THE SWORD OF AMBITION
LIBRARY OF ARABIC LITERATURE
EDITORIAL BOARD
GENERAL EDITOR
Philip F. Kennedy, New York University
EXECUTIVE EDITORS
James E. Montgomery, University of Cambridge
Shawkat M. Toorawa, Yale University
EDITORS
Sean Anthony, The Ohio State University
Julia Bray, University of Oxford
Michael Cooperson, University of California, Los Angeles
Joseph E. Lowry, University of Pennsylvania
Maurice Pomerantz, New York University Abu Dhabi
Tahera Qutbuddin, University of Chicago
Devin J. Stewart, Emory University
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Chip Rossetti
DIGITAL PRODUCTION MANAGER
Stuart Brown
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Lucie Taylor
FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM COORDINATOR
Amani Al-Zoubi
LETTER FROM THE GENERAL EDITOR
The Library of Arabic Literature makes available Arabic editions and English translations of significant works of Arabic literature, with an emphasis on the seventh to nineteenth centuries. The Library of Arabic Literature thus includes texts from the pre-Islamic era to the cusp of the modern period, and encompasses a wide range of genres, including poetry, poetics, fiction, religion, philosophy, law, science, travel writing, history, and historiography.
Books in the series are edited and translated by internationally recognized scholars. They are published as hardcovers in parallel-text format with Arabic and English on facing pages, as English-only paperbacks, and as downloadable Arabic editions. For some texts, the series also publishes separate scholarly editions with full critical apparatus.
The Library encourages scholars to produce authoritative Arabic editions, accompanied by modern, lucid English translations, with the ultimate goal of introducing Arabic’s rich literary heritage to a general audience of readers as well as to scholars and students.
The Library of Arabic Literature is supported by a grant from the New York University Abu Dhabi Institute and is published by NYU Press.
Philip F. Kennedy
General Editor, Library of Arabic Literature
ABOUT THIS PAPERBACK
This paperback edition differs in a few respects from its dual-language hardcover predecessor. Because of the compact trim size the pagination has changed. Material that referred to the Arabic edition has been updated to reflect the English-only format, and other material has been corrected and updated where appropriate. For information about the Arabic edition on which this English translation is based and about how the LAL Arabic text was established, readers are referred to the hardcover.
THE SWORD OF AMBITION
Bureaucratic Rivalry in Medieval Egypt
BY
ABŪ ʿAMR ʿUTHMĀN IBN IBRĀHĪM AL-NĀBULUSĪ AL-MIṢRĪ
TRANSLATED BY
LUKE B. YARBROUGH
FOREWORD BY
SHERMAN ʿABD AL-ḤAKĪM JACKSON
VOLUME EDITOR
DEVIN J. STEWART
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NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York |
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
Copyright © 2018 by New York University
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Nabulusi, Uthman ibn Ibrahim, active 1235, author. | Yarbrough, Luke B., editor translator.
Title: The sword of ambition : bureaucratic rivalry in medieval Egypt / by ‘Uthman ibn Ibrahim al-Nabulusi ; translated by Luke Yarbrough ; foreword by Sherman ‘Abd al-Hakim Jackson.
Other titles: Tajrid sayf al-himmah li-istikhraj ma fi dhimmat al-dhimmah. English
Description: New York, NY : New York University Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Translated from Arabic.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018052783 (print) | LCCN 2018056655 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479801022 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479839766 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479824786 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Administrative agencies—Egypt—Early works to 1800. | Egypt—Politics and government—640-1882—Early works to 1800.
Classification: LCC JQ3831 (ebook) | LCC JQ3831 .N3313 2019 (print) | DDC320.96209/02--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018052783 New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Series design and composition by Nicole Hayward
Typeset in Adobe Text
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
D.B.G.
CONTENTS
Letter from the General Editor
The First Section: The Testimony of the Illustrious Book