Deception in war
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 4 anchored passages
stratagem · deception in war · taking unawares and contrivance · war is deception · الاغتيال والاحتيال · الحرب خدعة · الحيلة
in the texts
Adab al-wazīr
Deception and stratagem in war, licensed by prophetic authority and preferred to pitched battle as the instrument of annexation.
and that it should be by taking unawares and by contrivance is better than that it should be by fighting, which is why the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said:
If he can do without making war upon one of them, let him refrain from it while making it loom, and let him not tear the veil of awe (haybah) nor cut the ties of vigilance, so that he may win four things:
History of the Peloponnesian War
The idea, articulated by Brasidas, that deception, concealment, and exploiting an enemy's carelessness are the highest forms of generalship.
But whoever best observes such mistakes in his opponents, and also plans his attack upon them with regard to his own power, not so much in an open manner and in regular battle-array, as with reference to his present advantage, that man would be most successful.
And those stratagems by which one would most deceive his enemies, and benefit his friends, have the highest reputation.
For if he showed the enemy his numbers, and the equipment of the troops with him, which was such as necessity alone dictated, he did not think that he should conquer them so well as he should without their seeing his forces beforehand, and despising them on sufficient grounds.