Nizam al-Mulk

“ Firdusi introduces us to the greatness of Mahmud of Ghazna's court. Omar Khayyám takes us into its ruins; for one of the friends of his boyhood days was Nizam al-Mulk, the grandson of that Toghrul the Turk, who with his Seljuks had supplanted the Persian power. Omar's other friend was Ibn Sabbah, the "old Man of the Mountain," the founder of the Assassins. The doings of both worked misery upon Christian Europe, and entailed a tremendous loss of life during the Crusades. ”

“ Christians were numerous and the Moslem Shiahs were almost as strong as the orthodox. Some of their most celebrated writers and scholars, for example Abu Jaʾfar Muhammed, were born at Tus; and Ibn Abi Hatim, one of the earliest and most important critics of the science of Tradition, died at Tus in 939. In spite of its learned men, however, Tus did not have a high reputation, as we know from the following anecdote related of Ibn-Habbariyya. He was asked by an enemy of Nizam Al-Mulk to compose a satire on this ruler. “How can I attack a man to whose kindness I owe everything I see in my house?” ”

“ Hassan expected that Nizam al mulk would call him to his presence; disappointed in this, 426 he, during the reign of Alp Arslan, did not join Khajah, but in the time of Sultan Malik Shah [631] he presented himself in Níshápúr to Khajah, but the latter did not mind the covenant that he had made, nor introduce him to the assembly of the king. Helpless then, the Sayid al táífah, “the chief of the sect,” that is, Hassan, said to Khájah: “Thou belongest to the learned, and to the companions of certainty, and thou knowest that the world is a vile object ”

“ Al-Juwayni, the greatest theologian of the time, fled to the Hijaz and gained the title of Imam of the two Harams [213] (Imam al-Haramayn) , by living for four years between Mecca and al-Madina. Al-Qushayri, the author of a celebrated treatise on Sufiism, was thrown into prison. The Ash‘arite doctors generally were scattered to the winds. Only with the death of Tughril Beg in 455 did the cloud pass. His successor, Alp-Arslan, and especially the great wazir, Nizam al-Mulk, favored the Ash‘arites. In 459 the latter founded the Nizamite Academy at Baghdad to be a defence of Ash‘arite doctrines. ”

“ There was a Persian sage, whose philosophy was of a different complexion from that of the eloquent moralist of “the old garden near Bath.” “In what can I best assist thee?” demanded the Minister, Nizam-al-Mulk, as he warmly greeted his friend, Omar Keyoomee. “Place me,” said Omar, enamoured of poetry and ease, “where my life may pass without care or annoyance, and where wine, in abundance, may inspire my muse.” A pension was accordingly assigned him in the fertile district of Nishapour, where Omar lived and died. His tomb still exists, and Mr. ”

“ GHAZĀLĪ [Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī] (1058–1111) , Arabian philosopher and theologian, was born at Tūs, and belonged to a family of Ghazāla (near Tūs) distinguished for its knowledge of canon law. Educated at first in Tūs, then in Jorjān, and again in Tūs, he went to college at Nīshāpūr, where he studied under Juwainī (known as the Imām ul-Ḥaramain) until 1085, when he visited the celebrated vizier Nizām ul-Mulk, who appointed him to a professorship in his college at Bagdad in 1091. ”

“ The youth who had shattered the promising fabric, which had slowly been set up, was a son of the old Mehtar by one of his four legitimate wives, and Nizam-ul-Mulk would have liked to have murdered him, knowing that if he did not do so he ran the risk of himself being murdered by the youth. ”

“ Nizam ul Mulk himself tells the story: “ ‘Men believe,’ remarked Hassan one day to us, ‘that the pupils of our master are sure to be fortunate; let us promise that should success visit one of us only, that favored one will share with the other two.’ We promised.” Years later when Nizam ul Mulk was grand vizir to Alp Arslan, Sultan of the Seljuks, he showed Omar Khayyam sincere honor and friendship, and offered him the dignity of second vizir, which the poet rejected, but at his request the vizir gave him one thousand gold pieces each year instead of the office. ”

“ Humayun soundly rated the Khaja and then, as his custom was, issued immediate orders that Nizam-ul-Mulk should be put to death without allowing him an opportunity of explaining matters. Whether Nizam-ul-Mulk actually suffered death or whether he succeeded in escaping, as his followers did, to the court of Mahmud Shah Khalji of Malwa is not quite certain, but it is probable that he was executed. ”

“ Besides, just as we have abandoned the Shiah Hazaras, our true friends during the late Afghan War, to be destroyed by their religious and political foe, the Sunni Amir Abdurrahman, so have the Amir Sher Ali and the Tham of Hunza, Safdar Ali Khan, rued their [4] trust in Russian Agents. I regret, therefore, to find in the Times telegram of to-day that “the Nizám” “is acting without the support of the British Agent” “who has not interfered,” when he had already interfered in favour of the usurper Afzul-ul-Mulk. ”

“ Nizam-ul-Mulk (= “administrator of the kingdom”) was the title of Asaf Jah, the founder of the dynasty, a very able soldier and minister of the court of Aurangzeb, who was appointed governor of the Deccan in 1713, and established his independence before his death in 1748. ”

“ The Nizam who was struck by this inconsistency between their noble deportment and their needy appearance, called the boys to him, and asked them to tell him who they were. They related their melancholy history; on hearing which, the Nizam was moved with compassion for them, and directed them to appear the I next day before the Minister, Musheer-ul-Mulk. They ' did so, and were told that they w^ould be the recipients of an annual allowance of Eupees 3,000 each. ”

“ This narrative reads so circumstantially that one can hardly do otherwise than accept it, but in that case Nizám ul Mulk's birth must be placed at least twenty years later than 408, [2] the date given both by Ibn Khallikán and Abul Faraj; or else the accepted dates of Omar's and Hasan's deaths (517 and 518 A.H.) must be abandoned for others at least twenty years earlier.
Omar's appointment at Merv mentioned by Nizám ul Mulk was, as we learn from Abul Feda, that of Astronomer Royal. ”

“ Divert thyself with eating and drinking and put away cark and care from thy heart, and I will bring thee an hundred maids of the daughters of Kings; for thou hast no need to the daughters of the Jann, over whom we lack controul and of kind other than ours.” But he said, “I cannot renounce her nor will I seek other than her.” Asked King Asim, “How then shall we do, O my son?”; and Sayf al-Muluk answered, “Bring us all the merchants and travellers and wanderers in the city, that we may question them thereof. Peradventure, Allah will lead us to the city of Babel and the garden of Iram.” ”

“ We should conciliate Nizam-ul-Mulk before it is too late. He is connected with Umra Khan of Jandôl and with the influential Mullah Shahu of Bajaur through his maternal uncle, Kokhan Beg. He has also connections in Badakhshan, Hunza and Dîr, as already stated. Indeed, we ought to have given him our support from the beginning. I doubt whether it would be desirable to subdivide Chitrál as stated in to-day’s Times, letting Sher Afzul keep Chitrál proper, giving Yasin to “the Nizám” and letting Umra Khan retain what he has already seized of Southern Chitrál. ”

“ Nazir-jing had for some time commanded his father's army, and availed himself of the power derived from his offices to oppose the pretensions of his nephew Hidayet mohy-o-dean. He began by seizing Nizam-al-muluck's treasures, and with them prepared to keep possession of the sovereignty: he pretended, that his father had named his eldest son Ghazi-o'-din Khan to be his heir: and that Ghazi-o'-din Khan preferring the employment he held at the court of Delhi, had ceded to him the soubahship of the southern provinces: and that this sovereignty was confirmed to him from the throne. ”

“ He was haunted by treachery and was troubled; the rumor that this incident provoked in the hall, the presence of the King who was irritated at finding such disorder in a compilation of this importance, added to Hassan's confusion, and he was immediately275 forced to retire, after a severe reprimand on the part of Alp-Arslan. Nizam-el-Moulk was avenged; he respectfully approached the King and made the observation to him that it was hardly to be expected that there would be much regularity in so serious a work, done in such haste by incapable people. ”

“ Ibn Muljam declared boldly that the deed had been forty days in contemplation, during all which time it had been his prayer that "the wickedest of mankind might meet his fate." "Then," replied 'Ali, "that must have been thyself." So saying, he turned to his son, Al-Hasan, and bade him keep the assassin in close custody: "If I die, his life is forfeit; but see thou mutilate him not, for that is forbidden by the Prophet." ”

“ They rode on again after this brief halt, taking the direction of Fort Shah Nawaz, but leaving it out of sight on the right hand. The dark rocks which marked the mouth of the Akrab Pass were visible in the distance on the left, and Lady Haigh expected that Nizam-ul-Mulk would lead the way thither. ”

“ Hassan determined to deliver his first great blow at this juncture and begin his career of surprises. He had resolved to rid himself of opponents unsparingly, and to terrify those of his enemies whom he left living. His first victim was Nizam ul Mulk, his classmate, friend and benefactor, a statesman renowned throughout one half of Asia as chief vizir under three Seljuk Sultans, the first of their dynasty, a man of profound wisdom and keen foresight, whose Treatise on the Principles of Government was written for Melik Shah and adopted as his code. ”

“ The nizam met the demands for relief with great liberality.
The nizam of Hyderabad is the principal Mahommedan ruler in India. The family was founded by Asaf Jah, a distinguished Turkoman soldier of the emperor Aurangzeb, who in 1713 was appointed subahdar of the Deccan, with the title of nizam-ul-mulk (regulator of the state) , but eventually threw off the control of the Delhi court. Azaf Jah’s death in 1748 was followed by an internecine struggle for the throne among his descendants, in which the British and the French took part. ”

“ It was not, however, till 1490 that the tarafdars openly declared themselves independent. In that year Malik Ahmad Nizam-ul-Mulk held the province of Daulatabad, Yusuf Adil Khan that of Bijapur, and Fatbullah Imad-ul-Mulk that of Gawil, or northern Berar. Nizam-ul-Mulk was the first to propose that they should assume independence, and invited Yusuf Adil Khan, Fatbullah Imad-ul-Mulk, and Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk of western Telingana to join him. ”

“ It was taken and razed to the ground by Mongols in 1221, but a century later Ibn Batuta found the city again flourishing, with four colleges, numerous students, and an export of silk-stuffs to India. Nishapur was famous for its fruits and gardens which gave it the epithet of “little Damascus.”
We have an interesting portrait of Al-Ghazali’s chief teacher while he was at Nishapur,—Abul-Maʾali ʿAbdal-Malik Al-Juwaini Imam al-Haramain. He was born at Bushtaniqan, near Nishapur, on the twelfth of February, 1028, and was one of the most learned and celebrated teachers of Moslem law in his day. ”

“ The Nizam, or regular troops of the Turkish army, were of very good material; many of them came from the Asiatic provinces of Turkey, and when well drilled they made excellent soldiers. The faith of Islam teaches that a Moslem who dies fighting for the preservation of his religion, goes straight to paradise, according to the teachings of Mohammed, the Russian is an infidel, and consequently the war with Russia had a religious aspect. Under these circumstances it is no wonder that the Turkish soldiers manifested an almost stoical indifference to death, and fought bravely to the last. ”

“ Omar Khayyam was born at Naishapur in Khorassan in the latter half of our Eleventh, and died within the First Quarter of our Twelfth Century. The Slender Story of his Life is curiously twined about that of two other very considerable Figures in their Time and Country: one of whom tells the Story of all Three. This was Nizam ul Mulk, Vizier to Alp Arslan the Son, and Malik Shah the Grandson, of Toghrul Beg the Tartar, who had wrested Persia from the feeble Successor of Mahmud the Great, and founded that Seljukian Dynasty which finally roused Europe into the Crusades. ”

“ This Nizam ul Mulk, in his «Wasiyat»—or «Testament»—which he wrote and left as a memorial for future statesmen—relates the following, as quoted in the «Calcutta Review,» No. lix., from Mirkhond's «History of the Assassins.» ”

“ When Turkey joined the Central Powers the Nizam issued a proclamation enjoining on his subjects, and impressing on his Moslem co-religionists throughout India, the duty of firm and steadfast devotion to the British cause. When the Khalifat agitation respecting the peace terms with Turkey arose among the Mahommedans he prohibited anti-British propaganda in his dominions. The large body of imperial service troops maintained by the Nizam was employed at full strength throughout the war in the Eastern theatres, and he actively coöperated in recruiting work. ”

“ It was this moment that Nizám-ul-Múlk chose as the time to intervene. Entering Arcot at the head of a large army (March, 1743) he completely pacified the province; then, marching on Trichinopoli, compelled the Maráthás to yield it and to evacuate the Karnátik. Possessing himself of the person of the newly proclaimed Nawáb, whom he declined to recognize, he proclaimed his own commander-in-chief, Khojá Abdullah, to be Nawáb of the Karnátik, and then returned to Golconda.
Unfortunately for the peace of the province Khojá Abdullah, a strong man, never took up the government of the Karnátik. ”