Alp Arslan, the “brave lion,” who ruled the Seljuk Empire with kindness and gentleness

Highlights: Alp Arslan was born into a family of warriors. He was the son of a soldier. He died in a car crash in 2005. He is one of the most important figures in the history of the Islamic world. His name means “lover’s son” and he was born in a village. He became a soldier after the death of his father. He fought in the Battle of Manzikert in the 11th century. He also fought against the Ottomans in the Middle East.

One of the greatest sultans in the history of Islam, the pioneer of the Sunni revival in the fifth century AH, and the leader of the Battle of Manzikert, which was a major transformation in Islamic history, in the course of the Byzantine state, and in the conflict of the fifth century AH.

Alp Arslan was able to stop the Crusades in the Battle of Manzi Kurd (social networking sites)

He was nicknamed “Adad al-Dawla.” His name, Alp Arslan, means “brave lion,” and he grew up in the leadership house of the father of one of the greatest Seljuk leaders, Jaghri Bey Dawud, who was declared sultan in 429 AH.

Birth and upbringing

His full name is Muhammad bin Jaghri Bey Daoud bin Mikael bin Seljuk bin Daqqaq. He was born in Dhul-Hijjah in the year 421 AH. Al-Dhahabi described his father as having religion and justice, and he denounced injustice to his brother Tughrul Bey. The books that chronicle the Seljuks mention that he shared with his brother Tughrul Bey He ruled Khorasan, so he had the army and Tughrul Beg had administrative matters.

Al-Arslan had 6 brothers and 5 sisters, one of whom married Mawdud bin Masoud Al-Ghaznawi, the second married Prince Abu Al-Mansur, son of the Buyid king Abi Kalighar, and the third was engaged to the son of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Qaim Bi-Amr Allah, but he died before he could marry her, and the fourth married the Caliph Al-Qa’im Bi-Amr Allah in the year 448 AH.

The name of Alp Arslan does not appear frequently in Seljuk news before he became a sultan, and it seems that the military and political activity of his father, Çegri Bey Davut, with his brother Tughrul Bey, has drawn a thick curtain over the names of the generation of children.

Alp Arslan assumed command of the army against Mawdud al-Ghaznawi, who tried to seize Khorasan in the year 445 AH. He was then appointed ruler of Khorasan, succeeding his father upon his death in the year 451 AH. He was famous for his justice and his care for the subjects in the company of his minister, Nizam al-Mulk. He continued in this position until the death of Tughrul Bey in 24 Ramadan 455 AH.

An approximate drawing of a portrait of Tughrul Bey, Alp Arslan’s uncle (Al Jazeera)

Political experience

Seljuks and historical transformation

To know the biography of Alp Arslan and his role in history and in the Seljuk renaissance, it is necessary to shed light on the path of the Seljuk dynasty and its state until Alp Arslan assumed its rule in 456 AH.

The Seljuk state represents a major development for the Turkish role in Islamic history, which passed through three phases:

The first:

the era of the princes and atabegs, in which the Turkish leaders represented a military elite that managed large numbers of Turkish soldiers to protect the Abbasid state, and in which they controlled the decision and had everything in their hands, even choosing the caliph. However, they remained in the Abbasid court, ruling through the caliph and not taking the titles of the king. And the Sultanate.

This influence began to form during the caliphate of Al-Mu'tasim, the eighth Abbasid caliph who died in 227 AH, and continued until the Zaydi-confessed Buyids of Daylam and then the Shiite Imamis took control of the Abbasid caliphate from 434 AH until 454 AH.

The second:

The phase of sultans and kings, in which the Turks established independent kingdoms that they ruled and administered while declaring their loyalty to the Abbasid Caliph and deriving their legitimacy from his formal decrees. This phase begins with the control of the Seljuk state over Baghdad, their elimination of the Buyids, and their suppression of the Basasiri strife in the year 454 AH.

Several Turkish states succeeded in leading the Islamic world in this era: the Seljuk state, the Zengid state, the Ayyubid state, and the state of the Mamluk sultans. This era ended with the abdication of the caliphate by the last of the Abbasid caliphs, Muhammad bin Yaqoub, who trusts in God, to Sultan Selim I in the year 923 AH.

Third:

The phase of the Ottoman Caliphate, in which the Turks assumed leadership of the Islamic world, declaring themselves caliphs by virtue of the abdication of the Abbasid Caliph to Sultan Selim. This era continued until the announcement of the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate on Rajab 27, 1342 AH, corresponding to March 3, 1924 AD.

The beginning in Khorasan

The appearance of the Seljuks on the scene of events began with the migration of numbers from the Gazan Qanq tribe, led by Seljuk bin Duqqaq, towards the Saihun River in the late fourth century AH, as part of a series of Turkish migrations from Central Asia towards the west in what was known in some historical studies as the “Turkish bus” or “Turkish caravan.” ", This was after Seljuk entered Islam, learned the Hanafi doctrine, and fought the pagan Turks. The tribe continued to grow with the succession of Seljuk’s sons to lead it: Arslan bin Seljuk, then his brother Michael, who took Khorasan as a more spacious space for the expansion of the family, and in it the new entity was given the name Seljuk.

The influence of the Seljuks continued to grow in Mesopotamia in light of conflicts with the Ghaznavid state until Tughrul Bey bin Mikael bin Seljuk announced the establishment of the Seljuk state in the city of Merv in the year 429 AH on the ruins of the Ghaznavid state. He declared himself a sultan and was titled Shahenshah, meaning king of kings, and asked for legitimacy from the Caliph. Al-Abbasi obtained it in 432 AH, and the Caliph Al-Qaim Billah invited him to visit Baghdad.

In the year 447 AH, the Abbasid Caliph begged Tughrul Bey to rid him of the Bani Buyids due to their collusion with Al-Basasiri over the intervention of the Fatimids. Tughrul Bey marched to Baghdad and confronted the Buyids in battles and defeated them. Then, in the year 450 AH, he killed Al-Basasiri, who had seized control of Baghdad for a year and forced the Abbasid Caliph to sign allegiance to the Fatimid Caliph. He gave the sermon to Al-Mustansir Al-Ismaili and minted money in his name for a year.

By eliminating al-Basasiri, the Seljuks extracted the Abbasid Caliphate from the control of the Buyids, stopped the Fatimid tide towards the east, and effectively began the “Sunni revival” project led by Alp Arslan and his minister Nizam al-Mulk.

An approximate drawing of a portrait of Nizam al-Malik al-Tusi, vizier of Alp Arslan in Khorasan (social media sites)

Sultan Alp Arslan

Tughrul Bey did not have any children, but he had married the widow of his brother Jaghri Bey Dawud after his death in Safar in the year 452 AH. She succeeded in obtaining the crown princeship for her son Suleiman bin Dawud. After the death of Tughrul Bey, his minister, the dean of King Al-Kandari, served on the will and helped Suleiman assume the sultanate while he was a minor. Ten o'clock so that he would remain in charge of the matter and have influence, but the Seljuk princes rejected this plan and called for Alp Arslan on the pulpits, and this became widespread until the king's dean was forced to submit to him, so the matter was settled for Alp Arslan in Dhul-Hijjah in the year 455 AH.

Alp Arslan appointed his vizier in Khorasan, Nizam al-Mulk, as his vizier, succeeding Dean al-Malik al-Kandari, his uncle’s vizier. The two friends found themselves facing a huge state extending over a large area and ruling a large people. His uncle, Tughrul Bey, had been named the king of the world, and he was recognized as sultan over all the possessions of the Abbasid state. This means that the Seljuks went beyond the concept of the state prevailing at the time in the form of the Ghaznavid state, the Qarakhanid state, and before them the Samanid state, so they began to live in the concept of an empire that was based on continuous expansion.

Thus, Alp Arslan and Nizam al-Mulk developed their plan of action by protecting the Abbasid state from the Fatimids and the remnants of Buyid rule and the Basasiri movement in Islamic countries, and then the Nizari Ismailis represented by the Assassin sect, which appeared later, and the external threat from the Byzantine neighbourhood.

The relationship with the Abbasids

Alp Arslan began to restore the relationship with the Abbasid Caliph, so he took a corrective decision. His uncle Tughrul Bey had engaged the Caliph’s daughter to himself, an act that went beyond the established traditions in dealing with the Abbasids, and another leader, Abu Muslim Al-Khorasani, had previously been involved in it when he proposed to Amina bint Ali bin Abdullah bin Abbas, the aunt of Caliph Abu Abbas al-Saffah, and the matter ended with him being insulted and not receiving a response, even though he was the owner of the state and the commander of hundreds of thousands of soldiers that raised the black flags and established the Abbasid Caliphate. Moreover, Abu Jaafar al-Mansur confided it to himself, and this was one of the reasons that It prompted him to assassinate Abu Muslim during the reign of Al-Mansur and in the court of the Caliph.

The Caliph fled, so he rejected Tughrul Bey’s request and asked for his forgiveness, but the Selluqi Sultan insisted and he and his minister, the Dean of King Al-Kandari, took measures that tightened the screws on the Caliph and forced him to submit to the Sultan’s request.

One of the corrective measures taken by Alp Arslan was his permission for the return of the Caliph’s daughter to her father’s palace in Baghdad. Rather, this was done in celebration and pomp. He sent some judges and princes with her, and she entered Baghdad in great splendor, and people came out to see the procession. The Caliph was happy and ordered prayers for Alp Arslan. And it was said in the supplication, “Oh God, set right the great Sultan, the support of the state and the crown of the faith, Alp Arslan, Abu Shuja Muhammad bin Daoud.”

It became clear from this behavior that Alp Arslan chose the approach of his father Jaghri Bey Dawud in terms of leniency and gentleness instead of the approach of his predecessor Tughrul Bey, who seemed to aspire to the caliphate and gain legitimacy through a son from a daughter of the Abbasid house, but he did not find it from her or from anyone else.

Reverence for the Abbasids and loyalty to their caliphate was one of the manifestations of religious sentiment among the Seljuks and other Turkish military elites that appeared after them, such as the Zengid and Mamluks. Ibn Fadlan says, “One of the Turkish leaders said to me: Did you know that the Caliph, may God prolong his life, if he had sent me an army would have been able to defeat me?” I said: No. He said: The Emir of Khurasan? I said: No. He said: Is it not due to the distance and the large number of infidel tribes among us? I said: Yes. He said: By God, I am in the far place where you see me, and I am afraid of my master, the Commander of the Faithful, and that is because I fear that he will learn something about me that he hates, and he will pray for me. So he perished in my place, while he was in his kingdom, and between me and him were vast countries.”

Filtering internal conflicts

Alp Arslan was active in liquidating the military enclaves within the Abbasid state, and in eliminating rebellions, coup projects, and greed for power from within the Seljuk house itself. He faced the revolution of his cousin Qalutmish ibn Israel, who declared his disobedience on Muharram 10, 456 AH. This rebellion ended with Qalutmish’s death with wounds. In the confrontations, he then eliminated the rebellion of his uncle Pegu bin Mikael, the ruler of Herat (currently a city in Afghanistan) and the oldest of the Seljuks. Alp Arslan entered Herat and pardoned his uncle.

Then he eliminated the revolt of the Emir of Khatlan in Samarkand, the Emir of Saghanian in Termiz, and the revolt of the King of Kerman.

Then the matter settled for Alp Arslan Farrah to implement his tripartite plan represented in: “reviving Sunni thought,” “eliminating the Fatimid state” as it was a thorn in the side of the Abbasid Caliphate, and “confronting the Byzantine state,” which constituted an external threat on the borders of the Abbasid Caliphate and the nascent Seljuk Empire.

Regular schools

The plan of the King’s regime in confronting the Shiite tide was to take care of the educational aspect, and stop the spread of Ismaili Fatimid and Imami Buyid thought with scientific and intellectual activity that revived Sunni thought and spread it in a wide societal space. Therefore, it established ten regular schools distributed in areas where Shiite thought spread, in response to Shiite educational activity. In the East before the arrival of the Seljuks.

The Ismailis and Imamis established educational institutions in the East, including the Dar al-Kutub in Basra, which was founded by Abu Ali bin Siwar during the reign of Adud al-Dawla Fanakhshar al-Buwayhi, who died in 372 AH. Sabur bin Ardashir, the vizier of Baha al-Dawla bin Adud al-Dawla al-Buwaihi, established a Dar al-Kutub in al-Karkh, in which works amounted to 10,400. Al-Sharif Al-Radi established a house of learning in Baghdad, where he spent money on its students and lectured.

Shiite historians argue for this that Al-Sharif Al-Radi was the one who invented the idea of schools in Islamic history, but the Islamic school preceded him by more than a century, and its beginning was in the early third century AH. As for the school in its organized institutional form, it was known in the Seljuk state, and it was the project of the minister Nizam Al-Mulk who founded it. He and his children supervised it.

The regular schools, in their establishment, management, vision, and goals, were a new educational innovation in that era. They were based on organized work with salaries for teachers and special housing for students. The King’s system also chose imams of knowledge and elite thinkers to teach in these schools, such as the Imam of the Two Holy Mosques, Abu al-Ma’ali al-Juwayni, the sheikh of the Nizamiya of Nishapur, and Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi, the sheikh. Baghdad School, where he was succeeded by Hujjat al-Islam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali.

He also adopted curricula that adopted a unified thought, which is the Ash’arite thought, and a jurisprudential school of thought, which is the Shafi’i. This was a departure from the approach of the previous sultan, who supported the Maturidite doctrine in the principles of religion and the Hanafi doctrine in jurisprudence, after the Seljuks had known it with their entry into Islam within the space of the Samanid state. It seems that Nizam al-Mulk, with his broad culture and knowledge Regarding the details of the sects, he found his desire in the Ash’ari sect, which is capable of performing pilgrims with everyone, especially since he noticed another problem in the Hanbali control over Baghdad and their large number there, and the Hanbali sect took a firm position in looking at the phenomenon of Shiism that did not agree with the political vision of the king’s regime.

Nizam al-Mulk also supported Sufism as an alternative to what was spread by Ismaili thought. During the Seljuk era, this approach brought with it the experience of Sufism in Central Asia and the inheritances of ancient Eastern religions, especially Turkish shamanism and Persian Zoroastrianism. Indeed, Nizam al-Mulk itself was involved in policy measures at critical moments. Some of the meanings of Sufism. Before confronting Qalamish, and when the situation became difficult for Alp Arslan, Nizam al-Mulk said to him, “I have appointed for you soldiers from Khorasan who will support you and will not abandon you, and who will shoot arrows at your side that do not miss. They are scholars and ascetics. I have made them among your greatest helpers by being kind to them.”

Politics of Alp Arslan

With this Sufi spirit, and with the approach of gentleness and gentleness that Alp Arslan inherited from his father, Jaghri Bey Dawud, the disputes within the Seljuk Empire calmed down by concluding marriages with the heads of the military and political entities that had been in constant conflict before him. Thus, political marriages took place between him and the Qarakhanids and the Ghaznavids, and he married his daughter to the Abbasid Caliph. Even in military conflicts, he pardoned every leader who rebelled against him, so he pardoned and honored his uncle Pegu, and when his cousin Qalamish was killed by wounds he sustained in the confrontations, he cried intensely and offered condolences to him after they clashed in a fierce war.

Disagreements, disputes, and internal conflicts took time for Alp Arslan, but in the end he succeeded in liquidating them and challenged political selfishness with patience, forbearance, and forbearance. He enacted this approach and was followed by Nour al-Din Zengi and Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, who spent 12 years facing political divisions with patience and forbearance in order to Uniting the nation to confront the Crusaders for a period of 5 years culminated in the recovery of Jerusalem, and the three leaders Alp Arslan of Seljuk, Nur al-Din Mahmoud Zengi, and Saladin al-Ayyubi helped them succeed in this difficult and ideal mission of “detachment, insistence on the highest goal, and deep belief in jihad.”

Alp Arslan set out to carry out his main mission, which was to confront Ismaili extremism and confront the Byzantine threat. He was provoked by the possibility of a rapprochement between the Byzantines and the Fatimids, so he was keen to protect his empire by controlling Armenia, the country of Karaj (currently Georgia), and part of Azerbaijan. This was a development of the confrontation with Byzantium, which During the reign of Tughrul Beg, it remained in the form of harassing raids without an attempt to settle.

Thus, the way became open for Alp Arslan towards the Levant and Anatolia. He controlled large parts of it, then headed to Aleppo and subjugated the state of Beni Mardas, which was loyal to the Fatimids. He insisted on stopping all manifestations of Shiism in it until the phrase “Live to the best of deeds” was removed from the call to prayer.

He continued his journey until he seized Ramla and Jerusalem, and all that remained was Ashkelon, his entry gate to Fatimid Cairo, which he was determined to seize from the hands of the Ismailis and return it to the Abbasid state, had it not been for the news that came to him about the advance of the Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV with the aim of penetrating the Muslim borders from the Euphrates Peninsula as a prelude. To penetrate deep into Islamic lands and eliminate the Seljuk state.

Malaz Kurd site

The course of events and skirmishes is now directed towards a decisive battle between the newly established Seljuk Empire and the powerful Byzantine state, which is what happened in the Battle of Manzikert, which is considered a decisive event in the history of Islam and the Byzantine state, and even in relations between the East and the West in general, as its results directed global policies after its end. All powers and empires drew new plans based on what happened in this battle.

If we want to put the battle in its historical context, we will see countries in the Islamic East and West retreating and collapsing. Andalusia is divided between the kings of the sects, the whole of Morocco is immersed in endless tribal disputes, and the Fatimid state in Egypt, the Levant, and the Hijaz has become weak and the factors of disintegration have spread after the Mustansiriya struggle that went away. The era of powerful caliphs brought about the era of viziers, which was generally characterized by a struggle for power at the expense of the state’s interests. The Abbasid state reached the peak of its weakness under the control of the Buyids, and the attempts of the Seljuks to strengthen it and revive the Sunni doctrine were faced with serious challenges.

On the other hand, the Western project began to mature and its features became clear, and the Byzantine state regained its cohesion and strength again and launched invasions in Islamic lands bearing the characteristics of what was later known as the Crusades.

All factors were pointing to a decisive global confrontation.

The rapid, light movement of the Seljuks and Alp Arslan in the Levant and Anatolia and his move towards Egypt precipitated the confrontation. The Byzantine Empire felt fear and anxiety from this new power, which disturbed it with skirmishes in the days of Tughrul Beg and then by seizing parts of its possessions in Armenia, Karaj (Georgia), and Anatolia during the era of Alp Arslan.

In the year 463 AH, when Alp Arslan was busy with confrontations in his march to eliminate the Fatimid state in Egypt and completely get rid of its conspiracies against the Abbasid state, the Byzantine Emperor Romanos Diogenes, who is called in Islamic sources Armanos, decided to gather a large army to storm the new Seljuk state, eliminate it, and end the Abbasid Caliphate. And remove it from history.

The Western Church colluded with him, forgetting the disputes and grievances that Catholics complained about in the Byzantine lands, and provided him with a large crowd of Russians, Karaj, Romans, Armenians, Khazars, and Franks, in numbers estimated by Islamic sources at two hundred thousand and Western sources at one hundred thousand. This is what can be called an early crusade.

Alp Arslan was in the city of Khoy in Azerbaijan when he heard the news of the Western Byzantine mobilization. He made a quick decision for confrontation, and sent the spoils with his minister Nizam al-Mulk. He marched with a force estimated by Islamic sources at fifteen thousand and Western sources at forty thousand, and he found no alternative to confrontation, whatever it was. The difference in numbers, because he feared that the postponement would give Armanos an opportunity to penetrate into Muslim lands and carry out massacres that could not be tolerated, so he marched with his forces, inspired by the past of Turkish wars, which were based on rapid marching, lightning confrontation, and military deception with dispersal that deceived the enemy into disintegration, then a quick return and a sudden attack.

On the other hand, Armanos had great confidence in victory, so much so that he divided all the Islamic kingdoms among the commanders in his army, deceived by his strength and the number of his crowds. He divided the army without caring about any confrontation, so the Seljuk army, led by Alp Arslan, attacked a piece of the Byzantine army, defeated it with a lightning strike and captured its leader, Basilicus.

Although the Seljuk strike had a painful impact on the Byzantine advance, as the Franks retreated, the Russians rebelled, and Armanos suffered from the disintegration of his army, Alp Arslan offered a truce, but Armanos responded arrogantly and turned away from the messengers of the Seljuk king, and said: “We will conclude a truce in Ray,” in a statement. With his confidence in crushing the Seljuks and conquering their capital.

Alp Arslan was annoyed by Armanos’ response, so the imam and jurist Abu Nasr Muhammad bin Abd al-Malik al-Bukhari said to him: “You are fighting for a religion that God has promised to grant victory and victory over all other religions. I hope that God has written this conquest in your name, so come to them on Friday after noon when it will be.” Preachers on pulpits, they pray for victory for the Mujahideen, and supplication is accompanied by an answer.”

Equipment found by a Turkish archaeological team and said to have been used in the Battle of Manzikert (Anatolia)

The hour of truth

When that hour came, he prayed with the people, and the Sultan cried, and the people cried because of his crying, then he called and they prayed with him, then he said, “Whoever wants to leave, let him leave, for there is no Sultan here who commands and forbids.”

He put down the bow and arrow, took the sword and the pin, tied the tail of his horse in his hand, dressed in white, and mummified himself, and said: “If I kill, this will suffice me.”

Before the meeting, he dismounted, covered his face with dirt, cried, and prayed diligently. Then he rode with all determination and attacked his enemy, carrying his soldiers with him, knowing that there was no escape from going into battle. He was certain that the courage of his soldiers would withstand the large number of their enemies, and he relied on the skill of his archers.

As for Armanos, he continued in his arrogance. He rushed his army in one mass, and did not return to the Roman plans in the war with the system of successive and reserve forces. The Muslims showed amazing valor, and the Byzantine army became exhausted and tired. At that time, Armanos wanted to retreat to continue fighting the next day, but the Seljuks did not give him time. They opened gaps in the retreating Byzantine forces, attacked them from all sides, and caused great slaughter. The Romans were annihilated by the masses. Armanos tried to gather the disintegrated and torn forces, and fought with them in a desperate manner until he was captured and taken to the Islamic camp.

The captured Byzantine Caesar, Armanos, stood before the victorious Muslim leader Alp Arslan. He reprimanded him, warned him of the refusal of the truce, and asked him: What would you do if you were captured?

He said: I will do evil to you.

He said: What do you think I will do to you?

He said: Murder, defamation, or pardon me and use me.

Other stories are told about the situation, but in any case it ended with an amnesty in exchange for a ransom amounting to one million five hundred thousand dinars, an annual tribute worth three hundred thousand dinars, the release of all Muslim prisoners, and the marriage of the emperor’s daughters to the sultan’s sons.

The Battle of Manzikert and the victory of Alp Arslan in it had a great impact in directing the events of history after it. The fear of collusion between the Fatimids and the Byzantines was removed, and the Seljuks set out in Anatolia and took possession of its cities. The oppression of the Byzantines in the lands they controlled was removed, and Islam spread there, and the battle declared the Seljuk state a global empire. The European West felt the danger that was creeping towards it from the East and weakened the Byzantine state, which the West saw as a barrier protecting it.

Years later, another historic victory was achieved in the Islamic West, when the armies of Andalusia and Morocco defeated the army of Alfonso, King of Castile, in the Battle of Zallaqa in Rajab 479 AH. This increased tension, and it appeared in the sermon of Pope Urban II that fear of the Seljuks was the greatest motive for the outbreak of the Crusades.

The death of the emperor and the sultan

Armanos marched towards Byzantium with a number of nobles and emperors who were released from captivity by Alp Arslan, along with a guard and money granted by Alp Arslan to help him with the surprises of the road, but he was surprised by a coup against him and the arrival of a new Caesar, Michael VII, so Armanos collected as much money as he could, amounting to two hundred thousand dinars, which he sent to Alp Arslan asked him for help in regaining his kingdom. The Sultan promised him good things, but he was soon defeated, imprisoned, and died in his prison in the year 465 AH.

Alp Arslan returned to his behavior and organized his plan. Abu Talib Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Ammar had assumed the rule of Tripoli, stripped the Fatimids of obedience, and declared his loyalty to the Seljuks. Then the Seljuks tried to take Damascus from the Fatimids, but they were exhausted, so they contented themselves with taking Tiberias and was invited to the Abbasid Caliph’s tribunes.

Death

Alp Arslan set out with a great army of two hundred thousand to subjugate his Qarakhanid in-laws after a rebellion. After he conquered many of their castles, a trusted man named Yusuf al-Khwarizmi was brought to him. The Sultan ordered his limbs to be tied so that he would be killed between four stakes. Al-Khwarizmi cursed the Sultan and said to him: You effeminate or someone like me should be killed like this. ?!

Alp Arslan was provoked by this and decided to kill him with his own hand, so he ordered him to be untied and shot an arrow at him while he was sitting on his throne, but he missed it and the Sultan fell to the ground and Al-Khwarizmi wounded him, so he carried the wounded Sultan for treatment, and the minister Nizam al-Mulk and the Crown Prince Malikshah were present, and after 4 days the Sultan died from this wound in 10 Rabi’ al-Awwal in the year 465 AH. The irony was that Alp Arslan and Armanos were born in the same year and died in the same year.

While the Sultan was suffering from his wounds, he realized his sin and repented to his Lord, saying, “There is no face I targeted or an enemy I wanted without seeking God’s help against it. Yesterday, I climbed a hill and the ground beneath me shook from the greatness of the army and the large number of soldiers. I said to myself: I am the king of the world and no one can control me. So God Almighty punished me with the weakest of His creation, and I seek forgiveness from God Almighty and resign from that thought.”

Virtues of Alp Arslan

Historians wrote articles about the good character of Alp Arslan and the beauty of his conduct. Ibn al-Atheer said: “He was kind-hearted and kind to the poor, and in his collections were the names of many poor people in his kingdoms. He used to pray a lot for the continuity of what God had bestowed upon him, and he would listen to the history of kings, their etiquette, and the rulings of Sharia. He was very caring for the subjects, protecting the soldiers from their money, and taking care of their grievances. It was reported that he received a complaint from Nizam al-Mulk that the courier had left with it at the Alp Arslan prayer hall. So he read what was in it, then handed it to his minister and said to him: Take this letter, and if they are truthful in what they wrote, then improve your morals and improve your circumstances. And if they lie, then forgive them for their mistake and keep them busy with something that will distract them from seeking people.”

The conclusion is that the Seljuk state witnessed, in the state of Alp Arslan, which lasted for 9 years, the height of its greatness, and provided a model for a young, rational state led by a brave ruler who confronted horrors and was indifferent to death, with good policy and insistence on an approach of leniency, tolerance, and forgiveness when able, and with him a sane, educated, thinker minister who formulated a philosophy. The state and developed its plan with insight and remained aware of the details of his work and continued after Alp Arslan as minister to his son Malikshah, until Al-Batiniya assassinated him on the tenth of Ramadan in the year 485 AH, and after him Sultan Malikshah died, cutting his nose to the throat of his minister, who was calling him: O father.

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