TAFRIJ AL-KURUB FI TADBIR AL-HURUB
A Muslim Manual of War

INTRODUCTION

IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MERCIFUL, THE COMPASSIONATE… he is the supporter of Islam by his power, the conqueror by the might of his victory. and the humbler of the nose of the deviator from His obedience by quickening his destruction and returning his malice to his own throat. exhibiting to him through the destruction of his enemies that by which the wise person is instructed and which the contemplator numbers among the miracles of his age.

And [he is] the cause of his noble sire’s happiness through the annihilation of his enemies, tyrannical and heretical. And God is the determinor of his affairs. [wherein] he brought the nation from hardship to relief… and he raised from [his] subjects, by the kindest rule, every hardship and misfortune (contraction of heart)… and He lightened the hearts of the people by the most fortuitous of kings, from the odor of whose flowering days, the sweetest fragrance and the most evanescent perfume is inhaled.

I declare that there is no god but God alone, with Whom there is no partner: a declaration which the greatest kings inherit, the great from the great (i.e. the son from the father)… The first of them recommends it to the next in continuity unbroken, and the son undertakes to uphold it after the father and he relates it on the authority of the victorious to the [oncoming] victor.

I declare that our lord Muhammad is His slave and His messenger; favored with [His] support throughout the continuation of Time; the Victorious by [reason of] the terror which impresses the hearts of the people of unbelief at a distance of a month’s journey.

May God bless him and his family, whose battles fulfilled for the enemy the dates of Destiny, and whose swords gulped the blood of unbelief, returning with the saffron of victory and not with the crimson of shame; with a blessing [such that] their stars rise in the galaxies of stars, and whose form does not change with the passing of Time; if God, the Almighty, wills it. And may God bestow a great benediction.

To proceed: Since the great Sultan, the King, the Victor, the Sage, the Just, the Struggler, the Perseverer, the Trail-blazer, the God-supported, the Conquering, the Victorious, the Ornament of the World and of Religion, the Sultan of Islam and of the Muslims, the Rejuvenator of Justice in the Worlds, the Heir of the kingdom of the Kings of the Arabs and the Persians and the Turks, Shadow of God in His land, the Upholder of God’s sunnah and of His Ordinances.

the Alexander of the time, the Bcstower [of that which is possessed by] the possessors of thrones and crowns, the Donor of provinces and countries, the Destroyer of tyrants and oppressors and unbelievers, Protector of the two sacred places (Mecca and Madinah), Possessor of the two qiblahs (Mecca and Jerusalem), the Unifier of the word of Faith, the Unfurler of the banner of justice and benevolence, the Master of the Kings of the time, the Imam of the pious.

the Partner of the Commander of the Faithful: Abu al-Sa’adat Faraj, son of the Sultan, the Martyr, al-Malik al-Zahir Abu Sa’id Barquq; may God, the Almighty, through the length of days, give long life to his rule and may He give victory, through the passing of the ages, to his soldiers and armies and associates.

He is the one whose constancy and strength subdued the kings of the earth, whose [military] numbering and equipment rendered limit and description impossible, and whose fame and mention and repute spread to the distant horizons. And Victory surrounded him from every side. In the recurrence of battles, his victory and his conquest are recurrent.

A seeker did not approach him with evil except that he returned a failure; and no one cast at him with cunning except that the arrow of his cunning turned back upon him unerringly. He did not desire the surmounting of a difficulty except to achieve in its surmounting the ingeniously miraculous. He did not attempt to effect a conquest except that the tongue of Victory spoke out to him, ‘‘Help from God, and a nigh victory”.