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Medieval Muslim Mirrors for Princes

An Anthology of Arabic, Persian and Turkish Political Advice

Louise Marlow (Wellesley College, Massachusetts)

$132.95

Hardback

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English
Cambridge University Press
05 January 2023
The 'mirror for princes' genre of literature offers advice to a ruler, or ruler-to-be, concerning the exercise of royal power and the wellbeing of the body politic. This anthology presents selections from the 'mirror literature' produced 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 maintenance 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.
Edited and translated by:  
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 222mm,  Width: 145mm,  Spine: 25mm
Weight:   630g
ISBN:   9781108425650
ISBN 10:   1108425658
Series:   Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Pages:   320
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Part I. Introduction: 1. The Arabic, Persian and Turkish mirror literatures; 2. Contexts; 3. Texts and authors; 4. Editions and translations; Part II. Texts: 5. The nature of sovereignty; 6. The king's person and character; 7. Foundations of royal authority and principles of governance; 8. The practice of good governance; 9. Problems in the kingdom and their remedies; Appendix; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.

Louise Marlow 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 (Cambridge, 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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