Works

Bacon's glossed edition of the Secretum

Secretum secretorum cum glossis et notulis

Roger Bacon (1214–1292)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Latin · 7th century AH · Listed only

Bacon edits the Philip-of-Tripoli text with glosses (on hygiene, optics, astrology), using it to argue for scientific reform.

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

c. 1270s, Oxford/Paris (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Steele fasc. V (1920) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

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

The Exalted Ethics

اخلاق علائی

Ahlâk-ı ʿAlâʾî

Kınalızade ʿAlī Çelebi (d. 979/1572)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Ottoman Turkish · 10th century AH · Listed only

Ottoman Turkish reworking of Ṭūsī and Dawānī: ethics, household and politics in the Greek-Persian line.

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

c. 1564, Istanbul (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Istanbul editions · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Muhsinean Ethics

اخلاق محسنی

Akhlāq-i Muḥsinī

Ḥusayn Vāʿiẓ Kāshifī (d. 910/1504–05)

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

A popular Timurid mirror in Persian with simplified Ṭūsī/Dawānī schemes and stories.

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

c. 1494-1500, Herat (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Hertford 1850 (lithograph) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Henry Keene, Akhlāq-i Muḥsinī (Hertford 1850) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

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

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

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

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

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

The Unique Necklace

العقد الفريد

al-ʿIqd al-farīd

Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih (d. 328/940)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Arabic · 4th century AH · Listed only

Book 1 al-Luʾluʾa (The Pearl) on the sultan, one of the first Andalusi mirrors in anthology form.

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

early 10th c., Cordoba (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Amīn, Zayn, Abyārī (Cairo 1940-53) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• partial · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Andarz: Middle Persian counsel literature

اندرز (Pahlavi andarz)

Andarz

Anonymous (Sasanian andarz) (Sasanian period)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Other · Late antique · Listed only

Short sayings and instruction from sage to king or son;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

Sasanian, preserved in 9th-10th c. Pahlavi, Iran (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Zaehner, The Teachings of the Magi (1956); Shaki and others · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Zaehner (1956); Jamasp-Asana and West (Pahlavi Texts) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

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

Four Discourses

چهار مقاله

Chahār maqāla

Niẓāmī ʿArūḍī (fl. c. 551/1156)

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

Discusses the secretary, poet, astrologer and physician: those needed by the king.

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

c. 1156, Samarkand/Herat (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• E. G. Browne (London 1910, text) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• E. G. Browne (1899; rev. 1921) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

On Clemency

De clementia

De clementia

Seneca (c. 4 BCE–65 CE)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Latin · Roman imperial · Listed only

Clemency makes power secure;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

55-56 CE, Rome (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Prechac (Budé) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Cooper and Procopé (CUP, Seneca: Moral and Political Essays 1995) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

On the Rule of Princes

De regimine principum

De regimine principum

Giles of Rome (d. 1316)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Latin · 7th century AH · Listed only

Three books on self-governance (ethics), the household (economics), and the kingdom (politics): the Platonic-Aristotelian triad as in Ṭūsī.

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

c. 1280, Paris (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Rome 1556 · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Briggs (Giles of Rome's De regimine principum: Reading and Writing Politics at Court and University, Stanford/Brill 1999) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

On Kingship

De regno ad regem Cypri

De regno

Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Latin · 7th century AH · Listed only

Monarchy best;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

c. 1267, Rome/Orvieto (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Leonine ed. (vol. 42) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Gerald Phelan and I. Eschmann, On Kingship (Toronto 1949); Dyson (CUP 2002) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Guide to Practice for the Correction of Defects

دستور العمل لإصلاح الخلل

Düstūrü'l-ʿamel li-iṣlāḥi'l-ḥalel

Kâtib Çelebi (Ḥājjī Khalīfa) (d. 1067/1657)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Ottoman Turkish · 11th century AH · Listed only

A reform tract applying Ibn Khaldūn's organic cycles to Ottoman decline;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

1653, Istanbul (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Ankara 1982 · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Lewis, 'Ottoman Observers of Ottoman Decline'; Lewis tr. (1979 TDV?) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Advice to the Emperor / Ekthesis

Ἔκθεσις κεφαλαίων παραινετικῶν

Ekthesis kephalaiōn parainetikōn

Agapetus the Deacon (fl. 6th c. CE)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Greek · Late antique · Listed only

72 short chapters, acrostic on Justinian's name: the emperor is equal to all in nature, to God alone in power;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

c. 527-30, Constantinople (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Riedinger (1995); PG 86 · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Peter Bell, Three Political Voices from the Age of Justinian (Liverpool 2009) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Rose Garden; Orchard

گلستان؛ بوستان

Gulistān; Būstān

Saʿdī of Shiraz (d. c. 691/1292)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Persian · 7th century AH · Listed only

Gulistān book 1 is 'On the conduct of kings': tales of kings, viziers and dervishes;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

1257-58, Shiraz (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Yūsufī (Tehran 1368 sh) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Eastwick (1852, free); Wickens (1974) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

The Prince

Il Principe

Il Principe

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Other · 10th century AH · Listed only

Breaks with the mirror tradition: 'the effectual truth' rather than imagined republics;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

written 1513; printed 1532, Florence (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Inglese (Einaudi 1995) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Gutenberg; Mansfield; Skinner · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

The Education of a Christian Prince

Institutio principis christiani

Institutio principis christiani

Desiderius Erasmus (d. 1536)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Latin · 10th century AH · Listed only

Education of the prince in virtue;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

1516, Basel/Louvain (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Opera omnia IV-1 (Amsterdam 1974) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Lisa Jardine (CUP 1997); Born (1936) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Persian Kalīla and Dimna

کلیله و دمنه (Naṣrallāh Munshī)

Kalīla va Dimna

Naṣrallāh Munshī (fl. c. 538/1144)

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

Persian rendering of Kalīla with embellishments;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

c. 1144, Ghazna (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Mojtabā Mīnuvī (Tehran 1343 sh) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

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

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

Koçi Bey's Treatise

رساله

Koçi Bey Risalesi

Koçi Bey (d. c. 1650)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Ottoman Turkish · 11th century AH · Listed only

Practical advice on restoring order to a declining state;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

c. 1631 and 1640, Istanbul (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Zuhuri Danışman (Istanbul 1972) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

The Wisdom of Royal Glory

قوتادغو بيليگ

Kutadgu Bilig

Yūsuf Khāṣṣ Ḥājib (fl. 462/1069)

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

Four allegorical figures (Justice/king, Fortune/vizier, Intellect/sage, End/ascetic) debate kingship and the afterlife in a Turkic mathnawī.

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

462/1069–70, presented to the Karakhanid ruler Tavgach Ulugh Bughra Khan (TDV) (basis: date of composition) ✓ checked in Hasan Hüseyin Adalıoğlu, “Siyâsetnâme”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (2009)

Editions

• R. R. Arat (Istanbul 1947) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Robert Dankoff, Wisdom of Royal Glory (Chicago 1983) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

On Monarchy

Monarchia

Monarchia

Dante Alighieri (1265–1321)

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

Universal monarchy as necessary for realising the human intellect;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

c. 1313-18, Verona/Ravenna (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Prue Shaw (Cambridge 1995) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Prue Shaw (CUP 1995) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Letter of Tansar

نامه تنسر

Nāma-yi Tansar

Tansar (attributed) (Sasanian setting)

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Persian · Late antique · Listed only

Defends Ardashīr's centralising reform;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

Sasanian setting; Persian recension via Ibn Isfandiyār (c. 1210), Iran (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Minovi (Tehran 1932); Darmesteter (JA 1894) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Mary Boyce, The Letter of Tansar (Rome 1968) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Counsel for Kings (Book of Counsel for Kings)

نصیحة الملوک

Naṣīḥat al-mulūk

al-Ghazālī (450–505/1058–1111)

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

Faith as foundation of kingship;

Attribution

disputed: The draft says the first half may be his and the second part from another hand. TDV treats it as al-Ghazālī's, written in Baghdad under the Seljuks. The scope doc names Patricia Crone, 'Did al-Ghazālī write a mirror for princes?', JSAI 10 (1987): title and year 1987 seen in OpenAlex; the argument has not been read. probable

Date

c. 1105-09, Tus / Baghdad (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Jalāl al-Dīn Humāʾī (Tehran 1315 sh/1937) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• F. R. C. Bagley, Ghazali's Book of Counsel for Kings (OUP 1964) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

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

Byzantine mirrors: Photius' Letter to Boris of Bulgaria (c. 864-66); Theophylact of Ohrid, Paideia basilike (1080s [check]); Basil I's Exhortations to Leo (886 [check])

Letter to Boris-Michael; Παιδεία βασιλική; Κεφάλαια παραινετικά

Photius to Boris; Paideia basilikē (Theophylact); Basil I, Kephalaia

Photius of Constantinople (c. 810–after 893 CE)

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

Christian ruler as imitator of Christ;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

9th-11th c., Constantinople; Ohrid (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Statesman's Book

Policraticus

Policraticus

John of Salisbury (d. 1180)

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

The commonwealth as body: prince as head, priests as soul, army as hands;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

1159, Canterbury/Chartres (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Webb (Oxford 1909); Nederman CUP tr. (1990) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Cary Nederman (CUP 1990); Pike (1938) 'Frivolities of Courtiers' · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Vernacular Secretum versions

Poridat de las poridades; Secrees of Old Philisoffres; Secreta secretorum (Old French, German, Russian, Welsh...)

Poridat de las poridades; Secrees

Anonymous and later translators (Castilian, English) (13th–15th c. CE)

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

Wide vernacular diffusion made the Secretum a mirror for princes in dozens of languages.

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

13th-15th c., Spain, England, France, German lands, Russia (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Kasten, Poridat de las poridades (Madrid 1957); Steele, EETS e.s. 66 (1894); Manzalaoui, Secretum secretorum: Nine English Versions (EETS 276, Oxford 1977) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Mirror for Princes: The Qābūs Nāma

قابوسنامه

Qābūsnāma

Kaykāʾūs b. Iskandar (fl. 475/1082)

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

44 chapters of counsel from father to son: conduct with friends, kings, physicians, farmers, artisans;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

475/1082-83, Gurgān (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• G.-H. Yūsufī (Tehran 1345 sh/1966); R. Levy (Gibb Memorial NS 18, London 1951) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Reuben Levy, A Mirror for Princes (London: Cresset 1951) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

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

Secret of Secrets (Latin versions)

Secretum secretorum (Latin)

Secretum secretorum

John of Seville and Philip of Tripoli (Latin translators) (12th–13th c. CE)

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

Two Latin translations carried the work to Europe, where it became one of the most copied 'Aristotelian' texts (hundreds of manuscripts).

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

12th-13th c., Toledo/Spain; Tripoli/Antioch (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• R. Steele, Opera hactenus inedita Rogeri Baconi, fasc. V (Oxford 1920) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Steven J. Williams, The Secret of Secrets (Ann Arbor 2003) discusses translations · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

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

The Book of Government or Rules for Kings

سیاست‌نامه / سیر الملوک

Siyāsatnāma / Siyar al-mulūk

Niẓām al-Mulk (d. 485/1092)

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

50 chapters on administration: spies, judges, tax, army, religion;

Attribution

authentic ✓ checked in Hasan Hüseyin Adalıoğlu, “Siyâsetnâme”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (2009)

Date

late 5th/11th c., written at Malikshāh's request (TDV: fifty-one chapters; draft: c. 1091–92) (basis: date of composition) probable

Editions

• Hubert Darke (Tehran 1347 sh; 2nd rev. 1962); Schefer (Paris 1891) · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Translations

• Darke (London 1960; 2nd ed. 1978); Schefer French (1891-93) · en · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

Secret of Secrets (Hebrew versions)

סוד הסודות

Sod ha-sodot

Judah al-Ḥarīzī (c. 1170–1235 (draft says c. 1190–1225; unchecked))

Further afield · Counsel and governance · Hebrew · 7th century AH · Listed only

Medieval Jewish readers took the Secretum into Hebrew;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

13th c., Spain / Provence (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• M. Gaster, 'The Hebrew Version of the Secretum Secretorum', JRAS 1907-08 · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

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

Book of Lords / Lives of the Kings of the Persians

خدای‌نامگ / سیر ملوک العجم

Xwadāy-nāmag / Siyar mulūk al-ʿajam

Anonymous (Sasanian andarz) (Sasanian period)

Further afield · Lives and lineages · Other · Late antique · Listed only

The history of kings as moral exemplar;

Attribution

authentic not yet checked

Date

6th-7th c. Pahlavi; Arabic 8th c., Iran/Baghdad (basis: date of composition) not yet checked

Editions

• Lost; fragments only · cite only (unchecked) not yet checked

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

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