and he became thirsty. The orchard keeper said, “The Sultan has not yet taken his rightful share of the grapes, so I cannot give you any.” People were astonished at the king’s quick intelligence and at how deftly he set this story alongside the former one.
Two peasants then sought his judgment against the emir Khumārtakīn. “He has taken a large sum of money from us,” they said, “and he has broken our front teeth. We have heard of your justice throughout the world. If you rescue us from him, as Allah has commanded you, well and good; otherwise we shall appeal against you to Allah on the Day of Resurrection.” They caught hold of his stirrup; the Sultan dismounted and said, “Take hold of my sleeve and drag me to Niẓām al-Mulk’s residence.” They hesitated, but he insisted, so they did as he ordered. When word reached Niẓām that the Sultan was coming, he hurried out of his tent. The king said, “I have vested you with authority so that you may secure justice for the oppressed against the oppressor.” On the spot Niẓām wrote an edict dismissing Khumārtakīn, revoking his fief, ordering that the peasants’ money be returned, and permitting them to have his two front teeth extracted if testimony proved their claim. The Sultan himself granted the two men one hundred dinars.
On another occasion he abolished certain customs dues. One of the finance officials said, “O Sultan of the world, what you have remitted is worth six hundred thousand dinars or more!” He replied, “Shame on you! The wealth belongs to Allah, the servants are His servants, and the land is His land. I only want this to remain for me with Allah; whoever disputes me over it, I will strike off his head.”
A beautiful woman once sang for him; he was delighted and desired her, intending to draw near to her. She said, “O King, I fear that this handsome face will be burned by the Fire. Between lawful and unlawful there is but a single word.” He therefore summoned the qāḍī and married her.
Ibn al-Jawzī (1), quoting Ibn ʿAqīl, recounts that Sultan Malikshah’s creed had become unsound through his association with some of the Bāṭinīs, but that he later repudiated that and returned to the truth. Ibn ʿAqīl also relates that he composed for him a treatise establishing the existence of the Creator.
We have already mentioned that when he last returned to Baghdad he resolved to oblige the caliph to leave the city. The caliph asked for a delay of ten days; the Sultan fell ill and died before the ten days had expired (2).
The Sultan died on the night of Friday, the fifteenth of Shawwāl, at the age of thirty-seven and a half. He had ruled for nineteen and a half years. He was buried in al-Shūnīziyya (3), and no funeral prayer was held over him because the matter was kept secret. His illness was a fever, though some said he was poisoned. Allah knows best.
Marzubān ibn Khusraw (4), Tāj al-Mulk, the vizier Abū al-Ghanāʾim, who built the Tājiyya school where Abū Bakr al-Shāshī taught,