Advice for the Sultan: Prophetic Voices and Secular Politics in Medieval Islam By Neguin Yavari

Neguin Yavari’s Advice for the Sultan is a needed reexamination of medieval Islamic advice literature, particularly the genre known as ‘mirror for princes’, which she refers to as ‘the mirrors’. She has analysed this topic in other contexts, including an edited volume on the genre in the context of the ‘Global Medieval’ and articles on medieval governance and the figure of Niẓām al-Mulk. Her book illuminates understudied elements of political philosophy in the texts, revealing the importance of (secular) reason and the varied links between religion and the state. Instead of focusing on the mirrors’ provenance, she carefully analyses rhetoric, structure, and prevalent...