In the days of the Ghaznawids his father was appointed a...

In the days of the Ghaznawids his father was appointed a tax-collector of Tus by Abu al-Fadl Suri, who was the Governor of Khurasan.[^7] His early education started with the study of Tradition (Hadith) and jurisprudence (Fiqh) , and as his father wanted him to take up the legal profession for his future career; he was put under the care of ‘Abd al-Samad Funduraji,[^8] who was a profound scholar of Law.[^9] In the famous “Tale of the Three School Fellows,” it is related of him that in his school days in Nishapur, where he was sent to attend the lectures of Imam Muwaffaq, he made friends with two boys, who later became eminent personalities.

One was ‘Umar Khayyam, the great poet and astronomer, and the other Hassan b. Sabbab, the founder of the Batiniyyah sect of the Assassins. Research by the late Sayyid Sulaiman Nadawi makes it unnecessary to discuss this controversial point[^10] of Nizam al-Mulk’s life. This tale, he proves, is a fabrication.

From what the author of Tarikh-i Baihaqi relates about Nizam’s family on the reliable authority of his grandfather Shaikh al-Islam Amirak, who had seen Nizam al-Mulk in his boyhood, it may be concluded that it was after he had reached the age of maturity and not in his early years, and after his father had been relieved of financial worries[^11] that he was able to attend Imam Muwaffaq’s lectures in order to complete his higher studies.

His studies over, he travelled to Bukhara and Merv, and to a number of towns[^12] in Transoxiana, most probably in search of a post, and after 441/1049[^13] he went to Ghaznah, where he sought service with the Gaznawids, thus getting an opportunity to acquaint himself with their administration. When Sultan ‘Abd al-Rashid was murdered in 444/1052 and the political affairs were upset, he escaped to Balkh and entered the service of ‘Ali b.

Shadhan,[^14] who was then the governor of that province on behalf of the Saljuq ruler Chaghari Beg Dawud. Annoyed with the habits of this man, who extorted heavy sums from him every year,[^15] he fled to Merv. Once there, Chaghari Beg appointed him the mushir (counsellor) and the katib (secretary)[^16] of his son, Alp Arslan. It was on the advice of ‘Ali b.

Shadhan[^17] that Alp Aralan, after his accession to the throne in 455/1062, raised him to the position of a Joint Minister with ‘Amid al-Mulk Kunduri.