This essay presents the preliminary findings of a study on al-Qawl al-mukht?r fi l-man? ?an takhy?r al-kuff?r, or, roughly “The Selected Saying concerning the Prohibition on Preferring Infidels.” Internal evidence suggests that this anonymous work dates from the first half of the 8th/14th century, and that it probably originated in Egypt. Like analogous works of its time, such as those by al-Asnaw?, Ibn al-Naqq?sh, ?Al? b. al-?usayn al-M?lik?, and Ibn al-Durayhim, it is engrossed with the issue of non-Muslims (particularly Copts) employed as administrators in the Mamluk state. Unlike these works, its purpose is not to induce the dismissal of Coptic officials but rather to consolidate and extend the results of a religiously-based purge that had just taken place, probably under the Mamluk sultan al-N??ir Mu?ammad b. Qal?w?n. al-Qawl al-mukht?r is also distinguished by its author’s remarkable erudition in the Islamic juristic tradition. Better informed on the breadth of Islamic thought on the issues in question (e.g., dhimm? laws) than most other writers of his time, the author of al-Qawl al-mukht?r has collected and preserved excerpts from earlier sources that are breathtaking in the diversity of their geographical and madhhab origins. Many of the sources used are now scattered or lost. For instance, the work contains extensive quotations from the Shur?? al-na??r? of Ibn Zabr (d. 329/940), making it the only significant witness to that text apart from the unique Cairo manuscript (3952 Ta?r?kh). More striking is the liberal use of an otherwise unknown but apparently substantial composition by Abu l-Shaykh al-I?bah?n? (d. 369/979) on the laws that apply to non-Muslims. Unfortunately al-Qawl al-mukht?r has long languished in virtual oblivion due to the fact that the only known version was published in an obscure and rare 19th-century lithograph compilation. I shall argue that this work, of which I am currently preparing an edition, translation, and study, deserves a place among the very most important medieval sources on the social and legal status of non-Muslims in Islamic societies. In this respect it is comparable, in quality if not in scope, to A?k?m ahl al-dhimma of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawz?ya (d. 751/1350).