This paper may have been motivated at least partly by current conditions in the Arab world, particularly in some parts of the Middle East where the image of rulers has become a topic of discussion, both in everyday conversations and in the media. The status of rulers is an issue that appears in discussions dealing with different perspectives, political, religious, economic, and ethical. Arabic thought in the Middle Ages considered these various aspects and discussed them all rather extensively. Political polemics were used as a way to enter into a discussion of rulers and their image, leading subsequently to the adoption of Islamic law as the framework in which political and ethical issues were to be determined. In the present paper, we shed light on the intellectual framework in which the characteristics of rulers were discussed in the context of the Muslim caliphate. Our purpose is to determine the image of the ruler in medieval Arab thought from the religious-juridical and the political aspects as well as how this was reflected in actual practice.

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Kittaniy, S. (2019). Statecraft as art and practice in Islamic civilization: The image of the Muslim ruler in Islamic heritage. International Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, 5(5), 208–214. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.20469/ijhss.5.20005-5