Quote Originally Posted by MountainRunner View Post
I'm also not comfortable with "mindset", however...

A book I suggest is a little referenced text by the Arab Machiavelli, a Sicilian Arab Muslim by the name of Muhammad ibn Zafar al-Siqilli. Writing 350 years before the Florentine, his book Sulwan al-Muta' Fi 'Udwan al-Atba' (Consolation for the Ruler During the Hostility of Subjects) is remarkably similar to The Prince but with differences (sometimes significant) in the means even if the ends are close to the same.

The English text is by Joseph A. Kechichian and R. Hrair Dekmejian's, The Just Prince: A Manual of Leadership, and includes some comparisons to Machiavelli.
Excellent. Being a devotee of Niccolo, I really look forward to this. Many thanks