No More Learning

Historical literature had its origin in biographies of the Prophet and
his companions. The foundations of this literature were laid in the
Umayyad period, but the oldest extant biography of the Prophet, written
by Ibn Isḥāq, who died in 768 during the reign of the second Abbasid
Caliph, has only survived to us in a recension of it made by Ibn Hishām
(ob. 834), a distinguished grammarian. Another biographer of the
Prophet, Wāqidi (ob. 822), enjoyed the patronage of Hārūn and wrote
The Book of the Wars, a detailed account of the campaigns of the
Prophet and the early successes of the Arab conquerors. His con-
temporary, Ibn Sa'd (ob. 844), wrote an immense biographical work
containing a life of the Prophet and of the various classes of his
companions and those who immediately followed them. Balādhurī
(ob. 892) also wrote an account of the early Arab conquests, which is
one of the most valuable sources for this early period, and began a
vast biographical work on the life of the Prophet and his kinsmen,
among whom the Abbasids are reckoned. Other historians took a larger
range. Dinawarī (ob. 895) in his Book of the Long Histories paid
especial attention to the history of Persia, and Ya'qubi, his contemporary,
wrote a manual of universal history; but all these works were surpassed
in extent by the monumental Annals of the Apostles and the Kings
by Tabarī, whose commentary on the Koran has already been mentioned,
a history of the world so far as it was of interest to a Muslim historian,
from the creation to the year 915. His work was abridged by a later
writer, Ibn al-Athir (ob. 1234), who likewise wrote a history of the world,
but from the beginning of the tenth century gives an independent
record; he also wrote a history of the Atābegs of Mosul and an alpha-
betical dictionary entitled Lions of the Jungle, biographies of 7,500
companions of the Prophet.
Other biographers confined their attention to limited groups, e. g. the
philosophers, scientists, physicians, or distinguished citizens of particular
cities; but none of these equal the interest that attaches to the Book
of Songs composed by Abu'l Faraj Isfahānī (ob. 967); beginning merely
with a collection of songs composed by the most famous musicians at the
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294
Belles lettres
court of the Caliph Hārūn, it contains not only detailed and graphic
accounts of poets and singers, but incidentally is one of the most impor-
tant of our sources for the history of the culture of the Muslim world up
to the ninth century.
An entirely new form of literary activity was introduced in a highly
artificial form of rhymed prose, known as the Maqāmah. The use of
rhyme is characteristic of the earliest work in Arabic prose known to us,
the Koran, and as a literary device it runs through Arabic prose litera-
ture, finding special expression in pulpit oratory and the elevated
epistolary style of official correspondence; but this style of composition
gave rise to a distinct department of literature when Badi-uz-Zamān
Hamadhānī (ob. 1007) conceived the idea of popularising it in a narra-
tive of the adventures of a vagabond scholar, who suddenly appears
in gatherings of wealthy persons and learned assemblies and by the
display of his erudition gains for himself ample reward. The author
makes such compositions an occasion for displaying his erudition by an
abundant use of rare and obsolete words and recondite phrases, illustrating
now the idiom of the Bedouins of the desert and now that of typical
examples of the townsfolk; though clad in a garb of out-of-the-way
learning, these compositions are full of humour and pointed satire against
various classes of contemporary society. The fame of this work was, how-
ever, eclipsed by that of Harīrī (ob. 1122), whose Maqāmāt are regarded
as a masterpiece of Arabic literary style, full of all manner of rhetorical
devices, verbal conceits, and verbal puzzles, intelligible only to trained
students of grammar and philology. Harīrī recounts the wanderings of
a learned knave who also suddenly appears in all kinds of unexpected
circumstances, and after a witty declaration, often in verse, as mysteriously
disappears again. Harīrī claimed that his work was not intended merely
to amuse but had also a deeper moral purpose, and there are indeed
passages in which his hero utters sentiments of the loftiest morals in
language of great dignity and beauty.
Prose literature developed also in various other forms of belles lettres,
notably in translations, such as the stories of Kalilah and Dimnah, largely
under the stimulus of the varied foreign influences that met in the cul-
tured society of Baghdad. Intellectual interest was widened until men of
letters left no subject untouched ; typical of such a wide intellectual
outlook is the Mu'tazilite theologian Jähiz (ob. 869) who, in his numerous
writings, ranged over such subjects as theology, rhetoric, natural history
(as in his Book of Animals), anthropology (in treatises that discussed the
relative merits of the Arabs and the Turks), and studies of contemporary
society (as in his Book of Misers, of Young Gallants, of Scribes, of
Singers, etc). The influence of Jāḥiz on Arabic prose literature was
considerable; his pupil Mubarrad (ob. 898) collected in his Kāmil
historical notices and examples of early poetry and prose, and such com-
pilations became a recognised form of literary activity to which several


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The encyclopaedists and geographers
295
writers of genius devoted themselves. Akin to such writers in their wide
intellectual outlook were the encyclopaedists, of whom Masóūdī (ob. 956)
may be taken as an example. He spent a large part of his life in travel,
and visited almost every part of Muslim Asia from Armenia to India and
from the Caspian to Zanzibar. Everything that he saw interested him,
and his reading was extensive and profound. In his latter years he com-
posed a universal history from the Creation up to his own period, but
his range was not confined to the conventional circle of Islāmic learning,
for he studied the beliefs of rival creeds and the wisdom of the Indians,
and enquired into puzzling problems of natural history, such as the source
of the Nile and the phenomena of tides, and described the sea-serpent
and the rhinoceros.
Masóūdi is typical of the mental curiosity which produced a rich
scientific literature during the Abbasid period. The practical needs of
administrators gave an impulse to the scientific study of geography,
and the oldest geographical work in Arabic that has survived is an
official handbook of Roads and Countries by a Persian postmaster, Ibn
Khurdādhbih, who lived in the first half of the ninth century. The
geographical literature that followed forms an important section of Arabic
literature written by eager and close observers. Maqdisī, who wrote in
985, embodied in an attractive style the accumulated experience of
twenty years of travel from Sind and Sistān in the East to Spain in the
West. But the greatest of the Arab geographers was Yāqūt (ob. 1229),
a Greek slave whose master had him educated in Baghdad; he lived
a wandering life, finally settling down in Aleppo; among his other
writings, he wrote a vast geographical dictionary and a biographical
dictionary of learned men. Zakarīyā of Qazwīn (ob. 1283) summed up
the geographical knowledge of his time in a comprehensive cosmo-
graphy, a kind of geographical encyclopaedia that deals not only with
geography proper but also with astronomy, anthropology, and natural
history; this book, translated into Persian, Turkish, and Urdu, was held
to be the standard work on geographical sciences until a knowledge of
Western learning penetrated the Muslim world.
Philosophy, as distinguished from theological scholasticism, begins
with Kindi (ob. c. 873), one of the few writers of pure Arab descent
who acquired distinction in letters during this period; but he was a
translator rather than a constructive thinker, and among the two hundred
treatises he wrote on such different subjects as astronomy, geometry,
music, politics, and medicine, there are translations of parts of Aristotle's
works and abridgments of others. For his pupil Aḥmad, a son of the
Caliph Mu'tasim, he prepared a version of the first work of Greek
philosophy translated into Arabic; though this was actually made up of
portions of the Enneads of Plotinus, it bore the misleading title of the
Theology of Aristotle, and this absurd designation is responsible for
much of the confusion prevailing in Arabic philosophy when attempts
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296
Philosophy
were made to expound Aristotelean and Platonic doctrines. A more
permanent influence on Muslim philosophic thought was exercised by
Fārābi (ob. 950), a Turk, who pursued his studies in medicine, mathe-
matics, and philosophy in Baghdad, but spent the last years of his life in
Aleppo under the tolerant patronage of the Hamdānid prince, Saif-ad-
Daulah. Like Kindī, his literary activity was enormous, and included a
number of commentaries upon Aristotle as well as independent ex-
positions of metaphysical problems. He certainly presented a fuller
exposition of Aristotelean doctrine than had hitherto been available in
the Arabic language, but, as he, like Kindī, believed in the authenticity
of the Theology of Aristotle and wrote several books to establish the
agreement between the doctrines of Aristotle and Plato, his exposition of
Aristotle is often incorrect. The brief aphoristic form in which he com-
posed many of his treatises, and the mysticism that interpenetrates his
thought, makes his system somewhat obscure. The Aristotelean doctrine
received a much clearer and more methodical exposition in the writings
of Ibn Sinā (Avicenna) (ob. 1037), whose philosophical development was
first stimulated by the study of one of Fārābī's works. He was more
concerned than his predecessor to attempt to reconcile the Aristotelean
metaphysic with Muslim theology. The philosophy of Avicenna, however,
belongs almost as much to Western medieval thought as to that of the
Muslim East, and will be dealt with in another part of this work.
Henceforth, two distinct streams of philosophic thought manifest
themselves; the Spanish philosophers Ibn Bājja (Avenpace) (ob. 1138),
Ibn Tufail (Abubacer) (ob. 1185), and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) (ob. 1198),
continued to work out philosophic problems in the West, but their influence
was more profoundly felt in Christian Europe than in the Muslim East.
Here, particularly in Persia, under the stimulus given to speculation by
Ghazālī, the philosophers tended more and more to become orthodox;
they studied Greek philosophy assiduously and were profoundly influenced
by Greek logic, but they carried on a persistent attack upon separate
Aristotelean doctrines in their defence of Muslim dogma. Fakhr-ud-Dīn
Rāzi (ob. 1209), the author of the great commentary on the Koran,
The Keys of the Unseen, was interpenetrated with Greek ideas, but both
here and in his numerous philosophical works he developed the orthodox
Ash'arite doctrines with a strong element of mysticism.
A strain of mysticism also characterises the idealistic philosophy of
Shihāb-ud-Dīn Suhrawardī (ob. 1191), who attacked the position that
truth could be attained by pure reason in his Unveiling of the Greek
Absurdities, and in his philosophy of Illumination sought to reconcile
with the theology of Islām the ancient Persian doctrine that identified
light and spiritual substance. He founded a school of Persian meta-
physics in which speculation and emotion were united and harmonised.
During the next century Naşir-ud-Dīn Țūsi (ob. 1273) also expounded
Greek philosophy in the spirit of orthodox Muslim dogma, and had


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Medicine
297
numerous commentators who followed him in making similar use of
Greek metaphysics and psychology. His contemporaries, Khawinji (ob.
1248), Abharī (ob. 1264), and Kātibī (ob. 1276), wrote compendiums of
logic, which have been text-books for centuries and have been commented
upon by generations of scholars.
In the science of medicine also the Arabs were the pupils of the Greeks.
The medical system of the Greeks had been studied in the great school
of Jundi-Shāpūr during the Sasanian period, and from the day when the
second Abbasid Caliph summoned Georgios, the son of Bukhtyishū, from
Jundi-Shāpūr to Baghdad in 765, this Nestorian Christian family remained
in high favour at the court for more than two centuries and a half.
Either from Syriac or the original Greek, Christian physicians translated
into Arabic the works of Hippocrates, Galen, Dioscorides, and other
authorities on medicine. Of these translators one of the most active was
Hunain ibn Isḥāq (ob. 873), known to medieval Europe as Johannitius;
he belonged to a Christian Arab tribe, and studied first in Baghdad and
later in Jundi-Shāpūr. Another city that produced translators from
the Greek was Harrān, the seat of a sect known as Sabaeans, to which
belonged an active translator Thābit ibn Qurrah (ob. 901), whose sons and
grandsons were also men of learning. Some knowledge of the Hindu
system of medicine also appears to have reached Baghdad, and a summary
of the Indian medicine is given by 'Ali ibn Rabban, who in 850 compiled
one of the earliest comprehensive works on medical science in Arabic,
The Paradise of Wisdom. Arabic medical literature, however, is by no
means limited to translations, and one of the most prolific contributors
to this literature, Rāzī, who died in the early part of the tenth century,
was a skilled clinical observer, and made distinctly original contributions
to medical science. Out of the fifty works from his pen that are known
to us, representing less than half of his writings, two were translated
into Latin during the Middle Ages under the titles of the Continens
and Liber Almansoris; the first, the Hawī, is a work so enormous that
only wealthy persons could afford to have copies made of it, and it con-
sequently became rare; the other book takes its name from his patron,
one of the Sāmānid princes of Khurāsān, to whom it was dedicated.
Another comprehensive system of medicine, known to the Middle Ages
as the Liber Regius of Haly Abbas, was written by ‘Ali ibn al-'Abbās, a
Persian, for the Buwaihid prince 'Adud-ud-Daulah (949–982). It was
diligently studied until its fame was eclipsed by the Qānūn (Canon) of
Avicenna, who was as great a physician as he was a philosopher, and out
of his 99 works that have survived this was the one most widely studied,
not only in the East but also in the West, since Gerard of Cremona
translated it in the twelfth century. Professor Browne says of this book:
“ Its encyclopaedic character, its systematic arrangement, its philosophic
plan, perhaps even its dogmatism, combined with the immense repu-
tation of its author in other fields besides medicine, raised it to a unique
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298
Mathematics and astronomy
position in the medical literature of the Muslim world, so that the earlier
works of ar-Rází and al-Majúsí, in spite of their undoubted merits, were
practically abrogated by it, and it is still regarded in the East by the
followers of the old Greek medicine, the Țibb-z- Yúnání, as the last appeal
on all matters connected with the healing art. ”? From the tenth
century onward Spain produced a number of great physicians, who, of
course, wrote in Arabic; while in Persia, the birth-place of the Arabic
authors above mentioned, Rāzī, 'Ali ibn al-'Abbās, and Avicenna, a vast
medical literature in the Persian language began with an encyclopaedia
by a physician named Zain-ud-Dīn Ismāʻīl, entitled the Dhakīra-i
Khwārazmshāhi, in honour of his patron who was governor of Khwārazm
(or Khiva) under the Seljūq Sultan Sanjar.
In the Middle Ages students of science often endeavoured to be
encyclopaedic, and several of the philosophers and physicians mentioned
above devoted their attention to other branches of learning. As in the
case of philosophy and medicine, the first impulse came from translations.
These were for the most part made from Greek writings by Syrian
Christians or by the so-called Sabaeans of Harrān; but Sanskrit literature
provided the earliest material, for an Indian in 771 brought to Manşür,
the founder of Baghdad, a work on astronomy, which this Caliph ordered
to be translated into Arabic, and shortly afterwards astronomical tables
compiled under the Sasanians were translated from the Pahlavi. A great
impulse to this work of translation was given by the Caliph Ma'mūn
(813–833), who organised it by establishing a special translation bureau,
to which skilled translators were attracted by offers of large salaries and
were employed in rendering into Arabic works on geometry, astronomy,
engineering, music, and the like. The names of several of the translators
who worked for him are known; among them was Muḥammad ibn Mūsà
al-Khwārazmī, one of whose works translated into Latin at the beginning
of the twelfth century under the title Algoritmi de numero Indorum intro-
duced the Arabic numerals into Europe, while his treatise on algebra was
in use in the West up to the sixteenth century. These men were not
translators merely; their own writings gave an impulse to mathematical
and astronomical studies, which produced fruitful results in the advance-
ment of these branches of knowledge. Astronomy especially was zealously
studied, not only for its own sake but because of its connexion with
astrology, and astronomers continued to enjoy the patronage of the more
barbarous Turkish and Mongol dynasties that dispossessed the Arab
Caliphate; among these may be mentioned Omar Khayyām, known in
modern times for his Persian poetry, who reformed the calendar in 1079,
while as an astronomer he was in the service of the Seljūq Sultan Malik
Shāh. Among astronomers may also be mentioned one of the greatest
intellects of the eleventh century, Berūnī (ob. 1048); he dedicated to
1 Arabian Medicine, p. 62. Cambridge. 1921.


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Astronomy
299
the Sultan Mas'ud ibn Mahmud of Ghaznah a complete account of the
science of astronomy, and wrote a number of smaller astronomical treatises
dealing with the astrolabe and the planisphere. His profound knowledge
of astronomy also reveals itself in his work on the calendars of different
nations. But perhaps the greatest monument of his erudition that this
remarkable man has left is his book on India, in which he gives an account
of the religion, philosophy, astronomy, and customs of the Hindus, based
upon a wide acquaintance with Sanskrit literature and upon his own
personal observations. Naşīr-ud-Dīn ļūsī, to whom reference has already
been made as a philosophical writer, was in charge of an observatory at
Marghah, several of the instruments in which he himself had invented;
in 1270 he dedicated to his patron the Mongol prince Hūlāgū astronomi-
cal tables based on observations of the planets for twelve years, for in the
midst of the appalling devastation that the Mongols inflicted upon Muslim
culture—a ruin from which it has never recovered—they extended their
patronage to one science at least, astronomy.
(B)
THE SELJUQS.
The rise of the Seljūq power and the history of the various dynasties
which were established by princes of that family deserve attention for
more than one reason. Not only were the Seljūqs largely responsible for
the consolidation of Islām during the later days of the Abbasid Caliphate,
but it is from this revival of power, which was, in no small degree, due to
their efforts, that the failure of the Crusaders to make any lasting im-
pression on the East may be traced. Further, it is not alone in politics
and warfare that the Seljūgs achieved success: they have laid mankind
under a debt in other spheres. Their influence may be observed in religion,
art, and learning. Their love of culture was shewn by the universities which
sprang up in their cities and in the crowds of learned men fostered at their
courts. Under them appeared some of the shining lights of Islām. The
philosopher and statesman Nizām-al-Mulk, the mathematician-poet Omar
Khayyām, warriors like Zangi, sultans like Malik Shāh, Nūr-ad-Din, and
it is right to include Saladin himself, were the product of the Seljūq
renaissance. To the Seljūq princes there can be ascribed, to a great ex-
tent, not only the comparative failure of the Crusades, but an unconscious
influence of East upon West, springing from the intercourse between
Frank and Saracen in the holy wars.
The rise of the Seljūq power
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300
Decay of the Caliphate
imparted fresh life to the-Orthodox Caliphate, with which these princes
were in communion, ultimately re-united the scattered states of Islām,
and laid the foundations of the Ottoman Turkish Empire at Con-
stantinople. It is impossible to give more than an outline of the im-
portant events and characters. The object of the present pages is merely
to sketch the rise of the Seljūq power and to mention the states and
dynasties by which the territories under Seljūq sway were ultimately
absorbed. So numerous were the various Atābegs who supplanted them
that sufficient space could not be allotted to their enumeration, which
would in most cases prove both wearisome and superfluous.
The period covered by these dynasties lies between the eleventh and
thirteenth centuries; the territory in which their rule was exercised extends
over large districts of Asia, chiefly Syria, Persia, and Transoxiana. The
name by which they are known is that of their first leader, from whose sons
the different rulers were descended. This leader, Seljūq ibn Yakāk, is said
to have sprung in direct line from Afrāsiyāb, King of Turkestan, the
legendary foe of the first Persian dynasty, but this descent is not his-
torical. Seljūq was one of the chiefs under the Khan of Turkestan, and
with his emigration from Turkestan to Transoxiana and the subsequent
adoption of Islām by himself and his tribe, his importance in history may
be said to begin.
At the time of the appearance of the Seljūqs, Islām had completely
lost its earlier homogeneity. The Umayyad Caliphate had been succeeded
in 750 by the Abbasid, a change of power marked by the transference of
the capital from Damascus to Baghdad. The latter Caliphate actually
survived until the Mongol invasion under Hülāgū in 1258, but at a very
early period schism and decay had set in. Already in 750, when the
Abbasids ousted the Umayyads, Spain became lost to the Caliphate, for
'Abd-ar-Raḥmān, escaping thither from the general slaughter of his kins-
folk in Syria, made himself independent, and his successors never acknow-
ledged the Abbasid rule. The establishment of the Idrīsid dynasty in
Morocco (788) by Idrīs ibn 'Abdallāh, of the Aghlabids in Tunis (800)
by Ibrāhīm ibn Aghlab at Qairawān, the supremacy of the Tūlūnids
(868–905) and Ikhshīdids (935–969) in Egypt, were severe losses to the
Caliphate in its Western dominions. Nor was the East more stable. In
Persia and Transoxiana, as a consequence of the policy pursued by the
Caliph Ma’mūn (813-833), there arose a great national revival, resulting in
the formation of several quasi-vassal dynasties, such as the Şaffārid
(867-903) and the Sāmānid (874-999); from the latter the Ghaznawids
developed, for Alptigīn, who founded the last-named line, was a Turkish
slave at the Sāmānid court. Many of these dynasties became extremely
powerful, and the ascendancy of the heterodox Buwaihids cramped and
fettered the Caliphs in their own palaces. All these kingdoms nominally
acknowledged the spiritual sovereignty of the Caliph, but in temporal
matters they were their own masters. The chief visible token of the Caliph


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The Shiites
301
לי
was the retention of his name in the Khutbah, a “bidding prayer" recited
on Fridays in the mosques throughout Islān, and on the coins. It is
extremely probable that even this fragment of authority was only allowed
to survive for reasons of state, principally to invest with a show of legitimacy
the claims of the various rulers who were, theoretically at least, vassals of
God's vicegerent on earth, the Caliph at Baghdad.
It was not alone in politics that the decay of the Caliphate was
manifest; in religion also its supremacy was assailed. The unity of Islām
had been rent by the schism of “Sunnah” (“Way” or “Law ") and
“Shi'ah” (“Sect”). The former was the name adopted by the orthodox
party, the latter the title which they applied to their opponents. The
Shi'ites believed in the divine Imāmship of Alī, the son-in-law of Mahomet
and the fourth Caliph after him. In consequence they rejected all
the other Caliphs and declared their succession illegitimate. But they
did not, on this account, support the Abbasids, although at first they sided
with them. The Abbasids made skilful use of the Shi'ite "Alids in under-
mining the Umayyad throne; indeed, by themselves the Abbasids could
scarcely have hoped to succeed. Once in power, the allies fell apart. The
Shi'ite doctrine contained numerous elements repugnant to a Sunnī,
elements which may be regarded as gnostic survivals perhaps, but certainly
borrowed from non-Semitic sources. Many held the Mu'tazilite opinion,
which denied the fundamental proposition that the Koran is eternal and
uncreated. They were noted for the number of their feasts and pilgrimages
and for the veneration with which they practically worshipped ‘Ali, since
they added to the profession of Faith “There is no God but God and
Mahomet is his apostle” the words “and 'Ali is his vicegerent (wali). "
In course of time numerous sects grew out of the Shi'ah, perhaps the
most famous being the Ismāʻīlīyah, the Fātimids, the Druses of the
Lebanon, and, in modern times, the Bābi sect in Persia. The kingdom of
the Safavids (1502-1736), known to English literature as “the Sophy,"
was Shi'ite in faith, and Shi'ite doctrines found a fertile soil in India and
the more eastern provinces of Islām. On the whole it may be said
roughly that the Turks were Sunnīs and the Persians Shi'ites.
At the time of the Seljūqs, when the political authority of the Caliphate
was so much impaired, two of the most important Muslim kingdoms sub-
scribed to the Shi'ite tenets. Of these kingdoms, one was that of the
Buwaihids, who ruled in Southern Persia and ‘Irāq. The dynasty had
been founded in 932 by Buwaih, the head of a tribe of mountaineers in
Dailam. The Buwaihids rose in power until the Caliphate was obliged
to recognise them. In 945 the sons of Buwaih entered Baghdad and ex-
tracted many concessions from the Caliph Mustakfi. In spite of their
heterodoxy they soon gained control over the Caliph, who became
absolutely subject to their authority.
The other Shi'ite kingdom, to which reference has been made, was
that of the Fățimids in Egypt (909–1171). As their name implies, these
יר
וי
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302
Islām saved by the Seljūgs
rulers claimed descent from Fātimah, the daughter of the Prophet, who
married 'Alī. It is therefore easy to understand their leanings towards
the Shi'ah. The dynasty arose in North Africa where ‘Ubaid-Allāh, who
claimed to be the Mahdī, conquered the Aghlabid rulers and gradually
made himself supreme along the coast as far as Morocco. Finally, in 969
the Fātimids wrested Egypt from the Ikhshidids and founded Cairo, close
to the older Fusțāț of ‘Amr ibn al--Aş. By 991 they had occupied Syria
as far as and including Aleppo. Their predominance in politics and
commerce continued to extend, but it is unnecessary to trace their de-
velopment at present. It is sufficient to recall their Shi'ite tendencies and
to appreciate the extent to which the Caliphate suffered in consequence of
their prosperity.
It will thus be seen that at the end of the tenth century the position
of the Caliphate was apparently hopeless. The unity of Islām both in
politics and in religion was broken; the Caliph was a puppet at the mercy
of the Buwaihids and Fāțimids. The various Muslim states, it is true,
acknowledged his sway, but the acknowledgment was formal and unreal.
It seemed as though the mighty religion framed by the Prophet would be
disintegrated by sectarianism, as though the brotherhood of Islām were
a shattered ideal, and the great conquests of Khālid and Omar were
destined to slip away from the weakening grasp of the helpless ruler at
Baghdad.
In such a crisis it would seem that Islam was doomed. It is useful
also to recollect that within a very few years the Muslim world was to
encounter the might of Europe; the pomp and chivalry of Christendom
were to be hurled against the Crescent with, one would imagine, every
prospect of success. At this juncture Islām was re-animated by one of
those periodical revivals that fill the historian with amazement. The
Semitic races have proved to be endowed with extraordinary vitality.
Frequently, when subdued, they have imposed their religion and civilisa-
tion on their conquerors, imbued them with fanaticism, and converted
them into keen propagators of the faith.
Islām was saved from destruction at the hands of the Crusaders by
one of these timely ebullitions. The approach of the Seljūqs towards
the West produced a new element in Islām which enabled the Muslims
successfully to withstand the European invaders; their intervention
changed the subsequent history of Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt.
The Seljūqs crushed every dynasty in Persia, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia,
and Syria, and united, for certain periods, under one head the vast
territory reaching from the Mediterranean littoral almost to the borders
of India. They beat back successfully both Crusader and Byzantine, gave
a new lease of life to the Abbasid Caliphate which endured till its ex-
tinction by the Mongols in 1258, and to their influence the establishment
of the Ayyübid dynasty in Egypt by Saladin may be directly traced.
It has already been stated that the Seljūgs derived their name from


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The dynasty of Seljūq
303
a chieftain of that name, who came from Turkestan. They were Turkish
in origin, being a branch of the Ghuzz Turks, whom the Byzantine
writers style Uzes. An interesting reference is made to the Ghuzz
in the famous itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, whose extensive travels
in the Orient took place about 1165. Benjamin speaks of the “Ghuz,
the Sons of the Kofar-al-Turak,” by which description he means the
Mongolian or infidel Turks, as the title Kuffar (plural of Kāfir, heretic),
implies. He says: “They worship the wind and live in the Wilderness.
They do not eat bread nor drink wine but live on uncooked ineat.
They have no noses. And in lieu thereof they have two small holes,
through which they breathe.
They eat animals both clean and unclean
and are very friendly towards the Israelites! . Fifteen years ago they
overran the country of Persia with a large army and took the city
of Rayy (Rai]: they smote it with the edge of the sword, took all the
spoil thereof and returned by way of the Wilderness. ” Benjamin goes
on to describe the campaign of Sanjar ibn Malik Shāh against the Ghuzz
in 1153, and his defeat.
Seljūq had four sons, Mīkā'īl, Isrā’il, Mūsà (Moses), and Yunus; the
names are recorded with certain variants by different writers. They
came from the Kirghiz Steppes of Turkestan to Transoxiana, and made
their winter quarters near Bukhārā and their summer quarters near Sughd
and Samarqand. They thus came under the suzerainty of Mahmūd of
Ghaznah (998-1030), and they embraced Islām with great fervour. The
Ghaznawid dynasty was then at the zenith of its power, chiefly through
the genius and success of the great Mahmud. He was the son of Sabak-
tagīn, who ruled under the sovereignty of the Sāmānid dynasty. Mahmud
asserted his independence and established himself in undisputed supremacy
over Khurāsān and Ghaznah, being recognised by the Caliph. A zealous
follower of Islām, he made twelve campaigns into India and gained the
title of the “ breaker of idols. ” But it is as a patron of learning that he
is best known. He established a university at Ghaznah and fostered
literature and the arts with a liberal hand. Under him Ghaznah became
a centre to which the learned flocked; the poet Firdausī wrote his
Shāhnāma under the auspices of Maḥmūd.
The migration of the Seljūqs took place at a somewhat earlier period.
It is clear that they were already employed in military service by Sabak-
tagin (976–997), the father of Mahmūd, and before the accession of the
latter (about 998) they had begun to play an important part in the
political life of the neighbouring Muslim states. Finally, they entered
into negotiations with Maḥmūd in order to receive his permission to
settle near the frontier of his kingdom, on the eastern bank of the
Oxus. According to Rāwandī, Maḥmūd unwisely gave the required
permission and allowed the Seljūqs to increase their power within his
dominions. The emigrants were then under the leadership of the sons
1 A circumstance als me tioned by Rāwandi.
CH. X.


## p. 304 (#346) ############################################

304
Țughril Beg
of Seljūq. Ultimately Maḥmūd became alarmed at their growing strength,
and seizing Isrā'īl the son of Seljūq, caused him to be imprisoned in the
castle of Kālanjar in India, where he died in captivity. Qutalmish, the
son of Isrā'īl, escaped to Bukhārā and instigated his relatives to avenge
his father's death. Accordingly they demanded leave from Maḥmūd to
cross the Oxus and settle in Khurāsān. Against the advice of the governor
of Țūs this was accorded, and during the lifetime of Maḥmūd there was
peace with the Seljūs. Before the death of the Sultan, Chaghrī Beg and
ľughril Beg were born to Mīkā'īl, the brother of Isrā'īl. Maḥmūd was
succeeded by his son Masíūd, who was very different from his father in
character. The conduct of the Seljūqs caused him serious alarm. Pre-
suming on their strength they made but slight pretence to acknowledge his
sovereignty, their independence was thinly veiled, and many complaints
against them poured in on the Sultan from his subjects and neighbours.
They defeated the governor of Nīshāpūr and forced the Sultan, then
engaged in an expedition to India, to accept their terms. Afterwards
Masóūd decreed the expulsion of the tribe, and the governor of Khurāsān
was instructed to enforce the command. He set out with a large force
but met with a crushing defeat, and the victorious Seljūqs, entering
Nīshāpūr in June 1038, established themselves in complete independence
and proclaimed Țughril Beg their king. In the previous year, the name
of his brother Chaghrī Beg had been inserted in the Khutbah or bidding
prayer, with the title of “King of Kings. ” From this time forward
the tide of Seljūq conquests spread westward. The Ghaznawids expanded
eastward in proportion as their western dominions were lost. The
Seljūq brothers conquered Balkh, Jurjān, Țabaristān, and Khwārazm,
and gained possession of many cities, including Rai, Hamadān, and
Ispahan. Finally in 1055 Țughril Beg entered Baghdad and was pro-
claimed Sultan by the Caliph.
Shortly after the defeat of Masóūd near Merv (1040), dissension broke
out among the Seljūq princes. While Țughril Beg and Chaghri Beg
remained in the East, Ibrāhīm ibn Ināl (or Nīyāl) went to Hamadan
and ‘Irāq ‘Ajami. Ibrāhīm became too powerful for Țughril Beg's liking,
and his relations with the Caliph and with the Fāțimids in Egypt boded
no good to Țughril Beg. Țughril Beg overcame Ibrāhīm, but the latter
was incapable of living at peace with his kinsmen. The affairs of the
Caliphate were controlled by the Isfahsālār Basāsīrī, who was appointed
by the Buwaihid ruler Khusrau Fīrūz ar-Raḥīm. The Caliph Qā'im
was forced to countenance the unorthodox Shīʻah, and when Ţughril
Beg came to Baghdad in 1055 his arrival was doubly welcome to
the Caliph. Before the approach of Țughril Beg, Basāsīrī fled. He
managed to prevail on Ibrāhīm ibn Ināl to rebel, and receiving support
from the Fātimids marched to Baghdad, which he re-occupied in 1058.
ľughril Beg overcame his foes and freed the Caliphate ; Ibrāhīm was
strangled and Basāsīrī beheaded. The grateful Caliph showered rewards


## p. 305 (#347) ############################################

The Vizier Nizām-al-Mulk
305
on Țughril Beg and finally gave him his daughter in marriage; but before
the nuptials could take place Ţughril Beg died (1063). He had received
from the Caliph, besides substantial gifts, the privilege of having his
name inserted in the Khutbah, the title Yamīnu 'Amīri'l-Mu'minin (Right
hand of the Commander of the Faithful), which was used by Maḥmūd of
Ghaznah himself, and finally the titles Rukn-ad-Daulah and Rukn-ad-Dīn.
These decorations from the Caliph were of the greatest value. They added
legitimacy to his claim and stability to his throne. From being the chief
of a tribe Țughril Beg became the founder of a dynasty.
Țughril Beg, having left no children, was succeeded by Alp Arslān,
the son of his brother Chaghrī Beg. For nearly two years before the death
of Țughril, Alp Arslān had held important posts, almost tantamount
to co-regency. He was born in 1029, and died at the early age of
forty-three in the height of his power. The greatness that he achieved,
though in some degree due to his personal qualities and the persistent
good fortune that attended him in his career, was in the main to be
ascribed to his famous Vizier Nizām-al-Mulk. As soon as he was seated
on the throne, Alp Arslān dismissed the Vizier of Țughril Beg, Abū-Nasr
al-Kundurī, the 'Amid-al-Mulk, who was accused of peculation and other
malpractices. The 'Amid had exercised great influence in the previous
reign; both the Sultan and the Caliph held him in high esteem. He was
extremely capable, and the sudden change in his fortunes is difficult to
explain. Alp Arslān was not given to caprice or cruelty, at all events
in the beginning of his reign, and whatever may be urged against the
Sultan there is little likelihood that Nizām-al-Mulk would have acquiesced
without reasonable grounds. According to Rāwandi, Niļām-al-Mulk
was the real author of the overthrow of the 'Amid, having instigated Alp
Arslān. He states that Alp Arslān carried the 'Amid about with him
from place to place, and finally had him executed. Before his death he
sent defiant messages to the Sultan and to his successor in the Vizierate,
Nizām-al-Mulk.
Nižām-al-Mulk was one of a triad of famous contemporaries who were
pupils of the great Imām Muwaffaq of Nīshāpūr. His companions were
Omar Khayyām, the poet and astronomer, and Hasan ibn Şabbāh, the
founder of the sect of the Assassins, one of whom ultimately slew Nizām-
al-Mulk. The Vizier was noted for his learning and his statesmanship. A
work on geomancy and science has been attributed to him, but his most
famous literary achievement was his Treatise on Politics in which he
embodied his wisdom in the form of counsels to princes. Nizām-al-
Mulk gathered round him a large number of savants and distinguished
men. Under his influence literature was fostered and the sciences and
arts encouraged. In 1066 he founded the well-known Nizāmīyah Univer-
sity at Baghdad. To this foundation students came from all parts, and
many great names of Islām are associated with this college as students
or teachers. Ibn al-Habbārīyah the satirist (ob. 1110), whose biting
C. MED. H. VOL. IV. CH. X.
20


## p. 306 (#348) ############################################

306
Alp Arslan
sarcasm neither decency could restrain nor gratitude overcome, was
tolerated here on account of his wit and genius by Nizām-al-Mulk, who
even overlooked most generously a satire directed against himself. Among
the students were: the famous philosopher Ghazālī (1049–1111) and
his brother Abū’l-Futūḥ (ob. 1126) the mystic and ascetic, author of
several important works; the great poet Sa'dī, author of the Gulistan
and of the Bustān (1184–1291); the two biographers of Saladin, 'Imād-
ad-Dīn (1125-1201), in whose honour a special chair was created, and
Bahā-ad-Dīn (1145–1234), who also held a professorial post at his old
university; the Spaniard ‘Abdallah ibn Tūmart (1092-1130), who pro-
claimed himself Mahdi and was responsible for the foundation of the
Almohad dynasty. Mention must also be made of Abū-Isḥāq ash-Shīrāzī
(1003-1083), author of a treatise on Shāfisite law called Muhadhdhab,
of a Kitāb at-Tanbih, and of other works. He was the first principal of
the Nizāmīyah, an office which he at first refused to accept. Another
noted lecturer was Yahyà ibn 'Alī at-Tabrīzī (1030–1109).
Such are a few of the names that rendered illustrious not only the
Nizāmīyah University at Baghdad but its founder also. At Nīshāpūr
Nizām-al-Mulk instituted another foundation similar to that at Baghdad,
and also called Niņāmīyah, after the Vizier. It will be easily under-
stood that, with such a minister, the empire of the Seljūgs was well
governed. Not only in the conduct of foreign affairs and military expe-
ditions but in internal administration was his guiding hand manifest.
Alp Arslān, on embracing Islām, adopted the name of Muḥammad,
instead of Isrā'īl by which he had formerly been known. Alp Arslān
signifies in Turkish "courageous lion”; the title 'Izz ad-Dīn was con-
ferred on him by the Caliph Qā’im. Alp Arslān ruled over vast
territory. His dominions stretched from the Oxus to the Tigris. Not
content to rule over the lands acquired by his predecessors, he added
to his empire many conquests, the fruits of his military prowess and good
fortune. As overlord his commands were accepted without hesitation,
for he united under his sway all the possessions of the Seljūq princes and
exacted strict obedience from every vassal. The first of his military
exploits was the campaign in Persia. In 1064 he subdued an incipient
but formidable rebellion in Khwārazm, and left his son Malik Shāh to
rule over the province. Shortly after, he summoned all his provincial
governors to a general assembly, at which he caused his son Malik Shāh
to be adopted as his successor and to receive an oath of allegiance from
all present.
The next exploit of the Sultan was his victory over the Emperor
Romanus Diogenes (1071). The Byzantines had gradually been encroach-
ing on the Muslim frontiers. Alp Arslān marched westwards to meet the
enemy and fought with Romanus, who had a great numerical pre-
ponderance, at Manzikert. The Byzantines sustained a crushing defeat
and the Emperor was taken captive. Alp Arslān treated his royal prisoner


## p. 307 (#349) ############################################

Malik Shāh
307
with kindness, though at first he ordered rings to be placed in his ears as a
token of servitude. After a short period Romanus was released on pro-
mising to pay tribute and to give his daughter in marriage to the Sultan.
To this victory is due the establishment of the Seljūg dynasty of Rūm;
while, in the loss of provinces which provided the best recruits for its
armies, the Byzantine Empire experienced a calamity from which it
never recovered.
Finally, in 1072 Alp Arslān undertook a campaign against the
Turkomans in Turkestan, the ancient seat of the Seljūqs, in order to
establish his rule there. It was in this campaign that he met his end.
An angry dispute took place between the Sultan and Yusuf Barzami,
the chieftain of a fortress captured by the Seljūqs. Stung by the taunts
of the Sultan, Yusuf threw himself forward and slew him in the
presence
of all the guards and bystanders, whose intervention came too late to
save Alp Arslān.
Malik Shāh succeeded his murdered father. He was known by the
titles Jalāl-ad-Dīn and Mu'izz-ad-Dunyà-wa’d-Dīn. He ascended the
throne, which he occupied for twenty years, when he was eighteen, being
born in 1053 and dying in 1091. The great Vizier Niğām-al-Mulk
remained in power and for long maintained his influence. As soon as
Alp Arslān died Malik Shāh was recognised by the Caliph as his successor,
and invested with the title of 'Amir-al-Mu'minin (Commander of the
Faithful), hitherto jealously preserved by the Caliphs for themselves.
Malik Shāh had left Khurāsān on his way to 'Iraq when he was met by
the tidings that his uncle Qāwurd had raised a revolt against him and was
on his way from Kirmān. Malik Shāh promptly set out to meet him,
routed his army, and took Qāwurd captive. As his own troops shewed
signs of disaffection and preference for Qāwurd, Malik Shāh, on the
advice of his Vizier, had him put to death in prison, either by poison or
by strangling. The execution was announced to the populace as a suicide,
and the troops returned to their loyalty. Soon after this Malik Shāh sent
his cousin Sulaimān ibn Qutalmish on an expedition into Syria, and
Antioch was captured. Subsequently (1078) the Sultan himself captured
Samarqand. This expedition was marked by an incident which shews how
greatly Nizām-al-Mulk was imbued with the imperial idea. After Malik
Shāh had been ferried over the Oxus, the native ferrymen received drafts
on Antioch in payment of their services. When they complained to the
Sultan, who asked the Vizier why this had been done, the latter explained
that he had taken this course in order to afford an object-lesson in the
greatness and unity of the Sultan's realms. At this time Malik Shāh
espoused Turkān Khātūn, daughter of Țamghāj Khān. She became,
later on, an implacable foe to the Vizier.
Thus Malik Shāh extended his dominions to the north and west. He
rode his horse into the sea at Laodicea in Syria, and gave thanks to God
for his wide domain. It is related that, during one of his progresses
CH. X.
20-2


## p. 308 (#350) ############################################

308
Intrigues of the Turkān Khātān
לל
in the north, he was, while hunting, taken prisoner by the Byzantine
Emperor, by whom however he remained unrecognised. Malik Shāh con-
trived to send word to Nizām-al-Mulk, who adroitly managed to rescue
the Sultan without revealing his master's rank. Soon afterwards the tide
turned and the Byzantine Emperor was a captive in the Muslim camp.
When brought into the presence of Malik Shāh he remembered his late
encounter and made a memorable reply, when the Sultan asked him how
he wished to be treated. “If you are the King of the Turks,” returned
the Emperor, “send me back; if you are a merchant, sell me; if you are
a butcher, slay me. ” The Sultan generously set him at liberty. Peace
was made and lasted until the death of the Byzantine Emperor, when,
after hostilities, Malik Shāh made Sulaimān ibn Qutalmish ruler over
the newly conquered territory.
Malik Shāh appointed a commission of eight astronomers, among
whom was Omar Khayyām, to regulate the calendar, and a new era was in-
troduced and named Ta'rīkh Jalālī, or Era of Jalāl, after the title of Malik
Shāh. Similarly the astronomical tables drawn up by Omar were called
Zījī-Malikshāhī in honour of the Sultan. Malik Shāh was noted for the
excellent administration of justice that prevailed in his reign, for his
internal reforms, for his public works such as canals and hostels and
buildings, for the efficiency in which he maintained his army, and for his
piety and philanthropy. To his nobles he made liberal grants of estates.
He undertook the pilgrimage to Mecca, and his wells and caravanserais
for pilgrims are abiding memorials of his good works. He made even
his pleasures productive of charity, for whenever he engaged in the chase,
to which he was passionately addicted, he made it a rule to give a dinner
to a poor man for every
that fell to him.
Towards the end of his reign Nizām-al-Mulk began to decline in
favour. This was due to the intrigues of the Turkān Khātūn, who de-
sired to secure the succession for her son Mahmūd, while the Vizier
favoured the eldest son Barkiyārug, who was not only entitled to be re-
cognised as heir apparent on the ground of birth but, moreover, was far
better fitted to rule. The constant efforts of the Khātūn, coupled with
the fact that Nizām-al-Mulk bad placed all his twelve sons in high
offices in the State, for which indeed they were well qualified, had their
effect on the Sultan. He dismissed the aged Vizier who had served both
him and his father before him, and installed in his stead a creature of the
Khātūn, Tāj-al-Mulk Abu'l-Ghanā’im. Shortly afterwards Malik Shāh
went on a visit to the Caliph, and Nižām-al-Mulk followed his court at a
distance. At Nihāwand, Nizām-al-Mulk was set upon and murdered by
one of the Assassins, instigated by Tāj-al-Mulk. The late Vizier lingered
long enough to send a message to the Sultan, urging his own loyalty in
the past and offering that of his son for the future. He was buried at
Ispahan. He may probably be considered as the most brilliant man of
head of
game
his age.


## p. 309 (#351) ############################################

Barkiyāruq: Civil wars
309
Shortly afterwards the Sultan himself died, at Baghdad. He was one
of the greatest of the Seljūgs, and the policy by which he placed his
kinsmen over conquered territories is in keeping with his private liberality.
He was succeeded, after a civil war, by his son Barkiyāruq.
This Sultan received the name of Qāsim at circumcision, and the title
of Rukn-ad-Daulah-wa'd-Dīn (Column of the State and the Faith) from
the Caliph Muqtadi. He was born in 1081, succeeded to the throne at the
age of thirteen in 1094, and died in 1106. During his reign he experienced
a series of vicissitudes of fortune, being sometimes at the height of power
and once at least in imminent danger of execution, when a captive in his
rival's hands. The unexpected death of his father at Baghdad and the pre-
sence of his enemies at the Caliph's court were serious obstacles to his
accession. His chief partisan, Nizām-al-Mulk, had been murdered; his
stepmother the Khātūn was importuning the Caliph to alter the succession
in favour of her son Mahmūd; the newly-appointed Vizier was a supporter
of the Khātūn; Barkiyāruq himself was away in Ispahan, and the Caliph
was wavering in his decision. Finally, Muqtadi was won over by the
Khātān and declared Mahmūd, then aged four, successor to Malik Shāh.
At the same time Barkiyāruq proclaimed himself at Ispahan. Within a
week, the envoys of the Khātün arrived in order to seize Barkiyāruq, who
was, however, saved by the sons of Nizām-al-Mulk. The sons of the late
Vizier were, like their father, pledged to Barkiyāruq's cause, and their own
safety was bound up with his. They escaped with the lad to Gumushtagin,
one of the Atābegs appointed by Malik Shāh, who offered generous pro-
tection and help. At Rai he was crowned by the governor, Abū-Muslim,
and 20,000 troops were enrolled to protect him. Turkān Khātün had by
this time seized Ispahan and she, with Mahmūd, was besieged by Barki-
yāruq. After some time peace was made. The Khātūn and her son were
to be left in possession of Ispahan on giving up half of the treasure (one
million dinars) left by Malik Shāh. Barkiyāruq retired to Hamadān.
Within a few months, however, war again broke out. Hamadān was then
ruled by Ismāʻīl, the maternal uncle of Barkiyāruq, and the Khātün
opened negotiations with him, proposing to marry him if he would over-
come her stepson. The governor agreed and marched against Barkiyāruq,
by whom, however, he was defeated and slain. Nevertheless the Sultan
had no respite from his enemies, for another uncle, Tutush, the son of
Alp Arslān, rose against him and pressed him hard (1094). Barkiyāruq
had the Turkān Khātun executed, but eventually was forced to surrender
to his uncle and to Maḥmūd his step-brother. At this stage his life was
in great peril. Maḥmūd, who had received Barkiyāruy with every ap-
pearance of friendship, soon had him imprisoned. His life hung by a
thread. Finally, Maḥmūd gave orders to put out his eyes, in order to
render him permanently incapable of ruling. This command would have
been carried out but for the sudden illness of Mahmūd, who caught the
smallpox. Thereupon the sentence was suspended while the issue of the
co. X.


## p. 310 (#352) ############################################

310
Muḥammad
llness was in doubt. In point of fact Maḥmūd died and Barkiyāruq was
restored to the throne, only to be attacked by the same malady. The
Sultan, however, recovered and at once proceeded to restore his authority.
He made Mu'ayyid-al-Mulk, a son of Nizām-al-Mulk, Vizier, and led
an army against his uncle Tutush, who was beaten and slain (1095).
Barkiyāruq was attacked by one of the Assassins, but the wound was not
fatal, and the Sultan led an expedition to Khurāsān, where his uncle
Arslān Arghūn was in revolt. The latter was murdered by a slave, and
the Sultan, victorious over the enemy, placed his brother Sanjar in
authority over Khurāsān.
The next struggle that awaited Barkiyāruq arose from the intrigues
of Mu'ayyid-al-Mulk. The latter, who had been replaced in office by his
brother Fakhr-al-Mulk, prevailed on one of the late Turkān Khātūn's
most powerful supporters, the Isfahsālār Unrū Bulkà, to rebel. The plot
came to nothing as Unrū Bulkà met his death at the hands of an Assassin
emissary. Mu'ayyid-al-Mulk fled to Barkiyāruq's brother Muḥammad, and
renewed his intrigues there. Finally, in 1098 war broke out between the
two brothers. Barkiyāruq was weakened by a serious outbreak among
his troops and had to flee to Rai with a small retinue, while Muḥammad
and Mu'ayyid-al-Mulk reached Hamadān, where Muḥammad was acknow-
ledged as king. Barkiyāruq was driven into exile, but at length succeeded
in raising a force and captured Muḥammad and Mu'ayyid-al-Mulk.