The Sword of Ambition: Bureaucratic Rivalry in Medieval Egypt (Library of Arabic Literature, 52)
'Uthman ibn Ibrahim Nabulusi (Author), Luke B. Yarbrough (Editor, Translator)
Language: English
Published by NYU Press, 2019
- Softcover
- New
Seller: Joseph Burridge Books, Dagenham, United KingdomJoseph Burridge Books
AbeBooks seller since April 23, 2010
Condition: New
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Summary:Patronage, power, and competition in the Sultan's court. The Sword of Ambition opens a new window onto interreligious rivalry among elites in medieval Egypt. Written by the unemployed bureaucrat 'Uthman ibn Ibrahim al-Nabulusi, it contains a wealth of little-known historical anecdotes, unusual religious opinions, obscure and witty poetry, and humorous cultural satire. Leaving no rhetorical stone unturned, al-Nabulusi pours his deep knowledge of history, law, and literature into the work--addressed to the Ayyubid sultan--as he argues against the employment of Coptic and Jewish officials. Written at a time when much of the inter-communal animosity of the era was conditioned by fierce competition for scarce resources that were increasingly controlled by an ideologically committed Sunni Muslim state, The Sword of Ambition reminds us that "religious" conflict must always be considered in its broader historical perspective.
Seller Inventory # 15BR11
- Title
- The Sword of Ambition: Bureaucratic Rivalry in Medieval Egypt (Library of Arabic Literature, 52)
- Author
- 'Uthman ibn Ibrahim Nabulusi (Author), Luke B. Yarbrough (Editor, Translator)
- Publisher
- NYU Press
- Publication year
- 2019
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- Soft cover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 147982478X
- ISBN 13
- 9781479824786
- Series
- Book 17 of 57: Library of Arabic Literature
- Seller catalogs
- Islam, Literature
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.
A bilingual Arabic-English edition.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Luke Yarbrough is Assistant Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at UCLA. His research is concerned with the history of the pre-modern Middle East and North Africa, including inter-communal relations, law and prescriptive discourses, Arabic historiography, the oral transmission of knowledge, and comparative history.
Sherman Jackson is King Faisal Chair in Islamic Thought and Culture and Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Joseph Burridge Books
Dagenham, United Kingdom
AbeBooks seller since April 23, 2010
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