scrupulous in performing the obligatory prayers as soon as their time began—once the adhan had been called nothing could distract him from them—(1) and he kept the voluntary fast on Mondays and Thursdays without interruption. He maintained lucrative awqāf (charitable endowments) and gave generous, meritorious alms.

He also honoured the Sufis with exceptional respect. When some people reproached him for this he replied:

“I was once in the service of a certain amir when a man came to me and said, ‘Serve the one whose service will benefit you. How long will you keep serving someone whom the dogs will eat tomorrow?’ I did not understand what he meant. That very night the amir became drunk, wandered out in the dark while still inebriated, and the guard-dogs that used to tear strangers apart at night failed to recognise him and ripped him to pieces. In the morning he had been devoured by the dogs. Ever since then I have been searching for a shaykh like that man.”

He attended hadith sessions in many places, both in Baghdad and elsewhere, and used to say: “I know that I am not qualified to transmit, but I love to be tied by even a single link to the caravan of those who convey the hadith of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him.”

He also said: “One night I saw Iblis in a dream and I said to him, ‘Woe to you! Allah created you and commanded you directly to prostrate to Him, yet you refused, whereas I have not been ordered face-to-face to prostrate to Him and still I prostrate to Him many times every day.’

Then he recited:
Whoever is unworthy of union—
every kindness of his is a sin.

On one occasion the Caliph al-Muqtadi seated him before him and said, ‘O Ḥasan, may Allah be pleased with you as the Commander of the Faithful is pleased with you.’ He ruled over thousands of Turks (2) and had a multitude of sons, five of whom served as viziers. His son Aḥmad was vizier to Sultan Muḥammad ibn Malikshāh and to the Caliph al-Mustarshid bi-llāh.

Niẓām al-Mulk left Isfahan with the sultan at the beginning of Ramadan that year, heading for Baghdad. On the tenth day they passed a village near Nahāvand, riding side by side in a litter, and he remarked, “Many of the Companions were killed here in the days of ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him—so blessed is the one who lies among them.”

When he had broken his fast, a boy disguised as a petitioner approached him with a written plea. As soon as he reached him he struck him in the heart with a dagger and fled, but tripped over a tent-rope, was seized, and put to death. Niẓām al-Mulk lingered for an hour; the sultan came to visit him, and he died in his presence—may Allah have mercy on him.

The sultan himself was suspected of having colluded in the affair; in any case, he survived Niẓām only thirty-five days, a lesson for those who reflect. He had also planned to expel the caliph from Baghdad, but his scheme was never realised. When the people of Baghdad learned of Niẓām’s death they mourned him deeply; the vizier and the notable men sat to receive condolences for three days.

Poets composed elegies for him, among them Muqātil ibn ʿAṭiyya:

The vizier Niẓām al-Mulk was a peerless pearl,
fashioned by the Most Merciful from pure nobility.
Too precious for the days to know her true worth,
He reclaimed her, out of jealousy, to the shell.