This form of political writing often called 'advice literature', shared by Christian and Muslim cultures alike, 'mirrors for princes' attempted to elevate statecraft ('dawla') to the same level as faith/religion ('din') during the Middle Ages.These guides for future rulers - Machiavelli's The Prince being a widely known example - addressed the delicate balance between seclusion and society, spirit and state, echoes of which we continue to find in the US, Europe, and the Middle East several centuries later.Today we suffer from the very opposite: there is no shortage of political commentary, but a notable lack of intelligent, eloquent discourse on the role of faith and the immaterial as a valuable agent in society or public life.This publication brings together the writing of preeminent scholars and commentators using the genre of medieval advice literature as a starting point to discuss fate and fortune versus governance, advice for female nobility, and an Indian television drama as a form of translation of statecraft. The illustrated essays are accompanied by an interview with Slavs and Tatars.Mirrors for Princes is edited by Anthony Downey, Editor-in-Chief of Ibraaz, and is published with NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery.

Contributed research papers.

Nasrin Askari explores the medieval reception of Firdausī’s Shāhnāma, or Book of Kings (completed in 1010 CE) as a mirror for princes. Through her examination of a wide range of medieval sources, Askari demonstrates that Firdausī’s oeuvre was primarily understood as a book of wisdom and advice for kings and courtly elites. In order to illustrate the ways in which the Shāhnāma functions as a mirror for princes, Askari analyses the account about Ardashīr, the founder of the Sasanian dynasty, as an ideal king in the Shāhnāma. Within this context, she explains why the idea of the union of kingship and religion, a major topic in almost all medieval Persian mirrors for princes, has often been attributed to Ardashīr.

The Yale New statutes manuscript and medieval English statute books : similarities and differences -- Royal portraits and royal arms : the iconography of the Yale New statutes manuscript -- The Queen and the Lancastrian cause : the Yale New statutes manuscript and Margaret of Anjou -- Educating the prince : the Yale New statutes manuscript and Lancastrian mirrors for princes -- "Grace be our guide" : the cultural significance of a medieval law book.

Global Medieval compares mirrors for princes from varied historical contexts and lineages of political thought in order to determine whether a genuine history of political thought in the premodern period is possible. These texts become a lens for exploring ideals and manners of good rule across political, religious, and cultural divides.

In Reflecting Mirrors, East and West Enrico Boccaccini investigates the transcultural phenomenon of advice literature for rulers, commonly referred to as Mirrors for Princes, by bringing together, for the first time, texts from multiple literary traditions.

A historical look at the roots of management theory reveals its flaws and offers important lessons for today's leaders For four thousand years, kings and queens ruled the known world, while management experts—in the guises of sages, clerics, and courtiers of all kinds—told them how to do it. These proto-experts in leadership, ethics, and strategy wrote books describing the perfect prince. In such books, rulers could seek and polish their own reflection, as in a looking glass. These books were called mirrors for princes. Mirrors for Princes documents the clichés of this genre of literature. Typical mirrors taught the same formula, over and over: that people behave badly because of their pursuit of self-interest, which needs to be harnessed to a common goal by the ruler or leader. Eighteenth-century revolutions spelled the demise of princes and led to books that sought instruct them. Today, the clichés of mirrors for princes live on in modern mirrors for managers. The rhetoric of common goals and transformational leadership has a pleasing resonance for top managers, affirming their authority, just as it did for kings and queens in mirrors for princes. Keeley's goal is to sensitize readers to these clichés and to provide today's business leaders with the tools to think more critically when reading business books. Mirrors for Princes concludes with advice for writers of management literature, suggesting how organizational theorists and business ethicists might avoid replicating the clichés of mirrors for princes by adopting a social-contract model of organizations.

The portrayal of princes plays a central role in the historical literature of the European Renaissance. The sixteen contributions collected in this volume examine such portrayals in a broad variety of historiographical, biographical, and poetic texts. It emerges clearly that historical portrayals were not essentially bound by generic constraints but instead took the form of res gestae or historiae, discrete or collective biographies, panegyric, mirrors for princes, epic poetry, orations, even commonplace books – whatever the occasion called for. Beyond questions of genre, the chapters focus on narrative strategies and the transformation of ancient, medieval, and contemporary authors, as well as on the influence of political, cultural, intellectual, and social contexts. Four broad thematic foci inform the structure of this book: the virtues ascribed to the prince, the cultural and political pretensions inscribed in literary portraits, the historical and literary models on which these portraits were based, and the method that underlay them. The volume is rounded out by a critical summary that considers the portrayal of princes in humanist historiogrpahy from the point of view of transformation theory.

Why devote a Companion to the "mirrors for princes", whose very existence is debated? These texts offer key insights into political thoughts of the past. Their ambiguous, problematic status further enhances their interest. And although recent research has fundamentally challenged established views of these texts, until now there has been no critical introduction to the genre. This volume therefore fills this important gap, while promoting a global historical perspective of different “mirrors for princes” traditions from antiquity to humanism, via Byzantium, Persia, Islam, and the medieval West. This Companion also proposes new avenues of reflection on the anchoring of these texts in their historical realities. Contributors are Makram Abbès, Denise Aigle, Olivier Biaggini, Hugo Bizzarri, Charles F. Briggs, Sylvène Edouard, Jean-Philippe Genet, John R. Lenz, Louise Marlow, Cary J. Nederman, Corinne Peneau, Stéphane Péquignot, Noëlle-Laetitia Perret, Günter Prinzing, Volker Reinhardt, Hans-Joachim Schmidt, Tom Stevenson, Karl Ubl, and Steven J. Williams.