Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk English Subtitles Episode 27
Seljuk Sunnism is often linked to a rabid prejudice against Shi‘ism in both its Twelver and Sevener forms.49 This motif runs through the primary sources as much as the secondary literature.
For instance, when Alp Arslan’s armies stood outside the predominantly Shi‘ite city of Aleppo, the local Mirdasid ruler Mahmud b. Nasr warned the Aleppans that:
Nizam al- Mulk himself boasts that:
In the days of the [Ghaznavid sultans] Mahmud and Mas‘ud and Tughrıl and Alp Arslan, no Zoroastrian or Jew or Rafidi [Twelver Shi‘ite] would have dared to appear in a public place or to present himself before a Turk.
Those who administered the affairs of the Turks were all professional civil servants from Khurasan, who followed the orthodox Hanafi or Shafi‘i sects.
The heretics of Iraq were never admitted to their presence or allowed to work as secretaries and tax collectors
Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk English Subtitles Episode 27
Ja‘far al- Tusi, the leading Twelver Shi‘ite scholar of the period, was forced to flee there in the face of persecution in Baghdad in 449/1057–8, in the wake of the Seljuk reconquest of the city from al- Basasiri.52 Nonetheless, some Shi‘ites had a positive view of the regime, as is suggested by a work composed c.
entitled Kitab al- Naqd to refute a slightly earlier Sunni polemic against Shi‘ism which is now lost. Written by one ‘Abd al- Jalil Razi of Qazvin, the Kitab al- Naqd is a valuable source for Twelver (or Imami, as it is also known) Shi‘ism in the Seljuk lands. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk English Subtitles Episode 27
Abd al- Jalil disputes the Sunni polemicist’s claim that Nizam al- Mulk had obliged the Imami ‘ulamā’ of Rayy to renounce their faith, alleging that the vizier had showered pensions and favours on the Imami community, especially its leaders, the sayyids or descendants of the Prophet through ‘Ali. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk English Subtitles Episode 27
Indeed, ‘Abd al- Jalil is at pains throughout his work to emphasise the favour shown to the Imamis by successive Seljuk rulers and their viziers, some of whom were themselves Shi‘ite. Abd al- Jalil even claims the cult of ‘Ali was very popular amongst Turkish soldiers too, recording how they would publicly chant songs in his praise.55 In seeking to promote the status and legitimacy of his community, ‘Abd al-J all doubtless at times over-eggs the cake: his work is, after all, explicitly a response to a polemic.
Nizam al-M ulk may well have honoured leading sayyids as they were often leading figures in local politics, and Sibt cites a poem in the vizier’s praise by an ‘Alid author but this need not imply any sympathy with Shi‘ism. In this period, Sunnis too venerated the family of ‘Ali. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk English Subtitles Episode 27
The great shrine of the martyred eighth Imam, ‘Ali al-R idea, at Mashhad in Khurasan, today one of the great pilgrimage spots for Shi‘ites, was patronised in the early eleventh century by that staunch anti-S Shi’ite, Mahmud of Ghazna, and several senior Ghaznavid officials.
Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk English Subtitles Episode 27
With the Seljuk takeover, this elite patronage continued. When heading east to fight his brother Tekish, Malikshah went in person to pray there in the company of his vizier and afterwards made pre- sents to the local ‘Alids.
The shrine near Balkh in Khurasan, today is known as Mazar- I Sharif and is reputed to contain the tomb of ‘Ali b. Abi Talib was ‘rediscovered’ in 530/1135–6 and restored by the Seljuk governor of Balkh, Qumaj.
The material evidence of architecture and its inscriptions does, however, allow us to confirm some elements of ‘Abd al- Jalil’s evidence for the high status of at least some Shi‘ites and the public acceptance of Shi‘ite practices under Seljuk rule. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk English Subtitles Episode 27
Especially striking is the minaret built by Tutush in Aleppo, which even bears inscriptions with a Shi‘ite flavour, commemorating ‘Ali and the Twelve Imams (Figure 7.4)
Evidently, this was an attempt to reconcile the Shi‘ite populace of Aleppo to the new regime, to gainsay rumours of the Seljuks’ sectarian prejudice like those propagated by Mahmud b. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk English Subtitles Episode 27
. Even in predominantly Sunni areas, Shi‘ites were free to express their faith in the most public terms. Just outside the royal city (dār al- mulk) of Ramadhan, in the late twelfth century a member of the vastly wealthy Shi‘ite ‘Alawiyan family – who had close connections to the Seljuk dynasty and were patrons of Rwanda – built beside his ancestors’ graves a monumental cenotaph which is one of the masterpieces of Islamic architecture of the period
As Raya Shani has demonstrated, the mausoleum’s decorative pro-gramme and inscriptions publicly proclaim the ‘Alawiyan’s Shi‘ite beliefs. The ‘Alawiyan were not exceptional: members of the Shi‘ite elite frequently occupied senior positions in the state Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk English Subtitles Episode 27
The vizier Anushirwan Khalid, for instance, is said to have been quite open in his espousal of trash- ayyu‘ (Shi‘ism), and was buried next to ‘Ali b. Abi Talib’s tomb.
There was a dynasty of Shi‘ite bureaucrats from Kashan: Mukhtass al-Mulk was one of Sanjar’s viziers, and his son Fakhr al- Mulk held the same position for the short-lived Sulaymanshah (1160–1), as did his grandson for Tughrıl III.
Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk English Subtitles Episode 27
The lost polemicist to whom ‘Abd al-J all claims to be responding is said to have written, ‘now there is no palace of the Turks that has not at least ten or fifteen Imamis (Rawafid), and many of them are employed as secretaries in the dīwāns’.
A pro- Shi‘ite author of the twelfth century celebrated the spread of Imami Shi‘ism in exaggerated terms:
In Iraq, praise God, it has found a ready market; in the Hijaz, it is established and permitted; it has become a characteristic of the people of Syria, and its rainclouds have inundated them . . .
There is no one left in Khurasan who has a hand and tongue or a sword and spear [i.e., both kātibs and ‘askar] who does not have Shiism as his custom and his faith.
Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk English Subtitles Episode 27
