Nizam al-Mulk

Not to be confused with Nizam-ul-Mulk, Asaf Jah I, founder of the Asaf Jahi dynasty.

Tell the Sultan, If you have not already realized that I am your co-equal in the work of ruling, then know that you have only attained to this power through my statesmanship and judgement. Does he not remember when his father was killed, and I assumed responsibility for the conduct of affairs and crushed the rebels who reared their heads, from his own family and from elsewhere. Tell him that the stability of that regal cap is bound up with this vizierial inkstand, and that the harmony of these two interests is the means of securing all objects soughts after and the ultimate cause of all objects gained. If ever I close up this inkstand, that royal power will topple. ^[21]

Works

Aside from his extraordinary influence as vizier with full authority, he is also well known for systematically founding a number of schools of higher education in several cities like Baghdad, Isfahan, Amol, Nishapur, Mosul, Basra, and Herat, the famous Nizamiyyah schools, which were named after him. In many aspects, these schools turned out to be the predecessors and models of universities that were established in Europe.

Nizam al-Mulk is also widely known for his voluminous treatise on kingship titled Siyasatnama (Book of Government) which was written after Malik Shah had requested that his ministers produce books on government, administration and the troubles facing the nation. However, the treatise made by Nizam was the only one to receive approval and was consequently accepted as forming "the law of the constitution of the nation". ^[23] The treatise uses historical examples to discuss justice, effective rule, and the role of government in Islamic society, and has been compared to Machiavelli's The Prince . ^[11] The work also discusses various aspects of state surveillance and spying, advising rulers to establish an extensive espionage network. ^[24]

He also wrote a book titled Dastur al-Wuzarā, written for his son Abulfath Fakhr al-Malik, which is not dissimilar to the famous book of Qabus nama.

Death

Artwork of Nizam's assassination, miniature from the Jami' al-tawarikh of Rashid al-Din Hamadani

Nizam al-Mulk was assassinated en route from Isfahan to Baghdad on 10 Ramadan 485 A.H. (14 October 1092) The mainstream literature says he was stabbed by the dagger of a member of the Assassins, sent by the notorious Hassan-i Sabbah near Nahavand, as he was being carried on his litter. The killer approached him disguised as a Sufi. ^{[25] [26]}

This account is particularly interesting in light of a possibly apocryphal story that first appeared in English in the introduction to Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam . In this story a pact is formed between a young Nizam al-Mulk (at that time known as Abdul Khassem) and his two friends, Omar Khayyam and Hassan-i-Sabbah. Their agreement stated that if one should rise to prominence, that they would help the other two to do likewise. Nizam al-Mulk was the first to do this when he was appointed vizier to the sultan Alp Arslan. To fulfill the pact he offered both friends positions of rank within the court. Omar refused the offer, asking instead to be given the means to continue his studies indefinitely. This Nizam did, as well as building him an observatory. Although Hassan, unlike Omar, decided to accept the appointment offered to him, he was forced to flee after plotting to depose Nizam as vizier. Subsequently, Hassan came upon and conquered the fortress of Alamut, from where he established the Assassins. According to Bernard Lewis, this tale is unlikely to be true because Hassan-i Sabbah died in 1124, and Omar Khayyam in 1123 at the earliest. Since Nizam al-Mulk was born in 1020 at the latest, the three were not of similar ages and were probably not students together. ^[27]

Legacy

Nizam al-Mulk was an excellent and clever vizier, he represented the majesty, splendor and hospitality of the Barmakids, historians and poets describe him as a great organizer and an ideal soldier and scholar. ^[28] Only thanks to him it was possible for the Seljuk Turks to establish a powerful empire in their new home. ^[29] Nizam was not only the leader of the Persian-dominated bureaucratic ( divan ), but was also an atabeg who served in the royal court (dadgar) and played an important role between the politically and culturally different Iranians and Turks. He was also responsible for establishing distinctly Persian forms of government and administration which would last for centuries. ^[30] Because of his excellent tutorship and close friendship with Malik-Shah, he was usually called "father" by him. ^[18] He was even greatly respected by his ghulams , who, after the death of Nizam, took revenge on several of his rivals, such as Taj al-Mulk Abu'l Ghana'im. ^[18]

Even after his death his family continued to play an important role in the Seljuk Empire. He was married to a niece or daughter of Bagrat IV of Georgia, who had previously been married or betrothed to Alp Arslan. ^[31] All of his twelve sons held important offices in the Seljuk Empire, the most prominent of his sons were: Ahmad ibn Nizam al-Mulk, served as the vizier of the Seljuk Sultan Muhammad I Tapar and the Abbasid caliph al-Mustarshid; ^[1] Shams al-Mulk Uthman was the governor of Merv and head of the Seljuk military; Fakhr al-Mulk served as the vizier of Barkiyaruq and Muhammad I Tapar; Jamal al-Mulk (who died before Nizam) served as the governor of Balkh; Izz al-Mulk and Mu'ayyid al-Mulk served as viziers of Barkiyaruq; ^[32] Imad al-Mulk Abu'l-Kasim served as the vizier of the Seljuk governor of Balkh.

References

1. Bosworth 1984, pp. 642–643.
2. Bosworth 1968, p. 62-65.
3. Foltz, Richard (2015). Iran in World History (New Oxford World History). Oxford University Press. p. 64. ISBN   978-0199335497. In Iran, the Seljuks established their capital at Esfahan, where they built important monuments such as the congregational mosque which remains functional today. Their prime minister, Hasan of Tus (known as Nezam ol-Molk, or Orderer of the Realm), set up a system of seminaries, called nezamiyyas, and also reformed the army and the tax system
4. Gustave E. Von Grunebaum, Katherine Watson, Classical Islam: A History, 600 A.D. to 1258 A.D., Translated by Katherine Watson Published by Aldine Transaction, 2005. page 155
5. Holt, P. M.; Ann K. S. Lambton; Bernard Lewis (1977). The Cambridge History of Islam Volume 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 150.
6. Yavari 2015.
7. Bowen & Bosworth 1995, p. 70.
8. Black, Anthony (14 November 2011). "Islamic and Western political thought: does History have any Lessons?". Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. 14 (3): 5–12. doi:10.5782/2223-2621.2011.14.3.5. hdl: 20.500.12323/1366 . ISSN   2223-2621.
9. Nizam al-Mulk (2002). Darke, Hubert (ed.). The Book of Government or Rules for Kings. New York: Persian Heritage Foundation. pp. ix–x. ISBN   9781136602962.
10. Makdisi, George (1 January 1984). The Rise of Colleges. doi:10.1515/9781474470643. ISBN   9781474470643. S2CID   158637840.
11. Josef W. Meri (31 October 2005). Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 856. ISBN   978-1-135-45596-5.
12. Parry, Geraint; Day, John; Day, John; Plamenatz, J.; Dowse, Robert E.; Dowse, Robert E.; Warrender, Howard; Bealey, Frank; Pelling, Henry; Pelling, Henry; Grove, J. W. (October 1960). "Book Reviews: The Book of Government or Rules for Kings, Locke and Liberty, The Pursuit of Happiness in the Democratic Creed, The Political Reason of Edmund Burke, Socialism and Saint-Simon, 1859, Entering an Age of Crisis, Harriet Martineau, A Radical Victorian, Henry Sidgwick and Later Utilitarian Political Philosophy, Nationalism, Chartist Studies, The Life and Times of Ernest Bevin, Trade Unions and the Labour Party since 1945, The Ministry of Labour and National Service, Financial Administration in Local Government, Social Mobility in Industrial Society, Elections Abroad, Parliamentary Supervision of Delegated Legislation, Public Ownership and Accountability: The Canadian Experience, Public Enterprise in Sweden, The Congressional Party, A Case Study, The Communist Party of Poland. An Outline of History, The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovakia, 1938–1948. The Failure of Coexistence, Rise and Development of a Totalitarian State, Overcentralization in Economic Administration: A Critical Analysis Based on Experience in Hungarian Light Industry, Government, Law and Courts in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, The Soviet Bureaucratic Elite: A Case Study of the Ukrainian Apparatus, Five Elections in Africa, East African Chiefs, A West African Trade Union: A Case Study of the Cameroons Development Corporation Workers' Union and its Relations with the Employers, Middle Eastern Capitalism, Nine Essays, Turkey's Politics. The Transition to a Multiparty System, Turkey's Politics. The Transition to a Multiparty System, The Commonwealth Economy in Southeast Asia, Communism in South-East Asia: A Political Analysis, The Economic Development of Communist China 1949–1958, Nationalism and the Right Wing in Japan—A Study of Post-War Trends, The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume XII, the Era of Violence, 1898–1945, Germany Rejoins the Powers, Franklin D. Roosevelt's World Order, Power of Small States, The Commonwealth and Regional Defence, Documents on American Foreign Relations 1958". Political Studies. 8 (3): 306–335. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9248.1960.tb01148.x. ISSN   0032-3217.
13. Tafazzoli 1994, pp. 223–226.
14. NIẒĀM AL-MULK, Encyclopædia Britannica
15. The Turks and Islam to the Thirteenth Century. In: René Grousset: The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press, 1970, S. 153 ff.
16. Fossier, Airlie, Marsack: The Cambridge illustrated history of the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press, 1997, S. 159.
17. Bowen & Bosworth 1995, p. 69.
18. Bosworth 1968, p. 57.
19. C. E. Bosworth (1978). "Kawurd". In van Donzel, E.; Lewis, B.; Pellat, Ch. & Bosworth, C. E. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume IV: Iran–Kha. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 807. OCLC   758278456.
20. Gibb, H. A. R. (1993). Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume VII: Mif–Naz. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 273–275. ISBN   978-90-04-09419-2.
21. Bosworth 1968, pp. 68–80.
22. Bowen & Bosworth 1995, p. 72.
23. "Economic Thought of Nizam Al-Mulik Al-Tusi". Archived from the original on 18 March 2008. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
24. Aladashvili, Besik (2017). Fearless: A Fascinating Story of Secret Medieval Spies. Kindle Publishing.
25. Waterson, James, The Ismaili Assassins. A history of medieval murder (Yorkshire, 2008) 79
26. Sebottendorff, Baron Rudolf von (17 January 2013). Secret Practices of the Sufi Freemasons: The Islamic Teachings at the Heart of Alchemy. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   978-1-62055-001-4.
27. Bernard Lewis (5 August 2008). The Assassins. Basic Books. pp. 39–40. ISBN   978-0-7867-2455-0.
28. G. E. Tetley: The Ghaznavid and Seljuk Turks: Poetry as a Source for Iranian History. 1. Ed. Routledge, 2008, S. 125ff.
29. V. V. Barthold: Turkestan down to the Mongol Invasion. engl. Übersetzung: T. Minorsky & C.E. Bosworth.; Luzac & Co., London 1928, S. 308.
30. Morgan, David Medieval Persia 1040-1797 p. 29
31. Bosworth, C. E., Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 6, pp. 642–643. "AḤMAD B. NEẒĀM-AL-MOLK".
32. Bosworth 1968, p. 105.

Sources

• Aladashvili Besik., Fearless: A Fascinating Story of Secret Medieval Spies, 2017.
• Bosworth, C. E. (1968). "The Political and Dynastic History of the Iranian World (A.D. 1000–1217)". In Boyle, John Andrew (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 5: The Saljuq and Mongol Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–202. ISBN   0-521-06936-X.
• Bosworth, C. E. (1984). "AḤMAD B. NEẒĀM-AL-MOLK". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 6. London. pp. 642–643.
• Bowen, H. & Bosworth, C. E. (1995). "Niẓām al-Mulk" . In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. & Lecomte, G. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume VIII: Ned–Sam. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 69–73. ISBN   978-90-04-09834-3.
• Tafazzoli, Ahmad (1994). "DEHQĀN". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. VII, Fasc. 2 and Vol. VII, Fasc. 3. Ahmad Tafazzoli. pp. 223–226.
• Yavari, Neguin (2015). "NEẒĀM-AL-MOLK". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
• Nizam al-Mulk (2002) [1960]. The Book of Government Or Rules for Kings: The Siyar al-Muluk or Siyasat-nama of Nizam al-Mulk. Translated by Hubert Darke. Routledge. ISBN   0700712283.

External links

• The story behind the assassination
• Gokmen Durmus — Upenn Master's Thesis on Turkish Wisdom
• More Photos, Tishineh

Nizam al-Mulk
Vizier of the Seljuk Empire
In office 29 November 1064 –14 October 1092

Preceded by Al-Kunduri

Vizier of the Great Seljuq Empire 29 November 1064 – October 14, 1092

Succeeded by Taj al-Mulk Abu'l Ghana'im