Kitāb al-Siyāsa

(lit.: The Book of Governance)

Advice on ruling oneself, one's money, wife, children and servants, under Avicenna's name, though whether he wrote it is doubted.

by Avicenna30 passages held

Arabic, the original language

Original language: Arabic

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Overview

Governance in this treatise starts with the self and moves outward: a man's rule over his own soul, then his income and spending, his wife, his children and his servants. In 1928 the German orientalist Martin Plessner edited the Arabic version of a Greek treatise on running a household by Bryson, and observed that the Kitāb al-Siyāsa (Book of Governance) ascribed to Avicenna was little more than a summary of it. The plan bears him out. Household management was one of the three branches of practical philosophy in the curriculum Avicenna inherited, beside ethics and politics, and Bryson's book was its standard text. Around that frame the Siyāsa sets advice for rulers. It opens by arguing that God made people unequal in mind, property and rank because equality would destroy them: if all were kings they would wipe one another out, if all were subjects they would perish, and if all were equally rich nobody would work for anybody else. Since no one judges his own faults honestly, every man needs a wise friend to act as his mirror, and rulers, who grow used to indulging themselves, need one most. Boys are to have a tutor and a companion of good character and to learn a trade suited to their nature. Louis Cheikho, the Jesuit scholar of Arabic, printed the book in Beirut in 1911. Whether Avicenna wrote it at all is also in doubt: Dimitri Gutas, whose inventory of Avicenna's works is the standard reference, counts it among the works whose authenticity is doubtful, and a 2019 study of his practical philosophy agrees that the treatises on ethics and household management ascribed to him may not be his.

Key concepts

What does governance, siyāsa, cover in this book?

Governance means managing anything placed in one's charge so that it thrives, and the book applies it in widening circles: first a man's own soul, then his income and spending, then his wife, his children and his servants. Rulers are included, but as one more case of the same task. Whoever cannot govern himself, the order implies, will not govern anyone well.

Which livelihoods befit a person of honour?

The book names three kinds. One comes from good judgment: sound opinion and wise counsel, the work of ministers and rulers. One comes from learning and refinement: writing, eloquence, astronomy and medicine. One comes from courage: the work of horsemen. Any other gain is acceptable only if it costs no shame, since a large profit bought with dishonour counts for little.

What is muruwwa, the honour this book keeps appealing to?

Muruwwa is the dignity of a decent man: the standard of self-respect by which he judges his work, his gains and his conduct at home. It is why the book ranks a modest living kept with honour above a great fortune won through sin or humiliation, and why a husband's respect from his wife depends on how he guards his own religion and dignity.

How does someone govern their own soul, on this book's account?

By treating the soul as a household member to be trained. A man should study other people's characters and measure his own against them, knowing he is like them. He should set himself rewards when his soul accepts virtue and punishments when it does not. And he should keep a wise friend who tells him the faults he cannot see for himself.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

Ruling Oneself First

Who is fit to govern a household, or a city, if no one can see their own faults? The treatise answers by turning governance inward before it turns outward.

The book opens by defending inequality: if all were kings they would destroy one another, if all were subjects they would perish, and a learned poor man never doubts he is worth more than an ignorant rich one, so each accepts his lot. Governance then begins with the self. A man should measure his character against other people's, set himself rewards and punishments, and keep a wise, loving friend who shows him his faults like a mirror. Rulers need that friend most, because they grow used to indulging themselves and bad companions gather round them.

virtue ethics
self-knowledge
friendship
moral reform
moral psychology
leadership
trust
practical wisdom
political philosophy
social hierarchy
human nature

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The Household and Its People

How should a man earn, spend and save, and how should he treat a wife, raise a son and choose a servant? The treatise answers as practical philosophy, not as a list of manners.

Earning comes first, and only some livelihoods befit a man of honour: those of counsel, of learning and of courage, never a gain bought with shame. Then spending, alms and saving. A good wife is her husband's partner in his property and his deputy at home. A boy needs a tutor, a companion of good character, short verses before long odes, and a trade chosen to suit his nature. A servant is chosen for a little sense and modesty rather than much cleverness, and shares in his master's good fortune.

education
household management
discipline
livelihood
craft
gender roles
child-rearing
aptitude
responsibility

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Within this work

passages held: 30
distinct concepts: 87
by passages held, corpus-wide: #723

What this book thinks together

The wheel takes this book’s leading concepts and shows how often they come up together. The wider the band between two, the more of its passages speak of both. Among them, most often together: “education” and “household management”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 3 concepts, joined by 2 pairings. 20 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
education	household management	2
education	virtue ethics	1

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

A Compendium on the Soul (Kitāb fī al-nafs ʿalā sunnat al-ikhtiṣār)
The earliest of his books, written for the Sāmānid court at Bukhara before any of the summaries of philosophy that made his name.
EN
A Treatise on Love (Risāla fī māhiyyat al-ʿishq)
Written at the request of a jurist, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Maʿṣūmī, and set out in seven short sections.
AR
al-Najāt
Between the vast al-Shifāʾ and the allusive Ishārāt in both length and manner, and the usual way into his logic.
AR
al-Taʿlīqāt
A classroom companion to his metaphysics: short notes on its key terms, read today beside al-Shifāʾ.
AR
Commentary on the Poetics of Aristotle (Fann al-Shiʿr)
Filed under logic, as the Arabic tradition filed Aristotle's Poetics, it closes the nine logical books of al-Shifāʾ.
AR
Kitāb al-Nafs
The fullest of his many accounts of the soul, written as natural science, and the one Latin Europe read.
AR
Kitāb al-Siyāsa you are here AR
Remarks and Admonitions (al-Ishārāt wa-l-tanbīhāt)
Shorter than al-Najāt and far shorter than al-Shifāʾ, though written after both, as a statement of his mature philosophy.
AR
Risāla fī maʿrifat al-nafs al-nāṭiqa wa-aḥwālihā
A short epistle in three chapters and an epilogue, one of several treatises on the soul that circulate under his name.
AR
The Healing, Logic: Isagoge (al-Madkhal)
The first of the nine books of logic in al-Shifāʾ, and the place where the prologue to the whole encyclopedia stands.
AR
The Metaphysics of The Healing (al-Ilāhiyyāt)
His fullest metaphysics, known to Latin readers as the Liber de philosophia prima; it closes al-Shifāʾ after the logic, the physics and the mathematics.
AR

— or open another of their works