Malik Shah I

Jalāl ad-Dīn Malik Shāh (1055-1092), Spanishized as Jalaledín, or Malik Shah I: Seljuk sultan (1072- 1092). Like other figures of the medieval Islamic world, he has gone down in history with a nickname. In this case, the two words that make it up mean "king", the first in Arabic (malik), and the second in Persian (shah). Because of this name, many have seen in Malik Shah a symbol of the time: a Turkish sultan, a religion of Arab origin, a Persian administration.

He acceded to the throne after the assassination of his father, Alp Arslan, in 1072. He reigned under the tutelage of the vizier Nizam al-Mulk, who had already been Alp Arslan's minister.

He was protector of the mathematician and astronomer Omar Jayyam, whom he provided with an observatory in the capital, Isfahan. Khayyam reformed the calendar in 1074.

In 1092 Nizam al-Mulk was assassinated by the Nizari sect. It is possible that the sultan was not unaware of this, perhaps eager to get rid of a figure with excessive power. However, Malik Shah died of poisoning the same year, perhaps at the hands of the personal guard of the missing vizier. Upon his death, a civil war broke out that considerably weakened the monarchy.

Biography

His father Alp Arslan designated him as heir ( wali al-adh ) in 1066 and other relatives received governments in the eastern part of the empire. Upon his death in January 1073 from a wound caused by a prisoner from the campaign against the Kharakhanids, he was succeeded by his eldest son Malik Shah I. His son Ayaz ibn Alp Arslan received the provinces of the Upper Oxus and his brother Kawurd ibn Čaghri Beg was confirmed in Kerman. The vizier Nizam al-Mulk acted quickly and the succession was notified to the Caliph of Baghdad immediately while control of Nishapur where the treasure was located was secured.

His uncle Kawurd considered that as dean of the family, what he received was little, and he revolted, but he was defeated at Hamadan (1074) and died perhaps by order of the vizier. But Malik Shah then bestowed upon his two sons Sultan Shah and Turan Shah the Kerman and the Faros. Taking advantage of these struggles, the Ghaznevid Ibrahim ibn Masud (1059-1099) tried to recover the territories of Great Khorasan that his lineage had lost to the Seljuks thirty years before. Ibrahim attacked the Seljuk Uthman ibn Čaghri Beg Dawud in northern Afghanistan and took him prisoner, but Malik Shah sent an army that reestablished Seljuk control of the territory (1073). Between the two empires stretched the principality of Sistan, ruled by the Saffari dynasty that in 1073 had to recognize the sovereignty of Malik Shah I.

They also wanted to take advantage of the internal Kharaka conflict of Transoxiana Shams al-Mulk Nasr ibn Tamghač Khan Ibrahim (1068-1080) who invaded Khorasan through the area of Balkh and Tukharistan. Malik Shah returned from Persia and repulsed the invasion by occupying Tirmidhi and dictating peace terms to the khan in his own capital of Samarkand (1074). Shams al-Mulk Nasr ibn Tamghač Khan Ibrahim became a Seljuk tributary, a situation that was generally maintained especially due to the conflict that thereafter confronted him with the Kharakanid branch of Kashgar.

Ayaz died the same 1074, before his brother's campaign to Tukharistan and Balkh and Malik Shah granted these territories to a third son, Tekish ibn Alp Arslan who ruled in peace until 1080.

Shortly after ascending the throne, Malik wanted to reinforce the Seljuk position in Azerbaijan, Arran and Armenia and in 1075 he deposed the Shaddádid emir of Ganja (Arran), Fadlun or Fadl III ibn Fadl II (1073-1075) giving the government to an old Turkish slave officer from Alp Arslan, Sawtigin, experienced in the conditions in the area.

The situation on the Eastern Roman border was still very confusing; After the defeat of the Greeks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, irregular bands of Turkmen devastated Anatolia, but in the south-eastern part an Armenian-Roman general from the East, Philaretos, resisted, with an army made up mainly of about eight thousand Normans. Led by Raimbaud, they had taken over Cilicia where they had the support of the Armenian population who had emigrated to the area in recent years. In 1078 he proclaimed himself doge of Antioch which included Edessa with a strong Armenian population. He had the titles of domesticos and protocuropalata , and then of sebast and even protosebast.

In 1076/1077 the Seljuk general Ortuk ibn Eseb made a series of campaigns in Arabia on behalf of Malik Shah I: first in Bahrayn where Abd Allah ibn Ali al-Uyuni, the Banu Murra ibn Amir, dominated the north of the region and he had been harassing al-Ahsa for seven years; They helped him with 200 knights, he conquered the city and founded the Uyúnida dynasty and in 1077/1078 he crushed the resistance of the Carmatian people and the tribes that supported them, and liquidated the Carmatian state; The Uyunids recognized the Abbasid caliph and the Seljuk sovereignty. Ortuk then forced the sheikh of Mecca to declare himself an Abbasid caliphate against the Fatimid caliphate. The submissions of Yemen and Aden were short-lived.

In 1077 the sons of the Seljuk Kutalmish, Suleiman Kutlumush ibn Arslan Israil and Mansur ibn Kutalmish, established a sultanate in the territories taken from the Eastern Romans, which the Turks called rum, from which came the name of the Sultanate of Rum, being the first capital in İznik. According to later historiography, these two princes were invested as governors by Malik Shah, but given that Suleiman used the title of sultan, one must think that it was a unilateral act that the great Seljuk sultan had to see as high treason. Two other sons of Kutulmish fought with the Fatimids in Palestine against the great Seljuks, which would prove the bad relations of these branches with the great sultan.

As the Georgian king, Giorgi I, had conquered Kars, Malik Shah went to the area (1078/1079) to campaign and the city was conquered by the emir Ahmad, one of the ends of the army, who Then he fought the Georgians

In 1079, probably at the proposal of Ummar Khayyam, he reformed the calendar establishing the era of Jalal or Maliki (Maliki of Malik) and Jalali of the lakab Jalal al-Dawla, one of those worn by the sultan (the other was Muizz al-Din). Umar built an observatory in Isfahan.

The death of the Kharakhanid Shams al-Mulk Abu l-Hasan Nasr ibn Tamghač Khan Ibrahim in 1080 did not alter the peace with the Seljuks under the brief rule of his brother Al-Khidr Abu Shuja (Khidr Khan ibn Ibrahim 1080-1081) and the son of this Ahmad I (1081-1089) who was the nephew of one of Malik Shah's wives, the Qarakhanid Terken Khatun

In 1080/1081 Tekish, brother of Malik Shah, took into his service seven thousand mercenaries that the sultan had licensed to economize and with their help he revolted (1081). After failing against Nishapur, Tekish had to submit and was forgiven by his older brother. In 1081 one of the daughters of Sultan Malik Shah I was betrothed to the Caliph Al-Muqtadir.

Relations with the Ghaznavids improved when they effectively renounced their claim to their former territories in Khorasan, and the two empires had cordial contacts including some marriages. The Saffarids remained loyal and some joint operations between Seljuks and Saffarids were made against the Ismailis of Kuhistan.

In 1084 his brother Tekish revolted again while Malik Shah was in Djazira, at the western end of the empire. Malik repressed the revolt again and this time he did not forgive him and had him blinded and imprisoned. In December 1084, General Philaretos lost Antioch to Suleiman I ibn Kutalmish, Sultan of Rum. Possession was disputed by Muslim ibn Kuraysh, Uqaylid lord of Mosul and Aleppo, who was finally defeated by Sulayman at the siege of Antioch, where Muslim died in June 1085.

In 1085 Malik Shah returned to the Caucasus area to subdue the Shaddádi Fadl III who had been restored to the throne of Ganja and had revolted. The principality was definitively suppressed although the collateral branch of Ani still survived. At the same time the sultan received the submission of the Shirvanshah Fariburz. A good part of the Araxes basin was divided into small fiefs (ikta) by the Turkish officials of Malik Shah under the sovereignty of Kut al-Din Ismail ibn Yakutia, cousin of the sultan. That same 1085, the former vizier of the Abbasid caliph, Fakhr al-Dawla Ibn Djahir, dismissed in 1083, obtained Seljuk support for conquering the Marwanid emirate, but the Seljuk general Ortuk did not give him the expected support and the Marwanids, for their part, achieved the alliance of the uqaylid Muslim of Mosul. Amid al-Dawla ibn Fakhr al-Dawla was able to conquer Mayyafarikin, Amida and other fortresses of Diyarbakır, after sieges and finally the war ended within a few months; The government of Fakhr and his son Amid was unpopular and after wasting the Marwanid treasury in one year, they were deposed by Malik Shah (1086) and the area annexed.

In 1086 the Seljuk sultan of Syria Tutush I, brother of Malik Shah, who maintained more or less nominal loyalty to his brother sultan, defeated Suleiman I of Rum and seized Antioch on the Orontes. Malik Shah then sent an army from his capital Isfahan, under the personal command of the Abbasid caliph, and granted Antioch in concession (ikta) to the Turk Yaghi-Siyan who held it until 1098. Turkish governors met They also established in Aleppo as Kasim ad-Dawla Abu Said Ak Sunkur al-hadjib (1087-1094) and then in Edessa which was lost by the Armenian Philaretos to Malik Shah. Philaretos had to flee to the fortress of Germanicia (Marash), which was eventually also occupied by the Seljuks. However, Turkish sources say that Germanícia was conquered as early as 1084 and that Philaretos actually fled to Urfa and converted to Islam and was one of Malik Shah's main assistants, but all this is doubtful. Buzan (1087-1094) was appointed emir of Edessa.

It was not until the year 1087 when Malik Shah decided to go to Baghdad, on the occasion of his daughter's marriage to the caliph al-Muqtadir, and it was then that he officially entrusted him with the Saltana (the Sutan or temporal power). The government of the Seljuks in Baghdad was exercised by a Shina or military commander in charge of order in the city and very often throughout Iraq, and an amid or civil governor.

In 1089 the ulamas of Transoxiana caused disturbances and Malik Shah invaded the territory and deposed the Kharakanid khan Ahmad I (Ahmad Khan I). Malik finally allowed him to resume office in 1094, but Malik Shah eventually invaded the khanate and deposed him and had him executed, it is believed, when his Ismaili sympathies were discovered. Malik Shah reached Semireche and that intimidated the Kharakanid khan of Kashgar and Hotan Bughra Khan Harun (d. 1102) who had unified the eastern territories after several partitions, and who had the khutba read in the name of Malik Shah I.

In 1089 Malik Shah conquered Mosul from the Uqaylids and then the Djahirid Amid al-Dawla received the province of Diyarbakir again, while his father Fakhr al-Dawla received the government of Mosul from Malik Shah, which he only retained for one year. since he died in 1090 in office.

In the second half of 1092 Malik Shah was in Baghdad, but he totally ignored the Abbasid caliph. He launched a construction plan (a great mosque, the Djami al-Sultan, and palaces for state dignitaries, as he wanted to make the caliphal city his winter capital). It is said that the sultan planned to declare heir to his grandson Djafar called the 'Little Prince of the Believers', whom his and the caliph's daughter had had about three years earlier. In the fall, the vizier Nizam al-Mulk was assassinated and rumors spread that the sultan had been involved. Thirty-five days later (November) the same sultan died of fever, perhaps poisoned, when he was 58 years old. His Qarakhanid wife Terken Khatun with the support of the mustawfi Tadj al-Mulk Abu l-Ghanaim, tried to proclaim his 4-year-old son Mahmud ibn Malik Shah sultan, but the Nizamiyya (the relatives of the vizier Nizam al-Mulk) managed after a time of civil war to impose the eldest son Barkyaruk, 13 years old, son of another wife, Zubayda Khatun. Malik Shah's body was taken from Baghdad to Isfahan and buried in the city's madrasa.

He is described as a person of noble and generous character, and had a reputation as a protector of knowledge and literature, although he himself had little education.