Disenchanting the caliphate: The secular discipline of power in abbasid political thought

The early ʿAbbāsid period was important in terms of shaping the thought traditions in theMuslim world. In this book, Hayrettin Yücesoy argues that, in the middle of the eighthcentury, when Umayyad rule ended and the ʿAbbāsids came to power, two divergent politicalthought traditions were prevalent in the caliphal world, namely religious governance by theulema, (the imamate) and the secular politics of lay bureaucrats (siyāsa), and examines theformation of secular theory of politics by focusing on the works of Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ (d.between ca. 755 and 757)