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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 (5)The Quran (0)Ibn ʿArabī (0)Sufism (0)Philosophy (2)Ismaili thought (0)Greek sources (0)Further afield (3)Arabic grammar (0)Other (0)
GenreAll (5)Scripture and exegesis (0)Ḥadīth and the Prophet's life (0)Law (0)Creed and kalām (0)Metaphysics and cosmology (0)Sciences of letters and names (0)Counsel and governance (5)The path (0)Lives and lineages (0)Prayer and litany (0)Lyric (0)Language and grammar (0)Other, or not yet classed (0)
FormAll (5)Prose (5)Verse (0)Prose with verse (0)Diagrams (0)
LanguageAll (5)Arabic (5)Persian (0)Greek (0)Syriac (0)Ottoman Turkish (0)Chinese (0)Latin (0)Hebrew (0)Other (0)
PeriodAll (82)Archaic and classical Greek (7)Hellenistic (0)Roman imperial (4)Late antique (4)2nd century AH (5)3rd century AH (6)4th century AH (6)5th century AH (8)6th century AH (12)7th century AH (16)8th century AH (4)9th century AH (4)10th century AH (3)11th century AH (2)13th century AH (1)
In the readerAll (5)In the reader (0)Planned (0)Listed only (5)

5 of 82 works.

Works, sortable by column
Title ▲AuthorGenrePeriodLanguageStatus
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
Kalīla and Dimna (Fables of Bidpai)كليلة ودمنةIbn al-MuqaffaʿCounsel and governance2nd century AHArabicListed only
Pseudo-Aristotelian letters to Alexander (Arabic Alexander-romance epistolary corpus)رسائل أرسطو إلى الإسكندر; الرسالة في السياسة للمدنPseudo-AristotleCounsel and governance2nd century AHArabicListed only
The Secret of Secretsسر الأسرار / كتاب السياسة في تدبير الرياسةPseudo-AristotleCounsel and governance2nd century AHArabicListed only
Testament of Ardashīrعهد أردشيرArdashīr I (attributed)Counsel and governance2nd century AHArabicListed only

Records

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

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

Pseudo-Aristotelian letters to Alexander (Arabic Alexander-romance epistolary corpus)

رسائل أرسطو إلى الإسكندر; الرسالة في السياسة للمدن

Rasāʾil Arisṭū ilā l-Iskandar; Risāla fī l-siyāsa li-l-mudun (Letter on the policy of cities)

Pseudo-Aristotle ((name borne by anonymous or later authors))

Philosophy · Counsel and governance · Arabic · 2nd century AH · Listed only

Aristotle, tutor of Alexander, counsels policy toward conquered cities and the control of the self;

Attribution
authentic not yet checked
Date
8th-9th c. Arabic, Umayyad/early Abbasid chancery (basis: date of composition) not yet checked
Editions
  • S. M. Stern, Aristotle on the World State (Oxford: Cassirer 1970); Maróth, The Correspondence between Aristotle and Alexander the Great (Piliscsaba 2006) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Translations
  • Maróth (partial English) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Not in the reader yet

Connected works

The Secret of Secrets

سر الأسرار / كتاب السياسة في تدبير الرياسة

Sirr al-asrār / Kitāb al-Siyāsa fī tadbīr al-riyāsa

Pseudo-Aristotle ((name borne by anonymous or later authors))

Philosophy · Counsel and governance · Arabic · 2nd century AH · Listed only

Aristotle teaches Alexander the 'secret' of kingship: justice, ministers, treasury, armies, health regimen, physiognomy, and the king's body as a kingdom ruled by reason.

Attribution
spurious: Presented as Aristotle's letter to Alexander; the Arabic version is credited to Yaḥyā (Yuḥannā) b. al-Biṭrīq, whom the TDV article names as its author or translator for the Ottoman reception. The Arabic origin and date are not yet checked. not yet checked
Date
Core 8th c.; two recensions (short, long) by 10th c., Umayyad/Abbasid chancery; Syria/Iraq (basis: date of composition) not yet checked
Editions
  • ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī, al-Uṣūl al-yūnāniyya li-l-naẓariyyāt al-siyāsiyya fī l-Islām (Cairo 1954); Ismāʿīl/Manzalaoui; critical edition still a desideratum (Forster 2006) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked
Translations
  • English from Arabic: A. S. Fulton in Steele (1920); no standard modern English from the Arabic · 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