Worldview, Strategy, and Strategic Principles in Three Muslim Military Treatises

Abstract

This study looks into the origins of strategy in Islām and its development from metaphysical, historiographical, and textual perspectives. Corresponding “strategy” with the terms siyāsah, ḥiyal, and tadbīr in Muslim lexicology, it uses semantic field analysis to examine how the term and concept have been used by the Muslims, particularly within the Sunnī-Ashʿarite metaphysical framework. Historiographical method is used to examine the development of strategy from pre-Islamic times, during the Prophetic period, and in the significant periods of the ʿAbbasid-Ayyūbid partnership and the beginning of the Timūrid era. The study also examines the text of three Muslim military treatises, each representing a different Muslim era in order to postulate the existence of an Islamic military tradition. Finally, the study analyses interpretatively the recurrent themes across the selected works and summarises them into strategic principles.