Title The sword of ambition : bureaucratic rivalry in medieval Egypt / Abū ʻAmr ʻUthmān ibn Ibrahim al-Nabulusi al-Miṣrī ; edited and translated by Luke B. Yarbrough

Published New York : New York University Press, 2016

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Description 1 online resource Series Library of Arabic Literature Library of Arabic literature. Contents Introduction -- The reprehensibility of employing dhimmis -- The Copts and their deceits -- Of secretaries and their art -- Ignorant men who have donned the garments of the secretaries Summary The Sword of Ambition belongs to a genre of religious polemic written for the rulers of Egypt and Syria between the twelfth and the fourteenth centuries. Unlike most medieval Muslim polemic, the concerns of this genre were more social and political than theological. Leaving no rhetorical stone unturned, the book's author, an unemployed Egyptian scholar and former bureaucrat named 'Uthman ibn Ibrahim al-Nabulusi (d. 660/1262), poured his deep knowledge of history, law, and literature into the work. Now edited in full and translated for the first time, The Sword of Ambition opens a new window onto the fascinating culture of elite rivalry in the late-medieval Islamic Middle East. It contains a wealth of little-known historical anecdotes, unusual religious opinions, obscure and witty poetry, and humorous cultural satire. Above all, it reveals that much of the inter-communal animosity of the era was conditioned by fierce competition for scarce resources that were increasingly mediated by an ideologically committed Sunni Muslim state. This insight reminds us that seemingly timeless and inevitable "religious" conflict must be considered in its broader historical perspective. The Sword of Ambition is both the earliest and most eclectic of several independent works composed in medieval Egypt against the employment of Coptic and Jewish officials, and is vivid testimony to the gradual integration of Islamic scholarship and state administration that was well underway in its day Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes In Arabic with English translation Print version record Subject Administrative agencies -- Egypt -- Early works to 1800 POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Essays. POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Government -- General. POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Government -- National. POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Reference. Administrative agencies Politics and government SUBJECT Egypt -- Politics and government -- 640-1882 -- Early works to 1800 Subject Egypt Genre/Form Early works Form Electronic book Author Yarbrough, Luke B., editor translator Nābulusī, ʻUthmān ibn Ibrāhīm, active 1235. Lumaʻ al-qawānīn al-muḍīyah fī dawāwīn al-diyār al-Miṣrīyah. Nābulusī, ʻUthmān ibn Ibrāhīm, active 1235. Tajrīd sayf al-himmah li-istikhrāj mā fī dhimmat al-dhimmah. English ISBN 9781479839087 1479839086 9781479842575 1479842575

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