Siraj al-Muluk
- Author died
- 520 AH
- Editions
- Min Awā'il al-Maṭbū'āt al-'Arabiyyah
Siraj al-Muluk (The Lamp of Kings) is an eleventh-to-twelfth-century Arabic treatise on statecraft, political ethics, and royal governance by the Andalusian Maliki jurist Abu Bakr al-Tartushi (451–520 AH / 1059–1126 CE) . Also known under the fuller title Siraj al-Muluk wa-l-Khulafa' wa-Minhaj al-Wulah wa-l-Umara' (The Lamp of Kings and Caliphs and the Path of Governors and Princes), it stands as one of the best-known Islamic works in the "mirrors for princes" genre .
Composition and Dedication
Al-Tartushi began composing the book during his residence in Fatimid Egypt for the vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah ibn Amir al-Juyush . Following al-Afdal's assassination in 515 AH prior to the work's completion, al-Tartushi finalized it and presented it to al-Afdal's successor, the vizier al-Ma'mun al-Bata'ihi (Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Fatik), when visiting Cairo in Shawwal 516 AH . Al-Ma'mun, who held a long-standing friendship with the author, received him with great honor .
Al-Tartushi reportedly inscribed two verses of poetry upon dedicating the book to the ruler :
الناس يهدون على قدرهم ... لكنني أهدي على قدري يهدون ما يفنى وأهدي الذي ... يبقى على الأيام والدهر People give gifts according to their station, but I give according to mine; They gift what perishes, while I gift what remains throughout the days and ages.
Scope and Structure
The book is organized into sixty-four chapters (abwab) . It opens with the doxology: «الحمد لله الذي لم يزل ولا يزال وهو الكبير المتعال» ("Praise be to God, Who ever was and ever shall be, the Great, the Exalted") .
In his introduction, al-Tartushi outlines his methodology, explaining that he gathered the wisdom and royal practices of six major civilizations—the Arabs, Persians, Byzantines (al-Rum), Indians (al-Hind), Sind, and Sindhind—combining them with the narratives of the prophets, the sayings and deeds of righteous figures, the sermons of scholars, the maxims of sages, and historical anecdotes of Muslim caliphs, all grounded in the principles of the Qur'an . The work systematically covers the religious obligations and moral virtues incumbent upon rulers, the foundations of just governance, the appointment and supervision of ministers and officials, military management, taxation, judicial administration, and counsel on maintaining royal stability and statecraft .
Reception and Legacy
Siraj al-Muluk achieved widespread renown among Muslim rulers, scholars, and administrators . Haji Khalifa observed that scarcely did any monarch hear of the text without commissioning a copy, nor any vizier without adopting it as a constant guide, noting that its study rendered kings independent of consulting advisors and sages . Later scholars of politics and history, including Ibn Khaldun in his Muqaddimah, engaged with the work and recognized it as a significant predecessor in Islamic political thought and social theory .
An anonymous abridgment of the work, titled Ikhtisar Siraj al-Muluk, is preserved in manuscript form in the Zaytuna Library in Tunis . The text was widely copied across the Islamic world and entered early print in the nineteenth century, including editions published at Bulaq (1289 AH / 1872 CE), Alexandria (1299 AH / 1882 CE), and Cairo (1306 AH / 1888 CE and 1319 AH / 1901 CE) .
Answer updated