. See Abū Nuʿaym al-Isfahā nı̄ , Hilyat al-awliyā ʾ, X: 51–70 (no. 463); al-Qushayrı̄ ,
al-Risā la, I: 101–2. ˙ ˙
64
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s assertion that changes in power are, on account of the divine will that
underlies them, necessarily in the best interests of humankind evokes the doctrine of ‘the
optimal’ (al-aslah), associated with certain members of the Muʿtazila as an extension of
˙ ˙
the theological emphasis on divine justice. In al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s presentation, the doctrine of
‘the optimal’ is equated with God’s wisdom; this understanding of divine action passed
well beyond the circles of the Muʿtazila and rationalist theology.

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

Cases of excessive exaltation and glorification of kings have been

recounted in both the pre-Islamic period (the Jā hiliyya) and Islamic
times. Since people saw kings determining the lives of their subjects
and condemning them to death, raising them up and casting them low,
appointing them to authority and dismissing them from office, giving to
and withholding from them, they became fascinated by them. Like the
unruly crowd and the people intent on deceiving them, the people took to
treating their kings as gods and lords, whom they worshipped in the same
manner that God the Creator, the Sustainer, the One, the Mighty is
worshipped.65 More than one ignorant king was gratified by this treat-
ment. For instance, the king who argued with Abraham about his Lord
said, ‘I give life and cause death’ (Q 2: 258);66 and Pharaoh said, ‘I am
your mighty lord’ (Q 79: 24).
A certain rabble (qawm)67 made up of infidel philosophers, dissolute
types given to free thinking68 and religious innovations, and the devils of
the human species have sought to make this pernicious claim attractive to
people. In some of their formal treatises and other written fragments,
they have alleged that the spirit of the Creator, may He be praised, has
alighted in the person of the king, who should be worshipped until the
spirit passes from him and takes up residence in someone else. Some of
these people say that none of the earthly kings is without a certain piece of
the Creator’s spirit. This piece, they claim, settles in each king, and,
according to whether it is small or great, increasing or decreasing, it
determines the eminence of each king’s power and the magnificence of
his stature (God is exalted infinitely above the claims of these transgres-
sors). In a similar fashion, they have claimed that a part of His beauty and
His light lodges in the handsome slave-boy and the pretty slave-girl; it

65
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s language is reminiscent of Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s brief treatment of the phrase
rabb al-ard (see Text 1, at n. 7).
˙
66
The full verse reads: ‘Think of the one who argued with Abraham about his Lord,
because God had given him sovereignty (mulk). When Abraham said: “It is my Lord who
gives life and causes death,” he answered: “I give life and cause death.” Abraham said:
“God causes the sun to rise in the east; do you, then, cause it to come up from the west.”
Thereupon the disbeliever was left speechless. God does not guide the people who
oppress (wa-llā hu lā yahdı̄ l-qawma l-zā limı̄ na).’
˙
67
In al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s usage, the term qawm, ‘group’, ‘people’, elsewhere relatively neutral in
its connotations, frequently appears in negative contexts with distinctly derogatory
overtones (see the previous note for a Qurʾanic example; several further examples
occur below).
68
Following Bray’s rendering of ahl al-ahwā ʾ, ‘free thinkers’ (‘Al-Thaʿalibi’s Adab al-mulū k’,
41–2); see below, Chapter 9, n. 42.

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 Part II Texts

remains indwelling in them until the boy grows a beard and the girl
reaches maturity, at which time it passes from them. I have heard that
a certain band (qawm) of Sufis believe this vile teaching (madhhab) and
subscribe to this absurd doctrine. They are called the Hulū liyya (people
˙
who believe in the doctrine of divine indwelling, hulū l).6 9
˙
On this subject, Ibn Nubā ta al-Saʿdı̄ has said, in a lyric (ghazal):
My soul (nafs) is your ransom: for you resemble the full moon
over a branch,
And my eyes feast hungrily at the sight.
As I behold this vision and reflect on it,
I am compelled to give credence to the Hulū liyya’s doctrine of
˙
forms (suwar).70
˙
Concerning the permissibility of indwelling, Abū ʿAlı̄ Muhammad b. al-
˙
Hasan al-Hā timı̄ (d. 388/998), in a drifting conversation, has said:
˙ ˙
I have a beloved: Were I to be asked for what I yearned
It would be nothing other than to be with him, even unto death.
How I long to take up dwelling in every single body
So that I could see him through the glances of myriad eyes!71
Al-Muqannaʿ (‘The Veiled One’, d. 163/779–80 or 166/782–3), may God
curse him, was so audacious in this path of the Hulū liyya (Proponents of
˙
Indwelling) that he claimed divinity and called upon people to worship him.
In his proselytising, he used to say that God Almighty had created Adam
and instilled Himself into his form. When He brought Adam’s earthly life to
an end, He transposed Himself into the form of Noah. From then on, He
began to move into the forms of the prophets and kings, the last of whom

69
A departure from the frequently used translation ‘incarnation’, the term ‘indwelling’,
a more nuanced rendering of hulū l, is Crone’s; see her Nativist Prophets, 221–32.
˙
70
Ibn Nubā ta was a Baghdadi poet; see al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Yatı̄ mat al-dahr, II: 447–66, no. 135;
the poem appears at p. 449.
71
Abū ʿAlı̄ Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Hā timı̄ (d. 388/998), a literary critic and philologist,
˙ ˙ ˙
spent a period of time in Aleppo at the court of Sayf al-Dawla (r. 333–56/944–67) and
died in Baghdad. See al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Yatı̄ mat al-dahr, III: 120–4; the verse appears at
p. 120. See further Bonebakker, ‘al-Hā timı̄ ’.
72
Abū Muslim was the main organiser ˙ and chief commander of the revolution which
overthrew the Umayyads and would bring the Abbasids to power; the movement began
in Khurasan, where long after his execution at the hands of Caliph al-Mansū r, Abū
˙
Muslim inspired dissenting groups, some of whom, as al-Muqannaʿ’s self-presentation
reflects, held him in veneration, considering him a vessel of divine spirit, a medium
between the divine and human realms (cf. Crone, Nativist Prophets, 42–5, 86–91, 329 and
passim).

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

was Abū Muslim (d. 137/755).72 When this last was killed, God transferred
Himself into Hā shim – by which name he meant himself. In Transoxiana,
a large group of misguided people followed al-Muqannaʿ. His power
(shawka) was growing in strength and the force of his sedition was mount-
ing, until, in the reign of al-Mahdı̄ (r. 158–69/775–85), God Almighty
destroyed him, averted his wickedness and put an end to his command. To
this day, a remnant of his followers, called the Wearers of White (al-
Mubayyida), remains in Transoxiana. They are obliged to pay the land-
˙
tax and other exactions to their governors (wulā t).73
A pack (qawm) of the Rā wandiyya developed an obsession with Abū
Jaʿfar al-Mansū r (r. 136–58/754–75).74 One day, as he left his tent, the
˙
caliph saw a clutch (qawm) of them prostrating before him and calling
upon him in prayer, as if they were petitioning God Almighty. He
rebuked them and called upon them to repent, but they would neither
repent nor desist. As a consequence, al-Mansū r ordered that they be put
˙
to death. Some were killed, some escaped and recanted, only to rise
against him in a sudden revolt. These individuals drew swords against al-
Mansū r’s supporters, but fate turned against them, their wicked trickery
˙
ensnared them and their affair came to an end.75
Something similar happened to the Commander of the Faithful ʿAlı̄ ,
may peace be upon him. A crowd (qawm) who took their partisanship for
him to an extreme (al-ghulā t fı̄ l-tashayyuʿ) fell into unbelief. They said to
him: ‘You are our god, and the object of our worship.’ When he censured
them, they refused to restrain themselves, but rather insisted in their
waywardness. ʿAlı̄ then ordered his client (mawlā ) Qanbar to burn them.
On this subject, ʿAlı̄ , peace be upon him, said:

73
The revolt of al-Muqannaʿ lasted fourteen years, during which time he and his followers,
known as the Wearers of White (Mubayyida or Sipı̄ djā magā n), controlled large parts of
˙
Transoxiana. Especially strong in rural areas, the movement also took the city of
Samarqand, where al-Muqannaʿ minted coins, an action that signified an explicit challenge
to the existing political authorities (on al-Muqannaʿ and the Mubayyida, see Crone, Nativist
˙
Prophets, 106–43).
74
Named after ʿAbdallā h al-Rā wandı̄ , who probably hailed from Balkh, the Rā wandiyya,
extreme devotees of the early Abbasids, developed in Khurasan out of the revolutionary
movement of Abū Muslim; see Crone, Nativist Prophets, 86–91.
75
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s phrase hā qa l-makru l-sayyiʾu bi-him recalls the Qurʾanic wa-lā yahı̄ qu l-makru
˙ ˙
l-sayyiʾu illā bi-ahlihi, ‘wicked trickery ensnares only the people who devise it’ (Q 35: 43).
Footnote Citation Not Occurs in Current/Previous page76 See Halm, ‘G ˉ olā t’. Qanbar
b. Hamdā n was ʿAlı̄ ’s ser-
˙
vant; he was with ʿAlı̄ at
the Battle of Siffı̄ n in 37/
˙

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 Part II Texts

When I saw that it was a reprehensible matter

I kindled the fire and called for Qanbar.76

In the time of the Khusraws, people used to call kings ‘lords’ (arbā b), and
they took it upon themselves to worship them. They did not dare to wear
the clothes that the king wore, ride the same animals that he rode or
consume the food and drink that he consumed. Moreover, they relin-
quished to him every precious thing that fell into their hands.77
It is part of the etiquette (ā dā b) appropriate to the servants of kings that
they should follow the example of the Sasanian era in their privileging of
kings in everything that is suitable for them and fitting for them. ʿAmr
b. Masʿada (d. 217/832) alluded to this point in his words to al-Maʾmū n,
who once saw ʿAmr riding a particularly fine horse. The caliph looked at the
horse with approval and admiration. Observing this response, ʿAmr con-
ducted the horse into the caliph’s presence. He addressed al-Maʾmū n with
these verses:
O Imam – to whom, since he is rightly counted an imam, no one comes close;
For he surpasses the rest of the people, just as plentitude surpasses
deficiency –
We have dispatched a certain steed, the likeness of which lies beyond desire:
The horse’s face is like the morning, the rest of his body dark as the night.
That which befits the master (mawlā ) is forbidden (harā m) to the servant.78
˙

On Kings’ Occasioning the Production of Useful Work

in the Sciences and Fine Accomplishments in the Arts
and Crafts (Thamarā t al-ʿUlū m wa-l-Ādā b wa-Latā ʾif al-Sinā ʿā t)
˙ ˙
One of the finest and most enduring of kings’ achievements lies in the service
they accept from philosophers throughout the lands, scholars across the
realm and masters of the crafts. These individuals present kings with the
results of their thinking; they seek proximity to kings by offering them
the fruits of their intellects, and they devote meticulous attention to the

77
See also al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Thimā r al-qulū b, 179; for a discussion of this passage, see Savant,
The New Muslims, 133.
78
ʿAmr b. Masʿada, renowned for his epistolary skill and a relative of the celebrated secretary
and poet Ibrā hı̄ m b. al-ʿAbbā s al-Sū lı̄ (d. 243/857), served as secretary to al-Maʾmū n, and in
˙
various financial posts. See al-Husrı̄ , Zahr al-ā dā b, II: 836–8; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Thimā r al-qulū b,
˙ ˙
179 (an abbreviated allusion); Ibn Khallikā n, Wafayā t al-aʿyā n, III: 475–8 (no. 507);
Yā qū t, Muʿjam al-udabā ʾ, V: 2129–31, no. 874 (the verses appear on p. 2131); al-Ziriklı̄ , al-
Aʿyā n, V: 86; Sourdel, ‘ʿAmr b. Masʿada’.

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

works that they produce and compose in their royal patrons’ names. This
phenomenon constitutes a mark of the kingdom’s good fortune; it indicates
the link to felicity that kings provide, the people’s pinning of their hopes upon
them and their directing of their aspirations towards them. Scarcely any fine
accomplishment, any rare philosophical work or remarkable feat of architec-
ture would have seen the light of day had it not been intended for a king and
produced in the hope of pleasing a king. Had it not been for the excellent
kings of the past, many of the sciences would have been lost and many
brilliant philosophies (hikam) deemed worthless.79
˙
Kings have enabled men of learning to devote themselves solely to their
work. They have bestowed upon them sufficient means that these scholars
could pursue their investigations with untroubled souls, their faculties unen-
cumbered with worry and their minds unpreoccupied. As a consequence,
these individuals have been able to produce tools and implements, as well as
musical instruments, capable of providing repose for the soul, rest after toil
and, through the dispelling of cares, healing joy. They have constructed
various amenities and fashioned several beneficial devices, including a variety
of wind, stringed and percussion instruments.80 They have developed the
sciences of medicine, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music, and they
have invented instruments of war, such as mangonels, machines for use in
siege warfare, devices for the throwing of naphtha and countless other items.
The words that Alexander’s mother spoke in her prayers on his behalf
are pertinent in this connection:
May God sustain you with good fortune that brings you the service
of men of intelligence, rather than with an intellect used in the
service of the possessors of fortunes.

79
The term hikma, used several times in this section, carries several connotations: wisdom,
˙
philosophy, medicine; it also denotes a concise articulation of wisdom, in other words,
a maxim (pl. hikam). The same range of meanings applies to the noun hakı̄ m (pl.
˙ ˙
hukamā ʾ), which might be rendered ‘sage’, ‘philosopher’ or ‘physician’ (or an individual
˙
who combines all three of these qualities). This semantic spectrum is often used to evoke
the intellectual heritage of the ancient and late antique world and its continuing develop-
ment in Islamic times, in contradistinction to the specifically Islamic religious sciences
grounded in scriptural sources, such as Qurʾanic studies and exegesis, the collection of
Prophetic hadith, the legal sciences and theological and metaphysical discourse.
80
The text is somewhat unclear at this point; see Topuzoğ lu, ‘Kitā b Ā dā b al-Mulū k’ (1974),
13 = Topuzoğ lu, Kitā b Ādā b al-Mulū k, 16.
Footnote Citation Not Occurs in Current/Previous page81 Reading with Topuzoğ lu and
Bray al-ʿarab for al-maghrib
(Topuzoğ lu, ‘Kitā b Ā dā b al-

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 Part II Texts

With the advent of the reign of the Arabs, the rulers of Islam81 became
the occasions for exquisite writing, surpassing eloquence, widely dissem-
inated poems and splendid, remarkable books. Were it not for them – and
the municipal governors (ruʾasā ʾ) allied with them and the officials
appointed to oversee their provinces (al-mutasarrifū n ʿalā aʿmā lihim) –
˙
the ideas of writers and poets would have died, the intellectual faculties of
scholars and philosophers would have languished untapped and the
tongues of orators and men of eloquence would have been tied. Such is
the favour (fadl) of God that He gives to whom He will.82
˙
Happiness lies in proximity to the person who witnesses divine favour.

On the Excellence of Royal Power83 and of Kings: Reports

Transmitted from the Prophet, May Peace Be upon Him,
and the Pious Forebears

82
The phrase dhā lika fadlu llā hi yuʾtı̄ hi man yashā ʾu is another example of al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s use
˙
of Qurʾanic language (Q 5: 54; 57: 21; 62: 4).
83
On the term sultā n, see above, n. 4.
˙
Footnote Citation Not Occurs in Current/Previous page84 In this passage, al-Thaʿā libı̄ has
combined two reports, both of
which he takes to be Prophetic.
The first part, al-sultā n zill
˙ ˙
Allā h fı̄ l-ard, entered political
˙
discourse in several ways; often
appearing with the continuation
yaʾwı̄ ilayhi kullu mazlū m, ‘and
˙
in him every oppressed person
takes refuge’, it is sometimes
considered to be a Prophetic
utterance (see, for example, al-
Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Zarā ʾif wa-
l-latā ʾif, 72; al-Tawh ˙ ı̄ dı̄ , al-
˙ ˙
Basā ʾir wa-l-dhakhā ʾir, VII:
˙
284, no. 832; al-Mā wardı̄ ,
Adab al-dunyā wa-l-dı̄ n, 137;
al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k, I:
˙ ˙
183; al-ʿAjlū nı̄ , Kashf al-
khafā ʾ, I: 403, no. 1485 (with
variants); see also Usā ma
b. Munqidh, Lubā b al-albā b,
34 (al-wā lı̄ al-ʿā dil al-
mutawā diʿ zill Allā h ʿazza wa-
˙ ˙
jalla fı̄ ardihi, with different
˙
continuation); al-Sakhā wı̄ , al-
Maqā sid al-hasana, 181,
˙ ˙

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

The Prophet, may peace be upon him, said: ‘The sultā n is the shadow of
˙
God on His earth. He who obeys him has obeyed me, and he who
disobeys him has disobeyed me.’84 He also said, ‘A summons from the
sultā n is not to be rejected.’85
˙
The Prophet, upon him be peace, said: ‘On the Day when only His shadow
can provide shelter, God will shelter the just imam with His shadow.’ He was
also pleased to say of Anū shı̄ rvā n the Just (= Khusraw I, ‘The Immortal
Souled’, r. 531–79): ‘I was born in the time of the Just King.’86
ʿUthmā n b. ʿAffā n (r. 23–35/644–55) used to say:
God restrains the people through the ruler’s power more than He
restrains them through the Qurʾan.87
Hudhayfa b. al-Yamā n (d. 36/656) said:
˙
If a group (qawm) strives to debase God’s sultā n, not only will God
˙
debase them in this world; they will also suffer ignominy in the
88
afterlife.
ʿAbdallā h b. Masʿū d (d. c. 32–3/652–4)89 used to say:
The people have an inescapable need for a restraint.90

86
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ cites this report in several places (see, for instance, Thimā r al-qulū b, 179;
Yatı̄ mat al-dahr, IV: 504); see also al-Sakhā wı̄ , al-Maqā sid al-hasana, 707–8, no. 1271;
˙ ˙
and al-ʿAjlū nı̄ , Kashf al-khafā ʾ, I: 257, no. 913 (buʿithtu fı̄ zaman al-malik al-ʿā dil). Al-
Thaʿā libı̄ endows Anū shı̄ rvā n with a unique position among the Sasanian kings. This
exceptional status is also reflected in the report that ʿAlı̄ questioned a prominent Persian
leader as to whom his people held to be the most praiseworthy of their kings, and received
the answer that whereas Ardashı̄ r had the virtue of precedence in the kingdom, the most
praiseworthy in conduct was Anū shı̄ rvā n, on account of his forbearance (hilm) and
˙
equanimity (anā t), qualities that ʿAlı̄ held to result in high aspiration (Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-
˙˙
mulū k, part II, 98–9 = Bagley, Ghazā lı̄ ’s Book of Counsel for Kings, 55; Usā ma
b. Munqidh, Lubā b al-ā dā b, 38).
87
Ascribed to ʿUthmā n in al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Iʿjā z wa-l-ı̄ jā z, 34, no. 3; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-
Tamthı̄ l wa-l-muhā dara, 30; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Zarā ʾif wa-l-latā ʾif, 72; al-Husrı̄ , Zahr al-
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
ā dā b, I: 37; al-Zamakhsharı̄ , Rabı̄ ʿ al-abrā r, IV: 236; regarded as Prophetic in al-Mā wardı̄
(Adab al-dunyā wa-l-dı̄ n, 137) and al-Turtū shı̄ (Sirā j al-mulū k, I: 252); without attribu-
˙ ˙
tion in al-ʿĀ mirı̄ , al-Iʿlā m bi-manā qib al-Islā m, 158.
88
The context suggests that for al-Thaʿā libı̄ , in this instance, God’s sultā n implied the
˙
divinely appointed ruler. Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 23 (a slight variant, similarly
attributed to the Companion of the Prophet Hudhayfa b. al-Yamā n). See also Pseudo-
˙
Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-mansū b ilā . . . al-Mā wardı̄ , 81, above, at n. 17; and on
˙˙
sultā n, see above, n. 4, and Chapter 1, n. 5.
89 ˙
An eminent Companion of the Prophet from Mecca, highly regarded as an authority on
the Qurʾan and its interpretation, considered to be one of the ten Companions of the
Prophet to whom Paradise was promised (Anthony, ‘Ibn Masʿū d, ʿAbdallā h’).
90
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Zarā ʾif wa-l-latā ʾif, 73.
˙ ˙

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 Part II Texts

One of the pious forebears said:

Anyone who reviles a sultā n will find that on the Day of
˙
Resurrection, God will clothe him with a garment of fire. You
(subjects) are responsible for the burdens imposed upon you; they
(rulers) are responsible for the burdens imposed upon them (innamā
ʿalaykum mā hummiltum wa-ʿalayhim mā hummilū ). Their duty is
˙ ˙
justice; your duty is to listen and obey.91
A man said to al-Hasan al-Basrı̄ (21–110/642–728), ‘O Abū Saʿı̄ d: What
˙ ˙
do you have to say about royal power?’ He answered: ‘What should I say
regarding a group of people (qawm) charged with responsibility for our
affairs in five respects, namely the Friday prayer, the broad community,
booty, the frontiers and the statutory penalties? Religion cannot be
upheld without them, and even if they are unjust and oppressive, God
accomplishes more good through them than He makes corrupt.’92
The prophet Daniel, upon him be peace, once walked alongside a king
for a stretch of some four miles. Someone said to him, ‘Why are you
walking with this king, even though you are a prophet?’ He replied, ‘I am
doing it in the hope that I may speak to him with words by which God
will, through him, protect the people and benefit them.’
Al-Fudayl b. ʿIyā d (d. 187/803) used to say: ‘If I were granted a prayer
˙ ˙
that was certain to be answered, I would transfer it to the ruler.’ He was

91
An echo of Q 24: 54: ‘Say: Obey God and obey the Messenger. If you turn away, then he
is responsible only for the burden that he bears, and you are responsible for the burdens
that you bear (fa-innamā ʿalayhi mā hummila wa-ʿalaykum mā hummiltum). If you obey
˙ ˙
him, you will be rightly guided. The Messenger’s duty is only the clear expression of the
message.’ See further below, Text 3, at n. 118. The report is also reminiscent of the
utterance, ‘If the imam is just, then his is the reward and your responsibility is gratitude;
if the imam is unjust, then his is the burden of moral responsibility and your responsibil-
ity is patience’ (Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 10, from ʿAbdallā h b. ʿUmar).
92
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Zarā ʾif wa-l-latā ʾif, 73. Al-Hasan al-Basrı̄ was among the most cele-
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
brated figures of the generation known as the ‘successors’ (tā biʿū n) to the Companions of
the Prophet. Probably born in Medina but closely associated with Basra, Hasan was an
˙
acclaimed exegete and reciter of the Qurʾan and widely renowned for his piety, sincerity
and integrity. His teachings contributed to the formation of several theological, renunci-
atory and mystical traditions; see Mourad, ‘al-Hasan al-Basrı̄ ’.
Footnote Citation Not Occurs in Current/Previous ˙ page93 See˙ al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Zarā ʾif wa-
˙
l-latā ʾif, 72; al-Rā ghib al-
˙
Isfahā nı̄ , Muhā darā t al-udabā ʾ,
˙ ˙ ˙
I: 162; Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar
˙
al-mulū k, 66 = Darke, Book of
Government, 49; al-
Zamakhsharı̄ , Rabı̄ ʿ al-abrā r,

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

asked, ‘Why would you place him before yourself?’ He said, ‘The prayer
that I would offer on my own account would benefit me alone; whereas if
he were to have it, the lands in their entirety would enjoy new life
through his justice and reform.’93

On Obedience to Royal Power

It has been reported (fı̄ l-khabar) that whoever abandons obedience and
separates himself from the community will die as if he had died during
the Age of Ignorance.94
I have read in the reports of Anū shı̄ rvā n the Just that he once
observed Buzurgmihr giving instruction to a member of the royal
retinue. The king asked Buzurgmihr, ‘What advice did you give him?’
He said:
I told him, obey your benefactor (walı̄ niʿmatika) in whatever he
commands you to do and forbids you to do, in the same way that
you obey Him who created you and has sustained you. For obedi-
ence to the person whom Almighty God has placed in power over
His creation is linked to obedience to Him: obedience to God
ensures divine mercy, and obedience to the king ensures worldly
benefit.

Anū shı̄ rvā n responded: ‘This realm will enjoy unceasing protection as
long as people like you remain in it.’95
Abū Bakr b. ʿAyyā sh (d. 193/808) used to say:

IV: 223; al-Nuwayrı̄ , Nihā yat

al-arab, VI: 37 (for al-Fadl
˙
read al-Fudayl). A leading
˙
renunciant (zā hid) and trans-
mitter of hadith, al-Fudayl was
˙
born in Khurasan or
Transoxiana, but moved to
Iraq, and eventually to Mecca,
where he lived until his death.
He features in numerous narra-
tives, in which he exemplifies
the path of renunciation and
often admonishes the holders
of worldly power; cf. Ghazā lı̄ ,
Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, part II, 153 =
˙˙

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 Part II Texts

The only way for the common people to approach kings is through
obedience, for servants only through service, and for the king’s inner
circle (bitā na) only through attentiveness.96
˙
How excellent and concise are the words of Abarwı̄ z (= Khusraw II
Parvı̄ z [r. 590–628]):
Obey the person above you, so that those below you will obey you.97

I have said in my book al-Mubhij:

He who obeys the sultā n has obeyed the Merciful; he who disobeys
˙
the sultā n has obeyed Satan.98
˙
I have said there further:
When you extend your hand in pledging allegiance (mubā yaʿa),
confirm your loyalty by following in obedience.99

Notable Examples of Courteous and Gracious Manners (Latā ʾif

˙
wa-Zarā ʾif min al-Ādā b) Displayed in the Company of the Most
˙
Illustrious Kings
One day, as Yazı̄ d b. Shajara [al-Rahā wı̄ ] (d. 58/678) was walking at
(Caliph) Muʿā wiya’s side and Muʿā wiya (r. 41–60/661–80) was talking
to him, a loose stone struck Yazı̄ d’s face and drew blood. The blood
began to flow down over his clothes, yet he did not wipe it away.
Muʿā wiya said to him: ‘May your father belong to God! Can’t you see
what has happened to you?’ He replied, ‘What is that, O Commander of
the Faithful?’ The latter responded, ‘That’s blood from your face that’s
running down over your clothes.’ He said: ‘If I took no joy in your
reception of me, nor in the honour of conversing with you, I should be
compelled to release my slaves; the delight of these two things so
distracted me that I was unaware of this injury until you alerted me to
it.’ Muʿā wiya was delighted and increased his stipend.100
A similar incident, involving [Abū ] Bakr al-Hudhalı̄ , has also been
recounted. One day, when al-Hudhalı̄ was in the company of (Caliph)

98
Echoes the concepts and language referred to above, n. 84.
99
The second element of the first of this pair of maxims, as well as the second maxim,
appear in succession in al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s Kitā b al-Mubhij, 42, nos. 165, 166.
100
Kitā b al-Tā j, 55–7 = Pellat, Le livre de la couronne, 85–6; al-Bayhaqı̄ , al-Mahā sin wa-
l-masā wı̄ , 464. On Yazı̄ d, see al-Ziriklı̄ , al-Aʿyā n, VIII: 184. ˙

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

Abū l-ʿAbbā s al-Saffā h (r. 132–6/749–54) and the latter was speaking to
˙
him, a violent gust of wind arose. It upset a dish on a terrace, and blew it
down from the roof to the courtyard where Abū l-ʿAbbā s al-Saffā h was
˙
sitting with his assembly. Those who were present were frightened and
alarmed at this disturbance, but al-Hudhalı̄ did not move, and his eyes
remained fixed on the eyes of Abū l-ʿAbbā s. The caliph said to him: ‘How
remarkable you are, Hudhalı̄ ! We were all alarmed; but you were not even
startled!’ Al-Hudhalı̄ said: ‘O Commander of the Faithful, in your
generosity you have granted me the privilege of a positive reception;
my heart is completely absorbed in it and my thoughts entirely taken up
with it. Were the fertile lands to be turned upside down over the dusty
skies, I should not have felt it.’ Abū l-ʿAbbā s said, ‘I have lived to
understand your true worth, and I shall raise your standing.’101
Among the several celebrated accounts concerning [Abū ʿAlı̄
Ahmad] al-Saghā nı̄ (d. 344/955) is the report that one day, while
˙ ˙
he was in the presence of (al-Amı̄ r) al-Saʿı̄ d Nasr b. Ahmad (r. 301–
˙ ˙
31/914–43) and conversing with him, a scorpion bit Abū ʿAlı̄ ’s
thigh. The creature had crawled into his trousers, and it did not
stop stinging him until it had depleted its entire store of venom.
Abū ʿAlı̄ paid no attention to it, nor was he disturbed by it. When
he returned to his house and removed his clothing, the tally of the
bites he had suffered amounted to seventeen. This news reached al-
Saʿı̄ d, who was distressed to hear of Abū ʿAlı̄ ’s ordeal. Afterwards,
the king said to him: ‘O Abū ʿAlı̄ , I feel troubled about what
happened to you. Why didn’t you stand up and get rid of that
pest?’ Abū ʿAlı̄ replied, ‘If I couldn’t endure the annoyance of

101
Kitā b al-Tā j, 58–9 = Pellat, Le livre de la couronne, 86–7; al-Masʿū dı̄ , Murū j al-dhahab,
III: 265–6. Al-Hudhalı̄ ’s name appears sometimes as Bakr and sometimes as Abū Bakr.
Compare al-Rā ghib al-Isfahā nı̄ , Muhā darā t al-udabā ʾ, I: 186, for a similar account
˙ ˙ ˙
involving the theologian Abū l-Qā sim al-Kaʿbı̄ and the (Samanid) amir of Khurasan.
Footnote Citation Not Occurs in Current/Previous page102 The Chaghā nids (Ar.
Saghā nids), a local dyn-
˙
asty in Chaghaniyan on
the right bank of the
upper Oxus, became
vassals to the Samanids
and probably the early
Ghaznavids. Abū ʿAlı̄ ,
a highly effective com-
mander and indispens-
able source of military
support to the

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 Part II Texts

a scorpion when I am in the king’s presence, then how, if I were not

in his presence, would I endure the fires of the battlefield and the
blows of swords?’102
I heard Abū Nasr Sahl b. al-Marzubā n say:103
˙
I have read in the Accounts of the Viziers (Akhbā r al-wuzarā ʾ) of [Abū
ʿAbdallā h] Ibn ʿAbdū s [al-Jahshiyā rı̄ ] (d. 331/942) of an occasion
when al-Maʾmū n was discussing some matter with certain members
of his retinue.104 These people argued about the matter and raised
their voices. When they had departed, al-Fadl b. Sahl (d. 202/817–
˙
18) ordered that they should receive a beating.105 Al-Maʾmū n asked
him what crime they had committed, and al-Fadl said: ‘In their
˙
comportment they have not heeded God’s instruction (lam
yataʾaddabū bi-adab Allā h). He stipulated: “O you who believe! Do
not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet, and do not speak
to him at the top of your voices, as you do in speaking to one
another” (Q 49: 2); yet these people raised their voices above yours.’

Anū shı̄ rvā n used to say:

If other people’s voices are raised over the voice of the king, the latter
might as well be deposed. Similarly, if he says ‘no’ in a matter and
receives the answer ‘yes’, or if he says ‘yes’ and is told ‘no’, he might
as well be killed.
In a similar case, it has been related that a young man, a member of the
Hashimite family, entered the presence of al-Mansū r while the latter was
˙
eating his lunch. Al-Mansū r invited the young man to join him in the
˙
meal, but the Hashimite declined. When the latter left, al-Rabı̄ ʿ [b.
Yū nus] (111–69/730–86)106 diverted him into one of the passages and
ordered that he receive a beating of a hundred lashes. The young man was
carried, badly beaten, back to his house. The next day, his family
gathered and went to al-Mansū r to complain about al-Rabı̄ ʿ. They
˙
informed al-Mansū r that al-Rabı̄ ʿ had inflicted a beating upon their
˙
104
The surviving and published version of al-Jahshiyā rı̄ ’s Kitā b al-Wuzarā ʾ wa-l-kuttā b
comes to an end at the beginning of al-Maʾmū n’s caliphate; the account related in al-
Thaʿā libı̄ ’s text does not appear in the extant part of the work.
105
Al-Fadl, who first served as mentor to ʿAbdallā h al-Maʾmū n, served also, after al-
˙
Maʾmū n’s caliphal investiture, as his counsellor, secretary, governor general in the
east, and head of his civil and military administration (Yü cesoy, ‘al-Fadl b. Sahl’).
106 ˙
See also al-Bayhaqı̄ , al-Mahā sin wa-l-masā wı̄ , 159, where the Hashimite is identified as
̄ ˙
Muhammad b. ʿIsā b. ʿAlı̄ . On al-Rabı̄ ʿ, the powerful chamberlain and later vizier of al-
Mans˙ ū r, see Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, 138–40.
˙

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

young man. Al-Mansū r said that al-Rabı̄ ʿ was not likely to have done
˙
such a thing without some cause, and so he summoned him, and said,
‘Rabı̄ ʿ! Why did you beat my nephew when I had not ordered you to do
so?’ Al-Rabı̄ ʿ said: ‘I did it, O Commander of the Faithful, because when
you invited him to your table, he refused to answer in the affirmative. He
did not know that an invitation to join the king’s table is a matter of
honour, not a matter of hunger. I found it desirable to teach him this
lesson so that he should not repeat an action of this kind.’107
I have heard Abū Jaʿfar Muhammad b. Mū sā al-ʿAlawı̄ al-Mū sawı̄
˙
al-Tū sı̄ say:
˙
The custom of distributing gifts (rasm al-nithā rā t) as a means of
gaining access to kings and other important and prominent figures
(al-kubarā ʾ wa-l-ruʾasā ʾ) is modelled on the exemplary practice
(adab) of God Almighty with regard to His Prophet, upon him be
peace, when He said: ‘O you who believe, if you speak privately with
the Prophet, give alms (sadaqa) before your conference’ (Q 58: 12). It
˙
seems today as if anyone who strives to gain access to the king or the
municipal governor (raʾı̄ s) by one means or another approaches him
and places some kind of offering before him. He makes this charit-
able donation as a gesture of his gratitude to God for finding the king
in good health in his person and thriving in his condition. The donor
asks the king to regard the offering according to his judgement, and
to use it for charitable purposes or in some other manner. Were he to
undertake this act of giving in direct response to poverty, his

107
Kitā b al-Tā j, 12 = Pellat, Le livre de la couronne, 40; Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d,
II: 291.
108
The translation of the final phrase in this passage is Bray’s (‘Al-Thaʿalibi’s Adab al-
mulū k’, 45, n. 19); Bray points out that the phrase has the ring of a proverb, of the kind
that al-Thaʿā libı̄ often uses to mark the conclusion of a section. The custom of largesse is
well attested for the Ghaznavid and later periods of Iranian history (see ‘Nithā r’;
Matthee, ‘Gift Giving’, 609–14). On Abū Jaʿfar al-Mū sawı̄ , a contemporary of al-
Thaʿā libı̄ ’s and a fellow littérateur, see al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Latā ʾif al-maʿā rif, 198 =
˙
Bosworth, Book of Curious and Entertaining Information, 134; and al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Yatı̄ mat
al-dahr, IV, passim.
Footnote Citation Not Occurs in Current/Previous page109 A member of a family of
merchants who held official
positions at court, Ibn al-
Zayyā t was a secretary and
man of letters. Appointed
to the vizierate by Caliph
al-Muʿtasim in about 221/
˙
833, Ibn al-Zayya ̄ t retained

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 Part II Texts

behaviour might raise doubts, for ‘the heart is ever divided as to the
sincerity or insincerity (of a person’s intentions)’.108

In the Book of Viziers of Ibn ʿAbdū s [al-Jahshiyā rı̄ ], it is related that

Muhammad b. ʿAbd al-Malik [Ibn al-Zayyā t] (d. 233/847),109 vizier of
˙
al-Muʿtasim (r. 218–27/833–42) and al-Wā thiq (r. 227–32/842–7), was
˙
reading a document one day before al-Wā thiq, so that the caliph could
attest to his approval of it. When he had reached the point that mentioned
the caliph’s soundness in mind and body, and the concomitant lawfulness
of his commands for or against a person, Abū l-Walı̄ d [Muhammad]
˙
b. Ahmad Ibn Abı̄ Duʾā d (d. 239/854)110 said, ‘Is it proper that the
˙
caliph be spoken of in this manner?’ Muhammad replied, ‘What’s the
˙
cause of your objection? Is there anything else that could be written in
these kinds of documents?’ Abū l-Walı̄ d said, ‘There should be
a difference between the caliph and the common people in everything.’
Al-Wā thiq turned to him and said, ‘How then should it be written?’ Abū
l-Walı̄ d replied that a better formulation would read: ‘According to the
health of his body, the loftiness of his judgement and the divinely given
success of his Lord.’ Muhammad was embarrassed, and al-Wā thiq
˙
ordered that Abū l-Walı̄ d receive a hundred thousand dinars.111
It is related from ʿUbayd Allā h b. Sulaymā n [b. Wahb] (226–88/840–
901), concerning a document written on behalf of al-Muʿtadid (r. 289–
˙
95/902–8), that this caliph also disliked this kind of phrasing, and that he
had it replaced with the formula ‘in the health of his body and the
accuracy of his judgement’.112

110
Abū l-Walı̄ d was a son of Abū ʿAbdallā h Ahmad Ibn Abı̄ Duʾā d (160–240/776 or 777–
˙
854), who had advised al-Maʾmū n and was appointed Chief Judge by al-Muʿtasim. Ibn
˙
Abı̄ Duʾā d, a prominent Muʿtazilite, was closely identified with the prosecution of the
mihna (the ninth-century caliphal initiative to impose upon religious specialists the
˙
doctrine of the created Qurʾan), and he played a major role in shaping aspects of the
ninth-century Abbasid state until his dismissal in 237/851–2 (Turner, ‘Ahmad b. Abı̄
˙
Duʾā d’). Abū l-Walı̄ d, a prolific author in the field of jurisprudence, was appointed to the
judgeship during his father’s lifetime and predeceased his father by less than a month
(Ibn al-Nadı̄ m, al-Fihrist, I: ii: 590; al-Khatı̄ b al-Baghdā dı̄ , Taʾrı̄ kh Baghdā d, II: 129–33,
˙
no. 113; al-Safadı̄ , al-Wā fı̄ bi-l-wafayā t, II: 25–6, no. 293).
˙
111
This section of al-Jahshiyā rı̄ ’s work has been lost (see above, n. 104). On the involve-
ments of Ibn al-Zayyā t and Ibn Abı̄ Duʾā d in the political life of their times, as well as
their interactions with one another, see Kennedy, When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim
World, 200–42.
112
ʿUbayd Allā h b. Sulaymā n b. Wahb was the last vizier under al-Muʿtamid (r. 256–
79/870–92) and vizier under al-Muʿtadid (r. 279–89/892–902) until his own death in
˙
288/901. See Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, 181–2, 185, 191;
Bosworth, ‘Wahb’; al-Ziriklı̄ , al-Aʿyā n, IV: 194.

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

When Muhammad b. ʿAbd al-Malik [Ibn al-Zayyā t] needed the cali-

˙
phal seal, in order to seal documents and other items, he would call for it.
When his eye fell upon it, it being in a golden receptacle specially
fashioned for it and wrapped in silk, he would rise in its honour and
advance towards it with a few steps; then he would remove it from its
wrapping and kiss it. He would use it to seal whatever he wished, and
then he would return it to its place and surrender it to the treasurer
responsible for it. He would escort it for a few steps until it disappeared
from his vision; and he behaved in this manner out of reverence and high
esteem for the caliphal seal.
It is related that ʿUthmā n b. ʿAffā n used to say, ‘I have not touched my
private parts with my right hand since I paid allegiance with that hand to
the Prophet.’113
I heard from my grandfather, Abū ʿAlı̄ l-Thaʿā libı̄ , that Nasr b. T. al-
˙ ˙
Sharā bı̄ used to say:114
I have not touched any fatty substance since the Commander of the
Faithful appointed me to oversee his wine cellar. He demanded my
complete attention in this matter and singled me out for his particu-
lar service, until he departed to join his Lord.
I asked him: ‘How then did you manage to consume broth (maraq) and
meats?’ He said: ‘With spoons and bā rijiyyā t;115 and sometimes I might
be fed, if no spoon were available.’
I heard Abū Nasr b. Abı̄ Zayd say that at the tables of the Samanid
˙
kings, when rice pudding (rice with laban) was brought, it was the custom
that everyone would partake of it with a golden spoon. On one occasion,
various provincial kings (mulū k al-atrā f) were present at the table of al-
˙
Amı̄ r al-Saʿı̄ d [Nasr b. Ahmad, r. 301–31/914–43] (or perhaps he said it
˙ ˙
was the table of al-Amı̄ r al-Hamı̄ d [Nū h b. Nasr, r. 331–43/943–54]).
˙ ˙ ˙
One of these vassal kings was Abū Saʿı̄ d Ahmad b. Muhammad b. ʿIrā q.
˙ ˙
When the rice dish was brought, everyone was given a golden spoon as

113
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Khā ss al-khā ss, 75.
˙˙ ˙˙
114
Al-ʿAtiyya’s printed text reads T.zz; Topuzoğ lu suggests Turā (Topuzoğ lu, ‘Kitā b Ā dā b
˙ ̄ k’ (1974), 20, 255; Topuzoğ
al-Mulu ˙ lu, Kitā b Ādā b al-Mulū˙ k (2015), 22). The individual
to whom al-Thaʿā libı̄ refers is probably the Nasr-i Sharā b-dā r who, at the behest of the
˙
Samanid al-Amı̄ r al-Hamı̄ d, conducted the mourning ceremonies for Abū l-Muzaffar
˙ ˙
b. Abı̄ ʿAlı̄ Ahmad Chaghā nı̄ (Gardı̄ zı̄ , Zayn al-akhbā r, 230 = Bosworth, Ornament of
˙
Histories, 64).
115
The meaning of the word reproduced in transliteration is uncertain; in the context,
‘scoops’ is a possible conjecture.

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 Part II Texts

usual. All the guests took their spoons and began using them, except for
Abū Saʿı̄ d. He picked up his spoon and put it down in front of him. When
the assembly rose from the table, the king ordered that Abū Saʿı̄ d be
asked the cause of his abstention from using the spoon in the manner of
his peers. He said, ‘I did not wish to place a spoon in my mouth, and then
place it in the bowl at the king’s table.’ This much-admired example
points to Abū Saʿı̄ d’s excellent manners; and the custom of using spoons
at table was suspended on his account.116

Text 3
Al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar
wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar. Opening to ˙Part II
117

˙
Translator’s Introduction
This extract comprises the opening section of part II of al-Mā wardı̄ ’s
mirror. While part I dealt with the ethical qualities necessary in the ruler
(akhlā q al-malik) (see below, Text 7), part II is dedicated to ‘the govern-
ance of the kingdom’ (siyā sat al-mulk). In it, al-Mā wardı̄ examines theor-
etical treatments of the foundations of the state and details the ruler’s
practical responsibilities. The section opens with a discussion of religion,
which al-Mā wardı̄ presents as an essential precondition for governance.
More than any other factor, religion, in al-Mā wardı̄ ’s presentation, pro-
motes consensus and trust; it is essential to the creation and maintenance of
social cohesion and political stability. Throughout this section, al-Mā wardı̄
stresses the interdependence of religion and sovereignty, with the former
taking priority over the latter. Like Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , he emphasises the
ruler’s moral obligations – his responsibility for his moral burden – and the
standard against which he will be judged. He begins with the example of
David, prophet and king, divinely appointed and called upon to enact
justice. The theme of reciprocity is more marked than in al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s
presentation of the royal office in the preceding extract (Text 2).

116
This Abū Nasr b. Abı̄ Zayd is probably the individual to whom Abū l-Fadl al-Hamadhā nı̄
˙ ˙
addressed a composition, cited in al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Yatı̄ mat al-dahr, IV: 299–300.
117
Translation prepared from al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar, ed. Ridwā n al-
˙ ˙ ˙
Sayyid (Beirut: Dā r al-ʿUlū m al-ʿArabiyya, 1987), 197–202. For the corresponding section
in Abbè s’s translation into French, see Makram Abbè s, Al-Mā wardı̄ . De l’É thique du prince et
du gouvernement de l’état (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2015), 355–65.

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

Translation
The Chief Judge [al-Mā wardı̄ ], may God have mercy upon him, has said:
The person whom God Almighty has placed in power over His earth
and in His lands, and to whom He has entrusted His creatures and His
servants, is under an obligation to respond to this bounty with goodness
of heart and, among the subjects, good conduct. God Almighty has said:
O David: We have made you a deputy (khalı̄ fa) on the earth. Judge
fairly, then, among the people; and do not follow your passion (Q 38:
26).
He has also said:
Do not forget your share (nası̄ b) in this world. Do good, as God has
˙
done good to you (Q 28: 77).
It is reported from the Prophet, may peace be upon him, that he said:
He who conducts himself well among his companions will reap the
reward for his own good behaviour, as well as for the good conduct of
the people who follow his example, until the Day of Judgement,
without any of his recompense being diminished. He whose conduct
among his companions is bad will carry the burden of this conduct
and the burdens of those who behave likewise, until the Day of the
Last Judgement, without any decrease in these burdens.118

It is narrated from ʿUmar [b. al-Khattā b] (r. 13–23/634–44), may God be

˙˙
pleased with him, that he said:
If a single lamb goes astray along the banks of the Euphrates, I fear
that God will interrogate me over it.119
It is related that ʿUthmā n b. ʿAbdallā h appeared before the judge [Abū
ʿAbdallā h] Muhammad Ibn Samā ʿa (d. 233/847–8); the latter was in his
˙
court, where he was adjudicating the cases that the people brought before
him. ʿUthmā n said: ‘Listen well, Ibn Samā ʿa – for you have not listened!’
Then he recited:

118
Muslim, Sahı̄ h, VII: 142–5, Kitā b al-Zakā t, ch. 20, no. 69; al-Tirmidhı̄ , al-Jā miʿ al-
˙ ˙˙
kabı̄ r, IV: 407–8, Abwā b al-ʿilm, ch. 15, no. 2675; al-Nasā ʾı̄ , Sunan, 347, Kitā b al-Zakā t,
ch. 64, no. 2554. See also above, n. 91.
119
Abū Nuʿaym al-Isfahā nı̄ , Hilyat al-awliyā ʾ, I: 52–3. Cf. Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, part
˙ ˙ ˙˙
I, 24 = Bagley, Ghazā lı̄ ’s Book of Counsel for Kings, 18; Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k,
16 = Darke, Book of Government, 12–13. ˙

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 Part II Texts

Miserable wretch, you are charged with an authority

That causes the hearts of the fearful to tremble.
Remember that the Lord of the Throne is a Judge,
As you judge among the creatures of the world.
Ibn Samā ʿa rose from his court with tears streaming down his cheeks.120
There is no one for whom caution, solicitude, effort and exertion
(ijtihā d) are more appropriate and more fitting than the person charged
with responsibility for the affairs of the subjects.121 The subjects are
a trust, responsibility for whom God has consigned to this individual;
they are His flock, and He has established this person, the ruler, as their
shepherd. God has appointed the ruler over the subjects’ affairs, and it is
God Almighty who will question him concerning them. For He, may He
be praised, has deprived the subjects of the means to resist the ruler’s
actions. He has obstructed their tongues from rejection of whatever by
his individual reasoning (ijtihā d) the ruler sees fit to do. God has com-
pelled the subjects to obey this person; He has obligated them to follow
the ruler’s decrees and commanded them to proceed in accordance with
his orders and prohibitions. For God has said, ‘O you who believe: Obey
God, obey the Messenger and those in authority among you’ (Q 4: 59).
God has made the welfare (salā h) of the subjects in their entirety
˙ ˙
contingent upon the ruler’s well-being, and the corruption (fasā d) of
their affairs a corollary of his corruption. He is the heart, and they are the
limbs; he is the pole and they the flanks. An intelligent person said: ‘The

120
Ibn Samā ʿa was a prominent judge in Baghdad. He composed a number of books on
judicial matters; see Ibn al-Nadı̄ m, Fihrist, II: i: 26; al-Dhahabı̄ , Siyar aʿlā m al-nubalā ʾ,
X: 646–7 (no. 228); al-Safadı̄ , al-Wā fı̄ bi-l-wafayā t, III: 116, no. 1086.
˙
121
The term ijtihā d denotes effort in a general sense, but in the field of jurisprudence it also
carries the technical meaning of independent reasoning or judgement, that is, individual
legal interpretation. It is consistent with his respect for the resources of human reason
that al-Mā wardı̄ appears to have endorsed the qualified exercise of independent reason-
ing; see Schneider, ‘Vernunft oder Tradition?’, esp. 72–3.
122
Ascribed to Ardashı̄ r in ʿAhd Ardashı̄ r, 53; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Iʿjā z wa-l-ı̄ jā z, 62, no. 34; al-
Thaʿā libı̄ , Ghurar al-siyar, 483. For variants, see al-Masʿū dı̄ , Murū j al-dhahab, I: 298
(salā h amr al-raʿiyya ansar min kathrat al-junū d wa-ʿadl al-malik anfaʿ min khisb al-
˙ ˙ n, attributed to Anu˙̄ shı̄ rvā n); Ibn al-Haddā d, al-Jawhar al-nafı̄ s, 67 (ʿadl al-sult
zamā ˙ ā n
˙ ˙
anfaʿ lil-raʿiyya min khisb al-zamā n, inscribed on Anū shı̄ rvā n’s seal); Ibn Qutayba,
˙
ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 5 (ʿadl al-sultā n anfaʿ lil-raʿiyya min khisb al-zamā n, attributed to
˙ ˙
‘the ancient philosophers’ (al-hukamā ʾ)); Sirr al-asrā r, in al-Usū l al-yū nā niyya, 125; al-
˙ ˙
Tawhı̄ dı̄ , al-Imtā ʿ, II: 259; al-Rā ghib al-Isfahā nı̄ , Muhā darā t al-udabā ʾ, I: 169 (attrib-
˙ ̄ ˙ ˙ ˙
uted to ʿAmr b. al-ʿAs) and I: 163 (without attribution); al-Ibshı̄ hı̄ , al-Mustatraf, I: 228
(unattributed). ˙ ˙

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

integrity of the ruler (rashā d al-wā lı̄ ) is better than a time of plenty (khisb
˙
al-zamā n).’122
The ruler of greatest integrity (arshad al-wulā t) is he through whose
authority religion is well protected and through whose attention the well-
being of the Muslims is regulated. Religion ensures the goodness of our
hearts’ secrets; it prevents the commission of sins, induces godliness and
equal sharing, and promotes concord and mutual affection. These things
constitute foundations without which the world cannot prosper; nor can
humanity attain the right path without them. Power is merely a device123
for the maintaining of these foundations, and it provides an incentive
to act in accordance with them. If the people were to be neglected – given
the attraction of the promptings of appetite and the appeal of differences
in opinion – then they would produce disorder and strife, since truth
could not be known from falsehood, and the correct would not be
distinguishable from the corrupt. Reason lacks the capacity to unite
people within an order in which the strong and the weak, and the noble
and the ordinary, are equal. For this reason, the people’s best interests
(masā lih) lie in a religion that leads them towards communal unity and
˙ ˙
agreement in their points of view. With religion, the strife among the
people will cease, the grounds for their different objectives and disagree-
ments will be removed, their innermost hearts will be restored to well-
being and their trust will be protected.
It has happened that kings have neglected religion and relied in their
affairs on their ability to use force and the sheer numbers of their troops.
This kind of king does not realise that if his troops are not convinced, on
religious grounds, of their duty of obedience to him, they can become
more harmful to him than any other adversary, since they may demand of
him things that he does not support, and they may induce him to take steps
that undermine his position. If they hear of a credible contender against
him, their desire to despoil him of his possessions will grow stronger, and
the task of maintaining his position will hold no satisfaction for them. The
ruler will find himself, in relation to his troops, on the edge of a fragile
precipice, with no security against their assault. It has been said:

123
Literally a rein or bridle (zimā m); the implied metaphor of control of an animal for
reason’s control of the passions or the ruler’s control of an unruly populace features
frequently (see above, n. 6).
Footnote Citation Not Occurs in Current/Previous page124 The phrase echoes a frequently
cited passage in Sirr al-asrā r
(see al-Usū l al-yū nā niyya, 77);
˙

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 Part II Texts

The ruler who makes his sovereignty a servant to his religion will
find that all power yields to him; whereas the ruler who makes his
religion a servant to his sovereignty will find that every human being
will desire it.124

Section
It befits the king to reject the possibility that his subjects might include
any person more excellent in religion than he is, just as he would reject
the notion that there should be anyone whose command might be more
effective than his. Ardashı̄ r b. Bā bak said in his Testament to the kings of
Persia:
Religion and sovereignty are twins; neither one of them endures
without the other. Religion is the foundation, and sovereignty is the
guardian. Sovereignty cannot dispense with its foundation, and the
foundation cannot survive without its guardian; for whatever lacks
a guardian falls into ruin, and whatever lacks a foundation inevitably
collapses.125

The Greek philosopher (hakı̄ m al-rū m) wrote to Alexander:

˙
Defend your religion with your sovereignty; do not defend your
sovereignty with your religion. Make your life in this world your

cf. below, n. 126. Pseudo-

Mā wardı̄ reports having read
in Aristotle’s epistle to
Alexander, ‘The king who
puts his sovereignty in the ser-
vice of his religion is deserving
of leadership; as for the king
who puts his religion in the
service of his sovereignty, in
his case, sovereignty is
a calamity’ (Nası̄ hat al-mulū k
˙˙
al-mansū b ilā . . . al-Mā wardı̄ ,
109). The same version
appears amongst the hikam
˙
and ā dā b of Aristotle in al-
Mubashshir b. Fā tik, Mukhtā r
al-hikam, 192. See also, with-
˙
out definite attribution, Usā ma
b. Munqidh, Lubā b al-ā dā b,
54.
125
A celebrated formula: ʿAhd Ardashı̄ r, 53, 97; Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 23;
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 5, 13; Kitā b al-Tā j, 3; al-ʿĀ mirı̄ , al-Iʿlā m bi-manā qib

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

protection for the hereafter; do not make the hereafter your protec-
tion for your life in this world.126

How can the king who manifestly neglects religion hope for stability in
his sovereignty and for a state of well-being? The supporters of his turn
in power (aʿwā n dawlatihi) will become his opponents, and the rest of his
subjects will turn into his enemies – in addition to the ugly impact of his
rule and the extreme harm that he will have wrought. In this vein the
Prophet, upon him be peace, said:
You will covet command, yet it will become an affliction and a regret
on the Day of Resurrection; the wet-nurse [the life of this world]
may be bountiful, but the weaned infant [the hereafter] is
miserable.127

It has also been said:

The king is God’s deputy (khalı̄ fat Allā h) in His lands; his deputy-
ship will never attain stability if he opposes Him.128

The fortunate ruler is he who safeguards his religion with his sover-
eignty, rather than seeking to protect his sovereignty with his religion.
This ruler enlivens established practices with his justice; he does not
abolish a sound custom with his injustice. He guards the subjects through
his beneficial administration; he does not suppress them by ruination. In
this fashion, the pillars of his sovereignty profit from a ruler who
maintains their solidity, the foundation of his state benefits from
a person who keeps it standing firm and the divine command flourishes

127
Al-Bukhā rı̄ , Sahı̄ h, IV: 529, Kitā b al-Ahkā m, ch. 7, no. 7148; al-Nasā ʾı̄ , Sunan, 574,
˙ ˙˙ ˙
Kitā b al-Bayʿa, ch. 39, no. 4211; Kitā b Ādā b al-qudā t, 715, no. 5385.
128 ˙
This statement involves a play on the various connotations of the root kh-l-f: certain
words derived from kh-l-f denote deputyship and succession; other words connote
opposition. On the concept and title khalı̄ fat Allā h, with principal reference to the
Umayyad and early Abbasid periods, see Crone and Hinds, God’s Caliph; for responses
to and refinements of their arguments, see Rubin, ‘Prophets and Caliphs’, and Alajmi,
‘Ascribed vs. Popular Legitimacy’. The term became an established element in political
discourse; for example, the caliph al-Mansū r, preaching in Mecca, announced himself
˙
‘God’s sultā n on His earth’ (sultā n Allā h fı̄ ardihi, al-Ā bı̄ , Nathr al-durr, II: 64). The
axiomatic ˙status that the formula ˙ had attained˙ by the period in which al-Mā wardı̄ , as
suggested by his use of the passive voice, wrote is confirmed by Usā ma b. Munqidh, who
relates, on the authority of al-hakı̄ m and al-hukamā ʾ, the formula al-sultā n khalı̄ fat Allā h
˙ ˙ ˙
fı̄ ardihi (Lubā b al-ā dā b, 58, 72). Writing in the first half of the eleventh century, al-
˙
Mā wardı̄ presents the formula less as an assertion of the ruler’s divine mandate than as an
injunction upon him to govern in accordance with the demands of religion. See further
Abbè s, De l’É thique du prince, 359, n. 12.

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 Part II Texts

in his lands by virtue of an individual who follows it in complete

obedience. God will never separate the upholding of religion from the
governance of the realm and the careful management of the subjects.

Text 4
Ghazā lı̄ , Pseudo-Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k.
Part II, Chapter One ˙˙ 129

Translator’s Introduction
This selection constitutes the opening section of the work traditionally
received as part II of the Persian Nası̄ hat al-mulū k of or attributed to Abū
˙˙
Hā mid Ghazā lı̄ . The premise of this section, as its author makes plain in his
˙
opening sentences, is the unparalleled stature of kings among human beings
and their exceptional place in the divine plan; kings enjoy divine favour and
represent a manifestation of divine wisdom (hikmat). The section offers an
˙
unqualified statement of the unique cosmic position of kings, and their
qualitative otherness from other human beings (the notion of farr-i ı̄ zadı̄ ,
the ‘divine aura’, evokes a divine marking of kings, a sign of their divine
mandate).130 Recalling the treatment of al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Pseudo-Ghazā lı̄ ’s por-
trayal of the royal office is also reminiscent, to a degree, of the representation
of Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ in the opening passages of Text 1; both authors, to
convey the exceptional status of kings, employ the concept of fadl (Persian
˙
fażl).131 But whereas Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ rapidly turns his focus to the moral
obligation that this divinely awarded status imposes upon kings, and the
consequences to kings and to their subjects if they fail to meet it, Pseudo-
Ghazā lı̄ , in a manner more reminiscent of al-Thaʿā libı̄ , asserts the subjects’
unqualified duty not only to obey kings but to love them. Pseudo-Ghazā lı̄
cites Qurʾanic verses and Prophetic materials (as he understood them), and in
addition, he turns to the copious Iranian cultural repertoire for his exemplars
129
Translation prepared from Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, ed. Jalā l al-Dı̄ n Humā ʾı̄ (Tehran:
˙˙
Kitā bkhā neh-yi Millı̄ , 1972), 81–4. For the corresponding section in Bagley’s translation, see
F. R. C. Bagley, Ghazā lı̄ ’s Book of Counsel for Kings (London: Oxford University Press,
1964), 45–7; and for the corresponding section in the Arabic translation, see al-Tibr al-
masbū k fı̄ nası̄ hat al-mulū k, ed. Muhammad Ahmad Damaj (Beirut: Muʾassasat ʿIzz al-Dı̄ n
˙˙ ˙ ˙
lil-Tibā ʿa wa-l-Nashr, 1996), 147–50.
130 ˙
See section 3.4, at n. 42, section 3.7, at n. 65, and below, n. 133.
131
Compare the discussion of tafdı̄ l in Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, in the opening
section of Text 1. ˙ ˙˙

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

of royal justice; an exposition of Iran’s pre-Islamic kings, according to this

tradition, follows the section presented in this extract. (Pseudo-)Ghazā lı̄
locates the principal duty of kings in the maintenance of justice, but he leaves
no room for the implication that the subjects’ duty of obedience lapses in the
case of royal injustice.

Translation
Chapter One: On the Justice, Governance and Conduct of Kings
Know and remain mindful of the fact that God Almighty has chosen two
groups from among humankind, and that He has preferred (fażl nihā d) these
two groups over others: one of these groups is prophets, the other kings. As
for prophets, He sent them to His bondsmen, so that they might show them
the path to Him. He chose kings so that they would preserve human beings
from one another, and, in His wisdom (hikmat), He bound humanity’s well-
˙
being (maslahat) in life to kings. He has awarded kings a great station: as you
˙ ˙
will hear in the traditional reports, ‘The sultā n is the shadow of God on earth’
˙
(Ar.), that is, the sultā n is the shadow of God’s majesty (haybat) on the face of
132 ˙
the earth. This means that the king’s position is grand; he is appointed by
God over His creation. Accordingly, it should be understood that the person
to whom God has given kingship and divine charisma (farr-i ı̄ zadı̄ ) must be
held dear, and that kings must be followed.133 There should be no dispute
with kings, nor hostility towards them. For God Almighty has said: ‘Obey
God, obey the Messenger and those in authority among you’ (Q 4: 59). The
interpretation (tafsı̄ r) of this verse is, ‘Be obedient to God, to the prophets and
to your rulers (amı̄ rā n-i khvı̄ sh)’. Accordingly, everyone to whom God has
given religion should hold kings in affection and obey them, in the knowledge
that it is God who has given them this kingship, and that He gives it as He
wishes; for He has said, ‘Say, O God, Owner of Sovereignty, You bestow
kingship on whom You will, and You take kingship away from whom You

132
This last sequence consists of the author’s quotation of the Arabic formula with his
Persian paraphrase. The phrase dar akhbā r connotes derivation from a corpus of trans-
mitted accounts, without reference to a specific source; see the discussion of the
connotations of khabar (pl. akhbā r) in Bagley, ‘Introduction’, lvii.
133
The term farr-i ı̄ zadı̄ appears again at Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, 127 = Bagley, Ghazā lı̄ ’s
˙˙
Book of Counsel for Kings, 74; in this second instance, the author lists sixteen signs that
indicate the presence of the divine charisma (127–8). The farr, a development of an
ancient Iranian concept, signifies possession of the divine mandate (see Gnoli,
‘Farr(ah)’); see also section 3.4 and its n. 42.

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 Part II Texts

will; You raise up whom You will and cast down whom You will, by Your
good hand; for You are capable of all things’ (Q 3: 26); that is, He said that
God Almighty is the King of all kings, and that He gives kingship to
whomever He wishes; He makes one person great through His favour
(fażl); another person He humbles through His justice (ʿadl).134 The sultā n,
˙
in truth, is he who performs justice among God’s bondsmen and does not
enact injustice and corruption; for an unjust sultā n is inauspicious, and he will
˙
not endure: as the Prophet, God’s peace be upon him, said, ‘Sovereignty
endures with unbelief, but it does not endure with tyranny’ (Ar.).135
In the chronicles it is recorded that for four thousand years the
Magians held this world, and the kingdom (mamlakat) was held in their
familial house.136 The reason that their sovereignty lasted was that they
upheld justice among the subjects and looked after them. In their religion
(kı̄ sh) they did not permit injustice or oppression, and they made the
world prosperous through justice and equity. It is reported that God
Almighty inspired (vahy kard) the prophet David to instruct his people
˙
not to speak ill of the Persians (ʿajam), ‘since they were the people who
made the world prosperous so that My bondsmen might live in it’.137
It must also be known that the prosperity and ruin of the world stem
from kings, for if the king is just, the world becomes prosperous and the
subjects are secure – as was the case in the time of Ardashı̄ r, Farı̄ dū n,

134
These clauses represent the author’s Persian paraphrase of the preceding Qurʾanic verse.
135
The author provides neither translation nor paraphrase of this Arabic maxim, which he
presents as Prophetic. The saying appears without attribution in al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Tamthı̄ l
wa-l-muhā dara, 95, and it is adduced on the authority of ‘the great men of religion’
˙ ˙
(buzurgā n-i dı̄ n) in Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k, 15. The maxim articulates the
˙
common association of select rulers of the jā hiliyya with exemplary justice (most notably,
the name of Anū shı̄ rvā n became inseparable from justice (see above, n. 86)).
136
Magians (mughā n) (Ar. majū s) or Zoroastrians, an allusion to the pre-Islamic rulers of
Iran; the mention of four thousand years and the familial house (khā ndā n) (in the
singular) implies a continuity from the primordial (legendary) Pı̄ shdā diyā n, through
the legendary Kayā niyā n, the Ashkā niyā n (Arsacids or Parthians), to the fully historical
Sasanian dynasty (see further below, n. 139).
137
The introductory formula again reads dar khabar ā madeh ast (82); see above, n. 132. In
this context, the term ʿajam, in other cases denoting non-Arabs in general, refers
specifically to Persians. The report recalls a similar account in the Thimā r al-qulū b of al-
Thaʿā libı̄ , according to which one of the prophets (unidentified) appealed to God, asking
‘O Lord! Why have You given [this gift of kingship] to the Khusraws (akā sira)?’ God, by
way of inspiration (wahy), responded, ‘Because they have made My lands prosperous
˙
(ʿammarū bilā dı̄ ) so that My servants can live in them’ (Thimā r al-qulū b, 179, no. 255).
Footnote Citation Not Occurs in Current/Previous page138 The adage expounded in this
passage appears in Ibn Abı̄
Dharr, al-Saʿā da wa-l-isʿā d,

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

Bahrā m-i Gū r and Khusraw Anū shı̄ rvā n. Conversely, when the king is
oppressive, the world falls into ruin – as was the case in the time of
Żahhā k, Afrā siyā b, Yazdagird the Sinner and other kings like them.138
˙˙
Lest anyone should find it difficult to accept this proposition, and
should say, ‘It can’t be true that in the four thousand years that the
Magians possessed the world, every one of them governed with justice,
and that they never countenanced injustice or oppression’ – we shall
make plain the condition of these kings, the length of their reigns, the
nature of their lives and conduct, every king separately. We shall describe
how each king lived and how he treated his subjects, so that whenever
anyone reads this account, he will be relieved of his doubts.139

Text 5
Al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k. Chapter Nine 140

˙ ˙
Translator’s Introduction
The final extract in this chapter sums up many of the themes introduced
in the previous selections. As the latest author among the mirror-writers
presented in this volume, al-Turtū shı̄ inherited the thinking of his
˙ ˙
predecessors and was able to integrate and synthesise a remarkably wide-

207 (ascribed to Anū shı̄ rvā n);

al-Ibshı̄ hı̄ , al-Mustatraf, I: 231
˙
(ascribed to al-Walı̄ d
b. Hishā m). Ardashı̄ r (=
Ardashı̄ r I, r. c. 224–40 or
242) was the founder of the
Sasanian dynasty, and the
putative ‘author’ of the
‘Testament of Ardashı̄ r’;
Farı̄ dū n is a legendary king of
the primordial period in
Iranian tradition;
Bahrā m-i Gū r is Bahrā m
V (r. 420–38) of the Sasanian
dynasty; Anū shı̄ rvā n is
Khusraw I (‘The Immortal
Souled’, r. 531–79). Żahhā k,
˙˙
who reportedly ruled for
a thousand years, is the
legendary wicked king of the
primordial era. Afrā siyā b is the

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 Part II Texts

ranging repertoire of ideas and texts. For example, in the opening section
of his ninth chapter, presented in Text 5, al-Turtū shı̄ integrates the
˙ ˙
metaphor of kingdom and body, the body politic, with the medieval
medical theory of the body’s humours. Al-Turtū shı̄ begins this ninth
˙ ˙
chapter with a series of analogies for the ruler and the subjects. Each of
his similitudes is drawn from the natural world: the ruler controls his
subjects as fire controls the fuel it consumes; the just ruler is a life-giving
rainfall or spring; the corrupt or unjust ruler poisons the water supply,
and thereby the vegetation and animal life that depend on it.141 Al-
Turtū shı̄ ’s likenesses assume his audience’s full grasp of the inter-
˙ ˙
dependence among the elements of the natural world and the dangers
of environmental pollution.

Translation
Chapter Nine: Explication of the Position of the Ruler (Sultā n)
˙
in Relation to the Subjects
Know that the position of the sultā n in relation to the subjects is the same
˙
as the position of the spirit (rū h) in relation to the body. If the spirit is
˙
pure of pollution, it will flow healthily to the limbs and throughout all the
parts of the body. The body will be protected against injury, the limbs
and senses will be sound and the body’s condition will be properly
ordered. If, on the other hand, the spirit is spoilt and its temperament

141
The likening of the king to rainfall and to fire is ancient and ubiquitous; see, for example,
Sirr al-asrar, 81 = 188; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k, 55–6; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Tamthı̄ l wa-
l-muhā dara, 95–6. See also below, Text 6.
˙ ˙
Footnote Citation Not Occurs in Current/Previous page142 This passage evokes the medical
philosophy, primarily associ-
ated with Galen and diffused
across ancient western Asia, of
the humours (akhlā t) and tem-
˙
peraments (amzija, sing. mizā j).
According to this philosophy,
the human body consists of an
intermixture of four elemental
humours, blood, phlegm, yel-
low bile and black bile, each of
which possesses two natures or
qualities, hot or cold and dry or
moist. Each humour was associ-
ated with one of the four sea-
sons, and with a ‘temperament’.

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 The Nature of Sovereignty

(mizā j) impaired, then alas for the body! For the spirit will spread
pollution into the senses and the limbs, and it will unsettle the equilib-
rium among them.142 Every limb and sense will succumb to its portion of
the spirit’s corruption: the limbs will weaken and collapse, the body’s
good order will become damaged, and it will pass towards decay and
perdition.143
In another analogy, the sultā n resembles fire and the people resemble
˙
wood. As long as the wood is straight, it does not require fire; if, however,
the wood is crooked, it needs fire to straighten its crookedness and to
rectify its curvature. If the fire is excessive, the wood will burn up before
its crookedness can be corrected; if the fire is insufficient, the wood will
remain impervious to straightening, and it will remain crooked. Only if
the fire is properly modulated will the wood become straight. The states
of the sultā n’s power resemble the states of the fire: if in his exercise of
˙
power the ruler is excessive, he will cause the people to perish; if his
power is deficient, they will not become straight; if his exercise of power
is balanced, the people too will perdure in equilibrium.
In another similitude, the ruler is like a gushing spring in the midst of
dry ground. If the spring’s water is fit to drink, its taste agreeable and its
properties free of contamination and decay, it will animate the earth, which
will absorb its purity and itself become purified. In this way the roots of the
trees will consume it and find nourishment in it. Their trunks will grow
sturdy, their branches will ramify and their twigs will spread. They will
produce leaves, bring forth flowers and drop their fruits, which will display
the perfect forms of their nature in size, taste, colour and smell. God’s
servants (human beings) will find nourishment in them, the animals and
insects will eat their share of them, birds will alight upon them, and each of
these creatures will obtain his sustenance from them. Order will be
maintained. If in the peripheral areas of the earth there is anywhere too
constrained to produce vegetation or to yield a profit, anywhere that
furnishes little zakā t and little revenue of any kind, or anywhere scarcely
fit to sustain trees that in any case provide virtually no income, the spring
will give of itself; it will bring assistance to the full extent of its capacity and
leave no possible channel untried.

In a healthy body, the four

humours co-exist in equilib-
rium, and sustain the distinctive
temperament (mizā j or tabʿ) of
˙

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 Part II Texts

If, however, the spring contains pollution, decay or salination, the

trees will absorb its water in that condition. Their natures will lose their
equilibrium; the corrupt part will harm the good, their trunks will
separate, their branches will weaken, their leaves will turn, their flowers
and fruits will become meagre. Corruption will settle into all these parts.
The trees’ yield will decrease to a negligible amount, their fruits will taste
unpleasant, and their colour will be dull. This deficiency will spread
among all the animals, just as in the former case the fruit’s beneficial
properties reached them. On this matter, the Prophet, God’s peace be
upon him, said: ‘The insects will die in their holes, wasting away because
of the sins of the Sons of Adam.’ That means, if humankind’s acts of
disobedience multiply in the earth, the sky will hold back its rain, the
earth will restrict its vegetation, and reptiles, insects and beasts of burden
will perish.

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 6

The King’s Person and Character

It is a common feature of the mirror literature that power and sovereignty

are identified with the king’s person. The king’s conduct established
a model, which his subjects would follow; as a result, the ruler’s actions
and behaviour, for better or worse, determined the nature of the polity.1
His righteous conduct would curb abuses on the part of his officials,
whereas corruption in the ruler would lead to corruption among his
subjects, a condition which would inevitably result, sooner or later, in his
defeat or overthrow. That the ruler should cultivate virtue was, therefore,
a pragmatic as well as a moral imperative. The mirror-writers insist on the
importance of self-discipline as a prerequisite for governance: if the king is
unable to govern himself, by controlling his immediate impulses and acting
only after reasoned reflection, he will be unable to govern anyone else. The
idea that until he has demonstrated mastery of himself the king is both
unfit and incapable of governing other people is an ancient one, common
also in the Byzantine and Carolingian mirror literatures.2 The injunction
to pursue moral excellence applies to all human beings, but specific
qualities are especially necessary in individuals who occupy specific social
positions; for kings in particular, certain virtues are conspicuously

1
For examples of this idea in the Carolingian mirror literature, see Falkowski, ‘The
Carolingian Speculum Principis’; Eberhardt, Via regia, 444–8, 606–7; and in the seven-
teenth-century German mirror literature, Mü ller, ‘Die deutschen Fü rstenspiegel des 17.
Jahrhunderts’, 576–7.
2
See ‘Letter of Themistius’, 36; cf. Dvornik, Early Christian and Byzantine Political
Philosophy, II: 540, 543, 668, 713, cited in Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought,
161, n. 80; for Carolingian examples, see Stone, ‘Kings are Different’, esp. 76, 81–2;
Nelson, ‘Kingship and Empire in the Carolingian World’, esp. 60; see also Hellerstedt,
‘Cracks in the Mirror’.

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 Part II Texts

essential.3 Although the mirror-writers vary in their presentations of the

necessary royal qualities, they emphasise reason, intellect, wisdom, justice,
generosity, courage, vigilance, forbearance, patience and clemency. Some
authors, such as Yū suf Khā ss Hā jib, insist on the quality of royal or noble
˙˙ ˙
birth. Some mirror-writers situate their moral instruction in a philosophical
presentation of human nature; the king, in this portrayal, is a human being,
no different from the subjects over whom he rules; like them, he possesses
the potential to develop virtues, some of which are innate or instinctive and
some of which must be acquired through discipline and determined practice.
Several strands of discourse – scriptural, philosophical, ethical – contributed
to the shaping of these discussions.4 Yet the singular responsibilities of the
royal office render the king’s duty to develop virtues and suppress vices more
urgent than the general human imperative to pursue moral improvement.
The three extracts in this chapter describe the virtuous and effective
king. They treat the ethical and philosophical problems of human nature,
virtues and vices, how to strengthen, acquire and practise the former and
how to overcome and eradicate the latter. They evoke overlapping but
also contrasting conceptual frameworks for these problems.

Text 6
Yū suf Khā ss Hā jib, Kutadgu bilig.
˙˙ ˙
The Qualifications of a Prince5

Introduction
In contrast to the other mirrors discussed in this volume, Kutadgu bilig
(written in Kashghar in 462/1069–70) is composed in verse.

3
Cf. Vasalou, Virtues of Greatness, 68.
4
Notable contributions to the formation of the Arabic discipline of moral philosophy, ʿilm al-
akhlā q, include Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, the contents of which
were well known among philosophers writing in Arabic from the ninth century. The earliest
ethical treatises in Arabic, such as the Tahdhı̄ b al-akhlā q of Miskawayh (d. 421/1030),
address the cultivation of virtue in the individual; later philosophers, notably Fakhr al-Dı̄ n
al-Rā zı̄ (543–606/1149–1209) (Jā miʿ al-ʿulū m, chapters 55, 56, 57, pp. 458–75) and Nası̄ r
˙
al-Dı̄ n Tū sı̄ (597–672/1201–74), added treatments of household management and govern-
˙
ance, to make up the three branches of practical philosophy (al-hikma al-ʿamaliyya) of ethics,
˙
politics and economics (see further Vasalou, Virtues of Greatness; and above, Chapter 1).
5
From Robert Dankoff, Wisdom of Royal Glory (Kutadgu bilig) (Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 1983), 103–11, ll. 1921–2180. Republished with permission of the

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 The King’s Person and Character

Furthermore, unique among the mirrors represented here, the poem’s

central text constitutes an allegory, in which qualities, principles, func-
tions and occupations appear in personified forms. The extract offered in
Text 6 consists of a dialogue, a session of instruction, between the king
Rising Sun (a personification of justice) and the sage Highly Praised (a
personification of intellect or wisdom). Although adduced anonymously,
the quatrains and verses that appear are almost certainly Yū suf’s own
compositions.6 Affirming the principle of the divine mandate, the section
offers a description of the qualifications and qualities necessary for the
royal office. Yū suf emphasises a combination of, on the one hand, innate
and hereditary qualities and, on the other hand, virtues that the prince
should cultivate through training, discipline and will. He draws a sharp
distinction between the military and the common people, the latter
comprising the productive groups who generate the revenue on which
the ruler depends to maintain his army. This binary, in keeping with the
model of governance articulated in the ubiquitous ‘circle of justice’,
underlies Yū suf’s treatment of kingship.7 The king’s relationships with
the two sections of the population are different, his need for the former
immediate and direct, his need for the latter indirect but fundamental.8
The two constituencies are interrelated in their relevance to royal
power, and it is the ruler’s responsibility, also the necessary underpin-
ning of his rule, to acknowledge the respective claims of each.

Translation
The Qualifications of a Prince
The king said:
“Now this is what I had to ask. God created mankind, some great,
some small, some with a bad name, some a good; there are wise and
foolish, poor and rich, intelligent and ignorant, wicked and
virtuous.

University of Chicago Press from Robert Dankoff, Wisdom of Royal Glory (Kutadgu bilig),
© 1983 by The University of Chicago; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance
Center, Inc. The section corresponds to chapter XXVIII in Arat’s edition, Kutadgu Bilig,
I: 210–33. The footnotes that appear in Text 6 are the present author’s additions.
6
Dankoff, Wisdom of Royal Glory, 10. In contrast, Kaykā ʾū s, who also incorporates his own
verses, in many instances explicitly identifies himself as their author (see below, Text 8).
7 8
See further below, Text 9. See Chapter 1, n. 6, and section 2.1, n. 10.

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 Part II Texts

“Of what sort should be the prince, who is at the head of all these?
How should he conduct his affairs so that his realm will prosper, his
people grow rich, and his name be glorified when he passes on; so
that he will lay up treasure of silver and precious stuffs; that he may
crush the neck of the foe, and remove civil strife; so that he can
muster troops effectively, and dispense justice equitably; so that his
name will spread abroad, and his Glory [kut] daily increase; that he
˙
may live contented and enjoy a long reign, and, when his life is cut
off, enjoy the next world too?”
Highly Praised replied:
“This is a difficult question indeed. Only princes know what it is to
be a prince. Law and custom and protocol derive from them. They
are born for princely rule, and they study how to do it well. When
God gives someone princely rule He gives him the mind and heart
corresponding to the task. When God wishes to create a prince, He
first gives him the proper character and mentality, wing and feather
both. Rule is the business of princes, and only royal persons know
how to perform it. The king knows this business better than I: his
father was a prince, and so is he.”
The king said:
“Your words are true, and fragrant as musk. Still, the man who
performs a task simply performs it, while one who observes knows its
virtues and defects. I am the performer, you the observer; and the
performer can learn something from the observer. Now God has
given you a good mind, and you have grown intelligent and sage.
Also you have served me since you were very young, and have
learned by observation what good government is. You understand
the essence of every matter. And you have been loyal to me, both in
word and deed. A man can ask advice of one who is loyal to him, for
the loyal one will ransom his soul for that man. I can trust in your
answer because of your loyalty. Speak then out of your loyalty, for
loyalty is the head of humanity; as the poet says:
Praise the man who is true to you,
Keep him close to your heart;
If you find a loyal man,
Never let him part.”
Highly Praised answered:
“May the king live long in health and power!

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 The King’s Person and Character

“The first requirement for being a prince is noble birth; (then

he will be) a marksman brave, hardy and strong, with a solid heart.
If the father is a prince, then the son is born a prince, just like his
father before him.
“Then he must be intelligent and wise, generous and virtuous.
With wisdom the prince must rule the people, and with intellect
govern the realm. In fact the words for ‘wisdom’ (bilig) and ‘prince’
(beg) are connected: take away the l from bilig and this leaves beg. He
needs to have a good mind because he will have many foes. A sage
experienced in this regard has said:
Wise and wakeful a prince must be
To ward off all calamity;
Of myriad virtues, of vices few,
To hold his name and keep his hue.
“All of Adam’s sons are of noble parentage, but the choicest of all are
the wise. One who comes from good seed will be wellborn, and so will
rise to the place of honor. Favored of heaven is princely rule: it wants
purity and along with purity it wants vigilance in the realm. The
choicest of the people must be a marksman, brave; he must be bold to
deal with mighty matters. Hear the mature words spoken by the Prince
of Ötü ken on this subject: The prince of the people must be the choicest
among them, his heart and tongue upright, his character outstanding;
wise and generous, with full eye and heart; his heart extended toward
every good; modest, graceful, and even tempered. Such a one is fit to be
prince, and from him will come good seed in turn.9
“A man must undertake a task with wisdom, and apply intellect as
well, if that task is to succeed. It is only by means of wisdom that princes
keep the people in check. Where wisdom is lacking, their minds are
unsuited to the task. When a prince errs, O glorious king, his rule
becomes sick and requires treatment. But the only medicine is know-
ledge and wisdom. So use intellect to treat the sickness, O virtuous one!
Only a prince who is intelligent and sage can cure this illness. Such
a ruler has a good place in both the worlds. And the person who gains
both worlds is the very epitome of Fortune. As the poet says:
The man endowed with brains will have
The Luck of both worlds as his share;

9
Dankoff suggests Ötü ken is perhaps the Tannu-Ola mountain range: Wisdom of Royal
Glory, 9. He notes that Yū suf Khā ss Hā jib’s appeals to authority are invariably drawn from
˙˙ ˙
the Turkish Inner Asian background. The Beg of Ötü ken appears again at p. 128, l. 2682,
where the figure is credited with the composition of a testament.

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He’ll live a happy life down here

And have a place of honor There.
“The prince must be straight-dealing and upright; then his day
will pass in joy. When God gives a man good character and good
conduct, the world pours its favors upon him. He can enjoy them
himself, or share them with others. It is God who favors His slave
with Fortune so that his character is good and his conduct sound.
Thus endowed, with virtues by the thousand, he disperses the fog
and grasps the realm. What a fine thing is good character: it is
a man’s food and dress. But when God gives a man an unruly
character, then Time’s arrow harasses him. And if a prince is so
endowed, then all his actions are contrary, and his joy turns to
care.
“The prince must be God-fearing and devout. The one of pure
seed must needs practice purity. The pious man has a fearful heart,
and the prince with a fearful heart governs equitably, while if the
prince is not pious and pure his deeds are all unclean and uneven.
“A quiet temper is the prince’s ornament. Calm dignity is the
tether by which his rule is bound.
“The prince requires a good mind if he is to undertake affairs and
bring them to a successful end. But mindless men must be kept away
from affairs of state. Just as the eye is useless without the heart, so the
heart is helpless without the mind. Hear the words of one whose
heart is tried and true:
While a man possesses intellect
Let praise for him endure;
What seems bad in him is good,
What seems unripe, mature.
“What a fine thing a good mind is. The man with a good mind (ö g)
is rightly called ‘Counselor’ (ö ge).
“Know that haste is evil in anyone; and when it appears in
a prince, his face turns grey with shame. Rashness and quick temper
are sure signs of folly. Things done in haste are undercooked; food
and drink consumed in haste cause sickness. Prefer to be slow and
steady in every action. The only exception is serving God: for that
you may rush!
“He should be full-eyed, modest, and forbearing, also open and
frank in word and deed. A greedy-eyed man is insatiable: the food
of this world is not enough for him. Greed is a sickness for which
there is no remedy; the diviner of this world cannot cure it. When

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 The King’s Person and Character

a hungry man eats and drinks, he is satisfied; but the greedy man
stops being hungry only when he dies. The greedy-eyed person
never gets rich: he is still greedy and needy, though he has gained
the entire world.
“The prince should also be modest, for a modest character never
wanes, but is full. When a man has modesty and purity, his hand
never reaches out for what is improper. To whomever God gives
modesty and water-of-eye (tears), He also gives Fortune and water-
of-face (honor). It is modesty that holds one back from all that is
improper, and joins one to all that is good. What a fine thing is
modesty, an adornment to a man! It is the tether which binds him to
all good things.
“He should have a truthful tongue and an honest heart, if he is to
be beneficial to the people, and his sun of good fortune is to rise.
There is no hope for the prince who has a treacherous heart, and no
benefit from him for the people. If he is not straightforward in his
heart, his tongue, and his deeds, then Fortune has no way to him and
will flee that realm. Despair for a prince who breaks his word: his life
is vanity and regret.
“The prince should be wakeful and alert; if he is negligent, he will
suffer the consequences. There are two bonds which hold the state
together. One is wakefulness; the other is justice, the root of govern-
ment. If the prince is wakeful, he keeps guard over his realm and
crushes the foe’s neck and tramples upon him. And if the prince
dispenses justice, he keeps the realm in good order and causes its sun
to shine. These are the two bonds of rulership: as long as they are
perfect, princely state endures. And a stalwart champion said: With
wakefulness the prince defeats his enemy and increases his territory,
with neglectfulness the foundation of princely rule is undermined.
Be wakeful then, O prince, watch over all your realm, wrench the
neck of your foe and deal justly with your subjects. Then you will
live in peace.
“There are two things which undermine princely rule, and cause
the ruler to stray from the straight path. One is injustice, the other is
negligence. With these two the prince may ruin his realm. For if you
wish to crush your foe, you must keep your ears and eyes alert. With
wakefulness the prince pierces his enemy, with negligence he breaks the
bond of rule. The careless prince cannot carry out his affairs or enjoy
his rule securely. The careful man is always ready, lying in ambush for
the neglectful. And if the enemy were not neglectful, who could defeat
him? As long as the prince is wakeful, no hand can touch his realm
without being thwarted with wise devices. As for the one who is unjust,

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he cannot enjoy his rule, nor can the people bear his injustice. A wise
man has said that unjust rulers never rule for long. Injustice is a blazing
fire which burns whatever it comes near. And justice is water that
brings forth blessing wherever it flows. The prince who desires to enjoy
a long rule must promote justice and protect his people. With justice
the territory will increase and the realm will thrive; with injustice the
territory will diminish and the realm will fall to ruin. Many a royal court
has been ruined by an unjust ruler, who himself grew weak and died of
hunger in the end. As long as a prince keeps a steadfast heart and
promotes justice, his rule will not collapse but long stand upright.
“Worst of all, glorious king, is for the prince to get a name for
dishonesty. He should be truthful in word and sincere in deed. Then
the people will trust in him and share in his Fortune. A dishonest
man is treacherous, committing acts unsuited to the people in his
charge. Here is how a trusty man has put it:

The man with a lying tongue

Is a treacherous-hearted brute.
‘Trust not the liar’ – this advice
Is of bitter years the fruit.
“The prince should be brave and bold and steadfast against the
foe. As army commander he must be courageous so that cowardly
troops take heart from him. For when a brave man commands the
cowardly, they all become brave. Witness the following verse:

A dog is leonine
If he gets a lion’s head;
Give the dog’s head to a lion,
He becomes canine instead.
“The prince should be generous, yet keep a humble heart and
quiet demeanor. It is through generosity that the prince acquires
a good name, and it is through his name and fame that the world
becomes secure. He then attracts troops who crowd about his stand-
ard, and with these he attains his goal. Hear how a successful warrior
has put it: O brave one! strike, take, and give to your men. Be
generous, give gifts, entertain with food and drink. And when you
lack, then strike, take, and give again. The valiant man never lacks
for wealth. The swooping falcon never lacks for prey. As long as
a man has sword and battleaxe, bow and arrow – and a strong heart! –
he has nothing to fear.
“What need for a prince to hoard up treasure? Wherever he has
ready troops, there treasure is at hand. Troops are needed to

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 The King’s Person and Character

maintain the state, and wealth is needed to pay the troops;

a prosperous people is needed to attain this wealth, and for the
people to be prosperous, you must maintain justice. If any one of
these is lacking, all four are left behind; and when this occurs,
princely rule disintegrates.10
“In order to maintain his good repute, the prince should keep
these five things far from him: haste, stinginess, quick temper, an
unruly character, and a lying tongue. If he stays far from these his
name will not go bad and his command will be effective. Worst of all
is an unruly disposition. As the poet says:
The unruly man
Gives himself much woe;
The stubborn man’s a captive,
Foe to friend and friend to foe.
“One who would rule over many lands should do these three: with
his right hand wield a ready sword; with his left hand give out his
gathered goods; and with his tongue speak sugar-sweet. Then prince
and slave, great and small alike, will offer him their necks.
“These things, O king, are what a prince requires in order to
be loved by the people and raised in their esteem: a smiling face,
a sweet tongue, a pure soul, and deeds befitting these; a humble
heart and an open hand, and compassion befitting these. Such as
he will know every virtue and keep far from every vice. He is
the choicest of the people, flawless and complete. The world’s
people are all his slaves, and their prince attains all his desire of
the world.
“But a frowning face, a rough tongue, and a haughty mien: these
make him incorrigible and despised. Immodesty, haste, and frivolity:
these are the manners of commoners. The prince should keep such
manners far from himself, for if they come near he will be sullied. White
is the color of nobles, black of commoners and slaves. Distinguish well
between these! He who would be a noble prince must hold to noble
virtues. He may have the name of ‘prince,’ but if his character is black,
he will be called ‘ignoble’ among the common people.
“The prince should be handsome and trim, and of middle stature.
A fine appearance makes him loved and trusted by the people when
they see him. His manliness then will be a hard blow to the enemy;
while his beauty will bring tears of love to the eye. As for stature, if
he is too tall, wisdom will not praise him, while if too short, he will

10
A version of the ‘circle of justice’; see below, Chapter 7, nn. 2, 13, 58.

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not be graceful and refined. It were best for him to be of middle

height. An aged and experienced man has said:

The man short of stature

Is short-tempered and mean;
The middling man is moderate
And seeks the mean.
“The prince should not drink or fornicate. Fortune flees from
these two activities. While princes of the world enjoy sweet wine,
their lands and subjects suffer bitter ills. When the ruler of the world
gives himself up to sport, he ruins his land, and turns himself into
a beggar. If he dissipates his rule during his reign, then he cannot
recover it, though he hunt it down with hawks. Hear what a wise and
abstemious man has said on this: Do not drink, for the wine-bibber is
a slave to his throat, and by drinking opens the way to poverty. When
a commoner drinks, his wealth turns to wind. When the prince
drinks, how can the state endure?
“Wine is an enemy, the tavern-keeper a highway-robber, the drinker
a brawler. When a man gets drunk he goes mad, and a madman’s deeds
cannot go right. Hear what a chaste-tongued man has said, and apply
his words, you who are slave to your throat! How many a deed that
should be done is left undone when wine is drunk. How many a deed
that should not be done comes to pass when a man is drunk.
“If a prince indulges in wine and sport, when will he set his
mind on the business of state? Fornication spells the ruin of
princely rule: wherever it is found, Fortune flees. For Fortune is
pure, it seeks out purity and supports the pure. When the
prince becomes a drinker, vile and corrupt, then all his subjects
follow him to drink. It is up to princes to set aright their
subjects’ improper acts: if the prince himself does what is
improper, who is to guide him? Only water can clean out filth;
if water itself is filthy, what can make it clean? When a person is
sick, it is the physician who gives the medicine; but who can
treat the physician’s sickness? Therefore princes must keep their
actions pure and straight, for the prince’s way makes straight
the way of the people. Whatever customs the prince adopts, the
people follow his example. Witness this charming verse:

Whatever way the master walks,

The slave walks with a similar gait;
If the master’s way is straight and good,
The slave’s is good and straight.

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 The King’s Person and Character

“He should not be haughty and proud-hearted, for pride

leads astray from the straight way. Princes become great by
virtue of Fortune, and must keep their hearts humble if they
are to maintain this lot. A virtuous sage has expressed this as
follows: When a prince puffs himself up he is bound to be
humbled, my son. Pride has never raised a man to heaven,
though humility has kept him from ruin. Pride does not benefit
a man, but only makes his heart cold; while a humble heart in
fact raises a man’s estate. Despair then of the prince who is
haughty and proud. While the prince’s heart should be lowly,
it should also be open, and ready to forgive those who have
sinned. Then his troops will love him, and his followers will be
loyal and obedient.
“The prince requires both moral purpose and fitting manli-
ness. Thus he will get a good name, gain his desire, and be
successful in the hunt. A man who lacks moral purpose is as
good as dead: his lot in either world is lost. Along with moral
purpose the prince needs authority as well as the quality of
leadership necessary to enforce it. For it is by means of author-
ity that he sets his realm in order, and puts aright the actions of
his subjects. Witness this verse which proves the point:

Authority is an adornment
Of the governor’s gate;
With it he cleanses civil strife
And sets his province straight.
“The cement of the state, that which holds its foundation
firm, consists of two fundamental things. One is justice, which
is the share of all the subjects; the other is silver, which is the
share of the military. With justice the subjects will live happily,
and with silver the military will obey cheerfully. As long as
these two classes are happy with their prince, he will be
content, and his realm and court will prosper. When the prince
stops administering justice and no longer guarantees his sub-
jects security, then he has set a fire among them, and has
undermined the foundation of his rule. And when the prince
no longer inspires the love of his troops, from that moment on
the sword stays in the scabbard. A prince maintains his power
only by the sword; without the sword he cannot keep down his
own realm. Sword and battleaxe are guardians of the land. It is
by the sword that a ruler gains control of his land in the first
place. Hear the words of this warlike emperor: A careless eater

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can eat poison, so take care, O noble one, and keep sword and
battleaxe your guardians. The prince with a sword as guardian
will enjoy contentment. While he brandishes the sword, the
enemy will not move; but when the sword stays in the scab-
bard, his contentment will vanish. Therefore, O prince, keep
happy the one who wields your sword. Then you shall ever live
happy and carefree.”
Highly Praised continued:
“O glorious king! The business of state is great and difficult. It
is a weighty thing to rule, full of hardship and headache. There
is little joy in it, and much care. Few are those who praise it,
and many who curse. Wherever you look, there is fear; and if
you look for happiness from it, there is little to be found. Few
are its lovers, many those who despise it; for there is too much
strife in it, and too little pleasure. Everywhere it inspires lack
of confidence, and where there is no confidence, there is dis-
tress. Everything it undertakes is full of risk, and when there is
risk in a thing, the taste goes out of it. Listen to these words of
wisdom, strung like pearls:
The king’s head is like a tower,
His neck is like a thread,
His rule is risky, like a sword
Suspended over his head.
“This is the way of princely rule. Some find satisfaction in it,
others disillusionment. If you wish to enjoy both this world and the
next, then pay attention to these things: Keep heart and tongue
upright. Take refuge in God and obey His command. Be satisfied
with whatever comes from the Lord, for servitude to Him is the basis
of contentment. Have compassion for all creatures. Always do what
is right and what benefits the people, and put down what is wrong
and what does them harm. Then this world is yours, you may eat and
sleep without anxiety as long as you live; and when your life is cut
off, you may be of good hope that God will requite your goodness
with a good road.
“The virtues that pertain to princes are these, as I have
explained to the king. Any man who possesses these virtues
deserves the name of ‘prince’ and a high position in the state.
The perfect prince is the head of his people, and from him every
virtue is expected. A clever man summed it up this way: The
prince should be intelligent, wise, and just; also cunning and

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 The King’s Person and Character

courageous to gain good repute. He must be generous and

forbearing, modest and pure; kindly and protective, full-eyed,
patient, and humble; sparing and forgiving, and quiet-mannered.
He must be a paragon of virtue among men, and deal justly with
the people. Whatever realm has a prince such as this, its people’s
ills are gone, for Fortune’s sun has risen on that land. Alas that
men such as this must die!
“This that I have offered you, O king, is the extent of what I know.”

The king said:

“You have spoken well and true.”

Text 7
Al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-
zafar. Part I, Chapter ˙ One11
˙
Translator’s Introduction
This section comprises the first chapter in part I of Tashı̄ l al-nazar; it follows
˙
al-Mā wardı̄ ’s preface. This opening chapter, in which al-Mā wardı̄ sets forth
a theory of virtue and its acquisition, provides an important conceptual
underpinning to part II of Tashı̄ l al-nazar, which deals with the principles
˙
and practices of good governance (see above, Text 3, and Texts 10 and 13,
below). Al-Mā wardı̄ begins his exposition with the moral formation of the
ruler. He asserts that while our characters and dispositions are innate, our
actions are matters of choice. He deals with both of these aspects of the
human psyche: essential moral characteristics (akhlā q) grounded in nature,
and actions driven by human volition.12 He proceeds to make the striking
point that moral characteristics are the principal instruments of the ruler’s

11
Translation prepared from al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar, ed. Ridwā n al-
˙ ˙ ˙
Sayyid (Beirut: Dā r al-ʿUlū m al-ʿArabiyya, 1987), 101–16. For the corresponding section
in Abbè s’s translation into French, see Makram Abbè s, Al-Mā wardı̄ . De l’É thique du
prince et du gouvernement de l’é tat (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2015), 245–57.
12
The emphasis in al-Mā wardı̄ ’s ethical thought on the ability of human beings to choose
their actions and shape their destinies, in contradistinction to a predestinarian focus,
provides an example of al-Mā wardı̄ ’s frequent endorsement of Muʿtazilı̄ points of view.
Whether al-Mā wardı̄ ’s rationalist orientation, which emerges strongly in his ethical
writings, implies an alignment with the Muʿtazilı̄ movement is less clear, although al-
Mā wardı̄ ’s relationship to Muʿtazilism has been a matter of speculation since the

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 Part II Texts

authority (imra) and power (sultā n). Incorporating and synthesising several
˙
philosophical concepts, al-Mā wardı̄ introduces the ideas, central in ethical
theory, of scale and balance, with the human virtues situated at the point of
equipoise between countervailing poles. His fluency in the philosophical
tradition permits him to move readily from rational ethical theory to its
practical application in governance. In this respect, al-Mā wardı̄ ’s reasoning
coincides with the exposition of the philosopher al-Fā rā bı̄ (d. 339/950),
whose treatment of ethics similarly precedes his discussion of politics.13 The
text presented in Text 7 differs from most of the previous selections in its
rationally and logically based framework of argument and presentation.
It resembles the distinct ethical discourse of the science of akhlā q,
which, as noted in Chapter 1, is, especially for the later periods, often
contrasted with the mirror literature. It was not unusual, however, for
mirror-writers to avail themselves of the akhlā q tradition, and to draw
on a great variety of concepts and materials, as the polymath al-
Mā wardı̄ demonstrates in his discussion of human nature and its
potential.

Translation
Moral characteristics (akhlā q) are hidden instincts that manifest
themselves in the course of experience and can be overridden only
by force. The soul’s (nafs) moral characteristics arise from its
nature, and its actions issue from it by will. The soul cannot be
separated from these two things: essential moral characteristics,
and wilful actions.14

medieval period (Yā qū t, Muʿjam al-udabā ʾ, V: 1955, no. 822; al-Subkı̄ , Tabaqā t al-
Shā fiʿiyya al-kubrā , III: 304–5; al-Dhahabı̄ , Siyar aʿlā m al-nubalā ʾ, XVIII: ˙67, no. 29;
see further Schneider, ‘Vernunft oder Tradition?’; Mikhail, Politics and Revelation, xxxi,
11, 17; Melchert, ‘Mā wardı̄ , Abū Yaʿlá , and the Sunni Revival’, 46; Cook, Commanding
Right and Forbidding Wrong, 344, n. 401).
13
See, for example, al-Fā rā bı̄ ’s Mabā diʾ ā rā ʾ ahl al-madı̄ na al-fā dila (Walzer, Al-Farabi on
˙
the Perfect State).
14
Ridwā n al-Sayyid notes the importance in this discourse of Galen’s thought (Tashı̄ l al-
naz˙ ar, 101, n. 1; cf. Kraus, Kitā b al-Akhlā q li-Jā lı̄ nū s, 25–55). Important well beyond the
˙
circles of medical practitioners, Galen was ‘present in the minds of the whole erudite class
of Muslim society as a natural scientist of paradigmatic stature’ (Strohmaier, ‘Uses of
Galen in Arabic Literature’, 114), a point illustrated well in the writings of al-Mā wardı̄ ,
who invokes Galen explicitly later in the current text (see below, at n. 29). Cf.
Miskawayh, Tahdhı̄ b al-akhlā q, 31–73 (Second Discourse) = Zurayk, Refinement of
Character, 29–31.

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 The King’s Person and Character

Essential moral characteristics are the results of our innate natures

(fitra).15 They are called ‘moral characteristics’ (akhlā q) because, like our
˙
physical beings (khilqa), they assume forms.
The human being is imprinted by nature with moral characteristics that
are rarely entirely praiseworthy or entirely blameworthy; in most cases,
some of our characteristics are praiseworthy and others blameworthy, the
difference lying in the mixture of instincts and resistance to anything that
conflicts with its natural tendencies. It is therefore impossible for a person,
by nature and by instinct, to be perfect in his moral characteristics in terms
of the virtues; the vices necessarily, by nature and instinct, mingle with
them. In our natural temperaments and innate dispositions, then, our
moral characteristics combine praiseworthy virtues and blameworthy
vices, which cannot be detached from one another.16 As the poet said:
These moral characteristics are nothing but products of nature:
Among them are the praiseworthy and the blameworthy.17

A philosopher said:
For every virtuous characteristic there is a base one keeping watch;
only the person who makes a priority of moral excellence over
everything else can avoid this [liability].

Since these moral characteristics are settled on this foundation, it

follows that the excellent person is he whose virtues prevail over his
vices, who by the abundance of his virtues is capable of overcoming his
vices, and who is therefore free of disgrace and fortunate in the virtue of
distinction. For this reason, ʿAlı̄ , upon him be peace, said:
The place to start in your jihā d is with the jihā d of your souls.18
This is clear; for the well-being (salā h) of the soul puts everything else
˙ ˙
to rights as well. It is therefore most fitting to give this process of
correction precedence and priority.

15
The term fitra is Qurʾanic (see Q 30: 30); see further Hoover, ‘Fitra’.
˙ ˙
16
Cf. al-Mā wardı̄ , Adab al-dunyā wa-l-dı̄ n, 226.
17
See also al-Rā ghib al-Isfahā nı̄ , al-Dharı̄ ʿa ilā makā rim al-sharı̄ ʿa, 50, where the couplet
˙
appears as the second line in a verse cited without attribution.
18
Ibn Abı̄ l-Hadı̄ d, Sharh Nahj al-balā gha, X: 395 = part 20, no. 49 (al-hikam wa-l-mawā ʿiz).
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
On the greater challenge and superiority of the internal jihā d, specified as the controlling of
passion and anger, to the external kind, see the Prophetic report recorded in al-ʿAjlū nı̄ ,
Kashf al-khafā ʾ, I: 375, no. 1360; see also al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Tamthı̄ l wa-l-muhā dara, 262 (Ibn
al-Muʿtazz); Fakhr al-Dı̄ n al-Rā zı̄ , Jā miʿ al-ʿulū m, 488. ˙ ˙

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 Part II Texts

There is a difference of opinion concerning the roots of moral

characteristics: are they to be traced back to virtues and vices, or to
the soul – from which virtues and vices arise in order to appear in
our moral characteristics? Some have proposed that moral character-
istics revert to an [essence] from which the individual soul
originates.19
Opinions also differ over the essential virtues: are they to be desired in
themselves, for their own sake, or for the happiness that originates from
them? Some philosophers have taken the view that it is the virtues
themselves that constitute the desired purpose, since they produce hap-
piness. Other philosophers have regarded the object of desire as the
happiness that the virtues produce, because it is happiness that consti-
tutes the virtues’ goal and objective.
There is also a difference of opinion regarding happiness. Does it
lie in the praiseworthy virtues themselves? Or in the praise that
these virtues generate? Some philosophers take the position that
happiness lies in the praiseworthy virtues, since it is the result of
a person’s actions. Others claim that happiness lies in the praise
that the virtues generate, because it is the fruit of a person’s
virtues.
It is therefore fitting for a person invested with authority and power
(dhū l-imra wa-l-sultā n) to attend to the cultivation of his moral charac-
˙
teristics and the correction of his faults. His moral characteristics are
the instrument of his power and the foundation of his authority (ā lat
sultā nihi wa-uss imratihi). It is not possible for the ruler to rectify all his
˙
moral characteristics merely by submitting to his natural disposition
and acquiescing to the promptings of his innate instinct. Instead, he
must practise virtue, and rectify and discipline his moral characteris-
tics; he should pursue this process of self-reformation and self-
education in stages, until he has rectified his moral characteristics
altogether. Some of his characteristics represent innate dispositions;
others are manufactured dispositions, for an (innate) characteristic
(khuluq) stems from nature and instinct, and an (acquired)

19
As Abbè s points out, al-Mā wardı̄ refers in this passage to the disagreement between
Plato and Aristotle regarding the virtues; al-Mā wardı̄ , with Aristotle, rejects the
notion that the virtues and vices exist independently outside the human soul
(Abbè s, De l’É thique du prince, 247, n. 4; see further Aristotle, Nicomachean
Ethics, Book I: 4 (pp. 5–6)).

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 The King’s Person and Character

characteristic (takhalluq) arises from naturalisation (tatabbuʿ) and

˙
exertion. 20 As the poet said:
O you who seek the adornment of characteristics that you do not possess, and
whose natural disposition is towards exaggeration and adulation:
You must devote your full attention to the actions that you perform, for
behind acquired characteristics lies natural character. 21

A philosopher said:
There is nothing that, even if it is harmful, does not become benefi-
cial when it receives proper attention; and nothing that, even if it is
beneficial, does not become harmful when neglected.

Characteristics are of two kinds: they are either instinctive and

determined by nature, or they are acquired and established through
naturalisation (tatabbaʿa lahā ). Kings are distinguished by their
˙
instinctive virtues to a greater degree than the common people,
because in kings, their instinctive virtues are both more abundant
and more apparent, since they are distinguished by their noble origins
and their high aspirations. 22 The common people, meanwhile, are
distinguished to a greater degree than kings by their acquired virtues,
since they are quicker to seek them and more tolerant of weariness;
moreover, their general inactivity permits them to devote great atten-
tion to their pursuit – whether out of desire for the advantages that
the virtues bring, or out of fear of the hostility that might arise from
(not having) them. For kings, these two factors do not apply, except in
the case of a ruler whose soul is noble and who inclines towards the

20
On the acquisition of virtue, cf. Nicomachean Ethics, Book II, 1–4 (pp. 23–8). The
distinction between the innate and the acquired underlies much of al-Mā wardı̄ ’s ethical
thought; elsewhere, he distinguishes between two parts or types of reason (ʿaql), namely,
gharı̄ zı̄ , instinctive, and muktasab, acquired (Adab al-dunyā wa-l-dı̄ n, 20–3).
21
Variously attributed; attributions to Sā lim Ibn Wā bisa (al-Asadı̄ ) appear in al-Jā hiz, al-
˙ ˙ ˙
Bayā n wa-l-tabyı̄ n, I: 233, and al-Mubarrad, al-Kā mil, I: 17, n. 8 (but at p. 18, the first
hemistich of the first line appears with the second hemistich of the second line, related
from Abū Zayd [al-Ansā rı̄ ]); attributions to ʿAbdallā h b. ʿUmar al-ʿArjı̄ appear in al-
˙
Jā hiz, al-Hayawā n, III: 128; Ibn Qutayba, al-Shiʿr wa-l-shuʿarā ʾ, 575; and al-Husrı̄ , Zahr
˙ dā
al-ā ˙ b, I:˙ 84 (with slightly different wording). ˙ ˙
22
The virtue of high aspiration, ʿizam al-himma, also buʿd al-himma, ʿuluww al-himma, is
˙
a recurrent feature of the discourse relating to royal virtue, and indeed to human virtue
altogether; see Vasalou, Virtues of Greatness, 4–5, 23, esp. 84–130. Vasalou translates the
virtue as ‘greatness of spirit’, distinguished from ‘greatness of soul’ (kibar al-nafs) (4–5,
22–23, 84); for her discussion of the virtue’s prominence in the mirrors of Pseudo-
Mā wardı̄ , al-Mā wardı̄ and Ghazā lı̄ , see 86–97.

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virtues out of the elevated nature of his aspirations, and who dedicates
himself to them out of the nobility of his nature; such a ruler is not
without acquired excellence, and no stranger to acclaimed action. He
is, in fact, singular in his attainment of virtues of the soul, just as he is
singular in his possession of vast power and firm command. Through
his cultivation of the virtues, he gains greater experience in the
exercise of his power, and he becomes more capable in his governance
over his subjects. Praise is merited in the case of acquired virtues,
since they are gained through action; it is not merited in the case of
innate virtues – even though these virtues themselves receive praise –
owing to their existence without any action on the part of the
individual.
There is also a difference of opinion about the better of the two types of
characteristic in terms of their essence. Some philosophers give preference
to characteristics that are innate and instinctual over characteristics that are
naturalised and acquired, on account of the strength of the instinctive and
the weakness of the acquired. Others favour characteristics that are natur-
alised and acquired over characteristics that are innate and instinctive,
because they have triumphed over adversity and transmuted opposing
characteristics. Yet others have said: each of the two stands in need of
the other, since characteristics cannot be separated from one another. They
resemble the situation of the soul and the body: just as the deeds of the soul
only become apparent by means of the body, and the body does not stir
other than by the movement of the soul, so the instinctive and the acquired
come face to face in action, and participate jointly in the formation of
excellence. Accordingly, the two kinds of characteristic are equal in nature
and instinct. As the poet al-Buhturı̄ (d. 284/897) said:
˙
I do not deem a young man meritorious
Unless his merit is visible in his actions. 23
A certain lexicographer has developed a linguistic distinction between
the two kinds of characteristic: he has described nature as the seal, and
naturalisation as character. 24

23
Abū ʿUbayda al-Buhturı̄ (206–84/821–97), famous poet of the Abbasid period. For the
˙
poem from which these lines are taken, see his Dı̄ wā n, I: 279 (line 23). The term hasab
˙
refers particularly to an acquired form of merit; it is often paired with nasab, which
denotes inherited merit (this second term appears later in the poem).
24
The metaphor draws an analogy between acquired characteristics and the impression
made by the seal. See the discussion in Abbè s, De l’É thique du prince, 249–50, n. 11.

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Section
Virtues rest on principles, which may be anterior or posterior. The first of
the virtues is reason, and the last is justice. Reason is the first of the virtues
because the other virtues arise from it and are governed by it; it is therefore
the first of them. Justice, by contrast, is the result of the virtues: because
the other virtues are measured by it, it is the last of them. These two virtues
are well-attuned companions; no two things persist in harmony without
one being in full need of the other. All the other virtues are intermediaries
between reason and justice, reason being distinguished by its control of
them, and justice being distinguished by its estimation of them. Reason,
then, is a manager; justice is an assessor. The remaining virtues cannot be
detached from either one of these two. Nor can the soul be detached from
either one of them; rather, it encompasses them both. If the soul is pure,
clear and readily disposed for the virtues, then it will act in accordance with
them. If, on the other hand, the soul is base and disposed towards the vices,
then it will deviate towards them. Whichever of these two – virtue or vice –
corresponds to the soul, it will come easily to it; because of its affinity with
it, it will assimilate it quickly. Likewise, whatever is contrary to the soul’s
disposition comes only with difficulty; on account of its incompatibility,
the soul will require a long time to assimilate it. This correspondence of
forms is rooted in the natural. As it has been said:
Love is a natural formation in personal types that find affinities with
one another, in ways that can be known and in ways that cannot be
known.25
A philosopher said:
The foundations of virtuous characteristics are four, from which all
other virtues branch off. These four foundations are discrimination,
courage, temperance and justice. 26

25
Nicomachean Ethics VIII, 1 (15–20) (pp. 142–3).
26
This theory, rooted in Plato’s theory of the soul’s three faculties and the characteristics
that issue from them (also a feature of Byzantine mirrors; see the ‘Letter of Themistius’,
21–4; Dvornik, Early Christian and Byzantine Political Philosophy, II: 668), permeated
learned discourse far beyond the circles of philosophers; see, for example, Kalı̄ la wa-
Dimna, in Āthā r Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, 44; Miskawayh, Tahdhı̄ b al-akhlā q, 15–18 =
Refinement of Character, 14–17; al-Rā ghib al-Isfahā nı̄ , al-Dharı̄ ʿa ilā makā rim al-
˙
sharı̄ ʿa, 72–5. These four cardinal virtues are sometimes designated ‘moral’ or ‘ethical’
(khulqiyya) virtues, distinguished from a second set of intellectual or rational virtues. In
a classical formulation of this theory, al-Fā rā bı̄ lists in the former category the virtues of
temperance, courage, generosity and justice, and in the latter category, which he terms

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 Part II Texts

The remaining vices branch off from the opposites of these four
virtues. The vices too have foundations that are their beginnings and
ends that are their points of termination. The first of the vices is
foolishness (humq), and the last of them is ignorance (jahl). There
˙
are two points to be made about the difference between them.
Firstly, the foolish person imagines the impossible in the form of
the possible, while the ignorant person does not know the impossible
from the possible. Secondly, the foolish person knows what is
correct but does not act accordingly, while the ignorant person
does not know what is correct; were he to know it, however, he
would act in accordance with it. It is transmitted from the Prophet,
God’s peace be upon him, that he said:
The foolish person is the most loathsome of God’s creatures in His
sight, since He has forbidden to him the things dearest to him. 27

The Arabs say:

The epithet ahmaq (fool) derives from the phrase ‘the market is
˙
void’ (hamuqat al-sū q) when its supplies have become deficient,
˙
as if it were a reference to the loss of the foolish person’s
reason. 28
The ignorant person has two states. The first state is that he is
ignorant, and he knows that he is ignorant. This state permits the
possibility that, if supported by a strong incentive and an accepting
soul, he might be amenable to guidance, and might thereby come to
know that of which he is ignorant. As it has been said: were it not
for error, the light of the correct would never dawn. And the poet
said:
When a man’s senses are sound, his analogical reasoning is sound.
The intellect of the person whose senses are corrupt is not sound.

nutqiyya, the virtues of wisdom, intellect, astuteness, cleverness and sound understand-
˙
ing (Fusū l al-madanı̄ , 108 (text) = 31 (translation) (§7)). Ibn Abı̄ Dharr lists in the
former ˙category the virtues of purity, temperance and courage, and he includes in the
latter category, for which he employs the term nazariyya, the virtues of knowledge,
˙
intellect and wisdom (al-Saʿā da wa-l-isʿā d, 70).
27
Al-Mā wardı̄ , al-Amthā l wa-l-hikam, 90, no. 227/646; al-Mā wardı̄ , Adab al-dunyā wa-
˙
l-dı̄ n, 30.
28
Cf. al-Ibshı̄ hı̄ , al-Mustatraf, I: 40 (from the philologist Muhammad b. Ziyā d Ibn al-
˙
Aʿrā bı̄ (150–231/767–846)). ˙

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 The King’s Person and Character

The second state is that he is ignorant, and ignorant of his ignorance.

This is the worse of the two states and, as a quality, the uglier of the two,
since if this person is ignorant of his ignorance, this state produces two
types of ignorance, similar in form but different in their effects: one of
them deprives him of guidance, while the other attracts misguidance. As
a result, the first induces him to go astray in the pursuit of his intoxica-
tions, while the second causes him to rejoice in his faults. In this case, the
ignorant person’s awakening is not an option, and his recovery is not to be
hoped for. Galen said:
Ignorance of ignorance is ignorance compounded; to be ignorant and
know that I was ignorant would be preferable to me than to be
ignorant and ignorant of my ignorance. 29
Solomon, son of David, upon him be peace, said:
Lamentation over the dead lasts for seven days; but for the ignorant
person, it is fitting every day of his life. Death is preferable to
a wretched life.30

It is reported in the ‘Circulating Proverbs’:31

29
Al-Sayyid (Tashı̄ l al-nazar, 110, n. 1) notes the affinity of this formulation with
˙
a frequently repeated fourfold division of humankind according to knowledge and
ignorance; attributed to al-Khalı̄ l b. Ahmad (al-Farā hidı̄ , d. 160/776, 170/786 or 175/
˙
791), this formula appears in Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, II: 126; al-Mā wardı̄ , Adab
al-dunyā wa-l-dı̄ n, 84; Ibn al-Haddā d, al-Jawhar al-nafı̄ s, 111.
30 ˙
David and Solomon, in the Islamic tradition prophets as well as kings, are frequently
invoked as exemplars of righteous rule; cf. the extensive use of these examples in the
Byzantine and Carolingian mirror literature (Hunger, Die hochsprachliche profane
Literatur der Byzantiner, 159–60; Nelson, ‘Kingship and Empire’, 214–19; Anton,
Fürstenspiegel und Herrscherethos, 419–32 and passim; Eberhardt, Via regia, 225–6, 230–
1, 603–5 and passim; Hellerstedt, ‘Cracks in the Mirror’, 303–5).
31
Al-Mā wardı̄ draws frequently on a source to which he refers as manthū r al-hikam. This
˙
term is quite likely to refer to a specific, written collection of maxims, possibly the
compilation al-Farā ʾid wa-l-qalā ʾid of Abū l-Husayn Muhammad b. al-Husayn al-
˙ ˙ ˙
Ahwā zı̄ (fl. 330/941) (see Abbè s, De l’É thique du prince, 254, n. 7). It is also possible,
however, that al-Mā wardı̄ is referring in a general sense to the repertoire of well-known
maxims that circulated among men of learning in various oral and written forms. It is
perhaps in this general sense that Ibn Abı̄ Dharr cites ‘transmitted maxims’ or ‘the
transmitted speech of the wise philosophers’ (hikam manthū ra, manthū r kalā m ahl al-
˙
hikma and al-kalā m al-manthū r, in al-Saʿā da wa-l-isʿā d, 102, 130, 159). The term manthū r
˙
might also imply a set of maxims in prose (nathr) as opposed to verse (nazm). Al-Turtū shı̄
˙ ˙ ˙
employs the same phrase in numerous locations. On the sources and transmission of the
vast Arabic repertoire of wise maxims, see Gutas, ‘Classical Arabic Wisdom Literature’;
ʿAbbā s, Malā mih yū nā niyya fı̄ l-adab al-ʿarabı̄ , 15–20.
˙

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Even if the days of his life are many in number, the ignorant
person is as if he had been born yesterday, his hour of birth
barely begun.
An Arab said:
If reason were to be depicted, the sun would appear darkened next to
it, and if ignorance were to be depicted, the night would appear lit up
next to it.32
A poet said:
The human being is created for intellect (lil-ʿaql), so seek
Your fortune by intellect, not by ignorance or rank.
Ignorance reaps for its possessor continual shame
And causes the joy of merit to depart from him.
Virtues form a praiseworthy mean between two reprehensible
vices: in cases of deficiency, they become shortcomings, and in
cases of excess, they become exaggerations. The corruption of every
virtue lies on the axis that runs in these two directions. Reason is the
point of balance between cunning and stupidity; wisdom is the mid-
point between malice and ignorance; generosity is the mid-point
between avarice and profligacy; courage is the mid-point between
cowardice and recklessness. Modesty is the mid-point between
shamelessness and shyness; dignity is the mid-point between con-
tempt and folly; tranquillity is the mid-point between rage and
insipidity. Forbearance is the point of balance between excessive
anger and humiliation of the soul. Temperance is the mid-point
between avidity and weakness of appetite. Self-esteem lies between
envy and disaffection, refinement between dissipation and clumsiness,
love between pretensions to affection and soundness of character
(husn al-khuluq), humility between arrogance and lack of self-
˙
esteem.33

32
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 280; Miskawayh, Jā vı̄ dā n khirad, 151 (in his
section devoted to hikam al-ʿarab); al-Rā ghib al-Isfahā nı̄ , Muhā darā t al-udabā ʾ, I:
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
13.
33
Cf. Nicomachean Ethics, II, 6–9 (pp. 28–37); Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-
˙˙
mansū b ilā . . . al-Mā wardı̄ , 191; al-Fā rā bı̄ , Fusū l al-madanı̄ , 113–14 = 34–5 (§16); al-
˙
Mā wardı̄ , Adab al-dunyā wa-l-dı̄ n, 143–4; Ibn Abı̄ Dharr, al-Saʿā da wa-l-isʿā d, 70;
Miskawayh, Tahdhı̄ b al-akhlā q, 24–9 = Refinement of Character, 22–5. See further
Chapter 1.

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 The King’s Person and Character

Combining virtues with other virtues gives rise to yet further virtues.
The combination of reason with courage produces endurance in adver-
sity and loyalty in the fulfilling of commitments. From the combination
of reason with generosity stem the fulfilling of promises and aid proffered
by virtue of rank. From the combination of reason with temperance stem
integrity and aversion to excessive questioning. From the combination of
courage with generosity arise concord and a disposition to think the best
of other people. From the combination of courage with temperance come
the rejection of obscenities and zeal in the protection of women. From the
combination of generosity with temperance come the generous provision
of food for other people and the consideration of other people before
oneself.
Many characteristics produce results that sometimes develop into
vices. It is related from ʿAlı̄ , peace be upon him, that he said:
The most remarkable aspect of the human being is the soul (nafs),
in which lie patterns of opposites. When hope arises in the soul,
avidity abases it. When avidity excites it, avarice destroys it. When
despair overcomes the soul, remorse kills it. When anger stirs in it,
rage gathers strength in it. When contentment gives it happiness, it
becomes forgetful of caution. When fear assails the soul, wariness
preoccupies it. When security surrounds it, heedlessness snatches
it away; when it enjoys the renewal of a benefit, it creates new
aspirations for satisfaction. When an affliction befalls it, anxiety
compromises it. If the soul acquires property, temptation leads it to
recklessness. If it experiences satiety, gluttony burdens it. For
every shortcoming is injurious to it, and every excess is destructive
to it.34

34
A slightly different version appears in the Dustū r maʿā lim al-hikam of al-Qā dı̄
˙ ˙
Muhammad b. Salā ma al-Qudā ʿı̄ (d. 454/1062): in the translation of Tahera
˙ ˙
Qutbuddin, ‘The most wondrous part of the human being is the heart (qalb). It
has elements of wisdom, and others that are quite the opposite. If the heart is lifted
by hope, ambition debases it; if ambition boils over, greed destroys it; and if
disappointment takes hold, regret kills it. If aggravated, its rage runs rampant;
and if made happy, it forgets to be circumspect. If fear takes hold, caution
preoccupies it; and if safety is secured, heedlessness strips it away. If it gains
property, wealth makes it a tyrant; and if poverty touches it, it panics. If hunger
emaciates it, weakness ensconces it; and if satiety is excessive, the surfeit oppresses
it. Every deficiency harms it, and every excess injures it’ (Qutbuddin, A Treasury of
Virtues, 149). See also al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Iʿjā z wa-l-ı̄ jā z, 40.

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Another person said:

Excessive humility constitutes humiliation; excessive pride results in
hatred. Excessive caution leads to the deception of the people;
excessive affability earns malicious companions. Excessive oppres-
sion repels the sincere counsellor.35

Ibn al-Muʿtazz said:

Were things to be distinguished from one another, then falsehood
would be grouped with cowardice, honesty with courage, repose
with resignation, abjection with cupidity, deprivation with craving.36
Virtues are divided into two sorts: one division consists of virtues that
compel the praise of God’s creatures, and that is the kind of virtue that
conveys benefits to them; the second division consists of virtues that earn
the praise of the Creator, and that is the kind of virtue by which the face
of God the Exalted is contemplated.
It is related from Jaʿfar b. Muhammad [al-Sā diq, d. 148/765] that he said:
˙ ˙
One of God’s prophets turned to his Lord in private supplication. He
said: ‘O Lord, which of Your creations is dearest to You?’ The Lord
said: ‘Those who remember Me most.’ He said, ‘O Lord, which of
Your creatures is most patient?’ He said, ‘Those who control their
anger.’ He said, ‘O Lord, which of Your creatures is most just?’ He
said, ‘He who subdues his lower self.’ He said, ‘O Lord, which of Your
creatures is richest?’ He said, ‘He who is most content with his
sustenance.’ He said, ‘O Lord, which of Your creatures is happiest?’
He said, ‘He who gives preference to My command over his fleeting
desires.’ He said, ‘O Lord, which of Your creatures is most abject?’ He
said, ‘He for whom admonition is useless.’37
What I have written completes the treatment of things connected with
the essential characteristics.

35
Al-Jā hiz, Rasā ʾil, I: 111 (al-Maʿā sh wa-l-maʿā d); cf. al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Tamthı̄ l wa-
˙ ˙
l-muhā dara, 260; al-Mubashshir b. Fā tik, Mukhtā r al-hikam, 211 (Aristotle); al-
˙ ˙ ˙
Murā dı̄ , al-Ishā ra, 181; al-Maydā nı̄ , Majmaʿ al-amthā l, II: 108; Zakeri, Persian Wisdom
in Arabic Garb, II: 440–1, no. 865.
36
Al-Tawhı̄ dı̄ , Akhlā q al-wazı̄ rayn, 390; Ibn Abı̄ l-Hadı̄ d, Sharh Nahj al-balā gha, X: 438 =
˙ ˙ ˙
part 20, no. 739 (on the reattribution of the aphorisms of Ibn al-Muʿtazz to ʿAlı̄ , see Bray,
‘Ibn al-Muʿtazz and Politics’, 125–6, 132, and Chapter 5, nn. 58, 125 above). Al-Nuwayrı̄
attributes the saying to Porphyry (Furfū riyū s) (Nihā yat al-arab, VIII: 183).
37
On Jaʿfar al-Sā diq, Sixth Imam of the Shiʿa and highly regarded among Sunni and Shiʿi
Muslims alike, ˙ see Gleave, ‘Jaʿfar al-Sā deq’, and above, section 2.1, at n. 21.
˙

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 The King’s Person and Character

Text 8
Kaykā ʾū s b. Iskandar, Qā bū snā meh.
38
Chapters Twenty-Eight and Twenty-Nine

Translator’s Introduction
The two chapters reproduced in this section, though addressed by the
Ziyarid amir Kaykā ʾū s to his son, Prince Gı̄ lā nshā h, offer counsel for the
benefit of not only a royal and courtly audience but also a general reader-
ship. They demonstrate the pervasiveness in Kaykā ʾū s’s counsel of the
theme of mardumı̄ , which corresponds loosely to the idea of ‘humanity’.
This quality appears in association with, and sometimes as a synonym for,
the concept of javā nmardı̄ , a notion that underlies, frames and informs the
entirety of Kaykā ʾū s’s encyclopaedic mirror.
The term javā nmardı̄ conveys an all-encompassing view of the world, as
well as a set of values, a group of virtues and a code of conduct. In his final
and longest chapter, on the regulations for the way of life of the javā nmard
(dar ā yı̄ n-i javā nmard pı̄ shagı̄ ), Kaykā ʾū s enumerates three primary prin-
ciples of javā nmardı̄ : wisdom (khirad), honesty (rā stı̄ ) and mardumı̄ .39 In the
same chapter he ascribes to the ‘wise philosophers’ (hakı̄ mā n) the drawing of
˙
a metaphorical likeness of mardumı̄ and wisdom: in this image, the human
body corresponds to a javā nmard, whose soul corresponds to truth (rā stı̄ ),
whose senses correspond to knowledge (dā nish) and whose ideas (maʿā nı̄ )
correspond to attributes (sifā [t]). Developing this image, Kaykā ʾū s
˙
describes a four-part hierarchy, in which each of four categories of people
is distinguished according to the qualities of body, soul, sense and ideas that
it possesses; these combinations determine the form that the group’s
mardumı̄ assumes.40 This typology illustrates the system of correspondences
through which Kaykā ʾū s understands the universe and the place of human-
ity within it. Kaykā ʾū s also links javā nmardı̄ with ʿayyā rı̄ , that is, the way of
life of the ʿayyā r, the chivalric code that governed the conduct of the

38
Translation prepared from ʿUnsur al-Maʿā lı̄ Kaykā ʾū s b. Iskandar, Qā bū snā meh, ed.
Ghulā m-Husayn Yū sufı̄ (Tehran: ˙ Shirkat-i Intishā rā t-i ʿIlmı̄ va-Farhangı̄ , 1989), 139–
˙
43, 144–51. For the corresponding section in Levy’s translation, see Reuben Levy,
A Mirror for Princes: The Qā bū s Nā ma of Kai Kā ʾū s ibn Iskandar, Prince of Gurgā n
(London: The Cresset Press, 1951), 127–31, 132–39.
39
Qā bū snā meh, 243. In their Arabic translation, Nashʾat and Badawı̄ translate the Persian
javā nmardı̄ as muruwwa (Kitā b al-Nası̄ ha al-maʿrū f bi-sm Qā bū snā ma, 230 and passim).
40
Qā bū snā meh, 245–6 = Levy, A Mirror ˙ ˙for Princes, 242.

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fraternal paramilitary groups of ʿayyā rā n.41 In evoking the compound

category javā nmardı̄ -yi ʿayyā rı̄ , he describes a man possessed of various
virtues (sing. hunar): he must be brave, manly (mardā neh), patient in all
undertakings, true to his word, chaste in his sexual behaviour, pure of heart,
never considering another man’s loss to be his profit, willing to accept a loss
to himself if it is for the sake of his friends; he must reject extortion from
prisoners, support prisoners and the helpless, prevent the wrongs of oppres-
sors from harming the good, listen to the truth as well as speak truthfully,
dispense justice in person, never cause harm at a table at which he has eaten
bread, never repay a good action with a bad one, display modesty in the
presence of women and regard adversity with tranquillity.42
As these examples of meritorious behaviour suggest, Kaykā ʾū s placed
emphasis on the enactment of virtue in the context of personal relation-
ships and social transactions. The paired chapters reproduced in this
section, on the subjects of friends and enemies, illustrate several of
Kaykā ʾū s’s most valued attributes.

Translation
Chapter Twenty-Eight: On Making Friends
Know, O son, that for as long as people live, they must have friends; it is
better for a man to have no brother than for him to have no friend. When
a wise philosopher was asked whether it was preferable to have a friend or
a brother, he answered, ‘Best of all is the brother who is at the same time
a friend’. Pay close attention, then, to the matter of your friends, by
keeping ever fresh the custom of sending presents and performing acts of
courtesy (mardumı̄ ). Whoever fails to concern himself with his friends
will find that his friends will not concern themselves with him, and that
man shall be forever friendless. Accordingly, it has been said, ‘The friend
builds his own prison.’

41
The term ʿayyā r carries several meanings and a varied set of connotations. Kaykā ʾū s uses
the term to denote a member of a local band of voluntary militiamen bound together in
common observance of a code of chivalric conduct (see Tor, ‘ʿAyyā r’; and below, n. 44).
42
Qā bū snā meh, 247 = Levy, A Mirror for Princes, 243. Shortly after this description,
Kaykā ʾū s recounts an episode in which an envoy from the ʿayyā rā n of Marv arrived in
Kuhistan to convey a set of three questions to a local gathering of ʿayyā rā n. The three
questions concern the ʿayyā rı̄ code of conduct, and the challenge of its application
in situations in which two ʿayyā rı̄ principles would appear to conflict (247–9 = 243–4).

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 The King’s Person and Character

Make a habit of cultivating friends at all times, because when people

have many friends, their faults are concealed and their virtues (hunarhā )
revealed. When you make a new friend, do not turn your back on old
friends; rather pursue your new friend and continue to maintain your old
friendships. In this way, you will always have many friends. It has been
said that a good friend is a precious treasure. Consider also the people
who travel the path of friendship with you but are only half friends: treat
them with kindness (nı̄ kū ʾı̄ ) and amenability (sā zkā rı̄ ), agree with them in
all matters good and bad; when they see nothing but humane courtesy
(mardumı̄ ) from you, they will become single-heartedly your friends.
Alexander was asked which quality had enabled him, in such a short
amount of time, to acquire such a vast kingdom (mulk). He replied: ‘Kind
consideration (talattuf), by which I conciliated my enemies; and loyal
˙˙
support (taʿahhud), by which I rallied my friends.’
Give a thought to your friends’ friends, for they too are your friends.
Be wary, however, of any friend who is also a friend of your enemy: his
friendship with your enemy may exceed his friendship with you, and in
that case he will not hesitate to cause you harm for your enemy’s sake.
Refrain from friendship with a person who displays hostility towards
your friend; and do not desire friendship with a friend who reproaches
you with neither pretext nor proof.
Do not consider any person in the world to be without fault. But be
virtuous yourself (hunarmand), for the virtuous person possesses fewer
faults. Do not take as a friend any person lacking in virtue, for no
prosperity (falā h) arises from a friend without virtue.
˙
Consider friends of the cup (dū stā n-i qadah) as your boon-
˙
companions (nadı̄ mā n) rather than as friends; for they are friends of
the moment and of the cup rather than friends in times of sorrow and
joy alike. Cast your regard among the good (nı̄ kā n) and the bad (badā n);
and make friends in both groups. With the good, be a friend in your
heart; with the bad, make a show of friendship with your tongue, so that
you will gradually acquire friends among both groups. Not every need
can be satisfied by the good; it may happen, on occasion, that a situation
requires the friendship of the bad, and that a good friend may not be
able to achieve a given aim. Although your consorting with the bad may
diminish your standing among the good, just as your consorting with
the good may increase your reputation with the bad, you should main-
tain the way of the good, so that you may obtain the friendship of both
groups.

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Never befriend a person who lacks wisdom, for a friend lacking in

wisdom is worse than an enemy who possesses wisdom. A friend without
wisdom may, out of wickedness, do to a friend what a hundred enemies
endowed with wisdom could not do to an enemy. Cultivate your friend-
ships with people of virtue, loyalty (nı̄ k-ʿahd) and pleasing appearance, so
that you too may attain renown and praise for the very virtues that have
earned your friends their reputation and commendation.
Prefer solitude to bad company. As I have said:
O heart, you have gone, just like a wild animal into the desert –
You suffer neither my grief nor your own.
You were a wicked companion; it is for the better that you have left.
Solitude is better by far than a wicked companion. 43
Never overlook the rightful claims of people and friends, so that you
never give cause for blame. It has been said that two sorts of people
deserve blame: the first is the person who neglects the rightful claims of
his friends; the other is the person who fails to acknowledge acts of
goodness (from which he has benefited). Know that there are two criteria
by which you may learn whether a person is suitable or not to become
your friend: the first is whether, when a friend is in straitened circum-
stances, he does not, as far as he is able, withhold his own things from that
friend, and does not abandon him in times of duress; the second is
whether, when a friend departs from this world, he enquires after that
friend’s children, relatives and friends and treats them well. Whenever he
visits his friend’s grave, he should grieve, even though it is nothing more
than his grave. I have heard it said of Socrates that as, under duress to
confess idolatry, he was being borne off to execution, he said, ‘May God
be my refuge, should I worship the Creator’s creature!’ – and they led
him on to be executed. A group of his followers were walking with him
and lamenting according to their custom. They asked him: ‘O philoso-
pher, now that you have prepared your heart for death, tell us where we
should bury you.’ Socrates smiled and said, ‘If you should find me again,

43
Here in its Persian form, the maxim al-wihda khayr min jalı̄ s al-sū ʾ (Ar., ‘solitude is better
˙
than a wicked companion’) appears in Arabic in Kaykā ʾū s’s Chapter Eleven, 67 = Levy,
A Mirror for Princes, 58. Often considered a Prophetic proverb (al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Iʿjā z wa-
l-ı̄ jā z, 29, no. 26 (see also 75, no. 6); al-Ibshı̄ hı̄ , al-Mustatraf, I: 68, al-Nuwayrı̄ , Nihā yat
˙
al-arab, VIII: 182), the maxim also forms part of an exchange that took place in Medina
between al-Ahnaf b. Qays and Abū Dharr (al-ʿAskarı̄ , Jamharat al-amthā l, II: 261–2, no.
2075). ˙

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 The King’s Person and Character

bury me anywhere you must!’ – by which he meant that it would not be

him, but rather his body, that they would bury.
Keep your friendship with people at a middling level. Do not bind
yourself to friends out of some expectation, or for the sake of having
many friends. Be your own special friend; look behind you and in front of
you. In your reliance on your friends, do not be careless of yourself; for
even if you were to have a thousand friends, none of them would be
a better friend to you than you are to yourself. Test your friend in times
of plenty and adversity: times of plenty invariably bring deference
(hurmat); times of adversity bring benefit and loss. In the case of
˙
a friend who does not consider your enemy to be his own enemy, consider
him to be no more than an acquaintance; such a person is an acquaintance
only, and not a true friend. With your friends, be the same in times of
displeasure as in times of satisfaction. In sum, recognise as your true
friend the person who holds you in affection.
Do not, in friendship, impart to your friend anything that that person,
were he to become your enemy, could use to harm you; once that
happens, regret is to no avail. If you are poor, do not seek out a rich
friend; no one, least of all the rich, befriends a poor man. Seek friends of
your own degree; it is acceptable, however, if you are wealthy and you
have a friend who is poor. Be constant in your friendships with people, so
that your affairs will remain constant. If, however, a person, despite your
faultless affection, withdraws his friendship from you, do not become
preoccupied with winning him back. In addition, keep your distance
from any friend who is covetous, for his friendship with you is not true:
it stems only from his desires. Never take as friends any persons who are
mean-spirited; mean-spirited people are unfit for friendship, for their
hearts are never free of spitefulness. Since such a person is always disposed
to inflict injury and to seek revenge, friendship for you can never become
firmly established in his heart, and he cannot be relied upon.
Now that you have mastered the subject of making friends, consider the
subject of enemies and their doings; direct your attention to this next topic.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Regarding Enemies

Make every effort, O son, not to make enemies. If you have an enemy,
however, do not fear, nor become anxious; for a person without
enemies may yet suffer from ill will. Never neglect an enemy’s doings
whether hidden or overt, and do not relax your guard against his bad

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actions; be continually alert to his tactics, cunning and malice, and at

no time feel secure against his strategy. Enquire constantly into your
enemy’s condition and design; otherwise, you court tribulation,
calamity and negligence.
Until you are ready to confront your enemy, do not display your
hostility towards him openly; then, once you are prepared, show him
your strength. If you should suffer defeat, employ some stratagem; do not
let him see you among the fallen. Do not allow yourself to be persuaded
by an enemy’s seemingly kind actions or fine words; if an enemy offers
you sugar, take it, without any doubt, to be colocynth (sharangı̄ ). Always
fear a powerful enemy, for it has been said that there are two people who
should be feared: one is a powerful enemy; the other is a treacherous
friend. Do not despise a humble enemy, either. Behave with a weak
enemy in exactly the same way as you would with a strong enemy;
never say that he is of no importance.

A Story
I have heard that there was an ʿayyā r in Khurasan who was extremely
powerful (muhtasham), a fine, highly esteemed and well-known
˙
man. 4 4 His name was Muhallab. 45 They say that one day, as he was
walking in the village, he trod on a piece of watermelon-rind, which
was lying in the road. His foot slipped and he fell. He drew his knife
and struck the watermelon-rind. His servants said to him, ‘O

44
The term ʿayyā r (Pers. pl. ʿayyā rā n) refers to a member (or in this case a leader) of an
organised paramilitary chivalric band (see Tor, ‘ʿAyyā r’). Groups of ʿayyā rā n were active
along the eastern frontier in the ninth century. Used in many sources in a negative sense,
the term ʿayyā r carries strongly positive connotations in the Qā bū snā meh. Indeed, for
Kaykā ʾū s the ʿayyā rs are practitioners of the code of javā nmardı̄ , the quality that in his
conception embraced the sum of the humane virtues. In different sections of the
Qā bū snā meh, Kaykā ʾū s suggests affinities and overlapping interests among individuals
committed to the javā nmardı̄ and ʿayyā rı̄ ways of life, non-specific military personnel and
merchants. For instance, he links ‘military people and people who follow the code of the
ʿayyā r’ (qawmı̄ sipā hı̄ va-ʿayyā r-pı̄ shagā n) (195–6), and advises merchants to associate
with ‘people who follow the code of the javā nmard and ʿayyā r; powerful people endowed
with the manly virtues; and people who know the routes and are familiar with the region’
(mardum-i javā nmard-pı̄ sheh va-ʿayyā r va-bā mardum-i tavā ngar va-bā muruvvat va-bā
mardum-i rā h-dā n va-bū m-shinā s, 170).
45
I am unable to identify the individual in question (Levy reads ‘Mudhahhab’; A Mirror for
Princes, 133). It is conceivable that the person intended is connected in some way to the
Muhallabid family, descendants of the Arab general al-Muhallab b. Abı̄ Sufra (c. 10–
˙
82/632–702), who campaigned in Khurasan and was eventually rewarded with the
governorship of the province (see below, Chapter 8, n. 60).

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 The King’s Person and Character

commander, a man of such chivalry (ʿayyā rı̄ ) and importance

(muhtashamı̄ ) as you – are you not ashamed to strike a melon-rind
˙
with a knife?’ Muhallab answered, ‘It was the melon-rind that cast me
down; whom else should I strike with my knife? Whoever assaults me
I strike, for that person is my enemy.’ Never belittle an enemy, no
matter how contemptible he might be; for whoever treats an enemy as
contemptible soon becomes contemptible himself.
Plan, then, for the ruination of your enemy before he has a chance to
enact his plans for your perdition. When you triumph over an enemy, do
not then constantly denigrate him, nor insult him to people with charges
of weakness, because in that event, your victory over him will bring you
no glory, since you will have triumphed only over the powerless and
contemptible. And if, may God be my refuge against such an eventuality,
this enemy should prevail over you, your disgrace and weakness will
become vastly magnified, since you will have fallen at the hands of the
powerless and despised. Take note: whenever a king makes a conquest,
even if his adversaries were few in number, once the poets compose their
verses in commemoration of his victory and the secretaries write their
proclamations of conquest (fathnā meh), they refer first to the adversary’s
˙
consummate power; then they praise his army, liken his cavalry and foot
soldiers to lions and dragons, and heap the utmost praise upon the
various ranks of his army, its centre and wings, and on the generals.
Finally they declare that it was a force of these colossal proportions that
General So-and-so put to flight and forced to retreat when he advanced
with his troops, whose victory was divinely assured (mansū r) – and they
˙
exaggerate in this way in order to proclaim the greatness of their patron
and to evoke the strength of his army. If they had denigrated that
vanquished lot and portrayed their king as powerless, the victorious
king would have garnered scant acclaim; about having defeated an
enemy so weak and powerless, the authors of his charter of victory and
the poets commemorating his triumph would find little reason to boast.

A Story
Once upon a time, in Rayy, the ruler was a woman; they called her by the
title Sayyideh (‘Lady’). 46 She was the daughter of a king. Chaste, austere

46
Shı̄ rı̄ n, the daughter (or possibly granddaughter) of Rustam II (r. c. 353–69/964–79) of
the Bā vandı̄ dynastic family (Ā l-i Bā vand) of Isfahbadhs in Tabaristan and wife of the
Buyid Fakhr al-Dawla (r. 366–87/977–97), was the mother of Rustam Majd al-Dawla (r.

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 Part II Texts

and thoroughly competent, this princess was the daughter of my mater-

nal great-uncle and the wife of Fakhr al-Dawla (ʿAlı̄ b. Rukn al-Dawla,
r. 366–87/977–97). 47 When Fakhr al-Dawla died, he had a young son,
who received the title Majd al-Dawla (d. 420/1029). In name, it was
Majd al-Dawla who became king, but in fact it was the wife of Fakhr al-
Dawla who continued to rule for thirty-odd years.
When Majd al-Dawla grew up, he turned out to be degenerate and
unsuited for kingship. Although it was he who bore the name of king, he
remained in his private quarters, indolent and in constant congress with his
slave-girls, while his mother continued to rule in Rayy, Isfahan and
Quhistan for some thirty-odd years. My point in relating this story is
that your forebear Sultan Mahmū d, may God have mercy upon him, once
˙
sent an envoy to Rayy. The envoy conveyed Mahmū d’s command that the
˙
Sayyideh have the khutba read in his name, that she order his name to be
˙
imprinted on her coinage and that she surrender the land-tax to him.48 If
she did not agree to these conditions, he would advance, take possession of
Rayy and reduce her to nothing; and he made many other threats as well.
When the envoy arrived, he delivered the letter and conveyed Mahmū d’s
˙
message. The Sayyideh said, ‘Tell Sultan Mahmū d that as long as my
˙
husband, Fakhr al-Dawla, was alive, I was constantly apprehensive that the

387–420/997–1029) and Abū Tā hir Shams al-Dawla. When Fakhr al-Dawla died in
˙
387/997, Majd al-Dawla and Shams al-Dawla were, officially, installed as the rulers of
Rayy and Hamadhan respectively. Majd al-Dawla, however, was still a minor at this time:
according to Ibn al-Athı̄ r, he was only four years old (Ibn al-Athı̄ r, al-Kā mil, VII: 489),
or, according to Mustawfı̄ , eleven (Tā rı̄ kh-i guzı̄ deh, 419). The princes’ mother, known as
Sayyideh, assumed the functions of government and remained the actual ruler in Rayy
until her death in 405/1014. During these years, Sayyideh withstood the resistance of her
grown sons and their efforts to unseat her (Majd al-Dı̄ n attempted to wrest control from
her in 397/1006–7), as well as the threats of the Ghaznavid sultan Mahmū d, who, as
Kaykā ʾū s recounts, refrained from attacking Rayy during her lifetime (see ˙ nn. 48, 49).
Mustawfı̄ describes Sayyideh as ‘a highly intelligent woman, highly skilled in her
administration’ (zanı̄ ʿā qileh va-sā hib tadbı̄ r) and remarks that she executed the affairs
˙ ˙
of state with é clat (kā r-i mulk bi-rawnaq mı̄ dā sht) (Tā rı̄ kh-i guzı̄ deh, 420).
47
Both based in the Caspian regions, the Ziyarids and Bā vandids interacted frequently; they
intermarried, and competed over territory (Mazandaran was conquered by Kaykā ʾū s’s
grandfather Qā bū s b. Vushmgı̄ r in 397/1007). See further Madelung, ‘Ā l-e Bā vand’;
‘Minor Dynasties’, 216–19.
48
The appearance of the ruler’s name in the Friday oration on the occasion of the weekly
congregational prayer and in the coinage were the traditional markers of authority; receipt
of the taxes collected in a territory was another marker of rule. A vassal ruler was called
upon to include his (or, as in this case, her) overlord’s name in the oration and coinage and
to submit the taxes collected in his territories to his (or her) suzerain (see above, section
2.2, n. 35).

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 The King’s Person and Character

idea might occur to him to advance towards Rayy. But once my husband
died and the duties of the royal office passed to me, the worry departed
from me. I thought to myself, Mahmū d is an intelligent king; he knows
˙
that a king like him should never go to war against a woman. Now, if you
advance, God, may He be exalted and glorified, knows that I shall not take
to flight; I shall stand ready for battle, because there are only two possible
outcomes: of the two armies, one will be defeated. If I defeat you, I shall
immediately write a proclamation to the whole world; I shall declare that
I have triumphed over a sultan who has vanquished a hundred kings. If, on
the other hand, you defeat me, what can you write? If you say that you have
defeated a woman, you shall win for yourself neither a declaration of
victory nor poems of triumph, since the defeat of a woman is not really
much of a victory.’ On account of these words, for as long as she lived
Sultan Mahmū d never advanced towards Rayy.49
˙
For this reason, I say that you should never go too far in belittling an
enemy. In no circumstances should you feel secure against an enemy,
especially in the case of an enemy inside your household. An enemy
inside the household is to be feared more than a stranger, since the latter
is not as well positioned to observe your affairs as the former. If an enemy
inside your household becomes apprehensive of you, his heart will never
be free of malevolence towards you; he will watch your circumstances
with the utmost attention, while the enemy outside your household can
never obtain the same kind of information about you.
You should never, therefore, enter whole-heartedly into friendship
with any enemy. Instead, keep up a semblance of friendship; it is possible
that the facsimile will become truth, for it often happens that out of
enmity a friendship may arise, just as friendship may turn into enmity.
Friendships and hostilities that arise in this way tend to be fraught
(sakhttar).50
Know that the proximity of enemies is a great misfortune. If you cause
injury to the enemy, do so in such a way that no trouble accrues to you
from your injurious action. Make every effort to ensure that your friends

49
In 420/1029, after Sayyideh’s death and during the reign of her son Majd al-Dawla,
Mahmū d occupied Rayy; the Ghaznavid troops sacked the city, and Majd al-Dawla was
˙
taken prisoner. See further Nagel, ‘Buyids’; Madelung, ‘Ā l-e Bā vand’; and above, section
2.2, n. 47.
50
Literally ‘harder’. I take Kaykā ʾū s to mean that such friendships and hostilities are harder
in the sense that they are more difficult to manage and maintain; it is also possible,
however, that he means they are firmer and more resilient; sakht carries both possible
senses.

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are double the number of your enemies. Seek to have many friends and
few enemies. Yet even if you have a hundred thousand friends, you
should avoid making a single enemy, because those thousands of friends
may be negligent in their solicitude on your behalf, while that one enemy
will never relent in his malevolence towards you.
Regard it as a disgrace when people blow hot and cold; for he who does
not know his own worth is lacking in human dignity (mardumı̄ ). Never
initiate hostilities with an enemy who is more powerful than you are; and
never cease to pursue your advantage against an enemy who is weaker
than you are. But if an enemy seeks refuge with you, even if his hostility
has been bitter and his behaviour towards you hostile, grant him asylum
and consider it a great boon (ghanı̄ mat).51 For people have said, what does
it matter if an enemy is dead, has fled or seeks asylum? But even when you
find your enemy at his weakest, do not relax your guard completely.
If an enemy should perish at your hands, it is permissible for you to
celebrate; but if he dies a natural death, you should not rejoice much at
all, and only if you know for a certainty that you shall not die. As the
philosophers have said: ‘Whoever lives on by a single breath after the
death of his enemy should count that death a boon (ghanı̄ mat).’ But since
we know that we all shall die, it is not appropriate to be particularly
happy. As I have said in a quatrain (dū bayt):
If death overtakes a person who wishes you ill
Why be so quick to celebrate his demise?
Since death will strike you too
Why rejoice at the death of someone else?
We are all preparing for a journey, and we shall carry with us as provi-
sions nothing but our good conduct.
I have heard that Dhū l-Qarnayn, may God have mercy upon him, having
travelled through the world and subjected the entire world to his command,
turned back and began his return.52 When he arrived in Damghan he died.
In his Testament, he left instructions that his body should be placed in
a coffin, cut with holes on each side, and that through these holes, his hands,

51
Literally a spoil of war, appropriate to the context; more generally an unlooked-for benefit
or advantage.
52
Dhū l-Qarnayn (‘The Two-Horned’) is the Qurʾanic figure (Q 18: 83, 86, 94) usually
identified with Alexander the Great (d. 323 BCE); see Renard, ‘Alexander’; Doufikar-
Aerts, Alexander Magnus Arabicus, 93–133. The ancient city of Damghan lies to the south-
east of the Caspian (see Map 1).

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 The King’s Person and Character

with palms open, should be drawn. ‘Carry the coffin in this fashion, so that
the people shall all see that even if we seize the whole world we leave it
empty-handed.’ He also instructed that his mother should receive this
message: ‘If you wish my spirit (ravā n) to be pleased with you, lament my
loss to a person who has never lost someone dear to them, or to someone who
shall never die.’53
Any person whom you cast down with your hand, lift him back up onto
his feet; for if you twist a rope to a certain limit and extent, its strands will
link together, yet if you twist it too much, you will exceed this limit and
the strands will break apart. So maintain the appropriate measure in all
matters, whether in friendship or enmity; for moderation is a part of the
universal intellect (iʿtidā l juzʾ-ı̄ st az ʿaql-i kullı̄ ).54 With persons who
envy you, do your utmost to avoid revealing to them things that will
arouse their anger, in the hope that they might perhaps concede. With
those who wish you ill, you should wish them ill too. With those who seek
increase from you, do not quarrel; feign negligence in their affairs, for their
seeking of advantage shall be their undoing, because the ewer never comes
straight from the water. With fools and those who clamour for war, be
forbearing; but with the arrogant, be arrogant. At all times and in every
matter in which you are involved, do not deviate from the path of humane
courtesy (mardumı̄ ). In times of anger, consider it your obligation to
swallow your anger. Speak gently with friend and foe; be agreeable in
your speech, because courteous speech is a kind of magic (jā dū ʾı̄ ).
Whatever you say, good or bad, do not lose sight of the likely answer,
and whatever you would not wish to hear, do not force others to hear.
Whatever you cannot say in front of people, do not say behind their backs.
Do not threaten people when you have no grounds to do so, nor boast of
things that you have not done. Rather than saying that you intend to do
something, speak only when you have accomplished it. As I have said:
Idol, I have cast my love for you out of my heart;
I have made that mountain of sorrows into a plain.

53
Cf. Pseudo-Callisthenes, The Greek Alexander Romance, 156. According to Pseudo-
Callisthenes, Alexander died in Babylon (The Greek Alexander Romance, 150–1).
54
In several systems of philosophical and metaphysical thought, the Universal Intellect or
Intelligence (also the First, Active or Actual Intellect) is the first emanation issuing from
the Necessary Being (wā jib al-wujū d); the concept became particularly prominent and
well developed in certain Shiʿi and Sufi discourses. The theory underlies and shapes
Kaykā ʾū s’s understanding of the cosmos and the place of humanity within it; cf.
Qā bū snā meh, 244–5.

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I shall not tell you today what I shall do

But tomorrow you shall know, when I tell you what I have done.

Know that action is worth more than words. But keep your mouth shut
with a person who, if he wished to speak ill of you, would be able to do so.
Never be two-faced and keep away from two-faced people. A slanderer is
more to be feared than a seven-headed dragon; the damage that a slanderer
can inflict in an hour cannot be repaired in a year. However great and
powerful (muhtasham) you might be, do not quarrel with a person stronger
˙
than you are. As the philosopher, in his wise counsel, has said:
If you wish to be spared from tribulation, practise ten qualities. Do not
contend with someone stronger than you are. Do not argue with
someone who is quick tempered. Do not spend your time with someone
who is jealous. Do not dispute with ignorant people. Do not befriend
dissemblers. Do not engage with liars. Do not associate with misers. Do
not drink wine with anyone who is bad-tempered and jealous. Do not
consort too frequently with women. Do not reveal your secrets to
anyone, lest you detract from the lustre of your stature and dignity;
yet if someone finds fault with you, strive to banish that fault.
Do not conduct yourself with such ostentation that if you were deprived
of such ceremony your standing would diminish. Do not praise anyone so
excessively that if one day you should need to disparage him you could
not do so. Do not disparage anyone to the extent that if one day you
should need to praise that person you could not do so. Never attempt, by
your anger and reproach, to intimidate someone who has accomplished
a task without your support – because someone who is independent of
you has no reason to fear your blame and anger, and by seeking to
intimidate him you will have exposed yourself to his derision. Do not
regard the person who is unable to accomplish any task without your
support as altogether helpless, and do not treat him in an overbearing
manner. Do not arouse the anger of others against a person, and even if he
commits a major offense, overlook it. Do not without cause bring charges
against those who are subservient to you; it is through them that you
prosper, and it is in your interests that they should not flee from you.
Keep your subordinates (kihtarā n) prosperous, because they are your
estates; if you maintain your estates in a flourishing condition, you shall
be well set up; but if you ruin your estates, you shall be left with neither
provisions nor profit. Retain a servant who carries out your commands.

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When you issue a command, do not instruct two people to execute it,
in order to avoid mistakes in the matter. As it has been said, a pot with
two people in charge never comes to the boil. As Farrukhı̄ (c. 390–
431/1000–40) said in a hemistich (misrā ʿ):
˙
A house with two mistresses remains unswept.55
There is an Arabic proverb:
Too many sailors cause the ship to sink.56
If you are charged to execute a command (farmā n), do not wish for
a partner or companion, lest you introduce error and deficiency into the
task at hand, and in order to retain your lord’s continuing satisfaction. Be
generous (karı̄ m) with friend and foe alike. Do not be severe over people’s
misdeeds; do not overreact to the slightest slip of the tongue; do not insist
on punishment, whether a person’s claim is valid or invalid. Keep fast to
the path of generosity (karam), so that every tongue shall sing your praises.

55
Abū l-Hasan ʿAlı̄ Farrukhı̄ Sı̄ stā nı̄ , an eminent poet in Persian; he served at several courts
˙
in the eastern regions, including the Ghaznavid court, where he composed panegyrics for
Sultan Mahmū d and his son Masʿū d (r. 421–32/1031–40) as well as for various princes
˙ (Meneghini, ‘Farrukhı̄ Sı̄ stā nı̄ ’). Nizā m al-Mulk also cites this maxim,
and ministers
˙
which he regards as a proverb (mathal) (Siyar al-mulū k, 213–14 = Darke, Book of
Government, 158).
56
Al-Maydā nı̄ , Majmaʿ al-amthā l, II: 329; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Khā ss al-khā ss, 35.
˙˙ ˙˙

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 7

Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles

of Governance

If divine selection and personal merit constituted important elements in

the rhetoric of royal legitimacy, they required demonstration in the
ruler’s measured but effective exercise of his power. Several rulers held
up their military triumphs, especially against external enemies, as evi-
dence of their fitness to rule,1 but for mirror-writers, it was usually the
condition of the realm, particularly its stability and prosperity, that
reflected most distinctly the king’s disposition, qualifications and div-
inely mandated success (or the lack thereof). Foremost among the prin-
ciples of governance was justice, understood partly in legal terms – the
ruler was responsible for upholding the law – and partly in terms of the
king’s judicious management of the multiple constituencies who made up
his realm. 2 The ruler’s duty to the law reflected his power but also
imposed limits upon it; it obliged him to consult and heed the leading
jurists.3 In cases of injustice, particularly cases that involved extortion
and abuse perpetrated by royal agents against the subject population, it
was the ruler who constituted the recourse of last resort. 4

1
Once again, Carolingian history provides instructive parallels; see Fouracre, ‘Conflict,
Power and Legitimation in Francia’, 19–21, 23.
2
Both conceptions are ancient (Darling, History of Social Justice). The ‘circle of justice’, in
many variants, depicted the interconnections and interdependence of the various indis-
pensable elements of the polity (Sadan, ‘A “Closed-Circuit” Saying’; Darling, ‘Circle of
Justice’; and see below, Text 9). For the well-being of the individual as well as the
collectivity, it fell to the ruler to ensure that each person practised the profession
appropriate to his or her station (see also the ‘Letter of Themistius’, 40).
3
This theme appears also in the ninth-century writings of Hincmar of Rheims (806–82)
(see Nelson, ‘Kingship, Law and Liturgy’, esp. 275–7, 279).
4
Cf. Arjomand, ‘Religion, Political Action and Legitimate Domination’, 71.

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

The four texts that comprise this chapter address the underlying supports
of royal authority and the principles that rulers should adopt in their govern-
ance. Justice, central to the theory of virtue treated in Chapter 6, here appears
as central to the theory of governance. The compelling injunction to rule with
justice was taken seriously by many Muslim rulers of the period. The
Samanid amir Ismā ʿı̄ l b. Ahmad, for example, held regular sessions for the
˙
redress of grievances; the Seljuk sultan Tughril held a mazā lim court in
˙
Nishapur in 429/1038; Sultan Malikshā h dispatched heralds throughout the
Seljuk Empire, and ordered the proclamation in the mosques that he person-
ally would hear and investigate complaints of injustice.5

Text 9
Pseudo-Aristotle, Sirr al-asrā r. Third
Discourse 6

Translator’s Introduction
This widely disseminated pseudo-Aristotelian text constitutes a formative
element in the development of political discourse in the Muslim and
Christian spheres. The extract presented in Text 9 opens with an analogy
between God’s role in the cosmos and the king’s role in human societies.
The premise, alluded to in the penultimate paragraph of Text 9, is that
Alexander had requested Aristotle’s presence and counsel, a summons that
the philosopher-teacher rejected, but for which he substituted his instruc-
tion in the written form of the correspondence. Among the text’s distin-
guishing features is a ‘circular’ formulation, that is, a proposition that begins
and ends with a single theme, and passes through a series of interlinked
elements. This eight-pointed proposition, frequently depicted in graphic
form, highlights the theme of justice; like similar formulations, often
described as ‘circles of justice’, it constituted a staple of political writing,

5
Marlow, Counsel for Kings, I: 49, 51; Lambton, ‘Internal Structure of the Saljuq Empire’,
227; Bosworth, ‘Political and Dynastic History’, 86.
6
Translation prepared from Sirr al-asrā r, in al-Usū l al-yū nā niyya lil-nazariyyā t al-
˙ ˙
siyā siyya fı̄ l-Islā m, ed. ʿAbd al-Rahmā n Badawı̄ (Cairo: Dā r al-Kutub al-Misriyya,
˙ ˙
1954), 125–7. For the corresponding section in Ismail Ali’s translation, see Secretum
secretorum cum glossis et notulis, ed. Robert Steele; including the translation from the
Arabic [by Ismail Ali], ed. A. S. Fulton, in Opera hactenus inedita Rogeri Baconi, Fasc.
V (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1920), 224–7 (Discourse III).

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 Part II Texts

its association in this case with Aristotle lending it stature and prestige. The
‘circle of justice’ refers exclusively to the present world, but mirror-writers,
including Pseudo-Aristotle, present justice as the linchpin of the divinely
ordained cosmos, as a reflection of the wisdom and attributes of the Creator;
without it, nothing can flourish. The veracity of Aristotle’s words is often
demonstrated in the mirror literature with reference to the paradigmatic
emblems of Sasanian royal justice and Islamic justice, in the figures,
respectively, of Ardashı̄ r and Anū shı̄ rvā n, and the Prophet, ʿUmar and ʿAlı̄ .

Translation
Third Discourse: On the Form of Justice
O Alexander, justice is a noble attribute; it is one of the attributes of
the Creator, may His name be exalted. The king, to whom God has
entrusted the care of His servants, whom He has appointed over their
affairs and management, and to whom He has granted authority over
their persons, properties, lives and all their affairs, is like a god. Since
he resembles a god, it is imperative that he resemble Him in all his
states: God is wise and merciful, and His names and attributes are
many more than can be counted.
Wisdom, O Alexander, opposes injustice, and the opposite of injust-
ice is justice. By justice the heavens rise above the earth, and by justice
the holy prophets have been sent. Justice is the form of reason that God,
great and glorious, has praised in the most beloved of His creation. By
justice the earth is made prosperous, kingdoms rise and the people
become obedient. By justice the disaffected become reconciled, the
distant are brought close, souls are safeguarded against all harm and
kings made secure from all corruption. In this vein, the people of India
have said: ‘The ruler’s justice benefits the subjects more than a time of
prosperity,’7 and among the pronouncements of their philosophers is
the maxim, ‘A just ruler is more beneficial than a copious and continu-
ous rainfall’.8 Moreover, a certain stone bears a Syriac inscription that

7
See above, Text 3 and n. 122, and the following note.
8
The saying is variously attributed (for the present reading, see Manzalaoui, ‘The Pseudo-
Aristotelian Kitā b Sirr al-asrā r’, 241). In Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 9, and al-
Nuwayrı̄ , Nihā yat al-arab, VI: 34, the maxim is ascribed to al-hukamā ʾ. It also appears
˙
attributed to Ardashı̄ r (ʿAhd Ardashı̄ r, 99, ‘Scattered Sayings’, no. 18; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b
al-mulū k, 54; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Iʿjā z wa-l-ı̄ jā z, 62, no. 34 (where al-Sā hib b. ʿAbbā d insists
˙ ˙

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

reads, ‘As for kingship and justice, neither one can dispense with the
other’.9
All things derive from, in each case, an element that constitutes its
ground (sabab), a cause that comprises the action that compels its
existence, and an agent who is wise and powerful. The element’s
acceptance of the imprint of the action constitutes the effect. The
ground that is the element is potential, and the effect is the existent
that manifests the wisdom of the Wise Creator. The element’s accept-
ance of the imprinting of the action, in accordance with its capacity to
accept, is justice.10
Justice, then, falls into two divisions: the manifest and the hidden.11
The manifest is that which is apparent in the acts of the disposing
Creator, in the conditions of equality and balance in weight and
measure, since ‘justice’ derives its name from these conditions.12
The hidden kind of justice entails conviction in the Creator’s wisdom,
in the perfection of His creations and in the truth of His words. It is
rightful that you should strive to arrange the kingdom in a manner that
corresponds to the wisdom of the Creator. In a similar manner, the
king’s actions with regard to the people near him, both his inner circle
and the common people, should rest on a foundation of justice, in
perpetuation of the wisdom of the Creator and in accordance with His
will for them. The king, too, must be convinced of this necessity, so
that by his conviction the law (nā mū s) will reach perfection in the
consummation of his rule, and by the apparent aspects of his actions he
will win the hearts of the subjects. The privileged and the common

that the king should inscribe these words in his innermost heart); al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ghurar al-
siyar, 483); among the maxims of ʿAlı̄ (al-Qā dı̄ al-Qudā ʾı̄ , Dustū r maʿā lim al-hikam, in
˙ ˙ ˙
Qutbuddin, Treasury of Virtues, 16, 17; al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k, I: 215; and see below,
Text 12, n. 55); and among the pronouncements ˙ ˙ of ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀ s (al-Ā bı̄ , Nathr al-durr, I:
˙
256; al-Rā ghib al-Isfahā nı̄ , Muhā darā t al-udabā ʾ, I: 169).
9 ˙ ˙ ˙
The present rendering follows Badawı̄ , al-Usū l al-yū nā niyya, 125. Manzalaoui points out,
˙
however, that this wording departs from the frequent inclusion of the term akhawā n,
‘twin brothers’ (‘The Pseudo-Aristotelian Kitā b Sirr al-asrā r’, 240, and 216; cf. Steele,
Secretum secretorum, 224–5, nn. 3, 4). Cf. Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 23 (inna
al-mulk wa-l-ʿadl akhawā n lā ghinā bi-ahadihimā ʿan sā hibihi, from Ardashı̄ r). Often
encountered is the form in which the two ˙ concepts are ˙ ˙kingship (or sovereignty) and
religion; see above, Chapter 5, n. 125.
10
Cf. al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar; see above, Text 7, at n. 24.
11 ˙
The categories zā hir and bā tin, manifest or visible and hidden or invisible, form a binary
˙ ˙
that runs throughout Sirr al-asrā r (see Manzalaoui, ‘The Pseudo-Aristotelian Kitā b Sirr
al-asrā r’, 165, 211).
12
The root ʿ-d-l, from which the term ʿadl, ‘justice’, derives, connotes equality and balance.

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 Part II Texts

people comprise different categories, and the spreading of justice

among them differs accordingly. ‘Justice’ is a noun, and its meaning
involves equity (insā f), the removal of injustice, the soundness of
˙
weights and the equivalence of measures; it is a term that encompasses
the characteristics of manly virtue, the qualities of nobility and acts of
kindness.
Justice is divisible into various kinds. One sort of justice is the
kind necessary to rulers (hukkā m) in their governance (hukm).
˙ ˙
Another sort of justice is the kind necessary to the human being
in the responsibility that he bears for himself in relation to his
Creator. Then there is the kind of justice required in your dealings
with other people according to their conditions and the level of
your connections with them.

Figure 3 A ‘circle of justice’, depicting in decorative diagrammatic form

the eight points of the formulation that appears at the end of the passage
rendered in Text 9. This image appears in the top section of a page from
an Arabic copy (possibly produced in the fourteenth century) of Kitā b
al-Siyā sa fı̄ tadbı̄ r al-riyā sa.
Photograph: The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford,
MS Laud Or. 210, f. 90r. Reproduced in accordance with
Creative Commons Licence CC-BY-NC 4.0

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

I shall illustrate this principle for you in an octagonal figure

[Fig. 3], incorporating wisdom, philosophy, law and divinity. This
figure shall teach you about the world in its entirety: it comprehends
the governance of the world, and it includes the world’s categories
and how to deliver the necessary justice to each category. I have
divided the image according to the divisions of the celestial sphere;
each of its divisions represents a category. Begin with whichever
division you wish; it will lead you to the following division, like the
continuous revolution of the firmament. Since all forms of adminis-
tration, upper and lower, involve the world, I have seen fit to begin
this guide with the world.
This figure, Alexander, captures the essence of this book, and it
represents the most praiseworthy guide for you in the pursuit of your
objective. Had I sent you nothing else in response to your request, this
figure would have sufficed for you. If you reflect upon it with sincere
consideration, it will assist you in your affairs, guide you towards your
ambitions and bring you fulfilment in everything that you love, if God
wills.
The world is a garden, and its fence is the state (al-dawla)
The state is power (sultā n), constrained by law (sunna)
˙
Law is governance (siyā sa), which is administered by the king
The king is a shepherd, supported by the army
The army are auxiliaries (aʿwā n), whose provisions require revenue
Revenue provides sustenance, and it is produced by the subjects
The subjects are servants, and they are subject to justice
Justice is concord, and the foundation of the world.13

13
See also al-Mubashshir b. Fā tik, Mukhtā r al-hikam, 222; Ibn al-Haddā d, al-Jawhar al-
˙ ˙
nafı̄ s, 66–7 (ascribed to Anū shı̄ rvā n al-hakı̄ m); Ibn Juljul, Tabaqā t al-atibbā ʾ wa-l-
˙ ˙ ˙
-hukamā ʾ, 26; al-Murā dı̄ , Kitā b al-Ishā ra, 145–6; and see further Subtelny, Le monde
˙
est un jardin, 58–65, esp. 62. This circular, eight-pointed formulation was reputedly
inscribed on the eight sides of Aristotle’s tomb; see Ibn Juljul, Tabaqā t al-atibbā ʾ wa-
˙ ˙
l-hukamā ʾ, 26; Ibn Abı̄ Usaybiʿa, ʿUyū n al-anbā ʾ, 102–3; al-Shayzarı̄ , al-Nahj al-maslū k,
˙ ˙
98. Manuscript copies of the Kitā b al-Siyā sa frequently include illustrations of this
circular model of justice; for some examples, see Figs. 2 and 3. In the ‘Long Form’ of
the Sirr al-asrā r, the eight-pointed formulation is sometimes followed by a differently
formulated ‘circle’ of justice (lā . . . illā bi-); see below, n. 58. Often identified as a Persian
political concept, the ‘circle of justice’, as Linda Darling has pointed out, consists of
interconnected ideas that, while they certainly flourished in Iran, were not exclusively or
first attested in Persian contexts, but reach far back into antiquity (‘“The Vicegerent of
God”’).

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Text 10
Al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-
˙
zafar. Part II, Section 14

˙
Translator’s Introduction
In the source text, al-Mā wardı̄ ’s Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar, Text 10
˙ ˙
follows Text 3, and it in turn is followed by Text 13. These three texts,
presented in different chapters of this anthology, represent the first sec-
tions of part II of al-Mā wardı̄ ’s mirror. The section offered in Text 10
details principles of sovereignty and governance, in two divisions: the
three necessary foundations involved in the founding of sovereignty,
whereby it is strongly built and enduring; and the four principles or
foundations involved in the governance of the realm. Text 10 covers al-
Mā wardı̄ ’s discussion of the first of these two areas. The three foundations
of sovereignty, in his exposition, are religion, force and wealth. Al-
Mā wardı̄ assesses the significance of these three foundations of sover-
eignty, which he treats in a hierarchical sequence, and the ways in which
each one is liable to become compromised. The entire discussion reflects
al-Mā wardı̄ ’s strongly ethical outlook. He sets great store by the subjects’
voluntary and willing obedience to the king, an obedience that the king
earns by merit, and which comprises an essential element in his legitimacy
as well as a necessary practical condition for any lasting polity.

Translation
Section
The pillars of sovereignty, I propose, rest on two things: governance and
a firm foundation. Constructing the foundation of sovereignty entails the
establishment of beginnings and principles, and the laying down of
sovereignty’s bases and components. There are three parts to the foun-
dation of sovereignty: religion, force, and property and wealth.
The first part, that is, the foundation of religion, is the firmest base of
the three, the most enduring of them over time, and the most conducive

14
Translation prepared from al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar, 203–6. For the
˙ ˙
corresponding section in Abbè s’s translation into French, see Abbè s, De l’É thique du
prince, 361–5.

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

to garnering the subjects’ sincerity in their obedience. Any transfer of

sovereignty on religious grounds will occur only in one of three ways.
The first possibility is that the king may deviate from the established
forms of religion to the point that he becomes unfit, and he may display
a religious outlook that is contrary to established doctrine. In this case,
the people will shun him as long as he remains mild, and they will oppose
him if he becomes harsh. In their hearts, the people will disobey him,
even if their bodies comply with his commands. They will seek a means
of deliverance from him and open the gates to revolt against him. They
will readily expend their lives and their possessions in order to protect
their religion. Accordingly, the king’s sovereignty will be exposed to
whomever seeks it, his womenfolk potential booty to the marauder. As
the Greek philosopher said:
The people will tolerate an unjust king unless he disregards the
pillars of prosperity and transgresses the foundations of the law; if
he takes aim at those two things, the end of his term will rapidly
approach.15
The second possibility is that the king may be a person who denigrates
religion, despises its practitioners, neglects its ordinances and dispenses
with its guiding fixtures, to the point that religious precepts remain
unimplemented and religious duties cease to be observed – whether
because of a lack of religious commitment on the king’s part, or because
of his surrender to the pursuit of pleasures. The people will consider
religion the stronger obligation, and they will find its duties and precepts
more compelling. As a result, the king’s religion will suffer serious
compromise and his sovereignty will dissolve. A philosopher has said:
When the state is on the rise, passions are in the service of intellects;
when the state is disintegrating, it is intellects that serve passions.16
The third possibility is that the king may originate a repugnant
innovation in religion, and he may subscribe to offensive doctrines. If
these practices and ideas spread and persist, the religion will suffer
alteration, modification and impairment. People’s souls will recoil from
any religion other than the religion whose tenets ring true to them, and
whose principles and foundations are established in their hearts.

15
See also Sirā j al-mulū k, below, at n. 70.
16
Al-Mubashshir b. Fā tik, Mukhtā r al-hikam, 138 (among the pronouncements of Plato).
˙

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 Part II Texts

Consequently, the king’s religion will meet with rejection and his sover-
eignty will be abolished.
If these three conditions should beset the religion, and if there should
appear an individual who rises in its support, rejects the alterations
introduced by the innovators and follows the established practices, the
people will willingly offer him their obedience and give him their strong
support and assistance. They will regard the risk of their lives in support
of him to be a divinely mandated duty, and assistance to him as one of
God’s binding commandments. This individual will therefore possess
the people’s hearts and their bodies, and he will be in a position to claim
the loyalty of the ruler’s officials (aʿwā n) and his troops. If these groups,
in transferring their support to this person, stand to gain a goodly portion
in this world and to combine, through him, their interests in this world
with their well-being in the next, the challenger will find himself
impelled towards sovereignty without even seeking it, desired for it
without evincing desire for it. He will find every difficulty made smooth
for him, and every peril diminished. The foundation of the challenger’s
sovereignty will be so strong that it will obviate any possibility of resist-
ance to his power, and his supporters will not waver in their assistance.
These developments arise from the differences between the sovereignty
of a person who seeks it and the sovereignty of a person who, rather than
seeking it, is sought for it; between obedience shown to a person who
demands it and obedience that is willingly given.
The second part of sovereignty’s foundation is the foundation of force.
With regard to this foundation, the good order of the realm is liable to
dissolution either through the ruler’s negligence and powerlessness, or
through his tyranny and oppression. In these cases, the powerful will
dedicate themselves to the pursuit of sovereignty, and the mighty will
turn against the ruler, either out of their ambition for sovereignty in its
time of weakness or in defence of the kingdom against unrelenting
tyranny. An army is able to bring this course of action to completion
only if it combines three qualities: large numbers, manifest bravery and
the command of a leader whose appointment over his troops rests either
on his lineage and paternal descent or on his excellent judgement and
courage. If the soldiery, by dint of its large numbers, is able to seize power
and to capture it by force, these actions will produce a sovereignty based
on coercion. If they proceed to act justly towards the subjects and to
display good conduct among them, their sovereignty will be rooted in an
implicit delegation (of legitimate authority) and the obedience of the

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

population, and it will grow stable and firm.17 If, on the contrary, the
soldiers are unjust and harsh, then the basis of their rule will consist of
usurpation and the exercise of force; tyranny will destroy it and oppres-
sion will eliminate it – but only after they have already brought the
subjects to perdition and the territories have fallen into ruin.
The third part of sovereignty’s foundation is the foundation of prop-
erty and wealth. When wealth becomes abundant among a people
(qawm), it sometimes fosters among them the ambitious aspiration to
attain sovereignty. In fact, this is a rare occurrence, except in the case of
individuals who have already had dealings with power and have associ-
ated with the leading officials (aʿwā n) of the realm. In a case of this kind,
the ruler’s supporters may seek to achieve their desires through obedi-
ence to the aspirant, and they may deliver the power of command to his
leadership. This process is unlikely to proceed to its completion unless
the king is weak and fragile, and his supporters and subordinate leaders
corrupt. It is said in the ‘Transmitted Wisdom’:
Wealth has the potential to make a lord out of a person who is not
a lord, and to strengthen an individual who lacks strength.18
If sovereignty is transferred as a result of wealth, wealth is the weakest factor
in the foundation of sovereignty and the shortest in duration; for wealth
becomes depleted as a result of the objectives of those who seek it, and it
disappears through the initiatives of those who desire it. It has been said:
He who loves you on account of a particular thing will turn his back
on you as soon as that thing has passed.19

Solomon, son of David, upon him be peace, said:

The ruler who depends for his sovereignty upon his wealth will face
an abrupt fall from power. If his wealth is accompanied by some
other source of firmness for his sovereignty, [it will play a role in the

17
Al-Mā wardı̄ ’s willingness to condone power attained through violence and usurpation as
long as the new authorities rule with justice and clemency towards the subjects is
a striking part of his political thinking; his notion of ‘delegation’ (tafwı̄ d) is developed at
greater length in his al-Ahkā m al-sultā niyya (23, 92–3). Al-Thaʿā libı̄ and ˙ Nizā m al-Mulk
˙ ˙ ˙
portray the passing of power from one dynasty to another as part of the divine plan; al-
Mā wardı̄ , more explicitly, makes the legitimacy of power gained by force conditional on
the exercise of justice and virtuous behaviour.
18
Al-Tawhı̄ dı̄ , al-Imtā ʿ wa-l-muʾā nasa, II: 259. On manthū r al-hikam, see above, Chapter 6,
˙ ˙
n. 31.
19
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Iʿjā z wa-l-ı̄ jā z, 57, no. 18 (on the authority of B.l.h.z., an Indian king).

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 Part II Texts

maintenance of his rule]; if not, his sovereignty faces an imminent

demise and will be transferred in short order [to someone else].20

You should know that at their inception, states begin with rough natures and
severe violence; under these conditions, the people are quick to show their
obedience. Over time, the state moderates, with the ruler’s exercise of
mildness and uprightness, which will uphold his sovereignty and ensure
the subjects’ equanimity. Eventually, it reaches its end, through the spread of
injustice and extreme weakness, results of the disorder in affairs and a lack of
constructive resolve.21 Kings, in their opinions and natures, develop in
accordance with these three conditions. Our forebears have likened the
state to a piece of fruit: it begins fine to the touch, but bitter in taste; as it
matures, it becomes softer in texture and agreeable in taste; finally, once fully
ripe, it decays rapidly, and it changes in its form. Similarly, just as the state
originates in force, it terminates in weakness; it begins with loyalty and ends
with perfidy, since loyalty supports the realm whereas treachery engenders
fear and abandonment.22

Text 11
Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k. Chapter
˙ Three 23

Translator’s Introduction
The subject of Nizā m al-Mulk’s third chapter in Siyar al-mulū k is the royal
˙
duty to hear and redress grievances (mazā lim). This activity was at once an
˙
20
Cf. Proverbs XI: 28: ‘Those who trust in their riches will wither, but the righteous will
flourish like green leaves’ (New Oxford Annotated Bible, 816).
21
Cf. Ibn Khaldū n, in Rosenthal, The Muqaddimah, II: 118–28.
22
The components of this paragraph, including the metaphor of the fruit, appear as
statements of Plato in al-Mubashshir b. Fā tik, Mukhtā r al-hikam, 163, 176, and Gutas,
˙
Greek Wisdom Literature in Arabic Translation, 146–7, no. 67. See further Gutas, Greek
Wisdom Literature in Arabic Translation, 136–7, 148–9, nos. 45, 68, 69 (Plato), and Ibn
Khaldū n, in Rosenthal, The Muqaddimah, I: 343–6.
23
Translation prepared from Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k, ed. Hubert Darke (Tehran:
˙
Bungā h-i Tarjameh va-Nashr-i Kitā b, 1962), 18–29. For the corresponding section in
Darke’s translation, see H. S. G. Darke, The Book of Government or Rules for Kings,
Revised Edition (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978), 13–22; and for a German
translation, see Karl Emil Schabinger, Nizā mulmulk, Reichskanzler der Saldschuqen 1063–
1092 n. Chr. – Siyā satnā ma, Gedanken und Geschichten (Freiburg/Munich: Verlag Karl
Alber, 1960), 106–15.

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

essential part of the king’s royal responsibility and a symbolic ceremonial

performance of his dedication to maintaining justice. Nizā m al-Mulk moves
˙
rapidly from asserting the necessity for the ruler to sit regularly for the
redress of grievances to an extended narrative sequence which apparently
takes him far away from his chapter’s stated topic, but which underlined the
imperative for the ruler’s direct oversight in the governance of his realm.
The story of the Saffarid amir Yaʿqū b b. al-Layth (Pers. Yaʿqū b-i Layth)
provides an example, from Nizā m al-Mulk’s point of view, of the issue of
˙
usurpation and legitimacy addressed in the preceding text of al-Mā wardı̄ .
Moreover, the caliph, in Nizā m al-Mulk’s telling, seeks to portray Yaʿqū b in
˙
the terms that al-Mā wardı̄ had designated as destructive to royal authority:
innovation in religion, abandonment of established beliefs and practices,
reliance on force, illicit seizures of wealth. The theme of heterodoxy
addressed in direct terms later in Nizā m al-Mulk’s mirror is anticipated in
˙
this chapter. The note on which Nizā m al-Mulk ends the narrative is
˙
a lament for the lapsed honesty among the appointed officials (gumā shtagā n)
of his time. Incompetent and self-interested officials, he argues, subvert the
commitment to justice on which the population depends. Nizā m al-Mulk
˙
begins and ends his chapter with the admired Samanid amir Ismā ʿı̄ l,
celebrated for the extreme lengths of physical hardship to which he was
prepared to go in order to accommodate potential petitioners. Ismā ʿı̄ l, it
seems, provided the associative link between the long story with no apparent
connection to the topic of mazā lim and the brief account that brings Nizā m
˙ ˙
al-Mulk back to the stated subject of his chapter.

Translation
Chapter Three: On the King’s Sitting for the Redress of Grievances
and the Practice of Fine Conduct
It is incumbent upon the king that on two days a week, he should sit for
the redress of grievances. 24 On those days, he should extract justice from
the unjust, dispense equity and listen with his own ears, without an

24
The ancient practice of sitting for the redress of grievances – hearing and adjudicating
upon the petitions submitted by individual subjects – was an important component of the
royal office. From the early centuries of the Islamic era onwards, a variety of personnel –
governors, caliphs, viziers, deputies of viziers, judges, rulers and persons whom the ruler
designated specifically for the task (such as the sā hib al-mazā lim or nā zir al-mazā lim) –
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
took responsibility for the function. Very widespread, in provincial as well as central
locations, the courts of complaint represented a parallel system of justice to the system

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 Part II Texts

intermediary, to the words of his subjects. In addition, a certain number

of the more important written petitions (qisseh) should be submitted, and
˙˙
the king should provide a ruling (mathā l) in each case. 25 The reason for
these practices is that when the news spreads throughout the kingdom
that on two days a week the Lord of the World summons into his
presence persons who have been aggrieved and are seeking justice, and
that he listens to their words, all oppressors will become afraid, and they
will refrain from aggression. No one will dare to commit injustice or
extortion out of fear of punishment.

A Story on This Theme

I have read in the books of the ancients that most of the Persian kings
used to erect a high platform. They positioned themselves, mounted on
horseback, on top of this platform, so that they could see all the petition-
ers who had gathered on the plain and deliver justice to each one of them.
Their reason was that when the king sits in a place that has gates, doors,
locks, halls, screens and chamberlains, self-interested persons and

represented by the court of the qadi; the two systems were not entirely separate, however,
since judges quite often presided over mazā lim as well as sharʿı̄ courts. It was al-Mā wardı̄
˙
who first provided a comprehensive theoretical treatment of the topic (al-Ahkā m al-
˙
sultā niyya, 86–107 = Wahba, Ordinances of Government, 87–106), yet in practice the area
˙
of jurisdiction covered by the mazā lim system had been less clearly defined than al-
Mā wardı̄ ’s portrayal would suggest˙ (van Berkel, ‘Abbasid Mazā lim between Theory and
˙
Practice’; see also Shahar, ‘Legal Pluralism’, 126–8). Its significance to al-Mā wardı̄ , and,
as Text 11 indicates, Nizā m al-Mulk, reveals the importance of the court of complaints in
˙
the creation of political legitimacy; the high value of the public enactment of justice is
further evidenced in the twelfth century, when three cities – Damascus, Aleppo and
Cairo – in the eastern Mediterranean region saw the construction of purpose-built
‘houses of justice’ (sing. dā r al-ʿadl). The theoretical appeal of mazā lim lay in its role as
˙
the mechanism whereby the lowliest of the subjects came face-to-face with the powerful
sovereign (or his deputy) in expectation of a just resolution, often against the abuse of the
sovereign’s own officials; in practice, it sometimes provided a mask for state violence (see
Tillier, ‘Courts of Law’; Tillier, ‘Qā dı̄ s and the Political Use of the Mazā lim Jurisdiction’;
˙ ˙
Rabbat, ‘Dā r al-ʿadl’; Rabbat, ‘Ideological Significance’).
25
The qissa (Pers. qisseh) was a written petition (synonymous with Ar. ruqʿa); it might
˙˙
be submitted ˙˙ court of mazā lim, or, according to Hanafı̄ legal procedures, in
in the
˙ ˙
the context of the sharia system, which otherwise admitted oral complaints (see
Tillier, ‘Courts of Law’; Berkel, ‘Abbasid Mazā lim between Theory and Practice’,
˙
237). For an example of a qissa submitted to Sitt al-Mulk, half-sister of the
˙˙
Fatimid caliph al-Hā kim (r. 386–411/996–1021) and head of the Fatimid state
˙
between his death and her own in 414/1023, see Rustow, ‘Petition to a Woman at
the Fatimid Court’.

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

oppressors can impede the people’s access and prevent them from going
before the king.

A Story on This Theme

I have heard it told that a certain king was hard of hearing. He worried
that the people who were interpreting for him and his chamberlains
might not convey his petitioners’ words to him correctly, and that he
might, in ignorance of the true circumstances, pronounce a decree that
did not accord with the matter in question. He issued a command that
petitioners, and petitioners alone, should dress in red clothing, so that he
would be able to recognise them. Mounted on an elephant, this king
positioned himself on the plain. When he saw anyone dressed in red, he
ordered that all such persons should be brought together in a group.
Then he sat in a space that was otherwise empty. Each petitioner was
brought forward, so that, in a loud voice, he could state his matter, and
the king could deliver justice to each one.26
Kings have taken all these precautions so that, when they are called
upon to answer in the next world, nothing will have escaped their
knowledge.

The Story of the Just Amir

Among the Samanid kings there was one who was called Amir Ismā ʿı̄ l
Ibn Ahmad (r. 279–95/892–907). He was extremely just and followed
˙
many fine practices. He possessed a pure belief in God, may He be
exalted and glorified, and he gave generously to the poor. People still
talk about his excellent conduct. This Ismā ʿı̄ l was a ruler whose capital
was in Bukhara; his forefathers had held Khurasan, Iraq and
Transoxiana.
Yaʿqū b-i Layth [= the Saffarid amir Yaʿqū b b. al-Layth (r. 253–
65/867–79)] raised a revolt in the town (shahr) of Zarang and seized all

26
For versions of this frequently invoked story, see Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-
˙˙
mansū b ilā . . . al-Mā wardı̄ , 399; Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, part I, 31–2 (= Bagley,
Ghazā lı̄ ’s Book of Counsel for Kings, 21); al-Turt ˙ ˙ū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k, I: 223 (= Text 12,
˙ ˙
see below, at nn. 74–5). In several of these cases, the account, set in China, is embedded in
a narrative in which a lone renunciant voices a complaint against a caliph (identified in
Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s version as al-Mansū r) for the corruption and oppression that he has
˙
allowed to flourish; in Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s much longer version, the attentiveness of the
Chinese sovereign, an unbeliever (mushrik), is held up as an example to the Muslim
(Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-mansū b ilā . . . al-Mā wardı̄ , 397–400).
˙˙

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 Part II Texts

of Sistan.27 Next he entered Khurasan and seized that province; from

Khurasan he went to Iraq and seized it in its entirety. Missionaries
(dā ʿiyā n) deceived him, and he secretly pledged allegiance to the
Ismailis. 28 In his heart he fostered hostility towards the caliph of
Baghdad. Then he mustered the armies of Khurasan and Iraq and
made for Baghdad in order to put the caliph to death and overthrow
the House of the Abbasids.
The caliph received word that Yaʿqū b had set out for Baghdad. He
sent an envoy to say, ‘You have no business in Baghdad; it would be more
appropriate for you to pay attention to Kuhistan in Iraq and Khurasan, in
order to ensure that no confusion or cause for concern should arise. Turn
back.’ Yaʿqū b, however, did not obey the caliph’s command. He said,
‘My desire is to come without fail to the court, and to perform the
customary pledge of service and to renew my covenant (ʿahd); until
I have completed these actions I shall not turn back.’ However many
times the caliph sent envoys, Yaʿqū b sent back the same reply. He
gathered his armies and made for Baghdad. The caliph was suspicious
of him. He summoned the great men of the court (buzurgā n-i hażrat) and
˙
said, ‘I see that Yaʿqū b-i Layth has removed his head from the collar of
obedience to us, and I surmise that he is heading here in an act of betrayal;
for we did not summon him, yet he is coming, and even though we have
commanded him to turn back, he has not turned back. In any event it
seems that he is carrying treachery in his heart, and I think he may have
pledged allegiance to the Batinis. 29 Until he arrives here he will not
manifest that allegiance openly. We must not be negligent in taking
precautions. What course of action is required in this situation
(tadbı̄ r-i ı̄ n kā r chı̄ st)?’

27
Reading (with Darke) ‘Zarang’, chief town in the province of Sistan in the early Islamic
period and capital of the Saffarids until the Ghaznavid occupation of 393/1002
(Bosworth, ‘Zarang’).
28
Nizā m al-Mulk’s imputing of Ismailism to Yaʿqū b is a projection, deployed in order to
˙
present, in the form of Yaʿqū b, a dramatic instance of the danger to which heterodoxy,
unchecked, in Nizā m al-Mulk’s view inevitably led – topics dealt with at length in
the second part of˙ Siyar al-mulū k. D. G. Tor has argued convincingly that Yaʿqū b
followed, like his Samanid competitors, the model of the mutatawwiʿ, the voluntary
˙
religious warrior, and that he acted in a specifically Sunni framework; furthermore, the
majority of his campaigns were conducted against groups considered, from a Sunni point
of view, to be heterodox (‘Historical Representations of Yaʿqū b b. al-Layth’).
29
Adherents of hidden, esoteric (bā tin) interpretations of scripture; in this context, more or
˙ below, Chapter 9, at n. 42).
less a synonym for the Ismailis (see

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

They decided that the caliph should not remain in the city but should go
out into the plain and set up a military encampment there. His inner circle
(khā ssagiyyā n), the great men (buzurgā n) of Baghdad and all his retinue
˙˙
should accompany him. When Yaʿqū b arrived, he would see the caliph and
his encampment in the plain, and his purpose would soon go awry. His
disobedience towards the Commander of the Faithful would emerge clearly,
since people would go back and forth from one camp to the other. If Yaʿqū b
were planning a rebellion, not all the leading men and captains (sarā n) of
Khurasan and Iraq would be in agreement with him or give their consent to
his proposal. If Yaʿqū b were to display his revolt in an open manner, the
caliph’s camp would seek to divert the rebel army through one stratagem
(tadbı̄ r) or another; if they were unsuccessful in this attempt and unable to
hold their own in battle against him, at least they would have an open path
by which to retreat, so that they would not have to face capture, like
prisoners within four walls, but could make their way to one place or
another. This plan (tadbı̄ r) met with the approval of the Commander of
the Faithful, and so they acted accordingly. This Commander of the
Faithful was al-Muʿtamid ʿalā llā h Ahmad (r. 256–79/870–92).30
˙
When Yaʿqū b-i Layth arrived, he dismounted parallel to the caliph’s
encampment and pitched his tents. The soldiers in both armies mixed
with one another. That very day Yaʿqū b made open display of his
rebellion: he sent to the caliph a person bearing the message, ‘Abandon
Baghdad, and go wherever you wish.’ The caliph requested a stay of two
months. Yaʿqū b refused to grant him this respite. When night fell, the
caliph secretly sent someone to each of Yaʿqū b’s captains with
the message, ‘He has openly rebelled, and made common cause with
the [Ismaili] Shiʿis;31 he has planned to overthrow our House and to
install our enemy in our place. Are you in agreement with him in this
venture or not?’ One group responded, ‘It is from him that we receive our
subsistence, and from his fortune and our service to him that we have
received our current status, prosperous circumstances and dignified
position. Whatever he has done, we have done.’ Most said, ‘We have
heard no report of the situation that the Commander of the Faithful has

30
In 260 or 261/874 or 875, Caliph al-Muʿtamid (r. 256–79/870–92) had confirmed the
governorship of Ismā ʿı̄ l’s older brother and predecessor, Nasr I b. Ahmad (r. 250–
˙ ˙
79/864–92), over the entire province of Transoxiana. In 285/898, Caliph al-Muʿtadid
˙
(r. 279–89/892–902), successor to al-Muʿtamid, appointed ʿAmr b. al-Layth, brother of
Yaʿqū b and his successor, to the governorship of Transoxiana.
31
Cf. Darke’s reading, Book of Government, 246, n. 3.

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mentioned, and we do not think that Yaʿqū b would ever oppose the
Commander of the Faithful. If, however, he makes open display of such
opposition, we should not under any circumstances consent to it. On
the day of battle, we shall be on your side, not his, and when the time
comes to draw up the ranks, we shall come over to your side and support
you.’ This group consisted of the military commanders of Khurasan.
Once the caliph heard this kind of speech on the part of the captains in
Yaʿqū b-i Layth’s army, he was greatly cheered. The next day, with a stout
heart, he sent word to Yaʿqū b-i Layth, saying, ‘Now you have displayed
your ingratitude for the benefits that we have bestowed (kufrā n-i niʿmat);
you have entered into agreement with my opponent and taken an adver-
sarial position towards me. The sword now stands between us. Despite the
fact that my army is small while yours is large, I have no fear. God, may He
be exalted and glorified, who is the Supporter of the Right, is with me, and
the army that you have is my army.’ He ordered his troops to take up arms,
to beat the drums of war and sound the trumpets, to leave the camp and
draw up ranks in the plain.
When Yaʿqū b heard the caliph’s message in these terms, he said, ‘I
have achieved my purpose.’ He too ordered the drums to be struck. His
entire army mounted; in formation they entered the plain, and they drew
up ranks parallel to the caliph’s army. On his side, the caliph came
forward and took up a position in the centre; on the other side,
Yaʿqū b-i Layth did likewise. Then the caliph ordered a man with
a strong voice to advance into the middle ground between the two lines
of battle, and to declare at the top of his voice, ‘O Muslims, know that
Yaʿqū b-i Layth has become a rebel. He has come to overthrow the House
of ʿAbbā s, and to bring the caliph’s adversary and install him in the
caliph’s place. He intends to eliminate the customary religious practices
(sunnat) and to spread innovation (bidʿat) openly. Whoever opposes the
caliph has opposed the Messenger of God; and whenever a person
removes his head from the collar of obedience to the Messenger (may
the blessings and peace of God be upon him), it is as if he has removed his
head from obedience to God, and thereby departed from the Muslim
fold. As God, may He be exalted and glorified, has said, in the unam-
biguous parts (muhkam) of His Book, “Obey God, obey the Messenger
˙
and those in authority among you” (Q 4: 59).32 Now, who among you will

32
Uses of this verse have already been seen; see above, Texts 1, 2 and 4. The reference to
the ‘unambiguous’ (muhkam) parts of the Qurʾan stems from the Qurʾanic verse 3: 7,
˙

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

choose Paradise over Hell, lend his support to the Right and turn away
from the False? Let him join our side, not the side of our adversary.’
When the army of Yaʿqū b-i Layth heard these words, the commanders of
Khurasan turned as a single group, and came towards the caliph. They
said, ‘We thought that he had come here in response to your order and
command, and in obedience and service to you. Now that he has revealed
his opposition and disobedience, we shall join you, and we shall fight on
your side for as long as we remain alive.’
The caliph, now increased in strength, ordered his entire army to
charge. Yaʿqū b-i Layth was routed in the first assault and retreated in
defeat towards Khuzistan. The caliph’s forces plundered his treasury,
storehouse and encampment, and by means of these riches grew still
more powerful. Once Yaʿqū b reached Khuzistan, he sent people out in
every direction. He began to call up troops and to summon agents, whom
he ordered to bring supplies and funds from the treasuries of Khurasan
and Iraq.
As soon as the caliph received the report that Yaʿqū b had settled in
Khuzistan, he immediately sent him a representative, who brought with
him a letter. The letter read, ‘It has become known to us that you are
a man of simple heart and that you have been deceived by the words of
our adversaries. You did not foresee the outcome of this matter. As you
now perceive, God Almighty has shown you His work; He has defeated
you by means of your own army, and He has preserved our House. This
was a simple mistake on your part. Now I know that you have become
aware of your error and that you regret having acted in this fashion. No
one is more suited than you for the governance of Iraq and Khurasan. We
shall not increase our favour (mazı̄ d) towards anyone other than you, nor
place anyone above you; for we recognise that through your many
services, you have accumulated many claims upon our favour. We regard
this single error in the light of these several pleasing services.’ The caliph
surmised that since he was prepared to overlook Yaʿqū b’s rebellion and
to treat his action as if it had not taken place, Yaʿqū b would now also put
the event aside. He assumed that he would set off for Iraq and Khurasan
as soon as possible, and that he would occupy himself with overseeing
that province. Closely behind his letter the caliph planned to send

which distinguishes between categories designated muhkam, precise or clear, and muta-
˙
shā bih, ‘ambiguous’. The verse, itself ambiguous, has been variously interpreted; see
Chaumont, ‘Ambiguity’, and Kinberg, ‘Ambiguous’.

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a banner and a robe of honour as tokens of his consent to Yaʿqū b’s rule of
these provinces, so that no disorder should arise.
When Yaʿqū b read the letter, his heart did not soften in the slightest, nor
did he regret his action. He ordered leeks, fish and some onions to be placed
on a wooden tray and brought before him. Then he ordered the caliph’s
envoy to be brought in and seated. He turned towards the caliph’s repre-
sentative, and said, ‘Go. Say to the caliph that I was born the son of
a coppersmith, and that I learnt that trade from my father. My diet consisted
of barley bread, fish, onions and leeks. It is by dint of principled initiative
(ʿayyā rı̄ ) and courage (shı̄ r-mardı̄ ) that I have acquired this kingship, this
treasure and these goods; I did not inherit them from my father, nor did
I receive them from you.33 I shall not rest until I have sent your head to
Mahdiyya and eliminated your House.34 Either I shall do as I say, or I shall
return to my diet of barley bread, fish and onions. Here, I have opened up
the doors to my treasuries and summoned my troops. I shall follow fast in
the tracks of the courier bearing this message.’ He dismissed the caliph’s
representative. However many representatives and letters the caliph sent,
Yaʿqū b’s words remained exactly the same. He assembled his troops, and he
set out from Khuzistan towards Baghdad. When he had travelled three
stages, however, he developed colic. His condition reached the point that he
knew that there would be no escape from the pain. He appointed his brother
ʿAmr-i Layth (= the Saffarid amir ʿAmr b. al-Layth [r. 265–88/879–901])
as his heir-apparent, gave him the records of his treasury and died.
ʿAmr-i Layth turned back. He proceeded to Kuhistan in Iraq, where
he spent a certain amount of time, and from there he continued to
Khurasan, where he exercised royal authority (pā dshā hı̄ hamı̄ -kard). At
the same time, he displayed obedience to the caliph. Both the army and
the subjects liked ʿAmr better than Yaʿqū b, for this ʿAmr was exceed-
ingly virtuous, generous, alert and effective in his governance.35 His

33
The term ʿayyā rı̄ (Siyar al-mulū k, 23) carries many connotations; see above, Chapter 6,
nn. 41, 44. Darke translates the term in this instance as ‘bold enterprise’ (Book of
Government, 18, also 246, n. 4); Schabinger renders the term as ‘waghalsiges
Herumziehen’ (Siyā satnā ma, Gedanken und Geschichten, 111).
34
Before their conquest of Egypt in 358/969 and their construction of Cairo in the
following year, the Fatimids had founded the town of al-Mahdiyya, in Tunisia. Al-
Mahdiyya was named after its founder, ʿUbayd Allā h al-Mahdı̄ (297–322/909–34),
who took it as his capital in 308/920 (see section 2.2).
35
The text reads ı̄ n ʿAmr bas buzurg-himmat va-buzurg-ʿatā va-bı̄ dā r va-bā -siyā sat [bū d]
˙
(24); Darke translates: ‘ʿAmr was magnanimous, generous, enlightened and statesmanlike
to a degree’ (Book of Government, 18); Schabinger offers ‘außerordentlich hochsinnig,
freigebig, aufgeweckt und staatsmännisch’ (Siyā satnā ma, Gedanken und Geschichten, 111);

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manly virtue (muruvvat) and generosity of spirit (himmat) were so far-

reaching that it took four hundred camels to transport his kitchen; and
further examples might easily be adduced along these lines.
But the caliph felt apprehensive about him, lest ʿAmr too should embark
on the path of his brother, and sooner or later exhibit the same propensities
that his brother had displayed. Despite the fact that ʿAmr held absolutely
no conviction of this kind, the caliph remained nervous about the matter.
Secretly, the caliph dispatched a constant stream of people to Ismā ʿı̄ l
b. Ahmad in Bukhara. These envoys conveyed to Ismā ʿı̄ l the caliph’s
˙
instruction: ‘Muster an army and revolt against ʿAmr-i Layth; seize the
kingdom (mulk) from his control. You possess a greater claim to govern
Khurasan and Iraq, since for many years this kingdom belonged to your
forefathers, whereas they (the Saffarids) simply took it by force.36 Firstly,
you possess a rightful claim to it (khudā vand-i haqq tu-ı̄ ); secondly, your
˙
conduct is pleasing; thirdly, my prayers will support you. By virtue of
these three factors, I have no doubt that God Almighty will grant you
victory against ʿAmr. Do not let the paucity of your supplies and the small
numbers of your troops deter you; consider instead the words of God, may
He be exalted and glorified: “How many a band (fiʾa) of few people has
triumphed over a band of many, by God’s permission; and God is with
those who endure patiently”’ (Q 2: 249).37
The caliph’s words wrought their effect in Ismā ʿı̄ l’s heart, and he
reached a firm determination to oppose ʿAmr-i Layth. He assembled
all the troops that he had, and as they passed the near side of the Oxus, he
counted them with the tip of his whip. He counted ten thousand cavalry,
most of whom had only wooden stirrups; among every ten men, one had
no shield; in every twenty, one man lacked a coat of mail; one man in
every fifty had no lance; and there were some men who, lacking a mount,
had bound their coats of mail onto saddle straps. Ismā ʿı̄ l departed from
Amuy (Amul) and went to the city of Balkh.
News reached ʿAmr-i Layth that Ismā ʿı̄ l b. Ahmad had crossed
˙
the Oxus and arrived in the city of Balkh, and furthermore that the
governor (shihna) of Sarakhs and Marv had fled, as Ismā ʿı̄ l was intent
˙

Pistoso renders the clause ‘era persona di grande nobiltà morale, generoso, illuminato,
e dotato di senso politico’ (L’arte della politica, 67).
36
A point that Nizā m al-Mulk had anticipated at the outset of his narrative, when he
˙
introduced the protagonists of Ismā ʿı̄ l and Yaʿqū b (see above, and n. 30).
37
The verse appears in the context of David’s contest with Goliath; see further Lindsay,
‘Goliath’.

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upon taking the kingdom. ʿAmr-i Layth was in Nishapur. He reviewed

seventy thousand cavalrymen, all of them supplied with weapons and
fully equipped, and all of whose mounts were clad in armour. Then
ʿAmr set out for Balkh. When these two forces encountered one
another, they drew up lines of battle. It so happened that ʿAmr-i
Layth was captured at the gates of Balkh, and his cavalry, seventy
thousand-strong, fled in defeat. Not a single horseman suffered injury,
nor was anyone – among that entire army – taken prisoner, except for
ʿAmr-i Layth. ʿAmr, once captured, was brought before Ismā ʿı̄ l, who
ordered that he be placed in the custody of his guards. This singular
victory is among the wonders of the world.38
At the time of the afternoon prayer, a servant (farrā sh) attached to
ʿAmr-i Layth was moving about in the camp. His eye fell upon ʿAmr-i
Layth. His heart burned with sympathy for him, and he approached him.
ʿAmr said to him, ‘This evening, stay with me, because I have been left
very much alone.’ Then he added, ‘As long as people remain alive, they
must have food. Devise a means (tadbı̄ r kun) to obtain something for me
to eat, for I am hungry.’ The servant fetched a mann39 of meat and
borrowed a round pan, made of iron, from the troops. He hurried
about in all directions, collected a piece of dry dung from the plain, put
together two or three clods of dry earth and placed the pan on top of
them, in order to fry the meat. Having put the meat in the pan, it
occurred to him to go in search of a little salt. The day reached its end.
A dog appeared. It put its head into the pan to retrieve a bone, and burnt
its mouth; when it lifted its head, the pan’s ring-shaped handle, hot from
the fire, fell over its neck. The dog leapt up in a great rush and carried off
the pan. Observing this episode, ʿAmr-i Layth turned towards the troops
and guards and said, ‘Take this as a cautionary example (ʿibrat): I am a
man whose kitchen, in the morning, required four hundred camels to
transport; in the evening, a single dog took it and carried it off.’ He also
said [in Arabic], ‘In the morning I awoke as an amir; in the evening
I became a prisoner (ası̄ r).’40 The meaning of this Arabic sentence is, ‘At

38
The battle took place in 287/900. Having taken ʿAmr prisoner, Ismā ʿı̄ l sent him on to
Baghdad, where the former was executed soon after the death of al-Muʿtadid in 289/902.
39 ˙
The mann was the most important measure of weight for goods in Iran until the beginning
of modern times, though its equivalency varied from region to region and from period to
period; see Hinz, Islamische Masse und Gewichte, 16–23, esp. 17–21.
40
An admired and frequently recounted example of wit and brevity; al-Thaʿā libı̄ (al-Iʿjā z
wa-l-ı̄ jā z, 90, no. 51; Ādā b al-mulū k, 76), ascribed it to Ismā ʿı̄ l b. Ahmad, in his report (in
the third person) to the caliph al-Muʿtadid. ˙
˙

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

dawn I was an amir, and in the evening I am a prisoner.’ This situation

too is among the wonders of the denizens of this world.
Even more remarkable, and still connected with Amir Ismā ʿı̄ l and ʿAmr-i
Layth, is that once ʿAmr-i Layth had been taken captive, Amir Ismā ʿı̄ l turned
towards the great men in his entourage, and said, ‘God, may He be exalted
and glorified, has granted me this victory. For this favour I have no obligation
towards anyone except God, exalted be His name.’ Then he said, ‘Know that
this ʿAmr-i Layth was a man of virtue and generosity.41 He was well supplied
with weapons and equipment, and in addition he possessed sound judgement
and foresight (tadbı̄ r). He was alert in affairs, liberal in his provisions and
honoured the rightful claims of those to whom he was beholden (haqq-shinā s).
˙
In my view, I should make efforts to ensure that he suffers no mortal injury,
and that he finds release from this bondage.’ The leading men said, ‘The
amir’s judgement is best. Let him command whatever he deems most
beneficial (maslahat) in this situation.’ Ismā ʿı̄ l sent someone to ʿAmr-i
˙ ˙
Layth to say, ‘Do not suffer any anxiety; I shall contrive a plan (tadbı̄ r)
whereby I shall ask the caliph to spare your life. Even if I am obliged to
expend my entire treasury to this end, I would consider it right, in order that
you should be spared any mortal injury and able to spend the remainder of
your life in safety.’
When ʿAmr-i Layth heard these words, he said, ‘I know that I shall
never find release from these bonds, and that no life is left to me; the
caliph will be content with nothing less than my death. But you, who are
Ismā ʿı̄ l – send me one of your trusted agents, because I have something to
say; just as he hears these words from me, let him convey them to you.’
Ismā ʿı̄ l’s courier returned to the amir and disclosed to him ʿAmr’s
request. Immediately Ismā ʿı̄ l sent a trusted agent to ʿAmr. ʿAmr-i
Layth said to this agent, ‘Tell Ismā ʿı̄ l that it was not he who defeated
me but rather his devotion to religion (diyā nat), his faith, and his excel-
lent conduct, as well as the displeasure of the Commander of the Faithful,
that defeated me. God, may He be exalted and glorified, has recently
taken this kingdom away from me and given it to you. You, by virtue of
your beneficence and excellence, are worthy and deserving of this favour.
I accept God’s decree, and I wish you nothing but good. You, meanwhile,
have acquired a new kingdom; yet you have no wealth and no reserves.
My brother and I own many treasures and buried troves, and I have in my

41
This list of attributes (buzurg-himmat va-buzurg-ʿatā . . . bı̄ dā r dar kā r-hā ) echoes the
˙
language used previously in describing ʿAmr; see above, n. 35.

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 Part II Texts

possession a list of all these items. I am placing all these riches at your
disposal, in order to supply you with reserves; thereby you will increase
in strength; you shall be in a position to amass equipment and supplies,
and to replenish your treasury.’ Then he took the list of treasures from
his sleeve, gave it to the agent and sent it to Amir Ismā ʿı̄ l.
The agent returned, repeated what he had heard and placed the list of
treasures before Amir Ismā ʿı̄ l. Amir Ismā ʿı̄ l turned towards the great
men in his entourage and said, ‘This ʿAmr-i Layth, with all his clever-
ness, wishes to evade the clever; indeed, he seeks to capture them in
a snare of eternal torment.’ He picked up the list of treasures and threw it
in front of the agent who had delivered it. As he did so, he said to him,
‘Take this list of treasures back to him. Tell him that in his audacity
(jaldı̄ ) he wishes to escape from everything. From what source did this
treasure fall into his hands and the hands of his brother? Their father was
a coppersmith, and they too learnt that craft. Say to him, “By some
celestial chance you usurped the power that you held by force, and by
dint of your recklessness your efforts succeeded. These treasures are
made up of dirhams and dinars, all of which you seized from people
through oppression and by wrongful means. You attained this wealth at
the price of thread spun by frail, elderly women and widows, from the
provisions of strangers and travellers, and from the property belonging to
orphans and the weak. 42 Soon you shall have to answer for every grain of
it before God, may He be exalted and glorified, and you shall taste God’s
chastisement and retribution. Now, in your rash opportunism (jaldı̄ ), you
wish to shift the burden of these injustices from your neck to mine, so
that tomorrow, on the Day of Resurrection, when your adversaries take
hold of you and demand that you restore to them the wealth that you
wrongfully seized from them, you shall be able to say, ‘Everything that
we took from you, we entrusted to Ismā ʿı̄ l; ask him for it.’ You wish to
transfer all of it to me. I shall have no capacity to answer these adversar-
ies, nor to answer to the wrath and questioning of God, may He be
exalted and glorified.”’ Because of his fear of God and his intense piety,
Ismā ʿı̄ l did not accept ʿAmr’s list of treasures; instead, he sent it back to
him, and he was not deceived by this world. 43

42
The list of the wrongfully divested coincides with categories singled out in the Qurʾan for
kindness and benefaction; see, for example, Q 9: 60, 2: 177. The injustice constitutes
a religious infraction and an offence against humane values.
43
A version of this postlude to the story appears in Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, part II, 123–4 =
Bagley, Ghazā lı̄ ’s Book of Counsel for Kings, 71. ˙˙

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

Does this amir resemble the appointed agents (gumā shtagā n) of these
times, who, for the sake of one illicit dinar, will, without the slightest
trepidation and taking no heed for the consequences, declare ten illicit
things lawful and ten lawful things illicit?44

Story
It was the custom of this same Ismā ʿı̄ l b. Ahmad that on days of extreme
˙
cold and heavy snow, he would mount alone and come to the square, where
he remained on horseback until the midday prayer. He used to say, ‘It may
be that an aggrieved person will come with a petition to the court, and that
he may lack the money needed for his subsistence and accommodation. If,
on the pretext of the cold and snow, we fail to take up our position, it will
be difficult for him to reach us; whereas if he knows that we have been
standing here he will come, settle his affairs and go away in safety.’45
There are many stories of this kind; we have related only a few. This care
and attention have been taken in anticipation of the answer due in the next
world.

Text 12
Al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k. Chapter
˙ ˙ Eleven 46

Translator’s Introduction
In this eleventh chapter of Sirā j al-mulū k, al-Turtū shı̄ discusses the
˙ ˙
pillars of stable rule. Like all mirror-writers, he emphasises the centrality
of justice, to which he adds kindness, the mitigator of severity. Justice
and pardon are both among the divine qualities, which the ruler, within
44
Darke, following the stories’ highlighting of the role of rulers, substitutes ‘amirs’ for the
term gumā shtagā n. Compare Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, part I, 37 = Bagley, Ghazā lı̄ ’s
˙˙
Book of Counsel for Kings, 23: following the mention of the ruler’s appointed officials
(ʿummā l) and retainers (chā kirā n, khā dimā n-i vā lı̄ ), Ghazā lı̄ asks, ‘What greater enemy is
there than one who promotes your utter destruction for the sake of a few unlawful
dirhams that (he hopes) to grab?’
45
Ismā ʿı̄ l’s reputation for extraordinary efforts in order to ensure his accessibility to
potential petitioners appears also in Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, part II: 122 = Bagley,
˙˙
Ghazā lı̄ ’s Book of Counsel for Kings, 70–1; see further Marlow, Counsel for Kings, I: 49.
46
Translation prepared from al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k, I: 213–24. For the corresponding
˙ ˙Spanish, see Alarcón, Lámpara de los Príncipes, I: 193–205.
section in Alarcón’s translation into

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 Part II Texts

the limits of his humanity, should strive to emulate. 47 The ruler should
be just, but at the same time benevolently disposed towards his subjects.
Where justice allows for it, he should err on the side of clemency and
forbearance, and never inflict punishment in haste, spite or retaliation.
Al-Turtū shı̄ supports this softening of justice’s imperative with Qurʾanic
˙ ˙
speech. He also distinguishes between two kinds of justice, one based on
scripture and revelation and the second based on human understanding:
the former obtains in polities built on a prophetic foundation, the latter in
polities based on a ‘rectifying’, ‘improving’ or ‘reformist’ foundation,
their mode of governance geared towards the public good (siyā sa
islā hiyya). The ‘reformist’ model carries the rich semantic resources of
˙ ˙
the root s-l-h, with its development in law. 48 This category accommo-
˙ ˙
dates and attaches value to the ancient, non-Muslim and humanistic
contributions to political thought and political culture. Al-Turtū shı̄
˙ ˙
develops his exposition of these two political foundations in some detail
and outlines the benefits of both the prophetic and the reformist systems,
apparently acknowledging in both cases their potential for good. He
makes extensive use of ‘the tales of the prophets’ (qisas al-anbiyā ʾ),
˙ ˙
especially the prophet-kings; these narratives play a prominent role in
shaping his embracing vision of human welfare and the political arrange-
ments necessary for it to flourish.

Translation
Chapter Eleven: On Knowing the Qualities That Constitute the
Pillars of the Ruler’s Power, without Which It Has No Stability
The first and most important quality for the subjects is justice. Justice is
the mainstay of sovereignty. It is indispensable for the endurance of states
and constitutes the foundation of every kingdom, whether that foundation
be prophetic or reformist (kā nat nabawiyyatan aw islā hiyyatan) (that is,
˙ ˙
whether it originated in a prophetic mission or in a human initiative to
promote the well-being of humankind). Know, may God guide you aright,

47
Cf. Mediano, ‘L’amour, la justice et la crainte’, 96–7. Fakhr al-Dı̄ n al-Rā zı̄ states that
kings should emulate the prophets as far as possible in all situations, and he enumerates
nine prophetic virtues that kings should seek to imitate (Jā miʿ al-ʿulū m, 486).
48
Notably, the principle of maslaha, the common good, regarded by some of al-Turtū shı̄ ’s
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
contemporaries as a fundamental purpose of the divine law; and the related principle of
istislā h, the public good, especially prominent in Mā likı̄ jurisprudence, in which al-
˙ u˙̄ shı̄ was the leading scholar of the period.
Turt
˙ ˙

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

that God Almighty has commanded justice. In addition, He knows, let

Him be praised, that not all souls are amenable to justice; rather they seek
kindness (ihsā n), which is above justice. For He said: ‘God has commanded
˙
justice, kindness and giving to relatives (al-ʿadl wa-l-ihsā n wa-ı̄ tā ʾ dhı̄
˙
l-qurbā )’ (Q 16: 90). If justice alone had sufficed for people, God would
not have accompanied it with kindness. For those people who are amenable
to justice only when it is amplified with kindness, how can they possibly
thrive if justice alone fails to reach them?
Justice is God’s scale in the earth, by which He takes from the strong
for the sake of the weak and from the undeserving for the sake of the
deserving. 49 This scale occupies a position not only among the subjects
but also between the ruler and the subjects. Whoever removes the scale
that God has established for the correction, through equity, of human
affairs risks the wrath of God Almighty.
Know, O ruler, that the realm reflects the form of a man. You are the
man’s head; your vizier is his heart; his hands are your officials (aʿwā n);
his feet are your subjects; his spirit is your justice. The body cannot
survive without spirit.50 If you wish to achieve the summit of justice,
know that the subjects comprise three types: great, small and middling.
Consider the great among them a father, the middling among them
a brother and the small among them a son. Treat your father with honour
(birra abā ka), your brother with generosity (akrim akhā ka), and your son
with compassion (arham ibnaka).51 For by these means you will attain the
˙
honour (birr), generosity (karā ma) and compassion (rahma) of God.
˙

49
The identification of justice as God’s scale or balance on the earth appears in numerous
locations and with various attributions. It is often ascribed to Aristotle: see Maróth,
Correspondence, 18; Miskawayh, Jā vı̄ dā n khirad, 224; al-Mubashshir b. Fā tik, Mukhtā r
al-hikam, 190. Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ (Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-mansū b ilā . . . al-Mā wardı̄ , 251–2)
˙ ˙˙
ascribes the formulation to an Indian Testament; Usā ma b. Munqidh (Lubā b al-ā dā b, 57)
knew it as a saying of Buzurgmihr; Ghazā lı̄ (Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, part II: 104–5 = Bagley,
˙˙
Ghazā lı̄ ’s Book of Counsel for Kings, 58) and Ibn al-Haddā d (al-Jawhar al-nafı̄ s, 65) knew
˙
the maxim as Prophetic; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Tamthı̄ l wa-l-muhā dara, 99, ascribed the maxim
˙ ˙
al-hukm mı̄ zā n Allā h fı̄ ardihi to Bahrā m-i Gū r. Cf. Proverbs 11: 1: ‘A false balance is an
˙ ˙
abomination to the Lord, but an accurate weight is his delight’ (New Oxford Annotated
Bible, 814).
50
See above, Text 1, at nn. 12–13; like the previous paragraph, this passage appears in
Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ ’s Nası̄ hat al-mulū k as a citation from the ‘Testament of an Indian King’.
˙˙
51
Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 39 (the counsel of Sā lim b. ʿAbdallā h and
Muhammad b. Kaʿb to ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzı̄ z (r. 99–101/717–20) on his assumption
˙
of the caliphate); al-Rā ghib al-Isfahā nı̄ , Muhā darā t al-udabā ʾ, I: 166 (ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-
ʿAzı̄ z to his governor). The terms ˙ kabı̄ r, saghı̄
˙ ˙r and wasat suggest not only differences in
˙ ˙

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 Part II Texts

Know that the king’s justice induces his subjects to unite in support of
him, while oppression on his part inevitably causes their alienation from
him. The king’s justice is the life of his subjects. Among the wise sayings
that have been passed down (manthū r al-hikam) is the maxim, ‘Forty
˙
years of an unjust ruler are better than a single hour’s neglect of the
subjects.’52 If the king exercises justice among the people closest to him,
then the people furthest from him will feel goodwill towards him.
The excellence of kings lies in generosity, their nobility in forgiveness,
their greatness in justice. The needful provisions of kings consist of three
things: the consultation of sincere counsellors, ensuring the sound inten-
tions of their officials (thabā t niyyā t al-aʿwā n) and upholding the market-
place of justice. The best of times are the times of just leaders.
Justice is divisible into two kinds. The first kind is divine, sent from
God Almighty through His messengers and prophets, upon them be
peace. The second kind consists of something that resembles justice,
namely reformist governance (siyā sa islā hiyya), which provides
˙ ˙
a framework of support for the elderly as they become frail and the
young as they grow up. It is impossible for a ruler to endure or for
a subject population to prosper, whether in a state of faith or unbelief,
without the upholding of justice; nor will their affairs assume a state of

status but also, as al-Turtū shı̄ ’s analogy implies, differences in age. The division of the
˙ ˙
king’s subjects into three hierarchically structured groups, each requiring different
treatments (siyā sā t), recurs in a number of forms. The groupings include the khā ssa,
˙˙
the ʿā mma and protégés (sanā ʾiʿ), in a formulation ascribed to al-Walı̄ d b. ʿAbd al-Malik
(Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd ˙ al-farı̄ d, I: 24; Usā ma b. Munqidh, Lubā b al-ā dā b, 35); the
noble (ahrā r), common (ʿā mma) and lowly (sifla) categories, ascribed to Buzurgmihr
˙
(Usā ma, Lubā b al-ā dā b, 39); the khā ssa, subdivided into the righteous and the wicked
˙˙
(abrā r and ashrā r), and the ʿā mma, ascribed to Anū shı̄ rvā n (Usā ma, Lubā b al-ā dā b, 53; cf.
al-Nuwayrı̄ , Nihā yat al-arab, VI: 44; see Zakeri, ‘Some Early Persian Apophthegmata’,
291, n. 31, with further attestations and variants). A triad imputed to ʿAlı̄ combines
several of these elements: ‘Treat the ahrā r with pure generosity (karā ma), the middling
˙
(awsā t) with inducement and threat (al-raghba wa-l-rahba), and the sifla with contempt
˙
(hawā n)’; Ibn Abı̄ l-Hadı̄ d, Sharh Nahj al-balā gha, XX: 428, no. 574.
˙ ˙
52
This formulation recalls the common Prophetic report, ‘An hour of justice in government
is better than sixty years of worship’ (and variants) (Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I:
10; Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, part I: 15 = Bagley, Ghazā lı̄ ’s Book of Counsel for Kings,
˙˙
14; part II: 124 = Bagley, Ghazā lı̄ ’s Book of Counsel for Kings, 71–2; Ibn al-Haddā d, al-
Jawhar al-nafīs, 65; Usā ma b. Munqidh, Lubā b al-ā dā b, 34; al-Nuwayrı̄ , Nihā ˙yat al-arab,
VI: 33; al-ʿAjlū nı̄ , Kashf al-khafā ʾ, II: 54, no. 1719); adduced also in al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-
˙ ˙
mulū k, I: 184 (with the related hadith, ‘A just ruler’s single day of action among his
subjects is better than a hundred years of a worshipper’s observances among his people’,
or, in a variant, fifty years). Fakhr al-Dı̄ n al-Rā zı̄ adduces the Prophetic report ‘An hour
of justice is better than a year of worship’ with the explanation that the former benefits the
whole, while the latter benefits only a single individual (Jā miʿ al-ʿulū m, 489).

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

proper order, since such an order will lie beyond the scope of the
probable and even the possible.53
In the beginning of our book, we mentioned that Solomon, the son of
David, peace be upon them both, was deprived of his sovereignty when
two adversaries, one of whom held a special position in relation to him,
appeared before him seeking his judgement.54 Solomon said to himself, ‘I
hope that the person whom I hold in special regard is in the right’, and he
proceeded to judge in that person’s favour. God Almighty deprived him
of his sovereignty, and Satan occupied his throne. Make justice the head
of your governance; then all calamities that are harmful to governance
will depart from you, and all the conditions that support the kingdom will
stand firm for you.
ʿAlı̄ b. Abı̄ Tā lib, may God be pleased with him, said: ‘A just leader
˙
(imā m ʿā dil) is better than abundant rain, a raging lion is better than
a tyrannical ruler (sultā n zalū m) and a tyrannical ruler is better than
˙ ˙
lasting sedition (fitna).’55 [ʿAbdallā h] Ibn Masʿū d (d. c. 32–3/652–4)
said: ‘When a leader is just, he merits recompense, and you are obliged
to show gratitude. When he is unjust, his is the burden of responsibility,
and your obligation is patient endurance.’56
Solomon, the son of David, said: ‘Mercy and justice preserve
sovereignty.’
The wise philosophers among the Arabs and the non-Arabs57 have
agreed upon the following proposition: that sovereignty is a building, and
its foundation is the army; if the foundation is strong, the building will

53
See also Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 23.
54
The cross-reference is to Sirā j al-mulū k, I: 159–60, where al-Turtū shı̄ relates an occasion
˙ ˙
upon which Solomon, in a dispute brought before him, favoured members of his wife’s
family over their adversaries. On Solomon’s rule and occasional lapses, see Walker
[Fenton], ‘Sulaymā n b. Dā wū d’; on his restoration after praying for forgiveness, Q 38:
34, 35, 40.
55
Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 9 (ascribed in generic fashion to al-hukamā ʾ); and
˙
see above, nn. 7–8.
56
Ibn Masʿū d, one of the very earliest Muslims, was an important transmitter of the
Prophet’s hadith and a major authority on the Qurʾan (Anthony, ‘Ibn Masʿū d,
ʿAbdallā h’). Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi cites the report on the authority of ʿAbdallā h b. ʿUmar
[b. al-Khattā b] (d. 73/693) (al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 10).
˙˙
57
The term ʿajam is commonly used as the antonym of ʿarab, and it therefore carries the
general meaning of non-Arab. Very often, in its applied uses, the term refers to Persians,
an inference possible in this instance, given the content of al-Turtū shı̄ ’s passage. In al-
˙ ˙
Turtū shı̄ ’s homeland of al-Andalus, however, the term was frequently applied to the local
˙ ˙
Romance-speaking population, whose language was sometimes described as ʿajamiyya
(Safran, Defining Boundaries in al-Andalus, 57, 75).

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 Part II Texts

last, but if the foundation is weak, the building will collapse. There is no
power (sultā n) without an army, no army without wealth, no wealth
˙
without raising revenue, no revenue without prosperity and no prosper-
ity without justice. Justice provides the foundation for all these sources of
authority.58
As for prophetic justice, it is universally agreed that the ruler should
gather in his presence the carriers of religious knowledge. They are his
guardians (huffā z), protectors (ruʿā t) and instructors (fuqahā ʾ).59 They
˙ ˙
provide guidance in matters related to the Almighty God; they uphold
God’s command and preserve His statutory limits (hudū d), and they offer
˙
sincere counsel to God’s bondsmen. Abū Hurayra (d. 57, 58 or 59/678,
679 or 680) related that the Prophet, may God’s peace be upon him,
said, ‘Religion is counsel (al-dı̄ n al-nası̄ ha), religion is counsel, religion is
˙˙
counsel!’ He was asked, ‘For whom, O Messenger of God? He replied,
‘For God and His Book, for His Prophet, and for the leaders of the
Muslims and the ordinary people among them (li-aʾimmat al-muslimı̄ n
wa-ʿā mmatihim).’6 0

58
Versions of this formulation, often described as a ‘circle of justice’, are ubiquitous in the
classical Arabic and Persian literary repertoires; see above, nn. 2, 13; Sadan, ‘A “Closed-
Circuit” Saying on Practical Justice’; Darling, History of Social Justice. For examples, all
ascribed to Ardashı̄ r unless otherwise noted, see ʿAhd Ardashı̄ r, 98, no. 16 (among the
‘Scattered Sayings’); al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k, 54; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Tamthı̄ l wa-l-
-muhā dara, 98; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Iʿjā z wa-l-ı̄ jā z, 62, no. 34 (among the maxims that al-
˙ ˙
Sā hib b. ʿAbbā d urges kings to inscribe in their innermost hearts); al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ghurar
˙ ˙
al-siyar, 482; Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 9 (kā na yuqā lu); Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-
ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 33 (ascribed to ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀ s); al-Nuwayrı̄ , Nihā yat al-arab, VI: 35
˙
(ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀ s); Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-mansū b ilā . . . al-Mā wardı̄ , 243
˙ ˙˙
(Anū shı̄ rvā n); Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, part II: 100 = Bagley, Ghazā lı̄ ’s Book of
˙˙
Counsel for Kings, 56 (hakı̄ mā n-i jahā n); cf. also Maróth, Correspondence, 80. When
˙
included in the ‘Long Form’ of the Sirr al-asrā r, this ‘circle’ is often attributed to ʿAlı̄
b. Abı̄ Tā lib (see Badawı̄ , al-Usū l al-yū nā niyya, 128, n. 1; Steele/Ali, Secretum secretorum,
˙ ˙
227; Manzalaoui, ‘The Pseudo-Aristotelian Kitā b Sirr al-asrā r’, 187, 230; cf. 214).
Variants appear in Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, al-Adab al-saghı̄ r, 325, and Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-
˙
ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 32 (qā lat al-hukamā ʾ).
59 ˙
The root h-f-z connotes the concepts of preservation, conservation, guarding and pro-
˙ ˙
tecting, and of committing to memory. The term huffā z (sing. hā fiz) carries, in addition to
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
these general senses, the specific meaning of persons who have committed the Qurʾan to
memory. On the term ruʿā t (sing. rā ʿin), see above, Chapter 5, n. 5. The term I have
rendered in this instance as ‘instructors’ is fuqahā ʾ, usually ‘jurists’, but suggesting in this
case, given the quasi-metaphorical language of the passage, facilitators of religious or legal
understanding.
60
Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 11; Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-mansū b
˙˙
ilā . . . al-Mā wardı̄ , 43. Al-Turtū shı̄ treats this Prophetic saying at length later in his
mirror; see below, Chapter 8,˙n. 62. ˙ Abū Hurayra, a famous Companion of the Prophet, is

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

Take, O king, the religious scholars as a mantle (shiʿā r) and the righteous
as a cloak (dithā r);61 then the kingdom will orbit between the counsels of
the learned scholars and the benevolent prayers of the righteous. Fashion
a sovereignty that rotates between these two phenomena, so that its pillars
will stand firm and its duration will grow long. How could it not be so,
when God in His power has set these people apart and chosen them for
true knowledge of Him? – As He, Most Glorious of Speakers, has said,
‘God is witness that there is no god but He, and the angels and those who
possess knowledge (ū lū l-ʿilm) (are witness as well); He maintains justice
(qā ʾiman bi-l-qist)’ (Q 3: 18). In this verse He began by mentioning
˙
Himself; secondly He mentioned His angels, and thirdly the possessors
of knowledge, the last group of whom constitute the heirs of the prophets,
upon them be peace. The heirs of the prophets represent the people to
whom God has granted success, because the prophets’ bequests consisted
of neither dinar nor dirham, but only of knowledge.62 Treating this group
with honour and drawing them close constitute compliance with God
Almighty’s command, as well as honourable treatment of the people
whom God has praised. It is incumbent upon the king that he should
elevate the places assigned for them to sit, and that he should differentiate
their positions from the places assigned to other groups. God Almighty
said, ‘God will raise those of you who believe, and those who have
knowledge (alladhı̄ na ū tū l-ʿilm), by degrees’ (Q 58: 11).63
Honourable treatment of the men of learning and seeking association
with them will incline the hearts of the subjects towards the ruler, purify
their intentions towards him and unite them in love and respect for him.
The ruler should never settle a matter nor reach a decision without
consulting scholars, since he is required to exercise judgement within
the framework of God’s sovereignty and to adjudicate within the confines

notable for the very large number of Prophetic hadith transmitted in his name (Juynboll,
‘Abū Hurayra’).
61
The terms shiʿā r and dithā r denote an under and an upper garment respectively.
62
The phrase [inna l-ʿulamā ʾ] warathat al-anbiyā ʾ lam yuwarrithū dı̄ nā ran wa-lā dirhaman
wa-warrathū l-ʿilm is itself part of a Prophetic hadith; see al-Bayhaqı̄ , Jā miʿ shuʿab al-
ı̄ mā n, III: 220–1, no. 1573; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, Jā miʿ bayā n al-ʿilm, 160, no. 169; al-
ʿAjlū nı̄ , Kashf al-khafā ʾ, I: 156, no. 512; cf. Gilliot, ‘ʿ Ulamā ʾ’, I. Al-Thaʿā libı̄ includes it
amongst his selected Prophetic metaphors (istiʿā rā t) (al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Iʿjā z wa-l-ı̄ jā z, 13,
no. 11).
63
The preceding text in this Qurʾanic verse reads: ‘O you who believe, when you are told to
make room in the assemblies (fı̄ l-majā lis), then make room; God will make room for you.
And if you are told to rise up higher, then rise’; this text finds an echo in the passage that
precedes al-Turtū shı̄ ’s scriptural citation.
˙ ˙

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 Part II Texts

of His religious law. The least of the obligations upon the ruler is that he
should subordinate himself in his relationship to God in accordance with
the position of his own governors (wulā t) in relation to himself. Is it not
the case that if his governor should oppose his command and resist the
ordinances that he has laid down for him, the ruler will dismiss and
castigate him, and that the governor enjoys no security against his power?
And conversely, that if the governor complies with his commands and
observes the limits of the ruler’s restrictions, he enjoys the ruler’s
pleasure? How extraordinary, then, would be the case of the ruler
moved to rage in the face of the disobedience of his governor but fearless
of the power of his Lord over him when he resists Him!
This is the way of establishing the justice of the religious law (al-ʿadl
al-sharʿı̄ ) and Islamic governance (al-siyā sa al-islā miyya), which unites
various kinds of welfare (wujū h al-maslaha), takes up the reins of sound
˙ ˙
administration, is free of faults and facilitates the upholding of the world
and religion. Just as the prudent king’s resolve (hazm) cannot become
˙
perfect without consultation with viziers and men of integrity (akhyā r),
in the same way his justice (ʿadl) cannot become perfect without seeking
the professional opinions of the upright religious scholars.64
In the story of a petitioner wronged by ʿAmr b. Masʿada, al-Maʾmū n
interjected, ‘O ʿAmr, perpetuate the divine favour that you enjoy
through justice, for oppression will destroy it.’65
The diffusion of justice promotes strength of heart, the welfare of the
soul, the confidence of certainty and security against enemies.
When al-Hurmuzā n (d. 23/644) sought permission to present himself
to ʿUmar b. al-Khattā b, may God be pleased with him, he found neither
˙˙
chamberlain nor gatekeeper at the caliph’s residence. He was told that the
caliph was in the mosque. So he went to the mosque and found ʿUmar
lying down, his head resting on a pillow of pebbles, his whip in front of
him. He said to him, ‘You are just, and therefore safe; and so you are able
to sleep.’66

64
The conjunction of hazm and ʿadl may suggest, in this case, combining humane, worldly
˙
knowledge and wisdom with specifically religious learning.
65
On ʿAmr, see above, Chapter 5, n. 78. The saying entails a play on the letters ʿ-m-r, which
form the base of ʿAmr’s name and at the same time connote life (ʿumr); the caliph’s
exhortation to ʿAmr (iʿmar niʿmataka bi-l-ʿadl) calls upon him to enliven or extend the life
of the divine favour that he has received.
66
The Persian general al-Hurmuzā n was a prominent figure in the early conquests of the
Sasanian Empire. He led Sasanian armies at the Battle of al-Qā disiyya in 16/637, and he
remained active until he was taken prisoner in 21/642 and brought to Medina. Several

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

Al-Hasan said:
˙
I saw ʿUthmā n b. ʿAffā n, may God be pleased with him, in the
Mosque of the Prophet, may the blessings and peace of God be upon
him. His head resting on a pile of pebbles, ʿUthmā n, who was at that
time Commander of the Faithful, had pulled part of his cloak over
his body. No one was with him, and his whip lay in front of him.
The governor of Homs wrote to ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzı̄ z to report that the
city had been destroyed and stood in need of restoration. ʿUmar wrote
back to him, ‘Fortify it with justice, and expunge all traces of injustice
from its streets. Farewell.’67 The sages have said: ‘Anyone who withholds
justice has no good in him, and there is no good for the people in his
possession of power.’
Yahyā b. Aktham (d. 242/857) related that on one occasion he was
˙
walking in a garden alongside al-Maʾmū n. The right side of the path was
in full sun; al-Maʾmū n was walking in the shade. On their return, once
again it was Yahyā who was in the sun. Al-Maʾmū n said to Yahyā :
˙ ˙
Change places with me. I’ll take your place so that you’ll be in the
shade, just as I was; and you’ll enjoy protection from the sun, just as
I had protection from it when we set out. For the first component of
justice is that a man should deal fairly with his closest companions
(bitā na), then with those next to them, and so on, until justice
˙
reaches the very lowest category.
Yahyā reported: ‘He insisted upon this principle, and so I changed places
˙
with him.’68
It used to be said that nothing is more unlikely than the endurance of
rule seized through usurpation.

reports suggest that he eventually became a Muslim and rose to a position of some
importance in Medina before his murder at the hands of ʿUmar’s son ʿUbayd Allā h
b. ʿUmar in 23/644 (see Veccia Vaglieri, ‘al-Hurmuzā n’). In one version of the account,
al-Hurmuzā n contrasts ʿUmar with all four of the Sasanian kings whom he had served,
none of whom, he avers – their crowns notwithstanding – had inspired the awe (hayba)
that ʿUmar inspired (al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Thimā r al-qulū b, 86; al-Nuwayrı̄ , Nihā yat l-arab, VI:
36). Ghazā lı̄ (Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, part I, 25–6 = Bagley, Ghazā lı̄ ’s Book of Counsel for
Kings, 18) reports˙ ˙a version of the story in which it is envoys from Byzantium whose
conversion is occasioned by the sight of ʿUmar in this vulnerable condition.
67
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 13; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Iʿjā z wa-l-ı̄ jā z, 79, no. 15.
68
See also Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 23. Yahyā b. Aktham was a judge and
˙
counsellor to some of the Abbasid caliphs; he became Chief Judge of Baghdad in
202/817–18, as well as a member of al-Maʾmū n’s court circle and his boon-companion
(Bosworth, ‘Yahyā b. Aktham’).
˙

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 Part II Texts

It was suggested to Alexander that he consort with many women, so

that he would produce numerous offspring and thereby perpetuate his
memory. He said, ‘Only good deeds and praiseworthy conduct perpetu-
ate memory; and it is not becoming for a man who has overcome men to
be defeated himself by women.’6 9 The sage philosopher (al-hakı̄ m) said:
˙
‘He who makes a habitual practice of justice has the best protection, and
he who dons the dress of justice completes the adornment of excellence.’
Abū ʿUbayd b. ʿAbdallā h b. Masʿū d said: ‘The just leader mutes the
voices raised to God in distress, while the unjust ruler increases the
complaints raised to Almighty God.’
The philosopher said: ‘The ruler will enjoy continuing respite until he
transgresses the pillars of prosperity and the foundations of the religious
law; at that point, God will deliver the people from him.’70
It has been said: ‘Do not act unjustly with the weak, lest you become
one of the ignoble strong.’ One of the sages said:
A ruler (amı̄ r) devoid of justice is like a cloud without rain; a learned
man who lacks scrupulousness is like a land without plants; a young
man deficient in repentance is like a tree without fruit; a rich man
devoid of generosity is like a lock without a key; a poor man without
patience is like a lamp without light; a woman lacking in modesty is
like food without salt.

Khusraw said:
The Persian kings have agreed on four principles: food should not be
consumed in the absence of appetite; a woman should not be
observed except in the context of marriage; the only rightful posture
towards the king is obedience; and the only fitting approach towards
the subjects is justice.
The persons who must, above all others, ensure that they act in accord-
ance with justice are kings, who by their justice set other people to rights,
and who, when they speak and act, are effective and do not meet with
resistance. The sages have said, ‘As long as your wish accords with
equity, seek whatever you desire, and I shall lead the call for your success

69
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k, 64; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Iʿjā z wa-l-ı̄ jā z, 55, no. 15; cf. al-
Mubashshir b. Fā tik, Mukhtā r al-hikam, 246, 248. The Sirr al-asrā r expressly discour-
˙
ages Alexander from excessive copulation, and indeed from indulgence in all physical
pleasures (al-Usū l al-yū nā niyya, 79 = Steele/Ali, Secretum secretorum, 186 and passim).
70 ˙ l al-nazar; see above, Text 10, n. 15.
Al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄
˙

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

in achieving it. It is injustice that is most likely to prompt a reversal in the

favour that you enjoy, and to hasten retribution.’
The sage philosopher (al-hakı̄ m) said: ‘The worst provision for the
˙
afterlife is continual sin; worse still is hostility to God’s bondsmen.’
When a ruler desires a good reputation and a fine remembrance, let
him uphold the marketplace of justice; if he aspires to approach God
and to attain a noble station in His sight, let him uphold the marketplace
of justice; and if he wishes for both of these things, let him uphold the
marketplace of justice. Two qualities have perpetuated the remembrance
of kings from time immemorial: pure justice and shameful injustice. The
former necessarily fosters people’s compassion towards him, whereas the
latter inevitably causes him to be cursed.

Section
As for the second division of justice, it comprises governance for the
welfare of humankind (al-siyā sa al-islā hiyya). Even if the roots of such
˙ ˙
governance lie in oppression (jawr), as long as it provides firm support for
the affairs of the world, it will reflect degrees of fairness (insā f), in the
˙
manner, for example, that pertained in the days of the Persian mulū k al-
tawā ʾif (regional rulers of the Parthian period before the rise of the
˙
Sasanians).71 These kings were infidels (kuffā r) who adored the sun,
worshipped fires and followed the notions of Satan, yet they established
customs, founded ordinances, instituted degrees of equity (nasafa)
˙
among the subjects and regulated the exaction of the land-taxes and the
imposition of levies on commercial transactions. They enacted all of these
practices on the basis of their intellects, according to ways of reasoning
that derived neither from the power nor the proof of divine revelation.
When, however, God Almighty brought humankind the religious law
(sharı̄ ʿa) on the tongue of His Prophet Muhammad, bearer of the divine
˙
miracle, the divine law confirmed the establishment of certain parts of the

71
The phrase mulū k al-tawā ʾif, kings of territorial divisions or of groups of people,
˙
characteristically denotes either, with reference to Iran, the regional rulers of the
Parthian or Arsacid period who ruled Iran for roughly half a millennium between the
conquest of Alexander and the rise of the Sasanians, or the ‘party kings’ who ruled
principalities that emerged in Iberia between the collapse of the Umayyad state in the
wake of the deposition of Hishā m II al-Muʾayyad (r. 366–99/976–1009; d. 403/1013)
and the late eleventh-century invasions of the Almoravids. Al-Turtū shı̄ explicitly links
˙ ˙
his use of the term to the pre-Islamic Persian context (his Andalusi predecessor, the judge
and author Sā ʿid al-Andalusı̄ (420–62/1029–70), equated the two groups of mulū k al-
˙ t al-umam, 84)).
tawā ʾif (Tabaqā
˙ ˙

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 Part II Texts

earlier regulations, abrogated other parts and invalidated certain ordin-

ances. The most effective wisdom (al-hikma al-bā ligha) now rested on the
˙
foundation of the commandments of God Almighty, and the religious
ordinances on the divine revelation; everything else became null and
void.72
It was their attention to the prevailing customary laws (al-qawā nı̄ n al-
maʾlū fa baynahum) that protected the sovereignty of the Persian kings
and severed the rope of neglect. By these laws, the kings upheld the
people’s mandatory claims, and they attended to their rights and respon-
sibilities. Given this experience, it used to be said that the infidel ruler
who maintains the conditions of governance necessary for the welfare of
the subjects (sharā ʾit al-siyā sa al-islā hiyya) enjoys a longer reign and
˙ ˙ ˙
possesses greater strength than the believing ruler who, although just
in himself, neglects the justice of prophetic governance (al-siyā sa al-
nabawiyya al-ʿadliyya). Injustice that rests on the basis of an established
order proves more enduring than (prophetically founded) justice, if the
latter is neglected; for nothing improves the ruler’s position more effect-
ively than the sound arrangement of affairs, and nothing corrupts it more
thoroughly than their neglect.
Know that a single dirham taken from the subjects in a careless manner
contrary to custom, even if the grounds for its collection are just, causes
them deeper distress than ten dirhams taken in accordance with well-
known governmental practice and familiar custom, even if its basis is
unjust. Power (sultā n) remains firm neither for the people of faith nor for
˙
the people of unbelief without the establishment of either prophetic
justice or a system that resembles justice in its arrangements for the
public good (al-tartı̄ b al-istilā hı̄ ).
˙˙ ˙
Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ said:
There are three types of sovereignty: sovereignty rooted in religion,
in prudent resolve (hazm) and in capricious desire. As for sover-
˙
eignty rooted in religion: if it establishes the people’s religion in the
kingdom they will be content; anyone who is displeased will still
align himself with the ranks of the contented. As for sovereignty
rooted in prudent resolve: it will ensure the firm establishment of the
kingdom’s affairs; the king will not be immune from criticism and
displeasure, but the criticism of the base will never threaten the

72
On hikma bā ligha, see above, Chapter 5, n. 55.
˙

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 Foundations of Royal Authority and Principles of Governance

resolve of the strong. As for sovereignty based in whimsical appetite:

an hour’s amusement will entail an aeon of ruin.73

We have heard the account of an Indian king who, afflicted by deafness,

became withdrawn and anxious over the affairs of aggrieved petitioners,
since he could no longer hear their appeals for help. He ordered his
herald to proclaim that no one in his kingdom should wear red clothing
unless he sought redress.74 He said, ‘My hearing may be impaired, but
my sight remains intact.’ Consequently, everyone who had suffered
oppression dressed in red clothing and came to stand before his palace;
in this way each petitioner revealed his grievance.75
Our shaykh reported that Abū l-ʿAbbā s al-Hijā zı̄ , who had travelled to
˙
China, had informed him of a strange yet remarkable practice particular
to the governance of the Chinese kings. In the king’s residential quarters,
according to his report, is a gong, connected to a chain; the end of the
chain is positioned outside in the street, where the ruler’s stewards and
guardians observe it. The person who has suffered a grievance arrives at
the royal quarters and pulls the chain. The king hears the sound of the
gong, and he orders the petitioner’s admittance. Whenever anyone pulls
the chain, the king’s guardians take hold of him and bring him into the
presence of the ruler.

73
Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, al-Ādā b al-kabı̄ r, 284; Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 2 (I have
followed the published text of ʿUyū n al-akhbā r in reading mulk for malik). Cf. Kristó-
Nagy, ‘Marriage after Rape’, 173, with reference to the translation of this passage in van
Gelder, Classical Arabic Literature, 173: ‘Know that there are three kinds of rules: one of
religion, one of judiciousness, and one of personal inclination. As for the ruler who is
religious, if he upholds the religion of his people, and if their religion is such that he gives
them their due and metes out to them what they deserve, they will be pleased with him
and he will turn the discontented among them into people who will gladly conform and
submit. The reign of a ruler who is judicious is stable; he will not be free of criticism and
discontent, but the criticism of a lowly person will not be harmful if the judicious ruler is
strong. As for a ruler of arbitrariness, his reign is one hour of play and an eternity of ruin.’
For a discussion of this passage, see also Yavari, Advice for the Sultan, 41–2.
74
It was the responsibility of the herald (munā dı̄ ) to call forward the litigants in the qadi’s
court and in the mazā lim court; Tillier, ‘Courts of Law’.
˙
75
See above, n. 26. In the passage that follows this account, al-Turtū shı̄ appears to move by
˙ ˙
way of association from a well-known example of justice in a remote context to a less well-
known Chinese example, for which he supplies his source. It is interesting to note that the
exemplary status accorded to non-Muslim rulers applied not only to monarchs of the
distant (and pre-Islamic) past but also, occasionally, to contemporary examples, particularly
to groups, like the Qara Khitai, located beyond the eastern borders (see Biran, ‘True to
Their Ways’; Lane, The Phoenix Mosque and the Persians of Hangzhou, 21–2).

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 8

The Practice of Good Governance

The selections in Chapter 8 discuss specific royal practices intended to

enact the ethical and pragmatic principles of governance treated in
Chapter 7. Prominent among these practices is constant royal over-
sight of the many officials and intermediaries employed to carry out
the tasks of government, above all, the collection of taxes. These
intermediaries represented not only a link between the ruling power
and its subjects but also the visible ‘face’ of the ruler across the far-
flung territories that made up his realm.1 Strict and consistent over-
sight, accompanied by swift dismissal when cases of abuse came to
light, were the only measures that would protect the revenue-
producing categories on whose labour the entire edifice of government
depended. In cases of injustice, it was the ruler’s obligation to provide
a means of redress, through the practice of listening to the petitions of
his subjects and restoring to them any property that had been wrong-
fully seized. 2
The selections highlight the royal responsibility for fairness, particu-
larly in fiscal matters. It is the king’s responsibility to ensure the
prosperity of land and people, which, as the writers point out repeat-
edly, he neglects at his peril. The practices of good governance urged
upon the wise and virtuous ruler reflect the principle of maslaha, the
˙ ˙
1
I adopt the term from Cristina Jular Pérez-Alfaro’s study of royal officers in thirteenth-
and fourteenth-century Castile (‘The King’s Face on the Territory’, 108).
2
See Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought, 159 and n. 63; Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-
˙
mulū k, 18–29 (see above, Text 11), 57–8, 59–60 = Darke, Book of Government, 14–22, 44–
5, 46–7; Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, 47–8, 99–100, 122 = Bagley, Ghazā lı̄ ’s Book of
Counsel for Kings, 29, ˙55–6,
˙ 70. See further above, Chapter 7, n. 24.

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 The Practice of Good Governance

common good.3 The mirror-writers link the well-being of the land with the
well-being of the people who live in it, depend upon it and work it. There
is, accordingly, a strong consciousness of environmental health, in an
agrarian age in which people and land were directly interdependent, the
people’s control over the land and its resources limited and achieved only
through intelligent management and hard labour. As the writers point out,
the small proportion of people who were not directly dependent on the
land were indirectly dependent on it, since wealth, necessary for their own
maintenance, derived from two principal sources: the produce of the land
and commerce. Contemporary readers may note in particular the pre-
modern authors’ sense of limits – the limits of the ruler’s power, and the
limits of humanity’s exploitation of the land.

Text 13
Al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l
˙
al-zafar. Part II, Section 4

˙
Translator’s Introduction
This section, like the passages reproduced in Texts 3 and 10, appears in
Tashı̄ l al-nazar’s part II, which is devoted to the practical aspects of
˙
governance. Text 13 follows directly from the section reproduced in Text
10. The section opens with al-Mā wardı̄ ’s identification of four principles
of good governance. Interrelated and interdependent, these four principles
mirror the constituent elements of the ‘circle of justice’; unless each part
thrives, the polity as a whole can never prosper. Most of Text 13 represents
al-Mā wardı̄ ’s treatment of the first of his four principles: the cultivation of
the lands. In his treatment of this topic, al-Mā wardı̄ emphasises the ruler’s
responsibility for the environmental health of the kingdom and the welfare
of the peasantry. Also in this extract, al-Mā wardı̄ acknowledges the neces-
sity of the religious law and non-religious legislation, qā nū n (pl. qawā nı̄ n),5

3
The flexibility of the concept, and its potential for bringing together scholars and specialists
of all kinds, including men of letters, is explored in Hartung, ‘Enacting the Rule of Islam’.
4
Translation prepared from al-Mā wardı̄ , Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar, 207–23. For
˙ ˙
the corresponding section in Abbè s’s translation into French, see Abbè s, De l’É thique du
prince, 367–82.
5
The term initially applied especially to regulations for and registers pertaining to the
assessment of the land-taxes; these regulations derived not from sacred texts but from local

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 Part II Texts

a pairing that coincides in his presentation with the realms of sharia and ʿadl;
his distinction in some respects recalls al-Turtū shı̄ ’s categories of prophetic
˙ ˙
(nabawı̄ ) and reformist (islā hı̄ ) modes of governance (see Text 12), both of
˙ ˙
which provide for the welfare of the subjects. The eclecticism of al-
Mā wardı̄ ’s citations is a characteristic feature of his mirrors. Notably,
Text 13 also includes one of al-Mā wardı̄ ’s occasional references to his own
experience, in this instance his service as an envoy between rulers.

Translation
After the foundation and establishment of the state have been achieved,
its governance involves four principles: cultivation of the lands, protec-
tion of the subjects, management of the army and proper assessment of its
revenues.6
Let us begin with the first principle, that is, cultivation of the lands.
There are two kinds of land: agricultural and urban. The agricultural lands
are the source of the material products on which the state depends for its
subsistence and by which the subjects’ circumstances are maintained in
good order. Maintaining the good health of the lands results in their
fertility and rich productivity; if they fall into poor condition, the results
are barrenness and failure to produce. These lands constitute stored-up
treasures and ready funds. Any country with abundant fruits and crops is,
by virtue of its flourishing condition, independent; furthermore, its felicity
overflows to the benefit of others. A prosperous country attracts revenues;
its food products remain in high demand. The opposite conditions result if
the agricultural lands suffer diminishment or degradation.
The administrator of the state (mudabbir al-mulk) must fulfil three
obligations (huqū q) in regard to the agricultural lands. First, he must take
˙
responsibility for maintaining the good condition of the water supplies
over which he exercises authority. He possesses the power to ensure that

custom. As the term’s meaning evolved, it came to connote legal prescriptions issued by
rulers.
6
Elsewhere, al-Mā wardı̄ lists seven things incumbent on the ruling authorities of the umma
(sultā n al-umma): the safeguarding of religion; protection of the territory and defence of the
˙
community; cultivation of the land; assessing the ruler’s share in the revenues; undertaking
the redress of grievances and the implementation of ordinances; maintaining the stipulated
penalties; and the selection of deputies (Adab al-dunyā wa-l-dı̄ n, 139). In his juridical
treatise, he provides a list of the ten mandatory public responsibilities of the imam (al-
Mā wardı̄ , al-Ahkā m al-sultā niyya, 12–14 = Wahba, Ordinances of Government, 16; see
below, n. 15). ˙ ˙

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 The Practice of Good Governance

the water flows copiously without being cut off, and that it reaches the
entire population without interruption, so that everybody, near and far
alike, can share it, and the strong and the weak benefit equally from it. If
the water supplies are neglected, they will diminish, and people will
compete, by force and by violence, for access to water; the sound manage-
ment of the water supply will become defective, and the repair necessary to
maintain it will lapse. The person who is most able to exercise domination
will take possession of it, and he will appropriate the funds and foodstuffs
that depend on it. People will suffer shortages so that this one person can
enjoy his plenty, and their lives will become disrupted for the sake of his
well-being. This person’s prosperity will bring barrenness, and the com-
fort of his situation will entail hardship for the rest of the population.7
The ruler’s second responsibility is to protect the people from exploit-
ation and avert harm from them, for they are vulnerable to the powerful
and mighty, who regard them as morsels and crumbs available for their
consumption. The ruler must ensure that the people are secure in their
lands, so that they are relieved of the need to defend themselves, having
no task other than cultivation. For each occupation, there is a suitable
group of people who will devote themselves to it. If the ruler governs in
this way, the cultivators will multiply as a result of their prosperity; they
will live at ease through their agriculture, and they will bring aid and
support to other groups. The Prophet said: ‘Seek sustenance from that
which is hidden in the earth’, through cultivation.8
The third task incumbent upon the ruler is assessment of the levies
due from the people. These sums should be reckoned according to the
judgement of the religious law (sharʿ) and the verdict of justice (ʿadl), so
that the amounts due do not cause damage, nor does their collection
involve oppression. For the peasantry depend on the ruler’s justice to
ensure their equitable treatment in the matter of taxation. If the ruler
ensures this equity, they will render obediently the amounts due from
them, and will enjoy the surplus left to them by the lightening of the
burdens placed upon them. When the peasants live in ease, times will be

7
Al-Mā wardı̄ includes an extensive discussion of water supplies in al-Ahkā m al-sultā niyya,
˙ ˙
203–9 = Wahba, Ordinances of Government, 197–201.
8
Al-ʿAjlū nı̄ , Kashf al-khafā ʾ, I: 161, no. 529; also cited in al-Mā wardı̄ , Qawā nı̄ n al-wizā ra,
162; al-Mā wardı̄ , Adab al-dunyā wa-l-dı̄ n, 210; al-Mā wardı̄ , al-Amthā l wa-l-hikam, p. 77,
˙
no. 194/551; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Thimā r al-qulū b, 509; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Tamthı̄ l wa-l-muhā dara,
˙ ˙
158; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Khā ss al-khā ss, 120; al-Tawhı̄ dı̄ , al-Basā ʾir wa-l-dhakhā ʾir, VII: 259,
no. 748. ˙˙ ˙˙ ˙ ˙

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 Part II Texts

plentiful, and when their affairs are in good order, the kingdom will
flourish. If, on the other hand, the amount of their taxes causes harm to
the people, or if its collection involves oppressive means, this state of
well-being will be turned into its opposite. The peasants will fall into
debt, and they will be forced into penury. The ruler’s governance will
depend on force, and it will depart from the path of justice and equity.
The injury and disruption that the people have suffered will lead them to
disaffection from the ruler, and to abandon their lands.
Solomon, son of David, upon him be peace, said: ‘Drink water from
your own well, and let your water flow into your markets; your well will
then be blessed.’9 Buzurgmihr said, ‘He who fills his treasury by means of
injustice to his subjects is like he who patches his roof with bricks taken
from the foundations of his house.’10 Ziyā d wrote to his officials in Iraq,
‘Treat the agriculturalists well, for you will remain well-fed only as long
as they are well-fed.’11
As for cities, they are places that bring many people together, for five
purposes. Firstly, a city’s inhabitants settle in it for the sake of peace and
tranquillity. Secondly, cities are intended to facilitate the conservation of
financial resources and to prevent their exhaustion and waste. Thirdly,
cities are designed for the protection of women and the dependent
members of the household from abuse and humiliation. Fourthly, cities
offer the opportunity to find necessary commodities and occupations.
Fifthly, they provide opportunities for earning a livelihood and obtaining
materials. If a city lacks any one of these five things, not only will the
settlement fail to endure; it will also become a place of desolation and
ruin. Al-Zubayr b. al-ʿAwwā m, God be pleased with him, said:
I heard the Prophet of God say: ‘The lands belong to God; wherever
you find good (in them), praise God and take up residence.’12
9
Cf. Proverbs, V: 15: ‘Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own
well’ (New Oxford Annotated Bible, 808).
10
Thimā r al-qulū b, 179 (Anū shı̄ rvā n); al-Thaʿā libı̄ , al-Tamthı̄ l wa-l-muhā dara, 99
˙ ˙
(Anū shı̄ rvā n); al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k, II: 497 (among the reports of Jaʿfar
˙ ˙
b. Yahyā the Barmakid).
˙
11
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyun al-akhbā r, I: 10; Ibn Hamdū n, al-Tadhkira al-Hamdū niyya, I: 295;
˙ I: 169; al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā˙ j al-mulū k, II: 496.
al-Rā ghib al-Isfahā nı̄ , Muhā darā t al-udabā ʾ,
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
Ziyā d b. Abı̄ hi, also known as Ziyā d b. Abı̄ Sufyā n (d. 53/673), held the post of governor
of Iraq and the eastern provinces of the Umayyad caliphate during the reign of Muʿā wiya
(r. 41–60/661–80) (see further Hasson, ‘Ziyā d b. Abı̄ hi’).
12
Al-Sakhā wı̄ , al-Maqā sid al-hasana, 240, no. 304. Al-Zubayr b. al-ʿAwwā m, a Companion
˙ ˙
of the Prophet, was closely connected to the Prophet’s family and to the family of Abū
Bakr, the first caliph. He was also the father of ʿAbdallā h b. al-Zubayr, who would rule

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 The Practice of Good Governance

The ruler’s role in cultivating the lands and building cities is more
extensive than that of his subjects, since he is the root and they are the
branches, he the one followed and they his followers.
In founding cities, there are six conditions that must be taken into
account. The first requirement is the availability of an abundant supply of
fresh water; the second, the potential for constructive development; the
third is the temperateness of the site, and the corresponding properties of
healthful air and soil; fourthly, the site should offer proximity to two
necessities, grazing lands and sources of wood; fifthly, its living quarters
must be well fortified against enemies and brigands; sixthly, it should be
surrounded by agricultural land, the products of which are ample enough
to support its people. When these six conditions are fully met in the
founding of a city, its enduring foundations will be exceedingly strong,
and it will only disappear if subject to a divine judgement or when the
time appointed for its end, known only to God, approaches.
In addition to these six necessary conditions for the siting of cities,
there are eight conditions, incumbent upon the founder of the city, that
concern the rights of the city’s inhabitants. The founder’s first charge is
to ensure that running water reaches even its most distant areas, whether
by means of flowing rivers or through well-stocked reservoirs, so that
people will be able to break their journeys there without needing to divert
their routes. Secondly, the ruler must calculate the measurements of the
city’s thoroughfares and streets, so that they are well proportioned in
relation to one another, in order to avoid congestion and allow people to
pass through them without risk of injury. The ruler’s third responsibility
is the construction of a Friday mosque for the congregational prayers.
This mosque should be located in the middle of the city, so that it is
equally close to all the inhabitants; he should then construct smaller
mosques in the streets throughout the city. Fourthly, he must assess
and determine its markets, ensuring that they suffice for the city’s
inhabitants and are located in the places where they are most needed.
The fifth condition is that he should ensure the distinctness of each urban
neighbourhood according to the composition of its residents and the
backgrounds of its inhabitants; he should not group together rivalrous
and conflicting groups or members of different ethnic communities
(ajnā s). Sixthly, if the king wishes to reside in the city, he should reside

from Mecca for almost a decade before Umayyad forces defeated his forces and killed him
in 72–3/691–2.

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 Part II Texts

in its most spacious area, and surround his residence with the houses of
all his retainers and a sufficient number of military personnel; he should
disperse the rest of his military forces in the remaining parts of the city,
so that they are able to provide protection for the town from all direc-
tions. The ruler must treat the urban population with particular justice.
He should settle the ordinary townspeople in the city centre, for two
reasons: so that the people benefit from the protection of his troops, and
so that the king will rarely find it necessary to ride in their midst, and he
will therefore avoid appearing lenient in their eyes. The seventh condi-
tion is that if the city borders on hostile territory or its inhabitants fear
seizure, he must surround the townspeople with sturdy walls, so that no
one is able to enter unless it is in accordance with the townspeople’s wish,
and no one is able to leave without their knowledge; for the city should be
a safe haven for its inhabitants and a refuge for its residents. The
founding king’s eighth responsibility is to move into the city
a sufficient number of specialists in the various sciences and occupations,
so that the urban population need not depend for the provision of their
needs on persons living elsewhere.
If the city’s founder satisfies these eight conditions, he will have
fulfilled his obligations towards the townspeople; their only remaining
claim against him is that he should act among them according to the finest
conduct and that he should adopt in his relations with them an exemplary
path. In these circumstances, the new city will belong among the most
perfect places to live, and among the most equitable places to settle.
Cities are of two kinds: they are based either on pasturage and agricul-
tural lands, or on economic opportunity and commerce. Of these two
types, the first, that based on lands suitable for grazing and for agricul-
ture, is the more firmly established in terms of its people. It is also
preferable to the second type of city in terms of its conditions, and
more desirable as a place to live, owing to its ready supply of provisions
and the possibility of acquiring the sources for these provisions. Among
the requirements of such a city is that it be located in the middle of its
arable land, situated at the mid-point of all the surrounding land’s
extremities, so that the supplies of agricultural produce will be evenly
accessible from one area to another, and the roads from these areas to the
city equal to one another. A city sited in this fashion will be abundantly
prosperous as long as its arable land remains under cultivation. If an
injustice should afflict the city’s people, the harm will cause them to
disperse among their arable lands, where they will be able to achieve

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 The Practice of Good Governance

a fully satisfactory way of life and defend themselves against the prevail-
ing injustice for a certain period of time. If, on the other hand, the
[governor of the] arable land treats its inhabitants unjustly, they are in
a position to seek the security and shelter available in the city. In other
words, both places, the land and the city, provide places of refuge from
one another.
The second type of city, the city of [economic] opportunity and com-
merce, is among the perfections of the region and the adornments of the
realm. It is the destination for the rarities of many lands and the novelties of
many regions; it lacks for no desirable commodity, nor is a single import
excluded from it. For such cities, there are three conditions that must be
considered. One consideration is that the city of opportunity and com-
merce should be situated in the midst of cities of the first kind, namely
cities of the countryside; furthermore, it should lie in proximity to the
lands traversed by merchants, so that it is not far away for anyone seeking it
and not too distant for any person who directs his path towards it.
The second condition is that it should lie on a route made up of easily
passable roads that allow for the transport of heavy burdens, either by river
or on the backs of animals. If the route consists of roads that are rough and
deserts that are arid, people will abandon it, unless under duress. The third
condition for this type of city is that its roads should be safe for people
carrying rare commodities, and they should involve minimal discomfort
and little burden. The main people who frequent this city are traders in
transit, looking for the most profitable goods in the lands; in their case, if
the route becomes too arduous, the city will be abandoned.
This latter type of city is the more sought-after one, the type that is
more widely talked about throughout the region. It furthers the object-
ives of kings rather than supplying them with the resources that they
need, for, if they resort to extreme measures or exercise injustice in it
through the raising of illegal taxes and tithes, the city’s population will
flee. If the townspeople find an alternative city comparable to it, the first
city will turn into a place to which people come only out of necessity and
not out of choice, and, moreover, cities founded on the basis of coercion
cannot last. It is not improbable that a city of this kind will become
extinguished, as the person who lives there only because he has been
coerced to do so may well join the person who has exercised choice [and
left]. Since the city’s wealth is derived from moveable trade, if the king
does not redress his sovereignty by lightening the burden [of taxation]
and establishing equity, it will not be onerous for the people to change

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 Part II Texts

[the city in which they conduct their trade]; they will settle in more
equitable lands, and will aim for the easiest environment for trade and
transactions, since even if a country is far away, to these people, all lands
constitute their country. The poet said:
Leave an evil place; do not take up residence in it.
If there is a better place to live that lies far away, then depart.13

Section
The second of the four principles involved in the governance of the realm
is the protection of the subjects. The subjects are like trusts that God has
deposited with the king: God has charged the king with the duty of
protection for the people over whom He has appointed him.14 The
subjects lack the capacity to defend themselves by any means other
than through his power; nor are they capable of achieving justice and
equity among themselves, other than through his kindness. In relation to
the subjects, the king is in the position of the orphan’s guardian, who is
commissioned to protect the orphan and responsible for his welfare. The
orphan’s guardian must, according to the custody and trust with which
he is charged, rectify his charge’s slips, correct his errors, protect his
possessions and augment his resources. Similarly, the king’s position in
relation to his subjects demands that he defend them, maintain his
oversight of them and take responsibility for their interests. The benefit
of their welfare on their conditions will redound to him, just as any harm
that they may suffer will return to him. There will never exist a stable
sovereignty in which the conditions of the subjects are corrupt.
With regard to his role as guardian of the subjects, ten things are
necessary for the king.15

13
Al-Mufaddal al-Dabbı̄ , Dı̄ wā n al-Mufaddaliyyā t, 751, CXVI, line 8; al-Mā wardı̄ , al-
˙˙ ˙ ˙˙
Amthā l wa-l-hikam, 84, no. 187/607 (citing ʿAbd Qays b. Khufā f al-Burjumı̄ ).
˙
14
Cf. Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , Text 1.
15
There are some points here common to the ten general duties of the imam that al-
Mā wardı̄ lists in al-Ahkā m al-sultā niyya: safeguarding the religion, as the community’s
forebears have agreed˙ upon it; ˙executing ordinances between disputants in order to
further the spread of equity (nasafa); protecting the territory and defending the subjects’
˙
households so that they can pursue their livelihoods and travel in safety; upholding the
statutory penalties; fortifying the borders; struggling against the enemies of Islam;
collecting the fayʾ and sadaqā t according to the religious law; assessing the stipends due
˙
from the treasury and ensuring their payment without delay; appointing reliable and
sincere persons to delegated offices; personal oversight of matters and observing the

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 The Practice of Good Governance

Firstly, he must ensure that the subjects are able to reside in their
homes in tranquillity. Secondly, he must leave them unmolested and
secure in their homes. Thirdly, he must avert injury from them and
restrain the hands of the overbearing from them. Fourthly, he must treat
them with justice and equity. Fifthly, he must settle the disputes that
arise among them. Sixthly, he must induce them to heed the require-
ments of the religious law in their acts of worship and in their transac-
tions with one another. Seventhly, he must uphold among them the
statutory penalties of God Almighty and His rightful claims. Eighthly,
he must ensure the security of their routes and roads. Ninthly, he must
attend to their welfare by preserving their water supplies and viaducts.
Tenthly, inasmuch as they differ in religion, occupation, means of
livelihood and probity, he must assess their various qualities and order
them according to their worth and their stations.16
If the king upholds these ten rights among his subjects, he will have
manifested just governance and virtuous conduct, which will earn him the
subjects’ obedience and ensure the welfare of the kingdom. If he falls short
in them, then these outcomes will be reversed. Ardashı̄ r b. Bā bak said:
The happiness of the subjects lies in obedience to the king (tā ʿat al-
˙
malik), and the happiness of the king lies in obedience to the
Possessor [of Sovereignty] (tā ʿat al-mā lik).17
˙
A man of wit and intelligence said:
If the power of the king occasions no joy for his subjects, then his
sovereignty is a kind of tyranny.18

conditions of the people (al-Ahkā m al-sultā niyya, 16–17 = Wahba, Ordinances of

˙ ˙
Government, 16). In the present context, it is the subjects’ perspective that predominates,
and the list reflects the subjects’ rights to the ruler’s fulfilment of the conditions necessary
to their welfare; the absence of jihā d, prerogative of the imam alone, from the list of duties
in Tashı̄ l al-nazar supports the supposition that it was written for a Buyid ruler rather
˙
than a caliph. See further above, n. 6.
16
Assuring that each individual occupied the economic position and practised the profes-
sional function appropriate to his station and faculties constituted an important element
in conceptions of royal justice. See al-Sayyid, ‘Tamhı̄ d’, 8–21, 26–8; Marlow, Hierarchy
and Egalitarianism, 143–55; above, Text 9; and below, Text 17.
17
Similarly attributed to Ardashı̄ r in Kitā b al-Tā j, 2, and Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-
˙˙
mulū k al-mansū b ilā . . . al-Mā wardı̄ , 146 (adduced from Ardashı̄ r’s Testament but, as al-
Sayyid points out, the line does not appear in the published version of ʿAhd Ardashı̄ r; nor
does it appear in the appended ‘Scattered Sayings’ of Ardashı̄ r). The linking and at the
same time contrasting of al-malik and al-mā lik recalls the Qurʾanic language discussed in
Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ (see above, Text 1).
18
Al-Mā wardı̄ , Qawā nı̄ n al-wizā ra, 144 (baʿd al-hukamā ʾ).
˙ ˙

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It is related that Anū shı̄ rvā n dispatched an envoy to a king who was
determined to wage war against him. Anū shı̄ rvā n ordered his envoy to
acquaint himself with this king’s behaviour, both his personal conduct
and his behaviour in his dealings with his subjects. The envoy returned
and said, ‘In this king, I found that jesting was stronger than seriousness,
falsehood more frequent than truthfulness, injustice prevalent over just-
ice.’ Anū shı̄ rvā n said, ‘Then I am already blessed with victory over him.
March against him! And in fighting him, arm yourself with whatever he
deems weakest, least and most humble; in this way you will triumph over
him and he will suffer defeat.’ Accordingly, he set out against this enemy,
was duly victorious against him and took possession of his kingdom.19
The third principle entailed in the governance of the realm is manage-
ment of the army. It is by means of his army that the king achieves
sovereignty and domination, and that he rises to rule and power. When
the troops thrive, they will use their force to further his interests; if,
however, they become dispirited, they may turn their force against him.
It is extremely unlikely that an individual who was once on his side and
has turned against him will later regard it as in keeping with his integrity
to renew his support for him.
It is through his good management of the troops that the king is able to
sustain their obedience and demand their support. This good manage-
ment rests on four conditions. If these four criteria are met perfectly, the
army will, by his efforts, thrive and remain stalwart in their support of
him. If, on the other hand, the king fails to fulfil these conditions, the
army will suffer damage on his account, and in turn they will cause
damage to his sovereignty.
The first condition is the provision of training (adab) in order to
strengthen the troops. Proper education will preserve the troops’ strong
support and their complete mobilisation on the king’s behalf; through it,
the troops will improve their condition – for their own benefit as well as
for the benefit of the king and his subjects.
This improvement (salā h) – which benefits the troops, the king and the
˙ ˙
subjects – consists of several facets. The improvement that benefits the
troops themselves entails three things. The first comprises extensive
practice for the king’s troops in the necessary mounted exercises and
military strategy, because the military arts combine knowledge and

19
See also Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-mansū b ilā . . . al-Mā wardı̄ , 172; al-
˙ ˙= Alarcón, Lámpara de los Príncipes, II: 368–9.
Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k, II: 728
˙ ˙

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 The Practice of Good Governance

action. Secondly, the troops benefit from their ability to specialise solely
in the military profession; limiting themselves to this profession ensures
that they are not obliged to interrupt their service in order to earn
a livelihood by any other means, a diversion that would undermine
them in their military service. Thirdly, the troops benefit by the restric-
tion of their pleasures to the permitted level of moderation; this moder-
ation ensures that they are neither overly preoccupied and distracted by
their pleasures, nor denied them – which latter condition would only
increase their desire for them.
Maintaining the good condition of the army also benefits the king,
again in three ways. Firstly, it establishes and sustains his troops’ love
for him, and this love will prompt them to offer him their sincere
counsel. Secondly, it will magnify the awe in which they hold him in
their hearts, and their awe will ensure their obedience to him. Thirdly,
it will convince them that the sound condition of the king’s sovereignty
will return benefits to them, and equally that damage to it will redound
against them.
Finally, the army’s well-being benefits the subjects, again in three
ways. Firstly, it will restrain anyone who might seek to harm them;
secondly, it will dispose the troops to repel anyone who seeks to exploit
them; thirdly, it will induce the army to assist them in attaining that
which is useful and valuable to them.
If the king succeeds in urging his troops to undertake this training, and
if they remain committed to this discipline, his troops will form the very
best army for the most fortunate of kings. Alexander sought guidance
from his teacher, and the latter wrote to him in reply:
Pay the closest attention to your soldiers: for they are enemies,
through whom other enemies suffer revenge.
What he meant was that the soldiers become the king’s enemies if they are
left to corruption, whereas as long as they prosper, it is the king’s enemies
who suffer their revenge.
The second condition of good management of the army lies in ranking
the troops according to their military skills, their defence of the realm and
their quickness to obey. If the king bases the soldiers’ ranks on these
criteria, they will know that their effort is appreciated with gratitude, that
their counsel is taken into account when they offer it and that they will be
duly rewarded. This practice will, furthermore, produce three effects, all
of which cause the troops’ affairs to prosper and promote the good

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 Part II Texts

management of the army. Firstly, a soldier who performs well will

increase his commitments to obedience and counsel, confident that his
efforts will earn him advancement and hoping for a doubling of his salary.
Secondly, out of desire for the same increases in status and compensation
that the good soldier attains, the soldier who falls short or performs his
duties poorly will emulate the former in manifesting his obedience and
seek to resemble him in his offering of sincere counsel. Thirdly, the
soldier who falls short will be deterred from seeking that which he does
not deserve and will hesitate from [seeking] a position to which he is not
entitled. Instead, given the limitations of his ambitions, he will content
himself with obscurity, and given his lack of strength, he will be satisfied
with less than his more highly motivated comrades. Nevertheless, if
stirred by fervour, he will not hesitate to act, if not even to increase his
efforts.
The third condition for the good management of the army is that
the king must take responsibility for their sufficient supplies, so that
they are never in need. Need will induce the soldiers to adopt one of
three measures, none of which has anything good about it: the troops
will either take possession of the subjects’ property [by force]; or
they will abandon the king to serve someone else, who is capable of
providing for their sufficiency; or they will occupy themselves with
some other means of earning a living, and their military skills will
thereby decline. Furthermore, when he needs them, the king will
find them of little help, since they will risk their lives for him only as
long as he maintains them adequately. It has been said: ‘He who
trusts in your good treatment will show greatest solicitude for your
power.’
When the troops become preoccupied with the search for alternative
sources of income, their expectations of receiving it [from the king] will
weaken in their souls, and the stipend that the king provides will appear
diminished in their eyes. Therefore, the king should grant his troops
generous stipends, lest they feel impelled through need to pursue
alternative means; for the person seeking restitution becomes embold-
ened, and the boldness of the soldiery is likely to lead to breaches of
deference and a weakening of the awe in which they hold the king. It is
rare for the realm to suffer damaging disturbances other than in this
kind of way, because as a rule, potential harms are averted through the
soldiery. When, however, it is the soldiers who constitute the source of
injury, who then will defend the subjects, and guarantee kindness and

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 The Practice of Good Governance

equity? Indeed, the soldiers call to mind the well-known proverb,

expressed in the words of the poet:
Salt makes good that in which change is to be feared.
How, then, to proceed when changes have dissolved the salt itself?20
It is generally held that the purpose of the soldiers’ salaries should be
to match, in an adequate fashion, the extent of their needs, rather than to
lavish increases upon them in excess of their needs. Such increases may
steer the troops towards one of two reprehensible characteristics: either
they may squander the funds in corrupt activities, by which they will
become corrupt, or they may become fully independent, and withdraw
from the king’s service. Ibn Qutayba related that Abarwı̄ z said to his son:
You should neither bestow so lavishly on your troops that they no
longer need you, nor constrain them to the point that they raise an
outcry against you. Give them moderate stipends: withhold from
them gently, and increase their hope; do not grant them overly
abundant stipends. 21
The fourth condition for the good maintenance of the army is that no
report concerning the troops should be concealed from the king and none
of their actions hidden from him, since they are the guardians of his state
and the protectors of his subjects. If the sick among them pass unnoticed,
or the good among them are overlooked for the sake of the bad, then the
worse among them will prevail over the good, because wickedness is more
apt to spread among the good: they will incline and cause others to incline
with them. The troops will find themselves beset by three dangerous
calamities, which will impair their well-being (salā h) and hinder their
˙ ˙
thriving. One of these calamities is that they will come to dislike times of
security and peacefulness and despise periods of calm, on account of the
diminished functions of their profession and the reduced demand for
their services. For these reasons they will fabricate causes for rupture and
open the gates for hostile offensives, in order to further their own
ambitions, which peace and tranquillity had curtailed. If their machin-
ations are not forestalled, then the soldiers may become the most
20
Al-Tawhı̄ dı̄ , al-Basā ʾir wa-l-dhakhā ʾir, II: 168, no. 523 (in the context of a discourse
˙ ˙
concerning passionate love); al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k, I: 211.
˙ ˙
21
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 11; Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 26; Ibn Abı̄
Dharr, al-Saʿā da wa-l-isʿā d, 400; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k, 72; al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ghurar
al-siyar, 690; Ibn Hamdū n, al-Tadhkira al-Hamdū niyya, I: 291; al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-
˙
mulū k, II: 493 (modified); ˙ al-arab, VI: 17.
al-Nuwayrı̄ , Nihā yat ˙ ˙

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 Part II Texts

disastrous element in the realm and cause the most rampant oppression.
The second risk is that, taking advantage of the king’s negligence towards
the soldiery, the king’s enemy may succeed in winning the troops’
positive inclination towards himself. When arrows take aim at objects
of desire, they often meet their targets; and if not deterred by vigilance or
restrained by caution, the enemy, by a stratagem, will triumph, the king
will fall and the realm will fall into the possession of his enemy. Thirdly,
the king’s neglect may encourage the troops to use their force to take
control, and his negligence may incite them to extend their control in
a bid for power. In this case, the soldiery will not refrain from seizing
whatever they desire; in so doing, they will deplete the wealth and
undermine the conditions of the population, causing multiple disasters
and ruining the subjects. In these circumstances, the troops cause far
greater damage to the realm than any potential conqueror and far more
injury to it than any aspiring usurper. If this situation continues, it can
only be brought to an end by severe suppression.
The troops are the ruler’s strength. He must seek the assistance of the
upright among them, if he is able to retain their allegiance; if he does not
succeed in securing this support, then the realm is bound for perdition
and will continue its procession towards corruption. As long as the king’s
sovereignty is firmly established, it is unlikely that corruption among the
soldiery will become general. If the king is fortunate enough to retain the
soldiers’ goodwill, he must use the opportunity to rectify his initial
errors. He must conduct a thorough study of the troops’ conditions, no
matter how insignificant their affairs may seem to him. He must not
neglect a trifling matter for a larger one, for great affairs begin small – like
fire, a little of which, through inattention, becomes harmful, unless it is
speedily corrected.
The governance of the troops is the most difficult task facing the
administrator of the state. It is through them that he achieves the
domination that allows him to rule. If as a result of their corruption he
becomes powerless, he will become the object of their domination; if, on
the other hand, he governs them in a resolute manner and they are willing
to follow him, he, through strength, attains power over them, and they, in
obedience, become his supporters. It has been said:
Among the signs of the [flourishing] state is the absence of
carelessness.22
22
Al-Mā wardı̄ , Qawā nı̄ n al-wizā ra, 146 (fı̄ manthū r al-hikam).
˙

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 The Practice of Good Governance

Section
The fourth foundation of the realm’s governance is the assessment
of financial resources, for it is the abundance of these resources that
maintains the stability of the realm, whereas their deficiency leads to
its disorder. This task of assessing financial resources comes with
difficulty to kings, since by virtue of their power they consider that
they ought to be able to achieve every goal and attain any desired
objective – whether by easy and gentle means, or by difficult and
harsh means; whether by means that they deem permissible accord-
ing to the religious law, or by adopting prohibited measures, and
exercising coercive methods. If, through their virtuous resolve, they
uphold the standards of just governance, and if, through their power
over the assessment of financial resources, they consider the very
best means to sustain their sources of revenue and to facilitate its
collection, neither exacting levies from the needy nor occasioning
hardship, then the balance of their kingdoms will be maintained, and
their exigencies kept moderate. They will not lack the capacity to
levy their due, nor will they transgress into the unsanctioned. The
ruler who succeeds in this regard is the most fortunate of kings, and
his subjects are, through him, the most fortunate of subjects;
whereas for the ruler who falls short in these matters, the opposite
is the case.
A certain king, who had abandoned himself to pleasure, yet cast
aspersions on another king for the same reason, said to me, while I was
an ambassador between the two of them:
I measured my expenditures against my income, and I assigned
to each expenditure a sufficient amount of revenue. I appointed
in this matter trusted and competent people, and I gave permis-
sion to anyone whose income fell short of his expenditure to
borrow from someone else whatever he required, in order to
augment his revenue. Having established these ordinances in
a precise manner, I have spent my time engaged in pleasure,
my soul at peace over the arrangements that I have made. The
purpose of sovereignty is the pursuit of pleasure. Had I not
behaved as I did, I would have been blameworthy in my pre-
occupation with pleasure. If this king had, like me, instituted
ordinances before dedicating himself entirely to his pleasure,
then I would not blame him; but since he neglected to do so,
he is the blameworthy one, and not I.

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I said to him:
You are blaming someone else for a sin that you once committed but
have since relinquished. You have deemed it an excusable matter in
your own case, yet an offence for someone else. By my life, the
person who has triumphed over his weakness is indeed more excus-
able than the person who still lacks restraint.
As a concession to his dignity, I refrained from proceeding in this dispute
with him, although in fact his argument was weak and his excuse defect-
ive. For even he who has few faults is not exempt from a little reproof. 23
Since the assessment of financial resources is among the four founda-
tions of the realm’s governance, its calculation must be considered from
two perspectives. The first perspective entails the assessment of incom-
ing revenue. These revenues should be assessed by one of two
approaches: either by the religious law, in the case of sacred texts that
determine the assessment of specific items – and it is not permissible to
alter assessments based on this approach; or by independent reasoning
(ijtihā d), in matters for which God has entrusted humanity, through
reasoning, with the task of establishing and determining judgements –
and it is not permitted to infringe these rules either. If the rules rest on
established laws (qawā nı̄ n), then they will produce fruit in the form of
justice, and they will be immune to efforts to weaken them through
injustice. 24 The second perspective entails the assessment of expend-
itures. Expenses should likewise be assessed in two ways: firstly, accord-
ing to need, for items that are mandatory or permissible; secondly,
according to the capability necessary for their collection, so that no

23
This report constitutes one of al-Mā wardı̄ ’s occasional illustrations of his points with
reference to his own experience. It constitutes an example of a ‘fragment of autobiog-
raphy’, of the kind that Hilary Kilpatrick has studied (‘Autobiography and Classical
Arabic Literature’, 2). In this case, al-Mā wardı̄ alludes to his service as an envoy, although
he tactfully refrains from identifying the rulers in question. As noted in section 3.6, he
conducted embassies between the caliphal and Buyid courts; see al-Sayyid, ‘al-Mā wardı̄
(364-450h/974-1058m): al-rajul wa-l-ʿasr’, 76–9, 81–2.
˙
24
The term qā nū n (pl. qawā nı̄ n) referred to financial regulations: both the assessment and
the collection of taxes, as well as to the sum due from the taxpayer; the term, in the
settings, such as Egypt and Syria, where it was used, denoted a kind of fiscal cadaster. In
formerly Sasanian settings, it connoted registers and lists recording land-taxes, and the
regulations laid down therein, and came to be regarded as the foundation of sound and
just administration. The term also acquired the sense of ‘code of regulations’ or laws laid
down by the political authorities (as opposed to the laws of the sharia, grounded in the
sacred sources of Qurʾan and hadith). See Linant de Bellefonds et al., ‘Kā nū n’.
˙

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 The Practice of Good Governance

legitimate source of income remains untapped, and so that its extraction

does not involve injustice.
When income is placed side by side with expenditures, it will corres-
pond to one of three possible conditions: 25
Firstly, income may exceed expenditures. This situation indicates
a robust realm with a steady method of assessment. The surplus in
revenue will be ready for use in the course of the various vicissitudes
and disturbances that may occur. The subjects will feel secure against the
extraction of additional levies that may arise from the ruler’s need; the
army, in view of this evidence of the king’s capability, will feel confident
that they will receive their stipends; the king will possess the power to
defend the realm against the perils that may befall it and the misfortunes
that may occur. For sovereignty is vulnerable to numerous unanticipated
occurrences, and time witnesses countless unexpected developments.
The second possible condition is that income may fall short of expend-
itures. In this case the realm will be weak and its administration defective,
because the ruler, by virtue of his power, will seek to obtain the amount
that he needs, regardless of the force required to collect it. He will
interpret the mandatory dues according to his interests, and he will
then demand additional sums that are not mandated (by the law). Need
will induce him to abandon the requirements of the religious law and
established governmental regulations (qawā nı̄ n), and to devise a means to
attain the needed funds and to achieve his desired ends. By his actions,
the subjects will perish, and the troops will disperse and oppose him;
furthermore, need will drive the soldiery to the same sort of behaviour
that it initiated in the king. It will not be possible to restrain them from
using force, since the king himself resorted to it; nor will it be possible to
prevent them from corruption, since the king also adopted corrupt
means. Either the king must correct matters by accepting the smaller
amount of revenue to which he is entitled, and, with the support of his
troops, establish a balanced economy; or corruption will lead inexorably
to ruin.
The third possible condition for revenues and expenditures is that
they are equally balanced, with neither surplus nor deficit. Under these
circumstances, in times of peace, the realm will be self-sufficient, but in
times of rupture and unforeseen setbacks, it will fall into disorder. For
each of these two sets of conditions, there is an appropriate ordinance. As

25
Cf. Bryson, apud Der Oikonomikos, 154–8.

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 Part II Texts

long as the divine decree favours the king with enduring peace, he may
govern in tranquillity and stability. When disturbed by unanticipated
troubles, however, he will quickly tire of the continuous exertion (ijtihā d)
demanded of him, and his supporters (aʿwā n) may begin to threaten him.
Therefore, against the vicissitudes entailed in these kinds of circum-
stances, the king should build for himself a store of reserves, on the basis
of his kindness towards the subjects and his execution of justice in his
governance. He will then enjoy the appreciation of his subjects and the
productivity that stems from justice.

Text 14
Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k, Chapter
˙ Four 26

Translator’s Introduction
Nizā m al-Mulk introduces his fourth chapter, which falls in the first part of
˙
Siyar al-mulū k, with a statement of his instructions regarding the proper
collection of taxes. From this topic he moves quickly to the related subject of
the vizier, and in particular, the calamity of the malevolent and perfidious
vizier.27 The larger part of this chapter, like Text 11, is taken up by a single
narrative, preceded by shorter narratives. The narrative pays less attention to
the collection of taxes than it does to the larger theme of malfeasance on the
part of royal officials, and it emphasises the perils of royal inattentiveness.
Nizā m al-Mulk’s brief conclusion consists of the assertion that actions, rather
˙
than words or names, reveal a person’s inner self, and that the king must be
guided in his interactions by the evidence of people’s behaviour. It illustrates
dramatically the perils of rapacity, of the despoiling of the subjects and the
neglect of the land, and the ruler’s responsibility to pay personal attention to
the condition of both; if he delegates responsibility for these matters, the king
must then scrutinise the conduct of the individuals to whom he has dele-
gated – a point that recapitulates al-Mā wardı̄ ’s criticism of the king to whom

26
Translation prepared from Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k, 30–42. For the correspond-
˙
ing section in Darke’s translation, see Darke, Book of Government, 22–32; in Schabinger’s
translation into German, Schabinger, Siyā satnā ma, Gedanken und Geschichten, 116–27;
and in Pistoso’s translation into Italian, Pistoso, L’arte della politica, 71–83.
27
On the seeming irony of the vizier’s warnings against vizieral wickedness and the specific
occasion that underlies the passage, see Yavari, Advice for the Sultan, 122–5.

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 The Practice of Good Governance

he carried an embassy in the previous extract. Nizā m al-Mulk’s narratives are

˙
intended as cautionary examples (ʿibrat), and frequently involve
a protagonist’s heeding or failing to heed such lessons.

Translation
Chapter Four: On the Conditions and the Continual Monitoring
of Tax-Collectors and Viziers
Officials charged with the collection of taxes in a fiscal district must be
advised to treat God’s creatures kindly and to claim no more than the licit
amount (mā l-i haqq), which, furthermore, they should seek with moderation
˙
and leniency. Tax-collectors should further be instructed against demand-
ing payments in advance of when they fall due, since such demands cause
great distress: to meet the demand, the subjects are compelled to sell their
crops at half the usual price, and when reduced to desperation they resort to
flight. If any of the subjects becomes destitute and needs oxen and seed, he
should be given a loan and granted relief, so that he will be able to stay where
he is and not be forced to abandon his home.

A Story on This Theme

I have heard that in the time of King Qubā d, the world suffered a drought
that lasted for seven years. During this time the heavens withheld their
blessings. The king ordered his officials to sell such crops as they had
collected, to make charitable donations (sadaqeh) of some of the proceeds
˙
and to give assistance to the poor from the royal treasury and reserve
supplies. By these means, in those seven years not a single person died of
hunger in his entire kingdom – on account of the king’s admonishment of
his agents.
It is essential to enquire continually into the affairs of officials. If an
official behaves in the manner that we have described, his fiscal district
can be confirmed upon him, but if not, he should be replaced with
someone suitable. If the official seizes anything illicitly from the subjects,
the amount seized should be reappropriated from him and restored to the
subjects. If after this reappropriation the official still possesses any
property, it should be removed from him and brought to the treasury.
He should be dismissed and never reappointed to another district, so that
his example will prove cautionary (ʿibrat) for other officials and they will
refrain from extortion.

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 Part II Texts

Section on Viziers
It is also necessary that the king enquire in secret into the affairs of his
viziers and trusted agents (muʿtamadā n), in order to ascertain whether they
are conducting their tasks well or not; for the well-being (salā h) or corrup-
˙ ˙
tion (fasā d) of the king and kingdom are dependent upon the vizier. When
the vizier is of good conduct the kingdom prospers, the army and the
subjects are content, satisfied and well provisioned, and the king is free of
worry. When, however, the vizier is of bad conduct he generates in the
kingdom the kind of harm that cannot be remedied, and as a result the king
is constantly distressed and anxious, and the province falls into disorder.

Story28
It has been related that Bahrā m-i Gū r had a vizier named Rā st-
Ravishn. 29 Bahrā m-i Gū r had placed the entire kingdom in the hands
of this vizier, whom he trusted; he would listen to no one’s word against
him. The king meanwhile spent day and night engaged in entertainment,
hunting and drinking. This Rā st-Ravishn said to a person who was
Bahrā m-i Gū r’s deputy (khalı̄ feh), ‘Our excessive justice has induced
the subjects to become ill-disciplined (bı̄ -adab) and presumptuous (dalı̄ r).
If they are not punished, I fear a calamity (tabā hı̄ ) will soon occur. The
king is preoccupied in hunting and drinking, and he has become neglect-
ful of the affairs of the subjects and the people (mardumā n). Punish them,
before disaster strikes. Now, you should know that punishment has two
aspects: reducing the bad people and seizing the property of the good.
Whomever I tell you to seize, seize him.’
Afterwards, from anyone whom the deputy seized and detained, Rā st-
Ravishn extracted a bribe. He then ordered the deputy to release the
person. This pattern continued until anyone in the kingdom who pos-
sessed wealth, horses, fine male and female slaves, property or a fine

28
A much shorter version of this narrative, in which the Iranian king is Gushtā sp, appears in
Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, part II, 154–7 = Bagley, Ghazā lı̄ ’s Book of Counsel for Kings,
˙˙
93–4.
29
The word rā st corresponds to the English ‘honest’, ‘true’, ‘straight’ or ‘upright’; ravish or
ravishn corresponds to ‘conduct’. Consequently, the name Rā st-Ravishn evokes upright,
honest, true conduct. The irony of the malevolent vizier of the story bearing this name is
spelt out in the version of Ghazā lı̄ , in which Gushtā sp appoints his vizier on the basis of
his name; this error, in Ghazā lı̄ ’s text, becomes the central element in the narrative
(Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, 154, 156–7). Nizā m al-Mulk also alludes to the incongruity of the
˙ ˙ name and his behaviour (see˙below, n. 32).
vizier’s

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 The Practice of Good Governance

estate lost it all to seizure. The subjects became impoverished, the

notables (maʿrū fā n) emigrated and nothing came into the treasury.
Sometime after these events had taken place, an enemy appeared, and
confronted Bahrā m-i Gū r. The king wished to give monetary gifts to his
army, to ensure that they were well supplied, and to send them against
the enemy. He went to the treasury and saw that there was nothing in it.
He questioned the notables, the municipal leaders and heads of districts
(marʿū fā n va-raʾı̄ sā n-i shahr va-rustā q).30 They said, ‘It has been several
years since so-and-so abandoned his home and possessions (khā n va-
mā n) and made for such-and-such a territory.’ The king asked why these
individuals had fled, and the notables and leaders replied that they did
not know. No one dared to tell the king the truth, out of fear of the vizier.
Bahrā m-i Gū r spent that day and night pondering this situation. He
could think of nothing that might account for the problem.
The next day, deeply troubled, he mounted and, alone, rode out into
the wilderness. He remained in constant thought until the day grew long,
and he had ridden some six or seven farsangs without being aware of it.
The heat of the sun grew strong. Overcome by thirst, Bahrā m badly
needed a drink of water. Looking out into the distance, he saw a rising
plume of smoke, and thought that whatever else, it must indicate the
presence of people. He made his way in the direction of that smoke. As he
drew near, he saw a flock of sheep, asleep; a pitched tent; and a dog
suspended from a gibbet. Astonished, he advanced to approach the tent.
A man came out of the tent and greeted him, helped him dismount and
brought him some of whatever food he had. He did not recognise his
visitor as Bahrā m. Bahrā m said to the man, ‘Before I eat this bread, first
tell me about this dog, so that I may know the cause of his condition.’
The honest man (javā nmard)31 said, ‘This dog was the trusted guard-
ian (amı̄ nı̄ ) of my flock of sheep. I knew that in his resourcefulness (hunar)

30
The background, status and duties of the urban office of raʾı̄ s (‘head’ or ‘chief’) differed
considerably from one city to another in the Seljuk period; see Paul, ‘The Histories of
Isfahan’, 129–32; Paul, ‘Where Did the Dihqā ns Go?’, 26–8; Havelmann, ‘The Vizier
and the Raʾı̄ s’.
31
The term javā nmard, and the associated abstract noun javā nmardı̄ , carry various mean-
ings according to the contexts in which they appear; see above, Chapter 6, n. 44. The
protagonist in Nizā m al-Mulk’s narrative appears as an isolated figure – the only other
˙
individual mentioned is his wife – in a remote mountainous location; apparently
a pastoralist, he is referred to later as a ‘Kurd’ (see below, n. 36). I have opted for
a translation that conveys the common ethical associations of the concept of javā nmardı̄
(cf. Zakeri, ‘Javā nmardi’).

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he could contend with ten men, and that for fear of this dog, no wolf
would dare to approach the sheep. Many a time I would go to the town
for some business matter, and I would return the next day. The dog used
to take the sheep to graze and bring them back safely. Things continued
in this fashion for some time. One day I counted the sheep, and I noted
that there were fewer of them. I began to look in the same manner every
few days, and I found the number of sheep continually decreasing. No
one remembers a thief having ventured into these parts, and I could not
in any way understand the reason for my sheep to be growing fewer in
number by the day. The state of my sheep reached such a degree of
depletion that when the collector of charitable donations (sadaqā t) arrived
˙
and requested from me, in accordance with past custom, the usual
amount, which had been assessed upon the entire flock, I had to give
up the remaining remnant of my flock in order to pay the sadaqā t; as
˙
a result I am now the shepherd of that official.
‘It happened that this dog had developed an affection for a she-wolf
and had mated with her; I, meanwhile, was unaware of and had no
knowledge of his goings-on. One day, by chance, I went out into the
plain in search of wood. As I returned, I came up from behind a hill, and
I saw the sheep grazing. I also saw a wolf, running around looking at the
flock. I sat down behind a thorn-bush and watched in secret. When the
dog saw the wolf, he headed towards her and began to wag his tail. The
wolf stood silent. The dog mounted her and mated with her, then made
for a corner and slept. The wolf rushed into the midst of the flock, seized
one of the sheep, tore it apart and ate it; the dog made no sound. Once
I observed this commerce between dog and wolf, I realised and under-
stood that the ruin of my affairs had arisen from the waywardness of the
dog. I therefore took hold of the dog and, his treachery having come to
light, hanged him on the gibbet.’
This account struck Bahrā m-i Gū r as remarkable. During his return
he pondered the matter the entire time, until the thought occurred to
him, ‘Our subjects are our flock, and our vizier is our trusted guardian.
I see that my kingdom is impaired and that my subjects are greatly
disturbed. No matter whom I ask, no one tells me the truth; rather,
they keep it hidden from me. My strategy (tadbı̄ r), therefore, shall be to
examine the subjects’ relations with Rā st-Ravishn.’
When he had returned to his residence, the first thing that Bahrā m did
was to request the daily listings of prisoners. From top to bottom the
records revealed the slander of Rā st-Ravishn, and the king realised that

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 The Practice of Good Governance

his vizier had mistreated and oppressed the people. The king said, ‘This
is not correct behaviour (rā st ravishn) but rather falsehood and
darkness.’32 Then, observing that its wise originators had spoken cor-
rectly, he repeated the proverb, ‘Whoever is deceived by a name forfeits
his bread, and whoever practises deceit for the sake of his bread forfeits
his life.’33
Bahrā m continued to muse, ‘I have strengthened the hand of this
vizier. Seeing his high rank and dignified status, the people, for fear of
him, do not dare to speak to me about him. To remedy this state of affairs,
tomorrow, when the vizier comes to the court, I shall lower his dignified
status in front of the magnates (buzurgā n) in attendance; I shall detain
him and command that heavy shackles be placed on his feet. Then I shall
summon the prisoners to appear before me and I shall ask after their
circumstances. I shall also command the issuing of a proclamation, in
which I shall announce that I have dismissed Rā st-Ravishn from the
vizierate, detained him and shall never again appoint him to office. I shall
further proclaim that anyone who has suffered harm from Rā st-Ravishn
and has a petition against him should come to the court and make his
situation known to us, so that we may grant that person justice from him.
Without fail, once the people hear this proclamation, they will make their
experience, of whatever kind, known to us. If the vizier has treated the
people well and has not seized their property wrongfully, and if they
express gratitude towards him, then I shall treat him favourably and
reinstate him in his duties. If he has behaved in the opposite manner, then
I shall punish him (siyā sat farmā yam).’34

32
In this passage, Bahrā m alludes explicitly to the incongruity of the name Rā st-Ravishn
and its unscrupulous bearer (see above, n. 29). The letters r-v-sh-n that make up the word
ravishn are identical with the letters that make up the word rawshan, ‘light’, ‘clear’ or
‘bright’, and in the unvocalised Persian script the two words are indistinguishable; this
overlap provides an added element of irony, as Darke suggests (Book of Government, 246,
n. 2).
33
Following the textual reconstruction proposed by Darke (Book of Government, 246–7,
n. 3), on the basis of the passage in Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, 157.
˙˙
34
In Persian, and in Nizā m al-Mulk’s lexicon in particular, the term siyā sat not only evoked,
˙
in a general sense, governance and government, but also carried the specific meaning of
royal punishment. This dimension of the term persisted, especially in Persianate con-
texts; for its development in the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century South Asian context
of the Delhi Sultanates, see Auer, ‘Concepts of Justice’; and see Matthee, ‘Was Safavid
Iran an Empire?’, 251, where the author makes the important point for this much later
period that the arbitrary infliction of punishment (siyā sat) was tempered by the equally
strong imperatives of musā maha and mudā rā , leniency and accommodation.
˙

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 Part II Texts

The next day King Bahrā m-i Gū r held court. The magnates came
forward, and the vizier, having entered, sat in his appointed place.
Bahrā m-i Gū r turned to him and said, ‘What is this disorder that you
have stirred up in our kingdom? You have left our army ill-supplied and
ruined our subjects. We ordered you to deliver the soldiers’ stipends in
a timely fashion. We instructed you not to neglect the cultivation of the
province, nor to exact from the subjects anything other than the appro-
priate land-tax. We ordered you further to ensure the continued abun-
dance of the resources in the treasury. Now I see that the treasury is
empty, the army lacks supplies and the subjects have been forced to
move. You perhaps imagined that in my preoccupation with drinking and
hunting, I would neglect the affairs of the kingdom and the condition of
the subjects.’
Bahrā m then ordered the summary removal of the vizier and his
transfer to a house, where heavy shackles were attached to his feet. At
the door of the palace, he ordered the reading of a proclamation:
The king has dismissed Rā st-Ravishn from the vizierate. He is angry
with him, and he will not appoint him to another duty. Let anyone
who has suffered harm from Rā st-Ravishn and has a grievance
against him come to the court. Let him, without any fear or trepida-
tion, set forth his circumstances, so that the king may give him
justice.
Thereupon Bahrā m ordered further that the door of the prison be
opened, and the prisoners brought before him. He asked each of them
in turn to relate the crime for which he had been detained.
One said, ‘I had a wealthy brother who owned a great deal of property
and many rich possessions. Rā st-Ravishn seized him, divested him of all
his property and killed him under torture. When asked the reason for my
brother’s execution, Rā st-Ravishn averred that he had been in corres-
pondence with the king’s enemies. He put me in prison so that I could not
bring a grievance against him and to ensure that the entire situation
would remain hidden.’
Another said, ‘I had a garden of great beauty; it was left to me by
my father. Rā st-Ravishn established an estate on the land that lay next
to it. One day he came into my garden. It pleased him greatly. He
wished to buy it, but I refused to sell. He seized me and put me in
prison, claiming that I had fallen in love with the daughter of such-
and-such a person and must have committed a crime. He ordered me

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 The Practice of Good Governance

to relinquish my possession of this garden – to draw up a contract

stating that I had renounced my rights to it, had no claim over it and
that it was now the rightful claim and property of Rā st-Ravishn.
I refused to issue such a statement, and today I have been in prison
for five years.’
Another said, ‘I am a merchant, and my business involves travel by sea
and on land. I accumulate only a little capital. Whatever fine items I find
in a city I buy; then I travel to the next city and sell them. I content myself
with only a small amount of profit. It happened that I had a necklace
made of pearls. When I came to this city, I offered it for sale at a certain
price. News of this item reached the king’s vizier. He sent someone and
summoned me. He bought this string of pearls from me, but rather than
paying me its price he sent the necklace directly to his treasury. For
several days I went to pay my respects to him. He withheld all acknow-
ledgement of the outstanding payment that he owed me for the pearl
necklace. My endurance reached a limit, and I was in any event on the
point of departure. I appeared before him one day and I said, “If this
necklace is satisfactory, please oblige me by paying its price; if it is not
satisfactory, then please return it to me, since I am on the point of
departure.” Rā st-Ravishn gave me no reply. But when I returned to my
lodgings, I saw a captain (sarhangı̄ ) with four foot-soldiers. They entered
my lodgings and demanded that I come with them, since the vizier had
summoned me. I was pleased, thinking that the vizier was going to pay
me the price for the pearls, so I stood up and went with these ruffians
(ʿavā nā n). But they brought me to the prison for thieves. They told the
gaoler that according to their orders I was to be imprisoned with heavy
fetters fixed to my feet. It has now been a year and a half that I have been
in prison.’
Another said, ‘I am the headman (raʾı̄ s) of such-and-such a district.
My house was permanently open to receive guests, strangers and people
of learning. I used to provide assistance for people, especially people in
distress, and, observing the practice of my forefathers, I was constantly
donating funds for charitable (sadaqeh) and benevolent (khayrā t) pur-
˙
poses and for the benefit of the deserving. The costs of maintaining my
guests and ensuring their comfort accounted for any income that
I received from the property and estates bequeathed to me. Claiming
that I had found a treasure, the vizier seized me. He subjected me to
torture and interrogation, and he detained me in prison. Of necessity
I have been forced to sell for half its worth every property and estate that

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 Part II Texts

I had, and to give the proceeds to him. It is now four years that I have
been in prison and in fetters, and I do not have a single dirham at my
disposal.’
Another said, ‘I am the son of such-and-such a local leader (zaʿı̄ m).
The vizier mulcted the property of my father and killed him under
torture and interrogation. He assigned me to prison, and it has now
been seven years that I have suffered the trials of incarceration.’
Another said, ‘I am a military man. I served the king’s father for
several years, and accompanied him in his campaigns; I have also spent
a number of years in the service of the present king. I am allotted a small
stipend through the military register (dı̄ vā n). Last year I received
nothing. This year, therefore, I submitted a claim to the vizier.
I informed him that I had a family, and that I had not received the
stipend due to me for the previous year; I therefore requested that
this year he release the funds so that I might use some of them to pay off
my creditors and expend some of them for purposes of general main-
tenance. The vizier responded, “The king has no undertakings in view
for which he would need an army. It does not matter whether you and
your kind are or are not in service; if you need bread, go to work as
a builder.” I replied, “I should not have to work as a builder when I have
a rightful claim, based on many years of service, to an allowance. But
you, tasked with stewardship (kadkhudā y kardan) on behalf of the king,
should learn something: I am more meritorious in swordsmanship than
you are in penmanship, since in wielding the sword I risk my life for the
king, and furthermore I do not discount his command; whereas you,
when the time comes for dispensing stipends (bi-gā h-i dı̄ vā n), deprive
us of bread and ignore the king’s command. Do you not know even this
much, that in relation to the king, you are a servant (chā kir), just as I too
am a servant? He has appointed you to one kind of task and me to
another. The difference between the two of us is that I carry out the
king’s commands whereas you proceed as if you had no orders. If the
king has little need for people like me, he has little need for people like
you either. If you have received official notice that the king has
expunged my name from the registry, then show it to me; otherwise,
send us the allowance that the king has assigned to us.” The vizier
responded, “Go; I have charge over both you and the king. If it were not
for me, the vultures would have eaten your brains long ago.” A day later
he sent me to prison, and it is now four months that I have remained in
confinement.’

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 The Practice of Good Governance

There were more than seven hundred prisoners. Fewer than twenty
men turned out to be murderers, thieves or criminals. All the others were
persons whom the vizier, out of sheer greed and oppression, had wrong-
fully put in prison. Once the people of the city and the region heard the
news of the king’s proclamation, the next day so many aggrieved persons
came to the court that there was no limit or end to them.
As Bahrā m-i Gū r came to perceive the state of the people and the scale
of the vizier’s irregularities, injustices and cruelty, he said to himself, ‘The
corruption that this man has caused in the kingdom seems to defy descrip-
tion. His insolence towards God, towards God’s creatures and towards me
exceeds anything that the mind might be able to comprehend. I must look
more deeply into this matter . . .’ He ordered a group of men to go to Rā st-
Ravishn’s residence, to bring all his files of paper and to seal all the doors of
his houses. A group of the king’s trusted stewards (muʿtamadā n) went and
did these things. When they had assembled all the vizier’s papers, they set
about examining them. Among these materials they found certain docu-
ments, full of flattering words, that a rebellious king intent on the over-
throw of Bahrā m-i Gū r’s kingdom had sent to Rā st-Ravishn. They also
found a document in the hand of Rā st-Ravishn; addressed to this rebel
king, this letter was similarly replete with flattery. In it, Rā st-Ravishn
asked the reason for the rebel king’s delay, and continued, ‘The wise have
said that negligence is the undoing of the state. Out of my good wishes for
your success and my servitude, I have made every possible arrangement.
I have changed the minds of several people, such as so-and-so and so-and-
so and so-and-so, all of them heads of the army, and I have brought them
into allegiance; I have left most of the army with neither equipment nor
supplies; I have appointed some of them to specific locations and deprived
them of funds; I have kept the subjects without food, reduced them to
weakness and forced them to flee. Everything that I have acquired over all
this time I have placed at your disposal in your treasury, so that today no
king possesses a treasury like it. I have had your crown, your belt and your
golden seat35 decorated with jewels, in a manner the like of which no one
has ever seen. Yet my life is not secure against that man. The field lies
vacant, and the adversary remains unaware. Make haste, and the sooner the
better, before the man awakens from the sleep of negligence.’

35
I have interpreted the term majlis in its literal meaning, ‘a place to sit’. Darke understood
the word to refer to a royal tray or salver, characteristically made of gold (as in this
instance) or silver; Darke, Book of Government, 247, n. 4.

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When Bahrā m-i Gū r saw these writings, he said, ‘I see! So it is he who,
through his deceit, has incited this enemy against me. Of his bad faith and
hostility there can be no further doubt.’ He ordered that whatever
possessions the vizier had be brought to the treasury; his slaves and his
animals were to be taken away. The king also ordered the return of any
goods that the vizier had seized from the people through bribery, injust-
ice and other illicit means, as well as the sale of his properties and estates
and their restoration to the people and to their rightful claimants. He had
the vizier’s residence, home and possessions (khā n-o mā n) levelled to the
ground. Then Bahrā m commanded the erection of a high gallows at the
gate of the vizier’s palace, and the setting up of thirty additional gibbets
in front of that gallows. First, they hanged Rā st-Ravishn on the gallows,
just as that Kurd36 had hanged his dog on the gibbet. Then they hanged
the vizier’s accomplices, who had pledged allegiance to him. The king
ordered that for seven days, it should be proclaimed:
This is the reward of the person who harbours ill intent towards the king
and enters into agreement with the king’s enemies. It is the recompense
of the person who chooses treachery over honesty, oppresses the people
and displays insolence against God and God’s creatures.
Once the king had carried out this punishment (siyā sat), every malefactor
became fearful of King Bahrā m-i Gū r. Everyone whom Rā st-Ravishn
had appointed to office was dismissed, and never again entrusted with an
official function; everyone whom Rā st-Ravishn had removed and dis-
missed from office was reinstated in an official position. The king
replaced all the secretaries and officials. When this news reached the
other king, who had set out against Bahrā m-i Gū r, the former retreated
immediately from the position that he had reached and regretted his
action. He sent copious riches and priceless tokens of his subservience to
Bahrā m, begged his pardon and pledged his loyal servitude.37 He said, ‘It

36
Possibly, as in pre-Islamic times (Grenet, La geste d’Ardashir, 32, and see chapter VI, 78–
81), ‘Kurd’ in this instance serves as a general reference to any mountain-dwelling people.
In earlier centuries, Kurdish groups had played a prominent political and military role
over a wide terrain, including forming states in mountainous areas, but their ascendancy
was threatened by the arrival of the Ghuzz Tü rkmen, who by 420/1029 had reached
Maragha and competed with the Kurds for pasturage. From this time onwards the
pressure against the Kurds from Turkish groups was more or less continuous
(Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, 250–66, 259).
37
The use of plurals conveys tangible tokens of servitude (farā vā n mā l va-żarā ʾif bi-khidmat
firistā d va-ʿudhr-hā khvā st va-bandagı̄ -hā namū d).

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 The Practice of Good Governance

would never have occurred to me to disobey the king, were it not for the
king’s vizier, who led me to this path by dint of his constant sending of letters
and envoys. I suspected all along that he was a criminal in search of a refuge.’
King Bahrā m accepted his excuse and spared him. He gave the office of vizier
to a God-fearing man whose beliefs were sound. The affairs of the army and
the subjects all assumed their proper order; activities resumed their smooth
course, the world turned in the direction of prosperity and the people were
rescued from oppression and injustice.
As for the man who had hanged his dog from the gibbet: He was on the
point of going back inside his tent when King Bahrā m drew an arrow from
his quiver and released it in front of him.38 The king said to the man, ‘I
have eaten your bread and salt, and learnt about the trouble and loss that
have afflicted you. I have sustained a mandatory obligation towards you.
Know that I am one of King Bahrā m-i Gū r’s chamberlains. All the
magnates and chamberlains of his court are on friendly terms with me
and are well acquainted with me. You must rise and come to the court of
King Bahrā m. Bring this arrow with you; everyone who sees you with this
arrow will direct you to me. I shall then discharge my responsibility
towards you so that some of your losses may be repaired.’ Then he left.
Some days later the man’s wife said to him, ‘Rise and go to the city;
bring this arrow with you, for that horseman, so well apparelled, was
without doubt powerful and wealthy. Although the amount of kindness
that he shows you may be modest, for us, in our present circumstances,
that little may be much. Do not delay, for the word of such a man is not
empty.’ The man got up and went to the city. He slept that night, and the
next day he went to the court of King Bahrā m. Bahrā m-i Gū r had
instructed his chamberlains and courtiers that when a man of such-and-
such a description arrived at the court and they saw in his hand one of the
king’s arrows, they were to bring that man before the king.
When the chamberlains saw the man with that arrow in his hand, they
called him, and said, ‘O honourable man (ā zā d mard), where have you been?
We have been expecting you for several days. Sit here, and we shall bring
you to the owner of that arrow.’ Some time passed. Bahrā m-i Gū r came out,
seated himself on the throne and held audience. The chamberlains took the
man’s hand and brought him to the court. The man’s eye fell upon the king,
and he recognised him. He said, ‘Alas, that horseman was King Bahrā m!

38
The detail evokes Bahrā m’s proverbial prowess in archery; see al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Thimā r al-
qulū b, 179–80, no. 657 (ramy Bahrā m).

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And I was unable to display the proper service to him; moreover, I spoke to
him in an impudent manner. May it not be that he has taken against me!’
When the chamberlains brought him before the throne, the man
supplicated the king. Bahrā m-i Gū r turned towards the magnates and
told them, ‘This man is responsible for my having become aware of the
conditions of the kingdom.’ He related to the notables the story of the dog
and the wolf, and added, ‘Furthermore, I took this man to be an omen.’
Then he ordered the man’s investiture with a robe of honour, and he
commanded that he receive seven hundred sheep from the royal flocks –
ewes and rams according to his wishes. And for as long as Bahrā m-i Gū r
lived, the man was to be exempt from the payment of taxes (sadaqā t).
˙
When Alexander killed Darius, it was because the latter’s vizier had
secretly made common cause, in heart and in mind, with Alexander.
When Darius was killed, Alexander said, ‘The negligence of the amir and
the treachery of the vizier have made off with his kingship.’
The king should never neglect the conditions of his officials; he must
always remain informed of their demeanour and conduct. An official who
shows signs of dishonesty or betrayal should never be retained; rather he
must be dismissed and punished in proportion to the measure of his
crime. In this way others will draw a cautionary lesson (ʿibrat), and out of
fear of punishment (siyā sat), no person will dare to plot harm against the
king. Whenever anyone is appointed to an important post, the king
should install someone to observe him secretly, in such a way that the
appointee is unaware that he is being watched – so that the king is always
informed of his doings and conditions.
Aristotle said to King Alexander, ‘If you should rebuke any of the people
who ply their pens in the service of your kingdom, never appoint that
person to another official post, because it is probable that he will secretly
make common cause with your enemies and strive for your perdition.’
King Parvı̄ z said, ‘There are four groups of people whose sins the king
should not overlook: firstly, people who take aim at his kingdom; secondly,
people with designs on his womenfolk; thirdly, people who instead of
keeping his secrets disclose them; and fourthly, people who in their speech
support the king, but in their hearts take the side of the king’s enemies, and
who secretly pursue the purposes of the latter.’39

39
A list of three, rather than four, of these unpardonable faults appears in Kitā b al-Tā j, 94 =
Pellat, Livre de la couronne, 119. See also al-Rā ghib al-Isfahā nı̄ , Muhā darā t al-udabā ʾ, I:
226 (al-Maʾmū n). ˙ ˙ ˙

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 The Practice of Good Governance

The actions of a man reveal his secrets. When the king is aware of the
affairs of his kingdom, nothing remains hidden from him.

Text 15
Al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k, Chapter
˙ ˙ Twenty-Seven 40

Translator’s Introduction
This extract from Sirā j al-mulū k explores the principles and practices of the
royal duty to solicit and heed consultation and advice. The mirror-writers’
insistence on this duty constitutes a further element in the system of values
designed to contain and limit the ruler’s power. According to this value, the
king, in conformity with his development of self-control, is admonished not
to act on the basis of his instincts and desires. The assumption is that the
advice the king receives, if it is genuine and not self-interested or the product
of fear of royal retaliation, is likely to be unpopular, and to conflict with the
king’s desires and impulses. Authors of mirrors not only emphasise the royal
duty of listening to advice, however unpalatable, but also to spare its
purveyors, the more critical of whom have the king’s genuine well-being
and that of his state at heart. In presenting these points, al-Turtū shı̄ appears
˙ ˙
throughout this section to have made extensive use of the writings of Ibn al-
Muqaffaʿ and of Ibn Qutayba’s ʿUyū n al-akhbā r.

Translation
Chapter Twenty-Seven: On Consultation and Counsel
This chapter concerns matters that the wise have taken to belong among
the foundations of the kingdom and the pillars of rulership, required by the
ruler and the ruled alike. We have mentioned these issues in the chapter
concerning the divinely enjoined qualities (al-khisā l al-furqā niyya). 41 In
˙
the present context, we shall mention their benefits and virtues.

40
Prepared from al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k, I: 319–31. For the corresponding section in
˙ ˙
Alarcón’s translation into Spanish, see Alarcón, Lámpara de los Príncipes, I: 319–33.
41
The cross-reference is to Chapter Ten, I: 208–12, where al-Turtū shı̄ presents three
˙ ˙
qualities with scriptural mandate (warada al-sharʿ bihā ), the second of which is consult-
ation (mushā wara).

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 Part II Texts

Know that a person who seeks counsel, even if he possesses better

judgement than the counsellor, will find the clarity of his judgement
increased through his seeking of another person’s opinion, just as oil
increases the light shed by the fire. Do not dwell on the idea that when
you seek consultation, it demonstrates to people that you need the
opinion of persons other than yourself, lest that notion should deter
you from consultation; for the point of desiring someone else’s opinion
on a matter is not in order to boast about it but rather to benefit from it. If,
however, you seek a good reputation in your governance, persons of
intelligence will consider you worthier and more estimable if they are
able to say of you that you did not limit yourself solely to your own
opinion, to the exclusion of men of sound judgement among your
brethren. 42
Nor should your determination to enact your judgement, and your
conviction of its rectitude, prevent you from seeking advice. Consider the
case of Abraham, upon him be peace: when he received the divine
command to sacrifice his son, the decision admitted no consultation;
yet his habitual good conduct and his knowledge still disposed his soul
to seek consultation. He said: ‘O my son, I have seen in a dream that
I should sacrifice you; consider: what do you think?’ (Q 37: 102). This
case is among the finest examples of meritorious practice in this regard.
ʿUmar b. al-Khattā b, may God be pleased with him, said: ‘A single
˙˙
individual’s judgement is like a very thin thread. Two converging opin-
ions are like two threads, wound together. Three opinions are strong
enough that the thread can scarcely be cut.’43
It has been related that a Greek and a Persian were vying with one
another in boasting of their respective groups. The Persian said, ‘We
never appoint a person to rule over us if he consults other people.’ The
Greek said, ‘We never appoint a man to rule over us if he does not consult
other people.’ Buzurgmihr said, ‘If a prudent person fails to reach
a conclusive judgement in a matter, he responds, as it were, as if he had
dropped a pearl: he collects everything that he finds in the vicinity of the
place where he lost it, searches for the pearl among these items and
eventually finds it. Similarly, if a resolute person elicits various opinions
concerning a difficult matter, he is able to weigh one against another until
the correct course becomes clear to him.’

42
Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, al-Ādā b al-kabı̄ r, 282 = van Gelder, Classical Arabic Literature, 171.
43
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 31.

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 The Practice of Good Governance

It used to be said that whenever a king made a frequent practice of

seeking consultation, his rule would be praised. It is reported, further-
more, among the wise sayings of the Indian people that a king once
remarked: ‘The judgement of prudent viziers augments the stature of
the resolute king, just as the influx of the rivers augments the volume of
the sea. Through resolve and judgement, the king achieves ends that he
could not attain by force and military might.’44
Prudent men invariably find sweetness in the bitter talk of sincere
counsellors, just as the ignorant person delights in words that encourage
him towards his desire. 45 With reference to his brother al-Amı̄ n, al-
Maʾmū n asked Tā hir b. al-Husayn (r. 205–7/821–2) to describe the
˙ ˙
moral characteristics of the deposed. 46 Tā hir replied, ‘His chest is broad,
˙
but his moral discipline (adab) is narrow. He behaves in ways that the
scruples of honourable men would render impossible for them. He
neither listens to advice, nor accepts consultation; instead, he acts in an
arbitrary fashion, in accordance with his opinion alone. Although he
observes the negative consequences that result, this experience does not
restrain him from the pursuit of his ends.’ Al-Maʾmū n asked, ‘How does
he conduct himself in war?’ Tā hir answered, ‘He musters his forces
˙
through extravagance, then causes them to desert, through his poor
management.’ Al-Maʾmū n commented, ‘These characteristics account
for his current situation. Yet, by God, had he experienced the delicious
taste of counsels, chosen to consult other people and succeeded in
controlling his personal desire, then he would not have suffered defeat.’47
Another individual proposed that the king’s discharging of his affairs
without deliberation is akin to worship without intention. 48 The

44
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 27. 45
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 28.
46
The term makhlū ʿ for al-Amı̄ n (cf. Kitā b al-Tā j, 42; al-Jā hiz, al-Bayā n wa-l-tabyı̄ n, I:
˙ ˙
346; al-Zamakhsharı̄ , Rabı̄ ʿ al-abrā r, IV: 236) evokes his defeat and replacement in the
caliphal office by his brother; but the term also connotes a person who is heedless and
rejects restraint. On al-Amı̄ n and Tā hir, see also the account of al-Thaʿā libı̄ , below,
˙
Chapter 9, n. 18.
47
Tā hir b. al-Husayn, first ruler of the Tahirid dynasty in Nishapur, was also the author of
˙ ˙
a widely disseminated ‘testament’ or moral exhortation (wasiyya or ʿahd), composed for
his son ʿAbdallā h on the occasion of the latter’s appointment˙ to the governorship of Diyar
Rabiʿa in 206/821 (see al-Tabarı̄ , Taʾrı̄ kh al-rusul wa-l-mulū k, VIII: 582–91 (sub anno
˙
206) = Bosworth, ‘Early Arabic Mirror for Princes’ and Bosworth, History of al-Tabarı̄ ,
˙
XXXII: 110–28); see above, Chapter 1, n. 23.
48
Intention (niyya) is a mandatory element in the proper fulfilment of the ritual prayer
(salā t); the declaration (whether audible or internal) of the intention to perform the prayer
˙
must immediately precede its performance in order for the prayer to be valid.

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intelligent, notwithstanding their differences of opinion, continually seek

the guidance of people willing to disclose to them their faults. They seek
out the true opinion of each person, even the ignorant maidservant. In
this spirit, ʿUmar b. al-Khattā b, God be pleased with him, said, ‘May
˙˙
God have mercy upon the man who guides me to my faults.’49
It used to be said that whoever accomplished four things would not lack
for four things. Whoever displays his gratitude shall not lack for an
increase in favour; whoever demonstrates his repentance shall not lack
for acceptance; whoever seeks the best shall not lack for the best; and
whoever consults shall not fail to find the correct path.50 Furthermore it
has been observed that maturity of judgement is preferable to impulsivity,
and that delay in acting on a judgement is preferable to excessive haste.51
The author of the Kitā b al-Tā j mentioned that when one of the Persian
kings consulted his viziers, one of them remarked, ‘It would be more
fitting for the king to seek our advice individually and in private. Under
those conditions, each vizier would be more likely to disclose his secret
thoughts, more deliberate in formulating his judgement, more confident
of his safety and more likely to avoid the ill-will of the others.’
When another Persian king consulted his lords of the borderlands
(marā ziba, sing. marzbā n) and found them remiss in their judgement, he
summoned the officials charged with issuing their stipends and punished
them.52 The officials said, ‘It was your provincial lords who were at fault;
why, then, are you punishing us?’ The king replied, ‘Indeed; they were at
fault, but only because their hearts were intent upon their stipends, and in
their preoccupation, they made an error.’ Had the officials considered the
conditions necessary for a man to be available for consultation, they would
have sent him and his family a full year’s worth of provisions, so that his
mind would have been at rest. It used to be said that when the self (nafs)
obtains its necessary provisions, it is at peace.53

49
Al-Turtū shı̄ cites this utterance again; see below, n. 71.
˙ ˙
50
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 31; al-Ibshı̄ hı̄ , al-Mustatraf, I: 169.
˙
51
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 30; al-Ibshı̄ hı̄ , al-Mustatraf, I: 169. The terms khamı̄ r
˙
and fatı̄ r employ the metaphor of leavened and unleavened bread to evoke the relative
˙ of maturity and freshness.
qualities
52
The pre-Islamic Iranian title marzbā n, used to denote the leader of a border province,
continued in use, especially in Khurasan, in the early centuries of the Islamic era, and
designated, sometimes as a synonym for dihqā n, a regional commander or leader (see Paul,
‘Dihqā n’; Paul, ‘Where Did the Dihqā ns Go?’).
53
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 31. An allusion to the Qurʾanic term al-nafs al-
mutmaʾinna (Q 89: 27), which denotes a state of inner tranquillity.
˙

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 The Practice of Good Governance

When you consult on a matter, be truthful in your report, so that the

consultation will attest to your truthfulness. Do not conceal the truth
from the person whom you consult, lest you undermine yourself.
A Persian king said, ‘Do not allow the extremity of your self-regard,
nor your high position, to prevent you from embracing the opinion of
someone else. For in so doing, if you behave in a praiseworthy manner,
you shall be loved for it, and if you err you shall be excused.’
There are various facets to this issue. If, for example, your judgement
coincides with the judgement of someone else, the strength of your
judgement will be increased. If, on the other hand, your judgement
conflicts with someone else’s opinion, you will devote full consideration
to that opinion; if you find it superior to your earlier judgement, you are
in a position to accept it, and if you consider it inferior, you can dispense
with it. If you proceed in this manner, you shall enjoy the sincere advice
of the person whom you consult, even if he errs, and you shall encounter
the sincerity of his love for you, even if he falls short.
Not least among the virtues of consultation is that, even if in reaching
your independent opinion you hit the mark, the envious cannot accuse
you of rejecting the benefits of striving for accuracy in your judgement.
Someone once said, ‘What has occurred, has occurred; but were he to
have acted in such-and-such a way, it would have been better.’ If you
consult people and hit the mark, they will praise your judgement, because
in so doing they are praising themselves; if you err, they will release you
from the responsibility, because in so doing they are defending
themselves.54 Know that harsh words should be heeded because of the
excellence of the outcome to which they guide the listener, just as people
will tolerate the bitterness of medicine for the excellence of its effects.
A Bedouin once claimed that he had never slipped up unless his entire
tribe (qawm) had stumbled in a matter. When he was asked to account for
this claim, he said, ‘I do nothing unless I have consulted them.’55
Similarly, a man of the Banū ʿAbs was asked to explain the notable
frequency of his people’s accurate judgement. He said, ‘We are a group
of a thousand men. A single person among us is known for his prudence,
so we obey him, and as a result, it is as if we were a thousand prudent

54
Cf. Ibn al-Muʿtazz, ‘He who makes a common practice of consultation shall not lack for
praise in cases of rectitude, nor for forgiveness in cases of error’ (man akthara al-mashwara
lam yaʿdam fı̄ l-sawā b mā dihan wa-fı̄ l-khatā ʾ ʿā dhiran) (al-Husrı̄ , Zahr al-ā dā b, II: 824).
55 ˙ n al-akhbā
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū ˙ r, I: 31. ˙ ˙ ˙

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 Part II Texts

people.’56 A wise philosopher once said something similar: ‘If you obey
a rational person, his reason becomes yours.’
Ibn Hubayra, the amir of Basra, used to say: ‘O God, I take refuge in
You from the company of the person intent solely upon his personal
objectives, and from succumbing to the desire to consult him.’57 Among
the wise sayings of the Indians is the maxim, ‘He who seeks
a dispensation (rukhsa) [to do as he wishes] from his brethren in times
˙
of consultation, from his physicians in times of sickness and from the
jurists in times of doubt, will surely err in his judgement, increase in his
sickness and bear a burden of responsibility.’58
The sages have advised against consulting students, shepherds, men
who spend excessive time in the company of women, petitioners seeking
the settlement of their claims, persons who are fearful and people given to
excessive eating and drinking. They have opined that the hā qin, hā ziq and
˙ ˙
hā qib all lack judgement; nor should you consult anyone who lacks
˙
subtlety (daqı̄ q). The hā ziq is a person whose shoes are too tight, and
˙
the hā qib is a person with a rumbling belly.59 They have also said that
˙
anyone who complains to a powerless person exposes his own powerless-
ness, and that in his anxiety he increases it.
A fine case of consultation occurred when Ziyā d b. ʿUbayd Allā h al-
Hā rithı̄ sought the advice of ʿUbayd Allā h b. ʿUmar as to whether he
˙
should appoint his brother Abū Bakr to the office of judge. When ʿUbayd
Allā h responded in the affirmative, Ziyā d sent word to Abū Bakr, who,

56
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 31; Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 60.
57
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 31; Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 59. The Ibn
Hubayra in the account is presumably one of the two individuals, father and son, who
bore this name; both men served as governors of Iraq under the Umayyads. The father,
ʿUmar Ibn Hubayra (d. between 105/724 and 107/726), governed the province from
102/720 until the accession of Hishā m in 105/724. His son Yazı̄ d b. ʿUmar (d. 132/750)
governed from 129/741 to 132/749. See Judd, ‘ʿUmar b. Hubayra’; Judd, ‘Yazı̄ d
b. ʿUmar b. Hubayra’.
58
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 30. Other sources (Kalı̄ la wa-Dimna, in Āthā r Ibn al-
Muqaffaʿ, 120; Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-mansū b ilā . . . al-Mā wardı̄ , 44; Ibn
˙˙
ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 12; also al-Nuwayrı̄ , Nihā yat al-arab, VI: 10) record
a similar pronouncement, in which the verb is katama, to ‘conceal’ or ‘withhold’: ‘He who
withholds his counsel from the ruler, his illness from the doctors and his sorrow from his
brothers betrays himself.’
59
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 31–2; Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 61; al-
Ibshı̄ hı̄ , al-Mustatraf, I: 169, with the reading lā khā ʾifan wa-lā hā qinan. On the inadvis-
˙ ˙
ability of seeking consultation from persons who are hungry (jā ʾiʿ) or famished (hā qin),
˙
see also Ibn al-Haddā d, al-Jawhar al-nafı̄ s, 123–4. For these terms and their various
˙
associations (many of which entail physical discomforts or illnesses), see Lisā n al-ʿarab, II:
857–9 (h-z-q), II: 936–8 (h-q-b), II: 947–8 (h-q-n).
˙ ˙ ˙

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 The Practice of Good Governance

however, declined the invitation. Ziyā d then sought ʿUbayd Allā h’s
assistance with Abū Bakr. Abū Bakr said to ʿUbayd Allā h, ‘I beseech
you, by God: do you really consider me suitable for the judgeship?’
ʿUbayd Allā h replied that he did not. Ziyā d then said to ʿUbayd Allā h,
‘Praise God, I consulted you in this matter, and you responded positively
to me. Yet now I hear you denying his suitability!’ ʿUbayd Allā h replied,
‘O amir, when you consulted me, I exercised my judgement on your
behalf, and I offered you my sincere advice, on behalf of the Muslims.
When Abū Bakr likewise sought my advice, I exercised my judgement for
his sake, and advised him accordingly.’
It is related that al-Hajjā j [b. Yū suf, d. 95/714] wrote to al-Muhallab
˙
[b. Abı̄ Sufra, d. 82/702 or 83/703] in order to bid him make haste in
˙
going to war against the Azā riqa. Al-Muhallab wrote to him, ‘It is
a calamity that judgement lies with the person who possesses the power
to implement it, and not with the person in a position to discern the
optimal course of action.’60

Section: On Counsel
Know that offering counsel for the Muslims and for all human beings is
one of the practices of God’s messengers (min sunan al-mursalı̄ n).
Concerning Noah, upon him be peace, God Almighty reported his
words: ‘Even if I wish to counsel you, my counsel will be of no use to
you if God intends that you should go astray’ (Q 11: 34). Shuʿayb, upon
him be peace said: ‘[O my people, I have delivered to you the messages of
my Lord,] and I have counselled you. How, then, can I grieve for a people
who do not believe?’ (Q 7: 93), and ‘[I have delivered to you the message

60
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, I: 31, where Ibn Qutayba also provides an alternative
version of the exchange, in which two different interlocutors refer to the Khawā rij rather
than, more specifically, the Azā riqa. Al-Hajjā j b. Yū suf al-Thaqafı̄ was one of the most
˙
famous and able governors of the Umayyad period. Active under the caliphs ʿAbd al-
Malik and his successor al-Walı̄ d (r. 86–96/705–15), al-Hajjā j governed Iraq from 75/
˙
694, and, from 78/697–8, also Khurasan and Sistan; he left the former to be governed
by al-Muhallab (Dietrich, ‘al-Hadjdjā dj b. Yū suf’). Al-Muhallab (b. c. 10/632) was one of
˙
the most prominent generals of the first/seventh century. In active service in the Ahwaz
during the caliphates of ʿUmar and ʿAlı̄ , he also campaigned much further to the east, in
Sistan, Khurasan and possibly Sind. On behalf of successive political authorities, al-
Muhallab waged a long if intermittent war against the Azā riqa, a militant group among
the Khawā rij. For this service, al-Hajjā j rewarded him in 78/697–8 with the governor-
ship of Khurasan (Crone, ‘al-Muhallab˙ b. Abı̄ Sufra’).
˙

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of my Lord,] and I have counselled you; but you have no love for sincere
counsellors’ (Q 7: 79).61
The Prophet, God’s peace be upon him, said, ‘When the slave counsels
his master and surpasses him in his worship of God, his recompense is
twofold.’ Abū Hurayra related that the Prophet said, ‘Religion is counsel,
religion is counsel, religion is counsel.’ He was asked, ‘For whom,
O Messenger of God?’ The Prophet replied, ‘For God and His Book,
for His Prophet, and for the leaders of the Muslims and the ordinary
people among them (li-aʾimmat al-muslimı̄ n wa-ʿā mmatihim).’62
In sum, sincere counsel (nush) is to act with a view to the promotion of
˙˙
welfare (salā h) and the avoidance of blame (malā ma).63 The term is
˙ ˙
derived from nasā ha, which refers to the way in which an item has
˙ ˙
been sewn; its diminutive is nusayyiha. The Arabs say, ‘This is
˙ ˙
a mansū h shirt’, that is, stitched. To say, ‘I counselled him with my
˙ ˙
sincere counsel’ (nasahtuhu nushan) evokes the metaphor of stitching.64
˙ ˙ ˙˙
The ‘stitching’ (nush) of things differs according to the item to which
˙˙
the term is applied. Nush for God means describing Him in terms that are
˙˙
worthy of Him, and divesting Him of any epithets that are not worthy of
Him, whether in reason or in speech; constant exaltation of Him and
submission to Him in the external and internal dimensions; desire for the
things that He loves and distance from the things that displease Him;
friendship with the people who obey Him and hostility towards the
people who disobey Him; striving to induce the disobedient to obedience,
in speech and in action; and aiming to disseminate all of the things that
we have mentioned among His servants.

61
The prophet whose speech is recorded in this last verse is Sā lih, the prophet sent,
˙ ˙
according to the Qurʾanic narrative, to the people Thamū d (see Q 7: 73–9; 11: 61–8;
26: 141–59; 27: 45–53; and elsewhere); Rippin, ‘Sā lih’; Tottoli, ‘Sā lih’.
62
With more than one chain of transmission, the hadith ˙ ˙ appears in ˙several
˙ of the standard
collections: al-Bukhā rı̄ , Sahı̄ h, I: 46, Kitā b al-Ī mā n, ch. 43, no. 57 (Jarı̄ r); Muslim, Sahı̄ h,
˙ ˙˙ ˙ ˙˙
II: 48–51, Kitā b al-Ī mā n, ch. 23, nos. 95, 96 (Tamı̄ m al-Dā rı̄ ); al-Tirmidhı̄ , al-Jā miʿ al-
kabı̄ r, III: 485, Kitā b al-Birr wa-l-sila, ch. 17, no. 1926 (Abū Hurayra); al-ʿAjlū nı̄ , Kashf
˙
al-khafā ʾ, I: 204, no. 698. It is also frequently cited; see Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-
farı̄ d, I: 11; Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-mansū b ilā . . . al-Mā wardı̄ , 43; al-
˙˙
Husrı̄ , Zahr al-ā dā b, I: 173–4; al-Nuwayrı̄ , Nihā yat al-arab, VI: 9. See further Marlow,
˙ ˙
Counsel for Kings, II: 303; and see above, Chapter 7, n. 60.
63
Cf. the Prophetic hadith, ‘Consultation is a fortress against regret and a surety against
blame’ (al-Mā wardı̄ , Adab al-dunyā wa-l-dı̄ n, 289).
64
Ibn Manzū r, Lisā n al-ʿarab, VI: 4438–9. The meaning indicated in al-Turtū shı̄ ’s discus-
˙ ˙ ˙
sion is adduced on p. 4439 (al-nisā h: al-silku yukhā tu bihi, ‘the thread with which it is
˙ ˙ ˙
sewn’). Ibn Manzū r also reports the association of n-s-h with purification (Lisā n al-ʿarab,
VI: 4438–9; see also˙ Marlow, Counsel for Kings, II: ˙31–2). ˙

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 The Practice of Good Governance

As for the meaning of nası̄ ha when applied to His Book, it connotes the
˙˙
upholding of the Book through recitation, the appreciation of it through
reading, striving to understand its contents, acting in accordance with it,
deterring its interpretation by criminals and its criticism by sceptics, and
teaching its contents to all of God’s creatures. God said, ‘We have sent
down to you a Book, which is blessed; so that they might contemplate its
signs, and so that persons of understanding [ū lū l-albā b] might reflect’ (Q
38: 29).
Nası̄ ha for the Prophet, may God’s blessings and peace be upon
˙˙
him, means assisting and supporting him; protecting him from every-
one, alive and dead; maintaining the life of his normative practice
through its performance and the life of his teaching through promot-
ing the call to belief, spreading the word and behaving with pure
moral characteristics.
Nası̄ ha for the leaders (aʾimma) means supporting them in the matters
˙˙
that they are charged to uphold, reminding them of their responsibilities
in times of negligence, guiding them in cases of slips, instructing them in
matters of which they are ignorant, warning them against persons who
wish them ill, alerting them to the moral characteristics and conduct of
their officials, supplying them in times of need, supporting them in times
of dissent and seeking to restore to them the loyalty of disaffected hearts.
Nush for the general population of the Muslims means the manifest-
˙˙
ation of compassion towards them: treating the elderly among them with
dignity and the young with mercy, dispelling their cares, inviting them to
pursue their happiness, showing vigilance when their minds become
preoccupied and guarding them against detrimental insinuations.
Nası̄ ha for the Muslims includes provision for them from the personal
˙˙
stores that an individual may have amassed in order to meet the needs of
his body and soul. According to al-Asmaʿı̄ (122–213 or 216/740–828 or
˙
831), ʿUmar b. al-Khattā b, may God be content with him, once found
˙˙
the kernel of a date in the road. He picked it up and held it in his hand
until he passed the house of a family. He then threw it into the courtyard
of the house, and he remarked that the family’s domestic animals would
eat it.65
As for the meaning of nush for all the communities, it means that an
˙˙
individual should desire that they embrace Islam. He should call them –

65
Al-Asmaʿı̄ , a prolific author, was a celebrated philologist, as well as an intellectual
˙
companion to Hā rū n al-Rashı̄ d (Weipert, ‘al-Asmaʿı̄ ’).
˙

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 Part II Texts

by word – to faith, and he should warn them against the bad conse-
quences of unbelief. If they possess power, he should be ready to employ
the sword, until they desist from fighting the Muslims, so that they are
eligible to become a people protected by the pact of dhimma; if they will
not desist, he should fight them, as part of his nush towards God, in
˙˙
upholding His command among them.66 Muʿā dh related the Prophet’s
words, ‘There are three things from which the Muslim heart should not
hold back: acting for the sake of God, offering sincere counsel to the
holders of command and vigilance on behalf of all the Muslims, for such
attentiveness protects them, like a wall, from that which lies beyond
them.’67
Jarı̄ r b. ʿAbdallā h related that he had pledged allegiance to the Prophet
‘to hear and obey’. The Prophet had suggested that he add to this
formula, ‘to the extent of your capacity, and nush for every Muslim’.68
˙˙
Anas (b. Mā lik, d. 93/712) related the Prophet’s words, ‘Not one of
you truly believes unless he loves for his brother what he loves for
himself.’69 Abū l-Dardā ʾ said, ‘Knowledge is open to attainment for
the pious and the profligate alike; wisdom is open to articulation by the
pious and the debauched alike; but nası̄ ha for God Almighty is firm only
˙˙
66
Al-Turtū shı̄ ’s unusual addition of non-Muslim populations among the proper recipients
˙ ˙
of counsel, and his interpretation of what the duty of such counsel might entail, reflects
his experience of the threat of Christian military campaigns against Muslim-held terri-
tories, in Iberia and in the eastern Mediterranean; on this element in his writings, see
Mallett, ‘Two Writings of al-Turtū shı̄ ’, and above, section 3.9.
67
Recalls hadith recorded, on the˙ authority˙ of Anas, in Muslim, Sahı̄ h, II: 17–19, Kitā b al-
˙ ˙˙
Ī mā n, ch. 15, nos. 67, 68; al-Tirmidhı̄ , al-Jā miʿ al-kabı̄ r, IV: 367, Kitā b al-ʿIlm, ch. 10,
no. 2624; Ibn Mā ja, Sunan, 1338–9, Kitā b al-Fitan, no. 4033; al-Nasā ʾı̄ , Sunan, 671,
Kitā b al-Ī mā n, chs. 2–4, nos. 4987, 4988, 4989; Abū Nuʿaym al-Isfahā nı̄ , Hilyat al-
˙ ˙
awliyā ʾ, I: 17, II: 288. On Anas, see below, n. 69.
68
Reading, with the specialists who recorded this hadith in their collections, Jarı̄ r for Jā bir.
See al-Bukhā rı̄ , Sahı̄ h, I: 46, Kitā b al-Ī mā n, ch. 43, nos. 57, 58; see also I: 257, Kitā b
˙ ˙˙
Mawā qı̄ t al-salā t, ch. 3, no. 524; I: 598, Kitā b al-Zakā t, ch. 2, no. 1401; II: 154, Kitā b al-
˙
Buyū ʿ, ch. 68, no. 2157; II: 379, Kitā b al-Shurū t, ch. 1, nos. 2714, 2715; IV: 549, Kitā b al-
˙
Ahkā m, ch. 43, no. 7204; Muslim, Sahı̄ h, II: 52–3, Kitā b al-Ī mā n, ch. 23, nos. 98, 99; al-
˙ ˙ ˙˙
Tirmidhı̄ , al-Jā miʿ al-kabı̄ r, III: 484, Kitā b al-Birr wa-l-sila, ch. 17, no. 1925; Abū
˙
Dā ʾū d, Sunan, VII: 397, Kitā b al-Adab, ch. 59, no. 4859; al-Nasā ʾı̄ , Sunan, 567–8,
Kitā b al-Bayʿa, ch. 6, nos. 4156, 4157; al-Dā rimı̄ , Sunan, 359, Kitā b al-Buyū ʿ, ch. 9,
no. 2574; Ibn Hanbal, Musnad al-Imā m Ahmad, XXXI: 533, 535, 557, 572, nos. 19195,
˙ ˙
19229, 19199, 19258; 500–1, 529, 556, 566–7, nos. 19162, 19163, 19191, 19228, 19245,
19248 (Jarı̄ r b. ʿAbdallā h). See also Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ (Nası̄ hat al-mulū k al-mansū b
˙˙
ilā . . . al-Mā wardı̄ , 44), also with reference to Jarı̄ r b. ʿAbdallā h.
69
Al-Bukhā rı̄ , Sahı̄ h, I: 23, Kitā b al-Ī mā n, ch. 7, no. 13; Muslim, Sahı̄ h, II: 21–2, Kitā b al-
˙ ˙˙ ˙ ˙˙
Ī mā n, ch. 17, nos. 71, 72. Anas b. Mā lik (d. 93/712), who died in Basra, was a prolific
transmitter (Juynboll, ‘Anas b. Mā lik’); see above, n. 67.

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 The Practice of Good Governance

in the hearts of the chosen, whose intellects are sound and whose inten-
tions are true. Know that swallowing counsel is bitter, and only persons
of determination can accept it.’70
ʿUmar b. al-Khattā b, may God have mercy upon him, used to
˙˙
say, ‘May God have mercy upon the man who guides me to my
faults.’71 Maymū n b. Mihrā n (d. 117/735–6) reported that ʿUmar
b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzı̄ z (r. 99–101/717–20), may God have mercy upon
him, said to him, ‘Tell me to my face whatever you find most
objectionable. For a man does not truly counsel his brother unless
he tells him face to face what he considers objectionable.’72 Mā lik
said, ‘Counsel for God on His earth is the purpose for which God
sent it His prophets.’
Endeavour and counsel for the benefit of God’s servants in their affairs
are parts of Islam, even though people find counsel burdensome and feel
disaffection towards persons who offer it, and even though people incline
only to the parts of it that coincide with their desires. It is recorded in the
transmitted wisdom (manthū r al-hikam), ‘He who offers you sincere
˙
counsel loves you, whereas he who encourages you in your desire detests
you.’ It used to be said, ‘Your brother is he who bears the burden of
counselling you.’
A poet once said:
I gave Zayd a piece of my advice.
He said: ‘You have disappointed me, and your counsel is bitter!’
Why should I counsel Zayd,
He being of flawless character and pious?
It had reached me that someone in his residence
Had spoken ill of Zayd.
I therefore counselled him to avoid everything
Ill that had been spoken against him, for the man free of fault is truly free.
Another said:
The duty to counsel me is a burden upon a person of sincerity;
If I reject a sincere person’s counsel, the burden of responsibility is mine.

70
Abū l-Dardā ʾ ʿUwaymir b. Zayd al-Ansā rı̄ (d. early 30s/650s or later), a Companion of
˙
the Prophet, was a famous ascetic. Born in Medina, he moved after the conquest to
Damascus, where he died (Melchert, ‘Abū l-Dardā ʾ’).
71
Al-Turtū shı̄ cited this utterance earlier; see above, n. 49.
˙ ˙
72
Maymū n, an early Muslim jurist and administrator under the Umayyads, is also remem-
bered for his religious and ethical maxims (Abū Nuʿaym al-Isfahā nı̄ , Hilyat al-awliyā ʾ,
IV: 82–97 (no. 251); Donner, ‘Maymū n b. Mihrā n’). ˙ ˙

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 Part II Texts

Al-Qutā mı̄ (d. 101/719–20) said:

˙
Hearing of disobedience in a person for whom you feel compassion
Adds to its bitterness.
The best thing to do is to confront him about it
And not to follow his example.73

Waraqa b. Nawfal said:

I have counselled people, and I have said to them:
I am here to warn you, so that no one should mislead you;
Nothing that you now behold and that currently gives you happiness will last
Except for the Divine; wealth and progeny alike will meet perdition.
Hurmuz was unable to survive without his treasuries even for a single day,
And while ʿĀ d attempted to reach eternity, that people did not endure.74
[ʿAbdallā h] Ibn Wahb (125–97/743–813) said: ‘Only he who chooses well
for himself can choose well for other people. There is no good for anyone
else in the person who possesses no good in himself.’75
The scholars have said: ‘A man will never counsel you well if he does
not counsel himself.’
Another person said, ‘If you and I each form judgements concerning
you, mine will reflect greater knowledge of you than yours, since my
judgement of you will be free of your desire.’
Abū l-Dardā ʾ said, ‘If you wish, I shall counsel you: the most beloved of
God’s servants in His sight are those who instil love of God in His servants,
and those who act in the world in accordance with good counsel.’
It is related that a man once struck Ibrā hı̄ m b. Adham. Ibrā hı̄ m raised his
head to the heavens and said, ‘My God, if by this action You were rewarding
me and punishing him, then do not reward me and do not punish him.’76

73
Al-Qutā mı̄ , a seventh-century poet, probably a Christian; see Ibn Qutayba, al-Shiʿr wa-
˙
l-shuʿarā ʾ, 724, no. 1283 (ʿUmayr b. Shuyaym al-Qutā mı̄ , 723–6, no. 167); Ibn ʿAbd
˙
Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd al-farı̄ d, I: 61.
74
Al-Ibshı̄ hı̄ , al-Mustatraf, I: 174. A contemporary of the Prophet, Waraqa was an early
˙
Arabian monotheist, or hanı̄ f, who may have converted to Christianity (Robinson,
˙
‘Waraka b. Nawfal’). Hurmuz(d) is the name of several Sasanian kings; the reference
˙
here is probably to Hurmuzd IV (r. 579–90), who succeeded Khusraw I, or to Hurmuzd
V (r. 630–2), who succeeded Khusraw II. ʿĀ d were an ancient Arabian tribe, mentioned in
the Qurʾan as the people to whom the prophet Hū d was sent; associated with longevity,
prosperity and monumental architecture, they suffered divine punishment for their
refusal to accept the prophet’s message (Rippin, ‘ʿĀ d’).
75
A Mā likı̄ traditionist; he was born and died in Cairo, and reputedly studied in Medina.
76
Ibrā hı̄ m b. Adham (d. 161/777–8), born in Balkh, was a noted renunciant (Jones,
‘Ibrā hı̄ m b. Adham’).

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 9

Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

The final chapter of this anthology explores mirror-writers’ diagnoses of

political and social ills, and, usually in less detail, their proposed remedies for
them. Collectively, the three texts presented in this chapter convey the
precarious nature of royal power, and they remind their courtly audiences
of its limits. The perils against which the mirror-writers warn their royal
readerships range from kings’ propensities to indulge to excess in food, drink
and sex, to the dangers of heterodoxy, portrayed as an appealing yet deceptive
mask for political dissent, to external enemies’ seizing advantage at moments
of internal weakness. The texts differ in tone and emphasis: al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s
litany of royal misfortunes is less prescriptive than it is a further illustration of
the exceptional nature of the royal lot; Nizā m al-Mulk’s lament for a lapsed
˙
political order reflects the waning sway of al-dawla al-Nizā miyya; al-
˙
Turtū shı̄ ’s concise depiction of the perils of the royal office carries
˙ ˙ 1
a strongly exhortative message.

Text 16
̄
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Adā b al-mulū k, Chapter Seven 2

Translator’s Introduction
As Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ had also done, al-Thaʿā libı̄ devoted one of his ten
chapters to the misfortunes that afflict kings and imperil their tenures in
1
On al-dawla al-Nizā miyya, see above, Chapter 2, n. 58.
˙
2
Translation prepared from al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Ādā b al-mulū k, 155–72. For the corresponding section
in Topuzoğ lu’s translation, see Topuzoğ lu, ‘Kitā b Ā dā b al-Mulū k al-Khwā razm-shā hı̄ ’ (1974),
I: 122–41, and Topuzoğ lu, Kitā b Ādā b al-Mulū k al-Khwā razm-shā hı̄ (2015), I: 117–35.

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 Part II Texts

power. He begins with kings’ susceptibility to excess. A long exposition,

presented in hierarchical order (caliphs before kings) as well as chrono-
logical order, of rulers who have fallen prey to certain failings or who
have suffered acute misfortunes follows. These cases provide exemplars
of admonition. They illustrate al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s previously noted observa-
tion that if kings enjoy virtually limitless status and splendour, they also
endure the greatest burdens and hardships. Indeed, for al-Thaʿā libı̄ , it
might be said that kings cannot win; even if they rule well, people will
eventually get fed up with them and desire a change. The chapter ends
with a long narrative illustrating the dangers of heterodoxy. As Pseudo-
Mā wardı̄ had done and as Nizā m al-Mulk would also do, al-Thaʿā libı̄
˙
portrays heterodoxy as one of the most destructive forces in the body
politic; religious dissent, for these authors, was synonymous with
political subversion. The heroic figure of the piece is Mahmū d of
˙
Ghazna, a contemporary of al-Thaʿā libı̄ and brother-in-law of his
patron and addressee, the Khvā razmshā h Maʾmū n II (r. 399–407 or
408/1009–17). Al-Thaʿā libı̄ presents a picture of powerless caliphs,
often surrendering to a life of pleasure, but always outmatched by
slaves, soldiers, commanding officers, rival potentates, viziers and
members of their own families. He provides a commentary on the
political culture of his time and locality, and a distinctive perspective
on the history of the early Islamic period. His use of historical narrative
to make his points is extensive and would be developed still further by
Nizā m al-Mulk.
˙

Translation
Chapter Seven: On the Calamities That Befall Kings
Section: On the Disturbance of the Humours (Takhlı̄ t) in Kings
˙
Three problems loom large among the greatest calamities to which kings
are subject. They are, firstly, the sheer abundance of special foods and
fancy dishes produced in their kitchens and brought to their tables;
secondly, the frequency of their convivial assemblies, which entail exces-
sive consumption of wine; and thirdly, the fact that their palaces are
packed with inducements to the pursuit of the carnal appetites and over-
indulgence in the physical pleasures. Kings are likely to overdo these
three things, whereas the appropriate response in each case should entail
infrequency and moderation. Too much of anything will attack a person’s

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

natural constitution (tabı̄ ʿa). Kings, however, indulge in one or all of

˙
these pleasures. Through constant disturbance of the humours (takhlı̄ t),
˙
kings risk harming their temperaments (mizā j) and reducing the length of
their lives.3
How many a king has been ruined as a result of his own doing, slain by
his stomach and sexual organs! Sulaymā n b. ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwā n (r.
96–9/715–17), for example, used to eat more voraciously than fire, which
consumes whatever lies in its path; to drink more abundantly than sand,
which absorbs water; and to copulate more frequently than a sparrow.
One day he ate thirty roasted chickens and a hundred boiled eggs, drank
several quarts (artā l, sing. ratl)4 of date wine and enjoyed four virgins. He
˙ ˙
was overtaken by surfeit; his strength declined, and his final destiny
caught up with him.5
In this regard Sulaymā n resembled al-Wā thiq billā h (r. 227–32/842–7),
for he too used to eat an extreme amount, and furthermore, he used to eat
without regard to the cleanliness of the food. This caused a disequilibrium
in his temperament (mizā j), and he developed dropsy. A physician of the
military district of Nishapur was brought to see him. This doctor ordered
that a pit be heated for him, and the caliph sat in this pit until a great sweat
ran from his body. Then he felt better. The physician said to him, ‘If you
make a habit of what you’ve been doing, the illness will return, just as it did
before; but in the future, the kind of treatment by which I have just cured
you will not be effective.’ The caliph paid no attention to his words and
resumed his habit of eating to excess. The illness returned and before long,
it claimed his soul.6
Al-Sū lı̄ mentioned that Muhammad b. Yahyā b. Abı̄ ʿAbbā d
˙ ˙ ˙
reported hearing his father swear that had al-Mutawakkil (r. 232–
47/847–61) not been killed, he would not have lived in any case,
because his brain had become weak and his body dry from excessive

3
On the broadly disseminated theory of the humours, see above, Chapter 5, n. 142. The
term mizā j, literally ‘mixture’, connotes in this context the balance of elements within the
body (Samangustin, ‘Mizā dj’). Accordingly, I have usually rendered fasā d al-mizā j as
‘disequilibrium’.
4
One of the major and most widely distributed measures of weight; see Hinz, Islamische
Masse und Gewichte, 27–33.
5
Similar reports of the Umayyad caliph Sulaymā n’s voracious appetite appear in al-Safadı̄ ,
˙
al-Wā fı̄ bi-l-wafayā t, XV: 245–6 (no. 5133, on the authority of the caliph’s son), and Ibn
Khallikā n, Wafayā t al-aʿyā n, II: 420–7 (no. 279).
6
On the Abbasid caliph al-Wā thiq and his treatment for dropsy, see Kennedy, When
Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World, 231–3.

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 Part II Texts

sexual activity. A small amount (ū qiya)7 of oil of violet used to be

poured into his ear, but this treatment made little difference, and he
was afflicted by great insomnia. He used to say, ‘Sex makes my limbs
feel exhausted; I need to satisfy my desire without becoming tired.’
Next, he was prescribed a treatment involving mercury. The mercury
was put into containers made of skin; a pool was filled with these skins,
and his bed was prepared on top of them. Through this treatment, the
caliph attained his desire without the need for movement, since the
movement of the mercury proved enough to satisfy him.8
In his youth, al-Muktafı̄ (r. 289–95/902–8) was prone to frequent
fainting, an illness that entailed the disequilibrium of his temperament
and extreme dryness. The prescribed remedy required him to eat very
little, to consume liquid little by little in order to moisten his body and to
avoid fatigue. But he did the opposite of these things. The physicians
would check to see that he was looking after himself, but as soon as they
left, al-Muktafı̄ called for cheese, olives and sardines – indeed, for
everything that did not agree with him – and he ate a great deal of
these things. He also devoted himself to sexual enjoyment, and he did
not pause in these activities until his strength dissipated and his illness
grew stronger. Finally, his fate overtook him.9
All of these examples involve caliphs; who could number the kings
gripped by this calamity of sensual appetite? For instance, [ʿAlı̄ b. Rukn
al-Dawla] Fakhr al-Dawla (r. (in Rayy) 366–87/977–97) made no effort
to rein in his appetite. One day he left the citadel in Rayy, where he had
been staying, for the mountain of Tabarak.10 He developed a craving for
˙
7
Usually one-twelfth of a ratl; see Hinz, Islamische Masse und Gewichte, 34–5.
8 ˙
On Caliph al-Mutawakkil and his assassination, see Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of
the Caliphates, 169–72, and Kennedy, When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World, 232–42,
261–7. The al-Sū lı̄ family enjoyed close association with the Abbasids for several gener-
˙
ations. The unspecified reference is presumably to the prolific author and companion of
several caliphs Abū Bakr Muhammad b. Yahyā al-Sū lı̄ , who died in 335/947 (see Leder,
˙ ˙ ˙
‘al-Sū lı̄ ’). Possibly al-Sū lı̄ ’s source, Muhammad b. Yahyā Ibn Abı̄ ʿAbbā d, was a relative
˙ ˙ ̄ ˙ ˙
of Abū l-Hasan Muhammad b. ʿIsā Ibn Abı̄ ʿAbbā d, known to Ibn al-Nadı̄ m as the author
˙ ˙
of a composition entitled al-ʿAmal bi-dhā t al-shuʿbatayn (Fihrist, II: i: 248).
9
On al-Muktafı̄ , see Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, 183–7; Zetterstéen
[Bosworth], ‘al-Muktafı̄ ’.
10
Yā qū t, Muʿjam al-buldā n, IV: 16–17 (Tabarak). Construction of the later tenth-century
˙
Citadel of Tabarak, built to accommodate the garrison of Isfahan, has been ascribed to
˙
both Rukn al-Dawla (d. 366/977) and Fakhr al-Dawla (d. 387/997) (see further Durand-
Guédy, Iranian Elites and Turkish Rulers, 32, n. 55). Fakhr al-Dawla was the husband of
Sayyida (Persian Sayyideh), the main protagonist of a story narrated by Kaykā ʾū s (see
above, Chapter 6, n. 46).

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

some cuts of beef. So an extremely well-fattened cow was slaughtered

right in front of him, and immediately his slaves began to roast it. In
eating it, he answered the call of his appetite and his greed, while cups,
filled to the brim, circulated all around him. He did not cease his eating
and drinking even as the pain mounted – his belly began to complain, and
soon he began to cry out, right up until death overtook him.

Section: On the Misfortunes That Befall Kings through Their

Slaves
How truly ʿAlı̄ b. al-Jahm (d. 249/863) spoke when, in his ode on the
killing of Caliph al-Mutawakkil at the hands of his slaves, he noted the
absence of the Tahirids:
Had there been in his presence a scion of the Tahirid family –
They whose fathers and grandfathers had all been received with honour –
Then the hands of fate would have found it difficult to grasp him
Even though their advent had been ordained.
But the Tahirids were far away, and his slaves conspired against him:
The greatest of calamities for kings are their slaves.11
The reason for this danger is that kings cannot do without slaves and
servants under any circumstances, and yet not every king has suc-
ceeded in governing them with kindness, managing them with due
exactitude and satisfying all of them. It is customary for the king to
elevate one enslaved person over another in accordance with their
relative merits, and to single out, firstly, the slaves best suited for
royal service, and secondly, those whose pleasing appearance qualifies
them for the king’s personal intimacy. This practice engenders envy,
hostility and aversion among the slaves, who eventually struggle
against one another, or form alliances and co-operate with one another
in the greatest of crimes. How many a noble person has met his fate at
the hands of an ignoble person, and how many a king has perished at
the hands of a slave!

11
ʿAlı̄ b. al-Jahm, Dı̄ wā n ʿAlı̄ b. al-Jahm, 56–64, no. 18 (the lines appear at p. 61). On this
Abbasid poet and his celebrated verses in praise of his patron al-Mutawakkil, see Ali,
Arabic Literary Salons, 75–116. Initially as powerful in Baghdad as they were in Khurasan,
the Tahirids were, by this time, ruling in the east; their authority in Baghdad weakened
after the siege of the city in 251–2/865–6, and especially after the accession of Sulaymā n
b. ʿAbdallā h b. Tā hir to the military governorship of Baghdad in 255/869; see Kennedy,
The Prophet and˙the Age of the Caliphates, 161–2, 173–4.

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 Part II Texts

As [Abū l-Tayyib Ahmad b. al-Husayn] al-Mutanabbı̄ (303–54/915–

˙ ˙ ˙
55), in his remarkable words, put it:
May the nights (of fate) never reach you! For they use wisps of willow
To break the strong wood of the nabaʿ tree.
And may they never come to the aid of the enemy over whom you
have triumphed!
For they hunt the falcon with the bustard.12
Some kings are excessive in the training of their slaves; this excessive
discipline turns a king’s slaves into his enemies and disposes them to
collaborate against him. There are other kings who bestow all manner of
kindnesses upon their slaves; they tolerate bad manners on the part of their
slaves and overlook their defects. Anū shı̄ rvā n was an example of the latter
type of king. One day the mobad (a Zoroastrian priest) was in the royal
presence, and he heard the king’s slaves laughing outside the doors. The
mobad said: ‘Should not fear (hayba) of the king prevent this lot from this
kind of behaviour?’ Anū shı̄ rvā n replied, ‘Only our enemies fear us.’
A certain king used to say of his slaves: ‘We have entrusted them with
our lives; if we make them fearful of us, how are we to feel secure against
them?’ Al-Maʾmū n used to say, ‘Poor manners on the part of their slaves
is a sign of the generosity of kings.’
Among the calamities that beset kings is their capricious appointment
of beardless youths to tasks the execution of which might challenge the
competence of even a mature person. As a result of this practice, two
things compound against these kings: first, scorn stirs in the minds of the
free; secondly, the negative effects of appointing the young men, who
have gained neither prudence in handling important affairs nor experi-
ence in warfare, soon become apparent. On the subject of a beardless
youth made into a commander over the army, Ibn al-Muʿtazz composed
these highly regarded words:
To assume command of the lands, he has been vested with a tunic
Which weighs heavily on his slender waist.
When he appears, the men of the lands see in their minds
The cheeks of a girl or the eyes of an antelope.

12
Both metaphors – the wood of the nabaʿ and the kharab, the male bustard (hubā rā ) (Lisā n
˙
al-ʿarab, VI: 4327, II: 750) – evoke the undoing of the strong by means of the weak. The
wood of the nabaʿ tree is strong, whereas the willow is weak; the falcon is used in hunting,
whereas the bustard is a terrestrial bird (see Ādā b al-mulū k, 158, nn. 1–2). Al-Thaʿā libı̄
cites these lines again in his Thimā r al-qulū b, 484.

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

If he wishes, but fails, to accomplish a matter, he weeps over it,

His cry like that of a child, who, being weaned, is prevented
from suckling.
And when he advances towards his adversary, his hands
Suggest the cup, rather than spears brandished high above.

Muʿizz al-Dawla Abū l-Husayn b. Buwayh (r. 334–56/945–67) had

˙
a young slave called Tigin al-Jā mdā r (the Robe-Bearer).13 This beard-
less youth had a face full of radiance, but he was addicted to drinking; he
was never separated from entertainment and unaccustomed to sobriety.
Out of the extremity of his inclination towards this slave, the king made
Tigin head of a military detachment that he sent into a campaign against
[the Hamdanid brothers] Abū l-Murajjā [Jā bir] and [Abū l-Qā sim]
Hibat Allā h, sons of Nā sir al-Dawla Abū Muhammad [Hasan
˙ ˙ ˙
b. ʿAbdallā h] b. Hamdā n (d. 358/969).14 The vizier Abū Muhammad
˙ ˙
[al-Hasan b. Muhammad] al-Muhallabı̄ (291–352/903–63) indicated to
˙ ˙
the king that he should not send Tigin out for this kind of purpose, and
that he should turn instead to one of the prudent, experienced, resolute
and judicious senior commanders. The king did not heed the vizier’s
remarks and dispatched Tigin at the head of a thousand men. This force
caught Abū l-Murajjā and Hibat Allā h by surprise, and the two leaders
abandoned all the mounts, supplies and military equipment that they
had. In their haste to plunder these supplies, Muʿizz al-Dawla’s army

13
The Buyid amir Abū l-Husayn Ahmad b. Buwayh (Bū ya) received the title of Muʿizz al-
Dawla when he took Baghdad˙ ˙
in 334/945 (al-Thaʿā libı̄ adduces another account involv-
ing Muʿizz al-Dawla later in the same chapter; see below, at nn. 33–4). The Hamdanid
brothers Abū Muhammad Hasan and Abū l-Hasan ʿAlı̄ , who feature in this account,
˙ ˙ ˙
received the titles Nā sir al-Dawla and Sayf al-Dawla respectively in 330/942. The
˙
assumption of these titles – ending in al-Dawla – by the Hamdanids and shortly
afterwards by the Buyids indicated the caliph’s cession of substantial power to these
figures (see Rosenthal, ‘Dawla’). The use of these titles quickly proliferated, in a trend
that Nizā m al-Mulk would deplore (see below, Text 17).
14 ˙
On the Hamdanids, see Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, 221–2;
Canard, ‘Hamdā nids’. Nā sir al-Dawla (d. 358/969), Hamdanid ruler of Mosul (r. 317–
˙ ˙
58), was the brother of Sayf al-Dawla (303–56/916–67, r. 333–56/945–67), who ruled
in Aleppo. After Muʿizz al-Dawla assumed control of Baghdad and Iraq, the Buyids’
relations with the Hamdanids were frequently hostile. Muʿizz al-Dawla dealt only with
Nā sir al-Dawla’s eldest son, Abū Taghlib Fadl Allā h al-Ghadanfar, who eventually
˙ ˙ ˙
replaced his father; Nā sir al-Dawla’s sons deposed their father in 356/967. The episode
˙
perhaps concerns Nā sir al-Dawla’s sending two of his sons to occupy Baghdad in
˙
345/956–8 at a time when Muʿizz al-Dawla was called away to deal with a revolt; in
the ensuing confrontation, Muʿizz al-Dawla prevailed and the Hamdanids decamped
(Bowen, ‘Nā sir al-Dawla’). Hibat Allā h was appointed to govern Harran under Sayf al-
˙
Dawla in 352/963. See Zambaur, Manuel de généalogie, 134.

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 Part II Texts

scattered, and the soldiers fell upon the tents of the opposing force
(qawm). They were still marauding when the other side rallied against
them in a surprise counter-attack. The opposing forces killed many of
Muʿizz al-Dawla’s men, took others prisoner and more than avenged
themselves against them. Tigin the Robe-Bearer escaped on his horse,
but a certain Arab brigand (suʿlū q), intending to rob and capture him,
˙
intercepted him. Tigin made himself known to his captor, and he
pledged to give him whatever he wanted as long as he would bring
him to Muʿizz al-Dawla. Other than Tigin, only the intensely fearful
and a detachment of the very youngest troops escaped safely from that
mob (qawm). The good sense of al-Muhallabı̄ ’s cautionary words
became clear to Muʿizz al-Dawla, yet he would not acknowledge it in
an open fashion.15
According to Abū Ishā q [Ibrā hı̄ m] al-Sā biʾ (313–84/925–94), al-
˙ ˙
Muhallabı̄ admired this slave and found his appearance pleasing,
but he regarded him as more suited for enjoyment than for the
clamour of war. He had reportedly recited to al-Sā biʾ a poem of
˙
his own:
A child, whose tears flow down his cheeks;
Whose body is so slender,
He appears almost like a virgin
Whose breasts are just beginning to appear:
They have slung a sword over his hips
And a belt so heavy that he buckles under its weight.
They have made him commander of an army:
And the troops, whom he leads, are as good as lost.16

15
Celebrated chief minister and vizier from 339–52/950–63 to Muʿizz al-Dawla, al-
Muhallabı̄ was a member of the illustrious Muhallabı̄ family that stemmed from the
Umayyad commander and governor al-Muhallab b. Abı̄ Sufra (see above, Chapter 8,
˙
n. 60). On al-Muhallabı̄ , see al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Yatı̄ mat al-dahr, II: 265–85, no. 114; Ibn al-
Nadı̄ m, Fihrist, I: ii: 417–18; Ibn Khallikā n, Wafayā t al-aʿyā n, II: 124–7 (the poem is
cited at p. 126); al-Safadı̄ , al-Wā fı̄ bi-l-wafayā t, XII: 139–41, no. 3451; Kennedy, The
˙
Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, 223.
16
For this celebrated poem, see al-Zamakhsharı̄ , Rabı̄ ʿ al-abrā r, IV: 133; al-Thaʿā libı̄ ,
Yatı̄ mat al-dahr, II: 267–8, also citing al-Sā biʾ, Kitā b al-Tā jı̄ . On the Sā biʾ (Sā bı̄ ) family,
˙ ˙ ˙
scholars originally from Harran and over several generations high-ranking members of
the bureaucracy in Baghdad, see de Blois, ‘Sā biʾ’. Abū Ishā q al-Sā biʾ was a secretary,
˙ ˙ ˙
promoted to Chief Secretary or Director of the Chancery (sā hib dı̄ wā n al-inshā ʾ) in 349/
˙ ˙
960, in service to Muʿizz al-Dawla; after the death of Muʿizz al-Dawla, al-Sā biʾ fell
˙
from office and was imprisoned, but he returned to favour after the death of ʿAdud al-
Dawla in 372/983 (de Blois, ‘Sā biʾ’, no. 7). He was the author of the largely lost Kitā ˙ b al-
˙

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

Section: On the Most Severe Adversities That Face Kings

Among the calamities that befall kings is that their tribulations, in
greatness and severity, are in proportion to their exalted and elevated
stations. The extreme difficulties that kings face are worse and more
bitter than those that arise for other people. May Almighty God spare our
Master, the King and Lord, from the vicissitudes of the time and the
misfortunes of events! May He augment his portion of the happiness that
attends kingship and kings, and of their bounties; and may He protect
him from their misfortunes and afflictions! By His power and might, may
He cast a lasting protection over his person and his realm!
It is well known that among the kings of this world, none bear
comparison with the kings of the Abbasid family, for God has given
them the keys of the earth and has made them rule over the furthest
reaches of the created world. Their possessions have encompassed the
realms of the Khusraws, the Caesars, the Pharaohs, the Tubbaʿs of
Yemen, the Tarkhā ns of the Turkish steppe, as well as other kings and
˙
tyrants.17 The tribulations and adversities that have befallen and afflicted
the Abbasids are commensurate with the numerous and magnificent
bounties, and with the unparalleled share of this world’s goods, that
they have received.
If I were to mention all these rulers, I would reach the utmost
extremities of prolixity and be obliged to abandon the structure of my
book. I shall, however, produce some choice examples (nukat) that offer
caution and admonition for anyone who ponders and reflects upon them.
The first example concerns Muhammad al-Amı̄ n (r. 189–93/809–13), at
˙
the time when he was besieged by the forces of Tā hir b. al-Husayn. As the
˙ ˙
siege took hold and al-Amı̄ n’s circumstances became increasingly dire, his
army rioted against him, demanding their wages. One morning al-Amı̄ n was
awakened by a stone; shot from a mangonel, it had fallen on to his bed. He
could hear the din of the besiegers from one direction and the clamouring
voices of his troops from the other. Choking with tears, he exclaimed, ‘May
God curse both parties! One lot seek my blood; the other lot want my
wealth.’ It was not long thereafter that he was defeated and killed.18

Tā jı̄ , also known, according to Ibn al-Nadı̄ m, as al-ʿAdudı̄ , but properly titled Dawlat banı̄
˙
buwayh wa-akhbā r al-daylam wa-btidā ʾ amrihim (Fihrist, I: ii: 416–7).
17
A list that includes these and other royal titles appears in al-Rā ghib al-Isfahā nı̄ ,
˙
Muhā darā t al-udabā ʾ, I: 158.
˙ ˙
18
Al-Zamakhsharı̄ , Rabı̄ ʿ al-abrā r, IV: 236. Compare al-Turtū shı̄ ’s reference, above,
Chapter 8, n. 46. On the events surrounding the siege˙ of˙ Baghdad by Tā hir and
˙

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 Part II Texts

The trials of al-Mutawakkil (r. 232–47/847–61) provide another

example. One evening, surrounded by his boon-companions and musi-
cians, he was presiding over his convivial assembly; cups were circulating
and spirits merry. Suddenly, the party was assailed by a group of Turks,
who were in collusion with al-Muntasir (r. 847–8/861–2). One of the
˙
Turks, Bā ghir al-Turkı̄ (d. 251/865), began striking the caliph and killed
him. The party that had assembled for entertainment and enjoyment was
upturned into an assembly of anguish and strife.19
The poets have made much of describing this caliph’s assassination.
Among the finest of these poets is Ahmad b. Ibrā hı̄ m al-Asadı̄ , who wrote:
˙
Let the fate of the noble unfold in this fashion:
In the midst of flutes, stringed instruments and wine –
Between two cups, offered at the same time:
The cup of pleasures, and the cup of death!20

In a further example of the Abbasids’ particular ordeals, al-Mustaʿı̄ n

billā h (r. 248–52/862–6) was compelled to relinquish the caliphate.21 As
he made the pledge of allegiance to al-Muʿtazz billā h (r. 252–5/866–9),

Harthama b. Aʿyan in 196/812 and al-Amı̄ n’s defeat, see Kennedy, The Prophet and the
Age of the Caliphates, 148–52; Kennedy, When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World, 85–110.
19
It had been the aim of al-Mutawakkil’s vizier ʿUbayd Allā h b. Yahyā b. Khā qā n to replace
˙
the caliph’s choice for successor with another of his sons, al-Muʿtazz. Al-Mutawakkil’s
son Muhammad, upon whom his father had bestowed the title al-Muntasir, was involved
˙ ˙
in the conspiracy of the Turkish soldiery that led to the caliph’s death. Bā ghir al-Turkı̄
was among the Turkish military leaders involved in the assassination of al-Mutawakkil.
Al-Muntasir received the bayʿa in 247/861 but died the following year at Samarra. In the
˙
civil conflicts that engulfed the Samarran caliphate, Bā ghir was assassinated in 251/865
by the commanders Bughā al-Saghı̄ r (d. 254/868) and Wası̄ f al-Turkı̄ (Bosworth, ‘al-
˙ ˙
Muntasir’; Kennedy, When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World, 261–72, 275–6; Kennedy,
˙
The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, 170–3; Gordon, Breaking of a Thousand Swords,
88–90; Gordon, ‘Bughā al-Saghı̄ r’).
˙
20
Al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Thimā r al-qulū b, 190–1, no. 270, where the events and the verse are
recounted in explication of the expression ‘the night of al-Mutawakkil’ (laylat al-
Mutawakkil).
21
Al-Mustaʿı̄ n (r. 248–52/862–6), a grandson of Caliph al-Muʿtasim, had been picked for
˙
the caliphate by Turkish commanders in Samarra after the death of his cousin, al-
Muntasir (see above, n. 19). Al-Mustaʿı̄ n’s caliphate was contested from the outset by
˙ of his cousin al-Muʿtazz, whom the new caliph arrested once the resistance to
supporters
his accession had been suppressed. But when al-Mustaʿı̄ n left Samarra for Baghdad in
251/865, supporters of al-Muʿtazz released the latter from prison, and the ensuing
conflict led to al-Mustaʿı̄ n’s abdication in 251/866. Although arrangements had been
made for him to move to and settle in Medina, he was murdered in 252/866 in Samarra
(see further Gordon, Breaking of a Thousand Swords, 132–5 and passim; Zetterstéen
[Bosworth], ‘al-Mustaʿı̄ n’).

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

the judge [al-Hasan b. Muhammad b. ʿAbd al-Malik] Ibn Abı̄ l-Shawā rib
˙ ˙
was summoned, in order to read to al-Mustaʿı̄ n the conditions of his
deposition. Ibn Abı̄ l-Shawā rib said to him: ‘O Commander of the
Faithful, I call upon you to bear witness to the contents of this docu-
ment.’ Al-Mustaʿı̄ n assented. The judge said, ‘May God choose in your
favour, O Abū l-ʿAbbā s.’ Al-Mustaʿı̄ n wept, and cried, ‘O God, if You
have deposed me from Your caliphate, do not depose me from Your
mercy.’ Then he recited these verses:
The fate of all sovereignty is to abscond
Except for the Sovereignty of the Protector, the All-Bountiful.
All that you behold will fade away and vanish;
On the Day of Reckoning, all God’s bondsmen shall receive
their recompense. 22
Upon hearing these words, the judge asked the deposed caliph to choose
the town in which he wished to settle. Al-Mustaʿı̄ n replied that he had
already chosen to move to Basra. When told that the climate in Basra was
excessively hot, al-Mustaʿı̄ n responded, ‘Can you imagine any heat more
oppressive than the loss of the caliphate?’23
The tribulations of al-Muʿtazz billā h (r. 252–5/866–9) provide
another example. The Turks not only deposed him and beat him, but
also dragged him, barefoot and bare-headed, in the extreme heat of high
summer and at the hour of the midday sun. Al-Muʿtazz begged for shoes
to put on. When he did not receive them, he loosened his trousers and
walked with them underfoot. Finally his tormentors humiliated him with
the most wicked punishment, and deposited him, parched with thirst and
exhausted, in a bath-house. One of his clients brought him water with ice
in it, and once he had drunk it, he died.24
22
Al-Zamakhsharı̄ , Rabı̄ ʿ al-abrā r, IV: 243.
23
A member of the Banū Abı̄ l-Shawā rib, a family of prominent Iraqi jurists and judges,
al-Hasan b. Muhammad b. ʿAbd al-Malik Ibn Abı̄ l-Shawā rib held the post of qadi in
˙ ˙
250–61/864–74. A loyal servant of al-Mutawakkil, he had fallen out of favour under al-
Mustaʿı̄ n, who deprived him of his office as official counsellor; Ibn Abı̄ l-Shawā rib
returned to and retained his office under al-Muʿtazz, al-Muhtadı̄ and al-Muʿtamid
(Vadet, ‘Ibn Abı̄ ʾl-Shawā rib’).
24
Al-Muʿtazz, a son of al-Mutawakkil, attempted to curb the power of the Turkish
commanders. He instigated the execution of Bughā al-Saghı̄ r in 254/868, but Turkish
˙
power in the state revived in 255/869, while that of the Tahirid governors and com-
manders of the guard in Baghdad decreased, notably upon the assumption of the
governorship of Baghdad by Sulaymā n b. ʿAbdallā h b. Tā hir (r. 255–66/869–79) (see
˙
above, n. 11). A combination of factors and constituencies, including the demands of the
Turkish soldiery for their pay, contributed to the deposition of al-Muʿtazz in 255/869

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 Part II Texts

Another example of the Abbasids’ afflictions is the ordeal of al-

Muhtadı̄ billā h (r. 255–6/86 9–70). 25 Sufyā n al-Thawrı̄ (97–
161/716–78) used to say that the true caliphs were five: the first four
were the four Rightly Guided caliphs, and the fifth was (the Umayyad)
ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzı̄ z. It has been asserted that the sixth true caliph
would be, without a doubt, al-Muhtadı̄ , since he resembled the two
ʿUmars in his conduct. He was fair and just, and he used his inde-
pendent judgement (ijtihā d) to adjudicate in religious matters. He
enjoyed the highest respect among the people generally and the
Turks especially, to the point that when he rode out and people saw
him, they raised a great clamour of weeping and prayers on his behalf.
Among his notable acts was his ordering the confiscation of musical
instruments, his expulsion of singers and effeminate men from
Samarra, his rejection of presents submitted at the festivals of
Nawrū z and Mihrajā n, and his sitting in person for the redress of
grievances (mazā lim). 26 His conduct in these matters remained
˙
unchanged – until, that is, zealous partisans of al-Mutawakkil’s off-
spring took to the stratagem of claiming to the Turks that the caliph
was an infidel, and that he was considering using the sword against

(Bosworth, ‘al-Muʿtazz’; Kennedy, When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World, 261–2, 277–
88; Gordon, Breaking of a Thousand Swords, 98–101).
25
Al-Muhtadı̄ , a son of al-Wā thiq, was widely esteemed for his piety and rectitude, and
reputedly modelled himself upon ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzı̄ z, as al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s invocation of
Sufyā n al-Thawrı̄ ’s remark suggests. The caliphate’s continuing economic strains and
hostility between al-Muhtadı̄ and the Turkish general Mū sā b. Bughā culminated in the
caliph’s execution of Mū sā ’s brother Muhammad b. Bughā and Mū sā ’s advance against the
˙
caliph. Defeated, al-Muhtadı̄ refused to abdicate, and he was murdered in 256/870
(Kennedy, When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World, 174–5, 288–94; Gordon, Breaking of
a Thousand Swords, 101–4). Sufyā n al-Thawrı̄ was a prominent figure in the development of
early law, tradition and Qurʾanic interpretation; numerous examples of his pronouncements
have been preserved (Abū Nuʿaym al-Isfahā nı̄ , Hilyat al-awliyā ʾ, VI: 356–93, VII: 3–144
˙ ˙
(no. 387)).
26
On the practice of caliphal redress of grievances in the later ninth and early tenth
centuries, before al-Mā wardı̄ ’s well-defined and systematised presentation in al-Ahkā m
˙
al-sultā niyya, see van Berkel, ‘Abbasid Mazā lim between Theory and Practice’. The
˙ ˙
ancient Iranian festivals of Nawrū z, marking the vernal equinox and the first day of the
new year according to the Iranian solar calendar, and Mihragā n (Ar. Mihrajā n), marking
the autumnal equinox, continued to be widely celebrated, particularly in Muslim courtly
settings, in and beyond Iran. These celebrations often featured the presentation of gifts,
and sometimes the collection of exceptional taxes. Al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s reference to al-
Muhtadı̄ ’s scruples suggests the disapproval, among some religious authorities, of the
continuing observance of these pre-Islamic festivals and the extra-sharʿı̄ levies that
sometimes accompanied them (see Shahbazi, ‘Nowruz ii: In the Islamic Period’;
Cristoforetti, ‘Mehragā n’).

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

them. The Turks swore that they had never witnessed the slightest
indication of infidelity in him. In response, the caliph’s accusers
insinuated, ‘Is it not the case that (Christian) monks, having forsaken
the world, are intent upon nothing but worship in their monasteries,
yet, being infidels, they are nevertheless bound for the fire? The caliph
is like them.’ In this way, these individuals undermined al-Muhtadı̄ ’s
reputation for justice and scrupulousness (waraʿ). The Turks, no
longer satisfied with his pleasing conduct, began to oppose him, and
he in turn fought against them. Those whom he had relied upon
deserted him. As he sought help from the common people, he said,
‘Will you not fight against a people (qawm) who broke their oaths?’ (Q
9: 13). 27 But no one came to his aid, and he was seized and killed.
Then there was the trial of al-Muʿtamid ʿalā llā h (r. 256–79/870–92).28
Notwithstanding the length of his reign and his sustained personal safety,
he was beset by the Turks’ mastery over him and their belittling of him,
and by al-Muwaffaq’s appropriation of power and exclusion of him from
the management of affairs. Al-Muʿtamid said:
I have been deprived of any defence against the unjust treatment
meted out to me. The people’s affairs carry on without me, and
I hear very little about them. When I desire something, they
always find some reason for withholding it from me.

One evening, he asked for three hundred dinars, which he was unable to
find. He said:
Is it not remarkable that someone such as I
Should find his access to revenue impeded?
The whole world submits its levies in his name
Yet none of that wealth reaches his hands.
The revenues in their entirety are delivered to him
Yet he is prevented from access to even a part of
what is collected for him. 29

27
The caliph’s calling upon the people for their support in his struggle with Mū sā and
Muhammad (see n. 25), whom he had accused of embezzlement, is a Qurʾanic citation.
28 ˙
Al-Muʿtamid, a son of al-Mutawakkil, was never able to build up an independent power
base. Largely a figurehead, he spent most of his caliphate in Samarra, while his brother
Abū Ahmad, who assumed the quasi-caliphal title al-Muwaffaq, exercised effective rule
˙
from Baghdad. Al-Muwaffaq held the allegiance of the Turkish military. See Kennedy,
The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, 172–82; Gordon, Breaking of a Thousand
Swords, 141–4; Kennedy, ‘al-Muʿtamid ʿalā ʾllā h’ and ‘al-Muwaffak’.
29
Ibn Hamdū n, al-Tadhkira al-Hamdū niyya, I: 442. ˙
˙ ˙

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Among the trials that he is reported to have suffered, and an example

of the Turks’ ascendancy over him, is that [Abū Sā lih] Muflih once
˙ ˙ ˙
sent him a message asking him to give him, as a present, his slave-girl
Hazā r and his servant Badr al-Julnā r. At this request al-Muʿtamid was
moved to tear his tunic in frustration; ‘Is this how slaves treat their
masters (mawā lı̄ )?’ he asked, ‘by extorting their women and slaves?’
But later he said, ‘Someone like Abū Sā lih (Muflih) cannot be refused,’
˙ ˙ ˙
and he ordered that Hazā r be conveyed to him. She was the most
beautiful woman of her time, and the most talented in music and
singing. At the same time, al-Muʿtamid said: ‘As for Badr al-Julnā r,
he has a special place in our affections, and he (Muflih) must comply
˙
with our wishes by leaving him with us.’ When the messenger relayed
the report to Muflih, the latter said, ‘In the case of Hazā r, I have
˙
already acquired her; as for Badr, I shall find a way to acquire him too,
whether the caliph likes it or not.’ Later, Muflih set out on a campaign
˙
against the Zanj, in the course of which he was killed. May God keep
him at a distance.
Another example of the Abbasids’ tribulations is the ordeal of al-
Muqtadir billā h (r. 295–6/908, 296–317/908–29, 317–20/929–
32).30 For he, notwithstanding the magnificence of his position, the
display of his power and the profusion of worldly goods that he
enjoyed for a period of twenty-four years, suffered affliction at the
hands of Muʾnis al-Khā dim, who eventually killed him as if he were
a dog.31 Muʾnis beheaded him and tossed aside his corpse, naked; the
rabble stole his clothing, and left nothing but tufts of grass to cover his
private parts. A woman came along and gleaned the perfume that was
in his navel.

30
Al-Muqtadir, who acceded at the age of thirteen, reigned from 295/908 to 320/932, with
two temporary depositions: a matter of months into his reign, in 296/908, when Ibn al-
Muʿtazz replaced him for a day; and in 317/929, when his brother Muhammad, given the
˙
regnal title al-Qā hir, was raised to the throne for two days. From 296–21/908–33, the
leading military commander Muʾnis al-Khā dim exercised enormous power in the caliph-
ate, especially since he defended al-Muqtadir against the supporters of Ibn al-Muʿtazz in
296/908 and restored him to the throne after his second deposition (see the following
note).
31
Muʾnis, who received the laqab al-Muzaffar (‘the Victor’) for repelling the Fatimid al-
˙
Mahdı̄ in 307/919–20, eventually turned against al-Muqtadir and overthrew him. See
Kennedy, When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World, 191–8; Kennedy, The Prophet and the
Age of the Caliphates, 187–95; Zetterstéen [Bosworth], ‘al-Muktadir’; Bowen, ‘Muʾnis al-
Muzaffar’. ˙
˙

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

Other examples of the caliphs’ misfortunes include the trials of al-

Qā hir (r. 317/929, 320–2/932–4) and al-Muttaqı̄ (r. 329–33/940–4),
who suffered deposition and the gouging out of their eyes.32
The tribulations of al-Mustakfı̄ (r. 333–4/944–6) involved Muʿizz al-
Dawla Abū l-Husayn (r. 334–56/945–67 (in Iraq)), who grew disaffected
˙
from the caliph and increasingly settled and firm in his intention and
determination to depose him.33 Resolved to adopt a tactical approach
(tadbı̄ r), Muʿizz al-Dawla hastened to make a display of friendship towards
the caliph. On a Thursday, he rode at the head of an army to greet him. Al-
Mustakfı̄ , seated on his throne, was surrounded by his servants, who were
admitted into the caliph’s presence in the first group. Muʿizz al-Dawla
kissed the ground in front of the caliph several times; then he kissed the
caliph’s hands and stood near him, talking to him and conversing with him.
The caliph ordered him to be seated, so he sat on a stool (kursı̄ ), while other
eminent and important persons (al-ruʾasā ʾ wa-l-wujū h) remained standing
in their places and ranks. The caliph gave permission to the high-ranking
members of the Hashimite family, the secretaries and the judges to enter
the court, followed by all of the army, including the Daylamites and the
Turks; finally, he admitted the various categories of the general public.
When the assembly was complete, two commanders of the Daylami corps
came forward. One of them, Rū stā kı̄ m, was strong and rough. The two
commanders spoke in Persian, in words that al-Mustakfı̄ could not under-
stand. The caliph was told that they wished to take their leave for the court
of ʿImā d al-Dawla (r. 322–38/934–49 (in Fars and Khuzistan)), and hoped
that the Commander of the Faithful would grant the two of them the

32
Al-Qā hir, brother of and successor to al-Muqtadir, was seized and imprisoned after an
uprising in 322/934. When he refused to abdicate, he was blinded. He was released only
under the next caliph, al-Mustakfı̄ , and he died in 339/950 (Kennedy, When Baghdad
Ruled the Muslim World, 156–9, 196–7; Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the
Caliphates, 198; Sourdel, ‘al-Kā hir biʾllā h’). Al-Muttaqı̄ was a son of al-Muqtadir.
˙
During a tumultuous caliphal period, he sought the protection of the Hamdanids on
more than one occasion. In 333/944, he was blinded and then deposed by the Turkish
general Tuzun (d. 334/945); al-Muttaqı̄ died in 357/968 (Zetterstéen [Bosworth], ‘al-
Muttakı̄ liʾllā h’).
33 ˙
Raised to the throne by Tuzun after the blinding of al-Muttaqı̄ , one of the latter’s cousins,
al-Mustakfı̄ occupied the caliphal office when the Buyid leader Ahmad b. Bū ya arrived in
˙
Baghdad in 334/945. The caliph was obliged to grant Ahmad the laqab Muʿizz al-Dawla,
˙
to place his name with his own on the coinage, and to recognise him as amı̄ r al-umarā ʾ. As
al-Thaʿā libı̄ relates, Muʿizz al-Dawla, the effective ruler of Iraq, soon deposed and
blinded al-Mustakfı̄ (334/946) and replaced him with al-Fadl b. al-Muqtadir, who now
˙
received the title al-Mutı̄ ʿ. Al-Mustakfı̄ died in prison in 338/949 (Kennedy, The Prophet
˙
and the Age of the Caliphates, 218, 250; Bosworth, ‘al-Mustakfı̄ ’).

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 Part II Texts

honour of allowing them to kiss his hand.34 The caliph covered his hand
with his sleeve and stretched it out to them. Rū stā kı̄ m took it, then dragged
the caliph from his throne so that he fell to the ground. The caliph was
wearing a turban made of cloth from Rusā fa, and it slipped off his head.
˙
The two men wrapped the turban round the caliph’s throat and dragged
him away. Muʿizz al-Dawla rose; horns were sounded, cries were raised
and the palace was looted. Immediately al-Fadl b. al-Muqtadir billā h was
˙
summoned; in fact, he was already present, since he had been prepared in
advance and was waiting to be called. So al-Fadl appeared, surrounded by
˙
supporters, and he sat upon the caliphal throne. The new caliph took the
title (laqab) of al-Mutı̄ ʿ lillā h (r. 334–63/946–74). Al-Mustakfı̄ was
˙
brought forward and made to stand before him. Al-Mustakfı̄ then greeted
the new caliph with the caliphal greeting, and testified to his own depos-
ition. During the coming night, his eyes were put out and he was detained
in the palace.
The experience of al-Mutı̄ ʿ likewise belongs among the tribulations of
˙
the Abbasids.35 His ordeal began with the arrival of letters and reports
bearing the news that the Byzantines had [in 362/972] raided Nasibin.
They had occupied it, then set fire to it and left it in ruins, having killed
many of its men and captured their children. A group of the city’s
inhabitants, as well as the people of Diyar Rabiʿa and Diyar Bakr, came
to Baghdad, where they sought to rouse the Muslims in the mosques and
markets. A large number of people gathered. They broke the pulpits in
the mosques. Then they made for the palace of al-Mutı̄ ʿ, which they tried
˙
to assault: they wrenched out some of the windows, but just as they were
about to reach the caliph and attack him, the gates were bolted to keep
them out. At this setback they subjected the caliph to repulsive language;
they accused him of powerlessness and failure to fulfil the duties that
God had made mandatory for imams, and they hurled every kind of
repugnant and ignominious insult at him.36

34
On the early Buyids’ lack of familiarity with Arabic, see Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age
of the Caliphates, 224. In the case described in al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s narrative, the Buyids’ use of
Persian prevented the caliph from gleaning their purpose.
35
A son of al-Muqtadir and brother of al-Muttaqı̄ , al-Mutı̄ ʿ suffered a stroke which left him
˙
incapacitated. Turkish military leaders compelled him to abdicate in favour of a son who
became al-Tā ʾiʿ; he died in 364/974 (Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates,
˙
241; Zetterstéen [Bosworth], ‘al-Mutı̄ ʿ liʾllā h’).
36 ˙
In 362/972–3, Byzantine forces, having already retaken a number of locations, made
incursions deep into Muslim territory. The arrival of refugees in Baghdad prompted
demands for action (Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, 225).

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

This episode coincided with [ʿIzz al-Dawla] Bakhtiyā r’s imposition of

financial pressure upon al-Mutı̄ ʿ and his vizier’s resorting to reprehensible
˙
and disapproved methods of extracting funds.37 In one of the demands that
he sent to al-Mutı̄ ʿ, Bakhtiyā r insinuated that the caliph possessed vast
˙
riches. Changing his approach, Bakhtiyā r then appeared before the caliph
with an urgent request for funding for military action (ghazw), which was
the imam’s mandatory duty. Al-Mutı̄ ʿ responded: ‘I would be responsible
˙
for military campaigning only if I possessed any worldly goods; but all
I have is the small amount of food allotted to me. It is you and the rulers of
the provinces (ashā b al-atrā f) who possess the world’s wealth; under these
˙˙ ˙
conditions, neither warfare (ghazw) nor the pilgrimage (hajj), nor any other
˙
obligation of the imams, is incumbent upon me. All that you get from me is
my name, which is recited in your pulpits (in the Friday sermon), and
which maintains the quiescence of the masses of your subjects. If you wish
me to step aside, then I shall step aside.’ The correspondence on this
matter continued, with the exchange of several messages and a mounting
sense of threat. The caliph therefore pledged to contribute four hundred
thousand dirhams, to raise which he was obliged to sell his clothing and
equipment; this divestment eventually caused the collapse of his palace.
Reports of the confiscation of the caliph’s wealth spread throughout the
City of Peace (Baghdad), among the élites and the common people, the
pilgrims from Khurasan and the delegations representing the outer prov-
inces and regions; the ugliness and ignominy doubled and multiplied.
The trial (fitna) of al-Tā ʾiʿ lillā h (r. 363–81/974–91) constitutes
˙
another example of the Abbasids’ tribulations.38 At the hands of [Fı̄ rū z
b. ʿAdud al-Dawla] Bahā ʾ al-Dawla (r. 379–403/989–1012 (in Iraq)), al-
˙
Tā ʾiʿ experienced something similar to what had befallen al-Mustakfı̄ at
˙
the hands of Muʿizz al-Dawla.39 Al-Tā ʾiʿ was seized, interrogated and
˙
37
Bakhtiyā r, the son of and successor to Muʿizz al-Dawla, took the title ʿIzz al-Dawla and
attempted to rule Iraq from 356–67/967–78 (Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the
Caliphates, 224–6).
38
Following the deposition of al-Mutı̄ ʿ in 363/974, his son, taking the title al-Tā ʾiʿ li-Amr
˙ ˙
Allā h, was proclaimed caliph. He married a daughter of ʿAdud al-Dawla (d. 372/983).
˙
After the latter’s death, Bahā ʾ al-Dawla, in financial difficulties, overthrew the caliph and
seized his treasury in 381/991. Bahā ʾ al-Dawla held al-Tā ʾiʿ prisoner; the latter was
˙
succeeded by his cousin Abū l-ʿAbbā s Ahmad, who took the name al-Qā dir. Allowed to
˙
come to al-Qā dir’s palace in 382/992, al-Tā ʾiʿ died in 393/1003 (Kennedy, The Prophet
˙
and the Age of the Caliphates, 241; Hanne, Putting the Caliph in His Place, 55–65).
39
On Bahā ʾ al-Dawla, see Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, 237–9, 241–
3; Hachmeier, ‘Bahā ʾ al-Dawla’; and the fuller account in Bosworth, ‘Bahā ʾ al-Dawla wa-
Diyā ʾ al-Milla, Abū Nasr Fı̄ rū z’.
˙ ˙

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 Part II Texts

deposed, and delivered to al-Qā dir billā h (r. 381–422/991–1031), who

had him imprisoned and strictly constrained. 40 From prison, al-Tā ʾiʿ
˙
billā h wrote to al-Qā dir:
O, you who have imprisoned me – you who yourself were released from
prison:
You have visited upon me the same treatment that you have suffered.
What an ugly thing it is when treachery afflicts a former ruler
For whose qualities it is justice that would be more fitting!
I have not betrayed my covenant with you, yet you have betrayed
Your covenant with me; and in this matter God is my witness.
All of these cases involve the sovereigns of Islam. As for kings of lesser
status, such as subordinate and provincial kings, who could count the
number of grievous tribulations and momentous misfortunes that they
have experienced?

Section: Concise and Comprehensive Summations of the

Calamities That Afflict Kings
One of these calamities is that if a king’s reign grows long, even if he
maintains justice, practises good governance and displays good conduct,
his subjects will criticise him simply because of the length of his rule.
How true are the words of the poet who said:
A man is never content with his condition.
He is content neither with youth nor with old age;
The most pleasurable time for him is his youth, yet
As it passes, it gives way to rebuke and discontent.
In another reference to this state of affairs, a poet said:
If a man has no stake or share in another man’s turn in power
(dawla)
He will wish for an end to it –
Not out of dislike for it, nor in anticipation of an alternative;
But simply because he wishes for change. 41
40
Al-Qā dir, a grandson of al-Muqtadir and cousin of al-Tā ʾiʿ, whom he succeeded after
˙ the name al-Qā dir billā h. In
Bahā ʾ al-Dawla’s deposition of al-Tā ʾiʿ in 381/991, received
˙
opposition to the Buyids, the Samanids and Ghaznavids withheld their recognition of al-
Qā dir until about 390/1000. After Bahā ʾ al-Dawla settled in Shiraz, the caliph gained
greater freedom in Baghdad (Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, 241–3;
Sourdel, ‘al-Kā dir Biʾllā h’).
˙
41
Abū Ahmad b. Abı̄ Bakr al-Kā tib, in Yatı̄ mat al-dahr, IV: 76 (the verses constitute ‘one of
˙
his circulating proverbs’). According to al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Abū Ahmad’s father, Abū Bakr
˙

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

Another misfortune of kings is the common people’s enthusiasm for them

and at the same time their predilection for speaking ill of them, seeking
information about them and gossiping about their faults. These tendencies
have always been part of people’s natural dispositions, and only a person of
superlative knowledge, the highest manly virtue, manifest authority and the
strictest scrupulousness can hope to be spared from this treatment.
Muʿā wiya used to say, ‘Do you know which person is (truly) noble (nabı̄ l)?
Let me tell you who it is who is truly noble: the person whom, in his
presence, you hold in high regard, and with whom, in his absence, you find
fault. This is the lot of the mighty in the eyes of the common people, of kings
in the eyes of their subjects and of masters (sā da) in the eyes of their slaves.’
Another misfortune of kings is that if, in accordance with sound
governmental practice and as a necessary precaution and safeguard, an
individual deemed to pose a threat to the realm is detained by the current
king, and if, while in custody, this individual should die a natural death,
the people will have no doubt that it was the king who ordered that he be
killed. Even if this individual should die in his bed, the people will believe
without doubt that it was the king who gave the command for the
administration of a poison or the spilling of his blood. If the man dies
at a far remove from the king, the people will still believe without doubt
that the king resorted to a ruse against him and acted through the agency
of a physician, a servant, a cook or a wine-bearer, notwithstanding the
remoteness and distance of his place of residence and settlement. Even if
he is held in an impregnable hiding place, and his custody and supervi-
sion are strictly controlled; even if he is killed in a storm or struck by
lightning, someone will still come up with a different idea.
Another calamity is the great number of kings’ enemies, enviers and
opponents, among the rulers both above and below them, and among their
peers, equals and relatives, for various reasons and under different circum-
stances. It is therefore necessary for the king that he remain alert and
vigilant, day and night, whether he is in residence or on a campaign, at rest
or moving from place to place. He must inspect every piece of information
concerning these people; he must follow their locations, and guard against
their scorpion-like infiltrations and their machinations. It is vital that he
maintain extreme wariness regarding everything that he eats and drinks,

b. Hā mid, served in the Samanid administration, as chief secretary to Amir Ismā ʿı̄ l
˙
b. Ahmad and vizier to Amir Ahmad b. Ismā ʿı̄ l before the appointment to the vizierate
of Abu˙ ̄ ʿAbdallā h al-Jayhā nı̄ (Yatı̄
˙ mat al-dahr, IV: 73).

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 Part II Texts

and that he guard himself against the dangers of poison. Poison is the
greatest of the calamities of kings; the number of kings who have perished
in this fashion cannot be counted. Poison is especially potent when infused
into perfumes, for when it takes this form the poison flies into the brain and
destroys it instantly; on the spot, it causes a lethal nosebleed. May God
protect our Master the King with His eye which never sleeps; may He
prolong his reign through the surety of His oversight and His care!
Also among kings’ misfortunes are the deceitful, cunning, infidel pros-
elytisers of free-thinking, innovating and atheistic sects such as the
Batiniyya, the Qaramita and the Ismailis.42 These sects include people
who profess belief in the power of natural forces and the stars, and who,
instead of affirming the truth of prophetic missions, consider the signifi-
cance of prophets to be limited to the realms of law and human need. Such
people have often succeeded in infiltrating the circles of kings who have
neither listened to the teachings of theologians nor examined the science of
theology. In their private meetings with such kings, these people deceive
them with their vain incantations, their planting of doubts and their
counterfeit doctrines. By means of their false claims, they extricate these
kings from the yoke of the sharia and offer them the freedom (hurriyya) of
˙
atheism.43 They liberate them from the bondage of religious observance;
they permit them both to abandon the ritual prayers and the other acts of
worship, and to follow their passions. In this fashion, kings become
compliant and submissive in the hands of these people.44 The latter then
take advantage of their safety, latitude and security, and they use their
ample opportunities to encourage the perpetration of criminal acts, the
committing of sins, the spilling of blood, the seizure of properties, the
violation of covenants and contracts, and the denigration of Islam.
Al-Amı̄ r al-Saʿı̄ d Nasr b. Ahmad (r. 301–31/914–43) fell into this trap
˙ ˙
at the hands of two prominent atheists, Abū l-Tayyib al-Musʿabı̄ and
˙ ˙
42
This section of al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s mirror has been translated and discussed in Crone and
Treadwell, ‘A New Text on Ismailism’. The translation appears on pp. 37–41; the article
also compares al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s account of the conversion of the Samanid amir Nasr
˙
b. Ahmad to Ismailism with the accounts of Ibn al-Nadı̄ m and Nizā m al-Mulk. Julia
˙ ˙
Bray, drawing on the presentation of al-Shahrastā nı̄ , has proposed revisions to parts of
this translation in her ‘Al-Thaʿalibi’s Adab al-mulū k’, 41–4. I have benefited from the
translations and the extensive commentaries that appear in both of these articles.
43
The idea of freedom from the law, and the release from the religious obligations of
worship and public morality for the pursuit of individual spiritual perfection, is discussed
in Crone and Treadwell, ‘A New Text on Ismailism’, 60.
44
Reading, with Bray, yaslasu qiyā duhum for yusalsilu qiyā duhum (‘Al-Thaʿalibi’s Adab al-
mulū k’, 46, n. 26).

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

Abū l-Hasan Ibn Sawā da al-Rā zı̄ , who had dedicated their persistent
˙
attention to the amir. 45 It had been reported of al-Saʿı̄ d that he had
repented of his consumption of wine, was remorseful over his shedding
of blood, had become fearful of standing before his Lord46 and had
knocked on the door of asceticism (nusk); he would withdraw in prayer
and weeping, and had become intensely fearful of death. Al-Musʿabı̄ and
˙
Ibn Sawā da made relentless efforts to deceive him with their honeyed
words and to coax him by degrees towards their path (madhhab). They
professed to him that care and sorrow provide no defence against adver-
sity and trouble. Instead, they claimed, the most effective path entails the
pursuit of pleasures, drinking without restraint and listening to beautiful
singing girls. These activities relieve the rational soul (al-nafs al-nā tiqa)
˙
of its distress in this corporeal world that is made up entirely of anxiety
and pain; for only entertainment, enjoyment and music can repel these
afflictions. They induced the king to imagine that the bitterness of death
lay only in the fear of it, whereas in fact, they maintained, death repre-
sented the consummate pleasure and the ultimate release, because it was
the gate to the spiritual world in which there is no pain, no sorrow and no
terror. And they related other tales of this kind, until the king began to
incline towards their doctrine and eventually joined their path.
Abū ʿAlı̄ al-Jayhā nı̄ 47 adopted their path, and he went to even greater
lengths than this pair, calling the people of jurisprudence the people of
filth – by which he meant that they discussed such matters as the cleansing
of the body of gross impurities and menstruation.48 Then they (all three)
prettified their chosen path, that is, the path of the Ismailiyya. This was
also the path of Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Bazdahı̄ (d. 333/944). 49 The
˙ ˙

45
Muhammad b. Hā tim al-Musʿabı̄ , a secretary, became vizier in 330/941–2, or earlier. Ibn
Sawa˙̄ da, also mentioned
˙ ˙ account of Nizā m al-Mulk (Siyar al-mulū k, 228, 295 =
in the
˙
Darke, Book of Government, 212, 218), was an Ismaili missionary.
46
The phrase khā fa maqā ma rabbihi echoes Qurʾanic language (Q 55: 46, 79: 40).
47
Reading, with Crone and Treadwell (‘A New Text on Ismailism’, 39), al-Jayhā nı̄ for al-
Jubbā ʾı̄ . The sources report three generations, a grandfather, father and son, all bearing
the family name al-Jayhā nı̄ and all appointed to the Samanid vizierate. The Jayhā nı̄
intended in al-Thaʿā libı̄ ’s text is taken to be the middle one of the three, Abū ʿAlı̄
Muhammad b. Muhammad, who became vizier to Nasr from 326/937–8 until he was
˙ ˙ ˙
succeeded, in 330/941–2 or earlier, by al-Musʿabı̄ (Crone and Treadwell, ‘A New Text
˙
on Ismailism’, 54–5).
48
See further Crone and Treadwell, ‘A New Text on Ismailism’, 60.
49
The Ismaili missionary al-Nasafı̄ , who came from the village of Bazda near Nasaf
(Nakhshab) (Yā qū t, Muʿjam al-buldā n, I: 409–10, noting the nisbas Bazdı̄ or
Bazdawı̄ ), and whose name is normally given as Muhammad b. Ahmad (Crone and
˙ ˙

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 Part II Texts

three men induced the king to summon al-Bazdahı̄ and listen to his words.
Al-Saʿı̄ d duly ordered that al-Bazdahı̄ be summoned. When the latter
appeared, he was treated with honour and deference. Al-Saʿı̄ d accepted
his exposition in all its frivolity and assented to his accursed teaching.
Al-Saʿı̄ d ordered the minting of seventy dinars, each containing
a hundred mithqā l (of gold).50 He then expedited the dispatch of these
dinars to the ruler of al-jazı̄ ra,51 whom they regarded as the imam of that
persuasion. These dinars were struck accordingly.
God then favoured Islam with the demise of al-Musʿabı̄ . The force of that
˙
rabble (qawm) grew weaker, and their choice position proved of no avail. Al-
Bazdahı̄ returned to his village, still cleaving to his error; he kept some of
those dinars, while others were in the possession of Ibn Sawā da. When al-
Saʿı̄ d died and his son al-Hamı̄ d (Nū h I b. Nasr II, r. 331–43/943–54)
˙ ˙ ˙
replaced him on the throne, Ibn Sawā da resumed his embellishing talk of
that path in the presence of the new amir. He wrote to al-Bazdahı̄ , asking him
to send to al-Hamı̄ d’s court the most cunning, the most adept in argument
˙
and the most articulate of his missionaries. Al-Bazdahı̄ complied. Al-Hamı̄ d
˙
was a perceptive man and well versed in religious matters; he had studied
with Muhammad, known as [Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Sulamı̄ , d. 334
˙ ˙ ˙
or 335/945 or 946] al-Hā kim al-Jalı̄ l (the Great Judge), the leader (imā m)
˙
of the school of Abū Hanı̄ fa.52 When al-Bazdahı̄ ’s messenger arrived, he
˙
conversed with al-Hamı̄ d in private, and he disclosed his doctrine to him. Al-
˙
Hamı̄ d said to him: ‘If this teaching is contrary to Islam, then I take refuge in
˙
God from it. If it is in accordance with Islam, then Muhammad who is the
˙
lord of all true missionaries, the Prophet Muhammad, has already pro-
˙
claimed it before you. The perfection of his religion admits of no increase,
and his actions and ordinances, transmitted to us, admit of no improvement.

Treadwell, ‘A New Text on Ismailism’, 39, n. 7), was executed under the Samanid amir
al-Hamı̄ d in the year 333/944.
50 ˙
For the mithqā l, see Hinz, Islamische Masse und Gewichte, 2–8.
51
The copyist appears to have taken this name to refer to the province of al-Jazı̄ ra; cf. the
reading of Crone and Treadwell, who take the reference to al-jazı̄ ra to refer not to the
region of that name but to the ‘diocese’ (‘A New Text on Ismailism’, 39). The reading
Jibā l, while orthographically more distant, would also fit the context quite well, since that
region, in west-central and north-western Iran, emerged in the 260s/870s as a leading
centre of Ismaili activity, and Ismaili dā ʿı̄ s succeeded in converting several of the region’s
rulers.
52
Al-Hā kim al-Jalı̄ l, Abū l-Fadl Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Sulamı̄ , a Hanafı̄ scholar
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
and qadi of Bukhara, was appointed vizier after the accession of Nū h (Crone and
Treadwell, ‘A New Text on Ismailism’, 47–8, n. 48). ˙

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

Suppose I were to accept this path: what would be the sense in concealing it
from people?’ In this regard, Zuhayr, despite his unbelief, said:
Where there is covering up, there are indecencies;
You never find the covering up of something good.53
The messenger replied that this stipulation was what the imam had prom-
ulgated. The amir responded, ‘It must arise from fear of either the common
people, or the élite (khā ssa), or the ruler (sultā n). If it stems from fear of the
˙˙ ˙
common people, then they are my subjects; not one of them dares to oppose
me. If it comes from fear of the élite [or of the ruler], then what ruler is
superior to me, and in whose hands is greater power? No other reason
remains for covering up this religion, nor for lying about it or requiring
a covenant regarding it.’ The unbelievers were confounded.54 The mission-
ary, struck dumb, was unable to answer. He returned to al-Bazdahı̄ and told
him what had happened; the latter sensed that evil lay in store.
It was not long before al-Hamı̄ d demanded the previously mentioned
˙
dinars from Ibn Sawā da. The latter denied having them; he swore solemn
oaths that he neither possessed the money nor had any knowledge of it; the
dinars were not in his house nor in the possession of any of his companions.
Later, the amir discovered most of those dinars hidden in a secret place in his
house, and he had them removed. Al-Hamı̄ d had Ibn Sawā da beaten so
˙
violently that he perished. Then al-Hamı̄ d summoned al-Bazdahı̄ , who,
˙
interrogated regarding the remaining dinars, did not release them. When
addressed on the subject of his doctrine, he requested a disputation, and said,
‘If a proof is brought against me, then I shall repent of my doctrine and shall
renounce my belief.’ But al-Hamı̄ d would not engage in disputation with
˙
him. Instead, he requested a professional legal opinion (fatwā ) from the jurists
in his regard. The jurists expressed the opinion that he should be executed.
He was duly executed and crucified.
Among the kings of the time who succumbed to the wickedness of this
corrupt path were Bakr b. Mā lik, Abū ʿAlı̄ Ibn Ilyā s, Abū Jaʿfar b. Bā nū , the
father of Khalaf, Tā hir b. Muhammad al-Sijzı̄ and Abū ʿAlı̄ Ibn Sı̄ mjū r.55
˙ ˙
This deplorable sect had been incubated and hatched in Khurasan. Had it
not been for the resolve of the great sultan Yamı̄ n al-Dawla Amı̄ n al-Milla

53
Zuhayr b. Abı̄ Sulmā , Dı̄ wā n, 56.
54
Following the emended reading of Crone and Treadwell, ‘A New Text on Ismailism’, 40,
n. 14, noting the allusion to Q 2: 258 (fa-buhita lladhı̄ kafara, ‘he who disbelieved was
confounded’).
55
On these figures, see Crone and Treadwell, ‘A New Text on Ismailism’, 55–8.

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 Part II Texts

Abū l-Qā sim Mahmū d Ibn Nā sir al-Dı̄ n (r. 388–421/998–1030) to devote
˙ ˙
his efforts to the victory of the faith and the upholding of the practices of
Islam, severing the shoots of atheism from their stems and uprooting the
seedlings of divesting God of His attributes (taʿtı̄ l), then these debauched
˙
free-thinkers would have rallied their supporters, the markers of the religion
would have been eliminated, the signposts of Islam obliterated and the heads
of the Muslims bowed low. But the sultan proceeded according to the
determination of his perception and the excellence of his character in pro-
tecting the religion and in his severity against the atheists. His sword
quenched its thirst with the blood of the people who followed fallacy and
were committed to error. He weakened and brought down every sign and
demolished every element of their futile teachings, until the affairs of religion
returned to their optimal position, and every envier and antagonist of Islam
had been suppressed.56 May God Almighty shape his efforts, prolong his life
and reward him well for his loyalty to his religion and his upholding of his
certain beliefs; may He perpetuate his lucky star and his auspicious time, and
may He not displace him from his right command and his praiseworthy
position. May we begin in all of these matters with our Master the King and
may we, in goodwill, devote to him the most abundant portion and the widest
share of our prayers for good.

Text 17
Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k, Chapter
˙ Forty 57

Translator’s Introduction
Chapter Forty opens part II of Nizā m al-Mulk’s Siyar al-mulū k. As noted
˙
previously (see section 3.7), Nizā m al-Mulk added the eleven chapters that
˙
make up part II some years after he had completed the first thirty-nine, and

56
See Bosworth, Ghaznavids, 52–4, 200. Mahmū d defeated and eventually deposed the
Ismaili ruler of Multan, Abū l-Fath Dā wū d b.˙ Nasr, in the course of two campaigns (596/
˙ ˙
1006 and 401/1010); on his assault against Rayy in 420/1019, see above, section 2.2,
n. 47, and Chapter 6, n. 49.
57
Translation prepared from Nizā m al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulū k, 189–212. For the corresponding
˙
section in Darke’s translation, see Darke, Book of Government, 139–57; in Schabinger’s
translation into German, see Schabinger, Siyā satnā ma, Gedanken und Geschichten, 236–43;
and in Pistoso’s translation into Italian, see Pistoso, L’arte della politica, 210–33.

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

by this time, Malikshā h appears to have withdrawn considerable support

from his vizier. Perhaps never having received the later chapters, the sultan
died a mere month after Nizā m al-Mulk’s assassination in 485/1092. It has
˙
often been remarked that part II conveys a sense of foreboding. Nizā m al-
˙
Mulk begins with the warning that states and dynasties do not stay the same;
they are vulnerable to change and inevitably come to an end. Power passes
from one dynastic house to another, and the process whereby one state suffers
dissolution and a new one rises and replaces it often involves violence and
bloodshed. In these later chapters, Nizā m al-Mulk expatiates on the problems
˙
that he sees undermining the state and which represent hasteners or
harbingers of the dynasty’s fall. While his treatments of these problems are
articulated in the form of general principles, each one evokes a particular
contemporaneous situation and the cases and actions of specific individuals.
In Chapter Forty, Nizā m al-Mulk’s ostensible subject is royal pardon; the
˙
chapter also covers the restoration of abandoned practices that the vizier-
author deems critical to the successful functioning of the polity. As in the
previous extracts (Texts 11 and 14), Nizā m al-Mulk employs lengthy
˙
narratives. This strategy allows him to deflect attention from himself and
the polity’s immediate circumstances as he narrates the stories of earlier kings,
their predicaments and how they overcame them or succumbed to them.
Nizā m al-Mulk begins and ends his chapter with the social dislocation
˙
betokened by the indiscriminate proliferation of honorific titles. The positive
roles of the female protagonists in several of the narratives are noteworthy,
especially in the light of Nizā m al-Mulk’s seemingly misogynistic statements
˙
elsewhere.58

Translation
Chapter Forty: On the King’s Forgiveness of God’s Creatures, May
He Be Exalted and Glorified; and the Restoration to Their Proper
Order of All Practices and Customs That Have Lost Their Order
and Foundation
At any time, a celestial event may occur, and the evil eye (chashm-i bad) may
gain access to the kingdom.59 The state (dawlat) will either change and pass
58
Foreshadowed here in the association of royal women’s issuing of commands with
disorder. As the narratives included in this chapter suggest, Nizā m al-Mulk’s disapproval
˙
is not of women in general but of certain women in particular; see section 3.7 and its n. 69.
59
Nizā m al-Mulk’s reference to the evil eye evokes the fragility of good fortune; in this case,
˙
it suggests the difficulty of maintaining the conditions necessary to promote the security

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 Part II Texts

from one dynastic house to another, or it will fall into disorder, as a result of
sedition (fitneh), unrest (ā shū b), the crossing of swords (shamshı̄ r-hā -yi
mukhtalif), killing, burning, plunder (ghā rat) and tyranny. In such days of
sedition (fitneh) and laxity (futū r), persons of noble descent (sharı̄ fā n) will be
cast down and ignoble people will attain prominence. Whoever possesses
strength will do whatever he pleases. The affairs of righteous persons
(muslihā n) will weaken and their conditions will become poor; the wicked
˙ ˙
(mufsidā n) will become powerful. The least of people will become a military
commander (amı̄ r); the basest of people will become a municipal governor
(ʿamı̄ d).60 The noble (ası̄ lā n) and worthy (fā żilā n) will suffer deprivation.61
˙
No person, however lacking in merit, will have the slightest trepidation in
taking upon himself the title of king (pā dshā h) or vizier. Turks will assume
the titles of educated officials (khvā jagā n), and khvā jagā n will adopt for
themselves the titles of Turks.62 Turks and Tajiks alike will take upon
themselves the titles of scholars and imams. The king’s womenfolk will issue
commands, the religious law (sharı̄ ʿa) will become weak, the subjects will be
left in disorder, the soldiers will become oppressive, distinctions among
people will disappear and no one will move to rectify matters. If a Turk has
ten stewards (sing. kadkhudā y), it will be considered permissible; and if
a Tajik is steward for ten Turkish amirs, it will not be counted a disgrace.63
All the affairs of the kingdom will have lost, and will continue to lose,
their foundation and proper order. The king, preoccupied with

and prosperity of the state and its people, since it is particularly the fine, fortunate,
healthy and beautiful that attract the malign attention of the evil eye (see Šakū rzā da and
Omidsalar, ‘C̆ ašm-zakm’).
60
Although the terms amı̄ r and ʿamı̄ d might seem to imply, respectively, ‘military’ and
‘civilian’ functions, it should be noted that in the Seljuk period, the distinction held
limited significance. Not only governors but also viziers played important military roles
and had sizeable forces under their command; Nizā m al-Mulk commanded an especially
˙
large army, and he undertook military operations himself, as well as accompanying Alp
Arslan and Malikshā h on many of their campaigns.
61
Although the term ası̄ lā n (sing. ası̄ l) connotes nobility of descent (asl), it also carries the
˙ ˙ ˙
sense ‘men of probity’; fā zil likewise connotes a status deriving from humane education
˙
and moral excellence.
62
The term khvā jeh denotes an educated person, often a teacher. The word changed in
meaning and status over time. Like sā hib, khvā jeh was used for viziers, including Nizā m
˙ ˙ ˙
al-Mulk, from the tenth century onwards; later the title extended to all high officials.
63
In the Ghaznavid and Seljuk periods, the term kadkhudā connoted a high-ranking official,
a military or provincial administrator or steward appointed by the ruler or the vizier. The
kadkhudā also functioned as a counsellor to the ruler and as an intermediary between the
ruler and the vizier (see Floor, ‘Kadkodā ’). In a widespread usage, it designated a village
headman.

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

campaigning, warfare and worry, will have no opportunity to attend to these

kinds of matters or to devote much thought to this sort of topic.64
Later, when by celestial felicity the age of calamity passes and days of
ease and security appear, God Almighty will bring forth a king who is
just, possesses rational intelligence and is of royal descent. God Almighty
will grant this king a turn in power so that he is able to triumph over all
his enemies. He will endow him with reason (ʿaql) and knowledge
(dā nish), so that he is capable of astute discernment (tamyı̄ z) in all
matters. This king will make enquiries from everybody and seek to
understand the ways and customs of (former) kings (ā ʾı̄ n-i pā dshā hā n)
in all matters. He will read accounts, so that he will soon be able to restore
to their proper positions all the kingdom’s structures (tartı̄ b) and customs
(ā ʾı̄ n). He will manifest clearly the exact degree of each person: he will
place the worthy in their rightful positions, constrain the unworthy and
send them to the tasks and occupations that befit them. He will root out
people who display ingratitude for benefits. He will be a friend to religion
and an enemy to oppression. He will lend support to religion and
expunge heresy (havā ) and innovation (bidʿat), by God’s permission
and His granting of success.
We shall now mention a little more about this subject, in order to shed
light on many issues and to provide guidance regarding matters that have
fallen away from their proper arrangement, so that when the Lord of the
World, may God perpetuate his rule, considers these matters, he may, if
God wills, issue a prescription and a command concerning each one.
Among the practices that kings of every age have maintained and to
which they have paid attention is solicitude for the ancient families
(khā nadā n-hā -yi qadı̄ m)65 and high regard for the sons of (former and
vassal) kings (abnā -yi mulū k).66 They have not allowed these members of
formerly powerful families to be ruined, deprived and abandoned; during
their turns in power, kings have appointed these individuals to office

64
For some thirty years, Nizā m al-Mulk had presided over an extensive network of
˙
individuals, placed in a variety of posts. His lament over the loss of social and professional
boundaries is largely rhetorical; his implicit evocation of an idealised social order in which
groups defined in terms of function, ethnicity and gender remained within firmly set
confines reflects an anxiety concerning shifts in power.
65
For the addition of this clause, see Siyar al-mulū k, 190, n. 4.
66
The reference is to members of recently defeated or displaced dynastic families; such
individuals were in a position to mobilise support and, given opportune circumstances,
stage a revolt against the newly installed ruler. Nizā m al-Mulk advises the ruler to enlist
˙ this potential threat.
the support of these individuals in order to stave off

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 Part II Texts

according to the measure of their competency, so that their familial

houses have remained firmly established. They have also awarded allow-
ances from the treasury to other eminent and meritorious persons,
including scholars, ʿAlids, righteous and honest people, warriors for
the faith (ghā ziyā n), guardians of the frontiers and specialists in the
Qurʾan. By these means, in the days when these rulers enjoyed their
turns in power no person was left without an allowance, nor was he
deprived; and the kings earned the people’s prayers on their behalf and
the rewards of both worlds.67

Story
They say that a group of deserving persons presented a written petition
to Caliph Hā rū n-i Rashı̄ d. They stated:
We are servants of God and children of the age.68 Some of us
specialise in the study of the Qurʾan and religious knowledge (ahl-i
Qurʾā n va-ʿilm); some of us possess noble status (khudā vand-i
sharaf).69 In some cases, our fathers held claims on this dynasty
(dawlat) for the pleasing services that they performed; and we too
have exerted ourselves in our toil. We are all Muslims of pure belief.
Our allowance lies in the treasury, and the treasury is in your hands,
since you are the Lord and Manager of the World (kadkhudā -yi
jahā n) and Commander of the Faithful. If that money belongs to the
people, then spend it on us, for we are believers and we are entitled to
it. You are for all intents and purposes the custodian of this wealth.
Know that the king is due no more than one tenth, and that this
amount is sufficient for you. Every day you expend several thou-
sands in the satisfaction of your desires, and in outlays for stipends
and daily rations, while we cannot even afford to buy bread.

The scholars reasoned, ‘What is most surprising is that the king seems to
suppose that whatever is in the treasury belongs to him. If he releases our
portion, good. If not, we shall go to God’s court and bring our grievance

67
Nizā m al-Mulk’s portrayal of an optimal reciprocity of king and subjects recalls the
˙
discourse of Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ (see Text 1).
68
Following Darke in his equation of Nizā m al-Mulk’s farzandā n-i rū zgā r with the Arabic
˙
abnā ʾ al-dawla, a phrase that denoted the Khurasani troops who supported the early
Abbasids and the descendants of these troops (as the text of the petition implies) (Book of
Government, 252, n. 2).
69
Although I have opted for a general phrasing in my rendering of khudā vand-i sharaf, it is
possible that Nizā m al-Mulk, both in this instance and in his reference to sharı̄ fā n in the
opening paragraph ˙ of this extract, intended descendants of the Prophet in particular.

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

there, with the request that the treasury be removed from the king’s
control and turned over to someone who will have compassion for the
Muslims, and who shall employ gold and riches for the benefit of the
people, rather than exploiting the people for the sake of gold.’
When Hā rū n read this petition, he was distressed, and he did not
answer it the same day. As, in a state of confusion, he was leaving his
audience hall for his private palace, his wife Zubayda, who saw that he
was not himself, asked, ‘What has happened to the Commander of the
Faithful?’70 He replied to Zubayda, ‘These people have written to me in
such-and-such a manner; had they not invoked the fear of God against
me I should order chastisement for them.’ Zubayda said, ‘You have done
well not to molest them. Just as you received the caliphate as a bequest
from your forefathers, you also inherited their conduct, disposition and
practice. Look to what the caliphs before you have done with the servants
of God, the Great and the Glorious. You too should do likewise, for
greatness and kingship become finer still when accompanied with justice
and liberality; the former goes with the latter. There is certainly no doubt
that whatever is in the treasury belongs to the Muslims, and yet you make
vast expenditures from it. You should display no more arrogance with
regard to the wealth of the Muslims than the Muslims would do with
your wealth. If they complain, you should pardon them.’
It so happened that that night both Hā rū n and Zubayda dreamed that
the Resurrection had arrived. In their visions they saw God’s creatures
called forth and brought forward one by one to the Place of Reckoning.
The Chosen Prophet (Muhammad) (may the blessings and peace of God
˙
be upon him and his family) was interceding for them, and they were on
their way to Paradise. An angel took Hā rū n and Zubayda by the hand, in
order to bring them to the Place of Reckoning. Another angel took the
hand of the first angel, and asked, ‘Where are you bringing them?’ He
reported that the Chosen Prophet (may the blessings and peace of God be
upon him and his family) had sent him with these instructions: ‘As long
as I [the Prophet] am present, do not allow them to be brought forward,
for I should be ashamed; in their case I should not be able to say anything,
for they considered the Muslims’ wealth to be their own and they
deprived the deserving of their rights, even though they were sitting in
my place.’ They both awakened in alarm. Hā rū n said to Zubayda, ‘What

70
On the marriage of Zubayda to Hā rū n, see Kennedy, When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim
World, 61, 186–9 and passim.

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 Part II Texts

happened to you?’ She said, ‘I saw such and such in my dream and I grew
afraid.’ Hā rū n said, ‘I had the same dream.’ Then they gave thanks that it
was not the Resurrection, and that what had happened had been only
a dream.
The next day they opened the door to the treasury and issued
a proclamation:
All entitled persons are required to present themselves so that we
may give them their allowances from the treasury and fulfil their
needs and desires.

In response, countless people set out for the court,71 and the charges to
Hā rū n al-Rashı̄ d of the various stipends and gifts that he ordered to be
awarded to the people amounted to three million dinars. Then Zubayda
said: ‘The treasury lies in your hands; it is you, not I, who must answer
for it at the Resurrection. Through your recent accomplishments, you
have discharged a part of your obligation: whatever you have just
bestowed consisted of the Muslims’ wealth, which you have now given
back to them. What I shall do, I shall do with my own money, for the sake
of God’s contentment and for salvation at the Resurrection – for I know
that I must depart from this world and that I must leave behind all these
goods and riches. Through my own action, I can at least send something
in advance by way of provision for the Resurrection.’
Zubayda then withdrew several million dinars’ worth of jewellery,
silver and clothing from her own treasury. ‘All of this wealth’, she said,
‘must be spent on good works, so that the effects of these works, and the
people’s favourable prayers on my behalf, will last uninterrupted until
the Resurrection.’ Then she ordered the construction of wells at every
stage along the route from Kufa to Mecca and Medina.72 Each well was to
be built open at the top, and it was to be lined from the bottom to the top
with stone, baked brick, plaster and lime. Zubayda likewise ordered the
construction of reservoirs and cisterns, so that pilgrims in the desert
should no longer suffer hardship and restriction on account of water,
since every year several thousand pilgrims used to die in the desert for
lack of water. Once all these wells had been dug and all these reservoirs

71
Following the sense of Darke’s reading of bı̄ hasr (Book of Government, 252, n. 3) and
˙ ˙
Qazvı̄ nı̄ and Chahā rdahı̄ ’s reading of bı̄ andā zeh (Siyā satnā meh, 165).
72
On Zubayda’s extensive public works along the route from Iraq to the holy cities of the
Hijaz, which in her honour became known as Darb Zubayda, see al-Rashid and Young,
‘Darb Zubayda’; Kennedy, When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World, 65.

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

constructed, a large amount of money still remained. Zubayda ordered

the erection of fortified castles along the frontier. She ordered the
purchase of weapons and horses, both mares and stallions, for the benefit
of the ghazis; and the acquisition of sufficient land and property in
conjunction with each fort so that, year after year, in times of need, it
could supply food and fodder for one or two thousand ghazi warriors and
allow for the breeding of horses.
After this, the remaining money was used at the borders of Kashghar,
Bulur and Shuknan to build a city with four strong walls; called
Badakhshan, this city still exists and prospers today. Another fortress,
named Vayshgird, was constructed opposite Rasht, Famir and Kumiji,73
on the border of Khuttalan; it too remains in existence and continues to
flourish. Its arsenal and its herd of horses are likewise still in existence. In
Isfijab, Zubayda ordered the construction of a fortified post (ribā t) so
˙
large it resembled a city; it too is extant and prosperous. On the road to
Khvarazm, she had built a fortress called Faraveh; she had further
fortresses built at Darband and at Alexandria. All in all, she commanded
the construction of ten fortresses, each one as big as a city. There was still
money left over. She ordered that the money remaining after all this
construction be taken and distributed among the poor and the people
who had taken up residence in the holy places of Mecca, Medina and
Jerusalem.

Story
Zayd b. Aslam said:
One evening the Commander of the Faithful ʿUmar b. al-Khattā b,
˙˙
may God be pleased with him, was patrolling in person, and I was
74
with him. We left Medina, and in the desert, we descried a ruined
wall, and a fire burning in the vicinity. ʿUmar said to me, ‘Come,
Zayd, let us make for this place so that we can see who has lit a fire in
the middle of the night.’ We set off. As we drew near, we saw
a woman who had placed a small pot on the fire. Two small children

73
Localities in the Upper Oxus region traced, following Darke, with reference to the
anonymous tenth-century Persian geography Hudū d al-ʿā lam, 361–3 (commentary to §
˙
26, pp. 119–22, section treating the region of the Transoxanian borderlands (nā hiyat-i
˙
hudū d-i mā warā ʾ al-nahr)).
74 ˙
Zayd b. Aslam was a transmitter of hadith and an early jurist. A version of this account
appears in Ghazā lı̄ , Nası̄ hat al-mulū k, part II: 115–18 = Bagley, Ghazā lı̄ ’s Book of Counsel
for Kings, 66–7. ˙˙

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 Part II Texts

were asleep on the ground in front of her. She was pleading,

‘Almighty God, grant me justice from ʿUmar, for he has eaten his
fill while we are hungry.’
When ʿUmar heard these words, he said to me, ‘Listen, Zayd; it
turns out that this woman is invoking God against me, of all people.
You stay here, so that I can approach the woman and find out about
her situation.’ He went up to the woman and asked, ‘What are you
cooking at this midnight hour in this desert?’ She replied, ‘I am
a poor woman. I do not own a home in Medina, and I have no means
at my disposal. I felt such shame that my two children were weeping
and crying with hunger while I had nothing to fill their stomachs,
and that my neighbours all knew that my children’s cries were from
hunger and that I was powerless to help them, that I came here
yesterday, and we have been here since then. Every time my children
cry from hunger and ask for food, I place this pot on the fire and say
to them, ‘You go to sleep; by the time you wake up this little pot will
be ready.’ In this way I lift their spirits, and with this hope they fall
asleep. But when they awaken, they see nothing, and again they
begin to cry. This very hour I have managed through some contriv-
ance to induce them to sleep. For two days now I have eaten nothing,
and they too have eaten nothing. There is nothing in this pot but
water.’ ʿUmar’s heart bled for her, and he said, ‘It is with justice that
you reproach ʿUmar and invoke God Almighty against him.’ The
woman did not recognise ʿUmar, who continued, ‘Be patient a short
while, and stay here until I return.’ Then ʿUmar left the woman.
When he reached me, ʿUmar said to me, ‘Come on, Zayd, we’re
off to our house.’ Once he had reached the threshold, I sat down by
the door of the house while he went inside. A while passed. Then he
emerged with two leather bags on his back. He said to me, ‘Come, let
us return to that woman.’ I said, ‘O Commander of the Faithful, if
we must go back there, at least place these bags on my back so that
I can carry the load.’ ʿUmar said, ‘Consider, Zayd; if you take up this
load, who will lift the burden of sins from ʿUmar’s neck?’
ʿUmar kept going until he drew near to the woman. Then he put
down the bags that he had been carrying on his back and placed them
before her. One contained flour, another rice, pulses, a sheep’s tail
and fat. He said to me, ‘Set off into this desert, Zayd; gather up
whatever thorns and wormwood you can find, and return quickly.’
I went off in search of wood. ʿUmar took up a cup and fetched some
water; then he washed the rice and pulses and put them in the pot.
He added some of the sheep’s tail and fat, and with the flour he made
a large round of bread. I returned with the wood. With his own hand

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

ʿUmar cooked the contents of the pot, and he placed the round of
bread beneath the fire.
When both the bread and the pot were ready, ʿUmar filled a cup
with broth. Once it had cooled, he asked the woman to wake up her
children, so that they could eat. The woman woke the little ones and
ʿUmar placed the food in front of them. He, meanwhile, withdrew,
spread out his prayer rug and occupied himself in prayer. After
an hour had passed, he looked up: the woman and her children
had finished eating, and the children were playing with their mother.
ʿUmar rose and said, ‘Now, woman; pick up your children. I shall
carry the bags and Zayd can bring the pot and cup, so that we can
bring you home.’ And this they did. With her children the woman
entered the house designated for her use, and ʿUmar put down the
bags. When he was on the point of leaving, he said to the woman, ‘Be
humane; and from now on do not invoke God against ʿUmar –
because ʿUmar does not have the capacity to withstand the punish-
ment and retribution of God, may He be exalted and glorified, and,
since he cannot know what’s hidden (ghayb), he cannot know the
condition of every person. Eat what I have brought you. When it has
all gone, let me know so that I can give you more.’

Story
They say that one day, while Moses, upon him be peace, was still the
shepherd of the prophet Shuʿayb, upon him be peace, and had not yet
received divine inspiration, he had led a flock of sheep to graze.75 By
chance a sheep became separated from the rest of the flock. Moses sought
to return the sheep to the flock. The little sheep hurtled off into the
desert. When she could no longer see the other sheep, the errant sheep
became fearful and kept running ahead. For some two or three
farsangs Moses chased after the sheep, until the creature ran out of
strength, fell down in exhaustion and could not get up. Moses caught
up with the sheep and was moved to compassion for her. ‘O unfortunate
one’, he said, ‘Why are you fleeing, and of whom are you afraid?’ When

75
According to Qurʾanic narratives, the Arabian prophet Shuʿayb was sent to Madyan
(Midian) (Q 7: 85; 11: 84; 29: 36). Moses reached Midian, where he helped two women
to water their flocks; the women’s father, an elderly man, married Moses to one of his
daughters and hired him to tend his flocks (Q 28: 22–8). The elderly man, unnamed in the
Qurʾanic narrative, is identified in later exegetical tradition as either Yathrā (Jethro,
father-in-law of Moses, who, according to biblical narrative, tends his father-in-law’s
flock; see Exodus 3: 1, 4: 18, 18: 1) or as Shuʿayb (see Schö ck, ‘Moses’, 421).

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 Part II Texts

he saw that the sheep had no strength left to walk, he picked her up and
carried her on his shoulders, all the way back to the flock. When the sheep
caught sight of the flock, her heart quickened and began to throb with joy.
Moses promptly let her down from his shoulders, and she rushed into the
midst of the flock. God Almighty summoned the angels of the heavens,
and said to them, ‘Did you see the human kindness (khuluq) that My
servant displayed towards that dumb sheep, and how, because of the
trouble that he took on her behalf, he did her no harm, but rather treated
her with mercy? By My glory, I shall raise him up, make him the recipient
of My speech (kalı̄ m), grant him prophethood and send him a Book; in this
manner, he shall be remembered and talked about for as long as the world
endures.’ Then He conferred all these miracles (karā mat-hā ) upon him.76

A Story on This Theme

In the city of Marv al-Rū dh lived a man called Raʾı̄ s-i Hā jjı̄ .77 He was
˙
a respected municipal leader (raʾı̄ s) and he possessed great wealth,
including many estates and farms. During his time there was no one
more esteemed or more powerful in the whole of Khurasan. He had
served Sultan Mahmū d and Sultan Masʿū d, and indeed, I myself
˙
encountered him. In the beginning, when he was young, he was
extremely oppressive: he practised torture and interrogation, he over-
turned families and there was no one more ruthless or more filled with
contempt than he. Later, however, he woke up (bı̄ dā rı̄ yā ft).78 He desisted
from oppression and harming people, and began to busy himself with
good works, caring for the poor and constructing bridges and ribā ts.79 He
˙

76
The reference to Moses as God’s kalı̄ m alludes to Qurʾanic descriptions of God’s
speaking to Moses (kallamahu rabbuhu, 7: 143; qā la yā Mū sā innı̄ stafaytuka ʿalā l-nā s bi-
risā latı̄ wa-bi-kalā mı̄ fa-khudh mā ā taytuka wa-kun min al-shā kirı̄ n˙,˙7: 144); on the basis of
these passages and other Qurʾanic texts (Q 4: 164; see also 20: 12; 79: 16), Moses is
known by the epithet kalı̄ m Allā h, ‘the one to whom God spoke’. The Qurʾan also refers
to Moses’s receipt of divine revelation in the form of the Book (kitā b), as well as the
‘criterion’ (furqā n) and ‘pages’ (suhuf); see Schö ck, ‘Moses’.
˙ ˙
77
Marv al-Rū dh (‘Marv on the River’) lay on the Murghā b River in Khurasan, five days’
journey above the larger city of Marv (al-Shā hijā n) (Yā qū t, Muʿjam al-buldā n, V: 112).
78
I have provided a literal translation of Nizā m al-Mulk’s evocative phrase in this instance of its
˙
first usage. In subsequent passages, I have employed various phrases, including (following
Darke) variants of the term ‘enlightenment’ to evoke Raʾı̄ s-i Hā jjı̄ ’s transformation.
79 ˙
A term used in a great many different senses according to context; in this case, probably
a caravanserai, also known as a khā n, an institution that provided accommodation and
services for travellers, especially merchants, and their animals; see Chabbi and Rabbat,
‘Ribā t’.
˙

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

set many of his slaves free, paid the debts of the destitute, clothed the
orphans and provided funds for pilgrims and ghazis. He constructed
a Friday mosque in his own city and another fine Friday mosque in
Nishapur.
In the reign of Amir Chaghri (r. 431–52/1040–60, in Khurasan), may
God have mercy on him, after he had completed numerous good works,
Raʾı̄ s-i Hā jjı̄ went on the pilgrimage. When he reached Baghdad, he stayed
˙
there for nearly a month. During this time, one day he left the house and
went to the market. In a passageway he saw a small dog covered in scabs;
the dog’s limbs had lost all their fur and the wretched animal was plainly in
great distress. Raʾı̄ s-i Hā jjı̄ ’s heart melted when he saw the dog. He said,
˙
‘This animal too is a living being created by God, may He be exalted and
glorified.’ He then instructed a servant to bring two mann of bread and
a rope; he himself stayed right there until the servant returned. He broke
the bread into pieces with his own hand, and he threw it piece by piece in
front of the dog until the little animal felt well fed and secure. Next
Raʾı̄ s-i Hā jjı̄ threw the rope round the dog’s neck and handed it to the
˙
servant, whom he instructed to bring the dog to the house where he had
taken up his lodging. Then he too left the market immediately.
When he got home, he ordered his servant to purchase three mann of
tail-fat, to melt it straight away, and to bring the clarified fat to him. He
took a piece of wood and twisted a piece of cloth and wool round the top
of it. Then he got up and approached the dog. With his own hand he
dipped the rag and wool into the dish of clarified fat and rubbed it over
the dog’s limbs until his body was fully covered. Then he said to the
servant: ‘You are no more respectable than I am, and I feel no sense of
shortcoming or shame at what I have done. You, who are my servant,
should likewise feel no shame. I wish you to attach a nail to the wall and
tie the dog to it. Give him a mann of bread in the morning and another
mann in the evening, every day. Twice each day, rub the dog’s body
with clarified fat, and also give him scraps and bones left over from the
table, until he gets better.’ The servant did these things for two weeks,
after which time that little dog threw off the mange and began to grow
new fur, and he became nicely corpulent. He became so accustomed to
the house that he could not have been turned out of it even if threatened
with a stick. Raʾı̄ s-i Hā jjı̄ duly proceeded with the caravan and per-
˙
formed the pilgrimage. He dispensed a great deal of money on the way.
He returned to Marv al-Rū dh and some years later he died. Some time
passed.

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 Part II Texts

One night, a renunciant (zā hidı̄ ) saw him in a dream. In the dream,
Raʾı̄ s-i Hā jjı̄ was seated on a Burā q, surrounded to the front, back and on
˙
both sides by houris and young men, who smiled as they led him gently to
one of the gardens of Paradise.80 The renunciant ran towards him and
greeted him. Raʾı̄ s-i Hā jjı̄ drew up his reins and returned the greeting.
˙
The renunciant said to him: ‘O so-and-so, you used to be cruel, ruthless
and oppressive in your treatment of people. Then you became enlight-
ened, and you not only desisted from cruelty towards people, but also
performed more good works, and gave more charitable donations
(sadaqā t) and wealth to the deserving, than anyone else. Moreover, you
˙
performed the pilgrimage of Islam. Tell me, by which specific deeds and
acts of obedience did you attain your present elevated degree?’ He said:
‘O renunciant, I have been astonished at the workings of God. It is fitting
that you too should draw a lesson (ʿibrat), and not take your spiritual
refuge (takya) to constitute obedience, nor allow yourself to be deceived
by much worship.81 Know that as a result of all those acts of disobedience
that I committed in my youth, my place had been prepared in Hell; all the
acts of obedience and all the good works that I performed subsequently
were to no avail. As I faced the agonies of death, all my prayers and my
fasting were rejected; all my acts of obedience, my charitable donations
and good works, the mosques, ribā ts and bridges that I had built, and my
˙
pilgrimage were rendered worthless and useless. I fell into despair; I gave
up hope of Paradise and resigned my heart to the punishment of Hell.
Then I heard a voice, which said in my ear, “You were one of the dogs of
the world, so we have considered you in relation to dogs. Accordingly, we
regard all your acts of disobedience as cancelled; we consign you to
Paradise and preserve you from Hell because you threw off the cloak of
arrogance from your neck and showed mercy to that mangy dog.”
I beheld the arrival, like lightning, of the angels of mercy; they rescued
me from the hands of the angels of punishment and they brought me to

80
Burā q is the name of the flying steed that, having carried previous prophets, bore the
Prophet Muhammad on his nocturnal journey (isrā ʾ) from Mecca to Jerusalem, from
˙
which the Prophet ascended to the heavens (his miʿrā j) (see Gruber, ‘al-Burā q’). Nizā m
˙
al-Mulk’s phrasing implies that the term burā q designated not only a specific animal but
a genus of such celestial creatures, here associated with Paradise and its denizens.
81
The term takya here probably designates a khā naqā h, a communal residential institution
affiliated with a Sufi order; these institutions flourished in Nizā m al-Mulk’s lifetime and
˙
often benefited from royal or powerful patronage, including the generous support of the
vizier (al-Safadı̄ , al-Wā fı̄ bi-l-wafayā t, II: 78).
˙

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

Paradise. Of all my acts of obedience, this one act alone brought me relief
in that time of hopelessness.’
I (your servant) have related this story so that the Lord of the
World, may God perpetuate his sovereignty, should know how fine
a quality it is to be merciful. Know that these individuals, the
protagonists of the previous stories, showed mercy to a sheep and
a dog respectively, and they attained a high degree and lofty station
in both worlds. How fine a reward, it must therefore be inferred, will
God Almighty grant to a person who shows mercy to a Muslim who
has fallen into distress, and who extends his hand to him! If the King
of the Age is God-fearing and mindful of the lasting consequences of
his actions, he will manage to be just in every case, and the just
person always succeeds in being merciful and kind. When the king is
of this sort, his agents and his troops will resemble him, and they will
imitate his conduct. In consequence, God’s creatures will rest in ease,
and the rulers and their officials shall enjoy the fruits of this state in
both worlds, if God wills.

Section on This Topic

Enlightened kings (pā dshā hā n-i bı̄ dā r) have always made it their custom
to respect the elderly and experienced, and to retain individuals who are
skilled in affairs and tested in battle by placing each one in a suitable
position and station. Whenever an important matter – concerning the
welfare and prosperity of the kingdom, a person’s promotion or dismissal,
the construction of monumental buildings, the conclusion of an alliance,
the seeking of intelligence regarding a foreign king, investigating matters
of religion and the like – required urgent attention, the enlightened kings
of the past formulated procedures (tadbı̄ r-hā ) in consultation with indi-
viduals who were knowledgeable and experienced. Similarly, when an
enemy or a battle loomed, they always deliberated with men who had seen
battle and were knowledgeable in military matters, so that the situation
would reach the desired conclusion. If fighting broke out, they would
send into battle a commander who had fought in many wars, broken
enemy lines and seized fortresses, and who possessed a wide reputation
for courage. To ensure that no error should occur, the kings of the past
used to send with this individual – notwithstanding the latter’s military
competence – a senior man of worldly experience who had accomplished
many things. In these times, it seems to be the case that whenever an
important matter arises, it is inexperienced persons – children and

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 Part II Texts

youths – who are appointed, and errors occur regularly. In this regard, if
at any point due caution were to be exercised in these matters, the course
adopted would be more prudent and less dangerous.82

Section on the Topic of Titles (Alqā b)

Moreover, titles have proliferated; and whenever anything becomes
abundant, it diminishes in value and its significance does not
endure.83 Regarding titles, kings and caliphs have always exercised
restraint in awarding them, because one of the principles of the king-
dom (nā mū s-hā -yi mamlakat) is to preserve the correspondence among
each person’s title, rank and degree. When the merchant (mardı̄ bā zā rı̄ )
and the local landowner (dihqā n) bear the same titles as the appointed
governor (ʿamı̄ dı̄ ) and the notable (maʿrū fı̄ ), there is no difference
between the two; and the position of the prominent and the obscure
might as well be the same.84 An imam, a scholar or a qadi might quite
properly carry the title Muʿı̄ n al-Dı̄ n.85 But if the title Muʿı̄ n al-Dı̄ n
also belongs to a member of the Turkish military corps, whether
a trainee or a ranking officer (shā gird-i turkı̄ yā kadkhudā -yi turkı̄ ) –
a person without the slightest idea of religious learning or legal know-
ledge, and perhaps one unable even to read and write – then what
difference in rank is there between the learned and the ignorant,
between judges and Turkish military trainees? In both cases the title
is the same, and this situation is far from appropriate.
Similarly, the Turkish amirs have always borne titles such as Husā m
˙
al-Dawla, Sayf al-Dawla, Yamı̄ n al-Dawla, Shams al-Dawla and the like,
v
while statesmen, governors and officials (kh ā jagā n va-ʿamı̄ dā n va-
mutasarrifā n) have always borne titles of the kind ʿAmı̄ d al-Mulk, Zahı̄ r
˙ ˙
al-Mulk, Qiwā m al-Mulk, Nizā m al-Mulk, Kamā l al-Mulk and suchlike.
˙

82
Nizā m al-Mulk recapitulates a theme that al-Thaʿā libı̄ had explored in his litany of royal
˙
calamities (see above, Text 16).
83
On titles and the history of their use in Iran, see Ašraf, ‘Alqā b va ʿAnā wı̄ n’.
84
The meaning of the term dihqā n changed very considerably over the centuries and varied
according to region. In Sasanian times a station among the lesser nobility, the title
retained its significance considerably longer in eastern than in western Iran; Nizā m al-
˙
Mulk’s father was described as a dihqā n. In the present context, Nizā m al-Mulk seems to
˙
ascribe, at most, a middling status to the dihqā n. On the changing meanings of dihqā n and
the transfer of the dihqā n’s functions to groups bearing other names, see Paul, ‘Dihqā n’,
and Paul, ‘Where Did the Dihqā ns Go?’.
85
Among its several referents, the word imā m probably appears here, as at the beginning of
the chapter, as an honorific title for a respected religious authority.

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

Now the distinction has disappeared: Turks assume the titles of Tajiks
and Tajiks assume the titles of Turks, and none considers it wrong.
Titles, however, have always been held dear.

Story
When he acceded to the sultanate, Sultan Mah mū d requested
˙
a title from the Commander of the Faithful al-Qā dir billā h. He
was duly awarded the title Yamı̄ n al-Dawla. Subsequently
Mahmū d went on to seize the provinces of Nimruz and
˙
Khurasan, countless cities and provinces in Hindustan (for he
went as far as Somnat and made off with its idol),86 as well as
Samarqand and Khvarazm. Furthermore, when he reached
Kuhistan of Iraq, he took possession of Rayy, Isfahan, Hamadan
and Tabaristan. Having achieved these conquests, Mahmū d sent an
˙
envoy to the Commander of the Faithful. Laden with an abundance
of presents and tokens of Mahmū d’s loyal service (hadiyyeh va-
˙
khidmat-i bisyā r), the envoy conveyed to Caliph al-Qā dir the sul-
tan’s request for more titles. His request was not answered. It is
said that Mahmū d sent envoys, each bearing tokens of his service,
˙
more than ten times, but to no avail.
The khaqan of Samarqand, meanwhile, had been given three titles: Zahı̄ r
˙
al-Dawla, Muʿı̄ n Khalı̄ fat Allā h and Malik al-Sharq va-l-Sı̄ n. This situ-
˙
ation had aroused Mahmū d’s envy. Once again, the sultan sent to the caliph
˙
an envoy with the following message, ‘I have made numerous conquests in
the lands of unbelief; the glory of Islam in Hindustan, Khurasan and Iraq
has been entrusted to me; I have seized Transoxiana; and I wield the sword
in your name. The khaqan, who is now one of my vassals and subordinates,
has been granted three titles, whereas I, having performed so many acts of
service and benevolence, have received only one.’87

86
In fact, Nizā m al-Mulk mentions a specific female divinity, Manā t, an ancient deity whose
˙
cult was established in pre-Islamic Arabia and who is mentioned in the Qurʾan (with al-
Lā t and al-ʿUzzā , Q 53: 19–20).
87
The title khaqan (from khagan, first meaning ‘supreme ruler’) is used in Persian sources of
the period and earlier in a variety of applications. Applied in a specific sense to the rulers
who bore the title when Muslim forces encountered them in the conquest of Central Asia,
and to the rulers of Turkic confederations and states, including the Karakhanids (see
Kutadgu bilig), the term also denoted, in the Seljuk period, certain local rulers (as in
Nizā m al-Mulk’s narrative). The term was sometimes used in a looser sense to designate
˙
a Chinese or a Tibetan ruler. The wives and female relatives of the khaqan carried the title
khatun (see below); the Seljuks and Mongols used the title khatun for the women of the
royal court (de la Vaissiè re, ‘Khagan’).

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 Part II Texts

The caliph replied, ‘A title represents a bestowal of honour (tashrı̄ f)

upon a man. By its bestowal, that person’s noble standing (sharaf) is
increased, and henceforth the denizens of the world know the individual
by this title. Bear in mind that people possess the names that their
mothers and fathers give them, as well as the patronymics (sing. kunyat)
that they adopt for themselves; in some cases, an individual might also
possess a title (laqab) that the king has awarded to him. Anything in
addition to these three names is superfluous (hashw) and false (makhra-
˙
qat), and no man of wisdom exposes himself to the false and preposterous
(muhā l). A small boy is called by his (first) name (nā m), which brings
˙
pleasure to his father, because his parents chose that name for him. When
the boy becomes a man, able to distinguish between good and bad,
through his rational intellect and knowledge he chooses a patronymic
for himself; as people have said, “Patronymics accord with aspirations
(al-kunā bi-l-munā ).” Then, on account of his maturity, people begin to
call him by that kunyat, and this practice makes him glad. Later, if he
displays aptitude and skill (hunar) in matters pertaining to the kingdom
and the community (millat), the king will grant him a commensurate title
as a mark of honour; this title distinguishes him among his peers and
favours him over them. So the title that the king or caliph gives to a man
is superior to the name that his mother and father have given him, and to
the patronymic that he has chosen for himself. On account of his stature,
dignity and high rank, then, people will call this person by the name that
the king has given him, namely, his title. Any conceivable title in addition
to these three names is pointless.’
The caliph continued, ‘Now the khaqan knows very little. He is
a Turk, the ruler of a remote province (sā hib-taraf).88 Taking into
˙ ˙ ˙
account his lack of knowledge and negligible reputation (nā mū s),
I granted his request. You, by contrast, are well versed in all branches
of knowledge, and, furthermore, you are in close proximity to us. In your
case, the superiority of our intention towards you and of our faith in you,

88
The term taraf (pl. atrā f) designated a province or region on the margins of the imperial
˙ ˙
domain, often under the governance of a vassal or virtually independent ruler. The
belittling use of the term ‘Turk’, here and elsewhere in the chapter, suggests a person
lacking in education. The protagonist of the story, Mahmū d, was of Turkish ethnicity,
˙
and the recipient of Siyar al-mulū k, Malikshā h, was Turkish as well; in addition, Nizā m
˙
al-Mulk identifies the ‘literate and well-read’ female protagonist as Turkish. The vizier’s
disparagement of the khaqan was linked to the figure’s distant location and his proximity
to the steppe; Nizā m al-Mulk’s use of the label ‘Turk’ linked these factors to the khaqan’s
lack of education˙ and cultivated manners.

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

and the clarity of our confidence in you and in your religion are evident;
there is no need for you to request from us something that people would
use in speaking and record in writing, or for you to entertain the same
desires that people of little knowledge expect.’ When Mahmū d heard
˙
these words, he was taken aback.
There was a woman who used to come constantly to the women’s
quarters of Mahmū d’s palace. Of Turkish parentage, literate and well
˙
read, proficient in several languages and highly articulate, this woman
used to converse with Mahmū d. She would amuse and entertain him,
˙
and she read him Persian books and stories; she was, indeed, on the most
familiar terms with him. One day, she was sitting in Mahmū d’s presence
˙
and engaged in pleasantries with him. Mahmū d declared: ‘However
˙
much I strive to persuade the caliph to increase the number of my titles,
he does not increase them. The khaqan, who is subordinate to me, has
received numerous titles from the caliph, yet I have been given only one.
I need someone to gain access to the khaqan’s treasury and to steal – or to
acquire in some way or other – the document of titular appointment
(ʿahdnā meh) that the caliph sent to the khaqan, and to bring that docu-
ment to me. Whatever the person who brought me this document should
demand of me I should readily give to him.’
The woman replied, ‘O lord, I shall go and procure that document; but
you shall have to give me whatever I ask for.’ Mahmū d agreed. She said,
˙
‘I do not have enough money of my own to fulfil and accomplish the
lord’s desire. If I, your servant, am granted assistance from the treasury,
I shall accomplish the lord’s desire or die in the attempt.’ Mahmū d asked
˙
her to state her demands. She then received whatever she requested,
including money, goods, jewels, fine clothing, mounts, articles of exquis-
ite manufacture, wealth and provisions for the journey. This woman had
a fourteen-year-old son. She had entrusted the boy to a tutor for his
education (adab). Taking her son with her, the woman left Ghazna for
Kashghar. She bought some male slaves, who were Turkish, and some
female slaves, as well as large quantities of every commodity – fine goods,
musk, silk, cotton, tarqū b89 and the like – that had been imported from
˙
Cathay (Khutay) and the province of China. In the company of a group of
merchants, the woman and her son arrived in Uzgand [Özkent, in
Farghana], and from there journeyed on to the city of Samarqand.

89
Following Darke’s well-supported reading, Book of Government, 151 and 252, n. 6.

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After three days in Samarqand she stirred, and went to offer her
greetings to the khatun. She presented the khatun with a young
Turkish girl of exquisite beauty, as well as many pieces of the choice
merchandise imported from China and Cathay. The woman told the
khatun: 90 ‘My husband was a merchant. He travelled all over the world
and often used to take me with him. We were heading for Cathay. When
he got to Khotan he died. I returned. Upon my arrival in Kashghar,
I presented a token of my willing service (khidmatı̄ ) to the Khan of
Kashghar. I visited his khatun and told her that my husband had been
a servant of the Glorious Khaqan (khā qā n-i ajall), and that I was
a devoted attendant (parastā r) upon the khatun of the khaqan. I told
the khatun that I had been released and given to my late merchant
husband as his wife; that this young boy of mine was his child. Now,
I told her, my husband had died in Khotan, and I had been left with only
the small remaining portion of the capital given to him by the khatun and
the Glorious Khaqan. I told the khatun further that it was now my hope
that out of his justice and greatness, the Glorious Khaqan might extend
his hand in assistance to me, his khatun’s servant, and to this young
orphan, and that he might send us, in good company, on our way towards
Uzgand and Samarqand, so that we should speak well of him and praise
him, and pray on his behalf for as long as we remained alive.
‘The khatun [of Kashghar] spoke most graciously to us, and the Khan
did the same; both of them complimented us. They presented us with
a guide (daraqeh), and they wrote a letter to the Khan of Uzgand, asking
him to treat us well, and to send us on in good company towards
Samarqand. Now, having arrived in Samarqand, I surrender myself to
your dominion and dignity (dawlat va-hashmat-i shumā ). Today,
˙
nowhere else in the entire world enjoys the justice and equity found in
this city. My husband always used to say, “If by some way or another
I manage to get to Samarqand, I shall never leave that city.” I have been
drawn here by your name and reputation. If you consider it expedient to
accept me and to extend the hand of assistance and lordship over me, so

90
What follows is a micro-story embedded in a secondary story. The protagonist, an
unnamed Turkish woman, narrates an account that resembles the events in which she
takes part. There are two khatuns and two khaqans, one of each in Kashghar and one of
each in Samarqand. The protagonist-narrator relates an account of her experience with
the khatun and khaqan of Kashghar to the khatun and khan of Samarqand. This narrative
technique, involving multiple layers of narration, creates a multiply distancing effect for
the narrator.

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

that I can settle here, sell such trinkets as I have, and purchase a residence
and estate sufficient in size to suffice for my subsistence, then I shall
continue to offer you my loyal service, and I shall continue to educate this
young boy, in the hope that by your blessings God, may He be exalted
and glorified, might grant him good fortune.’
The khatun [of Samarqand] said, ‘Do not worry in the slightest. I shall
refuse you nothing in terms of any possible kindness and attention.
I myself shall provide you with a residence and a piece of land, in
accordance with your wishes. And I shall not permit that you should be
absent from my presence for even a short amount of time. I shall tell the
khaqan to grant you whatever you should find needful and whatever you
desire.’ The woman pledged her service to the khatun, and said, ‘Now
you are my lord; I shall not recognise anyone else. You should now
intercede for me before the Glorious Khaqan, present me to him and
explain my situation to him, so that I, your servant, may hear also the
words of the lord khaqan.’ The khatun replied, ‘I shall bring you before
him any time you wish.’ The woman said, ‘I shall come tomorrow to
pledge my service.’ The khatun replied to confirm her extreme satisfac-
tion with this proposal.
The next day the woman came to the khatun’s residence. When the
khaqan had left his audience hall and met the khatun in the palace, the
khatun mentioned the woman’s circumstances to him. He ordered that
the woman should be summoned to his presence. The woman duly
appeared and pledged her service to the khaqan. She brought with her
a Turkish slave-boy, a fine horse and all kinds of items selected from her
collection of choice gifts, and she said, ‘I, your servant, have related
a little of my condition to the khatun. In sum, when my husband died –
may my lord live forever! – his trading associate said that I should not
bring back any of the items bound for Cathay; instead, he took them on
towards Cathay. Of whatever goods remained, the Khan of China
[Khotan] took some, and I gave some to the Khan of Kashghar;
I expended some during our travels, and finally I am left with a few
trinkets, a certain number of animals and this orphan. If the Glorious
Khaqan will accept me as a devoted attendant, as the magnanimous
khatun has accepted me, I should hope to spend the rest of my life in
your esteemed service.’
The khaqan responded with an abundance of favourable words and
granted his acceptance. After that, every two or three days when the
woman attended upon the khatun, she would present her with a pair of

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 Part II Texts

ruby rings, or a turquoise, or a veil of gold and silver thread, or some

other costly item from her supply of choice articles, and she would relate
pleasing stories and tales. She continued to treat the khaqan’s khatun in
this manner, and the latter soon could not be content without the
woman’s presence even for a single day.
At the same time, the khatun and khaqan began to feel abashed and
embarrassed, since whenever they presented the woman with a village
or an estate that belonged to the royal domains (khā ss), she refused to
˙˙
accept it. Every few days she would leave the residence in which they
had accommodated her and set out to visit a number of villages, three,
four or five farsangs away from the city, and on each occasion she
would announce her intention to purchase an estate. She would spend
three or four days in each place; then she would find some fault, offer
an excuse, refuse to buy it, and return to the city. When, missing her
presence, the khatun and khaqan sent someone to summon her, and to
ask what had prevented her from attending upon them, they received
the reply, ‘She is buying a property in such-and-such a village; she left
some two or three days ago.’ This report delighted the khatun and
khaqan, who inferred that the woman had settled in the location in
question. For a period of six months, the woman, in her service to the
khatun and khaqan, continued to behave in this manner. Several times
the khatun reported to the woman the khaqan’s constant expressions
of embarrassment over the woman’s many services to them and the
many days on which she presented them with precious items, while
she refused to accept anything that they presented to her. ‘I have never
seen a woman with such graciousness (nı̄ kū ʾı̄ ),’ he would say; ‘What, in
the end, should we do for her?’ The khatun would add that she herself
felt a thousand times more ashamed than the khaqan. The woman
replied, ‘For me, there is no greater favour than an audience with my
lords; since it is through them that God, may He be exalted and
glorified, has appointed my daily sustenance. When a need befalls
me I shall ask; I shall not hesitate to presume upon your magnanimity.’
All the while, she was tending her horses, and secretly giving whatever
gold, jewels, carpets and robes she had to a merchant whose commerce
entailed his regular travel between Samarqand and Ghazna. On each
occasion she dispatched five riders and five fine horses towards the
road to Balkh and Tirmidh, and she instructed each rider to take up
lodging, with his horse, at a given stopping place, and to wait there
until her arrival.

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

One day, she appeared before the khatun while the khaqan was sitting
with her. She praised and extolled them both in fulsome terms. Then she
said, ‘Today I have come to you with a petition. Yet I do not know if
I should pronounce it and ask for it, or not.’ The khatun said, ‘I am
surprised to hear this question from you. By rights, by this point we
ought to have fulfilled a hundred requests of yours; so speak: what is your
request?’ The woman replied: ‘You know that in all the world I have only
a young son, and that my heart is wholly devoted to him. I am seeing to
his education. He has learnt the entire Qurʾan, and I have entrusted him
to a man learned in the literary arts (adı̄ b), so that my son will acquire
a literary education (adab), and be able to read treatises (risā leh) in Arabic
and Persian. My hope is that by virtue of your favour (dawlat), my lords,
he should find good fortune. After the Book of God and the Prophet, no
written text on the face of the earth is superior to the correspondence that
the Commander of the Faithful sends to kings. The secretary who writes
these documents is more skilled than any other secretary, and the phrases
and meanings (lafz va-maʿnā ) that he employs in this correspondence are
˙
the very finest of words. If it comports with the judgement of my lords,
might they allow me, for three or four days, to borrow the document
known as the caliph’s charter of titular appointment (ʿahd), so that this
child of mine might read it a few times with his teacher? If he remembers
only five expressions out of the whole document, it will be of great value,
and perhaps by its blessings he will become fortunate.’
The khaqan and khatun said, ‘What is this request that you are asking
of us? Why do you not request a city or district so that we can grant it to
you? Up until this moment you have requested nothing at all, and now
that you are finally asking for something, you have requested something
of which we have fifty of its kind, all rotting away beneath the earth and
dust in our treasury. What value can there be in a piece of paper? We shall
give you all of these documents, if you wish.’ The woman replied, ‘Just
this one letter that the caliph sent to you will be perfect.’ They ordered
a servant to go with her to the treasury and to give her whichever letter
she requested.
The woman duly went to the treasury, took the charter (ʿahdnā meh)
and went home. The next day she called for her horses to be saddled and
her mules loaded, and she announced that she was going to such-and-
such a village to buy property and that she would be there for a week.
They set off straight away and arrived in the village. Before her depart-
ure, the woman had procured a letter of safe-conduct (gushā deh-nā meh-ı̄ ).

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 Part II Texts

This document stipulated that throughout every province of Samarqand

and Bukhara, wherever this woman and her party should arrive for
purposes of purchasing a property, acquiring an estate or taking up
residence, their dignity was to be guaranteed. Governmental agents,
officials and municipal authorities were required to treat them well, and
not to withhold any possible assistance from them; they were to supply
the woman and her party generously with whatever they might request
and to grant them accommodation.
Then, in the middle of the night, she set off (kū ch kard) from that
village. She passed within three farsangs of the city of Kish [also Kishsh,
a town on the route between Samarqand and Tirmidh], then in five days’
time she arrived in Tirmidh. Wherever she arrived, when she needed
anything she presented the letter of safe-conduct, and she was provided
regularly with fresh horses. The khaqan remained unaware of the
woman’s departure until she had crossed the Oxus and arrived in
Balkh, and he suffered not a moment’s anxiety regarding that charter.
The woman, meanwhile, proceeded from Balkh to Ghazna, where she
placed the charter before Sultan Mahmū d.
˙
Mahmū d dispatched a man who was learned and skilled in debate to
˙
deliver the document, as well as many tokens of his service, to the
Commander of the Faithful al-Qā dir billā h. Mahmū d also sent a letter
˙
pledging his service. In this letter he related: ‘A servant of mine was
walking through the market of Samarqand. He arrived at a mosque where
a teacher (muʾaddib) was running an elementary school (kuttā b) and
teaching something to the children. My servant saw the Commander of
the Faithful’s letter in the hands of these young children. Counting it of
little value or significance, the children were tossing it back and forth and
rolling it along the ground. The servant recognised the document and
was moved to rescue it from such mistreatment. He produced a quantity
of raisins and gave them to the children, from whom he attained and
bought the document, at a price fit for a tattered piece of paper. He
returned to Ghazna with the document and placed it before me, your
servant; and I have now sent it forward to the Lord of the World. If you
were to look favourably upon your servant, with all his acts of benevo-
lence and service, and to award titles to him, he would hold those
documents more dearly than his own eyesight; he would deem them as
precious as the crown on his head, and place them in the most exalted
position in his treasury. Despite his amply attested servitude and his
expectation of titles, you withhold them from your servant; yet you award

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

titles to persons who do not acknowledge the worth of the caliph’s

decrees (farmā n-hā ), nor the honour that their bestowal represents;
instead, these persons display the kind of contempt that we have just
described, and they consider the titles granted to them to be worth next
to nothing.’
When this scholar reached Baghdad, he delivered Mahmū d’s presents
˙
and presented his letters to the caliph. The caliph was deeply astonished,
and he ordered a letter of rebuke to be written to the khaqan. Mahmū d’s
˙
envoy then remained at the caliph’s door for six months. Continually he
sent petitions, seeking titles of behalf of Mahmū d, into the interior of the
˙
palace. He obtained no definitive answer, until one day he composed
a request for a legal opinion (fatvā ). In this request, he posited: ‘If a king
were to appear in the remote regions of the world, and if this king were to
wield the sword for the sake of the glory of Islam, to make war against the
infidels and idolators who are the enemies of God and His Prophet, to
turn idol-temples into mosques, and to convert the abode of unbelief into
the abode of Islam; and if this king were a great distance away from the
Commander of the Faithful, separated from him by vast bodies of water,
high mountains and fearsome deserts; and if the king were sometimes
unable to report events and occurrences to the caliph in every instance;
and if the king’s requests to the caliph went unfulfilled – would it be
permissible for this king to install a descendant of the Prophet (sharı̄ f) as
the caliph’s deputy, and to follow him, or not?’ Mahmū d’s envoy
˙
entrusted this fatvā to someone who conveyed it and delivered it to the
Chief Judge of Baghdad. The judge read it, and determined that it would
indeed be permissible. The scholar took a copy of this legal opinion and
placed it inside a petition, addressed to the caliph, in which he had
written, ‘Your servant’s stay has grown too long. Mahmū d, with
˙
a hundred thousand emblems of servitude and service, requests a few
titles; the Lord of the World has withheld them. He has not counten-
anced the fulfilment of the ghazi king’s hopes, and the latter, on this
account, suffers distress. If, in the future, Mahmū d were to implement
˙
this legal opinion and dispensation, obtained through the religious law
and in the hand of the Chief Judge of Baghdad, would he be excused?’
The caliph, upon reading the petition and fatvā , immediately sent his
Chief Chamberlain to the vizier. Instructing the chamberlain, the caliph
said to him, ‘Summon Mahmū d’s envoy this instant. Reassure him;
˙
prepare the robes of honour, banners and titles that we shall command;
and send him away satisfied.’

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 Part II Texts

(a) (b)

Figure 4 The obverse and reverse sides of a Ghaznavid dinar, struck at

Ghazna and dated 414/1023–4. Fig. 4a: The name of the caliph al-Qā dir
appears on the obverse. Fig. 4b: The titles Yamı̄ n al-Dawla wa-Amı̄ n al-
Milla and Sultan Mahmū d’s patronymic, Abū l-Qā sim, appear on the
˙
reverse.
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Islamic Coin HCR14556.
© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

For all of Mahmū d’s goodwill, for all of his pleasing services and all of
˙
his efforts, and notwithstanding the scholar’s quick-wittedness, he
received only one additional title – Amı̄ n al-Milla; and for as long as
Mahmū d lived, his titles remained Yamı̄ n al-Dawla and Amı̄ n al-Milla
˙
(Fig. 4).91
Today, if the least of persons is assigned fewer than seven or ten titles,
he is roused to anger and resentment.
The Samanids, who for countless years were the greatest kings of the age
and who ruled over the entirety of Transoxiana, as well as over Khurasan,
Iraq, Khvarazm, Nimruz and Ghazna, each held only a single title. Nū h (=
˙
Nū h II b. Mansū r I, r. 365–87/976–97) was called Shā hā nshā h [al-Amı̄ r
˙ ˙
al-Rażı̄ ]; Nū h’s father, Mansū r (= Mansū r I b. Nū h I, r. 350–65/961–76),
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
was called Amı̄ r-i Sadı̄ d; Mansū r’s father, Nū h (= Nū h I b. Nasr II, r. 331–
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
43/943–54), held the title Amı̄ r-i Hamı̄ d; Nū h’s father, Nasr (= Nasr II
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
91
In fact, Mahmū d received several titles, on different occasions, from the caliph; but only
˙
these two appear in his coinage (see Fig. 4). The sultan’s preoccupation with titles is
attested elsewhere (Bosworth, Ghaznavids, 44, 46, 52–3).

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

b. Ahmad II, r. 301–31/914–43), was called Amı̄ r-i Saʿı̄ d; Ismā ʿı̄ l
˙
b. Ahmad (= Ismā ʿı̄ l b. Ahmad I, r. 279–95/892–907) was called
˙ ̄ ˙
Amı̄ r-i ʿAdil, and in the historical accounts he is known as Amı̄ r-i Mā żı̄ ;
Ahmad (= Ahmad II b. Ismā ʿı̄ l, r. 295–301/907–14) acquired the title
˙ ˙
Amı̄ r-i Shahı̄ d, and so on.92
Titles must suit the persons who hold them. The titles of judges,
leading authorities (aʾimmeh) and scholars, learned in the religion of the
Chosen Prophet, upon him be peace, should be of this kind: Majd al-Dı̄ n,
Sharaf al-Islā m, Sayf al-Sunna, Zayn al-Sharı̄ ʿa, Fakhr al-ʿUlamā ʾ and
the like, since the domains of religion, Islam, law, authenticated
Prophetic example (sunnat) and knowledge are closely linked with the
religious scholars and the leading religious authorities (aʾimmeh). If
anyone who is not a scholar should adopt one of these titles for himself,
the king and indeed all persons of discernment and insight should not
permit it; they should, in fact, punish that person, so that everybody will
become mindful of his own rank (andā zeh) and station (martabat).
According to the same principle, the titles of military generals
(sipahsā lā rā n), military commanders, holders of land-grants (muqtaʿā n,
˙
holders of iqtā ʿ) and governmental agents have been linked with the state
˙
(dawlat); for example, Sayf al-Dawla, Husā m al-Dawla, Zahı̄ r al-Dawla,
˙ ˙
Jamā l al-Dawla, Shams al-Dawla and the like.93 Similarly, the titles of
local governors (ʿamı̄ d), tax-officials (ʿā milā n) and worthy fiscal agents
(mutasarrifā n) have been linked with the realm (mulk); examples include
˙

92
In the MS and in Darke’s published text of 1962, this list of Samanid titles contains a few
errors, probably due to a copyist. I have emended the translated version of the text to
reflect the correct titles, as follows: Nasr II b. Ahmad (r. 301–31/914–43), who appears in
˙ ˙
the text with the title Amı̄ r-i Rashı̄ d, in fact bore the title al-Amı̄ r al-Saʿı̄ d (see above,
Text 16); and I take the reference to Ahmad, who appears in the text with the title
Amı̄ r-i Saʿı̄ d, to apply properly to Ahmad ˙ II b. Ismā ʿı̄ l (r. 295–301/907–14); it was
˙
Ahmad’s son Nasr II who acquired the title supplied in the text, while Ahmad II became
˙ ˙ ˙
known posthumously (after his assassination) as al-Amı̄ r al-Shahı̄ d.
93
The iqtā ʿ, properly the assignment to an individual holder (muqtaʿ) of the revenues
˙ ˙
produced within a given village or district, was a major feature of the social and economic
life of the Seljuk period (see above, section 2.1). Nizā m al-Mulk devoted an entire chapter
˙
of part I of Siyar al-mulū k to the topic of the holders of iqtā ʿ (chapter V, 43–55 = Darke,
Book of Government, 32–42); his discussion makes clear˙ that these muqtaʿā n not infre-
˙
quently treated these lands as if they owned them outright and had full authority over
their inhabitants. The position of the category in the present context indicates the high
status some muqtaʿā n clearly possessed in Nizā m al-Mulk’s later years. The institution of
˙ ˙
the iqtā ʿ, widespread within and beyond Iran, varied very considerably; a single individ-
˙
ual might hold more than one iqtā ʿ under different arrangements. See Lambton, ‘Eqtā ʿ’;
˙
the article includes a lengthy discussion of Nizā m al-Mulk’s treatment of the topic. ˙
˙

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 Part II Texts

ʿAmı̄ d al-Mulk, Nizā m al-Mulk, Kamā l al-Mulk, Sharaf al-Mulk, Shams

˙
al-Mulk and the like. It has never been the custom that Turkish amirs
should take upon themselves the titles of educated men in government
service (khvā jagā n).94 Titles that invoke religion (dı̄ n) and Islam should
be reserved for scholars, titles involving the state (dawlat) should be used
only for the amirs and titles entailing mulk should be awarded only to the
khvā jagā n. If anyone else should assume a title involving religion or
Islam, it should not be permitted. Moreover, the person should be
punished, so that other people will take warning (ʿibrat).
The main purpose of titles is to provide a means of identifying individ-
uals. For example, a hundred people might be seated in an assembly or
a gathering, and of that number there might be ten persons named
Muhammad. If someone were to call, ‘Muhammad!’, all ten Muhammads
˙ ˙ ˙
would be required to answer ‘Yes, here I am!’ (labbayk), for each one of
them would suppose that it was he who was being called.95 If, however, one
Muhammad were given the title Mukhtass, and another Muwaffaq, another
˙ ˙˙
Kā mil, another Kā fı̄ , another Rashı̄ d and so on, then if in that gathering
someone were to call, ‘Kā mil!’ or ‘Muwaffaq!’, the Muhammad in question
˙
would know immediately that it was he who was being addressed.
Apart from the vizier, the chief of the chancery (tughrā ʾı̄ ), the chief
˙
fiscal officer (mustawfı̄ ), the chief of the sultan’s military department
(ʿarı̄ ż) and the leading administrators (sing. ʿamı̄ d) of Baghdad,
Khurasan and Khvarazm, no person in the kingdom should bear the
title ‘So-and-so al-Mulk’; they should carry only titles that lack the term
mulk, such as Khvā jeh-yi Sadı̄ d, Khvā jeh-yi Rashı̄ d, Khvā jeh-yi
Mukhtass, or Ustā d-i Amı̄ n, Ustā d-i Khatı̄ r, Ustā d-i Makı̄ n and the
˙˙ ˙
like, so that the respective degrees and stations of the lower and the
higher, the humble and the great, the distinguished and the commoner
will be readily apparent, and the lustre of the administration will remain
bright. When the stability of the kingdom is evident; when the king is just
and alert, pursues the diligent performance of affairs and enquires into
the practices and customs of his predecessors (ā yı̄ n va-rasm-i
gudhashtagā n); and when the king has a fortunate and successful vizier,
who is knowledgeable in matters of established practice (rasm-dā n) and
skilful (hunarvar) – then the king will ensure that all matters proceed in

94
On the title khvā jeh, see above, n. 62.
95
The invocation labbayk is the expression used by pilgrims as they present themselves at
the House of God in Mecca as part of the pilgrimage rituals.

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

good order (tartı̄ bı̄ nı̄ kū ); he will revise all titles in the light of their proper
foundations, and he will eliminate newly contrived principles and cus-
toms in accordance with his sound judgement, his strong command and
his sharp sword.

Text 18
Al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k, Chapter Six 96

˙ ˙
Translator’s Introduction
The brief final selection in this anthology is an early chapter from al-
Turtū shı̄ ’s Sirā j al-mulū k. It too emphasises the ruler’s risk of numerous
˙ ˙
perils and their unfortunate consequences. In this chapter, al-Turtū shı̄
˙ ˙
adopts an exhortative tone, admonishing the ruler to accept his lot and
remain mindful of the severe testing that awaits him in the world to come.

Translation
Chapter Six: The Sultan Is a Debtor, Not a Creditor, in Relation to
His Subjects, and He Stands to Lose, Not to Profit
Know that the sultan faces momentous risks and general tribulations.
The misfortunes that afflict him and the vicissitudes that befall him
would compel any intelligent person to take refuge in God in the face
of the burdens that he bears, and to thank Him for His protection. The
sultan’s mind is never at rest, his thoughts never find repose, his con-
science is never clear and his intelligence (lubb) can never settle.97 The
people are disaffected from him, yet he must preoccupy himself with
them. A single man fears a single enemy, whereas he must fear a thousand
enemies; a single man is constrained to manage the members of his
household, oversee his estate and determine his livelihood, whereas the
sultan is obliged to govern all the people of his kingdom. As soon as he
repairs one rupture in the peripheries of his kingdom, another rupture
appears; as soon as he rectifies one disorder, another division promptly

96
Translation prepared from al-Turtū shı̄ , Sirā j al-mulū k, I: 193–7. For the corresponding
˙ ˙
section in Alarcón’s translation into Spanish, see Alarcón, Lámpara de los Príncipes, I:
169–74.
97
The term that I have rendered here, and further down, as ‘conscience’ is qalb (lit. ‘heart’).

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 Part II Texts

arises; whenever he succeeds in eliminating one enemy, other enemies are

already preparing to move against him. The same pattern recurs in
connection with every one of his subjects’ circumstances that concerns
him. The ruler contends with difficulty in settling his subjects’ disputes,
appointing governors and judges, dispatching armies, defending the
frontiers, raising revenues and redressing grievances. In addition, aston-
ishingly, the ruler possesses but a single corporeal self (nafs), yet he can
deprive the world of its food, and cause the subjects to suffer deprivation;
he will, one day, face questions about every one of them, while they will
not be asked about him. By God, what a remarkable thing it is, that a man
who should be content to take a single loaf from this world will be held
responsible for a million loaves; that he who eats to fill a single belly will
be held accountable for a million bellies; that he who enjoys the pleasures
of a single physical self will be held accountable for a million selves and so
on, in all aspects of his life: the sultan bears their burdens, safeguards
their secrets, combats their enemies, defends their frontiers and con-
strains those who seek to prevail against them or to oppose them, as well
as anyone amongst them who disobeys His Lord, opposes His command
and violates His prohibitions. On condition of his vigilance on their
behalf, the ruler confronts the depths of Hell; yet still he finds them
loathing him and discontented with him.
Had God Almighty not intervened between the man and his con-
science, no intelligent person would be content with this (the royal)
station, and no mindful person would choose this station as his rank.
Everything that I have mentioned in this chapter is encapsulated in the
Prophet’s saying: ‘What is due to you, and what is due to my command-
ers (umarā ʾı̄ )? You are due the absolute best (sifwa) of their command,
˙
and they are due the worry (kadar) that the duty to command entails.’98
The sultan’s relationship with his subjects resembles the relationship
of the cook with his diners: his is the toil, theirs the wholesome enjoy-
ment; his is the heat involved in the food’s preparation, theirs the
refreshing satisfaction of its consumption. Similarly, the sultan strives
for the repose of his people (qawm) and in so doing endures fatigue; he
seeks their felicity and himself falls short of the straight path. On this
matter, people have said: ‘The lord of the people (sayyid al-qawm) is the

98
Reading sifwa, ‘the best’, ‘the choicest part’, for safw; Muslim, Sahı̄ h, XII: 95–6, Kitā b al-
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
Jihā d wa-l-siyar, ch. 13, no. 43 (1753); Abū Dā ʾū d, Sunan, IV: 520–1, Kitā b al-Jihā d,
ch. 137, no. 2708.

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 Problems in the Kingdom and Their Remedies

most wretched person among them.’ According to the hadith: ‘The cup-
bearer is the last person in the group to drink.’99
One of the kings of the Maghrib was travelling one day with his viziers
when he saw a group of merchants. The king said to his vizier: ‘Shall
I show you three groups of people – one group who possess this world
and the next; one group who possess neither this world nor the next; and
one group who possess this world to the exclusion of the next?’ The vizier
replied, ‘How is that so, O king?’ The king said, ‘Those who possess both
this world and the next world are these merchants: they earn their
sustenance and perform their prayers, and they harm no one. As for
those who possess neither this world nor the next, they are the police and
the servants in our employ; and as for those who possess this world to the
exclusion of the next, that group consists of me, you, and all holders of
power.’
It is fitting that all members of humankind should extend themselves
in sincere counsel to the ruler. They should single him out in their
prayers on his behalf and support him in all his endeavours. They should
be his sharp eyes, his strong hands, his staunch heart and his articulate
tongue; they should be the legs that lift him up and the feet that carry
him. For the king is far from safety (salā ma) – how else is he to attain
it?100 On this point, a king said one day to his companions: ‘Know that
power (al-sultā n) and Paradise (al-janna) are mutually incompatible.’
˙
Our shaykh, may God have mercy upon him, related having heard the
following report from a man of substance. The ruler had contacted the
man with the request that he divorce his wife, since the former wanted
her for one of his companions. The man refused to do so, and he returned
the sultan’s messengers more than once. Eventually a counsellor offered
him this advice: ‘Accept the sultan’s command. You have no stratagem to
avoid it, since the ruler fears no mortal being in this world, and he does
not fear the Fire in the next.’ The man duly separated from his wife.
It is related that when ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwā n rose to the caliphate,
he took a copy of the Qurʾan and placed it in an inaccessible location,
saying, ‘This moment marks the separation between you and me.’101

99
Abū Dā ʾū d, Sunan, VI: 58, Awwal Kitā b al-Ashriba, ch. 19, no. 3677; al-Sakhā wı̄ , al-
Maqā sid al-hasana, 382, no. 551.
100 ˙ ˙
Like several of the lexical choices in this section (such as naʿı̄ m, above), the term salā ma
carries connotations of eternal salvation as well as physical security and good health in
the present world.
101
The language is Qurʾanic; see Q 18: 78 (Moses).

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 Part II Texts

Once, when Hā rū n al-Rashı̄ d was performing the pilgrimage, ʿUbayd
Allā h al-ʿUmarı̄ 102 came upon him circumambulating the Kaʿba. He said
to him: ‘O Hā rū n!’ The caliph said, ‘Labbayka, uncle.’ ʿUbayd Allā h
asked him, ‘How many people do you see here?’ Hā rū n said, ‘So many
that only God can count them.’ His interlocutor said, ‘Know, O man,
that every one of these people will one day be asked to account for
himself. You alone shall face questioning concerning all of them; con-
sider, therefore, how you shall fare.’ Hā rū n wept, and as he sat down, his
attendants hastened to bring him a handkerchief for his tears. ʿUbayd
Allā h responded, ‘By God, the man in a hurry for access to his own
wealth deserves to be debarred from it; what, then, of the person who
rushes to attain the property of the Muslims?’ It has been reported that
Hā rū n used to say, ‘By God, I should like to perform the pilgrimage
every year. The only impediment to my doing so is a certain man,
a member of ʿUmar’s family, who makes me listen to words that I find
painful.’
Mā lik b. Dı̄ nā r (d. 130/747–8) reported having read in an ancient book
that God Almighty said, ‘Who is more foolish than the ruler? Who is
more ignorant than the person who disobeys Me? Who is more glorious
than the person who seeks glory through Me? O wicked shepherd: I have
provided you with a healthy, fattened sheep, so that you may consume
her meat, drink her milk, moisten your bread with her fat and dress in her
wool. You have reduced her to nothing but clattering bones; you have
neither sheltered the straying, nor cared for the sick. A day will come
when this sheep is avenged against you.’103

102
Alarcón reads ʿAbdallā h (I: 197). The individual in question is a descendant of ʿUmar
b. al-Khattā b and a deputy of the governor of Medina.
˙˙
103
Mā lik b. Dı̄ nā r, of Basra, was a renunciant, a preacher and a moralist; he made his living
by copying the Qurʾan. Abū Nuʿaym al-Isfahā nı̄ notes that he was well versed in
˙
Christian scriptures, a point that fits well with the present citation’s ascription to ‘an
ancient book’ (Hilyat al-awliyā ʾ, II: 357–88, no. 200; see 358 (the Torah), 359 (the
˙
Torah), 369 (citing Jesus), 370 (citing Jesus), 376 (the Psalms, the Torah), 380 (the
Psalms), 382 (God’s inspiration to Jesus; Jesus’ entry into the temple and condemning
the conduct of sale inside), 385 (Jesus’ stopping at a house whose owner had died)). The
latter portion of this report appears in Hilyat al-awliyā ʾ, II: 370 (qaraʾtu fı̄ baʿd al-kutub).
˙ ˙

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 APPENDIX

Index of Qurʾanic References

and Quotations

Numbers in parentheses refer to the Texts in which the references appear.

1: 4 (1)
2: 247 (1)
2: 249 (11)
2: 251 (1)
2: 258 (2; 16, n. 54)
3: 7 (11, n. 32)
3: 18 (12)
3: 26 (1, 2, 4)
3: 92 (1)
4: 49 (3)
4: 54 (1)
4: 59 (1, 2, 4, 11)
4: 164 (17, n. 76)
5: 20 (2)
5: 54 (2, n. 82)
6: 166 (2)
7: 79 (15)
7: 85 (17, n. 75)
7: 93 (15)
7: 143, 144 (17, n. 76)
9: 13 (16)
9: 111 (1)

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 Appendix

11: 34 (15)
11: 84 (17, n. 75)
13: 11 (1)
14: 7 (1)
14: 33, 34 (1)
16: 90 (12)
17: 71 (1)
18: 49 (1)
18: 78 (18, n. 101)
18: 83, 86, 94 (8, n. 52)
20: 12 (17, n. 76)
20: 43–4 (2)
20: 114 (1)
22: 11 (2, n. 62)
23: 116 (1)
24: 54 (2, n. 91)
26: 227 (1)
27: 21 (1)
27: 23 (1)
28: 22–8 (17, n. 75)
28: 77 (3)
29: 36 (17, n. 75)
30: 30 (7, n. 15)
31: 20 (2, n. 55)
34: 16, 17 (1)
35: 43 (2, n. 75)
37: 102 (15)
37: 156, 157 (1)
38: 26 (3)
38: 29 (15)
38: 34 (12, n. 54)

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 Appendix

38: 35 (12, n. 54)

38: 40 (12, n. 54)
39: 15 (2, n. 62)
40: 16 (1)
43: 32 (1)
45: 12 (1, n. 3)
45: 13 (1)
49: 2 (2)
53: 19–20 (17, n. 86)
54: 5 (2, n. 55)
55: 46 (16, n. 46)
57: 21 (2, n. 82)
58: 11 (12)
58: 12 (2)
62: 4 (2, n. 82)
79: 16 (17, n. 76)
79: 24 (2)
79: 40 (16, n. 46)
89: 27 (15, n. 53)

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 Glossary

Unless indicated otherwise, the terms in this list appear in their Arabic forms.
Where a term is Persian or Turkish rather than Arabic, it appears in its
Persian or Turkish form.

adab (pl. ā dā b) humane culture; moral and cultural education; a literary
corpus composed of texts offering moral instruction, aesthetic pleasure
and entertainment; in the plural, maxims, instructive examples, rules
ʿadl justice
ʿahd a contract or covenant; in literary terms, a ‘testament’ or ‘charge’ (see
also wasiyya)
˙
ʿajam collective term for speakers of a language other than Arabic (in
contrast to ʿarab, the collective term for speakers of Arabic); often used to
denote speakers of Persian
ʿamı̄ d a high-ranking administrator; a vizier or a provincial governor
ʿā mil (pl. ʿummā l) a provincial governor or government official tasked with
the collection of taxes
amı̄ n (pl. umanā ʾ) trustee, steward; a trusted person
amı̄ r (pl. umarā ʾ) commander; governor; used as a title for military leaders,
rulers and members of dynastic families
amı̄ r al-muʾminı̄ n ‘Commander of the Faithful’; a title adopted by the
caliph ʿUmar b. al-Khattā b on his accession to the caliphate, retained by
˙˙
subsequent caliphs, and connoting claims to the caliphal office
ʿā mm(ı̄ ) common, general
ʿā mma the collective term for the general, tax-paying population, made up
of groups only in indirect relationship to the ruling power
ʿā qil (pl. ʿuqalā ʾ) a person of rational intelligence
ʿaql intellect, reason, rational intelligence

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 Glossary

atabeg (Turk.) tutor, guardian or regent to a Turkish prince; usually a high-

ranking amı̄ r; in the twelfth century, atabegs became powerful independently
and the title became hereditary
aʿwā n (pl.) auxiliaries, high-ranking officials, functionaries; supporters,
pillars of the state
aʿyā n (sing. ʿayn) notables; especially in urban contexts, persons of status
in a position to mediate between the townspeople and the ruling authorities
or other external parties
ʿayyā r member of a militia, often adhering to a code of chivalrous conduct
bidʿa an ‘innovation’ in the religious sphere, whether in belief or practice;
a development unattested in the time of the Prophet (the term usually carries
negative connotations)
dā ʿı̄ a missionary (see also daʿwa)
dargā h (Pers.) royal court
daʿwa call to adherence and commitment to a religious group; in the period
covered in the anthology, used especially in the context of Ismaili missionary
activity
dawla a ‘turn in power’; political fortune; a dynasty or ‘state’
dı̄ wā n (Pers. dı̄ vā n) a division or ministry of the government; the collected
compositions of a poet
fadı̄ la (pl. fadā ʾil) a virtue
˙ ˙
fadl excellence; virtue; superior status (see also tafdı̄ l)
˙ ˙
farr (Pers.) glory, splendour; a sign of royal charisma and good fortune; in
iconography, often depicted as an aura or nimbus of fire
fathnā meh (Pers.) proclamation of victory
˙
fiqh religious understanding, jurisprudence
ghulā m (pl. ghilmā n) a male youth; a servant or attendant; a soldier or
bodyguard, frequently of slave status or formerly of slave status, bound by
personal ties
hadith (pl. ahā dı̄ th) an authenticated report that transmits the Prophet’s
˙
speech or action
hakı̄ m (pl. hukamā ʾ) a sage (a person possessed of hikma), philosopher,
˙ ˙ ˙
physician; an honorific title for a revered scholar or religious figure
haqq (pl. huqū q) truth, right; in the definite singular, a name of God (al-
˙ ˙
Haqq); a rightful claim
˙
hikma (pl. hikam) wisdom; philosophy; a wise saying or maxim
˙ ˙
ʿibra a cautionary example, warning
iqtā ʿ the right to collect revenue in a given district (in lieu of salary); a land-
˙
grant (see section 2.1)
istihsā n technical term for a method of legal reasoning in which maslaha (see
˙ ˙ ˙
below) provides a basis for legal decision-making

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 Glossary

javā nmardı̄ (Pers.) code of chivalrous conduct, practised by groups of

ʿayyā rā n
khalı̄ fa deputy, successor; caliph (name of the office held by leaders of the
Muslim community after the death of the Prophet Muhammad)
˙
khā naqā h a communal residential, teaching and ritual institution affiliated
with a Sufi order
khā qā n (Turk., Pers.) title designating the senior royal figure in Turkic
contexts
khā ss(ı̄ ) special, privileged
˙˙
khā ssa collective term for the individuals in proximity, physical or political, to
˙˙
the ruler and in a direct relationship with him; privileged and exempt from
taxation
khidma literally ‘service’; a term to describe the bond of obligations and
loyalties that tied protégés and vassals to their overlords
khuluq (pl. akhlā q) a characteristic, moral quality, disposition
khutba oration delivered in mosques at the time of the weekly congrega-
˙
tional prayer on Fridays
v
kh ā jeh an educated person, often a teacher; in the period covered in this
anthology, used as a title for viziers and other high-ranking officials
laqab title, awarded by the caliph or sultan
madhhab (pl. madhā hib) school of law
madrasa educational institution, often with residential facilities, for the
teaching of the religious sciences (and sometimes a broader curriculum);
especially associated with the teaching of law, with madrasas often affiliated
with one or more of the madhā hib
majlis (pl. majā lis) a gathering, especially a regular convivial gathering held
at the royal court or at the premises of a vizier
malik (pl. mulū k) king; widely used as a royal title, often in combination
with qualifying adjectives (e.g. al-Malik al-Hamı̄ d, ‘the Praiseworthy King’;
˙
al-Malik al-Kā mil, ‘the Consummate King’); in Seljuk contexts, often
a prince, subordinate to the sultan
mamlaka kingdom
mamlū k (pl. mamā lı̄ k) literally ‘a possession’; an enslaved person, espe-
cially persons imported and trained for military service
maslaha (pl. masā lih) welfare, benefit; the common good, the public
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
interest; used in general contexts and, in a specific sense, as a purpose of the
divine law, in legal contexts
mazā lim acts of injustice, grievances; by extension, a public audience convened
˙
by the ruler or his deputy for the redress of grievances and the delivery of justice
milk property, possessions
mulk sovereignty, kingship; in some contexts, the term is contrasted in
a negative sense with khilāfa, the caliphal office

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 Glossary

muqtaʿ holder of an iqtā ʿ (see above); sometimes, effectively, a governor

˙ ˙
mustawfı̄ chief fiscal officer
nası̄ ha (pl. nasā ʾih) counsel, advice, often of an exhortative or homiletic
˙˙ ˙ ˙
character
niʿma (pl. niʿam) bounty, favour
pā dshā h (Pers.) king
pā dshā hı̄ (Pers.) kingship, sovereignty
pand (Pers.) advice, counsel
qadi (qā dı̄ ) judge in the sharia system of law; appointed by the ruler to
˙
preside over the judicial court
qā nū n (pl. qawā nı̄ n) a term applied to various financial regulations: the
assessment and collection of taxes, the sum due from the taxpayer; in Egypt
and Syria, a kind of fiscal cadaster; in formerly Sasanian settings, registers
and lists recording land-taxes, and tax-related regulations; the term also
acquired the sense of ‘a code of regulations’, or laws laid down by the political
authorities (as opposed to the laws of the sharia)
raʾı̄ s (pl. ruʾasā ʾ) chief; title applied to a variety of municipal leaders or
notables, leaders of urban constituencies or neighbourhoods; these figures
often acted as intermediaries between the urban populations and the ruling
authorities
raʿiyya subject (tax-paying) population
riyā sa leadership, rulership
rushd rectitude, right conduct
sā ʾis literally ‘a trainer or driver of animals’; applied to the ruler who governs
his flock with a combination of hopeful expectation and fear of punishment
salā h well-being, soundness, righteousness
˙ ˙
shā hā nshā h (Pers.) ‘King of Kings’; an ancient Iranian title applied to and
adopted by several Muslim rulers in the period covered in this anthology
sharia (sharı̄ ʿa) the sacred law of Islam, made up of the rules and regula-
tions governing the lives of Muslims
shukr gratitude; the appropriate response to niʿma (see above)
siyā sa governance; discipline; especially in Persian, punishment; a term
derived from the training of animals (see also sā ʾis)
sultā n power, authority; adopted to describe ruling figures and eventually as
˙
a royal title, often conveying claims to broad, superior levels of sovereignty
tadbı̄ r arrangement, order; strategy; especially in Persian, an expedient or
remedy devised to address a specific situation
tafdı̄ l favour, preferment, precedence, privilege
˙
taskhı̄ r subjugation, subordination
wā lı̄ (pl. wulā t) governor, ruler
wasiyya a will, testament or bequest; advice, admonition; name of a literary
˙
genre

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 Bibliography

Abbreviations
EI2 Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, ed. P. Bearman,
Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel,
W. P. Heinrichs (Leiden: Brill, 1960–2007) (https://
referenceworks-brillonline-com.ezproxy.wellesley.edu
/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2).
EI Three Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three, ed. Kate Fleet, Gudrun
Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett Rowson
(Leiden: Brill, 2 0 07–) (https://referenceworks-
brillonline-com.ezproxy.wellesley.edu/entries/encyclo
paedia-of-islam-3).
EIr Encyclopaedia Iranica, ed. E. Yarshater, Elton Daniel
(London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul,
1985–). Encyclopaedia Iranica Online © Trustees of
Columbia University in the City of New York
(https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/
encyclopaedia-iranica-online/).
EQ Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾā n, ed. Jane Dammen
McAuliffe, 6 vols. (Leiden and Boston: E. J. Brill,
2001–6).
GAL Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, 2
vols. (first edition, Weimar: E. Felber, 1898–
1902; second edition, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1943–9).
GAL SI, SII, SIII Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur
[Supplementbände], 3 vols. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1937–
42).
PEIPT The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought,
ed. Gerhard Bö wering (Princeton and Oxford:
Princeton University Press, 2013).

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 Bibliography

ʿAbbā s, Ihsā n, Malā mih yū nā niyya fı̄ l-adab al-ʿarabı̄ (Beirut: al-Muʾassasa al-
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 Index

Abarwı̄ z see Khusraw II Parvı̄ z Abū Tammā m, 100

ʿAbbā dids see Banū ʿAbbā d Abū ʿUbayd b. ʿAbdallā h b. Masʿū d, 212
Abbasids, 25, 26, 27, 31, 40n, 43, 116n, 117n, Abū Yū suf, Yaʿqū b b. Ibrā hı̄ m al-Kū fı̄ , 9
194, 262n, 267, 268, 270, 272, 274, 275, Acre, 43
286n see also caliphate adab, ā dā b, 5–6, 10, 12–13, 14n, 62, 92n, 97,
Abbè s, Makram, 62n, 79, 130, 158n, 101, 106, 118, 126, 127, 226, 236, 249,
160n 299, 303
ʿAbdallā h b. Tā hir, 107n, 249n Adab al-dunyā wa-l-dı̄ n, 62, 63n, 120n, 159n,
˙
ʿAbdallā h b. ʿUmar, 122n 218n, 254n
ʿAbdallā h b. al-Zubayr, 102n, 107n, 220n al-Ādā b al-kabı̄ r, 9
ʿAbd al-Hamı̄ d al-Kā tib, 9 adab al-mulū k (genre), 13
˙
ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwā n, Umayyad caliph, Ādā b al-mulū k, 38, 55, 60, 64
102, 125n, 253n, 311 Adam, 88, 116, 142, 147
abnā ʾ al-dawla, 286n ʿAdı̄ b. Zayd, 91
Abraham, 115, 248 al-ʿĀ did, Fatimid caliph-imam, 43
˙
Abū l-ʿAtā hiya, 101n ʿadl, 20, 92n, 132n, 138, 183n, 192n, 205, 210,
Abū Bakr, first caliph, 220n 214, 218, 219 see also justice
Abū Bakr b. ʿAyyā sh, 123 admonition, 13, 166, 260, 267 see also
Abū Bakr b. Hā mid, 276n exhortation, mawʿiza
˙ ˙
Abū Bakr b. Saʿd-i Zangı̄ , Muzaffar al-Dı̄ n, ʿAdud al-Dawla, Buyid ruler, 30n, 36, 266n,
˙ ˙
14n 275n
Abū l-Dardā ʾ ʿUwaymir b. Zayd al-Ansā rı̄ , advice literature, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 14n, 16, 17,
˙
256, 257n, 258 18, 19, 24, 41, 47, 60, 61, 64, 67, 70, 72,
Abū Dharr, 170n 74, 103, 123, 146, 150, 247, 248, 249, 250,
Abū Dulaf al-Ijlı̄ , 91n 251, 252, 253, 257, 311 see also andarz,
Abū l-Fażl Yū suf b. ʿAlı̄ Mustawfı̄ , 13n counsel, mirror(s) for princes, nası̄ ha
˙˙
Abū Hurayra, 208, 254 al-Afdal b. Badr al-Jamā lı̄ , 43, 72
˙
Abū l-Murajjā Jā bir, Hamdanid, 265 Afghanistan, 26, 37, 38n
Abū Muslim, 116 Afrā siyā b, 138, 139n
Abū Nasr b. Abı̄ Zayd, 129, 130n agent, 201, 236
˙
Abū l-Qā sim Hibat Allā h, Hamdanid, agriculture, 28, 29, 41, 60, 218, 219, 220,
265 221, 222

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 Index

ʿahd ʿAlı̄ b. Bū ya, ʿImā d al-Dawla, Buyid ruler, 36

charge or testament, 9, 92, 249n ʿAlı̄ b. al-Jahm, 263
covenant, 170, 194, 303 ʿAlı̄ al-Hamadā nı̄ , 14, 14n
see also testament, wasiyya Ali, Ismail, 77
˙
ʿAhd Ardashı̄ r, 7, 62, 106, 139, 208n, 225n allegory, 56, 58, 145
ʿahdnā meh, 299, 303 Almohads, 72
ahkā m, 6 see also ordinances Almoravids, 71, 72, 213n
˙
al-Ahkā m al-sultā niyya, 61, 62, 189n, 192n, almsgiving see charity, sadaqa, zakā t
˙ ˙ ˙
218n, 219n, 224n, 225n, 270n Alp Arslan, 40, 41–2, 44, 63, 284
Ahlak-i Alaʾi, 16 Alptigin, 37
Ahmad, Fuʾā d ʿAbd al-Munʿim, 51n, 77 al-Aʿmash, Sulaymā n b. Mihrā n, 108
˙
Ahmad b. Bū ya, Muʿizz al-Dawla see Muʿizz ambassador(s), 11, 49, 231 see also envoy
˙
al-Dawla al-Amı̄ n, Muhammad, Abbasid caliph, 249, 267
˙
Ahmad Ibn Tū lū n, 25 Amı̄ n al-Milla, laqab of Sultan Mahmū d, 281,
˙ ˙ ˙
Ahmad II b. Ismā ʿı̄ l, Samanid amir, 277n, 307 306
˙
al-Ahnaf b. Qays, 170n al-Ā mir, Fatimid caliph-imam, 72
˙
al-Ahwā zı̄ , Abū l-Husayn Muhammad b. al-ʿĀ mirı̄ , Abū l-Hasan, 53–4
˙ ˙ ˙
al-Husayn, 163n ʿā mm(a), 5, 52, 110, 206n, 208, 254 see also
˙
ā ʾı̄ n, 7, 285, 308 common people, ordinary people
ʿajam, 12, 138, 207n Amorium, 100
ʿajamiyya, 207n ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀ s, 132n, 183n, 208n
˙
al-ʿAkawwak,ʿAlı̄ b. Jabala, 91n ʿAmr b. al-Layth, 195, 198–202
Akhbā r al-wuzarā ʾ see Kitā b al-Wuzarā ʾ wa-l- ʿAmr b. Masada, 118, 210
kuttā b ʿAmr b. ʿUbayd, 98, 105
akhlā q, 6, 13, 14, 17, 97, 144n, 155, 156, 157 al-Amthā l wa-l-hikam, 62, 224n
˙
akhlā q al-mulū k, 5, 10, 16n, 53, 62–3, 130 Anas b. Mā lik, 256
al-Akhlā q al-mushajjara, 19n Anatolia, 14, 26, 28, 40n, 41, 42, 44
Akhlā q-i Hakı̄ mı̄ , 17 al-Andalus, 71, 72, 73, 207n, 213n
˙
Akhlā q-i Jahā ngı̄ rı̄ , 17 andarz, 5, 8n
Akhlā q-i Jalā lı̄ (= Lavā miʿ al-ishrā q fı̄ makā rim andarznā meh, 5, 59
al-akhlā q), 14, 15n, 16n Ansari, Hassan, 52, 54n
Akhlā q-i Muhsinı̄ , 15 Antioch, 48
˙
Akhlā q-i Nā sirı̄ , 14 Anū shı̄ rvā n (= Khusraw I), 12, 21, 60, 92n, 121,
˙
akhlā t, 140n 123, 126, 132n, 138, 139n, 182, 185n, 206n,
˙
Aktham b. Sayfı̄ , 101n 208n, 220n, 226, 264 see also Khusraw I
˙
ʿAlā ʾ al-Dı̄ n Kayqubā d, Seljuk of Rum, 13n, aphorism, 5, 7, 49, 111, 112n, 166n see also
14n, 18, 19 hikma, maxim
˙
Alamut, 14n Aqquyunlu, 15n
Alarcón, M. A., 81, 312n ʿarab, 12, 207n
Aleppo, 11n, 43, 44n, 116n, 192n, 265n Arabia(n), 9, 42, 90n, 107n, 108n, 258n,
Alexander, 8, 12, 21, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 104n, 291n, 297n
107, 119, 133n, 134, 169, 176n, 177n, Arabic, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14n,
181, 182, 185, 212, 213n, 227, 246 see also 16, 17, 18, 19n, 22, 24, 26, 27n, 34, 36,
Dhū l-Qarnayn 37n, 38, 45, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55,
Alexandria, 70n, 71, 72, 73, 289 56, 58, 59n, 61, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 70, 73,
Alfonso VI, 73 76, 77–81, 83, 85, 87, 100n, 103n, 111n,
ʿAlı̄ b. Abı̄ Tā lib, 13, 30, 104, 108n, 111n, 117, 136n, 137n, 138n, 140n, 144n, 163n,
˙
121n, 134n, 157, 165, 166n, 182, 183n, 170n, 179, 200, 208n, 274n, 286n, 303
206n, 207, 253n arbā b al-ard, 90, 91, 115, 118
˙

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 Index

Ardashı̄ r, 7, 12, 45, 97, 106, 108n, 121n, 132n, Badawı̄ , ʿAbd al-Rahmā n, 77
˙
134, 138, 182, 183n, 208n, 225 Badr al-Jamā lı̄ , 43
Aristotle, 7, 8, 12, 47, 51, 62, 87, 92n, 104n, 107, Baghdad, 11, 25, 29, 31, 32, 36, 37, 39, 41,
133n, 134n, 144n, 158n, 182, 185n, 205n 43, 52, 66, 71, 116n, 132n, 194, 195, 198,
~ as counsellor to Alexander, 8, 47, 48, 51, 200n, 211n, 263n, 265n, 266n, 267n,
104n, 107, 133n, 181, 246 268n, 269n, 271n, 273n, 274, 275, 276n,
~ on virtue, 15, 158n 293, 305, 308
~ practical philosophy, 5 Bā ghir al-Turkı̄ , 268
see also Pseudo-Aristotle Bagley, F. R. C., 80, 137n
ʿArjı̄ , ʿAbdallā h b. ʿUmar, 159n Bahā ʾ al-Dawla, Fı̄ rū z b. ʿAdud al-Dawla, ʿIzz
˙
Armenia(n), 41, 43, 59, 74 al-Dı̄ n, Buyid ruler, 62, 275, 276n
army, armies, 26, 27, 28, 37, 41, 42, 55, 60, 63, Bahr al-favā ʾid, 14n
˙
145, 150, 173, 175, 185, 188, 194, 195, 196, Bahrā m-i Gū r (Bahram V), Sasanian monarch,
197, 198, 199, 200, 207, 208, 210n, 218, 91n, 138, 139n, 205n, 236–46
226, 227, 228, 229, 233, 236, 237, 240, al-Bahrayn, 42
˙
242, 243, 245, 264, 265, 266, 267, 273, Bakhtiyā r, ʿIzz al-Dawla, Buyid ruler, 275
284n, 310 Bakr b. Mā lik, 281
Arrā n, 59 balance, 86, 141, 156, 183, 231, 233
al-Asadı̄ , ʿAbdallā h b. al-Zubayr, 102n justice as ~, 183, 205n
al-Asadı̄ , Ahmad b. Ibrā hı̄ m, 268 between opposing virtues and vices, 15, 164
˙
al-Asadı̄ , Sā lim Ibn Wā bisa, 159n in the body, 49, 261
Asaf, 16n Balkh, 33, 100n, 114n, 117n, 199, 200, 258n,
Asafname, 16 302, 304
Ascalon, 43, 73 Banū ʿAbbā d, 72n
Askari, Nasrin, 57n Banū ʿAbs, 251
al-Asmaʿı̄ , Abū Saʿı̄ d ʿAbd al-Malik, 255 Banū Hū d, 70
˙
aspiration, 70, 97, 119, 121n, 159, 160, 165, Barcelona, 73
189, 298 see also himma Barı̄ d al-saʿā da, 13n
Asqaf of Najrā n, 107 Barmakids, 100, 220n
astrology, 6, 57 Basra, 122n, 252, 256n, 269, 312n
astronomy, 60, 119 al-Batā ʾihı̄ , Abū ʿAbdallā h see Ibn al-Batā ʾihı̄
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
atabeg, 14, 44, 63 bā tin, 54, 111n, 183n, 194n
˙
al-ʿAtawı̄ (al-ʿAtwı̄ ), Muhammad b. ʿAbd al- Batiniyya, 194, 278
˙ ˙ ˙
Rahmā n, 100, 101n Bā vandid(s), 173n, 174n
˙
al-ʿAttā bı̄ , Abū ʿAmr Kulthū m b. ʿAmr, 99n al-Bazdahı̄ , Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Nasafı̄ ,
˙ ˙
ʿAttā r, Farı̄ d al-Dı̄ n, 59 279–81
˙˙
attribution, 12, 45, 51, 62n, 92n, 111, 112n, Berkey, Jonathan P., 31
134n, 138n, 159n, 166n, 205n Bilawhar wa-Bū dhā saf, 7, 58
authorship, disputed, 11, 12, 52, 61, 62, 63, 68–9 bilig, 147
Avicenna see Ibn Sı̄ nā al-Bı̄ rū nı̄ , Abū Rayhā n, 38, 55
˙
aʿwā n, 92, 135, 185, 188, 189, 205, bitā na, 123
˙
206, 234 boon-companion(s), 59, 60, 169, 211n, 268
ʿayyā r(ı̄ ), 167, 168, 172, 173, 198 Bray, Julia, 55, 100n, 110n, 111n, 112n, 115n,
Ayyubid(s), 11, 18n, 44 127n, 278n
Azā riqa, 253 Bryson, 7 see also Oikonomicos
Azerbaijan, 28, 41, 59 Buddha, 52, 87, 104
Buddhism, 58
Bacon, Roger, 49 Bughā al-Saghı̄ r, 268n, 269n
˙
Badakhshan, 289 al-Buhturı̄ , Abū ʿUbayda, 160
˙

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Bukhara, 33, 34, 193, 199, 280n, 304 conscience, 86, 309n
Burā q, 294 consultation, 68, 83, 206, 210, 247, 248–52,
al-Burjumı̄ , ʿAbd Qays b. Khufā f, 224n 254n, 295
al-Burrı̄ , Muhammad b. Muhammad al- corruption, 52, 97, 100, 132, 138, 141, 142,
˙ ˙
Mā likı̄ , 23n 143, 164, 182, 193n, 227, 230, 233, 243
Bū stā n, 14n counsel, 4n, 5, 9, 11, 13, 19, 22, 23, 49, 51, 52,
Buyids, 11, 27, 28n, 29, 30n, 31, 34, 35–7, 39, 55, 56, 57, 83, 98n, 103, 104n, 107, 167,
40, 60, 61, 62, 173n, 225n, 232n, 265n, 178, 181, 205n, 208, 209, 227, 228, 247,
273n, 274n, 276n 248, 249, 252n, 253–8, 311 see also nası̄ ha
˙˙
Buzurgmihr, 101n, 123, 205n, 206n, 220, 248 counsellor, 56, 85, 123, 126, 148, 166, 206,
Byzantine, Byzantine Empire, 41, 42, 53n, 90n, 211, 248, 249, 269n, 284n, 311
100, 140n, 143, 161n, 163n, 211n, 274 courage, 15, 45n, 102, 144, 150, 155, 161n,
162n, 164, 165, 166, 188, 198, 295
Cairo, 42, 43, 71, 72, 192n, 198n, 258n court(s)
caliphate, 8, 25, 30, 45, 61, 67, 98, 107n, royal, 3, 4, 7, 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 38, 41,
126n, 205n, 220n, 253n, 268, 269, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 64, 65, 85, 116n, 127n,
270n, 271n, 287, 311 131, 132, 150, 153, 167, 179n, 194, 203,
Carolingian mirrors, 5n, 10n, 53n, 85n, 143, 211n, 232n, 239, 240, 243, 245, 259,
163n, 180 270n, 273, 280, 286, 288, 297n
Caspian, 34, 35, 36, 39, 54, 174n, 176n of law, 191, 192n, 215n
Castile, 73 see also mazā lim
˙
Caucasus, 28, 41 Crusades, Crusaders, 43, 73
Chaghri Bey, 39–40, 44, 293
Chahā rdahı̄ , M. M., 80, 288n Damascus, 14n, 22, 192n, 257n
chamberlain(s), 56, 57, 126n, 192, 193, 210, Damghan, 176
245, 246, 305 Dandanqan, 39
charisma, royal, 55, 58n, 137 see also farr Daniel, 122
charity, charitable donation(s), 19, 127, 235, Dankoff, Robert, 58, 78, 145n, 147n
238, 241, 294 see also sadaqa dā r al-ʿadl, 192n
˙
chess, 60 Darband, 289
China, 215, 299, 300, 301 Darb Zubayda, 288n
chivalry, 60, 173 dargā h, 65 see also court(s)
Christian, Christianity al-Dā rı̄ , Tamı̄ m, 254n
~ communities, 43, 49, 74 Darke, H. S. G., 9n, 79–80, 194n, 198n, 203n,
~ courts, 3, 5, 45, 49, 181 239n, 243n, 286n, 289n, 292n, 299n,
~ in Arabia, 91n, 107n, 258n 307n
~ militarism, 41, 73, 74, 256n Darius, 246
circle of justice, 49, 50 (Fig. 2), 145, 151n, Dā ʾū d b. Bahrā mshā h, Mengü cekid ruler,
180n, 181, 182, 184 (Fig. 3), 185n, 208n, 14n
217 Davā nı̄ (Dawwā nı̄ ), Muhammad b. Asad, 15,
˙
cities, conditions of, 220–4 16n
clemency, 144, 189n, 204 see also forgiveness David, 88, 130, 131, 138, 163, 189, 199n, 207,
coinage, 33, 35, 174, 273n, 306 see also sikka 220
commerce, 60, 217, 222, 302 see also trade daʿwa, 31, 33, 68, 194, 280n
common good, 204n, 217 see also maslaha, dawla, 97, 135, 185, 267n, 276, 283, 286, 300,
˙ ˙
public good 303, 308
common people, 112, 128, 145, 151, 159, 183, used in titles, 30n, 265n, 296, 297, 307
271, 275, 277, 281 see alsoʿā mm(a), see also state
ordinary people al-dawla al-Nizā miyya, 40, 259
˙

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 Index

Dā wū d b. Nasr, Abū l-Fath, 282n al-Fadl b. al-Muqtadir see al-Mutı̄ ʿ
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
Daylam(i), 27, 35, 273 al-Fadl b. Sahl, 126
˙
De regimine principum, 53 Fakhr al-Dawla, ʿAlı̄ b. Rukn al-Dawla, Buyid
Dhakhı̄ rat al-mulū k, 14n ruler, 173n, 174, 262–3
dhimma, 256 see also non-Muslims Fakhr al-Dı̄ n al-Rā zı̄ , 120n, 134n, 144n, 157n,
Dhū l-Qarnayn, 176 see also Alexander 204n, 206
Diez, Heinrich Friedrich von, 61 Fakhr al-Mulk, son of Nizā m al-Mulk, 67
˙
dihqā n, 250n, 296 al-Fā rā bı̄ , Abū Nasr, 156, 161n
˙
disobedience, 95, 96, 142, 195, 197, 210, 258, farā ʾid, 90, 94, 111 see also precept(s)
˙
294 al-Farā ʾid wa-l-qalā ʾid, 163n
Diyar Bakr, 274 Farghana, 33, 35, 299
Diyar Rabiʿa, 249n, 274 Farı̄ dū n, 138, 139n
doctor(s), 55, 252n, 261 see also physician(s) farr, farr-i ı̄ zadı̄ , 58n, 64, 70, 136, 137 see also
Doctrina phísica y moral de príncipes, 17–18 charisma, royal
dreams, 57, 248, 287, 288, 294 Farrukhı̄ , Abū l-Hasan ʿAlı̄ Sı̄ stā nı̄ , 179
˙
Durand-Gué dy, David, 41, 65 Fars, 31, 36, 273
Durar al-sulū k fı̄ siyā sat al-mulū k, 62 fasting, 294
Dustū r al-vizā ra, 22n al-Fath b. Khā qā n, 10
˙
Dvin, 59 fathnā meh, 173
˙
Fatimids, 27, 29, 30, 31, 42–4, 72, 73, 74,
economics, 4, 7, 14, 25, 28, 29, 52, 144n, 222, 192n, 198n, 272n
223, 225n, 270n, 307n fatwā , 72, 281, 305
education, 4, 71, 101n, 158, 226, 284n, 298n, favour, 86, 87, 94, 95, 96, 108, 111, 113, 120,
299, 303 136, 138, 160, 197, 201, 207, 210, 213,
Egypt, 24, 25, 31, 42, 43, 71, 73, 198n, 232n 234, 250, 266n, 269, 280, 288, 298,
é lite(s), 16, 66, 110n, 275, 281 302, 303 see also niʿma
encyclopaedism, 57, 167 fiqh, 62, 71 see also jurisprudence
enemy, enemies, 52, 60, 105, 106, 112, 135, Firdawsı̄ , 13n, 38, 57n, 58, 139
139n, 149, 151, 152, 154, 168, 169, 170, Fire (Hell), 113
171–9, 180, 195, 203n, 210, 221, 224n, fire, 140, 141
226, 227, 230, 237, 240, 244, 246, 259, fitna, 207, 284
264, 277, 285, 295, 305, 309, 310 fitra, 157
˙
enmity, 175, 177 forbearance, 52, 99, 102, 108, 121n, 144, 148,
envoy(s), 51, 57, 168n, 174, 194, 198, 199, 155, 164, 177, 204
211n, 218, 226, 232n, 245, 297, 305 forgiveness, 60, 99, 206, 207n, 251n, 283 see
epistle, 6, 7, 9, 48, 133n also clemency
equity, 138, 184, 191, 205, 212, 213, 219, 220, Francisco de Gurmendi, 17
223, 224, 225, 229, 300 see also nasafa Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas, 18
˙
Erzincan, 14n Franks, 43, 73
ethics, 4, 7, 14, 15n, 52, 144n, 156, 159n, 161n friend(s), friendship, 56n, 60, 151, 168–71,
evil, 117n, 148, 224, 281 172, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 254, 273,
evil eye, 283, 284n 285
exhortation, 6, 13, 52, 72, 102, 103, 210n, al-Fudayl (Fużayl) b. ʿIyā d, 122, 123n
˙ ˙
249n, 259, 309 see also mawʿiza Full Moon, 56
˙

fadı̄ la see virtue Galen, 140n, 156n, 163

˙
fadl, 97n, 88, 89, 111n, 120, 136 Ganja, 59
˙
Fadl Allā h al-Ghadanfar, Abū Taghlib, Georgia, 41
˙ ˙
265n Ghassanids, 90n

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Ghazā lı̄ , Abū Hā mid, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 22, al-Hā kim bi-Amr Allā h, Fatimid caliph-imam,
˙ ˙
41, 45, 66–9, 71, 72, 80, 136, 159n, 203n, 43n
211n, 236n, 239n Halm, Heinz, 43
ghazi(s), 286, 289, 293, 305 Hamadhan, 174n, 297
Ghazna, 37, 38, 55, 260, 299, 302, 304, 306 al-Hamadhā nı̄ , Abū l-Fadl, 125n, 130n
˙
(Fig. 4) Hamd Allā h Qazvı̄ nı̄ Mustawfı̄ , 174n
Ghaznavids, 27, 28, 31, 32n, 33n, 34, 35, 36, Hamdanids, 265, 273n
37–8, 39, 40, 57, 59, 60, 61, 64, 125n, Hamdū n Qarmat, 42
˙ ˙
127n, 174n, 175n, 179n, 194n, 276n, al-Hamı̄ d, Samanid amir see Nū h I b. Nasr II
˙ ˙ ˙
282n, 284n, 306 (Fig. 4) Hanafı̄ school of law, 32, 52, 192n, 280n
˙
ghazw, 275 Hanbalı̄ school of law, 32
˙
ghulā m, ghilmā n, 27, 28 haqq, huqū q, 199, 201, 218, 235 see also rightful
˙ ˙
Ghuzz, 27n, 244n see also Oghuz claim(s)
gift(s), gift-giving, 13, 14n, 18, 19, 23, 27, 69, al-Harawı̄ , Taqı̄ al-Dı̄ n Abū l-Hasan ʿAlı̄ b.
˙
95, 127, 138n, 150, 168, 237, 270n, 272, Abı̄ Bakr, 11
288, 297, 301 see also present(s) al-Hā rithı̄ , Ziyā d b. ʿUbayd Allā h, 252–3
˙
Gı̄ lā nshā h, Ziyarid, 59, 60, 167 Harran, 265n, 266n
Giles of Rome, 53 Hā rū n al-Rashı̄ d, Abbasid caliph, 9, 69, 100n,
Goethe, Johann von, 61 112, 113n, 255n, 286–9, 312
Goliath, 88, 199n hasab, 100, 160n
˙
Gospels (New Testament), 107 Hasan ʿAlı̄ Munshı̄ Khā qā nı̄ , 17
˙
governance, 4, 5n, 6n, 8, 11, 23, 26, 27, 40, al-Hasan al-Basrı̄ , 98n, 120n, 122, 211
˙ ˙
52, 53, 55, 58, 62, 63, 64, 69, 83, 86, 89, Hasan Bughra Khan, 34
˙
90, 96, 110, 130, 135, 137, 143, 145, 155, Hasan, Rukn al-Dawla see Rukn al-Dawla
˙
156, 160, 180, 181, 184, 185, 186, 191, Hasan b. Sulaymā n, Tavghach Bughra Khan,
˙
197, 189, 204, 206, 207, 210, 213, 214, Karakhanid ruler, 35, 56
215, 216, 217, 218, 220, 224, 225, 226, al-Hashshā ʾı̄ , Abū l-HasanʿAlı̄ b. Muhammad
˙ ˙ ˙
230, 231, 232, 234, 239n, 248, 276, 298n al-Balkhı̄ , 52
self- ~, 4, 52, 83, 97–8, 143, 247 al-Hā timı̄ , Abū ʿAlı̄ Muhammad b. al-Hasan,
˙ ˙ ˙
‘three governances’, 5n, 52, 205–6n 116
gratitude, 60, 87n, 94, 95–6, 102, 105, 122n, Hebrew, 17, 48, 49
127, 207, 227, 239, 250, 288, 309 see also Heck, Paul, 54
shukr Hell, 98, 197, 294, 310 see also Fire
Greek, 3, 7, 9n, 47, 62, 134, 187, 248 Herat, 32, 33
grievance(s), redress of, 27n, 181, 190, 191, heterodox, heterodoxy, 46, 54, 64, 65, 66, 73,
192, 215, 218n, 240, 270, 286, 310 see 110, 191, 194n, 259, 260
also mazā lim Highly Praised, 56, 145, 146, 154
˙
Gulistā n, 14n Hijaz, 288n
Gurgan, 34, 38, 54 al-Hijā zı̄ , Abū l-ʿAbbā s, 215
˙
Gurganj, 38, 55 hikma
˙
Gushtā sp, Iranian monarch, 236n maxim, 12n, 17, 62, 119n, 134n, 157n, 163n,
164n, 165n, 189, 206, 257
habit, 4, 87, 98, 100, 101, 169, 212, 261 philosophy, wisdom, medicine, 12n, 15n,
Hadā ʾiq al-siyar, 13n 17, 88, 110, 111n, 119, 136, 137, 144n, 214
˙
hadiyya see gift(s) hikmat-i ʿamalı̄ , 15n
˙
hā jib see chamberlain(s) hikmat-i nazarı̄ , 15n
˙ ˙ ˙
hajj see pilgrimage al-Hikma al-khā lida see Jā vı̄ dā n khirad
˙ ˙
al-Hajjā j b. Yū suf al-Thaqafı̄ , 120n, 125n, 253 Hillenbrand, Carole, 67n
˙
Hā jjı̄ Khalı̄ fa, 75 hilm see forbearance
˙ ˙

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 Index

himma, 159n, 198n, 199, 201n Ibn al-Jawzı̄ , Abū l-Faraj ʿAbd al-Rahmā n, 11,
˙
Hincmar of Rheims, 180n 13, 30n, 39n
Hindustan, 37, 38n, 59, 297 Ibn Khā lawayh, Husayn, 108n
˙
al-Hı̄ ra, 91n Ibn Khaldū n, ʿAbd al-Rahmā n, 74, 190n
˙ ˙
Hishā m, Umayyad caliph, 48, 252n Ibn Khallikā n, Ahmad b. Muhammad, 69n,
˙ ˙
Hishā m II al-Muʾayyad, 213n 101n
historiography, 6 Ibn Masʿū d, ʿAbdallā h, 121, 207
Hodgson, Marshall G. S., 7n, 24 Ibn Munqidh, Usā ma, 120n, 123n, 135n, 205n
homiletic, 6, 11n, 13, 14n, 18, 67 Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, 8, 9, 68n, 92n, 112n, 214,
Homs, 211 215n, 247
Hū d, 258n Ibn al-Mustawfı̄ , Sharaf al-Dı̄ n, 69n
al-Hudhalı̄ , [Abū ] Bakr, 124, 125n Ibn al-Muʿtazz, ʿAbdallā h, 110n, 111, 134n,
Hudhayfa b. al-Yamā n, 121 166, 251n, 264, 272n
˙
Hudids see Banū Hū d Ibn Nubā ta al-Saʿdı̄ , 116
Hü legü , 14n Ibn Qutayba, 10, 91n, 229, 247, 253n
Humayd b. ʿAbd al-Hamı̄ d al-Tū sı̄ , 91 Ibn Samā ʿa, Abū ʿAbdallā h Muhammad, 131
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
humours, theory of, 140n Ibn Sawā da, Abū l-Hasan al-Rā zı̄ , 279, 280,
˙
hunar, 168, 169, 237, 298, 308 281
al-Hurmuzā n, 210 Ibn al-Sikkı̄ t, 90n
Hurmuz(d) IV, Sasanian monarch, 258n Ibn Sı̄ mjū r, Abū ʿAlı̄ , 281
hurriyya, 112n, 278 Ibn Sı̄ nā , Abū ʿAlı̄ , 55
˙
Husayn Bayqara, 15n Ibn Tū mart, Muhammad b. ʿAbdallā h, 72
˙ ˙
Ibn Wahb, ʿAbdallā h, 258
Iberia, 48, 70, 71, 73, 213n, 256n Ibn al-Zayyā t, Muhammad b. ʿAbd al-Malik,
˙
Ibn ʿAbbā d, al-Sā hib, 36, 182n, 208n 127, 128
˙ ˙
Ibn ʿAbbā s, 120n Ibn al-Zubayr, ʿAbdallā h, 102n, 107n, 220n
Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, 10n, 183n, 205n ʿibra, 200, 235, 246, 294, 308
Ibn Abı̄ ʿAbbā d, Muhammad b. ʿĪ sā , 262n Ibrā hı̄ m b. Adham, 258
˙
Ibn Abı̄ ʿAbbā d, Muhammad b. Yahyā , 261, Ibrā hı̄ m b. al-Mahdı̄ , Abbasid, 91n
˙ ˙
262n ifrā t, 15
˙
Ibn Abı̄ Duʾā d, Abū ʿAbdallā h Ahmad, 127n, Ihyā ʾ ʿulū m al-dı̄ n, 67
˙ ˙
128n ijtihā d, 92n, 132, 232, 234, 270
Ibn Abı̄ Duʾā d, Abū l-Walı̄ d Muhammad b. ʿImā d al-Dawla, ʿAlı̄ b. Bū ya, Buyid ruler, 36,
˙
Ahmad, 128 273
˙
Ibn Abı̄ l-Hadı̄ d, 111n imā m al-hudā , 91n
˙
Ibn Abı̄ l-Rabı̄ ʿ, 19n imamate, 30, 42, 45, 67
Ibn Abı̄ l-Shawā rib, al-Hasan b. Muhammad b. Imamiyya (Twelver) Shiʿism, 29, 37, 93
˙ ˙
ʿAbd al-Malik, 269 imā rat al-istikfā ʾ, 45
Ibn al-ʿArabı̄ , Abū Bakr Muhammad b. imā rat al-istı̄ lā ʾ, 45
˙
ʿAbdallā h, 72 imra, 156, 158
Ibn al-ʿArabı̄ , Abū Muhammad ʿAbdallā h b. indwelling (hulū l), 15–16
˙ ˙
ʿUmar, 72n ingratitude, 95–6, 102, 196, 285
Ibn al-Athı̄ r, ʿIzz al-Dı̄ n, 40 injustice, 68, 135, 137, 138, 139, 149, 150, 180,
Ibn Bā nū , Abū Jaʿfar, 281 181, 182, 184, 190, 192, 202, 211, 213,
(Ibn) al-Batā ʾihı̄ , Abū ʿAbdallā h Muhammad 214, 216, 220, 222, 223, 226, 232, 233,
˙ ˙ ˙
b. Abı̄ Shujā ʿ Fā tik, 43, 72 243, 245
Ibn Farı̄ ghū n, 19n inner circle, inner public, 4, 5n, 14n, 52, 110,
Ibn Hubayra, 252 123, 183, 195
Ibn Ilyā s, Abū ʿAlı̄ , 281 innovation, 115, 191, 196, 285

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 Index

instruments Johannes Hispalensis see John of Seville

military, 119 John of Salisbury, 6n
musical, 119, 268, 270 John of Seville, 48
intermediaries, 5n, 37, 161, 192, 216, 284n judge(s), 9, 10, 15, 22, 37, 39n, 51, 55, 127n,
al-Iqnā ʿ, 30n 128n, 130, 131, 132n, 191n, 192n, 211n,
iqtā ʿ, 28, 29, 307 213n, 252, 269, 273, 280, 296, 305, 307,
˙
iqtibā s, 110n 310
Iran, 8, 28, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 40, 41, 51, Chief Judge, 9, 10, 15, 37, 39n, 127n, 128n,
57, 125n, 136, 138n, 139n, 185n, 200n, 130, 211n, 305
213n, 270n, 280n, 296n, 307n Julian, the Apostate, 7
Iraq, 25, 28, 31, 35, 36, 40, 41, 42, 44, 107n, jurisconsult, 11, 71
122n, 193, 194, 195, 197, 198, 199, 220, jurisprudence, 71, 128n, 132n, 204n, 279 see
252n, 253n, 265n, 273, 275, 288n, 297, also fiqh
306 justice, 4, 15, 20, 21, 23, 27n, 29, 46, 49n, 50,
Isfahan, 41, 54n, 65, 66, 174, 262n, 297 56, 63, 64, 68, 69, 72, 83, 92, 102, 103,
al-Isfahbadhı̄ , Ahmad, 22n 104, 105, 107, 112, 114n, 117, 122, 130,
˙ ˙
Ismā ʿı̄ l b. Ahmad, Samanid amir, 33, 181, 191, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 144, 145, 146,
˙
193, 195n, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 149, 150, 151, 153, 161, 168, 180, 181,
277n, 307 182, 183, 184, 185, 189n, 191, 192, 193,
Ismā ʿı̄ l b. Jaʿfar al-Sā diq, 30 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210,
˙
Ismaili(sm), 14n, 30, 31, 33, 42, 43, 54, 65, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215n, 217, 219, 220,
66, 67, 68, 69n, 73, 194, 195, 278, 279n, 222, 224, 225, 232, 234, 236, 239, 240,
280n, 282n 271, 276, 287, 290, 300 see also circle of
iʿtidhā riyyā t, 90n justice
ʿIzz al-Dı̄ n Kaykā ʾū s I b. Kaykhusraw, Seljuk
of Rum, 13n Kaʿba, 312
ʿIzz al-Dı̄ n Kaykā ʾū s II, Seljuk of Rum, 15n al-Kaʿbı̄ , Abū l-Qā sim ʿAbdallā h al-Balkhı̄ , 52,
125n
Jaʿfar al-Sā diq, 30, 166 Kabul, 17n
˙
Jaʿfar b. Yahyā al-Barmakı̄ , 220n kadkhudā y, 242, 284, 286, 296 see also
˙
Jahā ngı̄ r, Mughal emperor, 17 steward, stewardship
jā hiliyya, 108, 114, 123n, 138n Kalı̄ la wa-Dimna, 7, 19
al-Jā hiz, ʿAmr b. Bahr, 10n, 159n Kanz al-mulū k fı̄ kayfiyyat al-sulū k, 14n
˙ ˙ ˙
al-Jahshiyā rı̄ , ʿAbdallā h b. ʿAbdū s, 125, 126n, Karakhanids, 27, 34–5, 39, 56, 57, 58, 139n,
127 see also Kitā b al-Wuzarā ʾ wa-l-kuttā b 297n
Jalā l al-Dawla, Buyid ruler, 39n, 62 Karrā miyya, 114n
al-Jalı̄ s al-sā lih wa-l-anı̄ s al-nā sih, 14n Kashghar, 35, 56, 144, 289, 299,
˙ ˙ ˙˙
Jarı̄ r b. ʿAbdallā h, 256 300, 301
javā nmard(ı̄ ), 60, 141n, 167–8, 172n, 237 see Kā shifı̄ , Husayn-i Vā ʿiz, 15
˙ ˙
also chivalry Kashmir, 14
Jā vı̄ dā n khirad, 12n, 17 al-Kā tib, Ahmad b. Abı̄ Bakr, 276n
˙
Jawā miʿ al-ʿulū m, 19n Katib Çelebi, 16n
al-Jayhā nı̄ , Abū ʿAbdallā h, 277n Kayā niyā n, 138n
al-Jayhā nı̄ , Abū ʿAlı̄ Muhammad, 279 Kaykā ʾū s b. Iskandar, ʿUnsur al-Maʿā lı̄ ,
˙ ˙
Jerusalem, 43, 71, 73, 289, 294n Ziyarid ruler, 10, 17, 34, 35n, 55, 56n, 57,
Jesus, 107, 312n 59–61, 65, 78, 140n, 145n, 167–8, 170n,
Jewish communities, 43, 74 172n, 174n, 175n, 177n, 262n
Jibal, 36 Kayseri, 14n
jihā d, 43, 54, 72, 157, 225n Kennedy, Hugh, 31

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 Index

khalı̄ fa, khulafā ʾ, khalā ʾif, 89, 113, 131, 135, Kitā b al-Siyā sa fı̄ tadbı̄ r al-riyā sa, 7–8, 22n,
236 47–51, 77, 104n, 185n see also Sirr al-asrā r
khā naqā h, 32, 41, 294n Kitā b al-Sultā n, 10
˙
khaqan, 297–305 Kitā b al-Tā j fı̄ akhlā q al-mulū k, 10, 16n, 53,
kharā j, 9 see also taxes 250
Khā rijı̄ , Khawā rij, 253n Kitā b al-Tā jı̄ , 266n
khā ss(a), 5, 52, 110, 183, 195, 206n, 302 see Kitā b al-Wuzarā ʾ wa-l-kuttā b, 125, 126n, 127
˙˙
also é lites Koçi Beg, 16n
khatun, 297n, 298–303 Konya, 15n
Khawarnaq, 91 Kubraviyya, 14n
khidma, 89, 244n, 297, 300 Kufa, 108n, 288
Khiradnamā -yi jā n-afrū z, 13n kufr see unbelief
Khurasan, 11, 25, 31, 33, 37, 38n, 39, 40, 41, kufrā n, 95, 196 see also ingratitude
44, 52, 53, 54, 66, 68, 73, 107n, 166n, kut, 58n, 146
117n, 122n, 125n, 172, 193, 194, kutadgu bilig (genre), 57
195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 250n, Kutadgu bilig, 35, 56–9, 78, 139n, 144–55,
253n, 263n, 275, 281, 292, 293, 297, 297n
306, 308
Khusraw I, Sasanian ruler, 12, 121, 123n, 138, Lahore, 37n
139n, 258n see also Anū shı̄ rvā n Lakhmids, 90, 91
Khusraw II Parvı̄ z, 123, 229, 246, 252n Lambton, A. K. S., 6n, 64n
Khusraw Fı̄ rū z, al-Malik al-Rahı̄ m, Buyid laqab, 272n, 273n, 274, 296–309 see also titles
˙
ruler, 39 Latā ʾif al-hikmeh, 15, 18n
˙ ˙
Khusraws, 118, 138n, 267 see also Sasanian Latin, 3, 17
khutba, 33, 39, 43, 102, 174 see also oration law, 4, 30n, 32, 44, 53, 83, 105, 146, 180, 183,
˙
Khuzistan, 36, 197, 198, 273 185, 187, 203, 204, 210, 212, 213, 214,
kh ā jeh, khvā jagā n, 284, 296, 308
v
217, 219, 224n, 225, 231, 232, 233,
Khvarazm, 38, 40, 55, 289, 297, 306, 308 270n, 278, 284, 305, 307 see also nā mū s,
khvā razmshā h (title), 38 qā nū n, religious law, sharia
Kı̄ miyā -yi saʿā dat, 67, 69 Lebanon, 71
KınalızadeʿAlı̄ Çelebi, 16 legitimacy, legitimation, 4, 18, 25, 30n, 34, 45,
al-Kindı̄ , Abū Yū suf Yaʿqū b, 53 67, 70, 180, 186, 188, 189n, 191, 192n,
kindness, 20, 21, 95, 96, 114, 169, 184, 202n, 233
203, 205, 224, 228, 234, 245, 263, 264, letters, Arabic, 36, 52 see also adab
292, 301 letters, men of, 4, 32, 55, 111n, 125n, 127n, 217n
Kirman, 36, 40n, 44 Levy, Reuben, 78–9, 172n
Kish(sh), 304 librarian, library, 18, 22, 36n, 37n, 64, 66, 74n
kitā b, 9, 292n Libro de las calidades del rey, 18
Kitā b al-Adab wa-l-sulwā n fı̄ nasā ʾih al-salā tı̄ n, literacy, 22
˙ ˙ ˙
22 litté rateur(s), 37, 54, 59n, 105n, 127n see also
Kitā b al-ʿIbar, 74 letters, men of
Kitā b al-Kharā j, 9 love, 60, 83, 90n, 98, 99, 114n, 116, 136, 151,
Kitā b al-Mubhij, 124 153, 161, 164, 177, 185, 189, 209, 227,
Kitā b al-Mustazhirı̄ (Kitā b Fadā ʾih al- 240, 251, 254, 256, 257, 258 see also
˙ ˙ ˙
Bā tiniyya wa-fadā ʾil al-Mustazhiriyya), passionate love
˙ ˙ ˙
67n loyalty, 5n, 124, 146, 165, 170, 188, 190, 255,
Kitā b-ı Müstetab, 16n 282
Kitā b (Risā la fı̄ ) al-Sahā ba, 9 lubb, 309
˙ ˙
Kitā b al-Siyā sa al-ʿā mmiyya, 48 Lutfi Paşa, 16

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madhhab, 30n, 32, 115, 279 Marv al-Rū dh, 292, 293
madrasa, 32, 41, 66, 71n marzbā n, 250
maghrib, 44, 71, 119n, 311 mashriq, 44, 68n
Magians, 138, 139 maslaha, masā lih, 90, 114, 133, 137, 201, 204n,
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
al-Mahdı̄ , Abbasid caliph, 105n, 117 210, 216 see also common good, public
al-Mahdı̄ , ʿAbdallā h (ʿUbayd Allā h), Fatimid good
caliph-imam, 42, 198n, 272n Masʿū d b. Mahmū d, Ghaznavid sultan, 38, 39,
˙
Mahdiyya, 42, 198 179n, 292
Mahmū d, Ghaznavid sultan, 35, 37, 38, 174, al-Mā wardı̄ , Abū l-HasanʿAlı̄ b. Muhammad,
˙ ˙ ˙
175, 179n, 260, 282, 292, 297–306, 306 10, 11, 12, 22n, 30n, 37, 39n, 45, 51n, 52,
Mahmū d b. Muhammad b. al-Husayn al- 53, 58, 61–3, 67, 79, 97n, 130, 132n, 135n,
˙ ˙ ˙
Isfahā nı̄ , 22n 155–6, 158n, 159n, 163n, 186, 189, 191,
˙
Majd al-Dawla, Rustam, Buyid ruler, 173n, 192n, 217, 218, 219n, 224n, 232n, 234,
174, 175n 270 see also Pseudo-Mā wardı̄
majlis, assembly or gathering, 18, 108, 124, Mawdū d b. Masʿū d, Ghaznavid ruler, 59
129, 209n, 243n, 260, 268, 273, 308 mawʿiza, mawā ʿiz, 6, 13, 17, 35, 157n see also
˙ ˙
Malatyavı̄ , Muhammad-i Ghā zı̄ , 13n admonition, exhortation, nası̄ ha
˙ ˙ ˙˙
malik, 30, 36n, 39n, 44, 62, 63, 68n, 88, 93, Mawʿizeh-yi Jahā ngı̄ rı̄ , 17
˙
121n, 130, 132n, 215, 225, 297 mawlā , 35, 117, 118, 272
Mā lik b. Anas, 257 mawlā amı̄ r al-muʾminı̄ n, 35
al-Malik al-Ashraf Muzaffar al-Dı̄ n, 14n maxim, 7, 13n, 45, 60, 61, 62, 73, 101n, 107n,
˙
Mā lik b. Dı̄ nā r, 312 108n, 111n, 119n, 120n, 124n, 134n, 138n,
Mā likı̄ school of law, 70, 71, 74, 204n, 158n 163n, 170n, 179n, 182, 183n, 205n, 206,
al-Malik al-Kā mil, Ayyubid ruler, 18n 208n, 252, 257n see also aphorism, hikma
˙
mā lik al-mulk, 88 Maymū n b. Mihrā n, 257
Malikshā h, Seljuk sultan, 40, 41, 44, 63, 64, mazā lim, 27n, 181, 190, 191, 192n, 215n, 270
˙
65, 66, 68, 181, 283, 284n, 298n see also grievance(s), redress of
al-Malik al-Zā hir Ghā zı̄ , Ayyubid ruler, 11n Mazandaran, 174n
˙
mamlū k, mamā lı̄ k, 27, 43, 93 see also ghulā m, mean, mid-point, 15, 63, 152, 164, 222
military enslavement Mecca, 42, 102, 107n, 121n, 122n, 135n, 221n,
al-Maʾmū n, Abbasid caliph, 33, 91n, 98, 118, 288, 289, 294n, 308n
125, 126, 128n, 210, 211, 249, 264 medicine, 49, 51, 60, 119, 140n, 141n, 147,
Maʾmū nid Khvā razmshā hs, 38, 55 152, 251
al-Maʾmū n II b. Maʾmū n I, Khvā razmshā h, Medina, 42, 122n, 170n, 210n, 211n, 257n,
38, 55, 260 258n, 268n, 288, 289, 290, 312n
mandate, 55, 64, 85, 135n, 136, 137n, 145, 180, Meisami, Julie Scott, 14n, 91n
188, 247 merchant(s), 32, 57, 127n, 172n, 223, 241,
al-Mansū r, Abbasid caliph, 35n, 98n, 105, 292n, 296, 299, 300, 302, 311
˙
116n, 117, 126, 135n, 193n metaphor, 3, 61, 85, 90n, 92n, 133n, 139,
Mansū r I b. Nū h I, Samanid amir, 306 160n, 167, 190n, 208n, 209n, 250n,
˙ ˙
manthū r al-hikam, 163n, 189n, 206, 230n, 257 254, 264n
˙
Mantiq al-tayr, 59 Middle Persian, 7, 47, 58, 103n
˙ ˙
Manzalaoui, M., 48n, 77n, 182n, 183n sources for mirrors, 8, 47
Manzikert, 42, 74n Midian, 291n
Mardā vı̄ j b. Ziyā r, 34, 36 Mihrajā n, 270
mardumı̄ , 167, 168, 169, 176, 177 military commander(s), 22, 25, 43, 57, 60,
Mā rib, 96n 91n, 125n, 150, 173, 196, 197, 250n, 264,
marriage, 39, 43, 60, 65, 212, 287n 265, 266, 268n, 269n, 272n, 273, 274n,
Marv, 39, 40, 44, 168n, 199, 292n 284, 295, 307

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military enslavement, 26, 27, 28 see also Muhammad b. Kaʿb, 205n

˙
ghulā m, mamlū k Muhammad b. Malikshā h, Seljuk sultan, 44,
˙
military force(s) and personnel, 25, 26, 28, 29, 66, 68
45, 145, 153, 222, 242, 249 muhkam, 196, 197n
˙
military service, 27, 39, 227 al-Muhtadı̄ , Abbasid caliph, 269n, 270,
mindfulness, 14, 60, 95, 96, 137, 295, 307, 271
309, 310 Muʿizz al-Dawla, Abū l-Husayn, Buyid ruler,
˙
Minhā j al-wuzarā ʾ wa-sirā j al-umarā ʾ, 22n 30n, 36, 265–6, 273–4, 275
miʿrā j, 294n al-Muʿizz li-Dı̄ n Allā h, Fatimid caliph-imam,
mirror (metaphorical use of), 4 42
mirror(s) for princes al-Muktafı̄ , Abbasid caliph, 262
appearance of ~, 19, 20–1 (Fig. 1) mulk, 45, 62, 88, 94, 114, 115n, 130, 134n, 169,
definitions of ~, 5 174n, 183n, 199, 215n, 218, 307, 308
diverse forms of ~, 3–23 Multan, 282n
mirror-writers, 3n, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 15, 16, mulū k al-atrā f, 129, 298n
˙
17, 24, 29, 30, 38, 41, 51, 73, 76, 85, 139, mulū k al-tawā ʾif, 70n, 213
˙
143, 144, 156, 180, 182, 203, 217, 247, municipal governor(s), 120, 127, 237, 284,
259 292, 304 see also raʾı̄ s
secularity of ~, 44–6 Muʾnis al-Khā dim, 272
term(s) for ~, 3, 5 al-Muntasir, Abbasid caliph, 268
˙
Mirsā d al-ʿibā d min al-mabdaʾ ilā l-maʿā d, 14n, al-Muqaddima, 74
˙
17, 22n al-Muqannaʿ, 116, 117n
al-Misbā h al-mudı̄ ʾ fı̄ khilā fat al-Mustadı̄ ʾ, 11n muqtaʿ, 29, 307
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
Miskawayh, Abū ʿAlı̄ , 12n, 17, 36, 104n, 144n, al-Muqtadir, Abbasid caliph, 272, 273n, 274,
161n 276n
mizā j, 140, 261 see also temperament(s) Murad III, Ottoman sultan, 16n
moderation, 177, 227, 235, 260 Murghab River, 292n
Moses, 113, 291–2, 311n muruvvat, 172n, 199
Mosul, 265n Mū sā b. Bughā , 270n
Muʿā wiya, Umayyad caliph, 101n, 124, 220n, Mū sā b. Jaʿfar al-Sā diq, 30n
˙
277 Mū sā Yabghu, 39
al-Mubayyida, 117 Musʿab b. al-Zubayr, 107
˙ ˙
Muflih, Abū Sā lih, 272 al-Musʿabı̄ , Abū l-Tayyib, 278–80
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
Mughal(s), 15, 16, 17 musannaf, 9, 10, 24
˙
al-Muhallab b. Abı̄ Sufra, 172n, 253, 266n al-Mū sawı̄ , Abū Jaʿfar Muhammad b.
˙ ˙
al-Muhallabı̄ , Abū Muhammad al-Hasan b. Mū sā al-ʿAlawı̄ al-Tū sı̄ , 127
˙ ˙ ˙
Muhammad, 265–6 music, 119, 272, 279
˙
Muhammad, Prophet, 13, 21, 23, 42, 57, 67, musician(s), 55, 60
˙
69, 87, 89n, 93, 94, 98, 101n, 108n, 109, al-Mustadı̄ ʾ, Abbasid caliph, 11, 43
˙
113, 119n, 120, 121, 122n, 123n, 126, 127, Mustafa Âlı̄ , 16
129, 131, 135, 136, 138, 142, 157n, 162, al-Mustaʿı̄ n, Abbasid caliph, 268,
170n, 182, 205n, 206n, 207n, 208, 269
209n, 211, 213, 219, 220, 254, 255, 256, al-Mustakfı̄ , Abbasid caliph, 273, 274,
257n, 258n, 280, 286n, 287, 294n, 303, 275
305, 307, 310 al-Mustaʿsim, Abbasid caliph, 19n
˙
Muhammad Bā qir Najm al-Thā nı̄ , 17 mustawfı̄ , 308
˙
Muhammad b. Bughā , 270n al-Muʿtadid, Abbasid caliph, 33, 128, 195n,
˙ ˙
Muhammad Hakı̄ m Mı̄ rzā , 17n 200n
˙ ˙
Muhammad b. ʿĪ sā b.ʿAlı̄ al-Hā shimı̄ , 126n muʿtamad, 201, 236, 243
˙

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al-Muʿtamid, Abbasid caliph, 128n, 195, Nasr I b. Ahmad, Samanid amir, 195n
˙ ˙
269n, 271, 272 Nasr II b. Ahmad, Samanid amir, 31, 33, 54,
˙ ˙
al-Mutanabbı̄ , Abū l-Tayyib Ahmad b. al- 125, 129, 278–80, 306–7
˙ ˙
Husayn, 264 Nasr b. ʿAlı̄ , Karakhanid Ilig, 34
˙ ˙
mutaqā rib, 58, 59 Nasr al-Sharā bı̄ , 129
˙
al-Muʿtasim, Abbasid caliph, 100, 127, Nawrū z, 270
˙
268n al-Nazzā m, Ibrā hı̄ m b. al-Sayyā r, 99n
˙˙
al-Mutawakkil, Abbasid caliph, 10, 127n, 261, networks, 5, 31, 40, 64, 285n
262n, 263, 268, 269n, 270, 271n Nicomachean Ethics, 7, 144n, 159n
Muʿtazila, Muʿtazilı̄ , 30n, 37, 52, 98n, 114n, niʿma, niʿam, 87, 88, 94, 95, 96, 111, 123, 210n
128n, 155n see also favour
al-Muʿtazz, Abbasid caliph, 268, 269 Nimruz, 297, 306
al-Mutı̄ ʿ, Abbasid caliph, 273n, 274, 275 Nishapur, 39, 54, 55, 66, 114n, 181, 200,
˙
al-Muttaqı̄ , Abbasid caliph, 273, 274n 249n, 261, 293
al-Muwaffaq, Abū Ahmad, Abbasid, 271 nithā r, 127 see also gift(s)
˙
Nizā m al-Dı̄ n Yahyā b. Sā ʿid, 13n, 19
˙ ˙ ˙
al-Nā bigha al-Dhubyā nı̄ , 90 Nizā miyya, 41, 66, 71
˙
nadı̄ m see boon-companion(s) Nizā m al-Mulk, 8, 10, 12, 28n, 38, 40, 41, 54,
˙
nafs, anfus, 97, 98, 106, 116, 156, 159n, 165, 58n, 63–6, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 79, 179n,
250, 279, 310 189n, 190, 191, 192n, 194n, 199n, 234,
al-nafs al-mutmaʾinna, 250n 235, 236n, 237n, 239n, 259, 260, 265n,
˙
al-nafs al-nā tiqa, 279 278n, 279n, 282, 283, 284n, 285n, 286n,
˙
see also self, soul 292n, 294n, 296n, 297n, 298n, 307n
al-Nahj [al-Manhaj] al-maslū k fı̄ siyā sat al- Noah, 116, 253
mulū k, 19n, Fig. 1 noble, nobility of birth, 55, 57, 99, 100, 133,
Na’ima, 16n 147, 151, 154, 159, 206n, 263, 268, 277,
Najm al-Dı̄ n Dā ya Rā zı̄ , 14, 17 284, 286, 298
Najrā n, 107 nomad(s), 27, 28, 38, 40, 41
al-Namarı̄ , Mansū r, 91n non-Muslims, 34, 37, 70, 73, 204, 215n, 256n
˙
nā mū s, 183, 296, 298 North Africa, 26, 42, 72, 74
narrative, 7, 13, 21, 23, 53, 57, 60, 61, 64, 65, Nū h I b. Nasr II, Samanid amir, 129, 280–1,
˙ ˙
73, 98n, 102n, 112n, 122n, 139n, 191, 306
193n, 199n, 204, 234, 235, 236n, 237n, Nū h II b. Mansū r, Samanid amir, 306
˙ ˙
254n, 260, 274n, 283, 291n, 297n, 300n al-Nuʿmā n III b. al-Mundhir, 90, 91n
nasafa, 213, 224n see also equity Nū r Allā h Khā qā nı̄ , Qadi, 17
˙
Nasibin, 274 Nū r al-Dı̄ n Mahmū d b. Zangı̄ , 43, 44n
˙
nası̄ ha, nasā ʾih, 6, 13, 208, 254–7 Nushat ü s-selâtin, 16n
˙˙ ˙ ˙
nası̄ hat al-mulū k (genre), 5, 57, 59n, 68
˙˙
Nası̄ hat al-mulū k (Arabic), 12, 33, 51–4, 55, 64, obedience, 4, 55, 60, 64, 86, 90n, 94, 95, 96,
˙˙
68, 77 103, 109, 111, 113, 123, 124, 133, 135, 137,
Nası̄ hat al-mulū k (Persian), 12, 17, 66–70, 80, 186, 187, 188, 190, 194, 196, 197, 198, 212,
˙˙
136 225, 226, 227, 228, 230, 254, 294, 295
Arabic translation of ~, 22, 69, 80 occult sciences, 49
nasihatname, 5, 16, 61 Oghuz, 27, 28, 38 see also Ghuzz
Nā sir al-Dawla, Abū Muhammad Hasan b. Oikonomicos, 7
˙ ˙ ˙
ʿAbdallā h b. Hamdā n, 265 oration, 33, 102, 174n see also khutba
˙ ˙
Nā sir al-Dı̄ n ʿAbd al-Rahı̄ m b. Abı̄ Mansū r, ordinance(s), 61, 89, 90, 105, 187, 210, 213,
˙ ˙ ˙
Ismaili muhtasham, 14n 214, 218n, 224n, 231, 233, 280 see also
˙
Nası̄ r al-Dı̄ n Tū sı̄ , 14, 14n, 98n, 144n ahkā m
˙ ˙ ˙

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 Index

ordinary people, 208, 222, 254 see also ʿā mm(a), physiognomy, 49, 51
common people pilgrimage, 26, 107n, 275, 293, 294,
Ottoman, Ottoman Empire, 15, 16 308n, 312
political literature, 16, 17, 75 Pı̄ shdā diyā n, 138n
readership, 16, 74 Plato, 7, 15, 62, 97n, 144n, 158n, 161n, 187n,
translations into Ottoman Turkish, 61, 79, 80 190n
see also nasihatname poet(s), 14, 32, 57, 58, 60, 85, 87, 90, 91, 99n,
Oxus River, 33, 38, 39, 125n, 199, 289n, 304 100, 101n, 102, 107, 108, 111n, 113n,
Özkend, 34, 299 116n, 118n, 120, 146, 147, 151, 157, 159,
160, 162, 164, 173, 179n, 224, 229, 257,
‘Pact of ʿUmar’, 74 258n, 263n, 268, 276
pā dshā h, pā dshā hı̄ , 45, 198, 284, 285, 295 poetry, 13, 38, 52, 53, 58, 61, 62, 90, 91n, 107n
Palestine, 42 see also verse
pandnā meh, 5, 59n Policraticus, 6n
panegyric, 85, 91n, 179n politics, 4, 5, 10, 14, 52, 66, 71, 76, 111n,
Paradise, 105, 121n, 197, 287, 294, 295, 311 144n, 156
Parthian(s), 58, 138n, 213 polo, 60
passionate love, 98, 99, 229n poor (impoverished), 57, 145, 171, 193, 212,
past, source of instructive examples, 6, 7, 12, 235, 289, 290, 292
18, 53, 64, 83, 87, 90, 119, 123n, 215n, practical philosophy, 5, 14, 15n, 63,
283, 295 144n
pastoralism, 28, 237n prayer, 33, 117, 119, 122, 174n, 199, 200, 203,
patience, 14, 102, 122n, 144, 212 209, 221, 249n, 270, 278, 279, 282, 286,
patient endurance, 52–3, 101, 165, 199, 207 288, 291, 294, 311
patronage, 4, 5, 7, 17, 22, 32, 55, 294n precept(s), 90, 94, 100, 105, 111,
penalty, penalties, 90, 117n, 122, 218n, 224n, 187
225 present(s), 18–19, 27, 168, 272, 297, 305
Persian, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9n, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, see also gift(s)
16, 17, 18, 24, 26, 27n, 34, 35, 36, 38, 41, privilege(s), 87, 88, 89, 93
45, 47, 49, 50, 51, 56, 58, 59, 61, 63, 66, prophets, 53, 60, 70, 88, 113, 116, 137, 138n,
67, 68, 71n, 75, 76, 80, 81, 83, 85, 90n, 163n, 166, 182, 204, 206, 209, 257, 278,
98n, 100n, 103n, 121n, 136, 137n, 138, 294n see also Daniel, David, Hū d, Jesus,
167n, 170n, 179n, 185n, 192, 207n, 208n, Moses, Muhammad, Sā lih, Shuʿayb,
˙ ˙ ˙
210n, 212, 213, 214, 239n, 248, 250, 251, Solomon
252n, 273, 289n, 297n, 299, 303 proverb(s), 13, 58, 62, 127, 163, 170n, 179,
petition(er), 191n, 192, 193, 203, 210, 215, 229, 239, 276n
216, 239, 252, 286, 287, 303, 305 Psalms, 312n
Pharoah, 113, 115, 267 pseudepigraphy, 12, 47, 52
Philip, translator of Sirr al-asrā r, 48 Pseudo-Aristotle, 7, 11, 19, 47–50, 52, 77,
Philip IV, 18 181–2
philosopher(s), 23, 32, 36, 47, 49, 53, 55, 62, Pseudo-Callisthenes, 177n
63, 70, 74, 89, 90, 101, 107, 109, 115, 118, Pseudo-Ghazā lı̄ , 58n, 66, 69, 136
119n, 120, 132n, 134, 144n, 156, 157, 158, Pseudo-Mā wardı̄ , 30n, 33, 45n, 51–4, 64, 70,
159, 160, 161, 163n, 167, 168, 176, 178, 77, 86–7, 88n, 89n, 90n, 91n, 93n, 98n,
181, 182, 187, 207, 212, 213, 252 103n, 104n, 109, 110, 115n, 120n, 130,
philosophy, 7, 15, 52, 63, 70, 119n, 140n, 133n, 136, 159n, 193n, 205n, 225n, 259,
144n, 161n, 185 see also hikma 260, 286n
˙
physician(s), 57, 98, 119n, 152, 252, 261, 262, public good, 204, 214 see also common good,
277 see also doctor(s) maslaha
˙ ˙

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 Index

punishment, 53, 60, 68, 83, 90n, 95, 96, 105, religious sciences, 30, 37, 67, 72, 119n
111, 179, 192, 204, 236, 239n, 244, 246, renunciation, renunciant, 14, 98n, 122n, 193n,
258n, 269, 294 258n, 294, 312n
repentance, 14, 117, 212, 250, 279, 281
Qā bū s b. Vushmgı̄ r, Shams al-Maʿā lı̄ , Ziyarid Republic, 7, 144n
ruler, 34, 55, 59n, 174n reward, 60, 68, 90n, 92n, 96, 97, 100, 105,
Qā bū snā meh, 17, 34, 57, 59–61, 78–9, 140n, 111, 122n, 131, 227, 244, 258, 282, 286,
167–79 295
qadi, 72, 192n, 215n, 269n, 280n, 296 see also reyes de taifas see mulū k al-tawā ʾif
˙
judge ribā t, 289, 292, 294
˙
al-Qā dir, Abbasid caliph, 26, 30, 31, 275n, rich (wealthy), 22, 145, 146, 149, 166, 171,
276, 297, 304, 306 (Fig. 4) 190n, 197, 202, 212, 218, 240, 244, 275,
Qā disiyya, Battle of, 210n 287, 288
al-Qā hir, Abbasid caliph, 272n, 273 rifq, 20, 21 (Fig. 1)
al-Qā ʾim, Abbasid caliph, 30, 39 rightful claim(s), 89, 95, 113, 170, 199, 201,
qalb, 165n, 309n 225, 241, 242, 244 see also haqq
˙
Qanbar b. Hamdā n, 117 risā la, 9, 303 see also epistle
˙
qā nū n, qawā nı̄ n, 214, 217, 232, 233 Rising Sun, 56, 145
Qarmatiyya, 42, 278 Romanus IV Diogenes, Byzantine emperor, 42
˙
Qawā nı̄ n al-wizā ra wa-siyā sat al-mulk, 22n, 62 rū h, 92, 115, 116, 140–1, 205
˙
qawm, 115, 117, 121, 122, 172n, 189, 251, 266, Rukn al-Dawla, Buyid ruler, 36, 262n
271, 280, 310 Rum, 12, 13n, 14n, 15n, 18, 40, 59
qisas al-anbiyā ʾ, 204 Rū stā kı̄ m, 273–4
˙ ˙
quatrain, 58, 61n, 145, 176
Qubā d, Sasanian monarch, 235 al-Sā biʾ, Abū Ishā q Ibrā hı̄ m, 266
˙ ˙
al-Qudā ʿı̄ , al-Qā dı̄ Muhammad b. Salā ma, Saʿd II b. Abı̄ Bakr b. Saʿd-i Zangı̄ , 14n
˙ ˙ ˙
165n sadaqa, 19, 127, 224n, 235, 238, 241, 246, 294
˙
Quhistan, 14n, 174 see also charity, zakā t
al-Qutā mı̄ , ʿUmayr b. Shuyaym, 258 Saʿdı̄ , 14
˙
Qutbuddin, Tahera, 165n Safavid(s), 17
al-Saffā h, Abū l-ʿAbbā s, Abbasid caliph, 124–5
˙
al-Rabı̄ ʿ b. Yū nus, 126 Saffarid(s), 33, 191, 193, 194n, 198n, 199
raʾı̄ s, ruʾasā ʾ, 91, 120, 127, 237, 241, 273, 292 al-Saghā nı̄ (Chaghā nı̄ ), Abū ʿAlı̄ Ahmad, 125
˙ ˙
Raʾı̄ s-i Hā jjı̄ , 292–5 al-Saghā nı̄ (Chaghā nı̄ ), Abū l-Muzaffar b. Abı̄
˙ ˙ ˙
raʿiyya, 23, 89n, 106, 111, 132n see also subject(s) ʿAlı̄ , 129n
Ramadā n, 18 Sahl b. al-Marzubā n, Abū Nasr, 125
˙ ˙
Ramon Berenguer IV, 73 Sā ʿid al-Andalusı̄ , 213n
˙
Rā st Ravishn, 236–46 sā ʾis, 89, 97, 106, 111
rationalism, 52, 53, 86, 87, 114n, 155n, 156, Salā h al-Dı̄ n Yū suf b. Ayyū b (Saladin), 43, 44
˙ ˙
298 Sā lih, 254
˙ ˙
rationalist(s), 109, 113, 252, 285 Sā lim Abū l-ʿAlā ʾ, 48n
ravā n, spirit, 177 see also rū h Sā lim b. ʿAbdallā h, 205n
˙
al-Rā wandı̄ , ʿAbdallā h, 117n Samanids, 27, 31, 33–4, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 54,
Rā wandiyya, 117 55, 57, 60, 61, 125n, 129, 181, 191, 193,
Rayy, 37, 173, 174, 175, 262, 282n, 297 194n, 276n, 277n, 278n, 279n, 280n,
reform, 16, 72, 74, 122, 204, 206, 218 306, 307n
religious law, 111, 187, 210, 212, 213, 214, Samarqand, 33, 117n, 297, 299, 300, 301,
217, 219, 224n, 225, 231, 232, 233, 284, 302, 304
305 Samarra, 268n, 270, 271n

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 Index

Sanjar, 39n, 44, 68 al-Sharı̄ f al-Murtadā , 37

˙
Sanskrit, 7, 37n, 47, 103 al-Sharı̄ f al-Radı̄ , 37
˙
Saragossa see Zaragoza Shash (Tashkent), 33
Sarakhs, 199 shawka, 45, 67, 117
Sasanian, Sasanian Empire, 8, 12, 40, 45, 90n, Shā wur I b. Fadl I, Abū l-Aswar, Shaddā did
˙
91n, 118, 121n, 138n, 139n, 182, 210n, ruler, 59
211n, 213, 232n, 258n, 296n al-Shayzarı̄ , ʿAbd al-Rahmā n b. Nasr, 19n,
˙ ˙
Saul, 88 20–1 (Fig. 1)
Sayf al-Dawla, Abū l-Hasan ʿAlı̄ , Hamdanid Sheba, 93, 96
˙
ruler, 116n, 265n shepherd, 89, 107, 111, 112, 132, 185, 238,
sayyid, 108, 310 252, 291, 312
al-Sayyid, Ridwā n, 156n, 163n, 225n Shia, Shiʿi(sm), 13, 29, 30n, 36, 37, 93
˙
Sayyida (Sayyideh), 173, 174, 175n, 262n see also Imamiyya, Ismaili(sm)
Schefer, Ch., 79 shihna, 199
˙
scholar(s) (ʿulamā ʾ), 10, 11, 22, 23, 32, 45, 57, Shiraz, 276n
68, 69n, 72n, 109, 118, 119, 120, 204n, Shuʿayb, 253, 291
209, 210, 217n, 258, 266n, 280n, 284, shukr, shā kir, 87, 292n see also gratitude
286, 296, 305, 306, 307, 308 Sibt Ibn al-Jawzı̄ , 13, 14n
˙
scientist, 32, 38, 55, 156n Siffı̄ n, Battle of, 117n
˙
Sebü ktigin, 37 al-Sijzı̄ , Tā hir b. Muhammad, 281
˙ ˙
secretary, secretaries, 4, 9, 13n, 17, 36n, 45, sikka, 33, 44n see also coinage
48n, 49, 55, 57, 60, 62, 69, 85, 118n, Sirā j al-mulū k, 17, 43–51, 70–5
126n, 127n, 173, 244, 266n, 273, 277n, sirr, 104
279n, 303 Sirr al-asrā r, 8, 19, 33, 47–51, 77, 90n, 104n,
Secretum secretorum, 8, 17, 47, 48n, 49n, 77 see 133n, 140n, 181, 183n, 185n, 208n, 212n
also Sirr al-asrā r Sistan, 194, 253n
self, 52, 97, 98, 100, 102, 166, 234, 250, 310 Sivas, 14n
see also nafs, soul siyar al-mulū k (genre), 5
Seljuk(s), 13n, 14n, 15n, 18, 19, 26n, 27, 28, Siyar al-mulū k (= Siyā satnā meh), 8, 12, 33n,
29, 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 38–42, 43, 44, 45, 63–6, 79, 80, 190, 194n, 234, 282, 298n,
54n, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 307n
181, 237n, 284n, 297n, 307n siyā sa, 6n, 63, 90, 96, 97, 130, 185, 198n, 204,
Semirechye, 35 206, 210, 213, 214, 239, 244, 246
Seville, 48, 71, 72 ~ islā hiyya, 204, 206, 213, 214, 218
˙ ˙
Shabı̄ b b. Shayba, 105n ~ nabawiyya, 204, 214, 218
Shaddā did(s), 59 see also governance, punishment
‘Shadow of God’, 70, 85, 89, 113, 120, Siyā sat al-mulū k, 11
137 Smaragd, 10n
Shā fiʿı̄ school of law, 30n, 32, 45n, 51, 69n, 71 Socrates, 170
shā hā nshā h, 30n, 36n, 306 Solomon, 16n, 93, 163, 189, 207, 220
shā hnā meh (genre), 57 soul, 15, 56n, 98, 100, 106, 111, 116, 119, 121,
Shā hnā meh, 13n, 38, 57n, 58, 139n see also 139n, 146, 151, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161
Firdawsı̄ carnal ~, 100, 106
Shams al-Dawla, Abū Tā hir, 174n faculties of ~, 15, 161n, 162, 164, 165, 167,
˙
Shā pū r b. Ardashı̄ r, 104 182, 187, 205, 210, 228, 231, 248, 255,
Shaqı̄ q b. Salama, 108 261, 278
sharia (sharı̄ ʿa, sharʿ), 43n, 192n, 213, 218, rational ~, 279
219, 232n, 278, 284, 307 see also religious see also nafs, rū h, self
˙
law Spain, 51, 71 see also Iberia

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 Index

speculative (theoretical) philosophy, 15n Syriac, 7, 47, 182

speculum, 3n see also mirror
speculum principis, 3 Tabarak, 262
˙
state, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30n, 37n, 40, 42, 44, 64, Tabaristan, 34, 173n, 297
74, 93, 128n, 130, 135, 148, 149, 151, 152, tafrı̄ t, 15
˙
153, 154, 185, 187, 190, 192n, 204, 213n, tafsı̄ r, 62, 137
218, 229, 230, 243, 244n, 269n, 283, tafwı̄ d, 189n
˙
297n, 307, 308 see also dawla al-Taghlibı̄ (al-Thaʿlabı̄ ), 10n, 53 see also Kitā b
Steele, Robert, 48n, 77, 181 al-Tā j
steward, stewardship, 113, 215, 242, 243, 284 Tā hir b. al-Husayn Dhū l-Yamı̄ nayn, 9, 25,
˙ ˙
see also kadkhudā y, muʿtamad 249, 267
story, 93, 113, 172, 173, 174, 191, 192, 193, Testament of ~, 9
202n, 203, 210, 211n, 235, 236, 246n, Tahirids, 25, 249, 263, 269n
262n, 286, 289, 291, 292, 295, 297, al-Tā ʾiʿ li-Amr Allā h, Abbasid caliph, 274n,
˙
298n, 300n see also narrative 275–6
subject(s), 5, 23, 26n, 27n, 43, 53, 63, 64, 68, takhlı̄ t, 260, 261
˙
83, 86, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 97, 105, takya, 294
106, 109, 111, 112, 114, 116, 122, 131, talisman, 49
132, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 143, Tansar, Letter of, 7
144, 149, 152, 153, 160, 180, 182, 183, Tashı̄ l al-nazar wa-taʿjı̄ l al-zafar, 61–3, 79,
˙ ˙
185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191n, 192, 108n, 130, 155–6, 186, 217, 225n
198, 204, 205, 206, 209, 212, 213, 214, tashjı̄ r, 19
216, 218, 220, 221, 224, 225, 226, 227, tasnı̄ f, 9
˙
228, 229, 230, 231, 233, 234, 235, 236, tax, taxation, 5n, 9, 26n, 27, 28, 29, 37, 117,
237, 238, 240, 243, 245, 275, 276, 277, 174, 213, 216, 217n, 219, 220, 223, 232n,
281, 284, 286n, 309, 310 see also raʿiyya 234, 235, 240, 246, 270n, 307
Sufi(sm), 14, 32, 57, 177 tax collectors, 235, 307
Sufyā n al-Thawrı̄ , 270 al-Taymı̄ , Abū Muhammad ʿAbdallā h b.
˙
al-Sulamı̄ , Abū l-Fadl Muhammad b. Ayyū b, 112
˙ ˙
Muhammad, al-Hakı̄ m al-Jalı̄ l, 280 temperament, 140, 157, 261, 262 see also mizā j
˙ ˙
Sulaymā n b. ʿAbdallā h b. Tā hir, 263n, 269n temperance, 15, 161, 162n, 164, 165
˙
Sulaymā n b. ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwā n, 261 testament, 7, 9, 25n, 92, 104, 105, 106, 123n,
al-Sū lı̄ , Abū Bakr Muhammad b. Yahyā , 261, 134, 147n, 176, 205n, 249n
˙ ˙ ˙
262n ~ of an Indian king, 92, 104, 105, 205n
al-Sū lı̄ , Ibrā hı̄ m b. al-ʿAbbā s, 99n, 118n see also wasiyya
˙ ˙
sultā n, 4n, 10, 39n, 68n, 89, 93, 94, 95, 120, al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Abū ʿAlı̄ , 129
˙
121, 124, 132n, 135n, 137, 138, 140, 141, al-Thaʿā libı̄ , Abū Mansū r, 22n, 38, 54–6, 60,
˙
156, 158, 185, 208, 214, 218n, 281, 311 64, 78, 109–10, 111n, 114n, 115n, 117n,
sultanate, 43, 45, 67, 239n, 297 120n, 121n, 124n, 125n, 126n, 127n,
al-sultā n al-muʿazzam, 39, 44 129n, 130, 136, 138n, 182n, 189n, 205n,
˙ ˙˙
Sulū k al-mā lik fı̄ tadbı̄ r al-mamā lik, 19n 208n, 209n, 245n, 259–60, 264n, 265n,
sunna, sunan, 87, 90, 97, 109, 185, 196, 253, 268n, 270n, 273n, 274n, 276n, 278n,
307 279n, 296n
Sunni(sm), 26, 30, 31, 32, 36, 37, 42n, Thamū d, 254n
43, 44, 45, 66, 67, 70, 74, 120n, 166n, Themistius, Letter to Julian, 7, 140n
194n Thumā ma b. al-Ashras, 98
al-Suyū tı̄ , Jalā l al-Dı̄ n, 23 al-Tibr al-masbū k fı̄ nası̄ hat al-mulū k, 69n, 80
˙ ˙˙
Syria, 11n, 13, 14n, 31, 40n, 42, 44, 71, 74, Tigı̄ n al-Jā mdā r, 265–6
110n, 232n Tirmidh, 302, 304

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titles Tus, 41
of books, 15, 19, 22, 47n, 49n, 68, 80n Tuzun, 273n
of individuals, 30n, 36n, 39, 72, 265n, Tyre, 43, 73
267n, 283, 284, 296–309
titulature, 30n, 36n ʿUbayd Allā h b. ʿAbdallā h b. Tā hir, 102n,
˙
Toledo, 73 107n
Topuzoğ lu, T. R., 78, 109n, 111n, 119n, 129n ʿUbayd Allā h b. Sulaymā n Ibn Wahb, 128
Torah, 107n, 312n ʿUbayd Allā h b. ʿUmar, 211n, 252–3
Tortosa, 70, 71n, 72, 73 ʿUbayd Allā h al-ʿUmarı̄ , 312
townspeople, city dwellers, 220, 221, 222, ʿUbayd Allā h b. Yahyā b. Khā qā n, 268n
˙
223, 274 Uighur, 58
trade, 26, 34, 41, 198, 223, 224 see also ʿUmar I b. al-Khattā b, second caliph, 69,
˙˙
commerce 74, 113n, 131, 182, 207n, 210, 211n,
translation 248, 250, 253n, 255, 257, 270, 289–91,
into Arabic, 7–8, 47, 58 312
into Persian, 34 ʿUmar II b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzı̄ z, Umayyad caliph,
of mirrors, 17 69, 205n, 211, 257, 270
Transoxiana, 26, 33, 35, 116, 117, 122n, 193, ʿUmar b. Hubayra, 252n
195n, 289n, 297, 306 Umayyad(s), 7, 48n, 103, 107n, 116n, 135n,
treasurer, 57, 128 213n, 220n, 221n, 252n, 253n, 257n,
treasury, 197, 198, 201, 202, 220, 224n, 235, 261n, 266n, 270
237, 240, 241, 243, 244, 275n, 286, 287, unbelief, 117, 138, 206, 214, 256, 281, 297,
288, 299, 303, 304 305
trust, 19, 83, 94, 103, 104, 111, 113, 130, 133, Universal Intellect, 177
146, 150, 151, 182, 190n, 201, 202, 224, Urmavı̄ , Sirā j al-Dı̄ n Mahmū d b. Abı̄ Bakr, 15,
˙
228, 232, 236, 244, 264, 297, 299, 303, 18n
305 ʿUthmā n b. ʿAbdallā h, 131
in God, 14 ʿUthmā n b. ʿAffā n, third caliph, 121, 129, 211
-s, 60, 86, 95, 132, 224 ʿUyū n al-akhbā r, 10, 247, 253n
trustee, a trusted person, 89, 201, 231, 236,
237, 238, 243 Vayshgird, 289
Tughril Bey, 38–40, 41, 44, 62, 181 verse, 13, 61, 62, 91n, 99, 100, 101n,
Tuhfa, 19 see also gift(s) 107n, 116n, 118, 144, 145, 150, 152,
˙
Tuhfat al-saniyya fı̄ siyā sat al-raʿiyya, 23 153, 157n, 163n, 173, 263n, 268n, 269,
˙
Tulunids, 25 276n
Tunisia, 31, 42, 198n Qurʾanic ~(s), 13, 62, 69, 87n, 96, 114,
Turan, 57, 139n 115n, 136, 137, 138n, 196n, 199n, 209,
Turkish, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 16, 17, 24, 25, 27, 254n
28, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39n, 42, 45, 49, 50, Via Regia, 10n
51, 56, 57, 58, 61, 74, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, vice(s), 15, 63, 87, 102, 144, 147, 151, 157, 158,
83, 85, 147n, 244n, 267, 268n, 269n, 161, 162, 164, 165
270n, 271n, 273n, 274n, 284, 296, 298n, virtue(s), 13, 14, 15, 58, 63, 83, 87, 96, 97, 98,
299, 300, 301, 308 100, 102, 104, 107, 120n, 121n, 143, 144,
Tü rkmen, 27, 28, 41, 244n 145, 146, 147, 148, 151, 154, 155, 156,
al-Turtū shı̄ , Abū Bakr Muhammad b. al- 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 164, 165,
˙ ˙ ˙
Walı̄ d, 10, 17, 43–51, 70–5, 81, 92n, 139– 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 172n, 181, 184,
40, 163n, 203–4, 206n, 207n, 208n, 199, 201, 204n, 247, 251, 277
209n, 213n, 215n, 218, 247, 256n, 257n, cardinal ~, 15, 161n
259, 267n, 309 rational ~, 161n

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 Index

vizier(s), 4, 10, 13, 16, 17, 22, 36, 40, 42, 43, wisdom, 15, 19, 35, 58, 70, 87, 88, 91n, 103,
49, 55, 56, 57, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 69, 110, 111n, 114, 119, 136, 137, 144, 145,
71, 72, 75, 92, 100n, 125, 126n, 127, 147, 151, 154, 162n, 164, 165n, 167, 170,
128n, 191n, 205, 210, 234, 235–47, 249, 182, 183, 185, 189, 210, 214, 256, 257,
250, 260, 265, 266n, 268n, 275, 277n, 298
279n, 280n, 283, 284, 294n, 298n, 305, ~ literature, 7, 17
308, 311 women, 65, 70, 105, 112, 165, 168, 178, 187,
Vushmgı̄ r, Ziyarid ruler, 34 202, 212, 220, 246, 252, 272, 283n, 284,
291n, 297n, 299
wā lı̄ , wulā t (Pers. vā lı̄ ), 67, 68n, 92, 107, 132,
210 Yahyā b. Aktham, 211
˙
al-Walı̄ d b. ʿAbd al-Malik, Umayyad caliph, Yahyā b. Muʿā dh al-Rā zı̄ , 114
˙
206n, 273n Yamı̄ n al-Dawla, laqab of Mahmū d of Ghazna,
˙
al-Walı̄ d b. Hishā m, Umayyad, 138n 281, 297, 306
Waraqa b. Nawfal, 258 Yaʿqū b Ibn Killis, 42–3
warfare, 34, 55, 60, 74, 119, 264, 275, 285 see Yaʿqū b b. al-Layth, Saffarid ruler, 191, 193,
also ghazw, jihā d 194, 195, 196, 197
Wası̄ f al-Turkı̄ , 268n Yavari, Neguin, 63n, 234n
˙
wasiyya, 9, 92, 104n, 107n, 249n Yazdagird ‘the Sinner’, Sasanian monarch,
˙
see also testament 138, 139n
water, 98, 140, 141, 218, 219, 220, 221, 225, Yazı̄ d b. Shajara al-Rahā wı̄ , 124
237, 269, 288, 290, 291n, 205 Yazı̄ d b. ʿUmar Ibn Hubayra,
~ used as metaphor, 69, 100, 149, 150, 152, 252n
177, 261 Yemen, 42, 96n, 107n, 267
al-Wā thiq, Abbasid caliph, 127, 128, 261, Yū suf Ibn Tā shufı̄ n, Abū Yaʿqū b, 72
270n Yū suf Khā ss Hā jib, 35, 56–9, 78, 144–55, 147n
˙˙ ˙
wealth, 29, 37, 52, 60, 63, 95, 103, 112, 150,
151, 152, 165n, 171, 186, 189, 191, 201, Żahhā k, 138, 139n
˙˙
202, 208, 217, 223, 230, 236, 240, 245, zā hir, 54, 88, 111n, 183n
˙
258, 267, 271, 275, 286, 287, 288, 292, zakā t, 141 see also sadaqa
˙
294, 299, 312 Zanj, 272
welfare, well-being (salā h), 4, 53, 92, 94, 104, Zaragoza, 71
˙ ˙
110, 112, 132, 133, 134, 137, 157, 180n, Zarang, 193, 194n
188, 204, 210, 213, 214, 217, 218, 219, Zayd b. Aslam, 289–91
220, 224, 225, 226, 227, 229, 236, 247, Ziyā d b. Abı̄ hi (Ziyā d b. Abı̄ Sufyā n),
254, 295 220
Westöstlicher Divan, 61 Ziyarids, 34, 36, 39, 55, 59, 167, 174n
Wide Awake, 56, 57 Zubayda, 287–9
wine, 55, 56n, 60, 129, 152, 178, 260, 261, al-Zubayr b. al-ʿAwwā m, 220
268, 279 Zuhayr b. Abı̄ Sulmā , 281

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 C A M B R I D G E T E X T S IN TH E
HISTORY O F P OLITICAL TH OUGHT

Titles published in the series thus far

Aquinas Political Writings (edited and translated by R. W. Dyson)
Aristotle The Politics and The Constitution of Athens (edited and translated by
Stephen Everson)
Arnold Culture and Anarchy and Other Writings (edited by Stefan Collini)
Astell Political Writings (edited by Patricia Springborg)
Augustine The City of God against the Pagans (edited and translated by R. W.
Dyson)
Augustine Political Writings (edited by E. M. Atkins and R. J. Dodaro)
Austin The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (edited by Wilfrid E. Rumble)
Bacon The History of the Reign of King Henry VII (edited by Brian Vickers)
Bagehot The English Constitution (edited by Paul Smith)
Bakunin Statism and Anarchy (edited and translated by Marshall Shatz)
Baxter Holy Commonwealth (edited by William Lamont)
Bayle Political Writings (edited by Sally L. Jenkinson)
Beccaria On Crimes and Punishments and Other Writings (edited by Richard
Bellamy; translated by Richard Davies)
Bentham A Fragment on Government (edited by Ross Harrison)
Bernstein The Preconditions of Socialism (edited and translated by Henry Tudor)
Bodin On Sovereignty (edited and translated by Julian H. Franklin)
Bolingbroke Political Writings (edited by David Armitage)
Bossuet Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture (edited and trans-
lated by Patrick Riley)
Botero The Reason of State (edited and translated by Robert Bireley)
The British Idealists (edited by David Boucher)
Burke Pre-Revolutionary Writings (edited by Ian Harris)
Burke Revolutionary Writings (edited by Iain Hampsher-Monk)
Cavendish Political Writings (edited by Susan James)
Christine de Pizan The Book of the Body Politic (edited by Kate Langdon Forhan)
Cicero On Duties (edited by E. M. Atkins; edited and translated by M. T. Griffin)
Cicero On the Commonwealth and On the Laws (edited and translated by James E.
G. Zetzel)
Comte Early Political Writings (edited and translated by H. S. Jones)
Comte Conciliarism and Papalism (edited by J. H. Burns and Thomas M. Izbicki)
Condorcet Political Writings (edited by Steven Lukes and Nadia Urbinati)
Constant Political Writings (edited and translated by Biancamaria Fontana)
Dante Monarchy (edited and translated by Prue Shaw)
Diderot Political Writings (edited and translated by John Hope Mason and Robert
Wokler)
The Dutch Revolt (edited and translated by Martin van Gelderen)

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 Early Greek Political Thought from Homer to the Sophists (edited and translated by
Michael Gagarin and Paul Woodruff)
The Early Political Writings of the German Romantics (edited and translated by
Frederick C. Beiser)
Emerson Political Writings (edited by Kenneth S. Sacks)
The English Levellers (edited by Andrew Sharp)
Erasmus The Education of a Christian Prince with the Panegyric for Archduke Philip
of Austria (edited and translated by Lisa Jardine; translated by Neil M.
Cheshire and Michael J. Heath)
Fénelon Telemachus (edited and translated by Patrick Riley)
Ferguson An Essay on the History of Civil Society (edited by Fania Oz-Salzberger)
Fichte Addresses to the German Nation (edited by Gregory Moore)
Filmer Patriarcha and Other Writings (edited by Johann P. Sommerville)
Fletcher Political Works (edited by John Robertson)
Sir John Fortescue On the Laws and Governance of England (edited by Shelley
Lockwood)
Fourier The Theory of the Four Movements (edited by Gareth Stedman Jones;
edited and translated by Ian Patterson)
Franklin The Autobiography and Other Writings on Politics, Economics, and Virtue
(edited by Alan Houston)
Gramsci Pre-Prison Writings (edited by Richard Bellamy; translated by Virginia
Cox)
Guicciardini Dialogue on the Government of Florence (edited and translated by
Alison Brown)
Hamilton, Madison, and Jay (writing as ‘Publius’) The Federalist with Letters of
‘Brutus’ (edited by Terence Ball)
Harrington The Commonwealth of Oceana and A System of Politics (edited by J. G.
A. Pocock)
Hegel Elements of the Philosophy of Right (edited by Allen W. Wood; translated by
H. B. Nisbet)
Hegel Political Writings (edited by Laurence Dickey and H. B. Nisbet)
Hess The Holy History of Mankind and Other Writings (edited and translated by
Shlomo Avineri)
Hobbes On the Citizen (edited and translated by Michael Silverthorne and
Richard Tuck)
Hobbes Leviathan (edited by Richard Tuck)
Hobhouse Liberalism and Other Writings (edited by James Meadowcroft)
Hooker Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (edited by A. S. McGrade)
Hume Political Essays (edited by Knud Haakonssen)
Jefferson Political Writings (edited by Joyce Appleby and Terence Ball)
John of Salisbury Policraticus (edited by Cary J. Nederman)
Kant Political Writings (edited by H. S. Reiss; translated by H. B. Nisbet)
King James VI and I Political Writings (edited by Johann P. Sommerville)
Knox On Rebellion (edited by Roger A. Mason)

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 Kropotkin The Conquest of Bread and Other Writings (edited by Marshall Shatz)
Kumazawa Banzan Governing the Realm and bringing Peace to All below Heaven
(edited and translated by John A. Tucker)
Lawson Politica Sacra et Civilis (edited by Conal Condren)
Leibniz Political Writings (edited and translated by Patrick Riley)
Lincoln Political Writings and Speeches (edited by Terence Ball)
Locke Political Essays (edited by Mark Goldie)
Locke Two Treatises of Government (edited by Peter Laslett)
Loyseau A Treatise of Orders and Plain Dignities (edited and translated by Howell
A. Lloyd)
Loyseau Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority (edited and translated by Harro
Höpfl)
Machiavelli The Prince, Second Edition (edited by Quentin Skinner and Russell
Price)
Joseph de Maistre Considerations on France (edited and translated by Richard A.
Lebrun)
Maitland State, Trust and Corporation (edited by David Runciman and Magnus
Ryan)
Malthus An Essay on the Principle of Population (edited by Donald Winch)
Marsiglio of Padua Defensor minor and De translatione Imperii (edited by Cary J.
Nederman)
Marsilius of Padua The Defender of the Peace (edited and translated by Annabel
Brett)
Marx Early Political Writings (edited and translated by Joseph O’Malley)
James Mill Political Writings (edited by Terence Ball)
J. S. Mill On Liberty and Other Writings (edited by Stefan Collini)
Milton Political Writings (edited by Martin Dzelzainis; translated by Claire
Gruzelier)
Montesquieu The Spirit of the Laws (edited and translated by Anne M. Cohler,
Basia Carolyn Miller, and Harold Samuel Stone)
More Utopia (edited by George M. Logan and Robert M. Adams)
Morris News from Nowhere (edited by Krishan Kumar)
Nicholas of Cusa The Catholic Concordance (edited and translated by Paul E.
Sigmund)
Nietzsche On the Genealogy of Morality (edited by Keith Ansell-Pearson; trans-
lated by Carol Diethe)
Paine Political Writings (edited by Bruce Kuklick)
William Penn Political Writings (edited by Andrew R. Murphy)
Plato Gorgias, Menexenus, Protagoras (edited by Malcolm Schofield; translated by
Tom Griffith)
Plato Laws (edited by Malcolm Schofield; translated by Tom Griffith)
Plato The Republic (edited by G. R. F. Ferrari; translated by Tom Griffith)
Plato Statesman (edited by Julia Annas; edited and translated by Robin
Waterfield)

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108348645.015 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Political Thought in Portugal and its Empire, c.1500–1800 (edited by Pedro Cardim
and Nuno Gonçalo Monteiro)
The Political Thought of the Irish Revolution (edited by Richard Bourke and Niamh
Gallagher)
Price Political Writings (edited by D. O. Thomas)
Priestley Political Writings (edited by Peter Miller)
Proudhon What Is Property? (edited and translated by Donald R. Kelley and
Bonnie G. Smith)
Pufendorf On the Duty of Man and Citizen according to Natural Law (edited by
James Tully; translated by Michael Silverthorne)
The Radical Reformation (edited and translated by Michael G. Baylor)
Rousseau The Discourses and Other Early Political Writings (edited and translated
by Victor Gourevitch)
Rousseau The Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings (edited and
translated by Victor Gourevitch)
Seneca Moral and Political Essays (edited and translated by John M. Cooper;
edited by J. F. Procopé)
Sidney Court Maxims (edited by Hans W. Blom, Eco Haitsma Mulier, and Ronald
Janse)
Sorel Reflections on Violence (edited by Jeremy Jennings)
Spencer Political Writings (edited by John Offer)
Stirner The Ego and Its Own (edited by David Leopold)
Emperor Taizong and ministers The Essentials of Governance (compiled by Wu
Jing; edited and translated by Hilde De Weerdt, Glen Dudbridge, and Gabe
van Beijeren)
Thoreau Political Writings (edited by Nancy L. Rosenblum)
Tönnies Community and Civil Society (edited and translated by Jose Harris;
translated by Margaret Hollis)
Utopias of the British Enlightenment (edited by Gregory Claeys)
Vico The First New Science (edited and translated by Leon Pompa)
Vitoria Political Writings (edited by Anthony Pagden and Jeremy Lawrance)
Voltaire Political Writings (edited and translated by David Williams)
Weber Political Writings (edited by Peter Lassman; edited and translated by
Ronald Speirs)
William of Ockham A Short Discourse on Tyrannical Government (edited by Arthur
Stephen McGrade; translated by John Kilcullen)
William of Ockham A Letter to the Friars Minor and Other Writings (edited by
Arthur Stephen McGrade; edited and translated by John Kilcullen)
Wollstonecraft A Vindication of the Rights of Men and A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman (edited by Sylvana Tomaselli)

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108348645.015 Published online by Cambridge University Press