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Mashrabaمشربة

Works

Every work of the authors in the library’s orbit, in the reader or not: who wrote it, when, how it survives, where it can be read, and how it connects to other works. 82 so far. Where a field has not been checked against its source, it says so.
Checked on 2026-10-31
Table and recordsStreams
TraditionAll (36)The Quran (0)Ibn ʿArabī (7)Sufism (3)Philosophy (11)Ismaili thought (0)Greek sources (0)Further afield (15)Arabic grammar (0)Other (0)
GenreAll (15)Scripture and exegesis (0)Ḥadīth and the Prophet's life (0)Law (1)Creed and kalām (0)Metaphysics and cosmology (0)Sciences of letters and names (0)Counsel and governance (13)The path (0)Lives and lineages (0)Prayer and litany (0)Lyric (0)Language and grammar (0)Other, or not yet classed (1)
FormAll (16)Prose (15)Verse (0)Prose with verse (1)Diagrams (0)
LanguageAll (39)Arabic (15)Persian (7)Greek (2)Syriac (0)Ottoman Turkish (3)Chinese (0)Latin (8)Hebrew (1)Other (3)
PeriodAll (15)Archaic and classical Greek (0)Hellenistic (0)Roman imperial (0)Late antique (0)2nd century AH (3)3rd century AH (3)4th century AH (0)5th century AH (3)6th century AH (2)7th century AH (0)8th century AH (3)9th century AH (1)10th century AH (0)11th century AH (0)13th century AH (0)
In the readerAll (15)In the reader (0)Planned (0)Listed only (15)

15 of 82 works.

Works, sortable by column
Title ▲AuthorGenrePeriodLanguageStatus
Courtesies of Kings; Gift for Viziers; Histories of the Persian Kingsآداب الملوك؛ تحفة الوزراء؛ غرر أخبار ملوك الفرسal-ThaʿālibīCounsel and governance5th century AHArabicListed only
The Great Book of Conduct; The Little Book of Conduct; Epistle on the Caliph's Entourageالأدب الكبير؛ الأدب الصغير؛ رسالة في الصحابةIbn al-MuqaffaʿCounsel and governance2nd century AHArabicListed only
The Ordinances of Governmentالأحكام السلطانية والولايات الدينيةal-MāwardīLaw5th century AHArabicListed only
Al-Fakhri: on the systems of government and the Muslim dynastiesالفخري في الآداب السلطانية والدول الإسلاميةIbn al-ṬiqṭaqāCounsel and governance8th century AHArabicListed only
Introduction to History (Prolegomena)المقدمةIbn KhaldūnOther, or not yet classed8th century AHArabicListed only
The Shining Meteors on Useful Policyالشهب اللامعة في السياسة النافعةIbn Riḍwān al-MālaqīCounsel and governance8th century AHArabicListed only
Wonders of Conduct in the Natures of Kingshipبدائع السلك في طبائع الملكIbn al-AzraqCounsel and governance9th century AHArabicListed only
Kalīla and Dimna (Fables of Bidpai)كليلة ودمنةIbn al-MuqaffaʿCounsel and governance2nd century AHArabicListed only
Book of the Crown (on the characters of kings)كتاب التاج في أخلاق الملوكal-Jāḥiẓ (attributed)Counsel and governance3rd century AHArabicListed only
Counsel for Kings; Facilitating Deliberation; Rules of the Vizierate; Conduct of Worldly and Religious Lifeنصيحة الملوك؛ تسهيل النظر وتعجيل الظفر؛ قوانين الوزارة؛ أدب الدنيا والدينal-MāwardīCounsel and governance5th century AHArabicListed only
Letter of Ṭāhir to his son ʿAbd Allāhرسالة طاهر بن الحسين إلى ابنه عبد اللهṬāhir b. al-ḤusaynCounsel and governance3rd century AHArabicListed only
The Lamp of Kingsسراج الملوكal-ṬurṭūshīCounsel and governance6th century AHArabicListed only
Solace for the Ruler during Hostility of Subjects (Waters of Comfort)سلوان المطاع في عدوان الأتباعIbn Ẓafar al-ṢiqillīCounsel and governance6th century AHArabicListed only
Testament of Ardashīrعهد أردشيرArdashīr I (attributed)Counsel and governance2nd century AHArabicListed only
Choice Reports (Book 1: al-Sulṭān)عيون الأخبارIbn QutaybaCounsel and governance3rd century AHArabicListed only

Records

Courtesies of Kings; Gift for Viziers; Histories of the Persian Kings

آداب الملوك؛ تحفة الوزراء؛ غرر أخبار ملوك الفرس

Ādāb al-mulūk; Tuḥfat al-wuzarāʾ; Ghurar akhbār mulūk al-Furs

al-Thaʿālibī (d. 429/1038)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Arabic · 5th century AH · Listed only

Courtly adab and Persian king-lore for Khurasani rulers;

Attribution
authentic not yet checked
Date
early 11th c., Nishapur / Ghazna (basis: date of composition) not yet checked
Editions
  • Jalīl al-ʿAṭiyya (Ādāb al-mulūk, Beirut 1990); Zotenberg (Ghurar, Paris 1900) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Translations
  • Zotenberg (French, Ghurar) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Not in the reader yet

Connected works

The Great Book of Conduct; The Little Book of Conduct; Epistle on the Caliph's Entourage

الأدب الكبير؛ الأدب الصغير؛ رسالة في الصحابة

al-Adab al-kabīr; al-Adab al-ṣaghīr; Risāla fī l-ṣaḥāba

Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (d. c. 139/756)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Arabic · 2nd century AH · Listed only

Adab as a code of reason and restraint;

Attribution
authentic: TDV names al-Adab al-kabīr, al-Adab al-ṣaghīr and the Risāla fī l-ṣaḥāba among his works, and calls him an early pioneer of the siyāsatnāma tradition. checked in Hasan Hüseyin Adalıoğlu, “Siyâsetnâme”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (2009)
Date
c. 750s, Basra, Baghdad (al-Manṣūr's court) (basis: date of composition) not yet checked
Editions
  • Muḥammad Kurd ʿAlī, Rasāʾil al-bulaghāʾ (Cairo 1913); Pellat, Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ 'mort en 757' conseilleur du calife (Paris 1976) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Translations
  • Pellat (French); partial English in Lambton and Marlow · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Not in the reader yet

Connected works

The Ordinances of Government

الأحكام السلطانية والولايات الدينية

al-Aḥkām al-sulṭāniyya wa-l-wilāyāt al-dīniyya

al-Māwardī (d. 450/1058)

Further afield · Law · Arabic · 5th century AH · Listed only

The caliphate and offices defined by law: the imam's contract, appointment of ministers, judges, war, taxes.

Attribution
authentic not yet checked
Date
c. 1045-58, Baghdad (basis: date of composition) not yet checked
Editions
  • Muḥammad Fahmī al-Sarjānī (Cairo 1909); Aḥmad Mubārak al-Baghdādī (Kuwait 1989) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Translations
  • Asadullah Yate (London: Ta-Ha 1996); Wafaa Wahba (Garnet 1996) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Not in the reader yet

Connected works

Al-Fakhri: on the systems of government and the Muslim dynasties

الفخري في الآداب السلطانية والدول الإسلامية

al-Fakhrī fī l-ādāb al-sulṭāniyya wa-l-duwal al-islāmiyya

Ibn al-Ṭiqṭaqā (fl. 701/1302)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Arabic · 8th century AH · Listed only

A mirror in the first half, then a short history of caliphs and viziers as exemplars.

Attribution
authentic not yet checked
Date
1302, Mosul (basis: date of composition) not yet checked
Editions
  • Ahlwardt (Gotha 1860); Cairo ed. · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Translations
  • C. E. J. Whitting, Al-Fakhri on the Systems of Government (London 1947) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Not in the reader yet

Connected works

Introduction to History (Prolegomena)

المقدمة

al-Muqaddima

Ibn Khaldūn (d. 808/1406)

Further afield · Other, or not yet classed · Arabic · 8th century AH · Listed only

Dynasties rise by ʿasabiyya and fall in about three generations;

Attribution
authentic not yet checked
Date
1377, Tunis, Qalʿat Ibn Salāma, Cairo (basis: date of composition) not yet checked
Editions
  • Quatremère (Paris 1858); Dār Ṣādir ed. · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Translations
  • Franz Rosenthal (Princeton, Bollingen 1958; rev. 1967) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Not in the reader yet

Connected works

The Shining Meteors on Useful Policy

الشهب اللامعة في السياسة النافعة

al-Shuhub al-lāmiʿa fī l-siyāsa al-nāfiʿa

Ibn Riḍwān al-Mālaqī (d. 783/1381)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Arabic · 8th century AH · Listed only

A Maghribi mirror building on Ṭurṭūshī and the philosophers, written for Marinid/Nasrid courts.

Attribution
authentic not yet checked
Date
late 14th c., Málaga, Fez (basis: date of composition) not yet checked
Editions
  • ʿAlī Sāmī al-Nashshār (Casablanca 1984) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Not in the reader yet

Connected works

Wonders of Conduct in the Natures of Kingship

بدائع السلك في طبائع الملك

Badāʾiʿ al-silk fī ṭabāʾiʿ al-mulk

Ibn al-Azraq (d. 896/1491)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Arabic · 9th century AH · Listed only

Follows Ibn Khaldūn's civilisation theory with Andalusi examples;

Attribution
authentic not yet checked
Date
c. 1480s, Granada, then Tlemcen/Málaga (basis: date of composition) not yet checked
Editions
  • ʿAlī Sāmī al-Nashshār (Baghdad 1977) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Not in the reader yet

Connected works

Kalīla and Dimna (Fables of Bidpai)

كليلة ودمنة

Kalīla wa-Dimna

Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (d. c. 139/756)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Arabic · 2nd century AH · Listed only

Animal fables as indirect counsel to the king;

Attribution
authentic: TDV: the Pahlavi Pañcatantra was put into Arabic by Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ as Kalīla wa-Dimna. checked in İskender Pala, “Nasihatnâme”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (2006); Hasan Hüseyin Adalıoğlu, “Siyâsetnâme”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (2009)
Date
c. 750; Persian 1144, Baghdad (basis: date of composition) not yet checked
Editions
  • Louis Cheikho (Beirut 1905); ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ʿAzzām (Cairo 1941) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Translations
  • Thomas Irving (Kalilah and Dimnah, 1980); Wyndham Knatchbull (1819, free) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Not in the reader yet

Connected works

Book of the Crown (on the characters of kings)

كتاب التاج في أخلاق الملوك

Kitāb al-Tāj fī akhlāq al-mulūk

al-Jāḥiẓ (attributed) (d. 255/868)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Arabic · 3rd century AH · Listed only

Describes the ceremonial, conversation and etiquette of the Sasanian-style king, an exemplar for caliphal court.

Attribution
disputed: TDV says 'attributed to al-Jāḥiẓ' (Câhiz'e nisbet edilen). checked in İskender Pala, “Nasihatnâme”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (2006)
Date
9th–10th c.; TDV (Siyâsetname) calls it one of the first works with the siyāsatnāma genre's marks, dedicated to the vizier al-Fatḥ b. Khāqān, in a preface and four parts (basis: date of composition) probable
Editions
  • Aḥmad Zakī Pasha (Cairo 1914) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Translations
  • Charles Pellat, Le Livre de la Couronne (Paris 1954) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Not in the reader yet

Connected works

Counsel for Kings; Facilitating Deliberation; Rules of the Vizierate; Conduct of Worldly and Religious Life

نصيحة الملوك؛ تسهيل النظر وتعجيل الظفر؛ قوانين الوزارة؛ أدب الدنيا والدين

Naṣīḥat al-mulūk; Tashīl al-naẓar wa-taʿjīl al-ẓafar; Qawānīn al-wizāra; Adab al-dunyā wa-l-dīn

al-Māwardī (d. 450/1058)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Arabic · 5th century AH · Listed only

Counsel to rulers grounded in sharia ethics and Greek moral philosophy: the ruler's knowledge, justice, consultation, and the ordering of the realm's elements.

Attribution
authentic not yet checked
Date
c. 1030-1058 (Naṣīḥa authorship in doubt), Baghdad (basis: date of composition) not yet checked
Editions
  • Naṣīḥat al-mulūk: Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Munʿim (Alexandria 1988); Tashīl al-naẓar: Riḍwān al-Sayyid (Beirut 1981); Adab al-dunyā: Muṣṭafā al-Saqqā (Cairo 1955) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Translations
  • Partial in Marlow (2023) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Not in the reader yet

Connected works

Letter of Ṭāhir to his son ʿAbd Allāh

رسالة طاهر بن الحسين إلى ابنه عبد الله

Risālat Ṭāhir b. al-Ḥusayn ilā ibnihi ʿAbd Allāh

Ṭāhir b. al-Ḥusayn (fl. 206/821)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Arabic · 3rd century AH · Listed only

Instruction to a new governor: fear God, justice, no personal indulgence;

Attribution
authentic checked in Hasan Hüseyin Adalıoğlu, “Siyâsetnâme”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (2009)
Date
206/821, to his son ʿAbd Allāh b. Ṭāhir on his appointment; al-Maʾmūn had it copied and sent to governors (TDV, citing al-Ṭabarī VIII, 582–591) (basis: date of composition) checked in Hasan Hüseyin Adalıoğlu, “Siyâsetnâme”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (2009)
Editions
  • Ṭabarī, vol. 3 (de Goeje series) text · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Translations
  • Bosworth, JNES 29 (1970) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Not in the reader yet

Connected works

The Lamp of Kings

سراج الملوك

Sirāj al-mulūk

al-Ṭurṭūshī (d. 520/1126)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Arabic · 6th century AH · Listed only

A learned jurist's mirror: kingship as divine trust, with long stories of Persian kings and Prophetic ḥadīth;

Attribution
authentic not yet checked
Date
c. 1122, Alexandria (Fatimid vizier al-Maʾmūn al-Baṭāʾiḥī) (basis: date of composition) not yet checked
Editions
  • Būlāq 1872; Jaʿfar al-Bayātī (London 1990) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Translations
  • Maurice Alarcón, Lámpara de los príncipes (Madrid 1930-31) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Not in the reader yet

Connected works

Solace for the Ruler during Hostility of Subjects (Waters of Comfort)

سلوان المطاع في عدوان الأتباع

Sulwān al-muṭāʿ fī ʿudwān al-atbāʿ

Ibn Ẓafar al-Ṣiqillī (d. c. 565/1170)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Arabic · 6th century AH · Listed only

Stories and parables on how rulers and subjects weather misfortune, with consolation from Providence;

Attribution
authentic not yet checked
Date
c. 1159-60, Sicily, then Hama (basis: date of composition) not yet checked
Editions
  • Beirut 1995; Tunis 1279/1862; Istanbul 1285/1868 · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Translations
  • Michele Amari, Italian (Florence 1851) and Solwan; or Waters of Comfort (London 1852) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Not in the reader yet

Connected works

Testament of Ardashīr

عهد أردشير

ʿAhd Ardashīr

Ardashīr I (attributed) (r. 224–242 CE)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Arabic · 2nd century AH · Listed only

'Religion and kingship are twins: neither can stand without the other';

Attribution
authentic not yet checked
Date
Sasanian (3rd c.) tradition; Arabic text 8th c., Iran, then Baghdad (basis: date of composition) not yet checked
Editions
  • Iḥsān ʿAbbās, ʿAhd Ardashīr (Beirut 1967) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Translations
  • Mario Grignaschi, 'Quelques spécimens de la littérature sassanide conservés dans les bibliothèques d'Istanbul', JA 254 (1966) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Not in the reader yet

Connected works

Choice Reports (Book 1: al-Sulṭān)

عيون الأخبار

ʿUyūn al-akhbār

Ibn Qutayba (d. 276/889)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Arabic · 3rd century AH · Listed only

Book 1 gathers sayings on rulers, the first systematic Arabic ethic of power.

Attribution
authentic not yet checked
Date
c. 880, Baghdad (basis: date of composition) not yet checked
Editions
  • Dār al-Kutub (Cairo 1925-30); later ed. · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Translations
  • partial · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Not in the reader yet

Connected works