The Position of the Wizarah (Ministry) in the Bureaucracy of Iranian Civilization: A Case Study of the Tuhfah al-Wuzara by Abu Mansur Al-Tha'alibi (d. 429 AH)

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department of History and Civilization of Islamic Nations, Faculty of Islamic Sciences and Researches, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

10.22103/jic.2025.25040.1416

Abstract

Tuhfah al-Wuzara by Abu Mansur al-Tha'alibi is a work on the institution of wizarah (ministry), compiled from historical accounts and narratives concerning kings, sages, and viziers of ancient Persia alongside Islamic luminaries. The significance of the present study lies in its analysis of al-Tha'alibi's theory of wizarah through examining Tuhfah al-Wuzara, demonstrating how this work extracts the model of wizarah (the vizier) as complementary to the shah within the power structure from Persian civilization, presenting it as a paradigm for Islamic governance systems. This research aims to extract the key themes of the work, ultimately identifying six principal themes: 1.The Philosophy of Wizarah 2.The Duties of the Wazir 3. Programs of Wizarah 4. The Ethics of Wizarah 5. The Shah-Wazir Interaction 5. People-Development (Public Welfare). These themes reveal the realistic nature of al-Tha'alibi's theory, wherein moral virtues are considered integral to practical success. The concept of People-Development (Public Welfare) as a central governmental responsibility stands among this theory's innovative contributions, bearing remarkable resemblance to—and indeed anticipating—the principles of the modern welfare state. This study further establishes al-Tha'alibi's treatise as a crucial nexus bridging the pre-Islamic Persian administrative literature with subsequent Islamic mirrors for princes. Another significant contribution of this research lies in demonstrating how al-Tha'alibi, by reconstructing the Persian theory of vizierate within Arabic-Islamic literature, formulated a political paradigm wherein the vizierate (as the institutionalized executive branch of government) served as the primary mechanism for achieving justice, public welfare, and socioeconomic progress through pragmatic policy implementation within the state apparatus.

Keywords

References

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