''Management of Savagery: The Most Critical Stage Through Which the Islamic Nation Will Pass'' ( ar, إدارة التوحش: أخطر مرحلة ستمر بها الأمة, ''Idārat at-Tawaḥḥuš: Akhṭar marḥalah satamurru bihā l 'ummah''), also translated as ''Administration of Savagery'', is a book by the Islamist strategist Abu Bakr Naji, published on the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
in 2004. It aimed to provide a strategy for
al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
and other
extremists
Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied share ...
whereby they could create a new Islamic
caliphate
A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
.
The real identity of Abu Bakr Naji is claimed by the Al Arabiya Institute for Studies to be
Mohammad Hasan Khalil al-Hakim
Mohammad Hasan Khalil al-Hakim ( ar, محمد حسن خليل الحكيم) alias Abu Jihad al-Masri ( ar, أبو جهاد المصري) (died October 31, 2008) was purported by US authorities to operate in Iran as the head of media and propaganda ...
. His known works are this piece and some contributions to the al-Qaeda online magazine ''
Sawt al-Jihad
''Voice of Jihad'' ( ar, صوت الجهاد, Ṣawt al-Jihād) is the title of a website published by the Taliban. The website is copyrighted to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
It is also the title of an online journal published by the Saudi ...
''.
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
has described Naji as a "top al-Qaida insider" and characterized the work as "al-Qaida's playbook".
Etymology
The word in the title توحش ''tawaḥḥuš'' has been translated as "savagery" or "barbarism". As it is a form V verbal noun derived from the root وحش ''waḥš'' "wild animal", it has also accordingly been translated "beastliness".
Themes and stages
''Management of Savagery'' discusses the need to create and manage nationalist and religious resentment and violence in order to create long-term propaganda opportunities for jihadist groups. Notably, Naji discusses the value of provoking military responses from superpowers in order to recruit and train guerrilla fighters and to create martyrs. Naji suggests that a long-lasting strategy of
attrition
Attrition may refer to
*Attrition warfare, the military strategy of wearing down the enemy by continual losses in personnel and material
**War of Attrition, fought between Egypt and Israel from 1968 to 1970
**War of attrition (game), a model of agg ...
will reveal fundamental weaknesses in the ability of superpowers to defeat committed jihadists.
Naji professes to have been inspired by
Ibn Taymiyya
Ibn Taymiyyah (January 22, 1263 – September 26, 1328; ar, ابن تيمية), birth name Taqī ad-Dīn ʾAḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Numayrī al-Ḥarrānī ( ar, تقي الدين أحمد بن عبد الحليم ...
, the influential 14th-century Islamic scholar and theologian.
Stages
The Najji describes three states of jihad.
In practice
A number of media outlets have compared the attempts by the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
to establish territorial control in Iraq and Syria with the strategy outlined in ''Management of Savagery''. The first issue of the Islamic State's online magazine, '' Dabiq'', contained discussion of guerrilla warfare and tactics that closely resembled the writings and terminology used in ''Management of Savagery'', although the book was not mentioned directly. Journalist
Hassan Hassan
Hassan Hassan (born 1982) is an American author and journalist of Syrian origin. He co-wrote the 2015 ''New York Times'' bestseller '' ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror'' with Michael Weiss. He has written on Islamist groups in the Middle East. He ...
, writing in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', reported an ISIL-affiliated cleric as saying that ''Management of Savagery'' is widely read among the group's commanders and some of its rank-and-file fighters. It was also mentioned by another member of ISIL in a list of books and ideologues that influence the group.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ( ar-at, تنظيم القاعدة في جزيرة العرب, Tanẓīm al-Qā‘idah fī Jazīrat al-‘Arab, lit=Organization of the Base in the Arabian Peninsula or , ''Tanẓīm Qā‘idat al-Jihād fī Jaz ...
has been described by
The Jamestown Foundation
The Jamestown Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based conservative defense policy think tank. Founded in 1984 as a platform to support Soviet defectors, its stated mission today is to inform and educate policy makers about events and trends, which ...
as following Naji's guidelines in
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
, while the book has been mentioned positively in interviews with members of
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
's Al-Shabaab.
Scholars Brian A. Jackson and Bryce Loidolt argue that ''Management of Savagery'' and
Mustafa Setmariam Nasar
Abu Musab al-Suri ( ar, أبو مصعب السوري), born Mustafa bin Abd al-Qadir Setmariam Nasar ( ar, مصطفى بن عبد القادر ست مريم نصار), is a suspected Al-Qaeda member and writer best known for his 1,600-page book ...
's ''The Global Islamic Resistance Call'' led al-Qaeda to innovate and shift practices.