He succeeded his father—still a beardless youth—at the beginning of 512 AH, and the Friday sermon in Baghdad was delivered in his name. Gifted with intelligence and sharp insight, he had a working knowledge of Arabic grammar, a fondness for learning, and an interest in history. Al-Ḥayṣ Bayṣ praised him in verse (1). During the last years of his reign the power of the Seljuk house waned, while his uncle Sultan Sanjar occupied a higher station than he.
He died in Hamadhān in Shawwāl 525 AH (2). His kunya was Abū al-Qāsim. After his death the sultanate passed to his brother Ṭughril, who died two years later; then their brother Masʿūd assumed the throne and held it for a long time.
306 – Al-Dīnawarī, Abū al-Hasan ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Aḥmad *
The shaykh, long-lived, and trustworthy traditionist: Abū al-Hasan ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Aḥmad al-Dīnawarī, later al-Baghdādī.
He received hadith from Abū al-Hasan al-Qazwīnī, Abū Ṭālib ibn Ghaylān, the ḥāfiẓ Abū Muḥammad al-Khallāl, Abū Muḥammad al-Jawharī, and others.
(1) The poet is the amir Shihab al-Din Abu al-Fawaris Saad b. Muhammad b. Saad b. al-Sayfi al-Tamimi al-Baghdadi (d. 574 AH/1179 CE). His celebrated *daliyya*—one of the finest poems—in praise of the biographee is found in his Diwan, 1/156. It opens:
Alqi al-hadaʾij, tara al-dumra al-qud
Tala-l-sara wa tashakkat wakhaddaka l-bayd
“Unload the litters and let the lean, tall mounts rest;
long has the night-journey lasted and the desert whitened your cheek.
Ya sariya l-layl, la jadba wa la faraq,
Fa-l-nabt ughaydu wa-l-sultanu Mahmud
O traveller of the night, here there is neither drought nor parting;
the vegetation is luxuriant and the sultan is Mahmud.
Qila taʾallafat al-addad khifatuhu,
Fa-l-mawridu l-dunka fihi l-shaʾu wa-l-sayyid
It is said that opposites have gathered in awe of him:
at his narrow watering-place both the ewe and the lion drink.”
(2) Ibn al-Athir (10/670) states: “He was about twenty-seven years old when he died. His tenure of the sultanate lasted twelve years, nine months, and twenty days. He was forbearing, generous, and intelligent; he could listen to what displeased him yet refrain from punishing it despite having the power to do so. He coveted little of his subjects’ property, kept himself chaste from it, and restrained his companions from encroaching upon any of it.”
(*) Sources: Mashyakhat Ibn ʿAsakir, 292; Mashyakhat Ibn al-Jawzi, 63 (the larger part of the entry is missing because the base manuscript is defective); al-Muntazam, 10/7; Tarikh al-Islam, 4:248/2; al-ʿIbar, 4/50; Uyūn al-Tawarikh, 13/478; Shadharāt al-Dhahab, 4/64.