Counsel for kings : wisdom and politics in tenth-century Iran
Naṣīḥat al-mulūk of Pseudo-Māwardī : contexts and themes
L. Marlow.
- Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, (c)2016.
- 1 online resource (xv, 344 pages) : maps
- Edinburgh studies in classical Arabic literature .
Includes bibliographical references.
Preface; Notes on Transliteration and Dates; Glossary; Introduction; Part I: Situating the Text; Map 1: The Nile-to-Oxus Region in the Tenth Century; Chapter 1. An Early Samanid View of History: The Dating of Naṣīḥat al-mulūk; Map 2: The Oxus Regions in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries 85; Chapter 2. A Liminal Setting: The Location of Naṣīḥat al-mulūk; Part II: Governance and Society; Chapter 3. Kingship and Governance: Concepts and Terminology; Chapter 4. Intermediaries and Networks; Part III: The Religious Landscape; Chapter 5. Multiplicity and Rhetoric; Chapter 6. Religion and the Samanid Amirs; Chapter 7. The Afflictions of the Kingdom and Their Remedies; Chapter 8. The Religious Sensibility of Naṣīḥat al-mulūk; Fig. 1: The Samanids; Fig. 2: The Samanid Dynastic Family; Notes.
A textual and contextual study of an early Arabic mirror for princes. Mirrors for princes form a substantial and important genre in many pre-modern literatures. Their ostensible purpose is to advise the king; at the same time they assert that the king, if he is truly virtuous, will appreciate being reminded of the contingency of his power. The unknown author of the Counsel for Kings studied in this book wrote in a distinctive early tenth-century Iranian environment. He deploys an abundant set of cultural materials representing 'perennial wisdom' of mixed provenances, which he reinvigorates by applying them to the circumstances of his own time and place. The first volume situates Counsel for Kings in its historical context. The second volume gives direct access to a substantial portion of the text through translation and commentary. Key features. Integrates the evidence of Counsel for Kings with established materials for the study of Samanid history Demonstrates the interplay of mirrors for princes with other forms of literary expression, such as anthologies of adab, historiographical, theological, philosophical and homiletic writings, encyclopaedic works and poetry