CHAPTER V
THE PERIOD OF SANJAR AND HIS BROTHERS
(A.H. 485-552 = A.D. 1092-1157)

THE period of sixty-five years which we are now about to consider begins with the death of Maliksháh, described at the end of chap. iii, and ends with the death of his son Sanjar, who, though he reigned supreme in the Seljúq Empire only from A.D. 1117 to 1157, had ruled over Khurásán, and been the dominant figure in the House of Seljúq, from A.D. 1096. From the fratricidal wars which troubled this Empire before his succession, Khurásán, thanks to his wise and firm govern­ment, stood in large measure aloof, and only towards the end of his reign did it suffer at the hands of the Ghuzz Turks devastations which, frightful as they were, were eclipsed some seventy years later by the horrors of the Mongol invasion. The period which we are now considering may, therefore, fairly be called “the Period of Sanjar,” and with his death the epoch of the “Great Seljúqs” came to an end. Alike in length of life and brilliant achievements, according to ar-Ráwandí's Ráḥatu'ṣ-Ṣudúr, * Sanjar surpassed all the other Seljúq monarchs. From the time he was made king of Khurásán by Barkiyáruq, he effected, during a period of forty years, nineteen conquests. He took Ghazna and made Bahrámsháh king over it, on con­dition that he should pay him a tribute of one thousand dínárs a day. He also took captive the king of Samarqand, Aḥmad Khán, who had rebelled on Barkiyáruq's death, in A.D. 1130, and subdued Sístán and Khwárazm. Yet from the political point of view the Seljúq power was no longer what it had been in the days of Alp Arslán and Maliksháh; for, apart from the fratricidal wars which marked the beginning of this period, the catastrophe of the Ghuzz invasion with which it ended, and the revolts of various turbulent amírs, which were Rivals of the Seljúqs. of constant occurrence, two or three rival powers, even in Persia, were always ready to contest the supremacy of the “Great Seljúqs.” Of these the most important were, in the north-east the “Kings of the mountains” of Ghúr, whose rising power gave to the House of Ghazna the coup de grâce; and the new dynasty of Khwárazm-sháhs, or rulers of Khiva, which, with the accession of Atsiz in A.D. 1127, became a formidable rival to the Seljúqs; while in the south-east the independent Seljúqs of Kirmán held sway. Almost more dangerous, because ubiquitous, was the sect of the Isma'ílís or “Heretics” (Maláḥida) of Alamút, whose achievements, notwithstanding numerous and violent repres­sive measures, maintained and extended the terror which they had already established, and who became a formidable force not only in Persia but also in Syria.

In literature and science this period was as brilliant as any which preceded or followed it; the number of Persian writers,

Literary and scientific character of the period. both in prose and verse, vastly increased, while much important Arabic work continued to be produced in Persia. In the reign of Sanjar, of the great Persian poets Shaykh Farídu'd-Dín 'Aṭṭár (A.D. 1120) and Nidhámí of Ganja (A.D. 1140) were born; 'Umar Khayyám (A.D. 1121-22), Azraqí (A.D. 1130), Mas'úd b. Sa'd (A.D. 1131), Adíb Ṣábir (A.D. 1143-44), Mu'izzí (A.D. 1147-48), and 'Am'aq of Bukhárá (A.D. 1148-49), died; and Saná'í, Nidhámí-i-'Arúḍí of Samarqand, the great Anwarí, Rashídu'd-Dín Waṭwáṭ, the satirist Súzaní, and a host of less famous singers, flourished. Of contemporary Persian prose works, the great medical Encyclopædia entitled Dhakhíra-i-Khwárazmsháhí (A.D. 1110), the translation of Kalíla and Dimna by Naṣru'lláh b. 'Abdu'l-Ḥamíd (A.D. 1143-44), the Maqámát of the Qáḍí Ḥamídu'd-Dín Abú Bakr of Balkh (circâ A.D. 1160), and the Chahár Maqála of Nidhámí of Samarqand (about the same date), which will be cited at least as frequently in this chapter as in the preceding ones, are the most important. Of writers who wrote chiefly or wholly in Arabic, the great al-Ghazálí, whose death falls within this period (A.D. 1111-12), has been already mentioned; other notable persons are the philologists az-Zawzaní, at-Tabrízí, and al-Jawálíqí; the geographer al-Bakrí; the poets al-Abíwardí and aṭ-Ṭughrá'í (the author of the well-known Lámiyyatu'l-'Ajam, or “L-poem of the Persians”); Ibn Manda, the historian of Iṣfahán; al-Qushayrí, the hagiolo­gist and mystic; al-Ḥarírí, the author of the celebrated Maqámát (which were composed at the request of the minister and historian of the Seljúqs, Khálid b. Anúshirwán); al-Farrá al-Baghawí, and the greater az-Zamakhsharí, the commentators; al-Maydání, the author of the celebrated collection of Arabic proverbs; and ash-Shahristání, the author of the Kitábu'l-Milal wa'n-Niḥal, or “Book of Sects and Schools,” besides many others whom it would take too long to enumerate.

Following the plan hitherto adopted, we shall first take a general view of the political history of Persia and the neigh­bouring countries during this period, and shall then pass to the literary and other intellectual manifestations to which it gave birth.

Maliksháh left behind him on his death four sons—Barki-yáruq, aged eleven or twelve, Muḥammad, who was six months younger; Sanjar, aged eight; and Maḥmúd, a child of four. Of these the first, whose mother, Zubayda, was of the House of Seljúq, was at Iṣfahán, his native place, when his father's death took place. Maḥmúd's mother, the astute and Reign of Maḥmúd b. Maliksháh. ambitious Turkán Khátún, who was with her infant son at Baghdád, took advantage of her position to secure his accession to the throne. The Caliph al-Muqtadí was at first unwilling to consent, on account of Maḥmúd's tender years; but the influence of the Amír Ja'far, the Caliph's son by Máh-Malik, the sister of Maliksháh, secured, it is said, by bribes and flattery, finally enabled Tur­kán Khátún to gain her point. No sooner had she done so than she despatched Amír Búghá post-haste to Iṣfahán (which he reached in a week from Baghdád) to secure the person of Barkiyáruq, whom, however, some of the sons of the late Nidhámu'l-Mulk secretly carried off under cover of the dark­ness of night to Sáwa, Ába and Ray, where he was proclaimed King. At the time of his coronation he was under thirteen years of age, and the great jewelled crown had to be sus­pended over the young head still too weak to bear its weight. * Abú Muslim, the Governor of Ray, presided over the corona­tion, and some twenty thousand soldiers assembled at the gates of the city to support the claims of the young King.

Meanwhile Turkán Khátún, aided by her advisers Majdu'l-Mulk of Qum, Táju'l-Mulk Abu'l-Ghaná'im, Amír Unrú Bulká, and others, the rivals and destroyers of the great Nidhámu'l-Mulk, had occupied Iṣfahán, against which Bar-kiyáruq now marched; but for a sum of 500,000 dínárs he consented to refrain from besieging it, and turned aside to Hamadán. Thereupon Turkán Khátún again began to in­trigue against him, and, by a promise of marriage, induced his maternal uncle, Malik Isma'íl, to attack him (A.D. 1093) at Karach. Malik Isma'íl was defeated, and, on February 3rd, A.D. 1094, Barkiyáruq was formally proclaimed King at Baghdád; but soon afterwards Tutush, one of his paternal uncles, raised a much more formidable rebellion, defeated and took him prisoner, and brought him to Iṣfahán, where, though received with apparent kindness by his younger brother Maḥ-múd, he was imprisoned in the Kúshk-i-Maydán by Unrú Bulká, who decided to disqualify him from again aspiring to the throne by putting out his eyes.

Fortunately for him, ere this cruel intention had been carried out his brother Maḥmúd sickened with the small- Reign of Bar­kiyáruq b. Maliksháh. pox and died within the week, whereupon the Amírs placed Barkiyáruq once more upon the throne, and the disappearance of Turkán Khátún, who had been put to death in the autumn of A.D. 1094, doubtless tended to simplify matters. Barkiyáruq was in turn attacked by the disease which had proved fatal to his brother, but recovered, though his life was despaired of, and in the following year defeated and killed his uncle Tutush. Arslán Arghún, another rebellious uncle, was assassinated by one of his pages at Merv, and Barkiyáruq himself hardly escaped a similar fate at the hands of one of the “heretics” of Alamút. Shortly afterwards, having made his brother Sanjar king of Khurásán (A.D. 1096), Barkiyáruq returned to 'Iráq, but in A.D. 1099 his power was more seriously threatened by the rebellion of his brother Muḥammad, who was aided by the Mu'ayyidu'l-Mulk, the ablest of the late Nidhámu'l-Mulk's sons, whom Barkiyáruq had, by dismissing him from his service, converted into an irreconcilable foe. This unnatural war lasted with little intermission, and with varying fortune, till A.D. 1103-4, and five pitched battles were fought ere a truce was patched up a year or two before Barkiyáruq's death. During this period many fierce and cruel deeds were done; Barkiyáruq's mother, Zubayda, was taken prisoner and strangled by Muḥammad in her forty-third year (A.D. 1099); Majdu'l-Mulk of Qum, who had succeeded Mu'ayyidu'l-Mulk as Barkiyáruq's Prime Minister, was torn to pieces, notwithstanding his master's attempt to save him, by the infuriated soldiers, who suspected him of leaning towards the doctrines of the heretical Assassins; and Mu'ayyidu'l-Mulk was taken prisoner and decapitated in cold blood by Barkiyáruq. Peace was finally concluded between the two brothers in A.D. 1103-4, but towards the end of the latter year Barkiyáruq, being then but twenty-five years of age,

Reign of Maliksháh II. b. Barkiyáruq. sickened and died at Burújird, having nominated to succeed him his little son Maliksháh II, then a child under five years of age, who, after a nominal reign of a few weeks or months, was deposed, and, after the cruel fashion of the time, deprived of his eyesight.