A027 - Nizam al-Mulk

 Nizam al-Mulk, Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan

Nizam al-Mulk, Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan (Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan Nizam al-Mulk) (Abu Ali al-Hasan al-Tusi Nizam al-Mulk) (Khwaja Nizam al-Mulk al-Tusi) (1017/1018 – October 14, 1092) (1017/1018-1092).  Vizier of the Saljuq sultans Alp Arslan and Malik Shah.  Nizam al-Mulk (literally “order of the realm”) was the honorific title of Abu Ali Hasan ibn Ali Tusi, the vizier to the Seljuk sultans Alp Arslan and Malikshah.    Nizam al-Mulk was also a writer on the art of government.

Nizam al-Mulk was born near Tus, where his father was a minor official.  The Ghaznavid sultan Mas‘ud ibn Mahmud having been defeated by the Saljuqs at Dandanqan in 1040, Nizam al-Mulk left the Ghaznavids for the Saljuqs.  Nizam al-Mulk served the Seljuk prince Chaghri Beg and gained the regard of his son Alp Arslan, then governing Khorasan for his father. 

Nizam al-Mulk was Alp Arslan’s right hand man throughout his reign (1063-1072), and upon the accession of his young son Malik-shah (1072-1092) became the virtual ruler of the empire.  After the assassination of Alp Arslan in 1072, Nizam al-Mulk, for the next twenty years, was the real ruler of the Saljuq Empire, residing with the young Malik Shah at Isfahan.  He was a champion of orthodoxy and a generous patron of learning, fostering both by founding the Nizamiyya College in Baghdad.

His relations with the ‘Abbasid caliphs al-Qa’im bi-Amr Allah and al-Muqtadi were strained, but after he had been received graciously at Baghdad in 1086, he became a champion of the caliphate, while relations with Malik Shah and the princely family deteriorated.  His vigorous repression of heresy led to his murder by an emissary of the “Assassins” of Alamut. 

Nizam al-Mulk was assassinated in 1092, probably by an emissary of the Nizari Isma‘ili al-Hasan ibn al-Sabbah, who had obtained possession of Alamut.  He was a lavish patron of religious men and poets.  In 1091 and 1092, he wrote a monarch’s primer, in which he deals with dangers that threatened the empire, in particular from the Isma‘ilis.  After his death, members of his family, known as Nizamiyya, held office under princes of the Saljuqs for the next sixty years, except for a gap between 1123 and 1134.

Nizam al-Mulk’s Siyasat-nama, written in unadorned Persian prose in 1091 at the invitation of Malik-shah and somewhat expanded by a later editor, is a practical manual of statecraft, illustrated by historical anecdotes.

Nizam al-Mulk is generally regarded as the principal architect of the Seljuk state.  He began his administrative career under the Ghaznavids, from whom he would draw inspiration for both theory and practice throughout his life.  Then, following the victories of the Seljuks, he entered their service in Khurasan, becoming Alp Arslan’s vizier and succeeding with him to imperial power.

Nizam al-Mulk combined his administrative skills with the military ventures of his sovereign to consolidate Seljuk authority from the Mediterranean to beyond the Oxus River.  Although he was able to dominate the young Malikshah, Alp Arslan’s son and successor, the vizier and the sultan later fell out, probably because of Nizam al-Mulk’s arrogance as well as resistance at the court, due in part to his extensive use of nepotism.

Nizam al-Mulk’s greatness lies in his championing of traditional Perso-Islamic practices of government and his attempt to adapt them to the new context of the Islamic Middle Ages.  His goal was to return substantial power to a civilian Persian bureaucracy.  Here he was unable to reverse the trend toward Turkish military dominance.  Ironically, he contributed to the growing autonomy of local military leaders.  By introducing reforms in the land grant (iqta) system, he institutionalized it to the point that it would serve as a basis for their expanded power, influence, and independence.  He was able, however, to contribute to the spread of a common educational and intellectual standard throughout Islam by supporting his own schools for Islamic scholars, the Nizamiyya madrasas.

Nizam al-Mulk’s practice was complemented by his theories, which were articulated in the Siyasatnama (Book of Government), a collection of advice, quotations, traditions, sayings, anecdotes, longer stories, contemporary events, and historical narratives, written in the last five years of his life.  The Siyasatnama takes a well-deserved place in both the development of Persian literature and the refinement of Islamic political theory.

The first part of the book contains chapters about the king’s public function (“Concerning assignees of land and inquiry into their treatment of the peasantry,” “On obtaining information about the conduct of tax-collectors, judges ...”) as well as his more personal life (“Concerning boon companions and intimates ...,” “Concerning the rules and arrangements for drinking parties ...”).  The second part is foreboding, dealing almost exclusively with heresy and various revolts, in particular with the contemporary activities of the Isma‘ilis.

Nizam al-Mulk’s pessimism was warranted.  He was assassinated in 1092 by an Isma‘ili, possibly with the complicity of the enemies he had gathered at court over three decades.  Malikshah died shortly thereafter.  These dual voids would not be filled.  Thus the decline of the Seljuk Empire in favor of smaller regional and local states was ensured.



Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan Nizam al-Mulk see Nizam al-Mulk, Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan
Abu Ali al-Hasan al-Tusi Nizam al-Mulk see Nizam al-Mulk, Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan
Khwaja Nizam al-Mulk al-Tusi see Nizam al-Mulk, Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan