During the reign of the Seljuks, circa one thousand years ago, Isfahan was the capital of a great empire, which spread from Transoxiana to the Mediterranean banks.
The empire reached its peak during the reign Malik-Shah I; yet, in this period, all state affairs were indeed administered under the prudent ministry of Khawaja Nizam al-Mulk Tusi, the knowledgeable and proficient prime minister of the Seljuk Turks.
Khawaja Nizam al-Mulk is the author of the celebrated book Siyasat-Nama and more importantly, the founder of the famous chain school “Nizamiyah.”
Nizamiyah was the title of a number of schools that, in that era, were founded for teaching the sciences and professions of the time in the populous cities of the empire; Baghdad, Neyshabur, Amol, Cairo, Isfahan, Balkh and Herat.
Many of the greatest scholars in the history of Iran either taught or were taught in these schools; e.g. Sheikh Mosleh ul-Din Saadi, Abul-Najib Sohrevardi, Sheikh Shahab ul-Din Sohrevardi, Abul-Faraj Juzi, Abu-Eshaq Shirazi, Imam Mohammad Ghazali, Qotb ul-Din Shirazi, etc.
Nowadays, in Ahmadabad Neighbourhood, Isfahan City, there is small tomb containing a yard and a porch in which the bodies of Khawaja Nizam al-Mulk, Malik-Shah and his wife, and a number of other Seljuk kings and princes are buried.
These are the remnants of a very large area, which only this small part of it has remained and is devoid of surface glamour; yet, one who knows history and is therefore aware of Khawaja Nizam al-Mulk’s value in the history of Iran, will not lose the opportunity of visiting his and other Seljuk grandees’ tombs; the soil that these days is called “Torbat-e Nizam” and it’s been more than a thousand years that lies at the heart of the historic Ahmadabad Neighbourhood in Isfahan City. The place is also known as Dar ul-Batikh.
Actually, if at midnight of the twelfth Ramadan 485 AH, halfway to Baghdad, the guardians of Malik-Shah’s royal camp had followed the security rules more strictly, they would have prevented the man in dervish clothes from approaching the famous Seljuk prime minister, Khawaja Nizam al-Mulk Tusi, and the history of Iran during the Seljuk period would have been different.
The dagger, which he hid under his dervish robe, hit not only the frail body of Khawaja, but also the robust body and indeed the heart of the Great Seljuk Empire.
