The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend

[Baker, John]

        "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" has been much-quoted lately
in connection with the U.S. decision to arm Sunni dissident groups in
Iraq to fight al-Qaeda.  YBQ takes this back to 1929 and notes that it
appears to be a summary of strategic advice given in a pre-fourth
century B.C. Sanskrit text.  I can't quite beat pre-fourth century B.C.,
but I can beat 1929.  From C. Witt, The Retreat of the Ten Thousand 138
(tr. Frances Younghusband 1891) (Google Books full text):

        <<With him they [sc. the Carduchians] had established an
occasional exchange of friendly intercourse, but as they hated all the
other Persians as bitterly as ever, the Hellenes hoped that on the
principle that 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend,' the Carduchians
might be inclined to regard them with favour, and make a treaty with
them.>>

        Professor Witt's text was based on Xenophon's Anabasis, written
in the early fourth century B.C. (so, not quite pre-fourth century).
The Gutenberg text of the Anabasis does not include any version of the
"enemy of my enemy" line.

        Earlier than 1891 is this version of the proverb from Paul
Segneri, The Devout Client of Mary 200 (tr. 1857) (Google Books full
text):

        <<Amicus meus, inimicus inimici mei.  _He that is my friend is
an enemy of my enemy._  This is an axiom so universally received, that
it even makes a presumption in law.>>

        Father Paul (or Paolo, according to Wikipedia) Segneri was a
Jesuit priest who lived in Italy in the 17th century.  The original book
was called Il Devoto di Maria.  The name of the translator does not
appear to be given.


John Baker

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org